COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
VOL. 28, NO. 2 | SUMMER 2015
FEATURED ARTICLES
Big Data and 21st Century
4 Medicine
IAIN MURRAY BY BARTLEY J. MADDEN AND
Britain Back from the Brink of GREGORY CONKO
Socialism (For Now)
M ore than a million and a half
Americans will be diagnosed with
cancer this year, and nearly 600,000
will die of it, often because there are no
effective treatments on the market. There
8 are over 700 new cancer medicines in
clinical trials or awaiting Food and Drug
ANGELA LOGOMASINI Administration (FDA) approval. But FDA
rules will deny most patients an opportunity
Saving the Bees vs. Pork Barrel
to try one of these developmental drugs,
Spending
which could provide them their only chance
of survival.
It is tragic that these patients cannot
make their own choices, especially as
modern computing and Big Data infor-
12 mation technologies have eliminated the
justification for those restraints. But an FDA
reform initiative by the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, called 21st Century
JOHN BERLAU Cures, may offer a chance to lift these
Obamacare for your IRA restrictions.
Federal law requires new drugs to be
extensively tested and then approved by
the FDA before they can be sold. Until then,
only patients enrolled in FDA-monitored
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
clinical trials, and a small number of other
patients granted so-called compassionate
Were All Greeks Now, use exemptions, may use them.
by Bill Frezza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The justification for this policy is that
A Federal Online Gambling Ban Would patients and doctors lack sufficient informa-
Trample State Sovereignty tion to assess a developmental drugs ben-
by Michelle Minton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 efits and risks. Health officials also claim
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. . . . . . 14 that giving patients early access would
Media Mentions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 make it harder to enroll enough subjects in
the clinical trials needed to assess drugs
End Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
effectiveness and side effects. Worse, they
say, researchers cannot learn from the
individualized experiences of thousands of
doctors and patients working on their own,
so volumes of useful information would be
lost.
But the world today is far different than
in 1962, when the drug safety laws as we
know them were written. Todays advanced
computing technologies are capable of
collecting and analyzing Big Data and
easily sharing information with consumers.
Technology giants like Apple, Google,
and Microsoft are already working with
hospitals, insurers, and the federal govern-
ment to study health records and determine
which drugs, medical devices, and other
treatment protocols work best for which
patients.
This ability to slice and dice the infor-
mation in those databases, and uncover
previously unknown relationships, is pro-
viding comprehensive insights into medi-
cal treatments that are simply not possible
with the standard model of clinical trials.
New technologies also make it possible
to share results in real time with hundreds
of researchers, thousands of doctors, and
millions of patients, delivering valuable
information to those who need it faster
and more effectively than ever dreamed
possible.
The 21st Century Cures bill now being
drafted by Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and
Diana DeGette (D-Col.) proposes modest
steps to make drugs available to patients
sooner, but more should be done. By
harnessing the power of modern informa-
tion technologies, we can provide greater
choice to patients with serious and life-
threatening illnesses.
In a proposal we call Free to Choose
Medicine, developers would test their
 10,000 Commandments and Counting
by Wayne Crews
C EI is well known for its focus on highlighting the
costs and impacts of regulation and govern-
ment intervention in the economyand the way
FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR POLICY
those enable government to grow out of public view,
beyond the spending so many free marketers focus
on. Even if we were to balance the federal budget
tomorrow, wed still have the weight of regulation
upon us.
As the federal government moves into more
economic sectors, the saliency of regulation as the
real barrier to growth and individual liberty has
become clearer, bringing greater attention to CEIs
work. Regulation is discussed on Capitol Hill with
far more frequencyand urgencynow, and by
far more members, both Republican and Democrat.
The last time the energy for getting things undone
was this visible was in the 1990s, when unfunded
mandates reform and the Congressional Review Act
were enacted.
The modern regulatory states continued advance
shows these efforts werent enough, and policy
makers know it. Accordingly, there is now a bipar-
tisan proposal for a regulatory reduction commis-
sion. Ideas like one in, one out get discussed. The
Regulatory Accountability Act, to require more scru-
tiny of agency rules, has passed the House, and the
Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny
(REINS) Act, to require congressional affirmation of
all major agency regulations, is expected to pass
both houses of Congress this summer.
This is President Obamas year of the veto, so
addressing overregulation remains difficult. But
address it we must. Based on federal government
data, past reports, and contemporary studies, the
2015 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments
estimates regulatory costs of $1.88 trillion annually
Publisher
Lawson Bader
Editor
Marc Scribner
Editorial Director
Ph (202) 331-1010
Ivan G. Osorio
Fax (202) 331-0640
info@cei.org Contributing Editor
Keara Vickers
ISSN#: 1086-3036
2 CEI.ORG
throughout the American economy. Notably, this
springs edition of Ten Thousand Commandments
marks the 23rd year since I wrote the first edition.
Yet, it seems we need it now more than ever.
Todays regulatory costs are greater than all
federal spending in the early1990s, and exceed
current personal and corporate income tax receipts
combined. The days of ignoring the matter are over.
Sure, we can measure costs better, but get-
ting Congress on the record for regulation is what
matters. In 2014, Congress passed and President
Obama signed 224 bills into law, while thou-
sands of bureaucrats issued 3,554 rules and
regulations. That means there were 16 rules for
every law passed last yeara ratio I call the
Unconstitutionality Index. As it shows, unelected
regulators and bureaucrats do the bulk of lawmak-
ing in America.
Congress likes to blame agencies for excesses
like the Waters of the United States rule, but
Congress delegated that power, and has failed to
restrain it. In addition to approving future agency
rules on the record, Congress must change the
underlying statutes driving the regulatory flow.
Even Ten Thousand Commandments cannot
adequately capture the presidents pen and phone
approach to policy making. We can count regula-
tions, but guidance documents, notices, executive
orders, agency and presidential memos, and even
blog posts and press releases all can set the tone for
policy making now. These can easily outnumber the
major rules issued by the agencies. This regulatory
dark matter is something to which future editions
of Ten Thousand Commandments and the policy
making world in general needs to pay more atten-
tion. Stay tuned.
The CEI Planet is produced by the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, a pro-market public interest group dedicated to
free enterprise and limited government.
CEI is a non-partisan, non-profit organization incorporated in the
District of Columbia and is classified by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3)
charity. CEI relies upon contributions from foundations, corporations
and individuals for its support. Articles may be reprinted provided
they are attributed to CEI.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 Big Data, continued
drugs in the first phase clinical trials that verify basic short-term
safety and then complete at least one Phase II trial to begin
testing safety at effective doses. Developers could then choose
to proceed only with FDA-monitored clinical trials, as they do
today. But if results show significant promise, they could enter
the Free to Choose program, where they sell the developmen-
tal drug to any consenting patient whose doctor concludes its
potential benefits are sufficient to outweigh its uncertain risks.
Developers would have to make all laboratory and clinical
test results available on a publicly accessible database, where
patients and their doctors can see what is and is not known

about each drugs risks and benefits and make fully informed
decisions.
Patients would have to allow their doctors to submit anony-
mous treatment reports describing their diagnoses, health status,
physical characteristics, and experience with the treatment
both effectiveness and side effects. This continuously updated
collection of data would provide additional information for other
patients, and it would give the developer and other researchers
a way to study the drugs performance in a real-world setting.
This would prove a valuable complement to standard clinical
testing. One shortcoming of clinical trials is that patients are
selected to be as similar as possible in characteristics such as
health status, disease progression, and other factors, to make
statistical analysis more reliable. But we often cannot spot
certain benefits or side effects until after a drug is approved and
prescribed to tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dissimilar
patients.
Giving a wide range of patients the ability to choose for
themselves might sacrifice some statistical purity, but we would
gain a better picture of a drugs real-world effects. One could
even envision an alternative FDA approval process that uses
this observational data for assessments. Either way, medical
researchers would get a treasure trove of information that could
improve how scientists spend their research dollars, leading to
faster, more efficient innovation.
Of course, not all manufacturers would want to sell their
products in a Free to Choose Medicine system, preferring
instead to pursue only the conventional FDA-monitored trials.
And some patients may be unwilling to try treatments that have
not been tested further and fully vetted by the FDA. But enacting
the proposal into law would make available additional treat-
ment options to many patients who now have few or no alter-
natives. When faced with life-or-death illnesses, more patients
should have this choice.
Bartley J. Madden is a founder of the Tomorrows Cures Today
Foundation and author of Free to Choose Medicine: Better Drugs,
Sooner at Lower Cost. Gregory Conko (greg.conko@cei.org) is
Executive Director of CEI.
R.M.
FREEDMAN
SOCI ET Y
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In 2013, CEI established the R.M. Freedman
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Many of CEIs extended family choose to
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COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE C E I . O R G 3

 Britain Back from the Brink of
Socialism (For Now)
BY IAIN MURRAY
W ell, that was a surprise.
Everyone in British poli-
tics, including those in government,
assumed from the polls that the British
General Election would end in a
dead heat, likely resulting in a Labour
minority government backed up by
the Scottish National Party (SNP). Not
only did the pollsters say that, the bet-
ting markets did too.
How wrong we all were. The
Conservatives were returned with an
overall majority, Labour was wiped out
by the SNP in Scotland, and the Liberal
Democrats (the Conservatives coalition
partner) collapsed across the country.
So what happened? Pollsters like
Lord Ashcroft have ruled out a late
swing to the Conservatives, so the
comforting idea, for us classical liber-
als, that people reached for their ballot
4 CEI.ORG
paper and realized they couldnt vote
for a socialist government seems not to
be the case. And it certainly wasnt the
case in Scotland, where the avowedly
leftist SNP swept the board.
The currently accepted explanation
among pollsters is the phenomenon of
shy Toriespeople who were always
going to vote Conservative but would
not admit it openly. There appears to
be some evidence for this in the differ-
ence between the large exit poll, which
came closer to the actual result than
the pre-election polls, and the re-poll
of online panelists after they voted.
In other words, people gladly
acknowledged they had voted conser-
vative in the anonymous exit poll, but
returned to dissembling when back at
their computers. (The pollsters, it should
be noted, got most of the other vote
shares about right.)
If this is the case, then it says
something disturbing about the state
of liberal philosophy in the UK. People
vote for the more economically liberal
parties, but are not comfortable talk-
ing about it. This also underscores my
point about business leaders having
withdrawn from the philosophical
debate and the need for them to return.
Making the case for free enterprise is
too important to be left to politicians.
Another explanation, which at
least one pollster has suggested, is the
lazy leftyounger left-wing voters
who failed to turn out in the numbers
projected in pre-election polls. Yet, this
seems highly unlikely in a very tight
election where every vote counts
indeed, turnout was up overall. It
is, however, a worrying possibility,
suggesting the UKs return to socialism
is only one charismatic leader away.
All the left needs is someone who can
motivate this vote to turn out.
Still, whatever the reason, the
Conservatives won a slim majority.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

A British Bill of Rights
could well involve
more negative
rights and be more
closely aligned with
the common law
an overall win for
liberty.
What will they do now that classical lib-
erals can celebrateor worry about?
Two large scale projects loom large
on the agenda. The first is renegotiation
of the European Union treaties to get
a better deal for Britainwhich should
mean less regulation and pan-Euro-
pean utopianism. Renegotiation would
also require constraints on immigration.
The first of these objectives is
plausible, as other nations, including
Germany, have made noises about
the crushing effect of EU regulation
on business. The latter is less so, as EU
officials have made it clear that free
movement of labor is a fundamental
principle of the union, and so it is likely
the EU will be the guardian of the clas-
sical liberal principle in this area.
However, with the EU deeply
immersed in the Greek crisis and wor-
ried about an aggressive Russia on its
Eastern border, detailed renegotiation
of treaties that would have to be rati-
fied throughout Europe is the last thing
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
Brussels wants at the moment.
Therefore, it remains to be seen how
many concessions David Cameron,
safely back at 10 Downing Street, can
wring out of Brussels. He has promised
an in/out referendum on EU member-
ship by 2017. If Brussels is unrespon-
sive on renegotiation, Brexit may be
in the cards.
The second project also has a
European, although not an EU, dimen-
sion. The Conservatives pledged to
replace the Human Rights Act (HRA)
of 1998, which incorporated the
European Convention on Human Rights
(ECHR) into British law, with a British
Bill of Rights more closely aligned
with classical liberal British values, as
articulated in the common law. There
has been some consternation at this on
the Continent, as the ECHR was origi-
nally drafted by British lawyers to bring
a dose of liberalism to war-ravaged
nations shaking off fascism.
However, the conventions lan-
guage emphasizes positive rights
rather than Anglo-American-style
negative rights. Its application in
overwhelmingly civil law jurisdictions
has caused some tension with the
British constitution and its doctrine of
Parliamentary sovereignty. A British
Bill of Rights could well involve more
negative rights and be more closely
aligned with the common lawan
overall win for liberty.
Of course, its not as simple as
that. Repealing the Human Rights Act
would possibly require the UK leav-
ing the convention, along with the
European Court of Human Rights,
which would be seen as a very drastic
Support I, Whiskey on Indiegogo
Campaign launching Monday, July 13th
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C E I . O R G 5
step. Moreover, laws that devolved
certain powers to Scotland, Wales,
and Northern Ireland also contain
references to human rights that compli-
cate matters considerably. The Scottish
Parliament could refuse to accept an
English Bill of Rights. And scrapping
the HRA could be seen as a breach
of the Good Friday Agreement that
secured peace in Northern Ireland.
Thankfully, Cameron has appointed
two of his cleverest MPs, Michael
Gove and Dominic Raab, to oversee
the process at the Justice Department.
Other good news involves the
appointment of a fiercely free-market
business secretary, Sajid Javed, who
is likely to make deregulation a top
priority. Regulation of the press, which
was seriously threatened after the
Leveson inquiry into the hacking of
celebrities phones, now appears to
be off the table.
On the other hand, Home Secretary
Theresa May has hinted at an expan-
sion of the security services surveil-
lance powers. The spy agency GCHQ
(the innocuously named Government
Communications Head Quarters)
could become as infamous as the NSA
if she follows through.
All told, the British election result
was moderately good news for liberty,
and certainly not the calamity it could
have been. So thank a shy Tory
today.
Iain Murray (iain.murray@cei.org) is Vice
President for Strategy at CEI. A version
of this article originally appeared in The
Freeman.
 Were All Greeks Now
BY BILL FREZZA
T he Greek drama has entered its
final act, afterlingering on far
too long. There was never any doubt
Greece couldnt repay its sovereign
debts. Debts that, until now, were
counted as assets on the books of its
lenders. Living by the motto,In Central
Planners We Trust, the Greeks forgot
to ask, What could go wrong?
Theyand the worldare about to
find out.
Calls for debt relief that began in
Greece are arising across Europea
debt jubilee, if you will. Since debtors
always outnumber creditors, debt
jubilees can become overwhelmingly
popular when times get tough.
But debt relief is always and
everywhere matched by asset destruc-
tion. One can argue the assets were
already destroyed, so debt relief
merely forces lenders to acknowledge
reality. Cry them no tears. In a just
world creditors who insist on lend-
ing to dubious borrowers deserve to
taste the discipline of loss. But when
governments use toxic bonds on bank
balance sheets to magicallymanu-
facture money, the evaporation of
those underlying assets has secondary
consequences.
When default or debt relief strikes
it makes no difference whichthe
pyramid of manufactured money must
either shrink or the impaired assets
must be replaced. (For example, if you
write off all Greek debt, theEuropean
Central Bank has negative equity.) If
panicked fear of deflation causes these
impaired assets to be replaced with
freshly minted fiat money, a vicious
circle arises that eventually causes
money to lose its value.
We call this hyperinflation, a
process that is well underway even if
6 CEI.ORG
its not yet reflected in consumer infla-
tion indices. But in time it must be, and
many who thought they were saving for
the future will ultimately learn that their
money was funneled to deadbeats.
The freshly impoverished will then be
forced to join the growing line of said
deadbeats seeking handouts. This can
only exacerbate the demographic time
bomb that would be threatening aging
democracies anyway, even if central
planners hadnt embarked on a fit of
monetary madness.
This is where totalitarianism enters
the picture.
Large scale institutionalized cor-
ruption is only sustainable under a
totalitarian political system. It requires a
ruthless elite, an extensive bureaucracy
deployed to do their will, a monopoly
on violence to crush opposition, and
just enough meritocratic social mobil-
ity to quell thoughts of revolt by the
masses. The Ottomans may hold the
record, making it work for six centuries,
but they were hardly alone.
But the Ottomans did not have to
deal with the specter now haunting the
European Union, starting with Greece.
I am speaking of a global financial
market warped beyond recognition
by easy-money government policies
that punish thrift and distort millions,
even billions, of individual investment
decisions. Think of it not as a powerful
dragon but as an enormous swarm of
bees that can surmount any wall, seep
through the cracks of any barrier,
penetrate any inner sanctum, and shift
directions at a moments notice. When
placid, the bees can be very produc-
tive. When alarmed or angry, watch
out. In time, that swarm will consume
the other European debtor nations
before crossing the Atlantic to reach
our shores.
When the global monetary system
unraveled in the 1930s, precipitated
by the collapse of stock markets
inflated by leveraged speculation, it
led to fascism in Europe and a U.S.
experiment in socialism called the
New Deal that turned what could
have been a short recession into a
15-year depression. And, oh, there
was that war unpleasantness. From
this experience in failed economic
intervention we have apparently
learned nothing.
Eight years ago a pyramid of easy
money inflated a mortgage bubble
that nearly melted down the world
financial system when it burst. Bailouts,
phony accounting, and even more
frantic money printing coupled with
artificially suppressed interested rates
created a thin illusion of recovery. This
inflated another asset bubble in stocks,
real estate, art, and other alternatives
to productive investments. Meanwhile,
profligate governments went on a bor-
rowing binge in thrall to the siren song
of Keynesian demand stimulation.
None of this worked. The entire
house of cards is now being threat-
ened by an ugly return to reality.
Today its Greece. What comes
tomorrow is anybodys guess. But
Greece should come as a warning,
with a government led by an unwieldy
coalition of far left and far right parties
whose regard for the rule of law and
economic freedom is tenuous at best.
The lesson for the rest of us is clear:
If the market is not allowed to admin-
ister its bitter medicine to one and all,
writing off bad sovereign debts, liqui-
dating malinvestments, and rationaliz-
ing prices and wages, and instead the
worlds democracies insist on maintain-
ing the illusion of prosperity, they wont
remain democracies for long.
Bill Frezza (bill.frezza@cei.org) is a
fellow at CEI and the host of RealClear
Radio Hour. A version of this article
originally appeared inthe Daily Caller.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 A Federal Online Gambling Ban
Would Trample State Sovereignty
BY MICHELLE MINTON
S ince the early days of the Republic,
regulation of gambling has largely
been reserved for the states. However,
Congress is considering legislation that
would overturn state laws pertaining
to gambling within their borders and
create a federal ban, preventing states
from legalizing online gambling in the
future. They claim it is to protect minors,
those with addictions, and states that
do not want online gambling avail-
able to their citizens. This measure will
achieve none of those goals. Rather,
it will undermine federalism and drive
problem gambling underground.
Proponents of the Restoration of
Americas Wire Act (RAWA, H.R.
707) argue that the Department of
Justice (DOJ) opened the floodgates
for online gambling in 2011, when
it unilaterally reinterpreted the 1961
Wire Act to apply only to online bet-
ting on sports. Yet, the case for H.R.
707 is based on a misleading reading
of history.
The 1961 Wire Act was understood
by Congress and the Department of
Justice as a narrowly focused law
targeting the Mafias telephone-run
sports gambling racket. It wasnt until
the late 1990s and early 2000s that
the DOJ interpreted the Wire Act to
apply to all gambling on the Internet
with no justification for it to broaden
its scope in this way. In fact, it was the
DOJs 2011 memo that restored the
Wire Act to its original meaning.
H.R. 707 is not only legally dubi-
ous; it is bad policy. A federal prohibi-
tion on Internet gambling would harm
individuals and states in various ways.
Online gambling in America took
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
off with the increase in Internet usage
in the 1990s and became a multi-
billion-dollar business long before
2011. By 1997 consumers had spent
an estimated $1 billion worldwide on
net gambling, with around 60 percent
coming from the U.S. Between 2003
and 2010 Americans spent $30 bil-
lion gambling on foreign-owned and
-operated gambling sites. A prohibition
would simply push Americans back
into this black market.
Today, 85 nations and three U.S.
states have legal online gambling and
regulate it in a way that protects their
citizens from crime and holds operators
accountable. In the three U.S. states
with online casino gamesDelaware,
Nevada, and New Jerseythere have
been no known cases of an unauthor-
ized individual gaining access to the
sites. Website operators can confirm
an individuals identity by asking for
a Social Security number, utility bill,
state-issued ID, or credit history infor-
mation. Likewise, they can pinpoint
a players location through use of
IP, GPS, and carrier data, as well as
Wi-Fi triangulation.
Compare these security measures
at brick-and-mortar casinosa simple
visual scan of a persons ID. Moreover,
websites licensed to operate within the
U.S. have an incentive to comply with
U.S. laws lest they face fines or loss of
their license to operate.
The fear that legal online gambling
will increase pathological gambling
rates is understandable, but ground-
less. Despite unprecedented increases
in the availability of gambling options,
the prevalence of pathological gam-
bling has remained relatively stable
or declined during the last 35 years,
according to Harvard addiction expert
C E I . O R G 7
Howard J. Shaffer. Additionally,
Harvard studies have shown that
online gambling is no more addict-
ing than betting at brick-and-mortar
casinos. In fact, online gambling sites
may be better equipped to identify and
address patterns of problem gambling
by using software that tracks player
behavior.
Some, such as Texas Governor
Rick Perry, argue that the Internet is a
stateless territory, transcending state
boundaries and that states cannot
control this form of online commerce.
That raises a worrying precedent
RAWA would set. If all online com-
merce is interstate, then Congress
would have the right to intervene in
any form of online commerce. Today
it is Internet gambling; tomorrow a
lawmaker may take issue with online
sales of ammunition, tobacco, or
certain foods and beverages seen as
harmful.
So long as an activity does not
violate the rights of another person, no
government should prohibit adults from
voluntarily participating in it. While
some Members of Congress may have
a moral objection to gambling, it is
neither the Congresss responsibility
nor its right to legislate morality. When
the residents of several states decide
that legal online gambling should be
legal within their borders and their
state representatives enact legislation
to allow this, federal officials should
not overturn those democratically
enacted laws.
Michelle Minton (michelle.minton@cei.
org) is a Fellow at CEI. A version of this
article originally appeared in Human
Events.
 Saving the Bees
vs. Pork Barrel Spending
BY ANGELA LOGOMASINI
I n May, the Obama administra-
tion finally released its National
Strategy to Promote the Health of
Honey Bees and Other Pollinators.
Its the federal governments answer to
all the hype found in the news related
to the health of the nations honey-
bee hives. While its not clear what it
will achieve for the bees, we can be
sure it comes with lots of pork-barrel
spending, government handouts, and
shortsighted pesticide polices that
undermine food production.
Much of the hype on this issue is
misinformed. Instead, solutions will
only come from private collaboration
between various partiesprimarily
beekeepers and farmers. The federal
government is the last entity that will be
able to save the honeybee.
Nonetheless, the report outlines sev-
eral goals for its program, some border-
ing on the ridiculous. For example one
key goal is: Reduce honey bee colony
losses during winter (overwintering
8 CEI.ORG
mortality) to no more than 15 per-
cent within 10 years.
Seriously? Federal officials are There is no good
going to determine how many
beehives should survive each year evidence that these
and what survival rate is sufficient?
This only sets the stage for news
products have any
hype every year losses exceed this impact on honeybees
government set arbitrary number.
In fact, many surveys of beekeep- in real-life settings, and
ers have indicated that a much
higher rate is acceptable, closer there is considerable
to 20 percent a year. Moreover,
survival rates will ebb and flow
evidence that
based on myriad factors over
which government, and even
neonicotinoids have
beekeepers, have no control, such both agricultural and
as weather and the emergence of
new and old diseases. environmental benefits.
The federal government has
also decided how many butterflies
we should have. Among its goals to improve 7 million acres of land to
is to increase the Monarch butterfly make it more pollinator-friendly.
population to 225 million butterflies The report lists out a host of action
that live on 15 acres in Mexico over items to achieve these goals, including
the winter, and they seek to achieve spending more than $80 million on
that through international collabora- education and habitat development for
tion. In addition, the feds promise pollinators. Education will mean more
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 government posters and programs, all
paid for with your tax dollars. Some of
it may contain good information, some
probably will amount to no more than
anti-pesticide propaganda, and much
of it may include just the right amount
of alarmism to ensure bigger and
bigger allocations of your tax dollars
to address this crisis.
Part of the funds may go to gov-
ernment gardening, such as the much
touted White House Pollinator Garden,
and funding for Peoples Gardens
around the nation that include only
politically correct native plants.
Never mind that honeybees are not
native to the United States. While its
great for First Family photo-ops, its not
clear why this is a linchpin in federal
pollinator strategy.
That said, I cant say I am upset
that the government will plant polli-
nator-friendly flowers on government
lands. But why cant they shift funds
from existing landscape budgets
to do that? Perhaps they need so
much money because theyd like to
expand government land holdings.
Specifically, the report says: FWS
will acquire more than 46,000 acres
of land in the Midwest and Mountain
Prairie Regions, which, although
primarily aimed at protecting prior-
ity bird habitats, will have secondary
benefits for monarchs and other pol-
linators. This surely isnt good, given
the fact that the government already
Learn more at RealClearRadio.org.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
owns an estimated one-third of the
nation if not more and federal land
management is poor.
There will be lots of pork-barrel
spending in this strategy as well. For
example, the strategy includes provid-
ing emergency financial assistance
to beekeepers who experience hive
losses that are in excess of normal
mortality over the winter because of
Colony Collapse Disorder or other
natural causes. Now that the strat-
egy defines normal hive losses as 15
percent, there may be a whole lot of
beekeepers who qualify for these gov-
ernment handouts. Since emergency
spending always seems to go beyond
existing budgets, these handouts may
increase the programs cost beyond the
$80 million. And ironically, this spend-
ing may well reward the beekeepers
who do the worst job managing their
hives, since funds will to flow to bee-
keepers with the highest losses.
But the biggest defect with this strat-
egy is that it directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to hold off
on registering new uses of a class
of pesticides called neonicotinoids,
and the EPA may also use bees as an
excuse to limit existing uses. There is
no good evidence that these products
have any impact on honeybees in
real-life settings, and there is consider-
able evidence that neonicotinoids have
both agricultural and environmental
benefits. Neonicotinoids are among
C E I . O R G 9
the least environmentally damaging
pesticides on the market, because they
are applied to seeds and dont require
spraying.
And if farmers are forced, they will
resort to potentially more damaging
pesticides, unless the EPA regulates
those products out of existence as
well. If federal policy limits pesticide
use enough to undermine agricultural
productivity, farmers will need to plant
more land to produce food, leaving less
land available for pollinators and other
species. This anti-technology approach
is a no-win for humans or wildlife.
Finally, the strategy neglects to
consider reforming federal policies
that undermine wildlife habitat, in
particular, federal ethanol subsidies
and mandates that encourage over-
planting of corn, which has little value
to pollinators and means there is less
land for other crops and for wildlife.
Cleaning up the federal govern-
ments act should have been priority
No. 1, but thats not as much fun as
spending $80 million on everything
from a White House Pollinator Garden
to government handouts for beekeep-
ers who should be ultimately respon-
sible for their own hives.
Angela Logomasini (angela.logoma-
sini@cei.org) is a Senior Fellow at CEI. A
version of this article originally appeared
at RealClearPolicy.com.
Realclear Radio offers listeners a
fresh perspective on political and
social issues of the day through
informative interviews and dis-
cussions. Brought to you by the
Competitive Enterprise Institute
and RealClearPolitics, and hosted
by CEI Fellow Bill Frezza.
 CEI President Lawson
Bader Takes the Fight for
Liberty to Europe
On April 23, CEI President Lawson Bader
spoke in Paris about how and why government
officials stand in the way of economic progress.
He was joined by Josh Gilder, co-founder of
the White House Writers Group, and Barbara
Kolm, president of the Hayek Institute. Bader
traveled with economists, politicians, and local
business leaders as part of the Free Market Road
Showa tour of 35 European cities promoting
a message focused on removing barriers to
economic growth and entrepreneurship.

CEIs Trey Kovacs Promotes

Worker Freedom in Missouri
On April 29, 2015, CEI Policy Analyst Trey
Kovacs spoke at the Missouri Capitol in the
House Speakers Lounge. He discussed Missouris
pending right to work legislation and his report
on taxpayer subsidies to government unions that
violate the state constitution. He was joined by
Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder and
Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison, the sponsor of the right
to work bill in the House.

Lawson Bader: Free the

Nations Infrastructure
The Airports Council International-North
America (ACI-NA) and the Beyond
the Runway coalition hosted a panel
in Washington, D.C., on Americas
aviation system during Infrastructure
Week on May 14. CEI President Lawson
Bader joined ACI-NA President and
CEO Kevin M. Burke, American Road
and Transportation Builders Association
President and CEO Peter Ruane, and
Airport Consultants Council President T.J.
Schultz to discuss policy priorities for the
forthcoming FAA reauthorization.

10 CEI.ORG COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

 CEIs Iain Murray Analyzes
the UK after the Election
The Cato Institute held a panel on May 20 to
discuss the prospects for liberty in the UK after the
recent British elections. Vice President for Strategy
Iain Murray spoke on the panel alongside Mark
Littlewood, Director General of the Institute of
Economic Affairs and Catos Tom Clougherty.
Murrays presentation focused on the likely
deregulatory reforms for business proposed by
new Business Secretary Sajid Javid, and contrasted
those with likely heavy-handed interventionism in
other areas such as transportation infrastructure.

CEI at Resource Bank

During May 6-8, 2015, CEIs Lawson Bader, Myron Ebell, and Ryan Radia shared their policy insights with allies from
around the nation at the Heritage Foundations Resource Bank conference in Bellevue, Washington.

CEIs Marc Scribner

Debates Streetcars at
National Press Club
On June 16, CEI Fellow Marc Scribner
appeared at a National Press Club
Newsmakers event in Washington, D.C., to
debate Dan Tangherlini, President Obamas
former Administrator of the General Services
Administration and former Director of the
Department of Transportation of the District
of Columbia, on the question, Are Streetcars
Good for America?

COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE C E I . O R G 11

 Obamacare
for your IRA
BY JOHN BERLAU
I s Jonathan Gruber now advising
the Department of Labor (DOL)?
You might remember him as the MIT
economist who seemingly dropped out
of public view after he was caught on
camera bragging about how he and
other Obamacare architects misled the
American public. No evidence indi-
cates that he is, but the authors of DOLs
sweeping new regulations that would
sharply curtail choices of assets and
investment strategies in 401(k)s, IRAs,
and other savings plans appear to have
taken Grubers point about the stupid-
ity of the American voter to heart.
A DOL fact sheet describes the
rule as protecting investors from
backdoor payments and hidden fees in
retirement investment advice. The sinis-
ter-sounding backdoor payments
actually refers to a longstanding
practice of compensation to brokers
from mutual funds and annuities. This
practice is disclosed to investors and
enables brokers to charge them less
because of the additional compensa-
tion brokers receive.
Yet upon further reading, the DOL
rule seems premised on the Gruberite
notion that American investors need
protection from their own stupidity.
According to page 4 of the rule:
[I]ndividual retirement investors
have much greater responsibility
for directing their own investments,
but they seldom have the training or
specialized expertise necessary to
prudently manage retirement assets
on their own.
Therefore, they need guidance
on how to manage their savings to
achieve a secure retirement.
Cant savers who feel they need
this guidance seek it out from a variety
12 CEI.ORG
of investment profes-
sionals under a system
with strong disclosure
and anti-fraud rules?
Absolutely not, says the
Obama administration.
Disclosure alone
has proven ineffective,
states the rule. Most
consumers generally
cannot distinguish good
advice, or even good
investment results, from
bad (page 36). In fact, proclaims
the DOL, recent research suggests
that even if disclosure about conflicts
could be made simple and clear, it
would be ineffectiveor even harm-
ful. So, in the administrations view, fiduciary to managers of defined-
the only solution is to tax these dim-
witted investorsfor their own good,
of courseand expose financial
professionals to a flurry of lawsuits
and penalties if administration officials
deem their advice not to be in savers
best interests.
Besides being unnecessary and
intrusive, the rule is legally dubious
and a major case of Executive Branch
overreach. At Obamas direction, the
DOL is massively stretching its limited
authority over pensions under the
Employee Retirement Income Security
Act (ERISA) of 1974 to bypass the
Securities and Exchange Commission,
which has primary jurisdiction over
investments, in an effort to reshape the
retirement-savings industry.
The Labor Department claims
authority by reclassifying a broad
swath of investment professionals
as fiduciaries with a government-
imposed best interest standard,
which subjects them to heavy penal-
ties and lawsuits if the DOL or a court
determines that they deviated from this
standard. This is true even for financial
professionals whose clients manage
their own 401(k) portfolios or hold self-
directed IRAs.
In the 40 years since ERISA was
first enacted, DOL regulations have for
the most part strictly applied the term
benefit plans and those who provided
individualized investment advice on a
regular basis, such as registered invest-
ment advisers. Under the new rule,
financial professionals who provide
even one-time guidance or appraisal
of investments could find themselves
classified as fiduciaries. Because
most of the exemptions in the new rule
are vaguely written, the rule could
enable cronyism for certain types of
financial-service providers and com-
panies offering investments.
This means investment profes-
sionals dealing with 401(k)s, IRAs,
HSAs, and Coverdell accounts (the
DOL rule claims jurisdiction over the
last two under the rationale that they
are subsets of IRAs and pensions) will
have to either look to the government
for permission to offer certain types of
investments or get out of the business
altogether. A study by the consulting
firm Oliver Wyman and the Securities
Industry and Financial Markets
Association concluded that 12 mil-
lion to 17 million investors could lose
access to their current service providers
under a similar fiduciary mandate.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

At Obamas direction,
the DOL is massively
stretching its limited
authority over pensions
under the Employee
Retirement Income
Security Act (ERISA)
of 1974 to bypass the
Securities and Exchange
Commission, which has
primary jurisdiction over
investments, in an effort
to reshape the retirement-
savings industry.
American Action Forum analysts
Sam Batkins and Andy Winkler argue,
This sea change in the law would
force all brokers to move to the more
expensive Registered Investment
Adviser role or charge their clients
more money.
Noting that the DOL estimates that
the regulation could cost $5.7 billion
over 10 years, Batkins and Winkler
write that the proposal easily quali-
fies as both economically significant
and major, and therefore should be
subject to heightened scrutiny. Instead,
the Obama administration is truncating
the comment period from the normal
For the latest on energy and environment policy, visit
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
90 daysand longer for a
rule having this large an eco-
nomic impactto just 75 from
the issuing of the rule. The
deadline for public comments
for this liberty-stealing rule
is, ironically, the first business
day after July 4.
The new rule is essentially a
rehash of a previous proposed
regulation that proved highly
unpopular. That measure
was withdrawn in 2011 after
massive bipartisan opposi-
tionincluding from Vermonts
self-proclaimed socialist
Senator Bernie Sanders,
who protested that it was too
restrictive on his states busi-
nesses that offered employee-
sponsored ownership plans
(ESOPs). ESOPs are exempt
from the new version, but pretty
much every other mandate
is intact, and some new ones
have been added.
As with the 2011 rule, the
new regulation would also
make it extremely difficult for owners
of IRAs to hold specific nontraditional
investments. Many self-directed IRAs
contain, by the individual investors
design, everything from precious
metals such as gold and silver to
peer-to-peer loans from platforms like
Prosper and Lending Club. Whether
inclusion of these alternative assets is a
good investment strategy is a matter of
opinion, but it should be a choice for
the investor to make.
The Retirement Industry Trust
Association, a trade group for custo-
dians of self-directed IRAs, warned in
C E I . O R G 13
2011 that imposing a fiduciary stan-
dard on IRA service providers would
result in higher costs and potentially
fewer service providers to self-directed
IRAs, which in turn, could result in
fewer investment choices. And the
new rule is full of phrases such as gen-
erally accepted investment strategies
that could cause heightened liability
for those who assist investors in buying
nontraditional assets for their IRAs.
Even if an investor could find such
a service provider willing to take this
heightened risk, that investor could
face a tax on investments deemed
not to be in his or her best interest.
The DOL fact sheet, under a section
entitled Strengthening Enforcement of
Consumer Protections, explains that to
protect consumers, the IRS can impose
an excise tax on transactions based on
conflicted advice and can require
correction of such transactions involv-
ing plan sponsors, plan participants
and beneficiaries, and IRA owners.
We should learn from Grubers
other admonition that lack of transpar-
ency is a huge political advantage.
Sunshine, conversely, is the best politi-
cal disinfectant. Those who do not wish
to be subjected to the financial equiva-
lent of Obamacare for their 401(k)s,
IRAs, and other savings plans must do
everything they can to expose the true
paternalistic and redistributive agendas
behind the DOLs fiduciary rule.
John Berlau (john.berlau@cei.org) is a
Senior Fellow at CEI. A version of this
article originally appeared in National
Review.
 THE
GOOD
Second Circuit
Strikes Down NSA
Bulk, Warrantless
Surveillance Program
On May 7, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit
struck down the National Security
Administrations (NSA) domestic tele-
phone surveillance program, which
for years had collected millions of
Americans phone records. The Court
ruled the NSA program was illegal
because it exceeds the scope of
congressional authorization. CEI
Vice President for Policy Wayne
Crews applauded the ruling, saying,
This ruling affirms the wisdom of the
citizenrys watching and regulating
secret government activities rather
than passively being the target of
such. The federal government clearly
expects us to give up our liberties for
its centralized vision of our security,
when there are less brittle and inva-
sive alternatives. Worse is when we
give up our liberties to an unaccount-
able government whose very phi-
losophy and approach undermines
genuine security and cybersecurity.
14 CEI.ORG
THE
BAD
CEI Report: Amount
of Missouri Union
Subsidies Unknown to
the Public
A March report from CEI reveals an
appalling lack of transparency in
how Missouris government agencies
account for taxpayer dollars going
to labor union coffers. Public records
requests made by CEI aimed to find
out how much Missouri taxpayers
were paying for union release time,
a practice that allows public employ-
ees to conduct union business during
work time without loss of pay. But only
a small minority of Missouri govern-
ment agencies provided satisfactory
responses to CEIs requests. At a time
when taxpayer dollars are stretched
thin in Missouri and other states,
the government should stop fund-
ing activities that only serve special
interests and do not advance a public
purpose, said CEI Policy Analyst Trey
Kovacs, who authored the report and
filed the public records requests.
THE
UGLY
National Research
Council Blasts FAA on
NextGen Delays
In late April, the National Research
Council published a comprehen-
sive review of the Federal Aviation
Administrations (FAA) bungled rollout
of the multi-billion dollar update of
the nations air traffic control system,
known as NextGen. In the lengthy
report, the authors harshly criticized
the FAA for its incompetence, noting
that, among other issues, Not all
parts of the original vision will be
achieved in the foreseeable future,
NextGen, as currently executed, is
not broadly transformational, and
NextGen has become a misnomer.
CEI Fellow Marc Scribner called the
report a wake-up call for Congress,
urging lawmakers to remove air traffic
control responsibilities from the FAA in
the forthcoming reauthorization due
this fall. CEI supports the creation
of a non-governmental, nonprofit air
navigation service provider, said
Scribner. This would be similar to
NavCanada, which we believe would
speed the deployment of new tech-
nologies, improve service and safety,
and reduce costs.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
 MediaMENTIONS
The New York theatre maga-
zine Playbill quotes CEI Fellow
Marc Scribner on the legislative
problem facing Times Squares
billboards:
The Washington Post reported,
The threat to Times Squares bill-
boards is not the fault of the Obama
administration or Transportation
Department bureaucrats and quoted
Marc Scribner of the politically conser-
vative Competitive Enterprise Institute
as saying the move is a classic exam-
ple of Congress passing stupid laws,
ordering regulators to implement them
stupidly, and then forgetting about
them until unintended consequences
spring up down the line.
Scribner pinned down the law as
the surface transportation reauthoriza-
tion (MAP-21 Act of 2012), Section
1104, which added arterial roads
such as those that pass through Times
Square as part of an enhanced
National Highway System that is
subject to the Highway Beautification
Act of 1965. That act imposes federal
restrictions on outdoor advertise-
ments within 660 feet of the National
Highway System.
MAY 7,
Playbill
CEI Vice President Wayne Crews
is quoted in Fortune on Verizons
AOL buyout:
This is a positioning deal, to pro-
vide ad-serving to the mobile video
sectors, says Clyde Wayne Crews,
Jr., vice president for policy and
director of technology studies at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute. TV is
said to be on the way out, but at the
same time TV drama is in a golden
age because of the different methods
of delivery. This includes the mobile
handset. This deal makes sense as it
puts Verizon in a commanding role to
deliver content on handsets and reap
the rewards from the advertising.
MAY 13,
Fortune
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
The Washington Post quotes
CEIs Hans Bader on President
Obamas misleading statements
on the Lilly Ledbetter Act:
Hans Bader, an attorney at the right-
leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute,
wrote to The Fact Checker questioning
this statement by the president. He said
it was misleading because Ledbetter
admitted in her deposition that she knew
of the pay disparity years earlier, and
the Supreme Court specifically said in
footnote 10 of its decision that the result
might have been different under the dis-
covery rule if she hadnt learned of it in
time to sue.
Bader further expanded on his case
in a blog post. He had written often
about this issue, including in a letter to
The Washington Post.
MAY 14,
The Washington Post
Peter Roff cites CEI Vice President
Wayne Crewss work on the cost
of regulation inU.S. News &
World Report:
These costs are not insignificant.
As the Competitive Enterprise Institute
documents in the latest edition of
its annual report Ten Thousand
Commandments, the so-called hidden
tax imposed by the regulatory state
has reached $1.88 trillion.
Federal environmental, safety
and health, and economic regulations
affect the economy by hundreds of
billions of dollars annually, wrote the
reports author, Competitive Enterprise
Institute Vice President Clyde Wayne
Crews, Jr. Regulatory compliance
costs borne by businesses will find their
way into the prices that consumers
pay, affect the wages workers earn,
and lead to lower levels of growth and
prosperity.
MAY 16,
U.S. News and World Report
C E I . O R G 15
CEI Senior Fellow
Marlo Lewis
discusses bio-
fuel blending at
Bloomberg:
This proposal
today is a stopgap
measure, Marlo
Lewis, a senior fellow
at the Competitive
Enterprise Institute, told reporters May
29. It will probably leave us within the
blend wall for another couple of years,
but the blend wall will loom large again
in 2017 and 2018, and EPA doesnt
have a solution for that. Its just post-
poned the day of reckoning.
MAY 29,
Bloomberg
The Washington Times quotes
CEI Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith
on the Trans-Pacific Partnership
negotiations:
Some analystssay the administra-
tions stature on the world stage is
hanging in the balance. Negotiations
on sticking points of the sprawling
Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed
free trade pact with 11 other Pacific Rim
nations including Japan and Australia,
have slowed while the potential trad-
ing partners wait to see whetherMr.
Obamawill have theauthorityto
conclude the agreement without major
changes byCongress.
IfTPAstays in limbo, it means that
ongoing trade negotiations will become
much more difficult, said Frances B.
Smith, an analyston trade issues at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute. How
can countries negotiate in good faith
with the U.S. when they know the specif-
ics of their agreements can be pulled
apart and dealt with separately rather
than as a whole?
JUNE 14,
The Washington Times

...END NOTES
Feds: Puerto Ricans Disabled Because They Speak
Spanishin Puerto Rico
In April, the Office of Inspector General for the Social
Security Administration (SSA) issued an audit report that
found the SSA had approved hundreds of disability requests
for Puerto Ricans because they didnt speak fluent English.
The rules SSA relied upon were intended to grant disability
status to illiterate Americans. The government of Puerto Rico,
and most commercial ventures, conduct the vast majority
of business in Spanish. SSA managers at various disability
decision levels stated Social Security is a national program,
and the grids must be applied to the national economy,
regardless of local conditions, the audit said. Spanish is
spoken by 95 percent of Puerto Ricans. We found the
Agency did not make exceptions regarding the English-
language grid rules for claimants who reside in Puerto Rico,
even though Spanish is the predominant language spoken in
the local economy, the OIG said.
Burnt Food Evacuates Iowa CapitolTwice
In late April, the Iowa Capitol was evacuated after a
staffer burned macaroni and cheese in a microwave near
the Senate chamber. The incident occurred at around 11am,
according to the Associated Press, and the evacuation order
was soon lifted. But just three weeks later, the Capitol was
again evacuated after cafeteria smoke alarms were set off
by burning food. The culprit in the second incident was a
pizza crust. In both cases, there were no injuries or property
damage. The Iowa Department of Administrative Services is
reportedly investigating Capitol Building cooking practices.
16 CEI.ORG
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit 425
Southern MD
Toyota Prius Batteries Good for the Planet, Great
for Thieves
In May, a San Francisco TV station reported on a rash
of battery thefts from Toyota Prius vehicles. According to
the investigation, thieves are able to remove the batteries
in approximately 20 minutes. The batteries, which gener-
ally retail for $2,500, are then often sold on Craigslist
for approximately $1,000. Reporters found that thieves
smashed the cars windows, cut through the connecting
wires, and then pulled out the 150-pound battery pack.
Technology news website Ars Technica recommended that
if youre a Prius owner who wants to mitigate against theft,
you should replace the batterys existing 12mm bolts with
tamper-proof bolts. Presumably that wont stop the thieves
from first smashing your windows and damaging your
upholstery, only to find out the battery cant be removed,
however.
Colorado School Seizes Cookies from Parent-
Packed Lunches
A school in the Denver, Colorado, suburb of Aurora
gave a preschooler a rude lunch surprise. When preschooler
Natalee Pearson arrived home from school one day, she
told her mother that the cookies she had packed for dessert
were deemed unacceptable by school officials. Instead, she
handed her mother Leeza a note from the school stating that
only healthy snacks were permitted on premises. Natalees
mother was disturbed by the intervention and insult, telling
reporters that officials had taken their zealousness too far.
Aurora Public Schools officials released a statement saying
that Natalee had received a healthy alternative after her
cookies had been seized.
COMPETIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE