“I think that health care, over time, is going to become more popular,” then-White House senior advisor David Axelrod promised David Gregory about Obamacare last September. That same month, the Health Information Campaign, founded by high-profile leftist activists including former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, spent $2 million on a national television ad campaign touting Obamcare’s first insurance mandates. Now, six months after Axelrod’s promise, and a full year after the bill was signed into law, the results are in: Obamacare is …
This week marks the first anniversary of Obamacare, and already some of the less egregious aspects of the law have taken effect: minimum loss ratio regulations, the small-business health insurance tax credit, high-risk pools, and coverage mandates on insurance companies. However, the worst parts of Obamacare won’t kick in until 2014. You can learn more about in our recent Heritage in Focus podcast with Heritage expert Bob Moffit. Click here to listen. So what has health reform accomplished over the past year? First off, as a result of new laws imposed, …
Russia originally abstained from vetoing the U.N. Security Council resolution allowing operation “Odyssey Dawn” in Libya. Now, however, Moscow is changing its tune: Russia has called for an immediate cease-fire because of the claims of “high civilian casualties.” In other words, as long as Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi was killing thousands of his own people, it was fine, but now that the Western and Arab air and naval forces are trying to protect the rebels, it is not okay. Strange logic indeed. However, it may be reflecting deeper splits inside …
The Franco-American-British coalition leading military intervention in Libya has demonstrated the cardinal rule of international security: enduring alliances matter. Ultimately, when the chips were down and the rebel stronghold in Benghazi was under threat, it was a coalition of long-standing allies that rallied behind one another to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. British Prime Minister David Cameron quickly emerged as Europe’s unofficial leader on the issue of Libya and was among the first to call for Libya to be suspended from the U.N. Human Rights Council. French President Nicolas …
The Obama Administration has already presided over the steepest rise in gas prices since the Carter Administration. And like President Jimmy Carter, PresidentBarack Obama has restricted traditional domestic energy development at every turn. According to the Energy Information Administration, President Obama’s Gulf drilling moratorium will cause domestic offshore oil production to fall 13% this year . Absent the Obama moratorium, the EIA had predicted a 6% increase in offshore production from 2010 levels. That means President Obama’s Gulf moratorium alone will cost American consumers 220,000 barrels of domestic oil production …
No sooner did AT&T announce on Sunday its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile than analysts began handicapping whether federal regulators will approve the deal. The $39 billion fusion of the second- and fourth-largest providers of U.S wireless service (by revenue) is sure to trigger lots of hand-wringing at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But the agency’s penchant for regulatory excess has harmed consumers in the past, and Congress ought to constrain it from doing so in this case. Under current law, the commission must approve all transfers of radio spectrum licenses …
Everyone knows that competition keeps prices down. However, collective bargaining eliminates competition, and downward pressure on costs, by giving government unions a monopoly. It forces voters’ elected representatives to employ workers on terms the union accepts. With collective bargaining the government cannot shop around to get taxpayers a better deal. Unsurprisingly, giving government unions this monopoly tends to make government more expensive – and not just through higher wages and benefits. Nowhere is this on better display than in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s education union, …
This Wednesday marks the first anniversary of Obamacare. While its supporters spend the week highlighting the new law’s effects on affected groups of Americans, we will do the same. By laying out the facts on the ground and the conclusions of Heritage research from the past year, we shed light on the realities of the new law and the negative consequences it has for every American. Today, liberals will argue that Obamacare is good for America’s seniors. The truth is that the few perks Medicare beneficiaries will experience under the …
On March 2, President Barack Obama anointed Vice President Joe Biden as his lead negotiator on coming to an agreement with congressional conservatives on this year’s federal budget. Biden then spent half a day on Capitol Hill talking with Republicans before jetting off to Europe. The next week, Senator Joe Manchin (D–WV) attacked the President on the Senate floor: “Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations—our president—has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he …
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — In 2006, when Indiana small-business owner Scott Womack purchased a development agreement to expand his IHOP franchise into Ohio, he had no idea Congress would pass a massive overhaul of the health care system four years later. Today, one year after that legislative overhaul became law, Womack is very aware of Obamacare — and of its effects on his plans for growth. Under the year-old law, Womack must provide health insurance to all full-time employees beginning in 2014. Right now, he employs nearly 1,000 full- and …
