Health care reform was supposed to “bend the cost curve” in health care and reduce the amount that American families pay in health care premiums. This was the message the nation received from proponents of the new law, which included organizations such as AARP. But now the group, whose membership includes 40 million Americans over the age of 50, is telling its employees a different story. Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, writing for the AP, recently reported that AARP informed its 4,500 employees in an email that, “Health care premiums will increase by …
Missing in news reports on the recent release of the United Nations 2010 Human Development Report is any mention of a significant addition to the report. For the first time, the HDR includes the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which measures poverty based on components other than income and GDP. The Index rates countries’ poverty levels based on health, education, and living standards, including elements such as nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, access to water, electricity, and more. The MPI measures a total of 10 indicators and ranks countries accordingly. To …
Probably not permanently, but the economic policy excerpts from Rahm Emanuel’s stump speech last Saturday could lead one to believe that: . . . we cannot ask taxpayers for more when families are struggling to stay afloat in this economy. We cannot price Chicagoans out of their homes, their schools and communities. This is no time to even talk about raising taxes. Our first responsibility is to make the tough choices that have been avoided too long because of politics and inertia. Whether or not the call for austerity measures …
Newly-elected conservatives heading to Washington next year have a lot to do to curb the size of government and get federal deficits under control. Requisite to achieving these goals is the full repeal of Obamacare. According to Peter Orszag, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Obama, leaving the health law intact would create savings. But this couldn’t be farther from reality. Orszag claims that Obamacare will reduce the federal deficit and Medicare spending. What isn’t mentioned is that, though it’s true that spending on Medicare …
The left just can not come to grips with the fact that their hyper-aggressive policy agenda is a major factor causing unemployment. Witness Mother Jones trying to debunk “The Uncertainty Meme” after reading USC business professor Ayse Imrohoroglu identify uncertainty as a confidence killer. On inflation Drum writes: Interest rates will remain very low for a very long time. The Fed has made this as clear as any central bank possibly could. The Fed certainly intends to keep interest rates, especially long-term interest rates low, but the Fed’s experiment in …
There has been increasing opposition from Republican Senators to vote for New START, a nuclear strategic offensive arms control agreement with the Russian Federation, during the upcoming lame duck session of the Congress. Most recently, their ranks were joined by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), whose chief of staff, Todd Womack, stated that “Senator Corker believes it is far more appropriate to deal with major pieces of legislation like this in settings other than a lame duck session.” Senator Corker is right. There are substantive issues in the treaty that need …
It’s highly unlikely that we’re going to see any large energy bills like a cap and trade or renewable electricity standard passed during the lame duck session, but that isn’t stopping Senator Harry Reid (D–NV) from moving forward with bad energy policy. Undeterred by an American electorate that shouted clearly that it was done with Washington-centric, special interest politics, the majority leader filed procedural motions to vote on S. 3815, the “Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act of 2010.” The bill is laden with handouts to promote vehicles powered …
Last week, the co-chairs of the President’s deficit commission released a report of possible proposals for the commission’s final report. Recommendations included cuts to discretionary, mandatory, and defense spending as well as tax increases. The report was a good start to the debate and will gauge the readiness of lawmakers and private citizens to make the difficult decisions needed to reduce the deficit. However, the co-chairs’ proposal does not go far enough in addressing entitlement spending and also includes burdensome tax hikes and irresponsible cuts in defense. Heritage expert Alison …
The Washington Post reports this morning that the fate of a lame duck vote on New START rests on just one man: Senator Jon Kyl (R–AZ). According to the Post’s sources, other Republicans in Congress have “kind of delegated” New START to Kyl, meaning that if the Obama Administration wins his vote, the nine total Republican votes needed to reach 67 votes would be easy to find. That is why the White House dispatched General Kevin Chilton to Arizona last Friday, and it is why Defense Secretary Robert Gates is …
While President Barack Obama was telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that New START would be one of his top priorities in the upcoming lame duck Congress his aides were busy spreading bags of money around Friday trying to buy votes. According to anonymous sources of The Washington Post, Obama administration official visited Capitol Hill offices, including Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) offering $4.1 billion in new funding for nuclear maintenance. This is terrible public policy. If funds are needed for the most vital and sensitive military capability in the military’s arsenal …
