Blog Post
May 31, 2012
The Citizens Property Insurance Corp. debate is heating up once again in Florida. Despite a legislative session that largely steered clear from this contentious issue earlier this year, a recent proposal by Citizens board members is drawing a lot of attention (and scorn) from lawmakers and others.
Blog Post
May 31, 2012
The National Flood Insurance Program will be extended an additional 60 days beyond its scheduled May 31 expiration, after the U.S. House late May 30 approved by voice vote an extension bill previously approved by the U.S. Senate. The vote, which came the day House members returned from a one-week Memorial Day recess, grants a [...]
Op Ed
Tallahassee Democrat • May 31, 2012
The official start of the Atlantic hurricane season is always June 1, but Mother Nature apparently didn’t get the memo this year. Tropical storms Alberto and Beryl crashed the party before it even started. In contrast, Florida’s costliest natural disaster — Hurricane Andrew — was the first storm of the 1992 season and did not [...]
Blog Post
May 31, 2012
A one-time boss of mine—a bearded gentleman who liked cigars, opera, candy and the Austrian School of economics—used to insist to me that the private sector would insure everything under the sun, if only the government would get out of the way, abolish all regulations and stop setting prices. As such, he favored not only [...]
Op Ed
Huffington Post • May 29, 2012
In recent weeks, Ron Paul has emerged as the greatest threat to the Republican Party’s future. If the Texas Congressman and one-time Libertarian Party presidential nominee actually wants to see President Obama defeated in November, he should bow out of the Republican nomination process quickly, accept whatever offer the Romney camp offers him for a [...]
Op Ed
Huffington Post • May 21, 2012
Almost a decade after the law requiring them passed Congress and two years after the original deadline for announcing them, the Department of Justice has, at last, come out with mandatory, nationwide standards to prevent rape in detention facilities. The standards, decent although flawed, are a first step — but only a first step — [...]
Op Ed
Huffington Post • May 15, 2012
If Mitt Romney wants to win the election and become president, he should come out and support gay marriage. Doing so will work not so much because it’s consistent with conservative principle (which it is) and generally popular (that too) but because it will fracture Obama’s base. Let’s start with why marriage is right from [...]
News Release
May 11, 2012
The Heartland Institute has decided to spin off its insurance research project effective May 31. According to Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, “We’re convinced this will be a win-win situation for Heartland as well as Eli Lehrer and his team of very skillful and devoted policy experts. We urge any individual, foundation, and [...]
Policy Brief
February 1, 2012
This policy brief, co-authored by R Street President Eli Lehrer and Texas Director Julie Drenner, was issued by the Heartland Institute in February 2012. The pair looked at Texas’ franchise tax, a 1% levy on businesses’ “taxable margins” that operates much like an income tax. Since its introduction, the tax has fallen far short of lawmakers’ [...]
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Policy Brief
May 9, 2012
May 9, 2012 Testimony to Senate Banking Committee Comments Off
by R.J. Lehmann
This written testimony from R Street Public Affairs Director R.J. Lehmann was submitted on behalf of the Heartland Institute to the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy for a May 9, 2012 hearing on reforming and reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program.