Yesterday’s New York Times editorial, “Financing Health Care Reform,” outlines the need to “make the hard choices” including “cutting and reallocating hundreds of billions of dollars from projected spending on Medicare and Medicaid…” However, judging by last week’s action by the Obama Administration to rescind three Medicaid regulations, the Times’ admonition is likely to fall upon deaf ears. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would rescind three regulations that were designed to place needed fiscal and programmatic accountability in Medicaid. As Medicaid now spends more …
The Chinese government is blaming the violence in its west on a woman named Rebiya Kadeer. They are calling her a “an ironclad separatist colluding with terrorists and Islamic extremists.” The Chinese Communist Party has a long and estranged relationship with the truth. And the vilification of Kadeer ranks right up there with their portrayal of Dalai Lama as an “evil splitist.” (In fact, the People’s Daily has called Kadeer a “Uighur Dalai Lama.”) The government rhetoric is primarily aimed at a domestic audience, intended to stir Han Chinese nationalism …
The British Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has published a “Strategic Security Review.” The IPPR is not just any think tank: in the 1990s, its work formed the basis for many of the domestic programs that New Labour undertook when it came into power in 1997. It has since lost a little of its former eminence, and has never been a leading voice in defense and security affairs, but it is still one of the largest, best-funded, and best-connected think tanks in Britain. Among the conclusions of the “Review,” …
At yesterday’s Bloggers Briefing at Heritage, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, touted a 26-page report that holds the government accountable for the housing crisis through its unsustainable drive to increase homeownership. The report sheds light on the unnecessary interference of government in the housing market. It singles out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to show how the U.S. entered an economic downturn that rippled around the world. (Heritage has long argued for reforming Fannie and Freddie by breaking up their stronghold …
Celebrating his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama told the American people: “One hundred days ago, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in half a century, we passed the most sweeping economic recovery act in history…One hundred days later, we are already seeing results.” And he’s right, we are. Unemployment has risen to 9.5%, stocks fell to their lowest level in 10 weeks on Tuesday, and consumer credit delinquencies have hit a record high. Responding to the obvious failure of the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus …
Dr. Gregory Jaczko, Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), delivered his first major address since being appointed six weeks ago this morning at the Heritage Foundation. Jaczko’s talk was encouraging for its discussion of the need to enhance agency decisiveness and regulatory preparedness for dealing with new challenges, such as waste management and other fuel-cycle related activities. Both will be key factors in any future nuclear renaissance. Jaczko explained: “Decisiveness means the ability to come to resolution in a predictable manner after open and informed debate. To be …
In Moscow on July 6, President Obama made the following remarks regarding the situation in Honduras, where Mr. Manuel Zelaya, after being removed from office on June 28, seeks an international consensus to force his return to presidential office. He said, “America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies. We do so not because we agree with him. We do so because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we …
From the Maine Heritage Policy Center, Tarren Bragdon reports: Passed in 2003, Maine’s Dirigo Health initiative was lauded as the first state-based universal coverage program this decade. Governor John Baldacci promised that Dirigo Health would (1) provide coverage for all of Maine’s 128,000 uninsured by 2009; (2) not require any new taxes; (3) be paid for by savings created in the health care system in Maine; and (4) reduce health insurance and health care costs for all. The core element of the Dirigo Health initiative was the DirigoChoice “public option” …
The Obama Administration has begun a series of investigations aimed at hitting employers who hire illegal immigrants, notifying businesses of plans to audit their I-9 forms. I-9 forms are forms that every worker needs to fill out in order to be employed legally. This is a great first step in terms of getting the Obama Administration on track in terms of immigration reform- illegal immigrants largely come here for economic reasons, so it makes since to enforce the law from the workplace. The danger, however, is that the Obama Administration …
China has two faces. There is the face of Chinese economic success, the managers of China’s reserves, the CEOs of China’s quasi-private enterprises, the English-speaking, tailored diplomats everywhere from Beijing to Washington. And then there is the face of the People’s Armed Police and the crackdown in Xinjiang. There is a modernizing China sending bright and optimistic students out into the world, packing the best graduate programs. There are people in China making for themselves material lives that generations of their forbearers could not dream of. Then there is the …
