Medicare is in dire need of reform. This week’s chart illustrates why the entitlement program is the largest driver of long-term runaway deficits. With the country’s population aging and increasingly dependent on health care, Medicare’s cost to taxpayers is projected to rise from $522.8 billion in 2010 to $932 billion in 2020. The Heritage Foundation has long championed reforms for Medicare, most recently as part of Saving the American Dream. Heritage’s Bob Moffit recently outlined a two-stage approach to reform. The first step is saving the current program, then moving …
“Occupy” protesters wear their movement’s leaderless decentralization on their collective sleeve. The attitude fits with a group that claims “democracy” as its chief political end. But it also makes ascertaining their conctete political objectives far more difficult, since, in theory, there can be no established political platform. Polling conducted at some of the Occupy tent cities offers a glimpse into the views of the protesters. But market research firm Frontier Lab decided to look a bit deeper into what drives the protesters. Scribe sat down for an interview with Frontier …
The plastic bag police scored a victory in Seattle this week. The liberal enclave imposed a ban on plastic bags and a 5-cent tax on paper bags, joining other major cities in the latest nanny-state crackdown sweeping the nation. Seattle’s ban applies to all grocery, retail and convenience stores. It exempts farmers’ markets, however. The ordinance takes effect in July 2012. Seattle’s action comes three years after the City Council tried to impose a 20-cent tax on all bags. That idea was shot down by voters in a referendum. It’s …
When it comes to creating jobs, North Dakota has found the right formula. The state has the largest percentage increase in employment over the past year and was the fastest of all 50 to recover from the recession. The reason is simple: energy production. “North Dakota has been the poster child for what can happen when we unleash free enterprise and allow states to develop and commercialize their resources,” Heritage’s Nick Loris wrote recently on The Foundry. “North Dakota is drilling at record pace.” The state’s unemployment rate is 3.4 …
Americans hitting the road this week are likely to encounter the highest-ever price for gas at Christmas in history. According to figures from AAA, the nationwide average for regular unleaded is $3.21 per gallon — an increase of 23 cents over last year’s Christmas record. This marks the second straight year Americans are paying more at the pump during the holidays. The price in 2009 was around $2.60 per gallon and jumped to about $3 per gallon at Christmas last year. These higher prices aren’t grabbing headlines as they once …
Support for Obamacare sunk to 29 percent in the latest Associated Press poll. The widespread dissatisfaction with President Obama’s signature achievement is one reason Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) has developed health care reform that puts patients first rather than government. Price, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, understands health care better than most. Before coming to Congress, he spent nearly 20 years in private practice as an orthopedic surgeon. He’s now using the lessons from that experience to undo the damage of Obamacare by promoting a plan called the …
House Republicans return to Washington today to vote on a two-month payroll tax extension. If news reports are correct, the bill is likely to fail, leaving in doubt how lawmakers will resolve their differences before the year draws to a close. These year-end squabbles are now routine business in the nation’s capital. At issue in this case is the short-term extension of the payroll tax rate through February. “I believe that two months is just kicking the can down the road. The American people are tired of that. Frankly, I’m tired …
President Obama had hoped to be in Hawaii today for the start of his 17-day Christmas vacation. Instead, he’s stuck in Washington until Congress finishes its work for the year. But in the Aloha State, residents are already abuzz about the first family’s trip — and its high price tag. Figures obtained by Hawaii Reporter reveal the trip is expected to run taxpayers about $4 million. It has already cost taxpayers about $100,000 extra just so first lady Michelle Obama and the president’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, could leave Friday …
Few people have been more vocal about the challenges facing offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico than Sen. David Vitter. As a Republican from Louisiana, Vitter has firsthand knowledge of the Obama administration’s slow pace of permitting since last year’s oil spill. Louisiana has yet to fully recover from the drilling moratorium and the subsequent delays stemming from Washington. This week marked the first offshore lease sale in nearly two years — a sign of progress. However, bureaucrats are still taking 115 days to approve plans, nearly twice as …
A new poll from Gallup suggests that President Obama’s class warfare argument and the Occupy Wall Street movement are failing to resonate with Americans — and might actually be backfiring. The new survey reveals that Americans today are less likely to think of the country as divided into “haves” and “have nots” as compared to when Obama ran for office in 2008. That campaign featured the Obama’s “spread the wealth around” rhetoric and followed former Democrat vice presidential candidate John Edwards’ talk of “two Americas.” Americans were equally divided when …
