Media Hit

Matthews said the push for renewable fuels envisioned by Clinton "is a drain on the federal coffers." 

Protesters say the pipeline that would carry crude oil across four states to Illinois is a threat to sacred land, and to the Missouri River. But Merrill Matthews says since the government and company reached out for input, brought in archaeologists to produce cultural surveys involving land and rerouted the pipeline in different areas to avoid "certain sensitive areas," the environmental community sees fighting pipelines as a next major way to be able to try to essentially hinder the fossil fuel industry. 

“Local governments are at least as capable as the feds of passing laws and ordinances that violate the presumption of liberty in the Constitution,” Giovanetti said. “Tyranny isn’t OK just because it is approved by a majority of your fellow townsfolk. Rule of law, not local control, must be the governing principle.” 

The rise in premiums on the Affordable Care Act exchanges has led to a debate on whether to fix the ACA or repeal and replace the healthcare law.

There’s been a long-running concern that what the exchanges will ultimately be is the place where the people who are the sickest and need subsidies from the federal government will reside, said Matthews. “The question comes about – would even some of those people be able to buy cheaper insurance, even considering the subsidies, outside of the exchange if a death spiral initiates. If so, does that ultimately make the exchanges unworkable?”

"By moving their small cars to Mexico, which has skilled but cheaper labor, Ford hopes to break-even or make a little profit off them," explains the Institute for Policy Innovation's Merrill Matthews. (He notes that tax policy and climate change rules are also pushing Ford out of the U.S.)  

More reforms may need to be implemented in order to strengthen state health insurance marketplaces and keep payers participating in the exchanges.

"By moving their small cars to Mexico, which has skilled but cheaper labor, Ford hopes to break even or make a little profit off of them” said Merrill Matthews.

Before the DOJ filed a lawsuit blocking the Aetna-Humana health insurance merger, the Aetna CEO sent a letter stating that, without the merger, it would drop out of the health insurance exchanges.