Onward and upward – the Constitution and Liberty!

On a Saturday in late October in Kabul, Afghanistan, a car carrying explosives rammed into an armored U.S. military bus, killing 13 Americans, including five soldiers and eight civilian staff. In August, a Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans. Who was responsible? The Taliban. And who now says the Taliban is not America’s enemy? Vice President Joseph Biden. In an interview with Newsweek, Biden laid out his — and the Administration’s view — of the Taliban: Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s … More

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 … More

John Lambert tackles two hot-button issues in one thought-provoking article

Yesterday, the Administration released data from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey that shows, among other things, that the number of uninsured young adults declined over the last year. In a short press release, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) touted this as evidence that Obamacare is working, specifically attributing increased coverage of young adults age 19–25 to the Obamacare provision allowing those individuals to stay on their parents’ health plans. Undoubtedly, it’s true that some of those individuals did get coverage due to that provision, but HHS … More

Reports have surfaced that conservatives in Congress may propose further increasing income adjustment in Medicare to lessen the program’s insolvency. This is a great idea. While the left continues to argue for higher taxes for the likes of Warren Buffett to maintain the status quo of a costly, failing Medicare program, it makes more sense that Congress should simply stop subsidizing them. As Congress continues to pursue solutions to the entitlement spending crisis, one question that must be answered is whether the United States should even have universal federal entitlements … More

CNN had an interesting look last week at the “Occupy Wall Street” offices in downtown Manhattan. The fact that they have offices seemed noteworthy in itself, given that Occupiers frequently bill their protests as leaderless and completely decentralized. We decided to look into some of the names that popped up among the group’s staff there. Two of the staffers in particular offer a glimpse into the backgrounds and motives of the people running the supposedly leaderless protests. Han Shan, a former program director for a group called the Ruckus Society, … More

As the fight continues against the one-size-fits-all changes enacted under Obamacare, some states continue to work on health care reform specific to the needs of their residents. Florida is one such state. Its Medicaid Reform Pilot passed with bipartisan support in 2005 and has been implemented in five counties over the last five years. It has been a remarkable success, shifting a failing government health program away from the status quo of top-down micromanagement toward consumer-driven, patient-centered care. In a detailed analysis written for The Heritage Foundation, Tarren Bragdon, CEO … More

Just as the Supreme Court has decided to take up the court cases challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare, a new Gallup poll shows that the plurality of Americans–including even a plurality of independents–want to see the law repealed. Meanwhile, a new survey by the PwC Health Research Institute shows that health care and the deficit are tied as the second-most important issue in the presidential election, after jobs. Gallup reports that, “Given a choice, 47% of Americans favor repealing the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, while 42% want it kept … More

213 years ago, on November 10th, something really important happened.  In fact, it was so important that if there ARE going to be federal holidays at all, this should definitely be one.  But it’s not.