Eleven months ago, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) was created by Congress. The Commission is supposed to review the policies, including payment policies, that affect the access of children to the services provided through Medicaid and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program. Two weeks ago, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced the appointment of the 17 MACPAC members. The Commission’s first report to Congress making recommendations is due in 36 business days. The appointees themselves are first rate, no one would dispute the credentials of the …
When Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) emerged from a closed-door meeting with top House Democratic leaders yesterday, the press asked her about C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb’s request that she permit cameras to televise the final health care negotiations between the House and Senate. After Pelosi first demurred, a reporter reminded Pelosi about President Barack Obama’s frequent promises to the American people throughout 2008 that he would ensure C-SPAN was allowed to televise exactly such negotiations, to which Speaker Pelosi quipped: “There are a number of things he was for on the …
Interpreting statements of Federal Reserve Chairmen has long been considered a high art form. During Alan Greenspan’s time, journalists and financial analysts made huge efforts to understand his cryptic comments on the economy, with the result that a few sentences could spawn literally pages of analysis designed to “explain” the possible contents of Greenspan’s comments. Most of that analysis was incorrect. Now, journalists and especially headline writers are attempting to apply the same techniques to Ben Bernanke’s comments. The most widely quoted sentence contained in a scholarly paper he delivered …
Nancy-Ann DeParle, the Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, posted a note – ironically titled “Reality Check” – on the White House blog this morning claiming that a new report from the federal government’s health actuaries supports the administration’s position on health care reform. But all that report says is that U.S. health care spending continues to increase – even though the rate of increase actually hit a historic low in 2008 (the latest year for which figures are now available). DeParle’s argument is basically this: We …
In a plan that was intended to be quick and temporary, Congress passed a $787 billion stimulus plan, which included large sums of money to fund infrastructure projects. Never mind the fact that the stimulus bill was a bad idea, the amount of environmental regulatory tape standing in the way will prevent it from ever getting off the ground. Normally it takes a federal construction project an average of 4.4 years to complete a National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) review. Throw in the Clean Water Act’s section 404 requirements (where …
According to a January 4 report in the Los Angeles Times, President Obama’s plan for nuclear disarmament is meeting opposition from the Department of Defense. Specifically, the Department of Defense believes that President Obama’s plan jeopardizes U.S. security. They are right. First and foremost, the American people need to understand that U.S. nuclear forces and the infrastructure to support them have been atrophying since the end of the Cold War. Meanwhile, China and Russia are modernizing their nuclear forces and Iran and North Korea are looking to become de facto …
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has placed a hold on President Obama’s nominee for Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Erroll Southers. Since the attempted underwear bombing, many pundits have attacked DeMint for this on the grounds that the agency needs permanent leadership. DeMint should ignore these criticisms: his actions have protected American travelers. Current law gives the TSA Administrator discretion over whether to collectively bargain with airport security screeners. The TSA has determined that collective bargaining would endanger the safety of America’s air passengers. TSA screeners may belong to …
Spending. As Heritage Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Brian Riedl explains, runaway federal spending is where our historic levels of debt are coming from. Watch: And as Reidl mentions, as fast as spending has been rising this century, thanks to our long term Entitlement obligations, our spending and deficit problems will only get worse:
President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are planning plenty of health care action in closed-door meetings at the White House today, but there are no lights or cameras. Now, C-SPAN is calling for the latter. In a letter to congressional leadership dated December 30, 2009, C-SPAN wrote: As your respective chambers work to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate health care bills, C-SPAN requests that you open all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage. C-SPAN noted …
A top story in the Washington Post last Saturday concerned Chinese banks. It was badly misleading, to the point of almost seeming intentional. The article leads with the claim that “new lending by Chinese banks has injected $1.3 trillion into the world economy.” That is the figure injected into the Chinese economy, for the benefit of Chinese producers. These producers then ramp up output, pushing out more exports and, at home, displacing foreign imports. At the moment, this probably harms the world economy. The small fraction of Chinese lending that …
