[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkPiJayiuUA[/youtube] “The most outrageous detail in the current House bill is the philosophy on which it is premised. It is premised on the philosophy that the government knows best how to organize 1/6th of our economy,” said Rep. Ryan (R-WI) today before visiting Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing. Ryan was speaking about the current House health bill, a behemoth piece of legislation weighing in at 1,990 pages and costing $1.5 trillion.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PWgoSKxx84&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] In 1948 the United Kingdom sent a leaflet to every home in the country stating that the newly created National Health Service would provide everyone with “all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child – can use it or any part of it.” Today’s NHS, however, has created a far different reality. “We are seeing a healthcare system that is rationing people’s care by waiting lists, that is relying on people dying on waiting lists so that they don’t have to have their …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-BoR9hAvQ[/youtube] Dr. Norm Thurston is doing something extraordinary: he’s implementing consumer-driven health care fixes in Utah. When many employers recently started dropping health benefits the state reacted with reforms that make costs predictable for both employers and consumers. Predictability depends on accurate information for all sides. The Utah Health Exchange makes this possible. Here’s how it works: Companies choose a fixed amount to contribute toward employee health benefits. Employees contribute pretax money from their own paychecks, and they can make contributions from a spouse’s job or a second employer as well.
Heritage’s David W. Kreutzer: Waxman-Markey
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxQgqqnpxo4[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPlzV8BZdlw[/youtube] A poll released today by the Washington Post appears to indicate support for a public option is rising. They claim a 2% bump in the last month means the public option has therefore “rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.” Inventive headlines aside, this poll actually indicates that disapproval for Obamacare has solidified. Two months ago Obama began this huge blitz. He spoke to congress, [held] a primetime press conference, [he did] all five Sunday shows and he has not moved public opinion one bit. That’s the big story. …
“It’s very telling that the first vote that we’re going to make on health care, Neil, is to add a quarter of a trillion dollars to the federal debt.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSP28MjkeAI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DhabZ2N8U8[/youtube] FCC Commissioner McDowell recently spoke at Heritage’s Blogger Briefing and then sat down with the Foundry to discuss the ongoing process to add unnecessary regulation across the entire internet. The complicated proposed rules for the new medium are an old story of regulation: It does put government in the unprecedented role of perhaps sitting between the producer and the consumer in the internet space. There you have it. Wedging itself between two mutually benefiting parties in the name of fairness is perhaps what government regulation does best. Also see …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cqWuVb7FNc[/youtube] “Be bold,” says James Tooley when you want education reform. He’d know. For the last decade the Newcastle University Professor has been traveling throughout the world’s poorest regions studying systems of education. What he’s discovered may be surprising. In the poorest countries on earth, parents are choosing private schools because they don’t want to acquiesce to the mediocrity of public schools…Our research has shown that these schools are outperforming the government schools at a fraction of the cost.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62pNLVUycg4[/youtube] Rebiya Kadeer is President of the World Uyghur Congress, an oppressed Muslim minority in Western China. Focrefully seperated from her family, she now lives in exile in the Unites States. We’ve written about Rebiya Kadeer before and her case and her story demand our attention.
