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Reason's journalists and policy analysts are frequently cited by, and appear on, media outlets of all types. Please find a selection of those citations below.
Global Oil Capacity and the Supposed 'Limits to Growth'
The Wall Street Journal
In today's Notable & Quotable section of The Wall Street Journal:
Ron Bailey writing at Reason.com, April 18:
Forty years ago, The Limits to Growth, a report to the Club of Rome, was released with great fanfare at a conference at the Smithsonian Institution. The study was based on a computer model developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and designed "to investigate five major trends of global concern—accelerating industrial development, rapid population growth, widespread malnutrition, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and a deteriorating environment." . . . In 1972, the Limits researchers estimated known global oil reserves at 455 billion barrels. Since then the world has produced very nearly 1 trillion barrels of oil and current known reserves hover around 1.2 trillion barrels, a 40-year supply at current consumption rates. With regard to natural gas supplies, the International Energy Agency last year issued a report asserting, "Conventional recoverable resources are equivalent to more than 120 years of current global consumption, while total recoverable resources could sustain today's production for over 250 years."
Reason's work on the environment and energy.
The GOP Presidential Race and the Ron Paul Effect
Texas Monthly
In Texas Monthly, Jeff Salamon writes:
In the forthcoming Ron Paul’s rEVOLution (Broadside Books, $26.99), the journalist Brian Doherty takes an up-close look at the libertarian Texas congressman, from Paul’s initial immersion in the works of the Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek right up to the recent Republican primaries, when Doherty hit the campaign trail as a journalist. In a phone and email interview from his office in Los Angeles, Doherty, a senior editor at the libertarian magazine Reason who makes no bones about his admiration for Paul, discussed Paul’s place in the ongoing nomination battle.
Colorado Legislators Should Squash "Hollywood Handouts" for Film Companies
Denver Post
Denver Post Columnist Vincent Carroll writes:
"Hollywood handouts" is how the Reason Foundation's Harris Kenny labels state tax benefits and rebates for film production companies.
"A stupid trend" that "may have peaked," is how The Economist summed up these enticements in a report last year.
"It is unlikely that movie production incentives generate wealth in the long run," concludes the Tax Foundation. "Most fail even in the short run. Yet they remain popular."
Popular, indeed. Here in Colorado, we are currently preparing to shower money on Hollywood producers — whom, as everyone knows, make ideal recipients of corporate welfare. After all, they come and go without really planting roots. And the local jobs they create are mostly temporary and depend upon politicians keeping the subsidy spigot perpetually running.
What's not to like?
Reason Foundation's research and commentary on tax and budget policy.
Obama Administration Wants Businesses to Drug Test Workers
Huffington Post
The Huffington Post's Arthur Delaney writes:
The government wants businesses to drug test their workers to boost productivity and reduce health care costs, according to the 2012 National Drug Control Report released Tuesday.
But not everyone in America should have to pee in a cup, according to a spokesman for the Obama administration agency that issued the report...
A 2002 feature story in Reason, a libertarian magazine, traced the roots of private-sector workplace drug testing to the government's War on Drugs, starting with the Reagan administration's push for drug-free federal workplaces in 1986. Private employers with big government contracts followed suit. "If it weren't for the war on drugs, it seems likely that employers would treat marijuana and other currently illegal intoxicants the way they treat alcohol, which they view as a problem only when it interferes with work," Reason's Jacob Sullum wrote.
Elizabeth Warren, Special Interests and ObamaCare Savings
DC Examiner
The DC Examiner's Tim Carney writes:
One reason not to put government in charge of so much of the health-care system: that just gives lobbyists more say over where health-care spending goes.
Peter Suderman at Reason has been making this point for years. Today, he blogs on a related theme. Democratic Senate candidate and liberal darling Elizabeth Warren has placed an op-ed in the trade journal for medical devices, and she has finally found a tax hike she opposes -- Obamacare's tax on medical devices.
Suderman's piece: "Elizabeth Warren Shows Us Why ObamaCare's Cost Controls Won't Work."
Reason's work on health care.
Will Tolled 'Lexus Lanes' Be Everywhere in South Florida?
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The Sun-Sentinel's Michael Mayo writes:
Great, just what South Florida doesn't need: more tolls and road construction.
That was my first reaction to an influential think tank's proposal to blanket South Florida roads with more tolled express lanes on highways and new tolled overpasses/underpasses at 79 intersections on major surface streets. Potential targets in Broward and Palm Beach counties include State Road 7/441, Glades Road and Broward Boulevard.
But after having a good chat with Robert Poole, a Broward resident and the Reason Foundation transportation expert pushing the proposal, I'm keeping an open mind. Especially after seeing how well the concept has worked on Interstate 95 in Miami-Dade.
The big thing to remember, says Poole: the new tolls would be a choice and would only come to newly added lanes and bypasses. "It wouldn't take away capacity from existing (free) lanes and intersections," Poole said. "It's a way to add road capacity and have it paid for mostly by users."
Robert Poole's plan for increasing mobility in South Florida is here.
Freeways "Free" No Longer? Interstates Might Get More Tolls
McClatchy Newspapers
Curtis Tate of McClatchy Newspapers writes:
The federal interstate highway system is showing its age, and, faced with the cost of repairing all those bumps and cracks, some states want to ask motorists to pay tolls on roads that used to be free.
That's the last thing a public that's paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline wants to hear, and elected officials, from members of Congress to President Barack Obama, aren't likely in an election year to propose that motorists pay higher gasoline taxes or tolls. But many transportation experts and officials agree that if Americans want to drive on good roads, they're going to have to pay more for them, or do without.
Most of the 46,000-mile interstate system has been toll-free for its 56-year history. But pavement and bridges on the system's oldest sections are reaching the ends of their life spans and need to be replaced. A 2009 report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recommended an annual investment in U.S. highways and bridges of $166 billion.
"Highways are not designed to last forever," said Bob Poole, a Florida-based transportation policy expert and supporter of tolls at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian research group in Washington. "There is a major need over the next two decades or so to rebuild and modernize the entire interstate system."
Reason Foundation's research and commentary on toll roads and highways.
Minnesota's I-35 Toll Lane Plan
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Pat Doyle writes:
A major expansion of the MnPASS electronic toll system advanced Tuesday in the state Senate despite some legislators' objections to charging more motorists to drive in the fast lanes.
The measure would widen 4 miles of Interstate 35E in St. Paul and dedicate a lane in each direction to MnPASS tolls, carpools and buses during rush hours.
The expansion is backed by Sen. Joe Gimse, R-Willmar, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, as a less costly way to reduce traffic jams than more extensive road building.
"In these times of tight budgets, we need all the tools we can get," Gimse said.
...The lanes would be added to a reconstructed stretch of 35E between Pennsylvania Avenue, just north of I-94, and Little Canada Road just south of I-694.
The reconstruction includes replacing the Cayuga Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and Maryland Avenue bridges and using existing shoulders to help build an additional lane in each direction for MnPASS.
The expansion was applauded by local officials near the route and other MnPASS corridors, like one along 35W, who view it as a cheaper way to reduce congestion than a massive highway construction program.
"We're just not going to have the money to do the things we wished we could do," Edina Mayor Jim Hovland said.
It also drew support from a former member of the Reagan administration, Shirley Ybarra, a transportation analyst for a Los Angeles think tank who testified Tuesday in favor of the MnPASS expansion.
Supreme Court Considers FCC Indecency Laws
USA Today
Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether or not we still need the federal government and FCC to regulate the broadcast airwaves for things like nudity and explicit language. USA Today compiles opinion columns and editorials on the case:
Jacob Sullum, in Reason: "Fox and the other TV networks challenging the ban (on indecency) are urging the Supreme Court not only to uphold the 2nd Circuit's decision (reversing the ban) but to reconsider the 1978 ruling that approved content-based regulation of broadcasting on the grounds that the medium was 'uniquely pervasive' and 'uniquely accessible to children.' Now that nine out of 10 households are served by cable, satellite, or fiber-optic TV and children commonly watch video from non-broadcast sources, it is hard to make that argument with a straight face. Three decades ago, the court portrayed TV and radio signals as unwelcome visitors in people's homes. That description was never accurate. … It is even further from reality in today's entertainment market."
Reason's work the Supreme Court and censorship is here.
Who Is Ron Paul?
KALW Radio, San Francisco
Reason magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch discusses Ron Paul with Katha Pollitt of The Nation and host Rose Aguilar and KALW's Your Call. The show says:
On today's Your Call, we’ll take a look at the increasingly popular GOP candidate, Ron Paul. Why is his message resonating with so many young people? What’s the draw for liberals? We’ll explore his ideology and ideas in depth.
Reason's Ron Paul coverage is here.
Is Ron Paul Helping Mitt Romney?
The Week
Hold on. Paul could win this thing: It's easy to downplay the strength of Paul's performance , arguing that coming in as the runner-up "will be no more meaningful than was Pat Buchanan's actual win here in 1996," says Brian Doherty at Reason. But Paul isn't just meeting expectations, he's surpassing them. Paul has a clear set of ideas and the "widespread ability to inspire energetic and effective activism." Don't be surprised if Tea Party members or those who identify as "true conservatives" fall into line behind him as the field narrows, making Paul a severe threat to Romney's run at the nomination.
"Ron Paul: Amazing night, and the path to a two-man race"
Reason's Ron Paul coverage is here.
Ron Paul and the GOP Presidential Race After New Hampshire
RT America
Reason magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on Russia Today to discuss the Republican presidential race and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
Reason's Ron Paul coverage is here.
Teachers Should be Paid Based on Their Effectiveness
The Huffington Post
At the Huffington Post, Jaime Hudgins writes:
Richwine and Biggs hint at performance pay in their Room for Debate commentary, and another commentator, Lisa Snell from the Reason Foundation, points out that the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, "calls for differentiating teacher compensation based on teacher effectiveness, the roles that teachers play, the difficulty of teaching assignments, and the length of the school year or school day." Of course, the development of criteria for determining which educators are deemed "effective," and which are best suited for leadership roles, is complicated. There is no single definition of what is, or makes, a great teacher.
The EPA's List of Most Wanted Fugitives
Greenwire
Environment & Energy's John McArdle writes:
To aid in the ongoing search, EPA added Wang to its online database of environmental fugitives three years ago.
Since it was created in 2008, EPA officials credit that list with helping nab a handful of eco-fugitives and informing the public about the agency's law enforcement work. But it has also increasingly become a rallying point for EPA critics who believe the agency has overstepped its original mission with its criminal enforcement efforts.
Adrian Moore, the vice president of policy at the free-market Reason Foundation, questioned last week whether Wang's deeds truly warranted a criminal charge and potential three-year prison sentence.
"That seems to me like a ticketable offense," Moore said in an interview.
Wang's case is a perfect example, he said, of the unbridled expansion of criminal law into areas of society that were once overseen by regulatory enforcement and civil law.
"Regulatory agencies like the idea of criminalization because it gives them more clout, it gives them more tools to use against offenders," Moore said. "It's a classic problem in government agencies, trying to do too many things."
Reason on the environment here.
The FCC's Broadcast TV Censorship Is Pointless in Age of Cable and the Internet
Chicago Sun Times
In his nationally syndicated column running in the Chicago Sun-Times, Reason magazine's Jacob Sullum writes:
My daughters, who range in age from 5 to 18, watch TV programs and movies on DVDs, on smartphones, streaming from Netflix through our Wii, on websites, on our DVR and on demand from AT&T U-verse. They do not know or care what “broadcast television” is, and they certainly do not perceive a categorical distinction between “over-the-air” channels and the rest.
But the Federal Communications Commission does, imposing a form of censorship on broadcast TV that would be clearly unconstitutional in any other context — for the children, of course. A case the Supreme Court heard on Tuesday gives it a chance to renounce this obsolete doctrine.
Officially, the FCC punishes TV and radio stations for airing programs that “describe or depict sexual or excretory organs or activities” in a way that is “patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium.” But no one knows what that means until the commission rules, and even then it is impossible to extract clear guidelines from the FCC.
The commission has decreed, for instance, that “f---” is indecent when uttered by celebrities during live award shows — whether exuberantly (Bono), angrily (Cher) or jokingly (Paris Hilton) — and by blues musicians in a PBS documentary, but not by fictional soldiers in “Saving Private Ryan,” where the expletives were, in the FCC’s view, artistically justified.
The FCC insists on no “bulls---” in a cop show but may allow it in “a bona fide news interview,” although it emphasizes “there is no outright news exemption from our indecency rules.” The commission can be surprisingly tolerant of a “d---head” or an “ass,” even when he is “pissed off.” As the America Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) observes, such judgments are “simply a matter of taste, and the commissioners’ efforts to rationalize their taste merely emphasize the arbitrary nature of the enterprise.”
Reason's work on censorship is here.
Seriously, Libertarians Are Ecstatic About the Paul Candidacy
Politico
Politico's "Huddle" writes:
--Seriously, libertarians are ecstatic about the Paul candidacy. Check out this giddy report from Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty: “The vibe in the room where Paul gave his speech and many, many hundreds of his campaign volunteers celebrated for many hours after the candidate left the building was pure exhausted, proud joy, combined with resolution for the necessary next steps. These folk are both earnest and joyful, serious and witty, pleased and proud but by no means ready to rest on laurels. They all did their days or weeks of months of door-knocking, phone calling, poll watching, sign waving, and often very dedicated one on one discussion about how and why liberty was the right thing for America, to every New Hampshirite who would listen. … [E]very single one of the youth volunteers I spoke to, whether the ones put up by the campaign in hotels or sleeping on Free Staters floors, said they were quite confident they'd be moving on to work for Ron Paul's victory in South Carolina, in Nevada, in Maine, in Massachusetts, in New York, in Florida.” http://bit.ly/x6tDna
Reason's Ron Paul coverage is here.
Reviewing the Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson
Boing Boing
At Boing Boing, Xeni Jardin writes:
The current print issue of Reason has a wonderful, thoughtful piece by Mike Godwin about the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs. I know it's hard to imagine there's anything new to say about this hyper-covered book about a hyper-covered popular figure, but: Godwin shows that yes, there is.
Gas Taxes, Tolls, and Paying for Roads
News-Press (MO)
St. Joseph (MO) News-Press Columnist Ken Newton writes:
These days, if you believe a Reason-Rupe public opinion survey taken in December, at least 58 percent of Americans would prefer paying for new highways or highway lanes through tolls rather than tax increases. At least 55 percent favor governments taking private concerns as partners in building public infrastructure.
The gasoline taxes that go to the building and upkeep of public roads have the fundamental unfairness of many taxes. That is, taxes a person pays at a pump in St. Joseph will be used to build a bridge that person will never cross in Southeast Missouri.
In all corners of the state, motorists pay for roads they will never drive along. Call it a justice constructed from broad-based inequity.
The December Reason-Rupe transportation poll mentioned in the story is here.
Is California Going To Pull The Plug On Its High-Speed Rail Project?
The Wall Street Journal
In The Wall Street Journal, Wendell Cox and Joseph Vranich write:
The claimed cost of airport expansion is bloated, too. Bullet train proponents assume a very small average plane size into the future, as if airlines wouldn't use larger planes—such as the latest generation single-aisle Boeing 737s or Airbus 321s—to meet demand. Even without high-speed rail, in other words, no new runways or gates would have to be built beyond what will be needed anyway, and the assumed billions of dollars required to expand airports is just another unsubstantiated claim by rail promoters.
These absurdities aren't surprising. A study we prepared for the Reason Foundation in 2008—"The California High-Speed Rail Proposal: A Due Diligence Report"—showed that high-speed rail proponents had overstated costs for alternative highway and airport capacities by a factor of more than 60.
There is more that is wrong with the California high-speed rail project. The Alice-in-Wonderland plan is based on greatly exaggerated ridership projections, hallucinatory promises of billions in private investment pouring into the system, and the expectation that the now-canceled federal high-speed rail program will magically provide many billions more.
Reason Foundation's Due Diligence Report by Cox and Vranich on the California high-speed rail plan.
US Government's Debt Is as Big as the Economy
Freedom Watch, Fox Business Network
Reason Foundation Vice President Julian Morris discusses the federal government's debt, which at $15 trillion now exceeds GDP. He also talks about breaking up the big banks, and the limits of federal power on Judge Andrew Napolitano's Freedom Watch on Fox Business Network.
In 2011, 40 Percent of Americans Said They Were Political Independents, Highest Number Ever
The Alyona Show, RT America
Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on RT's The Alyona Show to talk about new Gallup numbers showing the percentage of self-identified independents reaching an all-time high of 40 percent in 2011.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Is Recovering, But Civil Discourse Hasn't
National Public Radio
At NPR.org, Linton Weeks writes:
When a gunman opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and others at a shopping center near Tucson exactly a year ago — killing six people and injuring Giffords and many others — some people were quick to blame the episode on the overheated political climate...
Writing in the Libertarian magazine Reason, David Harsanyi once asked, "Have we transformed into so brittle a citizenry that we are unable to handle a raucous debate over the future of the country? If things were quiet, subdued and 'civil' in America today ... it only would be proof that democracy isn't working."
And the late Christopher Hitchens reportedly said that civility is overrated.
Reason's full coverage of the Giffords shooting here and Matt Welch on political rhetoric here.
Tolls,Gas Taxes and Polls in Texas
Austin American-Statesman
In the Austin American-Statesman, transportation writer Ben Wear writes:
So, given the choice of a way to pay for more roads, would you go for higher gas taxes or more toll roads?
Texas politicians have been telling us for the past decade that the public prefers toll roads, though the considerable hullabaloo in Central Texas in the middle of last decade when toll road proposals began to sprout like crabgrass here seemed to indicate otherwise. Given that, an increase in the state's long-frozen 20-cents-a-gallon gas tax has gotten zero traction in the Legislature.
An early December national poll from the Reason Foundation would seem to justify that legislative choice.
Rick Santorum Isn’t a Reagan Conservative
The Daily Caller
In Daily Caller, Jack Hunter writes:
In an interview with Reason magazine in 1975, Ronald Reagan said:
If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism … The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
Says Santorum: “I fight very strongly against libertarian influence within the Republican Party and the conservative movement.”
Reason's Manuel Klausner interview with Ronald Reagan in 1975.
2012 Brings 40,000 New Laws Across the U.S.
Freedom Watch, Fox Business Network
Reason magazine Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward and Judge Andrew Napolitano discuss the 40,000 new laws being implemented at the city, state and federal level in 2012.
Reason's work on the "Nanny State."
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