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12. Ending Congestion by Refinancing Highways
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Although gasoline taxes have long been the main source of funding for building, maintaining, and operating America's network of highways, roads, and streets, the tax is at best an imperfect user fee. As such, Congress and the states should take action to transition from gas taxes to more efficient vehicle-mile fees.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Communications, and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- United States
13. The American Welfare State: How We Spend Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty—And Fail
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- News that the poverty rate has risen to 15.1 percent of Americans, the highest level in nearly a decade, has set off a predictable round of calls for increased government spending on social welfare programs. Yet this year the federal government will spend more than $668 billion on at least 126 different programs to fight poverty. And that does not even begin to count welfare spending by state and local governments, which adds $284 billion to that figure. In total, the United States spends nearly $1 trillion every year to fight poverty. That amounts to $20,610 for every poor person in America, or $61,830 per poor family of three.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
14. What Made the Financial Crisis Systemic?
- Author:
- Patric H. Hendershott and Kevin Villani
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The current narrative regarding the 2008 systemic financial system collapse is that numerous seemingly unrelated events occurred in unregulated or underregulated markets, requiring widespread bailouts of actors across the financial spectrum, from mortgage borrowers to investors in money market funds. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, created by the U.S. Congress to investigate the causes of the crisis, promotes this politically convenient narrative, and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act operationalizes it by completing the progressive extension of federal protection and regulation of banking and finance that began in the 1930s so that it now covers virtually all financial activities, including hedge funds and proprietary trading. The Dodd-Frank Act further charges the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council, made up of politicians, bureaucrats, and university professors, with preventing a subsequent systemic crisis.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
15. Social Security's Financial Outlook and Reforms: An Independent Evaluation
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Social Security is often described as a "foundational" element of the nation's social safety net. Almost all Americans are directly affected by the program and many millions primarily depend on its benefits for supporting themselves during retirement. But the program's financial condition has worsened considerably since the last recession, which began in 2007. In that year, the Social Security trustees estimated that the program's trust fund would be exhausted by 2042. The trustees' annual report for 2011 brings the trust fund exhaustion date forward to 2038. Indeed, the programs revenues fell short of its benefit expenditures in 2010 and it appears unlikely that significant surpluses will emerge again under the program's current rules. If the program's finances continue to worsen at this rate, it won't be long before the debate on reforming the program assumes an urgency and intensity similar to that during 1982-83, when imminent insolvency forced lawmakers to implement payroll tax increases and scale back its benefits.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- America and Ethiopia
16. The Case for Gridlock
- Author:
- Marcus E. Ethridge
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the wake of the 2010 elections, President Obama declared that voters did not give a mandate to gridlock. His statement reflects over a century of Progressive hostility to the inefficient and slow system of government created by the American Framers. Convinced that the government created by the Constitution frustrates their goals, Progressives have long sought ways around its checks and balances. Perhaps the most important of their methods is delegating power to administrative agencies, an arrangement that greatly transformed U.S. government during and after the New Deal. For generations, Progressives have supported the false premise that administrative action in the hands of experts will realize the public interest more effectively than the constitutional system and its multiple vetoes over policy changes. The political effect of empowering the administrative state has been quite different: it fosters policies that reflect the interests of those with well organized power. A large and growing body of evidence makes it clear that the public interest is most secure when governmental institutions are inefficient decisionmakers. An arrangement that brings diverse interests into a complex, sluggish decisionmaking process is generally unattractive to special interests. Gridlock also neutralizes some political benefits that producer groups and other well-heeled interests inherently enjoy. By fostering gridlock, the U.S. Constitution increases the likelihood that policies will reflect broad, unorganized interests instead of the interests of narrow, organized groups.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Government, Politics, Power Politics, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
17. Estimating ObamaCare's Effect on State Medicaid Expenditure Growth
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Unless repeal attempts succeed, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ObamaCare) promises to increase state government obligations on account of Medicaid by expanding Medicaid eligibility and introducing an individual health insurance mandate for all US citizens and legal permanent residents. Once ObamaCare becomes fully effective in 2014, the cost of newly eligible Medicaid enrollees will be almost fully covered by the federal government through 2019, with federal financial support expected to be extended thereafter. But ObamaCare provides states with zero additional federal financial support for new enrollees among those eligible for Medicaid under the old laws. That makes increased state Medicaid costs from higher enrollments by "old-eligibles" virtually certain as they enroll into Medicaid to comply with the mandate to purchase health insurance. This study estimates and compares potential increases in Medicaid costs from ObamaCare for the five most populous states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, Markets, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, New York, California, and Florida
18. They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools
- Author:
- Adam B. Schaeffer
- Publication Date:
- 03-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent.
- Topic:
- Economics, Education, Government, and Monetary Policy
19. Defining Success: The Case against Rail Transit
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 03-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the past four decades, American cities have spent close to $100 billion constructing rail transit systems, and many billions more operating those systems. The agencies that spend taxpayer dollars building these lines almost invariably call them successful even when they go an average of 40 percent over budget and, in many cases, carry an insignificant number of riders. The people who rarely or never ride these lines but still have to pay for them should ask, “How do you define success?"
- Topic:
- Government, Markets, and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- America
20. The Massachusetts Health Plan: Much Pain, Little Gain
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon and Aaron Yelowitz
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In 2006, Massachusetts enacted a sweeping health insurance law that mirrors the legislation currently before Congress. After signing the measure, Gov. Mitt Romney (R) wrote, "Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance and the costs of health care will be reduced." But did the legislation achieve these goals? And what other effects has it had? This paper is the first to use Current Population Survey data for 2008 to evaluate the Massachusetts law, and the first to examine its effects on the accuracy of the CPS's uninsured estimates, self-reported health, the extent of "crowd-out" of private insurance for both children and adults, and in-migration of new Massachusetts residents.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States