Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Liberal Programs Deserve Blame for Income Inequality

The Congressional Budget Office documents income gains for everyone, not just the wealthy.

November 8, 2011

Shikha Dalmia

Liberals are treating a new Congressional Budget Office study showing that income inequality increased in America over the last three decades as the smoking gun they’d always been looking for—the ultimate indictment of America, capitalism, and apple pie.

Soak the Rich or Soak the Super Rich?

Harry Reid's "millionaire' surcharge" is a new move in the old Democratic game of class warfare.

October 18, 2011

Shikha Dalmia

For Democrats, millionaires are the new Gypsies—a minority whom it is perfectly acceptable to persecute because its wealth is ill-gotten, not the product of hard work.

Strict Scrutiny

ObamaCare and the long slow death of conservative judicial restraint

August 18, 2011

Damon W. Root

In his recent opinion upholding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance, conservative 6th Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton adopted what used to be a very common conservative legal position: judicial deference. But does judicial deference matter anymore on the legal right? Associate Editor Damon Root explains why Chief Justice John Roberts is the one conservative on the Supreme Court most likely to echo Sutton’s views. Roberts may very well uphold the health care law as an act of judicial restraint, Root writes. Just don’t expect the conservative rank and file to thank him for it.

Looking for Limits

The power to mandate health insurance is the power to mandate almost anything.

August 17, 2011

Jacob Sullum

Defenders of the federal law requiring Americans to buy government-approved medical coverage have to justify it in a way that does not also justify every other conceivable congressional dictate regarding how we spend our money. So far, says Senior Editor Jacob Sullum, they have not managed to do so, which is the main reason a federal appeals court last week rejected this "wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of Congressional authority."

We're from the Government and We're Here to Help

The government created our current health care mess. So why do progressives want to give the state more control?

August 2, 2011

A. Barton Hinkle

The federal government's management of its health care programs has turned out to be a financial disaster, observes A. Barton Hinkle. So what, according to progressives, is the solution? More government management of health care. Of course.

No Healthy Deals

Why are Washington’s debt dealmakers ignoring fundamental entitlement reform?

July 22, 2011

Peter Suderman

Earlier this year, GOP Sen. Tom Coburn left the so-called Gang of Six, an independent team of senators who took it upon themselves to negotiate a proposed debt deal apart from the administration and congressional leadership. But this week, to coincide with the release of the $3.7 trillion deficit reduction plan, the gang wooed Coburn back. According to an anonymous source quoted in Politico, the senator, known for his longtime focus on entitlement reform, only rejoined after “ferocious” negotiations over cuts to federal health spending. Coburn reportedly held out until the other members agreed to $116 billion in additional cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

He should’ve held out longer. The health care policy tweaks that elbowed their way into the final G6 plan aren’t enough to restrain the growth of federal health spending enough to make a long-term difference. Nor, writes Associate Editor Peter Suderman, is the G6 plan the only debt proposal that fails on this front. None of the debt-deal plans now making headlines call for the substantial health entitlement overhaul necessary to pare back the biggest single driver of the federal debt.

More »