In anticipation of the February 25th health care summit with members of Congress, the President released his proposal for pricey, government-run health care. The White House estimates the cost of the proposal to be $950 billion over a decade, decreasing the federal deficit. However, health policy expert James Capretta, a former senior official of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), shows in a recent paper that this is not only inaccurate, but far from reality. Capretta’s research shows that ten full years of implementation of the President’s proposal would …
What do you think most Americans would say if the U.S. government created a new and exclusively race-based government with the authority to exempt itself from the U.S. Constitution and state authority at its own discretion? As ridiculous as it sounds, that is exactly what the House of Representatives voted for yesterday by a vote of 245-164. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained that the passage of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2010 pleased President Obama, and that he, “looks forward to signing the bill into law …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has produced a new report estimating that the $862 billion stimulus has thus far saved or created 1.5 million jobs. Yet the CBO’s calculations are not based on actually observing the economy’s recent performance. Rather, they used an economic model that was programmed to assume that stimulus spending automatically creates jobs—thus guaranteeing their result. Logicians call this the begging-the-question fallacy. Mathematicians call it assuming what you are trying to prove.
Between the 9/11 terrorist attack and the inauguration of Barack Obama, the CIA’s detention and interrogation program yielded intelligence that foiled several terrorist attacks, according to author Mark Thiessen. That program, according to Thiessen, uncovered plots for attacks on high-rise apartment buildings; the U.S. Marine Camp in Djibouti, the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles – the tallest building on the West Coast; and London’s Heathrow Airport and downtown buildings. On the second day of Barack Obama’s presidency, he signed an executive order ending the CIA program. Marc A. Thiessen, …
Thursday, Democrats and Republicans will convene at the President’s request to discuss the way forward on achieving bipartisan health care reform. In a recent paper, Heritage’s Nina Owcharenko discusses how congressional Democrats and the President can use this meeting to start over on health care reform by enlisting Republicans to pass legislation both sides agree on. Says Owcharenko, “If the President is sincere and the summit is going to be successful, it must begin by setting aside the highly unpopular bills that the House and Senate have developed. Simply adjusting …
Is a congressional compromise on financial services regulation in the works? Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post today reports the answer is “yes,” citing progress in negotiations between Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee. Specifically, Pearlstein points to a breakthrough on one of the major sticking points of the debate: whether to create a new agency to enforce consumer protection laws in financial service markets. As described, the compromise proposal may alleviate many of the potential organizational objections to the idea. Nevertheless, the …
The latest attempt by Congress to wrestle the high unemployment rate is the HIRE Act, which is little more than a tax holiday for companies who hire additional workers. Even if this Act works as intended and encourages businesses to hire more workers, which in and of itself is not a guarantee, then other measures undertaken by the Obama Administration have the opposite effect, by actually stifling hiring by business. Some of the measures that counteract intentions of the HIRE Act are the minimum wage increases of the last few …
The President’s health care proposal contains little that is new. The well tested rhetoric used by the White House to sugarcoat the health policy outline should not fool ordinary Americans. This proposal is even more expensive than the Senate bill upon which it is apparently based: $950 billion over ten years rather than $871 billion. Consider the claims made by the White House regarding the effects of the President’s proposal on the health care system. The Rhetoric on Affordability. “It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class …
The President’s new version of Obamacare, and his method of passing it, are not popular with the American people. Dubbed the Health Care Nuclear Option, this tactic will only further anger the American by sidetracking the filibuster in the Senate and creating an even more highly charged partisan atmosphere in Congress. The content of Obamacare, and the strategies being employed to pass it, violates one of our nation’s core first principles: the consent of the governed. Our Republic is not a democracy where bare 51 vote majorities rule. Throughout our …
Yesterday, the Daily Caller posted a story on its website about the confusion on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle about the future of Obamacare. It featured a quote from Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC) on the White House’s healthcare strategy: “I was actually surprised that they’re pushing it again. The most important thing is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. We need to focus on jobs,” said Rep. Heath Shuler, North Carolina Democrat and a leader of the 54-member Blue Dog coalition of conservative Democrats. Rep. Shuler is right. Finding …
