Public views split on government size
Government budgeting is more challenging than fashioning a budget for your own household precisely because the costs and benefits aren’t directly aligned.
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Category: Opinion
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Partisan control shapes state policies
Since the mid-1980s, transportation’s share of the state budget has been higher when the GOP held either the governorship or legislature and lower when Democrats had unified control.
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Americans should be skeptical of single-payer promises
Ten years ago, the passage of Obamacare vastly increased the federal government’s role in our health–care system. The health care overhaul was sold to the American people as a solution for skyrocketing costs and high uninsured rates. While some uninsured gained coverage, the law…
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What does freedom mean to you?
To be free is not necessarily to be happy. It certainly doesn’t make one free of social attachments, or capable of obtaining any particular goal.
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Budget standoff highlights policy differences
A version of this editorial appeared in the June 2019 print edition of Carolina Journal. To sign up for a free subscription, visit here. A week ago, the state Senate passed its version of a $23.9 billion General Fund budget for the next fiscal year. The Senate and…
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Don’t play favorites with business taxes
Even if it were technically feasible and politically sustainable, it would still be grossly unfair to tax companies differently based on size, location, average wages, or industry.
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Hospital mergers: Profits over patients
“Economies of scale, lower administrative costs, and more coordinated care will lower overall costs and improve the quality of health care.” This is a line we typically hear when large hospital systems merge or acquire smaller practices. To many, this may seem reasonable. For example, think about a large retail…
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Population trends may surprise you
Even as North Carolina becomes the nation's seventh-ranking state in population by 2040, our growth rate will be declining significantly.
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Alcohol reform may be coming to N.C., and it’s about time
The N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control system — created in 1937 in the wake of the repeal of Prohibition — for the past 80-plus years has remained mostly static. But this may soon change, as lawmakers have offered several proposals to repair the broken, outdated system. …
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Good citizenship requires skepticism
When trying to answer a question of fact, we tend to follow the lead of sources whose political views we share. When the “other team” offers a factual proposition, we discount it.