In an attempt to decrease health care costs, wellness initiatives have become increasingly popular programs offered by corporations. Health and wellness is an extremely important issue and when it comes to health care reform there should to be a larger personal responsibility component. Unhealthy lifestyles, such as inactivity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol … Continue reading
On Tuesday, August 27, the IRS issued its final rule regarding the individual mandate to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The rulemaking formally establishes the IRS requirement for most Americans to be subjected to a financial penalty if an individual does not acquire “minimum essential coverage.” The rule will be published … Continue reading
The recent announcement that the White House will delay enforcement of the employer mandate until 2015 has stirred a polemic argument among the American public about the reality and stability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – and this isn’t the first roadblock the new legislation has faced, nor will it be the last. Since … Continue reading
The federal government employs people of many different professional backgrounds, but among them you will not find fortunetellers. Yet scientists, analysts, and lawyers could sometimes use an assist from seers in completing the work they are asked to do. Conducting cost-benefit analyses of agencies’ proposed regulations necessitates predicting their impact on the economy, an unfathomably … Continue reading
While politics and partisanship are the primary forces driving the discord in Washington today, it is power that will ultimately determine the outcome of such conflict. In our government, power is shared between branches, which in times of divided government like the present, essentially means shared between parties. With each side empowered to block the … Continue reading
The Bureau of Land Management has released a new proposal for rules governing the use of hydraulic fracturing on federal land. This proposal contains revisions from last year’s proposal that better balance environmental and business interests over the controversial drilling technique. Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ has been used in conventional, vertical wells since at least … Continue reading
Late last week a seldom heard voice echoed throughout the regulatory reform debate forum when the U.S. Department of State openly stood behind the controversial Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ‘Resource Extraction Rule.’ This rule, developed as part of the continuing cavalcade of Dodd-Frank initiatives, went into effect last August with the goal of requiring … Continue reading
Il Mondo Vecchio is Italian for “The Old World.”For Mark DeNittis, the owner and purveyor of Il Mondo Vecchio Salumeria in Denver, Colorado, “The Old World” means making cured meats and sausages the right way – the way his Italian uncles made sausage and their uncles before them. DeNittis’ salumi is an anachronism – a … Continue reading
There are thousands of different motivations for regulation – a cleaner environment, an equal opportunity workplace, a more secure banking system – but each motivation has an underlying and often unspoken implication. The government, because of its army of bureaucratic experts, knows best how to make those goals happen. But time and again, regulators prove … Continue reading
The Bada Bing food truck has been cruising the streets of Arlington, VA, schlepping their signature fare for almost two years. Their relatively inexpensive spiedies (an upstate New York specialty) and Philly-style cheesesteaks have clearly filled a market niche as their long lines and expanding twitter followers attest to. But Bada Bing and legions of … Continue reading
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