This week, five years after his passing (4 June 2004), Ronald Reagan is still in the news as a nostalgic series of events was held in connection with the unveiling of his statue in the nation’s Capitol. In a bi-partisan ceremony, leaders of Congress, veterans of the Reagan Administration, and Mrs. Ronald Reagan herself joined in recollections of how our 40th President revitalized the U.S. economy, set in motion our victory in the Cold War, and revived the American spirit. His example of graciousness, optimism, and dignity set a high …
A constant refrain among defenders of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is that she is actually moderate. Ignore her insensitive statements suggesting that there could be physiological differences between ethnicities which contribute to “differences in logic and reasoning.” Ignore her lightly mocking the idea that judges don’t “make law.” Ignore her dismissing the suggestion that judges can be impartial in most cases, and suggesting that it is a disservice to the country for them to ignore biases. And certainly ignore her opinions: upholding discrimination against a white, learning disabled firefighter; declaring not …
We have long warned about the dangers of a public health care plan, but now, the fight is heating up in Washington. Obama took part in a conference call rallying supporters for a June 6th campaign kickoff. In a dream world, Obama would want a single payer health care plan, where the government is the only option for health care coverage. President Obama, though, keeps going back to the rhetoric that we can keep our health care plan if we like it. However, as we have pointed out, a public …
Here we go again. Barely two months after President Obama sacked the CEO of General Motors — and less than a week after the outright nationalization of that firm was announced — the head of yet another U.S. corporation is in Washington’s sights. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is pushing for a “purge” of Citigroup’s top management, and already has contacted a potential candidate to replace CEO Vikram Pandit in the top job. The move comes only weeks after the Federal Reserve concluded — …
President Obama, who had previously opposed an individual mandate for health insurance, has now opened the door to including such a legal requirement as a central feature of health care reform. An excellent explanation of the difficulties involved in the implementation of such a mandate was recently outlined in a New England Journal of Medicine article, “Universal Coverage One Head at a Time—The Risks and Benefits of Individual Health Insurance Mandates” published last year by Sherry Glied, Ph.D. Dr. Glied has just been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary …
The economy shed 345,000 jobs in May and the unemployment has jumped to 9.4 percent, its highest level since 1983, and this is regarded as good news? Yes. In a way, it is good news, as it agrees with other evidence that the rate of decline in the economy is abating. Abating means it’s still declining, but not as fast, which is an obvious necessary step before the economy can find a bottom this fall and then begin actually to grow again. During last year’s political campaign and as he …
On the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, everyone is talking about human rights in China. The question is, why isn’t there more talk at other times? The answer is the same for human rights as it is for many other issues involving China: because we overemphasize economic matters unnecessarily. The PRC’s economic rise is of course important, even breath-taking. But we have gotten ahead of ourselves. It is the American economy which drives the world, with Beijing crafting a development model in light of that dominance. And, as …
The Heritage Foundation recently published an in-depth study of the Iranian nuclear threat and what the United States should do the “Day After” Iran goes nuclear. Iran currently has the “largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East,” and they have the capability of reaching US bases, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and an increasing number of US allies in the region with those missiles. The situation is exacerbated as Iran test fires its missiles in the face of Obama’s offer for improved relations. Iran’s utter disregard for “getting along” with the …
On Tuesday, former HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt debated former Senator (and former Obama nominee for the top HHS post) Tom Daschle on health care reform at The National Press Club (articles summarizing the event here and here, video of portions of the event here , and an interesting blog post here). The pair began by touching on areas of agreement in health care reform. They agreed that all Americans should have access to affordable health insurance, and that the current trend of rapid cost increases in health care is unsustainable. …
LONDON – Britain is going to the polls today in a double-barreled election: for local councils, and to send representatives to the European Parliament. It’s hard to take either of these organizations very seriously: local councils may be responsible for delivering services, but since they raise so little of their own money, voters can’t reward them for doing more with less. And the European Parliament is the least democratic part of an undemocratic system: since it can’t do much more than scrutinize proposals submitted by the European Commission, it’s little …
