Before passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), President Obama made several promises to the American people in an attempt to build support for his health care plan. Among them was a promise that “nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.” However, since the PPACA was signed into law and began down the long road of enactment, the truth has proven to be the opposite: No matter how much individuals may like their current health plan, under the new law, there’s no guarantee …
With the country in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, it’s no surprise that the economy is on everyone’s mind. According to the latest Gallup poll, 7 in 10 Americans point to economic issues as the most important problems facing the country. Such are the problems—now what do we do about them? Well, it depends on who you ask. According to Paul Krugman of The New York Times, we need another $800 billion stimulus. The first one, you see, wasn’t big enough. “The stimulus right now …
Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to eat chocolate, dote on freshly delivered red roses, and to celebrate the 19th century abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore sometime in February 1818, Frederick Douglass was given the improbably dignified name “Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.” Like many people born into slavery, Frederick Douglass did not know his exact birthday. He chose February 14th, because his mother, who died when Douglass was around eight years-old, called him her “little valentine.” We can celebrate Frederick Douglass by honoring the principles …
Last Friday, House Republicans re-introduced legislation that would fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. This iteration included deeper cuts that would reduce spending for the rest of the year by a total of $100 billion compared to the President’s budget proposal. Though the new proposal includes $16 billion in unwise cuts to security spending, taking their initial spending reduction proposal back to the drawing board for more cuts shows lawmakers’ commitment to putting the federal budget on a sustainable path, and is a promising step …
The new makeup of the House of Representatives has brought with it new leadership on the House Education and Workforce Committee, and fresh ideas about education policy. Chairman John Kline (R-MN), at the helm of the committee that will be charged with overseeing a possible reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) this year, is already asking hard questions through a series of committee hearings on the effects of ever-growing federal involvement in education. Last Thursday, the House Education and Workforce Committee held a full committee hearing to examine the …
A new paper entitled Australia’s Strategic Edge in 2030 from Ross Babbage, founder of the Kokoda Foundation, an Australian think tank, has furthered the debate in Australia about the future of Asia with a rising China and the role of the U.S.–Australia alliance. This paper continues the strategic discussions that took place within Australia following the release of Australia’s 2009 defense white paper and Hugh White’s 2010 Quarterly Essay piece “Power Shift: Australia’s Future between Washington and Beijing.” It, and the conversation it has generated in Australia, illustrates the continuing …
From the perspective of the dictatorships of the Middle East, the most obvious conclusion from the demonstrations in Egypt and the resignation Friday of embattled President Hosni Mubarak is undoubtedly that a little freedom is a dangerous thing. On the other hand, keeping a tight lid on any kind of opposition and controlling the information flow and cyberspace will leave political opponents little room to maneuver. It is when the people lose their fear, as they did in Tunisia and Egypt, that the regime will end up on the ropes, …
States have a lot to lose under Obamacare. Beyond representing a huge overreach of Congress’s constitutional authority, the new law includes several provisions that restrict states’ ability to reform their health care systems in ways that best serve residents’ specific needs. Obamacare requires all states to extend eligibility for Medicaid to an additional 18 million citizens. This will have serious implications for state budgets, which are already stretched thin by the cost of the program. The law also requires that states set up health insurance exchanges, for which the rules …
Of course it’s not surprising news at all: there are many more liberals than conservatives in the universities. But this reality has become an inconvenient truth refusing to stay under the rug. The New York Times reports a finding by University of Virginia social psychology professor Jonathan Haidt: 80% of social psychologists openly admit a liberal preference. Haidt confronted his peers with this disproportion between liberals and conservatives at the Social Psychology conference in San Antonio last month. While any other major disproportions (age, sex, race) in the discipline would …
Our trade deficit with China rose 20 percent to a record $273 billion last year, according to figures just released by the Commerce Department. For political reasons, this is a depressing, dangerous result. American exports to the PRC soared 32 percent in 2010, which is a welcome development. It is nonetheless depressing because American imports from the PRC rose 23 percent, yet the trade gap still widened.Our exports are so much smaller than our imports that they fall further behind when growing noticeably faster. With imports growing 23 percent, our …
