You hear or read the number all the time. The New York Times breathlessly reports there are 46 million uninsured Americans and President Barack Obama routinely asserts the same number. The Census Bureau estimates, however, do not tell the entire story. The uninsured are a diverse and dynamic population, and the higher frequency of coverage loss is not only a function of the recession, but of the flaws inherent in the health insurance markets, namely the inability of individuals and families to secure and maintain personal and portable coverage. Data …
In other words, the cost of a suitcase of Budweiser could make or break the country’s most ambitious environmental program.” That’s the Wall Street Journal’s Keith Johnson discussing numbers from the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. When asked about cap and trade, 52 percent of responders supported such a program – the same as last month but down from 59 percent a year ago. More interesting, though, is how the responses change when asked how much one would be willing to pay in higher electricity bills. When asked if …
Heritage consultant Mark Wilson published a new study Friday, detailing how the “play-or-pay” employer mandates in H.R. 3200 will put 5.2 million low-wage workers at risk of unemployment or reduced working hours. Fox News covered the story: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6GCuhXQPyY[/youtube] Also from the report: The mandates will cost businesses at least $49 billion per year. Another 10.2 million workers would be at risk of slower wage growth and cuts in other benefits. The mandate will cause 9 million mostly low-wage and part-time workers to lose their employment-based health insurance.
On August 6th, Michigan resident Mike Sola confronted Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) at a health care townhall about H.R. 3200′s effect on his son Scott. It is unclear from the exchange if Scott, who is confined to a wheelchair and has cerebral palsy, is enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid. But Rep. Dingell did follow up Mr. Sola’s questions with a letter dated August 11th. Unfortunately the letter is non-responsive to Mr. Sola’s concerns. Here is what Dingell wrote:
This March we highlighted British MEP Daniel Hannan’s impassioned critique of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s borrow-spend-bailout policies. Then earlier this month, we sat down with Hannan for three minutes before his Heritage speech on how Americans can avoid Europe’s mistakes. Hannan has now also sat down with Reason.tv to discuss, his Brown speech, the British National Health Service, and what conservative could learn from the recent successes of Britain’s Conservative Party. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx0ktkr9s8I[/youtube]
The White House public relations team has a problem. Where on earth did people get these ideas about government rationing health care? They ask. Why do people imagine they will lose their private health insurance coverage or doctor? After all, the President repeatedly says that will not happen. Period. Why is there such fear out there? The White House media folks need to look no further than across the street to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building where top Presidential appointees, Peter Orzag and Cass Sunstein hang out. Both have expressed …
On Friday of last week, following the announcement that Attorney General Eric Holder would appoint a prosecutor to re-investigate the CIA’s treatment of detainees, former Vice President Dick Cheney taped an interview with Fox News. During the interview, which aired yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Cheney describes Holder’s decision as an “outrageous political act” that will have “devastating” consequences within the CIA. Cheney is dead on. But unfortunately Holder’s political CIA witch hunt is just the latest example of a troubling pattern of politicization of the Justice Department under Holder. Voter …
This Tuesday the White House released their Mid-Session Review admitting they made a $2 trillion miscalculation in the size of the federal deficit that President Barack Obama’s borrow and spend policies would inflict on our nation. Heritage senior policy analyst Brian Riedl details the carnage: While President Obama claims to have inherited the 2009 budget deficit, it is important to note that the estimated 2009 budget deficit has increased by $400 billion since his inauguration, and the whole point of the “stimulus” was to increase deficit spending to nearly $2 …
Earlier this week, the Heritage Foundation published a lengthy study of the U.N.’s proposed Arms Trade Treaty. The study details numerous problems inherent in this proposal, which is now being considered by a New York-based working group. The campaign behind the treaty is based on faulty premises, and the treaty, if brought into being as currently projected, will facilitate, not curb, the illegal arms trade, while at the same time posing a danger to the Second Amendment, to the ability of the U.S. to resist tyranny around the world, and …
This morning we reported on a recently-leaked document from the G20 Climate Finance Experts Group detailing that while Congress has promised to give Waxman-Markey’s energy tax revenues to Americans, Obama administration negotiators are promising to give that very same money to the governments of China, India and a host of other countries. But that is just the beginning of cap and trade’s duplicity exposed by the documents. Page 10 of the document shows that those working to give our income away know they can’t be straight forward: “A second question …
