In his July 25 Radio Address, President Obama offered a new goal to health care reform—“And we’ll limit the amount your insurance company can force you to pay out of your own pocket.” By laying this out as one of the goals of reform, he contradicts the major theme of the Address. The Address began with a quote from a small businessman from New Jersey—“I am not looking for free health care, I would just like to get my premiums reduced enough to be able to afford it.” Here are …
Today at 1:30 PM, President Barack Obama will participate in a health care “tele-town hall” at AARP headquarters in Washington, DC. The President is scheduled to answer questions about his health care plan from AARP members via phone, email, and even a live audience of about 40 AARP members and volunteers. We hope the event’s moderators will allow for a lively and honest debate, because our nation’s seniors stand to be huge losers under Obamacare: Losing Your Doctor: Under the current system, more and more seniors are discovering that it …
You might think that passing a bill through Congress is a really difficult and honorable task that involves late night debates, hours spent analyzing proposals and reading legislation, policy wonks splitting hairs over detailed issues, and a healthy dose of respectful opposition and transparency. Oh boy, would you be wrong. In this Congress, it’s rahm rahm rahm, Chicago-style. According to recent reports, Congressional leaders are censoring congressional mailings to avoid the appearance of two sides to the health care debate. And what is being censored? Democrats should be called “the …
Ever heard of the phrase “no such thing as a free lunch”? If you’ve taken Economics 101, you likely have. But evidently, this falls on deaf ears in the Obama administration. Six months after taking office, the President vows that his “reform” will insure the uninsured and rein in health spending. What he covers up in his flowery rhetoric, however, is how he intends to control these costs and eliminate waste. Writing today in the Washington Post, columnist Robert J. Samuelson says, “his ‘reform’ isn’t likely to compel needed changes, …
Although we’d like to see all lawmakers read all the bills they sign, we understand Rep. Conyers’s (D-MI) exasperation when he says the 1,018-page House health care bill is indecipherable without a a pair of lawyers to translate it. So maybe each lawmaker should get a whole team of lawyers to help read it? For taxpayers’ sake, let’s hope these lawyers don’t charge by the page: at $1.3 trillion, the bill clocks in at $1.264 billion per page. Better yet, lawmakers should write a bill that makes health care portable and affordable… and decipherable. …
Sunday’s Washington Post reports that the District of Columbia is considering changing its welfare program to restore real work requirements for able-bodied individuals receiving cash assistance. The change is expected to save $6.2 million in the District’s budget. This is a wise move and one that other states and counties should consider making, in light of the budget shortfalls many of them face. According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, 16,000 households in the District receive cash benefits from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Despite the federal …
Daniel “Stormy” Johnson, Jr., MD, FACR is a Visiting Fellow in Health Policy at The Heritage Foundation and is a former President of the American Medical Association. The recent hard to understand actions of the American Medical Association notwithstanding, physicians in the United States need to understand that we have arrived at the moment of truth. When I graduated from medical school in the summer of 1963, the political class was already locked in a struggle over whether to have the federal government control all health care financing and delivery …
The care with which we are carrying out the provisions of the Recovery Act has led some people to ask whether we are moving too slowly. But the act was intended to provide steady support for our economy over an extended period — not a jolt that would last only a few months. – Vice President Joe Biden New York Times, July 26, 2009. The Recovery Act, as we call it, provides a necessary jolt to our economy to implement what we refer as “shovel-ready” projects, meaning projects that were …
On July 24, like a scofflaw on the run, former president Manuel Zelaya briefly stood on Honduran soil daring the police or army to come arrest him. The government of Roberto Micheletti vows to execute the arrest warrant issued by the Honduran high court before the June 28 ouster of Zelaya. Micheletti is not afraid to argue the case against Zelaya. Then unready to surrender, Zelaya swiftly retreated back to safety on Nicaraguan soil. After three days, Zelaya remains camped on the border, apparently declining an invitation to return to …
Former CIA director Michael Hayden defends the National Security Agency’s post-9/11 electronic surveillance program in today’s New York Times: The program was crucial in addressing one of the most stinging criticisms of the 9/11 commission — the need to reduce the gap between foreign intelligence and domestic security. This was an especially difficult task, which helps explain both the program’s importance and its sensitivity. The program was lawful, effective and necessary. … The report also suggested that there were counterterrorism successes associated with the program but that these could not …
