By Romina Boccia and Dominic Letto Cato of FreedomJuly 24, 2024.
excerpt:
The Senate is poised to plunder its metaphorical rainy day funds again. Recent Debt DigestSenate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Vice Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) have reportedly agreed to increase discretionary spending by $34.5 billion for fiscal year 2025 by designating some regular spending as rainy day funds, a trick lawmakers often use to get around spending limits when sticking to a budget seems too politically difficult.
Jim Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute It pointed out Congress has already passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of June 2023. Scored The administration included emergency designations in the fiscal 2024 funding bill and passed outstanding Ukraine and foreign aid bills much slower than predicted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School budget model.
By J.D. Tutchal reasonJuly 26, 2024.
excerpt:
After decades of entrepreneurship slumping, small business startups have surged again in recent years. Spurred by pandemic-era closures of large corporations and the need for side hustles due to the rising cost of living, Americans are eager to become their own owners again. But they’re hindered by local regulations that make it difficult to start a business from the home where most startups are born. Fortunately, in some places, slowly Make way. (Italics in original)
By Joel Zinberg The Wall Street JournalJuly 23, 2024.
In the report, which covered pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the FTC alleges that “as they become more vertically integrated and concentrated,” PBMs “may be profiting from inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.” The qualifier “may be” appears throughout the report, indicating a lack of empirical evidence and analysis to support its conclusions about PBMs. Indeed, numerous studies, including the FTC’s own, contradict these conclusions.
PBMs are private companies that manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of insurance plan sponsors. They negotiate with drug manufacturers and pharmacies. Manufacturers trade lower prices for access to prescriptions and increased sales. Pharmacies trade discounts and increased retail requirements for better positioning in plan networks and more customers. This selective contracting allows PBMs to obtain rebates and discounts that lower drug costs. It can also encourage the use of drugs that are less expensive (such as generics), more effective, or both. Plan sponsors are not required to contract with PBMs, but most do, suggesting that they value the services of PBMs.
Research I did for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and work by University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan, has found that PBMs increase competition and lower drug costs. Mulligan estimates that PBMs generate at least $145 billion in value to society annually beyond their resource costs.
The entire editorial is gated.
How a surge in immigration will impact the federal budget and the economy
Congressional Budget Office, July 2024.
excerpt:
CBO’s baseline projection is that increased immigration would increase federal revenues, as well as mandatory spending and debt interest, resulting in a net deficit decrease of $0.9 trillion from 2024 to 2034 (see table 1).2 Some of the budget impact comes from the increase in the number of people paying taxes and receiving federal benefits. Other budget impacts come from changes in the economy over that period brought about by the immigration surge, including higher interest rates and increased productivity of workers unrelated to the immigration surge.
By Daniel Raisbeck Cato of FreedomJuly 26, 2024.
The root causes of Maduro’s current predicament leave much less room for speculation. It is pertinent to ask why the once-mighty Chavez regime, which seized power and aggressively sought to spread its revolution throughout the region, found itself mired in hardship on its own territory, even in Hugo Chavez’s former regional fiefdom. FortressThe graph below, which only relates to inflation and currency devaluation, may give us some clues.
