Cochrane on ObamaCare’s Contraceptive-Coverage Mandate

By Michael F. Cannon

My Cato colleague John Cochrane – who is way smarter than I am — has a generally excellent op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal on ObamaCare’s contraception mandate: Salting mandated health insurance with birth control is exactly the same as a tax—on employers, on Catholics, on gay men and women, on couples trying to have children and [...]

Cochrane on ObamaCare’s Contraceptive-Coverage Mandate is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog

The Ethos of Universal Coverage

Associated Press photojournalist Noah Berger captured this thousand-word image near the Occupy Oakland demonstrations last month. Many Cato@Liberty readers will get it immediately. They can stop reading now. For everyone else, this image perfectly illustrates the ethos of what I call the Church of Universal Coverage. Like everyone who supports a government guarantee of access to medical care, [...]

The Ethos of Universal Coverage is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog

Should New Hampshire Create a Health Insurance Exchange?

The liberty-lovers at New Hampshire’s Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy have produced this video of my appearance before the New Hampshire House of Representatives where I argued against creating health insurance “Exchanges”: (Notice my rapt audience.) Should New Hampshire Create a Health Insurance Exchange? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute [...]

Should New Hampshire Create a Health Insurance Exchange? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog

The Real Tragedy of the Komen/Planned Parenthood Flapdoodle

…is that it overshadowed news that the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to repeal one of two new entitlement programs created by Obamacare—the ironically named CLASS Act—with a bipartisan three-fifths majority. (With numbers like that, Congress could even repeal Obamacare’s death panel!) But really, one private organization pulling funding for another private organization is way [...]

The Real Tragedy of the Komen/Planned Parenthood Flapdoodle is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog

Chart of the Week: Top 1 Percent Paid 38 Percent of Taxes

President Obama used his State of the Union address Tuesday to outline his idea of fairness. To put it simply, that means redistributing wealth by raising taxes on the most successful Americans. “If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes,” Obama declared. He added: “Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.” Heritage’s Curtis Dubay … More

‘We Are Not Deciding between Regulation and Autonomy, We Are Deciding Whether or Not We Want a Puppet Government’

By Michael F. Cannon

That’s how Charlie Arlinghaus, president of New Hampshire’s Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, describes the decision confronting states about whether to create an ObamaCare Exchange in this op-ed for the New Hampshire Union-Leader.
‘We Are Not Deciding …

‘We Are Not Deciding between Regulation and Autonomy, We Are Deciding Whether or Not We Want a Puppet Government’ is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog

Morning Bell: Mitt Romney’s Taxes and True Reform

How many times should your money be taxed? One time? Two times? Three times? Four? Sounds like a ridiculous proposition, but that’s the true story of capital gains taxes in America, and it’s one that’s not being told in the continuing debate over Governor Mitt Romney’s taxes. For more than a week, the media has focused on the subject of just how much Romney pays in taxes. On Tuesday, the governor released his tax returns indicating that he paid about 15 percent in taxes last year. At first blush, that … More

PODCAST: State of the Union

In this week’s Heritage in Focus, Heritage director of communications, Rory Cooper, discusses the president’s State of the Union address. Click here to listen.
What’s Heritage’s take on the State of the Union? What’s some…

Romney’s Taxes: Too Little or Too Much?

Much has been made of Mitt Romney’s asserted 15 percent or so tax rate. There is both a material error and an irony to this story. The release of Romney’s tax returns for 2009 and 2010 and a preliminary assessment for 2011 shows a remarkably consistent picture. First, he makes a pretty penny, but we knew that. His income is about $20 million a year, and he consistently pays about 15 percent in federal income tax. Most of his income is either dividends or capital gains, which are each taxed … More

Krueger Tries and Fails to Disguise an Anti-Growth Tax Plan in Keynesian Garb

The remarks of Alan Krueger, chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, asserting that taxing the rich can spur economic growth demonstrate that he and the Administration are nothing if not consistent in their mistakes. Krueger says that there is growing income inequality in the United States, that this growing inequality contributes to slowing economic growth, and that raising taxes on the wealthy to offset some of this growing income inequality would actually stimulate the economy in the near term. While income inequality in the United States is growing, the … More