Government Spending
No government has ever spent its way to prosperity. Our proposals help governments be fiscally responsible so citizens can be prosperous.
Have you ever squeezed a balloon and had parts of it squeeze out between your fingers? Unless you pop the balloon with a pin, it will reemerge somewhere else when you squeeze it. Public employee pensions have become balloons, and abuse of public pension systems keeps oozing despite attempts to put the squeeze on it.
Uncle Sam thinks he knows what’s right for your health, and he’s using your hard-earned money to teach you that lesson. Two years ago, the Goldwater Institute reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave Pima County, Arizona nearly $16 million through its Communities Putting Prevention to Work program to reduce obesity and promote healthy lifestyles. Our friends at Cause of Action, a watchdog organization that reports on government waste, have released a report detailing how Pima and other counties have been spending your tax money.
Recently the very fashionable turned out to bet on their favorites in the Kentucky Derby. But betting on horseraces – economic horseraces – has been all the rage in legislatures across the country for decades. Unfortunately, legislators are more like problem gamblers than successful high-dollar poker stars.
In the debate over expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income Arizonans, we are being told that the costs for uncompensated care at Arizona hospitals are soaring, making Medicaid expansion necessary to prevent financial disaster from befalling our hospitals. A closer look reveals that this claim is simply untrue.
Uncompensated care is made up of two things: charity care and bad debt.
Outside Star Trek’s mythical “dilithium” power crystals, there is no such thing as clean energy. That’s one lesson learned from a new Beacon Hill Institute report, The Economic Impact of Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff. The report illuminates the expense of renewable energy as well.
As the battle over Medicaid expansion rages, supporters of expansion have dusted off an age-old favorite in making the case for taking federal dollars - “If our state doesn’t take the money, those dollars will just go to some other state instead.”
Contact: Lucy Caldwell
(602) 633-8986
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FIXING FEDERAL DEBT IS UP TO THE STATES
Compact for America is exactly what Founders intended to check Washington
Webmaster's note: Nick Dranias will present on Compact for America, Saturday April 26, in Orlando, Florida. For more information about that event, click here.
Executive Summary
Even in his sunset years, Ronald Reagan understood too well that Congress will never tie its own hands when it comes to debt spending. Lamenting the repeated failure of Congress to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment, Reagan wrote on May 23, 1994:
We can’t depend on Congress to discipline itself . . . we must rely on the states to force Congress to act on our amendment. Fortunately, our Nation’s Founders gave us the means to amend the Constitution through action of state legislatures . . . . That is the only strategy that will work.
Contact: Lucy Caldwell
(602) 633-8986
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OVERESTIMATING TAX REVENUE HURTS VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
Better government practices will protect programs and services during next recession