During the 2008 Recession, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program provided the long-term unemployed an unprecedented maximum 99 weeks of benefits. Some weeks of extended benefits were available to workers in all states, but workers in the states with the highest unemployment rates received the maximum weeks of benefits.
Every candidate running for the presidency in 2016 will trumpet tax reform as part of his or her agenda. The contenders may propose to reduce rates, eliminate deductions, or give credits for this or that. But real reform requires structural changes to the tax system. Otherwise, taxpayers will be left with the same onerous system as today.
Senior Fellow of National Security David A. Grantham, Ph.D., is a leading expert in national security matters and international affairs with specializations in Latin America and the Middle East. Dr. …
NCPA: Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his administration have an amazing opportunity to secure the state’s electrical grid from electromagnetic pulses, said NCPA President/CEO Allen West and Dallas Eagle Forum President Trayce Bradford in a new commentary.
It is a great time to be a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) major in Texas. Dallas made Forbes’ list of the top 10 cities for STEM jobs and has the second highest annual median wage growth for STEM workers, while Houston and Austin were named the top two metropolitan areas for STEM professionals in a Wallet Hub report.
One million Alabamans are enrolled in Medicaid, a joint federal-state program that provides medical care to nearly 70 million low-income individuals nationwide. Medicaid is one of the two primary expenditures in most state budgets, and Alabama is no exception. Medicaid consumes over one-third of the General Fund, and costs state and federal taxpayers nearly $6 billion annually — about one-tenth of which participants spend on drugs and drug therapies.
Medicare fraud is a serious problem. The Medicare bureaucracy has the power to impose moratoria on new providers in geographic or program areas it deems susceptible to fraud. However, preventing …
One of the 114th Congress’ first moves was to open discussion on dynamic scoring. On January 6, 2015, the House of Representatives adopted a rule change that would require all legislation to be dynamically scored.
During a time when the labor force participation rate is at its lowest in decades, the NCPA believes it is important to get people back to work and implement policies to encourage long-term investments in jobs.
Heartland: The FDA’s rush to overregulate safer alternatives to smoking in the form of e-cigarettes is odd, says NCPA Senior Fellow Devon Herrick in a Heartland article.
Townhall.com: Equality of opportunity, not “income inequality,” is what we need in this country, says NCPA President/CEO Allen West in his Townhall.com commentary.
Income inequality is largely misunderstood and its importance is frequently overstated. Since the late 1970s, middle-class incomes and living standards have continued to improve.
Through the U.S. Department of Education, created in 1979, the federal government has incrementally increased its role in education over the last 30 years.
In March 2013, the Budget Control Act of 2011 went into effect, automatically cutting spending in certain federal outlay categories. These cuts were initially set to begin in January 2013, but were delayed by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
Townhall: Restricting competition in the health care market may help “mom & pop” shops, but it hurts consumers and taxpayers, warns NCPA Senior Fellow Devon Herrick in a Townhall commentary.
Examiner.com: Hackers are stealing Social Security numbers to file false tax refunds, scamming citizens out of their real returns, warns an article at Examiner.com citing NCPA research.
NCPA: The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) today launched the Financial Crisis Initiative, a coalition of top economic experts who will research and report on the causes and effects of the 2008 financial crisis and recommend solutions for the future.
Kickoff Event for the NCPA Financial Crisis Initiative Featuring New York Times Best Selling Author James Rickards WHEN: Thursday, April 30, 2015 9:30AM – 11:00AM WHERE: Bent Tree Country Club 5201 Westgrove Drive Dallas, TX …
A seemingly technical accounting issue has important implications for competition between large corporations and smaller firms, for U.S. businesses overseas, and for the ability of individuals to understand the true financial condition of the firms in which they invest.
LifeHealthPro: The Medicare “doc fix” doesn’t really fix anything, said NCPA Senior Fellow John R. Graham in a Life Health Pro article.
While Social Security has received considerably more attention in recent years, Medicare is actually a much larger problem. It is growing at a faster rate and has an unfunded liability six times the size of Social Security. Medicare is on a spending path that is impossible to sustain. The program must deal not only with the demographic pressures Social Security faces, but also the soaring cost of medical care.
Private retirement accounts include employer-sponsored 401(k)s and 403(b)s, and privately-purchased plans like Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). Today, about 88 million people participate in one of these defined-contribution plans, with total assets of more than $4.5 trillion.
To confront America’s health care crisis, we do not need more spending, more regulations or more bureaucracy. We do need people, however, including every doctor and every patient. All 320 million Americans must be free to use their intelligence, their creativity and their innovative ability to make the changes needed to create access to low-cost, high-quality health care.
Social Security is the cornerstone of retirement security in the United States today. A third of Americans depend on the program for almost all their retirement income; without it, one-in-five would have no retirement income. But the program so many depend on simply cannot afford what it promises today’s workers and faces a shortfall of more than $13 trillion over the next 75 years. Reforms are desperately needed.
Managed Healthcare Executive: Increasing regulations on drug plans could cost the 220 million Americans who get their medications through a managed care plan, warns NCPA Senior Fellow Devon Herrick in a Managed Healthcare Executive article.