We won. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will not spend any money on the Clean Power Plan (CPP) until the Supreme Court's stay on the CCP is lifted, if ever. Here, for the terminally curious, is the longer version. Wyoming has an extremely short budget session, 20 working days. To work within that, the budget bill is done as a "mirror ...

Charlie Katebi and KGAB's Gary Freeman discuss the legislature's rejection of Medicaid expansion and how Wyoming could provide better healthcare for low-income patients.

by Wyoming Liberty Staff Members of the Wyoming House and Senate Education committee met last week at the close of the legislative session to discuss potential topics to study over the next 10 months. The meeting began with all of the lackluster enthusiasm of insomniacs watching a midnight infomercial. The usual flock of education bureaucrats and l...

by Charles Katebi Entitlements used to be considered the "third-rail" of American politics. Now the public recognizes that without major changes to Medicare and Medicaid, both programs threaten our fiscal future. Fortunately, there are reforms that not only save taxpayers money, but also deliver better healthcare to the elderly and needy. But befor...

by Charles Katebi Medicare and Medicaid are the two largest government-run health insurance programs in the United States, and arguably the world. Combined, they cover an estimated 120 million Americans and spend a quarter of the federal government's budget. And without major reforms, these entitlements threaten to bankrupt taxpayers and hang patie...

Everybody wants the one percent Did you know the State of Wyoming has more than one fund with handy cash ready for the taking? While most people think of the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account (LSRA) as the rainy day fund, the state has hundreds of spend-ready funds. One of those, the Strategic Investment and Project Account (SIPA), could ac...

Colorado Senator Kevin Lundberg explains why Wyoming shouldn't repeat Colorado's disastrous mistake of expanding Medicaid. 

by Wyoming Liberty Staff Wyoming families and friends recently celebrated two school choice events to highlight Wyoming's growing participation in school choice through charter schools, private school, online learning and homeschooling. January's National School Choice Week and February's parent-led Public School Options events brought them to Chey...

On Tuesday, February 9, the Supreme Court stayed the Clean Power Plan (CPP), much to everyone's surprise. The Supreme Court issued a terse order, less than a page long. It gave no explanation and no indication of the thinking of the five Justices who voted for the stay. The Supreme Court has never before granted a stay of any federal regulation whi...

by Charles Katebi What is Direct Primary Care? Direct primary care is a direct patient-to-provider relationship that delivers quality healthcare at an affordable price. Under a direct primary care contract, patients pay their physicians a flat, monthly fee. And in exchange, their physicians provides a range of primary care services. These services ...

Charles Katebi interviews Senator Kevin Lundberg, Republican of Colorado's 49th District about to sell Medicaid Expansion and Colorado's error. 

by Charles Katebi After seeing Wyoming's Hospital Association fight tooth and nail for Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, you'd think Medicaid expansion left hospitals in other states flush with cash. The reality is that Medicaid expansion has significantly cut hospital compensation, resulting in longer wait times and less services for the very patien...

by Charles Katebi For four years, supporters of Medicaid expansion urged our elected representatives to permanently commit Wyoming to this entitlement program. And for the fourth year in a row, Wyoming's Joint Appropriations Committee, or JAC, responded with a resounding "No." Governor Matt Mead and Wyoming's biggest healthcare institutions claimed...

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. PJ O'Rourke Choosing to expand Medicaid is like deciding to marry for the sake of a dream honeymoon when disillusionment is the likely outcome. Fortunately, seven members of the Joint Appropriations Committee rescued Wyoming from a looming and ill-conceived ...

Such is the stuff of unicorns and leprechauns.– FERC Commissioner Tony Clark One aspect of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) we have not yet discussed in this series of blogs on the Clean Power Plan is the reliability of America's electric power generation in 2030. The recent winter storm Jonas on the east coast should remind us of how much we have come t...

A meme has been going around Facebook asking, "Did you know that it would take an area of just 254 kilometres squared filled with solar panels to power the entire world?" No sources, no calculations from known data, nothing. Just a bald faced assertion. Really? Let's see if someone with a degree in philosophy, not in engineering, can do a quick bac...

by Charles Katebi The director of Wyoming's Department of Health, Tom Forslund, recently sat down before the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) to make his plea for more spending. The biggest item by far on the agency's wish list was Medicaid Expansion, costing a whopping $268 million. How did he try selling such an expensive line item to the JAC...

When politicians justify handing out public dollars for private benefit, they use the word investment to spin this spending into something more palatable to voters. However, state directed spending in the economy is nothing more than economic central planning in disguise. To stop the growth in central planning in Wyoming, we must bring the state's ...

What will the environmental effects of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) be? Recall that the stated media driven, post-Kyoto Protocol (to which the US did not subscribe), goalis to reduce the Earth's temperature increase between now and 2100 to less than 2 ℃. The short answer is: zilch. NERA Economic Consulting estimates that CPP by 2030 will reduce the g...

During Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's visit to Wyoming in November 2015, he discussed his strategy to put Louisiana's fiscal house in order. His basic philosophy of government is that we can grow the American economy or we can grow the government economy, we can't do both. If we want to grow the American economy we must shrink the government eco...