http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/rss/blog.xmlBlogTue, 22 Jun 2010 14:00:00 ESTwww.eResources.com (Generator)support@eresources.com (eResources)support@eresources.com60http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.725/blog_detail.asp& quot;This is one of those videos that can be called & ldquo;epic.& rdquo; It shows a North Carolina mother confronting Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan about ObamaCare, telling her bluntly, & ldquo;My children will suffer& rdquo; because of ObamaCare.& quot;http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.725/blog_detail.asp#8-23-2010Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.726/blog_detail.asp& quot;This is one of those videos that can be called & ldquo;epic.& rdquo; It shows a North Carolina mother confronting Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan about ObamaCare, telling her bluntly, & ldquo;My children will suffer& rdquo; because of ObamaCare.& quot;http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.726/blog_detail.asp#8-23-2010Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.724/blog_detail.aspJohn O& #39;Brien of Legal NewsLine noted New Jersey& #39;s ranking in the U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2010 Report to promote pending legislation in the Garden State.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.724/blog_detail.asp#6-22-2010Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.723/blog_detail.aspJoseph Overton, former senior vice president at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, developed the Overton Window as a model to explain public policy change.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.723/blog_detail.asp#6-21-2010Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.722/blog_detail.aspIn a clever American Spectator column, Daniel Oliver takes aim at Congress, the European Union, the United Nations, in defense of equal educational opportunity for all.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.722/blog_detail.asp#5-10-2010Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.721/blog_detail.aspWhile everyone else in the country is trying to figure out how to avoid Obamacare& rsquo;s avalanche of mandates, taxes, and general red tape, one group is actually accelerating implementation.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.721/blog_detail.asp#5-2-2010Sun, 2 May 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.720/blog_detail.aspRamesh Ponnuru advises that the action to repeal Obamacare has to move outside Washington. The good news: It& #39;s happening.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.720/blog_detail.asp#4-20-2010Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.719/blog_detail.aspTommy Thompson announced yesterday that he will not run for the U.S. Senate against the ineffable Russ Feingold. For all the applause that Thompson receives from our side of the political spectrum, let us not forget his actual performance while HHS Secretary & mdash; to pick one example in particular, his machinations in the wake of the anthrax panic on Capitol Hill in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.719/blog_detail.asp#4-16-2010Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.718/blog_detail.aspAs Americans gird themselves for the struggle to repeal Obamacare, it& rsquo;s interesting to see how the government-media complex is shoring up its defenses. Before passage, the media & mdash; large and small & mdash; performed sterling stenographic duty, parroting the government& rsquo;s talking points, deficit reduction and increased coverage, to a resistant public.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.718/blog_detail.asp#4-15-2010Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.717/blog_detail.aspInteresting news to report from my lunch with Nancy Pelosi at San Francisco& #39;s Mark Hopkins Hotel. A few hundred of her closest friends convened to hear the speaker field a handful of soft-ball questions from the Commonwealth Club& #39;s president and CEO.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.717/blog_detail.asp#4-8-2010Thu, 8 Apr 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.716/blog_detail.aspNew York Times reports: President Obama continued on Thursday what might be called his Go-for-It Tour, traveling to this Northeastern state [Maine] & mdash; represented by two moderate Republican senators who balked at his health care overhaul & mdash; to dare the opposition party to run against it this fall.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.716/blog_detail.asp#4-5-2010Mon, 5 Apr 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.715/blog_detail.aspThe insurance industry announced today that it would not dispute the Obama administration interpretation of the requirement for insurance & quot;coverage& quot; (subsidies) of children with pre-existing medical conditions. And why should they? The new law transforms the insurers into public utilities, and premiums will have to cover costs plus a fair and reasonable return.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.715/blog_detail.asp#3-31-2010Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.714/blog_detail.aspLess than three days after the passage of Obamacare, many Republicans are already losing their stomach for the fight.As Ezra Klein gleefully & mdash; but aptly & mdash; observes over at the Washington Post, & ldquo;In about 12 hours, the GOP& #39;s position has gone from & lsquo;repeal this socialist monstrosity that will destroy our final freedoms& rsquo; to & lsquo;there are some things we don& #39;t like about this legislation and would like to repeal, and there are some things we support and would like to keep.& rsquo; . . . At this rate, they& #39;ll be running on expanding the bill come November.& rdquo;http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.714/blog_detail.asp#3-24-2010Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.709/blog_detail.aspPresident Obama won a major victory last night in his determined effort to impose his will on the American people. But far from striking a fatal blow to the cause of limited government and fiscal responsibility, Obama has awakened a sleeping giant.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.709/blog_detail.asp#3-22-2010Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.710/blog_detail.aspNow that Congress has reached the & quot;end of the beginning& quot; of the federal take-over of people& #39;s access to medical services, please allow me to point out a cost that Congress has ignored.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.710/blog_detail.asp#3-22-2010Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.708/blog_detail.aspThe most likely explanation for the breakdown of talks between Rep. Bart Stupak and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not that Pelosi decided she didn& rsquo;t need Stupak and his crew in order to have enough votes to pass Obamacare. Rather, it is that Stupak & mdash; who is increasingly emerging as this drama& rsquo;s Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart& rsquo;s heroic character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) & mdash; held firm in insisting on language that would truly prevent taxpayer-funded abortions, and in insisting that such language be passed by the Senate before the bill could become law.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.708/blog_detail.asp#3-20-2010Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.711/blog_detail.aspThe Cleveland Metropolitan School District has a $53 million deficit, nearly three out of four of its schools are on academic emergency or & quot;watch,& quot; and barely half (54 percent) of its high school students graduate according to a just-released analysis by the Reason Foundation& #39;s Lisa Snell.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.711/blog_detail.asp#3-17-2010Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.712/blog_detail.aspDelegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) began planning the death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program nearly two years ago, proclaiming in June 2008, & quot;I can tell you that the Democratic Congress is not about to extend this program.& quot; A vote to extend and expand the program could occur as early as today, thanks to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and his bi-partisan coalition of Senators. Now Norton is trying to re-write history.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.712/blog_detail.asp#3-17-2010Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.707/blog_detail.aspI agree with Professor Chaufan that the & ldquo;reforms& rdquo; many states embraced to expand coverage with private insurance have failed, but disagree that it is because of a lack of government power. In fact, such reforms massively increase government power. For example, Massachusetts& rsquo; latest reform (passed by Governor Romney in 2006) made health insurance mandatory, and heavily subsidized those who could not afford it.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.707/blog_detail.asp#3-5-2010Fri, 5 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.706/blog_detail.aspThe Alliance for School Choice has just released its 2009-2010 edition of the School Choice Yearbook.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.706/blog_detail.asp#3-2-2010Tue, 2 Mar 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.702/blog_detail.aspThankfully, not all local public-schooling officials are like the ones o the Los Angeles Board of Education. In fact, a growing number local officials and parents seem to have had enough of special-interests shortchanging students.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.702/blog_detail.asp#2-27-2010Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.701/blog_detail.aspForget sticking around for senior prom and the homecoming dance. There is a growing national trend of letting students graduate high school early and move on to college sooner.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.701/blog_detail.asp#2-26-2010Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.703/blog_detail.aspPresident Obama’s proposal Monday to link Title I funding to adoption of education standards has the education world abuzz.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.703/blog_detail.asp#2-26-2010Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.689/blog_detail.aspAt the intermission, the president may be wondering why he decided to host this summit. Sitting around a table, almost as an equal (albeit a particularly chatty one) with members of Congress, does not afford him the same advantages he enjoyed when giving the State of the Union address or even when standing behind the podium at the House Republican conference.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.689/blog_detail.asp#2-25-2010Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.690/blog_detail.aspA year into the health-care debate, President Obama will be hosting a health-care summit today at the Blair House — something it is humanly impossible to imagine a president with a keener sense of the stature of his office doing. When you watch, imagine the Blair House as President Obama will likely see it in his mind's eye, with a large “Health-Care Reform: Grand Reopening” banner draped across its entrance, bands playing, and children laughing.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.690/blog_detail.asp#2-25-2010Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.688/blog_detail.aspPresident Obama’s much-anticipated summit on Thursday is drawing near. The president will kick off the six-hour event at Blair House that will be televised on C-SPAN. Following him will be opening remarks by Republican and Democratic members of Congress who have been chosen by their associates.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.688/blog_detail.asp#2-24-2010Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.704/blog_detail.aspBOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO – A day after President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan laid out an aggressive plan to expand federal control over K-12 academic standards at the National Governors Association (NGA) winter meetings, a new report criticizes the national standards process as “opaque” and the federal push harmful not only to states with existing high standards but to all states that want its students adequately prepared for authentic college level work.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.704/blog_detail.asp#2-24-2010Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.705/blog_detail.aspA day after President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan laid out an aggressive plan to expand federal control over K-12 academic standards at the National Governors Association (NGA) a new report finds the national standards process "opaque" and could jeopardize states such with existing high standards.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.705/blog_detail.asp#2-24-2010Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.687/blog_detail.aspRamesh Ponnuru's defense of allowing individuals to buy health insurance across state lines has been getting sensible push-back from readers (here and here). As he points out, all the "fixes" that Republicans have put forward are supported by conservatives because they are meant to move us in the direction of individual ownership of health insurance.So, does Congressional preemption of states' powers to regulate health insurance within their boundaries move us in the right direction? I'm afraid not, certainly not as the Republicans are proposing. Unfortunately, the GOP's Better Solutions platform continues the policy of discriminating against people who are employed, by forcing them to get health benefits of their employers' choice, and not letting them use their own pre-tax dollars to buy individual, portable, guaranteed renewable, health insurance.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.687/blog_detail.asp#2-23-2010Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.686/blog_detail.aspOne interesting contradiction about the majority faction's position on health-insurance "reform" is that, while they don't want a national market for health insurance (in the sense that they don't want each American to have health insurance that is portable from job to job and state to state), they do want Congress to regulate health insurance federally.With the "reform" in limbo, the majority has found one thing that they think will fly: Subjecting health insurers to federal antitrust laws. This would be pointless, and likely counter-productive.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.686/blog_detail.asp#2-16-2010Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.698/blog_detail.aspMore millionaires once called New Jersey home, but times have changed. A new study finds the Garden State turned a $98 billion net influx in household wealth into a net outflow of $70 billion over the past decade-what study authors call a "a near total reversal of the flow." (See p. 2)http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.698/blog_detail.asp#2-16-2010Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.699/blog_detail.aspThe Washington Post again takes partisan opponents of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to task. This time it's columnist George Will who documents the hypocrisy, writing:Most Democrats favor a "public option" -- a government health insurance program. They say there is insufficient competition among the 1,300 private providers of insurance, so people should not be dependent on those insurers. But tuition vouchers redeemable at private as well as public schools are a "private option" providing minimal competition with public schools. Government, with 89 percent of the pupils, dominates education grades K through 12. So, do Democrats favor vouchers to reduce Americans' dependence on government education? Of course not.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.699/blog_detail.asp#2-16-2010Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.697/blog_detail.aspStudents using Milwaukee Parental Choice Program vouchers are more likely to graduate from high school, according to a recent expert analysis. But in case you missed it, see what some younger experts have to say about their Milwaukee private school.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.697/blog_detail.asp#2-11-2010Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.683/blog_detail.aspThe hits just keep on comin'. The AP reported last Friday that "Vermont, already a leader in the effort to cut health care costs by reining in drug companies' marketing, could become the first state to require the firms to report how much they spend providing free samples of their wares to physicians."http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.683/blog_detail.asp#2-9-2010Tue, 9 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.684/blog_detail.aspBut that's not the way they put it. The headline reads: "Bills Stalled, Hospitals Fear Rising Unpaid Care." It's the typical sort of story describing an emergency room that deals with uninsured patients who will never pay their bills. These stories are so common, you'd expect hospitals to be shuttering across the country.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.684/blog_detail.asp#2-9-2010Tue, 9 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.685/blog_detail.aspI recently suggested that Anthem Blue Cross California’s astonishing rate hikes in the individual maket are caused by an adverse-selection spiral, and pointed my finger at recent changes in rules governing rescissions of individual policies.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.685/blog_detail.asp#2-9-2010Tue, 9 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.682/blog_detail.aspCalifornians with individually purchased health insurance were rocked last week by news that Anthem Blue Cross was planning to raise rates for some individual policies by 39 percent. U.S. Secretary of Health & amp; Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has got into the act, demanding an explanation (even though she has no authority over rates in California’s individual market).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.682/blog_detail.asp#2-8-2010Mon, 8 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.691/blog_detail.aspPerhaps the greatest absurdity of California state senator Mark Leno getting his single-payer bill passed in the state senate is that it happened the same month the Department of Managed Health Care announced its new regulations limiting waiting times for HMOs. The new regulations will require that telephone calls be returned within 30 minutes; that health professionals be available 24/7; that appointments with general practitioners take place within ten days, or 15 days for specialists.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.691/blog_detail.asp#2-5-2010Fri, 5 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.700/blog_detail.aspOn Monday, President Obama made it clear in his budget that he plans to kill the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program-but not if Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have anything to say about it.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.700/blog_detail.asp#2-4-2010Thu, 4 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.696/blog_detail.aspPresident Obama told the nation last week, "Like any cash-strapped family" his administration would "work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't." (See pp. 9-10). This week the president presented his budget. At $3.8 trillion, it is considered "one of the greatest spend-while-you-can documents in American history." Even the New York Times admitted to feeling "sticker shock."http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.696/blog_detail.asp#2-3-2010Wed, 3 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.693/blog_detail.asp"The idea here is simple: instead of rewarding failure, we only reward success." That's what President Obama promised in his State of the Union last week. Sounds great-except we've heard that one before. It's the same promise the president made last year in his first major education address-rewarding whatever works. Of course, the following day he signed the omnibus spending bill effectively killing the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which was deemed a success by his own education department and cost a fraction of what DC public schools do, $6,600 versus more than $28,000 per student.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.693/blog_detail.asp#2-1-2010Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.694/blog_detail.aspThe Pelican State holds critical lessons for adopting student vouchers, according to a new analysis by Louisiana native and Harvard researcher Michael Henderson. This is welcome news since in recent years similar programs have been scaled back or eliminated in Washington, DC, Utah, Arizona, and Florida.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.694/blog_detail.asp#2-1-2010Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.695/blog_detail.aspPolitical commentators are still theorizing about the full implications of Sen. Scott Brown's (R-MA) Senate election-particularly in light of the gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey last November (see here, here, and here, for instance). Thus far they have focused primarily on the health-care debate; however, these elections underscore the importance of putting parents-not politicians-in charge of children's education.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.695/blog_detail.asp#2-1-2010Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.692/blog_detail.aspOn the heels of President Obama's pledge to freeze non-defense discretionary spending comes even more evidence that resources for schooling don't equal reform of schooling. Quality time with great teachers, not quantity time with ineffective ones, is what distinguishes economic winners and losers, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Compared to their peers in 29 other countries, American 15-year olds place 21st in science literacy (see p. 6), and 25th in math literacy (see p. 12) according to the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.692/blog_detail.asp#1-27-2010Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.681/blog_detail.aspDiscord within the Democrats’ ranks offers Americans a renewed opportunity to learn about the sweeping changes augured by the congressional reform package. What they’ll discover is a bill that hikes taxes to pay for “reform,” making health care more expensive and less responsive to patients’ needs.New insurance regulations form the core of the reform plan. Paramount among these new rules is an individual mandate, which would require all Americans to maintain coverage. Proponents of the idea claim that it will bring healthy, previously uninsured young people into the insurance pool. Premiums from these folks would help lower the premiums of older, sicker Americans — or so the thinking goes.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.681/blog_detail.asp#1-26-2010Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.680/blog_detail.aspOn January 20, New York Times quoted President Obama, trying to rescue his health bill, stressing the need for “some kind of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up…” Ironically, if the President had read an adjourning article in the same newspaper he would have found the answer to his quest under the heading: “Should surgeons meet patients Online?”http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.680/blog_detail.asp#1-22-2010Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.678/blog_detail.aspIn the aftermath of the Democrats’ stunning defeat in Massachusetts, Democratic leaders are brainstorming how to get around Scott Brown’s election as the 41st Republican senator. But President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid haven’t yet embraced the one course they need to take: Scrap the current bills and start over, with a bipartisan process that proceeds in broad daylight.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.678/blog_detail.asp#1-21-2010Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.679/blog_detail.aspPeople were rightly upset when they learned about the "Cornhusker Kickback," the deal whereby Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska sold his vote in favor of the Senate's health bill in exchange for his state never having to pay for any of the Medicaid expansion in the bill.However, the biggest problem with the Medicaid expansion in the Senate health bill is not the “Cornhusker Kickback,” but that it leverages an already flawed formula to determine federal payments to state Medicaid programs. The Senate bill would motivate states to invest more resources in recruiting higher income residents into Medicaid, rather than traditionally eligible beneficiaries, including the blind and disabled. The Senate bill also gives richer states a bigger Medicaid bailout than lower income ones. New Hampshire, Maryland, and Connecticut get the biggest handouts, while Mississippi, West Virginia, and Arkansas are short-changed, according to my just-published analysis.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.679/blog_detail.asp#1-21-2010Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.675/blog_detail.aspAfter 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.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.675/blog_detail.asp#1-16-2010Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.677/blog_detail.aspThe behind-closed-doors squabble over the so-called "Cadillac" tax on high-cost health benefits is that it's really about bailing out public-sector-retiree health benefits, especially at the state and local level. Today's New York Times reports that the tax won't hit these folks until 2018. If I were a betting man, I'd guess that that date will be pushed out even farther before this deal sees the light of day.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.677/blog_detail.asp#1-15-2010Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.673/blog_detail.aspYet 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.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.673/blog_detail.asp#1-13-2010Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.669/blog_detail.aspThe 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).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.669/blog_detail.asp#1-11-2010Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.672/blog_detail.aspIn 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.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.672/blog_detail.asp#1-11-2010Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.670/blog_detail.aspHow 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.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.670/blog_detail.asp#1-7-2010Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.665/blog_detail.aspThe 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.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.665/blog_detail.asp#1-6-2010Wed, 6 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.671/blog_detail.aspObamacare 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.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.671/blog_detail.asp#1-6-2010Wed, 6 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.666/blog_detail.aspAnd 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."http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.666/blog_detail.asp#1-5-2010Tue, 5 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.667/blog_detail.aspAs 2009 disappeared into the history books, the Mayo Clinic in Glendale, Ariz., (a suburb of Phoenix) stopped seeing Medicare patients for primary care. To be more precise, the Mayo Clinic stopped submitting claims to the federal government's Medicare contractors. Medicare beneficiaries can still attend the clinic: They just have to pay cash.This will be tough for the patients: Medicare won't reimburse them one penny. Indeed, the law requires the physicians to explain this (in writing) to the patients.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.667/blog_detail.asp#1-4-2010Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.668/blog_detail.aspCalifornia’s recent budget deficits will look bush league relative to the fiscal hurricane that federal health reform will unleash on California and many other states. The problem stems from the expansion of Medicaid, the program for low-income residents, jointly funded by the federal and state governments.Most observers anticipate that if President Obama does sign a bill this year, it will look more like the Senate bill (an amendment to H.R. 3590), which would pull millions of Americans into government dependency for their access to medical services via an expansion of Medicaid.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.668/blog_detail.asp#1-4-2010Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.660/blog_detail.aspCount me in as one who anticipates that a January "conference" (of whatever formality) mashing up the House and Senate health bills will be a lot tougher than the Beltway pros believe. A growing number of people, whom the President should take for granted, have been finding things in the bills that displease them greatly.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.660/blog_detail.asp#12-30-2009Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.661/blog_detail.aspIt is almost impossible to describe how bloated both the House and Senate bills have become. Compare the 2,074 pages of the Senate bill to the 1965 Medicare and Medicaid law. The bill President Johnson signed was a mere 137 pages long!http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.661/blog_detail.asp#12-30-2009Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.662/blog_detail.aspThe Miami Herald breathlessly asserts that U.S. Senator Bill Nelson has “preserved” Florida’s Medicare benefits. (Hat tip to John Goodman.) This is because the “Florida Flim Flam” that he swapped to give Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid his vote in favor of the federal take-over of Americans’ access to medical services will allow Florida’s seniors to keep access to Medicare Advantage plans.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.662/blog_detail.asp#12-30-2009Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.663/blog_detail.aspA number of state legislatures are considering resolutions affirming their constitutionally-based resistance to the federal government taking over every American’s access to medical services.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.663/blog_detail.asp#12-29-2009Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.664/blog_detail.aspOK, I’ll admit that this study only came into my purview because the author has the same name as myself. Nevertheless, it clearly explains (from the physician’s experience) what happens when the federal government takes over the financing of hospitals.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.664/blog_detail.asp#12-28-2009Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.655/blog_detail.aspHarry Reid had the Senate meet for 25 consecutive days for the first time since the United States was deciding whether to enter World War I, and he held the Senate's first vote on Christmas Eve since the 19th century. Such is the zealotry of those who champion the cause of government-run health care. Gaining control over what will soon be one-fifth of our economy is apparently so important that it requires a Christmas Eve vote — for a bill that would essentially start about four Christmases from now.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.655/blog_detail.asp#12-24-2009Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.652/blog_detail.aspRemember back in June, in President Obama’s major address to the AMA, when he said the following? “No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise. . . . If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” In the six months since, there seems to have been a change.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.652/blog_detail.asp#12-23-2009Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.656/blog_detail.aspIt is almost impossible to describe how bloated both the House and Senate bills have become. Compare them to the legislation passed in 1965 that created entirely new programs, Medicare and Medicaid: President Johnson signed Public Law 89-97 in July of his first elected term — and it was a mere 137 pages long!This dramatic different in length motivated me to attempt a similar measurement of the federal regulatory burden on U.S. health care — by counting the pages dedicated to regulating health care in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) over the past decade. During most of this period, the federal government preached regulatory restraint. Indeed, the major bill, the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, was designed to reduce federal control over access to medical care via a privately run Medicare drug benefit and the introduction of Health Savings Accounts.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.656/blog_detail.asp#12-22-2009Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.650/blog_detail.aspAs noted elsewhere, much of the "savings" in the so-called reform legislation are fictional, because the government has never succeeded in rolling back physicians' Medicare Part B fees. Medicare Part B fees already run about 20 percent lower than the fees that private insurers pay, and any further cut-backs would sentence seniors to a catastrophic lack of access to physicians.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.650/blog_detail.asp#12-21-2009Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.651/blog_detail.aspNewsweek's science reporter Sharon Begley says it is time to dump the UN's climate circus: The best chance of reining in emissions of greenhouse gases and avoiding dangerous climate change is to stamp a big green R.I.P. over the sprawling United Nations process that the Copenhagen talks were part of.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.651/blog_detail.asp#12-21-2009Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.659/blog_detail.aspOne of the ways that the government is going to make the delivery of health care more “efficient”, the saying goes, is to subsidize the acquisition of electronic health records (EHRs) that adhere to federal standards.There are a couple of problems with this. Many are rightly concerned that the federal government will end up having way too much information about our health status. Another big problem, as I’ve discussed elsewhere, is that the record of adoption of EHR by both private and government buyers does not suggest success.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.659/blog_detail.asp#12-21-2009Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.657/blog_detail.aspWhile senators' families undertake their Christmas preparations without them, Sen. Harry Reid and President Obama continue to celebrate this festive season by pushing the Senate to give the American people the "gift" of Obamacare for Christmas. Fruitcakes and lumps of coal have never sounded so good.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.657/blog_detail.asp#12-20-2009Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.649/blog_detail.aspAs Linda Gorman has previously discussed, if the real point of a so-called “public option” was simply to supply fair competition against private insurers, the government would allow patients dependent on VA, Medicaid, and Medicare to take their entitlements as vouchers and get private insurance. In fact, the opposite is happening: All the reform proposals before Congress would significantly reduce seniors’ choice of benefits in Medicare. Cutting back payments to Medicare Advantage by as much as $172 billion over the next decade will cause millions of seniors to lose their coverage.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.649/blog_detail.asp#12-19-2009Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.643/blog_detail.aspDemocratic senators, giving into Sen. Joe Lieberman’s demands, agreed on Monday evening that their 2,074-page health-care bill will contain neither a Medicare “buy-in” option for people aged 55 to 64 nor a broader public option. If the House and Senate reach agreement next week on final wording and a bill does pass near Christmas or soon after, President Obama has stated that he wants the bill on his desk for signature before his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 12. This is extremely important for his presidency because he wants to be able to tout a significant first-year success to the electorate before moving further into an election year where jobs and the deficit are going to be major issues.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.643/blog_detail.asp#12-16-2009Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.647/blog_detail.aspWith the death of two even worse ideas — a government-run "public option" and a proposed Medicare expansion — President Obama was right yesterday when he said that "we are on the precipice" of something that would "touch the lives of nearly every American." We are indeed on the precipice. For after nearly a year's worth of debate, Obamacare has now been boiled down to its essence: a mandate that Americans pay trillions of dollars, funneled through Washington, to private insurers. 12/16 11:03 AMhttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.647/blog_detail.asp#12-16-2009Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.644/blog_detail.aspAdrift amongst hostile forces, including the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & amp; Medicaid Services (CMS), the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) continues to desperately insist that the so-called health reform will reduce the rate of growth of health spending.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.644/blog_detail.asp#12-15-2009Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.645/blog_detail.aspThere's been a lot of extremely relevant talk of late about why the Democrats lost so badly in 1994. Was it because they failed to pass Hillarycare, or because they tried? Over at The Weekly Standard, Andy Wickersham and I thoroughly analyze the numbers and conclude that the reason is the latter: It's because they tried.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.645/blog_detail.asp#12-15-2009Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.648/blog_detail.aspAs Jim Capretta writes over at NRO, now that the government-run "public option" has been stripped out of the Senate's proposed health-care legislation, Obamacare is left as this: a mandate that Americans funnel huge sums in new taxes, through the federal government, to private insurers. Were you wondering why the health insurance lobby supports the Democrats' version of "health insurance reform"?http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.648/blog_detail.asp#12-15-2009Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.641/blog_detail.aspWhat can I say? I'm just a glass-half-full kind of guy. Rainbows. Puppies and kittens. The laughter of children. Latkes and Santa in December. An advertisement for some consulting firm at the airport showing a huge photo of Tiger Woods walking in the rough, along with the words "Sometimes performance is found off the paved road." Life is wonderful.And I am starting to think that the ineffable Harry Reid, Grand Poobah of the Senate Democrats, will not get his 60 votes to move health-care socialism back to Nancy Pelosi and then to the White House. For months, Reid and Baucus and Dodd and all the others have been searching for a way to thread the 60-vote needle. Something. Anything. Incoherent, destructive, bankrupting, another shotgun blast at the young: It matters not a whit. If it increases dependence upon the federal government, it's a winner.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.641/blog_detail.asp#12-14-2009Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.646/blog_detail.aspMemo to anyone who still believes Santa Claus resides in our nation's capitol. Back in 1986 President Ronald Reagan told small business leaders that "government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Yesterday, government once again lived down to its reputation.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.646/blog_detail.asp#12-14-2009Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.638/blog_detail.aspLate Tuesday evening it was announced that the group of ten moderate and liberal Democratic senators had reached broad tentative agreement to remove the public option from the Senate health-care bill. But it is important to look at what compromises have been made and what they mean for the health care of all Americans.The two main compromises are the & ldquo;Medicare Buy-In& rdquo; for people between 55 and 64 and the federal government& rsquo;s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) overseeing a national health-care plan run by non-profit entities where the federal government will negotiate the rates insurance companies can charge. OPM is the agency responsible for the health-care plan for federal employees and members of Congress.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.638/blog_detail.asp#12-9-2009Wed, 9 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.637/blog_detail.aspHere& #39;s a quick stat to help illustrate just how bloated, intrusive, and bureaucratic the Democrats& #39; intended health-care overhaul would be: The bill that the Senate is currently debating is more than half again as long as the bill that was proposed by President Clinton in 1993. The Clinton bill was 1,342 pages long. The current Senate bill is 2,074 pages long & mdash; 55 percent longer.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.637/blog_detail.asp#12-7-2009Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.636/blog_detail.aspNearly everyone agrees on the major goals of legitimate health-care reform: reducing costs and reducing the number of uninsured & mdash; without reducing the quality of care. Polls show that Americans& #39; number-one health-care concern & mdash; by far & mdash; is the first of these: lowering costs. But the proposed Democratic health-care overhaul would instead raise health costs. It would also inject the federal government into the historically private relationship between patient and doctor. By a margin of about two to one, Americans think that their quality of care would decline rather than improve as a result. Raising costs and lowering quality would seem to be two rather major shortfalls in any effort at & quot;reform.& quot; And such figurative shortfalls would be matched by a literal one: The Congressional Budget Office says that, unless doctors& #39; pay under Medicare is cut by 25 percent and never raised back up, the proposed Senate bill would increase deficits by $286 billion in its real first decade (2014& ndash;23).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.636/blog_detail.asp#12-2-2009Wed, 2 Dec 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.635/blog_detail.aspIn the last two weeks, eight national polls have been released showing what the American people think of Obamacare. The results of those eight polls & mdash; Pew, ABC/WaPo, PPP, CNN, CBS, Quinnipiac, Fox, and Rasmussen & mdash; show that by an average margin of 8.5 percent (49.0 percent to 40.5 percent), more people oppose Obamacare than support it. That& #39;s greater than the margin by which John McCain lost last November. If you drop the high and low polls, the margin is greater still, as half of the eight polls show Obamacare facing a double-digit deficit.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.635/blog_detail.asp#11-30-2009Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.653/blog_detail.aspNicholas D. Kristof has pretty much shoved Prof. Paul Krugman aside as the News York Times’ leading advocate of government-centered medicine. He seems deliberately not to see that government has created the problems of fragmented coverage, by using the tax code to give employers unfair advantage over employees in acquiring coverage. In today’s column, he parrots a discredited study, which asserts that 45,000 Americans die from lack of insurances (which is already debunked, along with the entire literature on “mortality due to insurance” here).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.653/blog_detail.asp#11-29-2009Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.654/blog_detail.aspYesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran a letter by a New Yorker, who was appalled at a contributor’s criticism of New York’s regulation of health insurance. As discussed frequently in this blog, NY imposes guaranteed issue and community rating on individually purchased health insurance. These rules allow people to wait until they become sick to buy health insurance.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.654/blog_detail.asp#11-28-2009Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.633/blog_detail.aspOK I really need to get back to my paying jobs... But here are two more ClimateGate posts to throw into the mix. (Both links come from ClimateDepot, which admittedly is the Drudge Report of global warming skepticism.)http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.633/blog_detail.asp#11-27-2009Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.628/blog_detail.aspThe ruling faction has convinced the media that the health-care take-over will actually reduce the deficit. It& #39;s all nonsense of course: Spending will be much greater than reported by the majority& #39;s media enablers, and the people are not fooled. Almost three quarters of Americans believe that the health-care take-over will increase the deficit (question #26).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.628/blog_detail.asp#11-25-2009Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.627/blog_detail.aspSen. Harry Reid and Co. are trying mightily to mask the costs of the massive health-care overhaul they are proposing. This chart hows exactly how deceptive they& #39;re trying to be. Clearly, the period that the Democrats like to call the & quot;first ten years& quot; of the bill bears little to no resemblance to the costs that the American people would face over the long haul.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.627/blog_detail.asp#11-24-2009Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.630/blog_detail.aspIn the New York Times, David Brooks writes as if it& #39;s more or less equally problematic to reject or enact Obamacare, and the decision is largely a matter of personal taste. He writes: The bottom line is that we face a brutal choice.Reform would make us a more decent society, but also a less vibrant one. It would ease the anxiety of millions at the cost of future growth. It would heal a wound in the social fabric while piling another expensive and untouchable promise on top of the many such promises we& rsquo;ve already made. America would be a less youthful, ragged and unforgiving nation, and a more middle-aged, civilized and sedate one.We all have to decide what we want at this moment in history, vitality or security. We can debate this or that provision, but where we come down will depend on that moral preference. Don& rsquo;t get stupefied by technical details. This debate is about values.There are elements of truth in Brooks& #39;s words, and he& #39;s right that this debate is about values. But it& #39;s not about decency versus vibrancy, about easing anxiety versus promoting growth. http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.630/blog_detail.asp#11-24-2009Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.631/blog_detail.aspAs Tevi Troy mentioned mentioned, a Rasmussen poll released yesterday shows Americans opposing Obamacare by the colossal and surprising margin of 18 points: 56 percent to 38 percent. To put this 18-point gap between Obamacare& #39;s opponents and its supporters into perspective, it& #39;s the same margin by which Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale, the same margin by which FDR beat Herbert Hoover, and two and a half times the margin by which Barack Obama beat John McCain. Obamacare appears to be gaining water fast.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.631/blog_detail.asp#11-24-2009Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.634/blog_detail.aspA just-released survey finds majority of Virginians want more school choices-even though most of them believe their traditional public schooling system is good. Survey responses indicate:40% of parents said they would choose a regular public school for their child, but about 90% of Virginia& #39;s enrolled K-12 students attend regular public schools.39% of K-12 parents say they would like to send their child to a private school, but only 9% of Virginia& #39;s K-12 students attend private schools.11% of Virginia parents prefer to homeschool their child, but less than 2% of Virginia children are homeschooled.8% of parents say they would like to send their child to a charter school; however, there are only three charter schools in operation in Virginia, serving approximately 190 students.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.634/blog_detail.asp#11-24-2009Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.632/blog_detail.aspHaving already determined that it& #39;s absolutely untrue that Republicans opposed the 1965 Social Security amendments that created Medicare and Medicaid, I decided to dig a little deeper into the history books and find out what happened in 1935 when Congress enacted Social Security.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.632/blog_detail.asp#11-23-2009Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.621/blog_detail.aspAs late as June 11, by margin of two-to-one and a gap of 31 percent (62 percent to 31 percent), Americans approved of the job that President Obama was doing, according to a Fox News poll released that day. Now, a new Fox News poll released just yesterday shows that this 2:1, 31-percent margin has dropped all the way into a dead heat (46 percent to 46 percent). And among independents, that gap has moved from +40 (66 percent to 26 percent) to -17 (34 percent to 51 percent).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.621/blog_detail.asp#11-20-2009Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.622/blog_detail.aspSo far, Republicans are using the numbers that the Democrats want them to use for the taxes and Medicare cuts imposed by Senator Reid& #39;s new bill.The Democrats want everyone to quote figures from 2010 to 2019, even though only 1 percent of the bill& #39;s & quot;ten year& quot; costs would hit in the first four years of that period, while 99 percent would hit in the last six.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.622/blog_detail.asp#11-20-2009Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.623/blog_detail.aspDuring the 2008 election campaign, Barack Obama& rsquo;s book The Audacity of Hope was often mentioned. A year after his election to the presidency, Obama continues to push on his number-one domestic-policy issue & mdash; affordable, accessible, high-quality health care for all Americans. Under his vision of achieving universal coverage while reducing health-care costs, he touts a plan that he says would cost about $900 billion over 10 years and be deficit-neutral. His goal & mdash; a bill on his desk by the end of this year.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.623/blog_detail.asp#11-20-2009Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.624/blog_detail.aspOregon& rsquo;s insurance regulator has approved premium hikes ranging from 9% to 23% in the individual and small-group markets. The media, of course, blame bonuses paid to plans& rsquo; senior executives for the hikes.That& rsquo;s unlikely: Top execs& rsquo; total compensation ranged from $248,000 to $765,000 last year. These are utterly trivial & ldquo;causes& rdquo; of health-insurance premiums.The Oregon Insurance Division (which approves all rate hikes), notes that plans& rsquo; surpluses have consistently been about 1% of revenues. Obviously, medical spending is driving premiums, not the other way around.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.624/blog_detail.asp#11-20-2009Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.620/blog_detail.aspAs my piece published this morning by the New York Post details, only 1 percent of the costs of Senator Reid& #39;s new bill would kick in until the fifth year of its alleged & quot;first ten years.& quot; Starting in 2014, 99 percent of the bill& #39;s costs would hit, meaning that its real first ten years are from 2014 to 2023. In that real first decade, the CBO reports that the bill would cost $1.8 trillion, raise Americans& #39; taxes by $892 billion, siphon $802 billion out of Medicare, and & mdash; if doctors& #39; pay under Medicare isn& #39;t really cut by 23 percent and never raised back up & mdash; would increase our deficits by $286 billion.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.620/blog_detail.asp#11-19-2009Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.625/blog_detail.aspA friend pointed me to the following language in the CBO analysis (page 9) of the Reid bill: & quot;CBO& #39;s assessment is that a public plan paying negotiated rates would attract a broad network of providers but would typically have premiums that were somewhat higher than the average premiums for the private plans in the exchanges& quot; (emphasis added). This presumably is because the public plan would have to be self-financing, just like any old insurance company, depending (I assume) only on some seed money from the rest of the federal government.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.625/blog_detail.asp#11-19-2009Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.626/blog_detail.aspI just got back from speaking in Columbus, OH, where I learned that the state& rsquo;s recently passed budget includes health & ldquo;insurance& rdquo; reforms that make it illegal for health insurers to price actuarial risk accurately.As of January 1, 2010, insurers in the individual market will be forced to offer open enrolment to people with any pre-existing condition, including cancer. Over time, the new law will force the insurer to charge the sickest new applicant no more than 1.5 times the premium of the healthiest beneficiary of the same age and gender.http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.626/blog_detail.asp#11-19-2009Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 ESThttp://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.619/blog_detail.aspHere are some highlights from the new Washington Post/ABC News poll released today. This poll is generally among the most liberal-leaning, and yet there would still be plenty to be concerned about if one were a swing-state Democratic senator flirting with voting for Obamacare. According to the poll, not only do more people disapprove, rather than approve, of the way President Obama is handling health care and the federal deficit, but more than 40 percent strongly disapprove of his performance on these issues (41 and 43 percent, respectively, compared to only 28 and 19 percent who strongly approve).http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/blog/id.619/blog_detail.asp#11-17-2009Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST