RALEIGH — Last month, North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall tapped Rep. John Torbett (R-Gaston) and Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort) to lead a new select committee on government efficiency.
All in Opinion
Op Ed: Both sides of the aisle can agree, pharmaceutical companies to blame
I have served the last six years in the North Carolina General Assembly and spent my career running an Independent Pharmacy in Stanly County. From basic prescriptions to life-saving cancer drugs, year-after-year Big Pharma raises prices on medications that people need – and at times, by more than 5,000 percent.
Hurricane Helene Revealed the Importance of Our Frontline Healthcare Providers
Amidst the destruction of Hurricane Helene—one of the worst storms in history and the deadliest flood event in North Carolina—our state’s hospitals, healthcare systems, and the courageous men and women who staff them worked heroically to deliver care to our communities.
John Hood: School Choice Was a Prudent Wager
RALEIGH — North Carolina and other states expanding their school-choice programs over the past few years are betting on the power of competition to promote educational opportunity and boost student outcomes. Is it a prudent wager? Recently published studies may shed some light on this important question.
John Hood: States should reclaim responsibilities
RALEIGH — Reacting a few days ago to President Donald Trump’s brief attempt to suspend payment on a broad swath of federal grants, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer warned that “virtually any organization, school, state, police office, county, town or community depends on federal grant money to run its day-to-day operations, and they’re all now in danger.”
John Hood: Washington Can Control This Weather
RALEIGH — The weather hasn’t been kind to North Carolina lately — so we really can’t afford the policy storm now brewing in the nation’s capital.
John Hood: State Should Keep Fostering Broad Growth
RALEIGH — As a proud native of the Charlotte area who has happily lived most of my life in the Raleigh area, I am overjoyed to report that North Carolina’s recent growth extends far beyond our two most-populous communities.
John Hood: North Carolina Should Prepare for Cuts
RALEIGH — Are we on the brink of World War III? Not necessarily, argue the coauthors of a new book, so long as we do what is necessary to deter revanchists threatening peace and freedom around the world. But America and its allies have already entered a new Cold War with the CRINK Axis — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and their client states in Eurasia and Latin America — and policymakers inside and outside Washington need to understand fully its implications.
Governor Stein: The Time Is Always Right To Do What Is Right
Dr. King was a visionary who held up a mirror to our country and showed us our flaws and our potential. Many Americans were not ready for the truth that he preached, and it cost King dearly. He was thrown in jail for organizing nonviolent protests in Birmingham, and he was hit with a rock while marching for housing integration in Chicago. His Montgomery house was bombed while his wife and seven-week-old daughter were inside, and the night after his Mountaintop speech in Memphis, he was tragically assassinated.
John Hood: To Make Homes More Affordable, Build!
RALEIGH — In places where the regulatory climate makes it easier to build new homes, it’s easier for people to find housing at affordable prices.
John Hood: Central Planning Fails in Health Care
RALEIGH — We live and work in a mostly free economy — but a spate of year-end stories demonstrated a prominent exception.
John Hood: Post COVID scores tumble in NC
RALEIGH — In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, student performance fell across much of the United States. According to a new study of 2022 math and reading scores, however, North Carolina students suffered one of the country’s biggest tumbles.
John Hood: Carolinians Start Year with Guarded Optimism
RALEIGH — Being a naturally hopeful person with much to be thankful for, I try to talk to a wide variety of people before speculating about public opinion.
Three of the biggest NC government and politics storylines of 2024 — and what they mean for 2025
The Republican Party enjoyed impressive electoral successes in 2024. Its candidates won the presidency, the U.S. Senate, and (narrowly) the U.S. House, while retaining control of most state governments around the country. For the first time in many decades, more Americans identified as Republicans than as Democrats in preelection polls.
John Hood: Our Electoral Future Remains Unwritten
The Republican Party enjoyed impressive electoral successes in 2024. Its candidates won the presidency, the U.S. Senate, and (narrowly) the U.S. House, while retaining control of most state governments around the country. For the first time in many decades, more Americans identified as Republicans than as Democrats in preelection polls.
John Hood: More freedom means more progress
RALEIGH — North Carolina has one of the freest economies on the continent — a fact that augers well for the future of our state and its (now) 11 million residents.
John Hood: Carolinian Paired Calypso and Christmas
Even the most curmudgeonly of Scrooges can’t help but tap their toes when they hear the first few notes of the modern masterpiece “Mary’s Little Boy Child.” For that, we can all thank the North Carolinian who so memorably paired calypso and Christmas — though that was not his original intention.
A North Carolina Where People Are Better Educated, Healthier, With More Money In Their Pockets
Governor Roy Cooper delivered his farewell address and celebrated the progress made building a North Carolina where people are better educated, healthier and have more money in their pockets to live lives of purpose and abundance.
John Hood: Why Medicaid Expansion Isn’t Over
Of course Congress and the White House are going to reduce federal funding for Medicaid expansion. Of course North Carolina and other states will be forced either to reduce Medicaid coverage or to shoulder billions of dollars in additional medical expenses. That was always the inevitable endgame for Medicaid expansion.
Trump taps U.S. Rep. Bishop for Office of Management and Budget
During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump promised sky-high tariffs on products from China and across-the-board taxes on imports from other countries. Now president-elect, Trump has already pitched the idea of levying 25% taxes on Mexican and Canadian imports to the U.S., blaming those governments for failing to arrest the cross-border flow of illicit drugs and illegal immigrants.