Common Sense Weekly
Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.
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New Polling Shows Pennsylvanians Want School Choice
Nationwide, people continue to demand better academic opportunities for students and programs that allow funding to follow the child.
This is especially true in Pennsylvania.
New polling by Ragnar Research Partners found that seven out of ten Pennsylvanians support school choice. Moreover, roughly the same amount also supports Lifeline Scholarships, which would provide low- and middle-income students with the funding they need to attend a school of their choice.
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Medicaid Reform Needed to Eliminate Waste and Fraud
Our national health-care safety net, known as Medicaid, is fundamentally broken. It prioritizes the healthy over the sick and insurers over patients—with little accountability. Finally, Congress is taking notice.
Today, Pennsylvania spends about $44 billion in both federal and state funds on Medicaid—more than one-third of the commonwealth’s operating budget. On the federal level, Medicaid—at over $600 billion annually—sits fourth in spending, trailing Social Security, defense, and Medicare.
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“More Ambitious Than Loyal.” Why Josh Shapiro Was Not Selected to Join the 2024 Presidential Ticket
Did Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro intentionally “tank” his vetting interview for the Vice Presidential slot on the 2024 Democratic ticket alongside Kamala Harris? Was it arrogance? Was it “honesty, not self-sabotage’?
Or was it a question of whether the governor of the most important swing state in the country could be “a loyal Number two”? New details have arisen from the New York Times best-selling book, Fight. Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.
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How to Make Pennsylvania Manufacturing Boom
President Donald Trump and Gov. Josh Shapiro can agree on one thing: Pennsylvania needs a manufacturing boom. Political talk and regulatory action, however, are two different matters entirely. While the president is doing his part to incentivize manufacturing in Pennsylvania, Shapiro has done virtually nothing to eliminate the many barriers standing in the way of new factories and good-paying jobs.
It all comes down to a single word: overregulation. In Washington, Trump is cutting the red tape that handcuffs manufacturers. His administration is repealing ten federal mandates for every new regulation, unleashing affordable energy, and stopping his predecessor’s new regulations estimated to cost our economy $180 billion. By getting bureaucrats out of the way, the president is making it easier for manufacturers to invest in America.
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Bring Domestic Steel Manufacturing Into America’s Golden Age
If there is to be a new Golden Age for American industry and manufacturing, Pennsylvania will play a leading role. In recent years, a new investment opportunity has developed that could have a truly transformational impact on Pennsylvania — the proposed investment by Nippon Steel in the iconic U. S. Steel.
U. S. Steel was once the largest producer of steel in the world and the largest U.S. employer. This giant is deeply ingrained in the identity of western Pennsylvania. But like many heartland industries, Pennsylvania’s domestic steel sector has faced challenges in recent years. Today, U.S. Steel employs fewer workers and ranks lower among the world’s steel companies worldwide.
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