An article on the individual mandate written by ATR’s Ben Wilterdink is featured at Forbes.com.  “Great stuff from Ben Wilterdink at the Washington Examiner on whether or not PPACA’s individual mandate is a tax: On one hand, President Obama said that he would not raise “any form of taxes” on anyone making less than $250,000 a year and almost everyone agrees that this “tax penalty” is indeed a tax… On the other hand however, since the passing of the bill, numerous states have sued the federal government claiming that it is unconstitutional for the government to force citizens to purchase health insurance.”

From The Christian Science Monitor “Ronald Reagan: How possible GOP presidential candidates measure up”. Current GOP contenders are compared to the revered president.  “When moderator Grover Norquist asked the five candidates seeking the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee to name their hero in a debate last month, he issued one restriction: someone other than Ronald Reagan…So in this year of Reagan nostalgia, a competition to assume the mantle of the Republican icon – a “Reagan primary” of sorts – could break out among the Republicans jockeying (or thinking of jockeying) for their party’s 2012 presidential nomination.”

“Oregon state legislature pushes shopping bag ban at start of 2011 session” by Matthew Boyle with The Daily Caller.  “The proposal has at least a fighting shot of making it into law, according to Patrick Gleason, the director of state affairs for ATR. The Oregon House of Representatives is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and the state Senate has a slight Democratic majority. Gleason told The Daily Caller that ATR is taking this legislation seriously enough to send a representative to Oregon to testify before the state Senate hearing. ‘People buy less goods when there’s a tax on the bags, and they’ll avoid the tax,’ Gleason said in a phone interview. ‘They force people to use reusable bags and force people to purchase reusable bags.’”