http://www.realclearpolicy.com/ en Copyright 2010 Sat, 18 May 2013 03:07:52 -0400 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.33 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Fri, 17 May 2013 10:59:50 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 Recent revelations about the Internal Revenue Service’s treatment of conservative and Tea Party groups should give pause to advocates of big government. While the strong-arm tactics have elicited condemnation from across the political spectrum, it should be no surprise that as the size and scope of government expands so, too, will its intrusions on the rights of citizens. As decisions and authority are ceded to the public sector they become politicized and subject to bureaucratic discretion. It is a quiet transition from the “rule of law” where all...]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/18/when_big_government_goes_bad_516.htmlhttp://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/18/when_big_government_goes_bad_516.htmlhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/18/when_big_government_goes_bad_516.html 20011809 AM Update Wayne T. Brough, RealClearPolicy Fri, 17 May 2013 13:31:30 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 If you believe the recent blitz of student debt coverage, private student lenders are to blame for the economic woes of recent college graduates. Lending at what is seen to be excessively high interest rates, the pressure on private lenders to restructure student loans, even at the expense of public funds, is rising. At the same time, the government is taking concrete actions to squeeze private lenders out of the student loan market. Most recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren followed in President Obama’s footsteps by proposing to peg student loan interest rates to the...]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/a_gov039t_takeover_won039t_solve_the_student_debt_mess_11818.htmlhttp://www.progressivepolicy.org/2013/05/a-government-takeover-of-student-debt-wont-solve-the-problem/http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.progressivepolicy.org/2013/05/a-government-takeover-of-student-debt-wont-solve-the-problem/ 10011818 AM Update Diana Carew, PPI Fri, 17 May 2013 12:50:20 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 Out of sight (and smell), natural gas slowly bubbled up into Norma Fiorentino's private water well near the town of Dimock in northeastern Pennsylvania"”in the heart of the new fracking boom in the U.S. Then, on New Year's Day 2009, when a mechanical pump flicked on and provided the spark, Fiorentino's backyard exploded. She and many others blame the blast on fracking"”the colloquial name for the natural gas drilling process that combines horizontal drilling and the fracturing of shale deep underground with high-pressure water to...]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/fracking_doesn039t_have_to_be_a_disaster_11815.htmlhttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-fracking-be-done-without-impacting-waterhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-fracking-be-done-without-impacting-water 10011815 AM Update David Biello, Scientific American Sat, 18 May 2013 03:06:35 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 The governor of Maryland is a long shot for the White House"”and the best manager in government today.]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/should_martin_o039malley_be_president_11811.htmlhttp://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/may_june_2013/features/should_martin_omalley_be_presi044513.phphttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/may_june_2013/features/should_martin_omalley_be_presi044513.php 10011811 AM Update H. S. Edwards, Wash. Monthly Fri, 17 May 2013 12:37:22 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 The banner that was unfurled in front of the Protea Hotel Edward in Durban, South Africa, in December 2011 is as good a place to start as any to grasp what much of the international climate movement is up to these days. It read, “Listen to the people, not the polluters,” and was displayed by Greenpeace activists protesting in front of the hotel.]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/why_039justice039_movements_tend_to_fail_11814.htmlhttp://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/issue-3/on-justice-movements/http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/issue-3/on-justice-movements/ 10011814 AM Update Chris Foreman, Breakthrough Inst. Fri, 17 May 2013 17:32:43 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 Dusty Holcombe had to look up his new boss on Google when he learned in 2011 that he would be transferred to a small government office with the sole mission of making deals with the private sector. Holcombe, a 13-year veteran of the Virginia Transportation Department, had never heard of Tony Kinn, the man tapped to head the commonwealth’s newly minted Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships.]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/the_private_sector_will_own_our_roads_11821.htmlhttp://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/why-you-won-t-own-your-road-20130516http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/why-you-won-t-own-your-road-20130516 10011821 AM Update Fawn Johnson, National Journal Fri, 17 May 2013 17:38:06 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 The root of the recent scandal at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)—in which the agency admitted to singling out Tea Party groups for special scrutiny—is simple: terrible campaign-finance laws. ]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/a_straightfoward_way_to_stop_irs_scandals_11822.htmlhttp://prospect.org/article/how-prevent-another-irs-scandalhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://prospect.org/article/how-prevent-another-irs-scandal 10011822 AM Update Jonathan Bernstein, Prospect Sat, 18 May 2013 03:07:32 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 Several events in recent weeks have changed the odds for tax reform this year. They move in opposite directions, but on balance I think the odds have improved slightly.]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/shrinking_deficit_helps_tax_reform039s_chances_11823.htmlhttp://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2013/05/17/A-Lower-Deficit-Helps-Pave-the-Way-for-Tax-Reform.aspx#page1http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2013/05/17/A-Lower-Deficit-Helps-Pave-the-Way-for-Tax-Reform.aspx#page1 10011823 AM Update B. Bartlett, Fiscal Times Fri, 17 May 2013 17:42:34 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 Imagine an academic study that is so well-timed, so relevant to a current policy debate, that it's widely cited to support a major policy decision. But now consider this: the study has severe limitations and doesn't turn out to support that policy decision after all.]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/where_the_oregon_medicaid_study_fell_short_11824.htmlhttp://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/05/17/politicized-oregon-health-study-isnt-accurate-picture-of-medicaidhttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/05/17/politicized-oregon-health-study-isnt-accurate-picture-of-medicaid 10011824 AM Update Topher Spiro, US News Fri, 17 May 2013 12:22:17 -0400 05/18/2013/00/00/00 Racial prejudice plays a very small role in American politics, but a highly disciplined sense of self-interest on the part of one group may play a very large role in the way the federal government functions.]]>http://www.realclearpolicy.com/2013/05/18/are_american_voters_racist_11810.htmlhttp://www.american.com/archive/2013/may/are-american-voters-racisthttp://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.american.com/archive/2013/may/are-american-voters-racist 10011810 AM Update Kenneth Gould, The American