The “public option,” or government-run health insurance plan, in the just-released House health care bill was previewed in the news media as a diluted form of hard-core liberal versions that the Left have pushed for months. While that may be the case, calling the public option “more conservative” isn’t appropriate for any form. To be fair, the intent probably was to distinguish this new public plan as a “government-lite” option because it’s supposed to let doctors and hospitals negotiate rates with the government over payments for health care services. Earlier …
Youth violence, substance abuse, homelessness, and deteriorating neighborhoods ravage both low-income communities and prosperous suburbs alike. There is a great need to explore both the root causes of these problems and their effective solutions. The Bob Woodson Show—“What Works and Why”—premiered yesterday with this very aim. Focusing on solutions to some of America’s most troubling societal problems, each week the show provides examples of effective solutions, and special guests provide first-hand testimonies as to how their lives or neighborhoods have been changed for the better. Host Bob Woodson then directs …
We have regularly reported on President Obama’s perpetual campaign organization, Organizing for America (OFA), and the need for him to abandon this campaign and move on to leading the nation. OFA is an off shoot of the Democratic National Committee, operating under the website www.BarackObama.com, and it is explicitly designed to maintain the President’s 2008 campaign into 2012. It is headed by some of the President’s closest political advisors, including David Plouffe and Mitch Stewart. In August, the Heritage Foundation uncovered an invitation to an OFA event which likened conservatives to “domestic …
Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to wade into the D.C. school choice debate. While he probably only meant to get his toes wet, a request Holder made to former D.C. city councilman Kevin Chavous at a recent event to pull a television ad in support of the Opportunity Scholarship program has made a big splash. In an interview with the Weekly Standard, Chavous noted that he is friends with Holder and his wife, and didn’t see the comment as an official administration request. Nevertheless, Chavous told the Weekly Standard: …
Those pushing big government-run health care have started a Gimmick of the Day Club. Desperate to find support, they trot out a new variation almost daily. However they repackage their bad ideas, they feel confident that most media will hail each “new” variation as a breakthrough: The “trigger” is the hokiest, basically delaying implementation unless something drastic happens (like the sun rising in the east). The “opt-out” is as credible as expecting the Mafia to tell shopkeepers that they’re free to stop paying tribute at any time. It’s a sham.
In poll, after poll, after poll, the American people have clearly expressed their preference for prioritizing economic growth over global warming. This is a major problem for those on the left who want to reorganize our entire economy under the guise of cap and trade climate change legislation. Tacitly admitting they have lost this argument, the left has shifted gears and is trying a new tack: global warming is a threat to national security. So Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) recently blogged at the Center for American Progress: [C]limate change injects a …
Generation Y is widely defined as the 77 million Americans born between 1977 and 1997 — and as any good demographic sample would, it’s being analyzed. A Denver Post blogger opines on why Gen Y’ers are moving back in with their parents. JD Power and Associates dissects Gen Y’s buying patterns and suggests that the recession is making them grapple with a “Quarter-Life Crisis.” Today’s “emerging adults” enjoy more options for work, marriage and location than perhaps any previous generation. But with that freedom come anxiety and confusion. And sociologists …
The Treasury Department and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank have just released a highly complex 253 page draft bill that is supposed to deal with questions ranging from indentifying and dealing with systemic risk facing the financial services system, regulating and closing failing “too big to fail” financial services firms, and a wide variety of other potential problems. As expected with a bill that long and detailed, it will take a while to understand everything that it contains, but first impressions are that it contains many bad ideas …
This Friday, the tax payer funded Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is hosting a briefing for Members of Congress and their staff on their new study: Online Town Hall Meetings: Exploring Democracy in the 21st Century. The CMF study consisted of 21 townhall meetings where Members of Congress and CMF provided a moderator: “spoke via voice over IP, and constituents asked questions and made comments by typing them. Only off-topic, redundant, unintelligible, or offensive questions were screened, and only questions asked by people who had not yet asked a question were …
Our friends at the Oregon-based Cascade Policy Institute produced a 22-minute documentary on global warming. Appropriately titled, Climate Chains, the movie discusses how cap and trade legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will raise energy prices, reduce our standard of living, have no net environmental impact and reduce our economic freedom. The film also addresses the special interests behind cap and trade and emphasizes how economic growth is the real path towards environmental improvement. The film includes clips from Heritage’s own Ben Lieberman and David Kreutzer. You can view the …
