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Press Coverage on the Congressional Health Care Reform Debate
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Meeting In The Middle
2.4.2010
Last week President Obama sparred with House Republicans in an unprecedented debate that highlighted the two parties' differences on the issues, particularly health reform.
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The Right Way To Reform
2.3.2010
Centralizing health care doesn't work. Here's an alternative.
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Power: Commentary: How Myths Distort Energy Policy
2.1.2010
Congress and various states are considering a fundamental restructuring and regulation of our energy policy. Any such effort should be based on facts, but legislators, unfortunately, incline to myths, such as the notion that most of our energy comes from oil.
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Steven Greenhut: Guards union adds insult to injury
1.29.2010
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association – the state prison guards' union – is complaining about, and pursuing legal action against, the California government because of the supposed unfairness of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough policy, which the union says forces some of its members to work on furlough days without pay.
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Jon Coupal: Prop. 13 blameless for state crisis
1.27.2010
When California voters approved Proposition 13 by a landslide in 1978, they launched a nationwide revolt for lower taxes. Critics now blame that revolt for our current fiscal crisis. That charge needs to be considered in the light of actual data about property taxes in California.
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California Focus: 'Race to the Top' won't get there
1.26.2010
As California and other states scramble for shares of Barack Obama's $4 billion pot of "Race to the Top" education funds, it's easy to overlook the recent dagger to the heart dealt by the president and the Democratic-controlled Congress to the successful and popular Washington, D.C., school-choice voucher program.
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Opinion: The Crisis That Went to Waste
1.26.2010
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." That's what White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said in November 2008 to justify the incoming administration's bold policy proposals including, especially, health care reform.
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Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California
1.25.2010
Months after closing its last budget gap, the Golden State is $20 billion in the red.
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Orszag's 'pillars' unsteady as health care foundation
1.25.2010
Over the past several months, White House budget director Peter Orszag has emphasized that rising federal health care costs threaten to cripple our nation financially.
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GREENHUT: Will financial mess offer some hope for California?
1.24.2010
Americans have a deep-seated sense that things have gone awry in our Republic, and they're struggling to give voice to their frustrations.
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Sense of Proportion
In a Capitol Weekly article this week State Senator Fran Pavley attempted to defend AB 32, her colossal 2006 environmental legislation with the goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately Pavley’s intent has been very different than the outcome for the people of California.
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The Rest of The Story
Steve Maviglio touts economic benefits of AB32 and asserts polls show strong support for the economy crippling regulations coming out of the California Air Resources Board. It's good that he's now out of the isolation chamber of Sacramento politics, and may begin to hear common folks' concerns. He claims that global praise for the Governor regarding climate action and strong support from Californians, 66 percent support the law in the last PPIC poll, are devastating harbingers for efforts underway to rationalize the law. That poll was conducted last summer, before the recession's persistence drove thousands more to lose their jobs and their homes to foreclosure.
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Now You Should Be Really Fiscally Afraid in California
After reading a recent article I wrote about growing unfunded liabilities for public employee pensions and health care, a reader told me that it made him want to “burn his eyes out with red hot pokers.” Yes, the current situation – expanding debt, growing government, excessive pay and special privileges for government workers, thanks to union power – is not fun to read about. It can be downright scary, when one considers the financial mess that already is looming.
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More Medicare Patients Dropped
Yet more news, from the Columbus Dispatch, that Medicare patients are increasingly having difficulty gettting access to care. This blog has had a number of entries (latest one here) discussing the Mayo Clinic's decision to drop patients in traditional Medicare from some of its primary-care practices.
At risk of patting myself on the back, this is what I anticipated in my recently published study of choices in Medicare. Basically, Medicare has three problems: A huge unfunded liability; ineffective reimbursements to providers (which are a result of centralized price-fixing by the government, which cause providers to shift costs to private payers); and lack of access.
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Rethinking Big ED
In today's Wall Street Journal Clark S. Judge offers his top 10 tips for a winning political strategy urging readers to, "Take a lesson from Ronald Reagan and emphasize that your programs are based on consistent principles leading to a hopeful future for all Americans." One area failing this litmus test is the Department of Education-and we have even more reason today than 20 years ago to ponder whether Big ED has delivered on its promises. We'll recall that in 1980 Ronald Reagan asked voters, "Are you better off than you were fours years ago?" Modern readers should ask whether today's students will be as well educated as previous generations. Evidence is not encouraging.
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A Choice Between the President and the Future
The Congressional Budget Office has just announced that “the federal budget deficit was about $390 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010,” which is “$56 billion more than the shortfall in the same period in fiscal year 2009.”
In other words, we are running up an even higher deficit than we did last year, when we racked up the highest current-dollar deficit in U.S. history, the highest inflation-adjusted deficit in U.S. history, and the highest deficit as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) except for during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II (higher even than during the Great Depression).
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Whatever Happened to Informed Consent?
How much control would Americans have over their own health care and their health-care system if Obamacare is passed? About as much as they have over the process that threatens to yield it.
Polls show double-digit margins opposing Obamacare, far greater opposition among those who feel strongly, two-to-one opposition among seniors, and two-to-one opposition among independents. Yet the administration and its congressional allies couldn't seen to care less. And now they are trying to leave Americans as blind to the process as they are deaf to Americans' concerns.
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Seizing the Initiative
Obamacare may well lose in the House. A host of members maintain personal objections to the legislation and face unhappy constituents. Motivated by a blend of principle and self-preservation — and realizing the folly of marching to their political deaths at the command of a president whose approval rating is hovering below 50 percent — many members may well vote against it. This is especially true of those who voted for the Stupak amendment to prevent public funding for health plans covering abortions. Despite the overwhelming popularity of such a provision, the compromise bill will surely not contain it.
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Obamacare’s Three Major Hurdles
The ability to achieve victory largely comes down to one’s determination to win, versus another’s willingness to accept defeat.
United States history is replete with examples of Americans overcoming far greater odds than those currently faced by the opponents of Obamacare. In fact, it’s not clear that Obamacare opponents face long odds at all, or even that they face odds longer than those faced by Obamacare supporters, despite the latter’s grossly premature declarations of victory.
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If You Like Your Insurance . . .
And so it begins to unravel. The Mayo Clinic — "praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care" — stopped accepting Medicare patients as of January 1, "saying the U.S. government pays too little."
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