Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs that the Obama administration’s “commitment to Equal Protection – and to full participation in our nation’s elections – will not waiver. Never.” But Friday, The Washington Post published a story that completely undercuts that claim. The story itself breaks little new ground. Followers of this blog have already read all the details in the story. But the Post story does add confirmation from three Justice Department lawyers that the dismissal of charges against …
Obamacare alters the practice medicine by putting a stronger emphasis on adherence to government-determined measures of quality. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) already offers hospitals financial incentives to report on their compliance with certain measures of care. These are posted on Hospital Compare, a site where, according to Kaiser Health News, “patients can shop around by putting in their zip codes and the website churns out a list of nearby hospitals, with detail on available services, care outcomes, patient satisfaction ratings and more.” These quality indicators include …
By now, Americans have become well acquainted with the fact that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will have a multitude of adverse effects. The new law is certain to add to the federal deficit. It increases taxes on all Americans in a number of different ways, encourages employers to dump coverage, and will cause many to lose their current health plan. However, a circulating claim that the PPACA includes a tax on real estate sales has misinformed the American public. There is not a new specific tax …
It doesn’t matter who asks the question (CNN, Gallup, Pew, Fox, ABC, or CBS) the answer is always the same: the American people believe President Barack Obama’s $814 billion economic stimulus failed. The White House believes that this is a failure of communications not a failure of policy. Enter newly minted White House Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and 1991 college National Debate Team of the Year champion, Austan Goolsbee. Goolsbee has begun doing a series of videos trying to convince Americans that, despite nearly a trillion dollars …
A recent event at the United States Institute of Peace featured a discussion on the effects of social media, particularly in the Russian blogosphere. The project was carried out by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet andSociety, and consisted of an analysis of over 11,000 Russian language blogs to understand how and by whom politics is discussed. The study was also designed to look for evidence of social mobilization caused by the blogosphere. Other studies by the USIP have found that new media—for example blogs, Twitter, and YouTube—have had mixed effects …
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wrapped up a two day visit to Iran with a flurry of official agreements and rhetorical broadsides denouncing the United States. Chavez, visiting Iran for the ninth time as President, lauded his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and proclaimed that bilateral ties are “solid and very, very deep.” Ahmadinejad stated that “Iran and Venezuela are united to establish a new world order based on humanity and justice.” The Iranian president, always eager to make a veiled threat, warned: “The enemies of our nations will go one day. …
“We don’t sue because we don’t like things. That is what elections are for,” Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told the closing lunch of the Fall 2010 Legal Strategy Forum, “We sue because some things the federal government has done are unconstitutional.” Speaking at The Heritage Foundation Thursday, Cucinelli urged the public interest lawyers in attendance to do all that they can to educate the public about how the federal government’s ever expanding power is antithetical to our nation’s First Principles. “These legal battles have been coming for some time. The …
When I was first elected Governor of Minnesota, the state budget had grown an average of 20.5% every two years for four decades. This spending path was unsustainable. That’s why as governor, I held the line on taxes and spending. We’ve cut average annual budget increased to about 2% and this biennium we actually cut real government spending for the first time in Minnesota’s 150-year history. Thanks to these tough choices, Minnesota now stands ready to lead the nation out of the recession. A recent editorial in the Wall Street …
$154 billion. That is the amount of taxpayer money that will be needed to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac according to a new “stress test” performed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. And that is the good news. If the economy dips into a second recession and foreclosures rise, the Fannie and Freddie bailout could nearly double in size. The agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, released the numbers “to inform public debate about the future of the two companies” ahead of expected Obama administration proposals slated for …
While the United States struggles to escape a recession — and California is plagued with a massive fiscal crisis — there is one outlier posting big job growth numbers, all while keeping taxes low and government small: Texas. In a new study, the Texas Public Policy Foundation finds that though Texas, like the rest of America, is suffering the effects of the great recession, “its economic decline in the state has been milder than in California and the rest of the country,” and “The Texas economy has been growing stronger, …
