Commentary
Business & Economics
Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California
An old friend of mine has a saying, “Even the worm learns.” Prod one several hundred times, he says, and it will learn to avoid the prodder. As California enters its annual budget drama, I can’t help but wonder if the wisdom of the elected politicians here in the state ...
Commentary
Obamacare: Time to Start Over
Instead, Democratic leaders are talking about scaling back their current bills and trying to pick off a few isolated Republicans without ever having invited the GOP to the table in any meaningful way. This might have worked a few months ago, but things have changed. On the CBS Early Show, ...
Commentary
What Health Reformers Could Learn from the Market for Cosmetic Surgery
The article describes Board-certified surgeons populating a website, onto which prospective patients upload photos of body parts which they believe would benefit from surgery. Surgeons nationwide reply with explanations of procedures and price estimates. If patients then decide to proceed, they travel to the surgeons office for a consultation and, ...
Commentary
Forget the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’: Senate Medicaid Deal a Recipe for Fraud
The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) is the federal financing formula that encourages each state to spend its own taxpayers money irresponsibly in order to maximize its take from other states. For example, Californias FMAP was traditionally the 50 percent minimum: For every dollar California spent, the U.S. Treasury would ...
Commentary
Government binges on anti-obesity campaigns
San Francisco Examiner, January 21, 2010 Many Americans have made a resolution to lose weight in the new year. Thats admirable. Whats not so admirable is the recent barrage of efforts advanced by government officials to help them slim down by taxing or even outlawing foods deemed unhealthy. San Francisco ...
Business & Economics
Steven Greenhut: Public roused and testy
Americans have a deep-seated, inchoate idea that things have gone awry in our Republic, and they’re struggling to give voice to their frustrations. The Senate victory of Scott Brown an unabashed Republican in the liberal Democratic bastion of Massachusetts might not be the equivalent of the “second shot ...
Commentary
The Lessons of Race To The Top
Yesterday California submitted its application for Race To The Top funds to the U.S. Department of Education. The state recently passed two pieces of legislation to vie for the funds, and by some accounts the process has already been beneficial. Theres been more state [education reform] legislation in the last ...
Commentary
Danger Ahead
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: We are not out of the woods. It is wholly possible, and perhaps even likely, that the Dems will now turn to a limited version of health-care legislation designed and labeled as “insurance reform” that is, sharp limitations on underwriting ...
Commentary
A Switch in Time to Save Nine
Memo to House Dems: Just say no to Obamacare. The Democratic Party is lashed to health reformeven in the face of polls showing tepid public support. Thus Politicos Carrie Brown paraphrases senior Democratic aides. As unappealing as that predicament may sound, Brown writes that those same aides say it would ...
Commentary
Can We Have $21K for Obamacare, Grandma?
More than 10,250,000 American seniors are enrolled in the popular Medicare Advantage program, which lets them choose to get their Medicare benefits through private insurers. It’s been widely reported that seniors’ Medicare Advantage benefits would be cut under Obamacare. What hasn’t been widely reported is by how much. According to ...
Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California
An old friend of mine has a saying, “Even the worm learns.” Prod one several hundred times, he says, and it will learn to avoid the prodder. As California enters its annual budget drama, I can’t help but wonder if the wisdom of the elected politicians here in the state ...
Obamacare: Time to Start Over
Instead, Democratic leaders are talking about scaling back their current bills and trying to pick off a few isolated Republicans without ever having invited the GOP to the table in any meaningful way. This might have worked a few months ago, but things have changed. On the CBS Early Show, ...
What Health Reformers Could Learn from the Market for Cosmetic Surgery
The article describes Board-certified surgeons populating a website, onto which prospective patients upload photos of body parts which they believe would benefit from surgery. Surgeons nationwide reply with explanations of procedures and price estimates. If patients then decide to proceed, they travel to the surgeons office for a consultation and, ...
Forget the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’: Senate Medicaid Deal a Recipe for Fraud
The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) is the federal financing formula that encourages each state to spend its own taxpayers money irresponsibly in order to maximize its take from other states. For example, Californias FMAP was traditionally the 50 percent minimum: For every dollar California spent, the U.S. Treasury would ...
Government binges on anti-obesity campaigns
San Francisco Examiner, January 21, 2010 Many Americans have made a resolution to lose weight in the new year. Thats admirable. Whats not so admirable is the recent barrage of efforts advanced by government officials to help them slim down by taxing or even outlawing foods deemed unhealthy. San Francisco ...
Steven Greenhut: Public roused and testy
Americans have a deep-seated, inchoate idea that things have gone awry in our Republic, and they’re struggling to give voice to their frustrations. The Senate victory of Scott Brown an unabashed Republican in the liberal Democratic bastion of Massachusetts might not be the equivalent of the “second shot ...
The Lessons of Race To The Top
Yesterday California submitted its application for Race To The Top funds to the U.S. Department of Education. The state recently passed two pieces of legislation to vie for the funds, and by some accounts the process has already been beneficial. Theres been more state [education reform] legislation in the last ...
Danger Ahead
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: We are not out of the woods. It is wholly possible, and perhaps even likely, that the Dems will now turn to a limited version of health-care legislation designed and labeled as “insurance reform” that is, sharp limitations on underwriting ...
A Switch in Time to Save Nine
Memo to House Dems: Just say no to Obamacare. The Democratic Party is lashed to health reformeven in the face of polls showing tepid public support. Thus Politicos Carrie Brown paraphrases senior Democratic aides. As unappealing as that predicament may sound, Brown writes that those same aides say it would ...
Can We Have $21K for Obamacare, Grandma?
More than 10,250,000 American seniors are enrolled in the popular Medicare Advantage program, which lets them choose to get their Medicare benefits through private insurers. It’s been widely reported that seniors’ Medicare Advantage benefits would be cut under Obamacare. What hasn’t been widely reported is by how much. According to ...
