David Ditch retweeted
Health economist Dana Goldman “couldn’t foresee” that Congress would gut the ACA’s cost controls, and now regrets his support. Cato’s @mfcannon repeatedly predicted exactly that ever since 2009, and praised Goldman’s courageous mea culpa.
ow.ly/yubw5101sfr
ow.ly/yubw5101sfr
1
4
12
2,625
@AlecStapp A project in planning since 2008 that won’t be completed in the 2030s. Surely this is a severe outlier.
x.com/grok/status/20…
x.com/grok/status/20…
The California high-speed rail project, approved in 2008 with an original Phase 1 cost of ~$33B and initial segment completion by 2020, now estimates $128B+ for Phase 1. The initial Merced-Bakersfield segment is targeted for 2031-2033, over a decade late, with costs for that part alone up from $6B to $36B. Progress includes 119 miles under construction as of late 2025.
0
0
3
198
@christianbrits Have you considered that housing is a human right and landlords are wreckers and kulaks.
0
0
2
57
@ismurray Astounding that he outlived JJ Abrams Trek's Chekov (Anton Yelchin, 1989-2016) by a full decade.
0
0
1
51
David Ditch retweeted
Great charts in this new @PostOpinions piece on the relationship between permitting, housing construction, and rents.
Tl;dr: the longer THEY take, the more YOU pay. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…
Tl;dr: the longer THEY take, the more YOU pay. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…
0
3
8
2,800
OBBBA's Medicaid reforms were imminently reasonable and undoing them would be a huge blow to fiscal responsibility.
To meet those horrendous Medi-Cal work requirements being imposed by the "One Big Ugly Bill", beneficiaries will have to work no more than 34 hours in one month out of any six. They can also study, train, volunteer, or lie about doing so. californiapolicycenter.org/the-fuzzy-math…
0
0
4
247
David Ditch retweeted
The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) has evolved from a tool to simply cut and track checks for farm bill programs to a source of nearly unrestrained administrative power. With more than $40 trillion in debt, taxpayers can no longer afford it. taxpayer.net/agriculture/th…
0
1
0
151
I vividly recall criticism of the F-35 when I was a fresh-faced hill staffer in 2013. Some things never change.
With what’s happening in Ukraine, this 2016 (!) piece remains pertinent: cato.org/commentary/era…
With what’s happening in Ukraine, this 2016 (!) piece remains pertinent: cato.org/commentary/era…
0
0
0
274
David Ditch retweeted
Switzerland succeeds despite its wealth tax, not because of it. Its government spends less, and low taxes on investment offset the wealth tax’s damage. The lesson for the United States is to spend and tax less, writes Cato’s @adamnmichel.
ow.ly/YTcR5100i4b
ow.ly/YTcR5100i4b
4
27
83
3,680
David Ditch retweeted
New @UChicago study: a federal ultraprocessed food labeling mandate would cost more than $14B annually, which would largely be recovered through (surprise) higher grocery bills.
2
26
110
2,803
David Ditch retweeted
Except it’s not.
Social Security is NOT mandatory retirement savings.
It’s a welfare program with expansive eligibility.
It has a progressive benefit calc and a means-testing tax part, and still transfers too much money from younger working families to wealthier retirees.
Social Security is NOT mandatory retirement savings.
It’s a welfare program with expansive eligibility.
It has a progressive benefit calc and a means-testing tax part, and still transfers too much money from younger working families to wealthier retirees.
Social Security is not a means-tested welfare program. It's a poorly operated mandatory retirement savings plan. The government confiscates part of every paycheck you get, but promises to deliver income once you retire. The government must absolutely keep that promise.
6
6
16
873
First place AZ only scored 70.8%. Drops below 50% at 28th place (WY), plunges to 31.9% for NY and 29.2% for HI. Lots of room for improvement at the state level.
Blue states can be a lot more progressive FOR FREE by fixing this: cato.org/freedom-50-sta…
Blue states can be a lot more progressive FOR FREE by fixing this: cato.org/freedom-50-sta…
Where does your state rank? The 2026 edition of "Freedom in the 50 States" measures economic and personal freedom across all 50 states.
Check the rankings at the link: ow.ly/m13K51007Em
0
1
6
2,800
It is worth noting that most of the changes enacted last year are not in effect. However, from the tone of reporting one would think that the program has been eviscerated rather than tweaked at the margins.
Federal Medicaid spending is up 8% from FY 2025 to FY 2026.
@MarcGoldwein, @mfcannon, @larry_levitt - where are the cuts?
issuesinsights.com/2026/10/20/dra…
0
1
1
190
David Ditch retweeted
Social Security's financial problems are usually blamed on demographics: longer lives and fewer children.
But that overlooks another major culprit: unsustainable benefit design.
New piece for the Wharton Pension Research Council blog 🧵
But that overlooks another major culprit: unsustainable benefit design.
New piece for the Wharton Pension Research Council blog 🧵
1
2
3
284
“I would almost compare it to economic bumper bowling,” said David Ditch, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. “A favorable treatment that really no other industry is provided.”
"American farmers don’t need Washington to guarantee them a profit," the Editorial Board writes.
"They need Washington to stop making it harder for them to earn one." wapo.st/4hZGKkE
0
2
6
684
David Ditch retweeted
Who could have possibly predicted this outcome?
Or, is it simply the unstated objective of the national conservatives.
There is an alternative: leave the private sphere of action -- including commerce -- to the private sector. That is what freedom conservatism is about. It is also common sense. #freecon
semafor.com/article/10/21/…
Or, is it simply the unstated objective of the national conservatives.
There is an alternative: leave the private sphere of action -- including commerce -- to the private sector. That is what freedom conservatism is about. It is also common sense. #freecon
semafor.com/article/10/21/…
0
4
7
336
David Ditch retweeted
California hasn't built its bullet train because the state has required 130,000 pages of environmental reports, making absurd demands like:
• counting bumblebees one by one
• rebuilding woodrat stick huts
• hiring specialized dogs to sniff lizard scat
• counting bumblebees one by one
• rebuilding woodrat stick huts
• hiring specialized dogs to sniff lizard scat
615
2,174
19,076
2,383,467
ATTN Congress: lowering the FMAP rate would encourage states to keep an even sharper eye on fraud.
This is quite a press release.
State officials say they believe that *more than 100* social adult day care centers have been defrauding New York Medicaid -- and there are only 418 of these centers in the state.
That's one in four!
0
1
3
249
From a policy perspective, this is some of the lowest hanging fruit available when it comes to deficit reduction. Medicare is heavily subsidized across the income scale, wealthy seniors clearly do not need subsidization, and costs are unfairly placed on current workers.
Last is my contribution, where I pitch a linear reduction in subsidies for high-income seniors on Medicare Part B through IRMAA payments.
hoover.org/research/reduc…
0
0
4
187