June 11, 2013
This paper by R Street President Eli Lehrer, which originally appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, focuses on the SmarterSafer.org coalition and how its success in helping to craft and ultimately enact the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 demonstrates how traditionally conservative free-market groups and [...]
June 4, 2013
As conservative organizations, the R Street Institute and National Taxpayers Union believe strongly in a robust national defense. However, our groups also believe strongly in exercising fiscal discipline in all areas of the federal budget. As by far the largest portion of discretionary spending, Pentagon expenditures must not escape scrutiny as conservatives examine methods for [...]
March 14, 2013
A review of public health literature related to smoking cessation suggests smoking bans and efforts to stop minors from smoking can be very effective. They help in two ways: reducing smoking where banned and de-normalizing cigarette smoking. Tobacco taxes may be reaching the limits of their effectiveness as a public health measure in many jurisdictions. [...]
March 5, 2013
This paper aims to clarify the debate over property insurance rates and provide a basis for rational discussion of the current situation in South Carolina’s property insurance market. The paper examines how property insurance works, how it functions in coastal South Carolina, the business climate surrounding insurance, how insurers determine rates, and the roles of [...]
January 22, 2013
Michigan’s unaffordably high auto insurance premiums result in large part from its unique requirement granting all policyholders unlimited lifetime medical benefits. Higher rates of medical utilization and significantly higher reimbursements for common medical claims than those paid by Medicare or private workers compensation insurers show how pervasive the problem has become. Allowing greater consumer choice, [...]
January 16, 2013
The 30-year-old federal Coastal Barrier Resources Act has been successful in promoting conservation of natural resources, fiscal responsibility, and the reduction of inappropriate high-risk coastal development by restricting federal subsidies. Restricting insurance coverage from Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. for new construction in areas seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line could yield similar results [...]
December 10, 2012
Wisconsin’s 20-year-old certified database system, used to resolve disputes about the reasonableness of medical reimbursements paid by workers’ compensation carriers, has failed to control costs and should be replaced with more aggressive cost control mechanisms. The paper finds that, in 2009, the database’s recommended payment levels were nearly double the maximum payment amounts in bordering [...]
November 28, 2012
As Congress ponders whether it can reach agreement to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” this paper argues that, in addition to identifying credits, deductions, and exemptions that could be eliminated in order to lower marginal rates, fundamental tax reform should target unwise tax structures that simply shouldn’t exist in a code that promotes growth and [...]
October 29, 2012
The overwhelming majority of American farms receive federal subsidies of some sort. These payments are controversial and, in the opinion of many who favor smaller government, ought not to exist at all. This paper frpm R Street President Eli Lehrer discusses some of those subsidies and argues that ongoing efforts to change crop insurance programs [...]
September 11, 2012
American small businesses create 65 percent of all net new jobs and employ roughly half of all workers in the private sector. According to the Kauffman Foundation, businesses founded between 1970 and 2000 (some of which grew into large businesses during those years) provided all net private sector job growth during that timeframe. During recovery [...]
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