Live reader chat with Robert Alt on Sotomayor and the Court
As public relations campaigns on health care legislation are ramped up over the next few weeks, Americans will do well to remember the storybook classic, The Wizard of Oz. The power of the Wizard was based on mystery, fear, and intimidation. Only after the intrepid travelers pulled back the curtain did they realize the Wizard was a mere mortal turning the cranks of a great smoke-belching machine. They were no longer afraid. Congressional advocates of a single-payer system would like Americans to believe that a government Wizard will be superior …
According to today’s Washington Post, the Senate Finance Committee will soon produce a health care plan that rejects “a government-run health insurance plan in favor of a network of member-owned cooperatives.” More commonly referred to as “co-ops”, these organizations actually already have a long and proud tradition in many sectors of the U.S. economy, including health care. But Americans must be wary that our nation’s co-op tradition does not become a vehicle for government-run health care. To some, the word “co-operative” may have a slight Bolshevik whiff to it, but …
President Obama celebrated his 48th birthday yesterday, but instead of being showered with gifts, he handed the American people the biggest present of all: one trillion dollars in new debt. Since Obama was inaugurated in January, the national debt has grown over one trillion dollars to a whopping $11.669 trillion. In contrast, it took 2.5 years to add $1 trillion in debt during the last administration. And this “gift” to the American people doesn’t even include the costs of other legislation Obama would like to pass, such as cap and …
ABC News’s John Stossel investigates: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdx_2cuPgQQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Despite President Barack Obama’s deadline, both the House and Senate failed to pass Obama’s health care plan before they adjourned for the month of August. Now Senators and Representatives are returning home to participate in one of America’s greatest democratic traditions: the townhall. The events afford citizens the rare opportunity to share their opinions directly with their elected officials. As this registered Democrat in Utica, NY, makes perfectly clear, he is unhappy with the way liberals have attempted to reorganize one-sixth of the entire American economy. “Why would you guys …
Pakistan is a crucial state in U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. Unfortunately, militant groups within Pakistan are currently using the state as an “operational safe haven where [they] can plan local, regional and international terrorist attacks,” hindering the U.S.’s endeavors. Al-Qaeda isn’t doing all the work on its own though. Yes, “al-Qaeda aims to destabilize the Pakistani government divert U.S. attention from the fight in Afghanistan and undermine Islamabad’s alliance with the United States,” but there also is mounting evidence that these groups receive assistance and protection from Pakistan’s intelligence …
In 1953, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote of the Soviet suppression of a spring uprising in Berlin, Would it not be easier, In that case for the government, To dissolve the people And elect another? Why quote a communist bootlicker and Stalin hagiographer best known for socialist realism, whatever that means? Because in that single moment of apparent weakness, he seems to have captured how government apparatchiks must think when caught in the headlights of popular discontent. And yes, of course, the image of White House Press Secretary Robert …
An overwhelming majority of Americans (72 percent) don’t believe President Barack Obama will keep his promise to overhaul the health care system without adding to the federal deficit, according to a new study released today by the Quinnipiac University. The survey, which polled 2,409 registered voters nationwide from July 27 to August 3, found 55 percent of Americans are more worried Congress will spend too much money and add to the federal deficit than they are that Congress won’t pass through health care reform system without adding to the deficit. …
Former President Bill Clinton arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday with journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee who, just hours earlier, had been prisoners of Kim Jong-il’s North Korean regime. Every American should be relieved that Lee and Ling are home safe, but Americans should also know that this is not the first time North Korea has captured Americans and been rewarded with a high-ranking American envoy. In 1994 and then again in 1996, then-Congressman Bill Richardson met with the North Korean regime to free American prisoners. The danger is not …
