Governor Ralph Northam and U.S. Senator Mark Warner hit the road yesterday with the media in tow, making the case that Medicaid expansion will free up $421 million over two years for other priorities such as K-12 schools. “When we talk about education, we have to talk about health care,”...
Last year this newsletter reported on the ongoing modeling efforts of OECD’s International Transport Forum, which claimed that Lisbon, Portugal could meet all its surface transportation needs via shared mobility, while significantly reducing vehicle emissions—if only all individually owned vehicles were banned. Well, I thought, that’s Europe for you. But...
For two weeks last month, I saw a much different agriculture in Southeast Asia. From experts such as J.P.Morgan’s agricultural advisor in Hong Kong to the U.S. Embassy, and USDA’s, I saw and heard the great opportunities for all of us in U.S. agriculture. One theme which did surprise me...
Anyone who thought “manmade climate cataclysm” rhetoric couldn’t possibly exceed Obama era levels should read the complaint filed in the “public nuisance” lawsuit that’s being argued before Federal District Court Judge William Alsup in a California courtroom: Oakland v BP and other oil companies. The allegations read at times like...
What do parking lots, lotteries, roads, airports, horse race tracks, parks, recycling, golf courses, mapping, food service, pest control, and zoos have in common? All across America, these are activities formerly operated by government that are now being run as businesses through privatization, contracting out, or public-private partnerships. Cities as...
C.E. Larson is a professor of mathematics and applied mathematics at Virginia Commonwealth University, and he’s a big believer in the scientific method as a way of thinking and accumulating knowledge. He’s also worried that a proposed new General Education curriculum winding its way through the VCU bureaucracy is so...
When your car has a flat tire, a dead battery, and needs an oil change, you have two choices. Take care of these tiresome but routine tasks, or buy a new car. Few of us can afford the latter option, and even if we did, new cars need maintenance, too....
“A Higher Gas Tax Won’t Fix America’s Highways.” That headline on a March 2nd Bloomberg news story is correct, since per-gallon fuel taxes are increasingly unsustainable, due to ongoing changes in vehicle propulsion methods. That point was stressed in the 2018 Economic Report of the President, released late last month...
A growing problem for modern industrialized Western societies is the legion of government agencies and unelected bureaucrats and allied nongovernmental organizations that seem impervious to transparency, accountability or reform. Their expansive power often controls public perceptions and public policies. Prominent among them are those involved in climate change research and...
Jefferson Journal: Medicaid Expansion a Huge Budget Risk
The current budget stalemate over Medicaid expansion is similar to what the state faced in former Governor Terry McAuliffe’s first year in office. But the issue deserves a full and vibrant debate in the General Assembly, because expanding Medicaid is a risky business for the long-term financial health of the...