In a recent hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform (go to the 16:37 mark here), Congressman James Lankford (R-Okla.) lauded the Surgery Center of Oklahoma as a facility where “competition has driven up quality and driven down price.” He’s right. Just ask Jerome Longacre, a fitness traine...

Oklahomans focused on the final days of our legislative session may have missed the news from south of the Red River. Texas legislators were also winding up their legislative session (they only meet every other year), and the last bills they sent to Gov. Rick Perry included a $1 billion tax cut for business. The Texas state b...

The Oklahoma Supreme Court is “not a court at all,” Oklahoma City University law professor Andrew Spiropoulos writes today in the Journal Record, but rather “an unaccountable political body that, without sufficient legal justification, routinely imposes its political will on the elected branches of government and the people.”...

When he discovered that “being divorced and a nonsmoker is [only] slightly less dangerous than smoking a pack or more a day and staying married,” Yale biophysicist Harold Morowitz quipped: “If a man’s marriage is driving him to heavy smoking, he has a delicate statistical decision to make.”Given the wealth of scientific data ...

In a new report released last week (‘Saving Workers’ Retirement: First Steps Toward Public Pension Reform in Oklahoma’), OCPA unveiled a plan which ensures that current state employees and retirees get the retirement they were promised, sets in motion a plan to pay down unfunded liabilities, and brings the government’s pensio...

Late last month, on May 23, Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., asked a federal appeals court for a religious exemption from the so-called “contraception mandate” — the Department of Health and Human Services ruling that requires employers to provide their employees with health insurance that covers contraceptives and abortifacients.To...

OCPA has championed the free market for two decades now, and with good reason. It works. What doesn't work is excessive tinkering in the market by government policies aimed at social engineering. There is no shortage of examples, but one of the most dangerous is being fought right now by our own Congressman James Lankford. Hi...

In a recent column in the Edmond Sun, state Rep. Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie), the chairman of the Government Modernization Committee in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, shared some perceptive insights on what often happens with new state legislators at 23rd and Lincoln. These new freshmen come in with “fresh ideas directl...

When the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities program was enacted in 2010, state Rep. Kris Steele correctly noted that the program would honor the memory of Lindsey Nicole Henry and “let it be known for generations to come that she, and her parents, are helping to improve the lives of special-needs...

I’ve lamented before that, just as President Barack Obama is the biggest government spender in world history, Oklahoma’s current political leaders are the biggest government spenders in state history. Indeed, according to the venerable Tax Foundation, Oklahoma led the nation in government-spending growth over the past dec...

Former University of Texas professor Marvin Olasky recently observed that “tenure at a big state or private university offers full-time pay for part-time, part-year work until death (or utter decrepitude) cometh. Six classroom hours per week. The joke is that a Texas legislator asked a professor how many hours he taught. Six,...

Americans watching the continuing meltdown of Western Europe’s tottering economies were amazed last year when French leaders proposed a new “millionaire’s tax” rate of 75 percent. But we were hardly surprised. Confiscatory tax rates approaching 100 percent are, after all, the logical endpoint of the socialist big-government m...

A few weeks ago, rental car giant Hertz announced it’s moving its headquarters from New Jersey to Lee County, Fla., which features the city of Fort Myers and backs up to Naples. While the $50 million Hertz will spend to build in Florida and the 700 jobs it will bring are significant, Oklahomans will be most sensitive to the 1...

Recently the federal Department of Health and Human Services notified the state of Oklahoma that President Obama and Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were going to break yet another promise of Obamacare by not renewing Oklahoma’s current waiver for Insure Oklahoma. You’ll remember that President Obama famously said, “If you like y...

Every year at this time we pause to honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice defending our freedom. Since its beginning as Decoration Day following the Civil War and its evolution to Memorial Day and its official recognition as a federal holiday in 1971, this holiday has held a special place in the hearts of American...

Today Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, Jonathan Williams, and the American Legislative Exchange Council released the sixth edition of Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic State Competitiveness Index (RSPS). RSPS is one of the premier analyses of economic performance and economic outlook for the 50 states. ...

The Oklahoma Legislature is considering a last-minute commitment of roughly 80 million taxpayer dollars over the next few years to two museums. The institutions in question are the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum (AICCM), still under construction in Oklahoma City near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Interstat...

A few aspects of Obamacare are, per last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling, still voluntary for the states. First among these is Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, projected to cost Oklahoma taxpayers a total of $1.6 billion over the next 10 years if implemented.President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...

As the 2013 legislative session nears its end, a very positive change concerning a number of employee positions is receiving serious consideration by lawmakers. This change would convert a number of open employment positions to more resemble the employment rewards and requirements of private-sector employees.For state employe...

Because it doesn’t fit the narrative, Obamacare proponents in Oklahoma, including many in the media, are ignoring an important development related to Obamacare. Obamacare created optional, temporary high-risk pools (a temporary public option) that could be established in every state, to provide coverage for those who could no...