Senator Thom Tillis warns that growing government intervention in housing, healthcare, and corporate governance risks undermining the free-market system that drove American prosperity.
Housing Policy
Senate legislation restricting institutional investment in single-family rentals aims to improve affordability. Economists project the policy would reduce new construction by tens of thousands of homes annually, raising rents for the working families it intends to help.
Drug Price Controls
Proposals to import foreign price controls on prescription drugs could cut research investment nearly in half, delaying or preventing hundreds of new medicines over the next decade. Europe and Japan once led pharmaceutical innovation before price controls reduced investment incentives.
Plans to seize pharmaceutical patents and licensing royalties from universities would reverse Bayh-Dole Act progress. Before that law, Washington bureaucrats commercialized just 5% of 28,000 federally funded patents. Universities now launch thousands of startups from their discoveries.
Government Equity Stakes
Growing willingness toward government equity stakes and expanded corporate control risks transforming market-driven companies into state-run enterprises. “We won’t beat China by becoming China,” Tillis wrote.
The solution lies in removing barriers that prevent markets from working restrictive zoning laws, drug supply chain inefficiencies, and regulatory burdens. Government should set fair rules, promote competition, and get out of the way.