Abstinence education is back in the headlines, prompted by a new study that shows such intervention can reduce teen sexual activity in the long term. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, appeared in this month’s issue of the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a publication of the American Medical Association. It found that, two years after receiving an eight-hour abstinence-only intervention, middle school participants were a third less likely to initiate sexual activity, compared to peers who attended a non-sex-ed health class instead. …
The American Founders recognized that federalism is essential to maintaining individual liberty in the United States. The Constitution therefore grants the federal government only certain limited powers which were specifically enumerated in the document, and thus requires the different sovereigns (state and federal) to compete for the affection of the people. It also allows the people to seek support from one level of government if the other begins to act in a tyrannical way. Those safeguards to liberty in constitutional federalism cease to exist if one sovereign becomes the vassal …
Anthem Blue Cross, the California subsidiary of Wellpoint, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, recently announced steep premium increases for its individual (i.e., not employment-based) insurance customers. The political response to these premium increases – of up to 39% for almost 700,000 customers – was swift and blunt. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius ordered a federal investigation into how Anthem could “justify” the increases, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) scheduled a hearing, MoveOn.org launched a petition drive, and President Obama himself jumped at the opportunity to claim …
There’s a plan out there that will create jobs, collect revenue for state and federal governments and improve the environment. And it won’t come at any cost to the taxpayer but if the administration doesn’t act, it will be a net drain on the economy. 1.) What is it? 2.) Why haven’t Congress and the administration acted? The answers are increased oil and natural gas production in the United States and we have no idea. The costs of the ban: A new study commissioned by the National Association of Regulatory …
If Vice President Biden’s weekend comments are any indication, the White House isn’t taking Iran’s recent claim to be a nuclear state very seriously. In a report by the New York Times, Biden said of Iran, “It is not a nuclear power.” Biden went on to explain that, in his opinion, Ahmadinejad is exaggerating. Biden is correct in a narrow sense: Iran is not yet a nuclear weapons power. But it is well on its way to becoming one. And the Obama Administration must take much stronger action to prevent …
This week Washington, D.C. became the second U.S. jurisdiction to lose the benefit of Catholic Charities’ adoption and foster care services over the issue of same-sex marriage. Early next month, barring Congressional or judicial intervention, the District of Columbia will become the sixth U.S. jurisdiction to authorize same-sex marriage. As the law developed last year, the Archdiocese of Washington, of which Catholic Charities is a part, endeavored to avoid a conflict between its social services and the new D.C. marriage law. The two major points of conflict involve the interaction …
The Health Care Nuclear Option, also known as reconciliation, is being considered by liberal politicians to insure that Obamacare makes it to the President’s desk by Easter. According to The New York Times, the plan is to have the President submit reconciliation legislation to be posted on the internet this weekend. The legislation will be crafted in a manner so that it can be passed using special reconciliation procedures created solely to enact laws to reduce the deficit as part of the annual budget. The next step is for the President …
President Obama often says that bending the curve in health spending downward is one of the main objectives of his health care reform agenda. There is indeed a consensus that health costs are growing at a rapid rate, and that reformers should work to slow the rising tide of spending. But as Heritage’s Robert A. Book, Ph.D, and Jason D. Fodeman, M.D. point out, the big picture is not so simple. In order to successfully reduce health care spending, legislators must address what is causing expenses to rise in the …
In today’s Wall Street Journal, former President Bill Clinton’s pollster Doug Schoen writes: “Sen. Evan Bayh’s stunning decision to retire should serve as more than a wake-up call to Democrats. It should spur a fundamental re-examination and reorientation of the party’s policies, practices and approaches leading into the fall election. Let’s be clear. The Democratic brand is in trouble — big trouble. … The Democrats need to do a number of things. First and foremost, they need to recognize there is only one fundamental issue in America: jobs.” Unfortunately, the …
For most of a century, macroeconomists have debated the pros and cons of government “stimulus” policies. Because there is no way to determine how the economy would have performed without a stimulus, the debate comes down to dueling economic models, assumptions, and theories. With Nobel Prize-winning economists lining up on both sides of the issue, the debate has seemed destined to continue. Apparently, that is, until now. PolitiFact – a group of reporters affiliated with the St. Petersburg Times in Florida – has declared the debate over. In a “fact …
