Religious institutions have long been an essential part of health care delivery in our nation. Long before government programs began monopolizing the health care industry, religious institutions were providing care to the poor and most vulnerable. Today, Catholic health care facilities alone make up a third of the nation’s hospitals. As the federal government has encroached further and further into health care decision making, religious freedom advocates have passed a number of laws designed to protect the consciences of health care providers. But these laws have rarely been enforced. Seeking …
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday: “… FedEx may cancel plans to buy as many as 30 new Boeing planes should Congress pass a bill that would remove truck drivers, couriers and other employees at FedEx’s Express unit from the jurisdiction of the federal Railway Labor Act of 1926, the law which today also governs labor organizing at U.S. airlines… “It is exceedingly unlikely that we would purchase those airplanes” should Congress change the law, said FedEx spokesman Maury Lane. The legislation could cripple the company and eliminate the …
On March 9, 2009, the Obama Administration proposed to rescind a Bush Administration regulation protecting the conscience rights of health care professionals such as doctors, nurses, and medical students. This regulation implemented longstanding federal conscience protection laws, some of which have been on the books since the 1970s. These laws prohibit discrimination against health care providers who object to participating in abortion, sterilization, or other controversial medical procedures. Although federal conscience protections have been in place for years, very few health care providers are aware of their rights under these …
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee mathematicians Kyle L. Swanson and Anastasios Tsonis are predicting that global temperatures will change very little or even drop over the next decade – and possibly longer: Tsonis and Swanson used mathematical analysis to look at the role of the Earth’s natural climate cycles and the long-term weather patterns that drive them. The Earth’s global mean temperature swings up and down over time. It fell before World War I, increased during the 1920s and 1930s, fell again during the 1940s until about 1976. Then, global temperatures rose …
A Direct Challenge Three, Two, One … Launch: North Korea is preparing to launch a long-range Taepo Dong-2 missile in early April, capable of hitting targets in the western United States. A Continuing Threat: A 2001 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate assessed a two-stage Taepo Dong-2 could threaten Alaska, Hawaii, and the western United States while a three-stage missile could threaten all of North America with a nuclear warhead. Civilian Satellite? North Korea is characterizing the launch as a civilian satellite to minimize negative repercussion from its provocative act. However, mastering …
Henry Ford told buyers they could get a Model T in “any color as long as it’s black.” Californians may soon find that black is banned. California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) conducted a public workshop this month, outlining their plan to regulate the color of cars. CARB’s website explains: In 2006, California adopted the California Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as AB 32. This law created a comprehensive, long term plan for California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Cool Paints was identified as an …
The federal budget deficit is set to quadruple in 2009 to $1.75 trillion and President Barack Obama’s budget will add another $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of 2010 through 2016. But our fiscal future is in even worse shape than that. As PBS’s Nightly Business Report noted last night, the recession is rapidly making our entitlement crisis worse: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pqGMzjlN6Y[/youtube] Darren Gersh finds that due to slower projected payroll tax receipts combined with higher payments for early retirements and cost of living adjustments, “the era of large Social …
The Center for American Progress has a new report out titled “Competitive Health Care: A Public Health Insurance Plan that Delivers Market Discipline”. Listing everything that we disagree in their report would result in something much longer than a blog post, but since they mention us by name, we need to make one fact clear: including a public plan in a Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) health insurance reform model would destroy a competitive health insurance market. Here is what CAP writes: Promoting choice among health insurance plans to …
In her March 25-26 visit to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attracted considerable attention when she said, “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. …So yes, I feel very strongly that we have a co-responsibility.” Secretary Clinton acknowledges that the U.S. market and American habits are a major contributor to drug fight and horrific violence raging south of the border. Few will dispute this. But the Secretary goes on to say, “we have been pursuing these [drug] strategies for 30 years.” She adds, “Neither interdiction [of …
Yesterday, the teachers unions and the ACLU celebrated a victory: the Arizona State Supreme Court ruled that two school voucher programs serving special needs students and foster children were unconstitutional under state law. Of course, this victory for liberal interest groups is a big setback for some of the most at-risk children in Arizona. The Institute for Justice, which defended the program in court, highlighted the impact that this ruling could have on one family: One of those children will be Lexie Weck, a six-year-old little girl with autism, cerebral …
