Policy Papers
Policy Brief #28: The Worst Aspects of the Current Health Reform Proposals: More Taxes, Higher Costs, More Government Control, and Less Individual Freedom
The House and Senate health care bills are riddled with policies that will be bad for America and threaten our health care freedom. By centralizing an unprecedented amount of power in the hands of Washington bureaucrats, both bills dramatically expand the government’s control over one-sixth of the nation’s economy. No legislation built on a foundation of handouts, earmarks, and shameless payoffs can be expected to coherently address the long-term drivers of health care costs. While there are countless bad policies contained in thousands of pages of legislation, several aspects of the existing bills are particularly problematic.
Policy Brief #27: FMLA Benefits for Part-Time Workers Would Hurt Those They Are Supposed to Help
Part-time workers typically receive fewer benefits than full-time workers, and are not covered by some labor laws that apply to full-time workers. Some suggest that this is unfair to part-time workers, and urge the federal government to extend federal laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, so that part-time workers receive the same benefits as others.
Policy Brief #26: New FMLA Regulations Provided Needed Clarity to Law
On November 17, 2008, the Department of Labor released rules related to implementing legislation that amended the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). That legislation addressed the treatment of military personnel and their families. While issuing regulations related to those new provisions, the Department of Labor also clarified the rules governing the FMLA overall.
Policy Brief #24: National Health Care in Canada: Lessons in Rationing
President Obama and the Democratic leaders in Congress intend to greatly expand government's involvement in the U.S. health care sector by creating a “public option” for health insurance. This would move the country toward the liberal goal of a single-payer, government-run health insurance system.
Policy Brief #23: Lawmakers Shouldn't Promote Waste in the Name of Homeland Security
American taxpayers have invested $22 billion to help states prepare for possible terrorist attacks. After eight years of funding, little is known about what has been purchased, whether local communities are more prepared than they were prior to 9/11, and if more funding is necessary. Moreover, there is alarming evidence that funding is regularly not used for its intended purpose.
Policy Brief #21: Can American Families Really Afford Cap-and-Trade?
During President Obama's run for the Presidency, he promised voters that he would actively pursue instituting a cap-and-trade program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Congress has promised to have a cap-and-trade bill ready for consideration by May of this year, and the President’s budget projections anticipate a healthy stream of revenue over the next ten years from a cap-and-trade scheme.
Policy Brief #22: Keep Uncle Sam Away from Toddlers:The Case Against Government Funding for Preschool
The President has suggested that greater federal government support for early childhood education is an important component of improving educational opportunities in the United States and would be an investment in our human capital. Yet there is little evidence to support the case for greater federal involvement in preschool.
Policy Brief #19: Hawaii's Lesson in the Perils of Universal Health Insurance
President Obama intends to greatly expand government's involvement in the provision of health insurance, moving toward the goal of “universal” health insurance coverage. He included $634 billion over ten years in his budget for healthcare reform, which his staff has characterized as a “down payment” for a more expensive reform package. President Obama will find a willing partner in the cause of expanding government’s role in our healthcare system in the Democrat majority Congress. Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reidi have expressed support for universal insurance.
Policy Brief #18: Mandated Paid Sick Leave: The Wrong Medicine for Workers
President Obama and Members of Congress have offered numerous proposals to create new federal regulations to require employers to provide workers with specific leave benefits. One such proposal, the Healthy Family Act, would mandate that employers must provide seven days of paid sick leave.
Policy Brief #17: Card Check Will Harm, Not Help, American Workers
The secret ballot process is fundamental to American democracy. It ensures that individuals can vote their conscience with a shield of privacy. For more than sixty years this simple principle has been central to workplace unionization debates. But the Employee Free Choice Act aims to rob workers of this essential protection.
Policy Brief #16: Advancing Green Technologies and the Massive Economic Stimulus Plan
The current economic climate in the United States appears dire for many industries. In response to the drastic economic downturn, Congress has passed a massive $789 billion economic “stimulus” package. In addition to the much talked about banking and automobile industries, another major recipient of these funds will be the renewable energies industry.
Policy Brief #15: Expanding SCHIP Doesn't Fix Real Problems in U.S. Healthcare System
In this latest policy brief #15, Carrie Lukas, IWF’s vice president of policy and economics, provides an overview of the current proposals to expand SCHIP and highlights the flaws and unintended consequences of such pursuits.
Policy Brief #14: Expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act and Other Government-mandated Leave Benefits: A Preview of the 111th Congress
In the latest IWF Policy Brief, Carrie Lukas provides an overview of some of the major proposals that have been offered during the previous Congress and during the presidential campaign, and highlights some of the costs and consequences of these proposals for businesses, workers, and the economy.
Position Paper No. 614: Women's Concerns About Rising Prices: Why Price Controls Are Not the Answer
Prices for key household goods rose at an accelerated rate in 2008, especially prices for food and fuel, and consumers have noticed the effects on their families’ budgets. Some studies suggest that women perceive the problem of rising prices to be more severe than do men.
Advancing Women's Rights: Two Years in Iraq
This report details the Independent Women’s Forum’s projects related to women’s rights, democracy promotion, and nongovernmental organization capacity building in Iraq over the last two years. The report examines in detail the positive role women have played in stabilizing Iraq and how the promotion of women’s human rights advances the country’s total well-being.
The American Promise
The American Promise: the dream of being a country that provides its citizens with limitless opportunity and where people enjoy a high quality of life in terms of health, safety, income, and well-being. America has made great strides in fulfilling this promise. As detailed in this report, Americans are better off today than any other time in history.
IWF Policy Brief #13: Congress Should Commit to Restraining Spending
As Congress considers how to boost the economy, they should begin by ceasing behavior that harms the economy: this means ending wasteful government spending and reforming entitlement programs to reduce the government's implicit debt.
IWF Policy Brief #12: Women and Security in Afghanistan: Threats, Challenges, and the Continuing Response
Two years ago the government of Afghanistan and the international community outlined the terms of the Afghanistan Compact as a framework for cooperation and action to build a stable and secure Afghanistan. Much has changed over those two years-not all for the better-particularly regarding security.
IWF Policy Brief #11: Stabilizing Afghanistan: The Case for not Legalizing Poppy Cultivation
Afghanistan's poppy cultivation is not only having a dire impact on its neighbors and the international community, but is currently affecting the lives of several thousand Afghans within the country, particularly women and children.
IWF Policy Brief #10: The Young Woman's Guide to Financial Independence
This paper aims to educate young women about how small decisions made at young ages can affect their financial freedom for decades to come. Women are outnumbering men in universities and participating in increasing numbers in the work force, but a strong understanding of financial matters is also important for long-term financial stability.
IWF Policy Brief #9: Ensuring Women's Rights in Iraq
It is essential that Iraqi women continue to play a vital role in their emerging democracy. Through their active participation in their government and civil society they must work to maintain their human rights to be governed by civil—not religious—courts and statutes in matters of family law such as divorce, inheritance, and child custody.
IWF Policy Brief #8: SCHIP Debate Isn't About the Children: It's About Our Healthcare System's Future
Media coverage of the Congressional debate about reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has focused on the program’s supposed beneficiaries: children from low-income families. Yet the debate about SCHIP has implications far beyond this one program. This debate is really about the future of America’s healthcare system
IWF Policy Brief #4: Eliminating the Wage Cap Won't Fix Social Security
In a recent op-ed, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) suggested that policymakers should consider eliminating the wage cap on Social Security payroll taxes in order to solve the program's looming financial crisis.i However, eliminating the wage cap will not meaningfully change Social Security's financial problems, and it would be a significant tax increase on millions of working Americans and small businesses.
IWF Policy Brief #3: Bigger Waistlines or Bigger Government? Obesity Policy in America
Americans are regularly warned about the new “epidemic” threatening its citizens: obesity. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has purported that more than 66 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, and that obesity-related deaths top more than 400,000 per year. These alarming statistics are used by politicians to justify new regulations taxes, and government programs that discourage Americans from unhealthy eating.
IWF Policy Brief #1: Baucus-Grassley Tax Increase Could Have a Negative Effect on the Economy...and not just for the rich.
The Independent Women's Forum warns that passage of the proposed Baucus-Grassley tax increase on publicly traded partnerships, which has been introduced before the U. S. Senate (S. 1624), could have a profoundly negative effect on the American economy, and not just for the rich.
Taking the Boy Crisis in Education Seriously: How School Choice Can Boost Achievement Among Boys and Girls
IWF visiting fellow Krista Kafer reveals in her newly released paper, "Taking the Boy Crisis in Education Seriously: How School Choice Can Boost Achievement Among Boys and Girls," girls are actually outperforming boys in most academic measures.
Five Ways to Improve Healthcare for Women
The report, entitled Five Ways to Improve Healthcare for Women, was undertaken by the IWF, a non-partisan group that studies women's issues, because women make the majority of health care decisions in the U.S and because many women recognize that our flawed, one-size-fits-all system does not, in fact, fit them.
Women's Participation in the Democratic Processes in Iraq and Afghanistan: Achievments and Challenges
As Iraq and Afghanistan embark on the path to democratization, they still face many challenges and suffering. With persistence and determination, the women of Iraq and Afghanistan are slowly gaining more rights and influence in the government.