Congress and the Administration are breaking records. They just piled up a deficit of over $1.4 trillion in 2009 alone. Needless to say moderates and fiscal conservatives in both political parties have cause for very bad night’s sleep. The Doc Mess. The latest chapter in this crazy drama is to be played out next week when the House deals with the Medicare Doc Fix. At issue is the congressionally created formula for annually updating Medicare physician payment. The congressional formula ties physician payment to general economic growth: if physician payment …
Proponents of cap and trade legislation and an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are pushing for President Obama to make the trip to Copenhagen. For instance, Carter Roberts, CEO of the World Wildlife Fund affirmed, “We believe it’s fundamental for the president to go to Copenhagen, to look other leaders in the eye convey our commitment as a country, and secure theirs.” President Obama has the left the plane door open for a trip to Denmark, saying, “If I am confident that all of the countries involved are …
Congress wants America to believe its new promises to control spending even as it reneges on its old promises and spends more than ever. The “new” promise within health care reform bills is to reduce Medicare spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet simultaneously, Congress is reversing 1997 legislation that claimed it would reduce Medicare spending. The latest example of hypocrisy is known in Washington as the “doc fix,” (shorthand for fixing payment rates to doctors) and it’s scheduled for a House of Representatives vote next week. Doctors have …
The Obama Administration announced this morning that it intends to ship five Guantanamo Bay detainees to New York to be tried in civilian federal court. One of those men is the September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad. This decision will be seen by many liberals as paving the way for closing the Guantanamo Bay facility. It is also an olive branch by an Administration facing growing criticism from its own party for its failure to move forward on closing the facility by its January 22nd deadline. In fact, the President …
According to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the House health care bill passed last Friday empowers the federal government to imprison people for up to five years if they willfully refuse to buy federally regulated and approved health insurance. Shomari Stone of Komo 4 News in Seattle pressed the Speaker on this point yesterday. Watch: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUkzV8h3Wp0[/youtube] UPDATE: This video has since been marked “private” by an unknown party. We are trying to track down a public version. UPDATE: It’s back up!
There is a consensus, spanning the Democratic and Republican parties, our Asia-Pacific trade partners, and those interested around the world that President Obama is heading to Asia with one hand tied behind is back. The reason is his failure to develop and present a clear, coherent trade policy. Economics is king in the Asia-Pacific and trade with the US is the jewel in the king’s crown. Ignore most of what you hear about China as the engine of growth; China runs a huge trade surplus. That means, in the short …
The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein asks: “One of my frustrations with the cost-control discussion is that people set this up like a choice between this bill and a bill with more cost control. In reality, it seems more like a choice between this bill and nothing. And this bill does a lot more cost control than nothing.” MIT’s Jonathan Gruber answers: “Here’s how I think about this: Do you know Pascal’s wager? Why not believe in God? I think of health-care reform similarly. We don’t know if we’ll really bend …
Last month when the White House released its visitor log for the first six months of the Obama presidency, one name appeared far more often than any other: Service Employee International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern. Stern has every right to expect to be welcome in the Obama White House. He has repeatedly bragged about the fact that under his leadership, the SEIU spent $60.7 million to elect Barack Obama president. Stern and Obama collectively support ever expanding federal government programs and state government bailouts which are rapidly bankrupting our country. …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFMLzi2CBII[/youtube] It’s simple: “Our approach in Utah is to give consumers more choice,” said Governor Herbert during a Heritage Foundation visit earlier this week. “If we can put them in the control position where they’re spending dollars that are their own, they’re going to make better choices.” Similarly, the Governor believes that States, not the federal government will be better at fixing what ails America’s health care system. “It really ought to be the states leading on health care reform,” he said. In fact, “states want to be partners” with …
The budget shortfalls, plunging revenue, and economic woes plaguing near-broke California could foretell the future of other cash-strapped states. A new study by The Pew Center on the States found that the economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of a total economic meltdown are also found in nine other states across the country, all of which could face a financial disaster just like the one in the Golden State. Those states with economic conditions most like California’s include Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey and …
