Welfare

Protect the Poor, Not Lotto Winners

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • November 20, 2013

Jamie Frankford won $330,000 in the Pennsylvania lottery in 2012, yet continued to collect child care subsidies and Medicaid benefits. Her story, reported by Chris Papst at CBS21, caught…

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Education

Union Dues Backing Political Groups Prompted My Resignation

  • November 19, 2013

This perspective on union spending by Pennsylvania public school teacher John Cress originally appeared at Free to Teach, a project of the Commonwealth Foundation. I have been a middle school…

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Health Care

Pennsylvania’s Bleak Budget Future

  • November 19, 2013

Pennsylvania’s fiscal outlook looks bleak according to a detailed report examining state revenue and spending released by the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) last week. The agency projects a general…

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Education

Reform Cybers Without Arbitrary Cuts

  • November 18, 2013

How will more than 35,000 cyber school students be affected by legislation pending in the state Senate this week? There’s both good and bad news on the horizon and your…

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Public Union Democracy

How Taxpayers Subsidize Union Politics

  • Priya Brannick
  • November 14, 2013

Last year, Pennsylvania’s main government unions spent nearly $5 million of their members’ union dues on political activities that workers don’t get to approve. In 2011-12, these unions also…

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Health Care

Obamacare: Exchange Sign-ups Dwarfed by Cancellations

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • November 14, 2013

Yesterday, the federal government revealed that shockingly low numbers of Americans are purchasing health insurance on the dysfunctional Obamacare exchange. In Pennsylvania, it’s clear the law is doing more…

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Health Care

A Sign of Things to Come?

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • November 13, 2013

Cancelled health care plans, an unusable exchange website—do we still trust the federal government to deliver on its health care promises? In what could be a sign of what’s to…

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Regulation

A Band-Aid for Broken PLCB

  • November 12, 2013

A change has come to Pennsylvania’s state-controlled liquor monopoly that will improve the customer experience, according to the PLCB. Are we finally going to get liquor privatization after eight decades?…

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