The Institute of Medicine (IOM), the health policy arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has issued its long-awaited report making recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on mandatory insurance coverage of preventive services for women’s health care. The mandatory coverage of certain preventive services was required by an amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), known colloquially as Obamacare. The central feature of PPACA is a mandate that every American purchase a health insurance policy. The IOM report is thus rightly …
President Obama kicked off the weekend with a testy Friday night press conference warning of the drastic consequences of failing to raise the debt limit, the havoc it would wreak on financial markets, and the disastrous repercussions for the poor and middle class. That message of fear was reiterated throughout the weekend, bookended this morning by a senior White House official who says there’s a 50/50 chance that the standoff in Washington will not be resolved by the August 2 deadline. But it’s not fear for fear’s sake. The White House …
President Obama takes a break from the debt-limit talks to deliver a speech before the National Council of La Raza — a group that has served as an important bridge for Obama’s administration to the Hispanic community. Don’t expect Obama to deviate from the typical White House line when it comes to pitching Latinos that government knows best, says Israel Ortega, editor of Heritage Libertad. UPDATE: Read about the level of coordination between the White House and La Raza in today’s Daily Caller. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Speaker John Boehner …
In an accidental moment of honesty, White House Deputy Press Secretary Dan Pfeiffer today admitted on Twitter that President Obama will likely sign any debt deal Congress sends his way. This revelation came in an exchange with Stephen Gutowski, the blogger known as The College Politico. Gutowski asked Pfeiffer: “Do you see a scenario where the house & senate pass a deal but the President doesn’t sign it?” and Pfeiffer responded: “No, bc only something that has R and D support can pass both bodies”. Up until today, the White …
President Obama and congressional leaders can’t seem to agree on any plan to avert a debt crisis. As the White House’s Aug. 2 deadline approaches, the House has adopted the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, while the Senate has floated a number of bad ideas. Earlier this year, The Heritage Foundation formulated its own plan called Saving the American Dream to fix America’s debt problem. It keeps spending low without raising taxes. Entitlement programs are the biggest driver of debt, so reforming them first will put us on a course to a …
Recent attacks on the institution of marriage disregard the importance of married mother-father households to child well-being and the necessity of defending the institution of marriage for the good of civil society. At this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill that would repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), panelists supporting traditional marriage outlined some of the many arguments for keeping the institution solely as a union between one man and one woman. First, the panelists noted the government’s profound interest in sustaining the integrity of the …
On July 20, 12 Christian leaders met with President Obama at the White House to voice concerns about the prospect of budget cuts to government welfare. The group included Jim Wallis of the liberal social justice organization Sojourners and representatives from the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Salvation Army, and several humanitarian development agencies. The timing of the meeting was significant. One day earlier, the so-called “Gang of Six” in the Senate announced its proposal to address the budget deficit—a proposal that did not …
Among the most valuable outcomes of the ongoing debate regarding the debt ceiling crisis and the critical need to rein in government spending has been a sharper focus on priorities in determining prospective cuts in government spending. A coalition of faith leaders from a broad spectrum of denominations has declared that their clear priority is our nation’s bevy of poverty programs. They have petitioned policymakers to establish a “circle of protection” around programs for the poor, which would make them off-limits for budget cuts. Yet protecting the status quo and …
Here’s what you won’t hear from the President when he addresses the largest Latino advocacy organization’s annual conference today: Latino unemployment is in double digits following a failed stimulus bill. Nearly one out of every two Latinos will fail to receive a high school diploma, despite the federal government’s control over education policy in the past 50 years. Unfettered government spending has led the national deficit to balloon to nearly $13 trillion, jeopardizing American economic security and quality of life. Instead, President Obama is likely to use this opportunity before …
Proponents of government spending are fond of citing 1937 as an example of when government implemented sharp austerity, and the economy derailed. This argument is dead wrong. On Thursday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued that fiscal austerity right now would make our economic crisis worse. “Even if we manage to avoid immediate catastrophe, the deals being struck on both sides of the Atlantic are almost guaranteed to make the broader economic slump worse,” writes Krugman. As his proof, he offers that “if the negotiations succeed, we will be set to replay the great mistake of …
