News & Brews July 28, 2022

If you want a snapshot of everything that’s wrong with the government, this chart is a good starting point. Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute tracked prices on select consumer goods and services, along with wages, from 2000-2022. The takeaway: “The greater (lower) the degree of government involvement in the provision of a good or service the greater (lower) the price increases (decreases) over time, e.g., hospital and medical costs, college tuition, childcare with both large degrees of government funding/regulation and large price increases vs. software, electronics, toys, cars and clothing with both relatively less government funding/regulation and falling prices.” Check out the chart here.

Retiring Sen. Pat Toomey plans to “be as helpful as [he] can be” to Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in his race for U.S. Senate against Democrat John Fetterman. But regarding Doug Mastriano’s race for governor against Josh Shapiro, Toomey said, “I don’t have anything to say about it.” Some GOP political operatives, however, believe an endorsement (or non-endorsement) won’t make a difference either way. Read more at The Dispatch.

Yesterday, Republican Rep. Seth Grove (York County) participated in a roundtable discussion with members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Election Integrity. The roundtable centered on the proposed American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act, which, Grove explained, would “suppl[y] individual states with tools they need to boost election integrity and remove outdated federal policies that get in their way.” You can watch the roundtable here.

Despite getting tens of millions of dollars in one-time funding from Gov. Wolf, Pennsylvania’s state-related universities still plan to raise tuition this year, rejecting calls from Republicans not to do so. The tuition hikes reportedly range from less than 1% for incoming students at Lincoln University to 6% for out-of-state students at Penn State’s University Park campus. The AP has more.