May 2, 2012
Charles Blahous and I have a new column in the Wall Street Journal on how Obamacare tries to double-count certain revenue to twist its budget figures: One of the enduring mysteries of President Obama’s health law is how its spending constraints and payroll tax hikes on high earners can be used to shore up Medicare finances and at...
May 1, 2012
I have a new post up at The Corner on new estimates showing that 2009 and 2010 had the slowest growth rates in health spending in five decades. The obvious cause is the recession. But: it would appear that these economic factors alone don’t fully explain the drop in spending growth, so the search is on for additional causes....
November 2, 2011
I have a new columm up at e21 on the prospects for success of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction: The problem is not that the two sides can’t put on the table broad budget parameters that look good on paper (although Republicans will never agree to the kind of tax hike the Democrats are now calling for). The problem is...
October 24, 2011
I have a new article in The Weely Standard on the recently canned part of Obamacare called CLASS: CLASS (for Community Living Assistance Services and Supports) is a voluntary long-term care insurance program that hitched a ride on Obamacare. The program was set up to charge participants premiums for at least five years before...
October 20, 2011
Ever since the Obama administration announced last Friday — in the late afternoon — that it was “suspending” implementation of the CLASS (Community Living Services and Supports) Act, Obamacare’s apologists have been twisting themselves into knots to explain away this embarrassing episode as no big...
October 18, 2011
Over at National Review Online, I have a new column up on a special budgetary procedure known as “reconciliation,” which was mentioned by Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum at last Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate as an option for repealing Obamacare: If, in the 2012 election, Republicans are able to maintain control...
September 26, 2011
I have a new column up at e21 on the president’s latest budget proposal: This plan wasn’t aimed at building bridges to the GOP or helping the Joint Committee come to an agreement. It was aimed at drawing sharp contrasts between the parties and positioning the president going into the 2012 presidential campaign. In that...
September 22, 2011
I have a new column up at National Review Online on why the president’s actions on the budget are bad for himself and the country: …inexplicably, the president has decided once again that he would rather preserve his political talking points for 2012 than achieve bipartisan legislation. There is no other way to interpret his...
September 19, 2011
I have a new Weekly Standard article on the need not to focus exclusively on the individual mandate in undoing Obamacare: Obamacare’s individual mandate — requiring that all Americans purchase government-approved health insurance beginning in 2014 — has always been the law’s most vulnerable provision. It is...
September 14, 2011
I have a new background report available at the Heritage Foundation on why Medicare reform should be market-based: Recently, proposals have been advanced that would bring market discipline to Medicare by converting the program into fixed premium assistance instead of an open-ended, defined-benefit entitlement. These reforms are...