IPI Ideas

Frantic end-of-year passage of tax extenders does not encourage investment as intended. In 2014, investment in agricultural equipment was hampered by tax uncertainty over Section 179. Congress must recognize the need for certainty in tax policy by passing temporary measures earlier in the year, and by implementing overall tax reform that results in a simpler, more stable tax system.

U.S. taxpayers have been subsidizing wind energy for decades. The primary focus of that subsidy has been the Production Tax Credit, which ended in 2013. But powerful forces want to reinstate the PTC, even though wind energy imposes huge costs on ratepayers and taxpayers at a time when fossil-fuel generated electricity is getting cheaper and cleaner.

States are looking for ways to reduce their exploding Medicaid spending. Two states, Illinois and Pennsylvania, found a way to do just that: by examining their Medicaid and welfare rolls and removing people who don't belong.

IP goods are the largest share of U.S. exports and support a significant portion of the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy is increasingly dependent on the products of innovation, so policies that support innovation and creativity should be priorities for the U.S. government, especially in trade agreements. And nudging our trading partners toward greater respect for intellectual property rights also turns out to be in their best interests.

Defenders of the Affordable Care Act are boasting that health insurance premiums are not rising as much as some analysts predicted. They will. There are multiple factors, including politics, that drive health insurance premiums up—and down. The ACA increases both inefficiency and utilization, which will increase total health care spending and therefore health insurance premiums—just the opposite of what President Obama promised.

The U.S. has spent billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing wind energy. And while the industry is growing, it's expensive, unreliable and supplies only a small portion of the country's energy needs. Congress is backing away from its longtime support for wind subsidies, and given the growing availability of inexpensive fossil fuels for energy generation, that's the right move.

Achieving a reasonably free global market in sugar through trade agreements should be the goal of U.S. policy, rather than allowing otherwise competitive domestic producers to be driven out of business through the subsidies and dumping practices of countries like Mexico, India, Brazil and Thailand, whose sugar supports dwarf those of the United States.

Since the 1970s, U.S. law has banned crude oil exports. But with new drilling techniques dramatically increasing U.S. oil production and the willingness of unfriendly countries to use oil and natural gas supplies as a foreign policy hammer, it's time to repeal that export ban.

Congress is looking for health care reform steps to take to replace President Obama's Affordable Care Act. Here are 10 market-oriented steps that will help will go a long way toward increasing access, lowering costs and improving the quality of health care.

The problem of sugar subsidies frustrates those who believe in free markets and limited government and who oppose corporate welfare. But surrendering our consumer market to low-price manipulation simply makes us vulnerable to future high-price manipulation. Ultimately, the sugar problem can only be solved through a reformed and liberalized global sugar trading system, which should be the strategic goal of U.S. sugar policy.