May 11, 2009
In the latest issue of the Weekly Standard, I have a new piece on ObamaCare, coauthored with my New Atlantis and EPPC colleague Yuval Levin. We first point out the general failings of the president’s plan: But the Obama plan, whatever its tactical cleverness, will suffer from the key drawbacks of all government-financed and managed...
May 5, 2009
At a hearing last week, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus tried to turn up the heat on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) when he said the whole health care reform effort might be in jeopardy if CBO remains skeptical about his cost-cutting efforts. It’s telling that Senator Baucus has taken to working the budgetary...
May 1, 2009
Here’s the good news: Powerful Democrats, led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, have essentially admitted that Medicare’s current structure is a big part of the health care problem. That’s a genuine breakthrough, with important consequences. For years, many Democrats have argued that the way to fix health...
April 23, 2009
I was glad to accept an invitation to make a presentation last week to the Cleveland Chapter of the Worldwide Employee Benefit Network (the folks who help make employer-sponsored health insurance work). The group was interested in learning more about the state of the health-care debate in Washington — understandable, since some of...
April 23, 2009
The New York Times has a piece today on the growing sense among Democrats that they might be better off trying to pass their massive health-care plan on a partisan basis — without even making a show of seeking Republican support. We should know very soon if that’s their game plan. House and Senate conferees are in the midst...
April 22, 2009
President Obama certainly has the right to nominate whom he wants for political appointments in his administration. In general and within reason, some deference by the Senate to those selections is appropriate. But Kathleen Sebelius is so clearly the wrong person to lead HHS that even the president should be able to see it. Indeed, if...
April 20, 2009
Yesterday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on This Week that Republicans have become the party of “no,” “never,” and “no new ideas.” And he challenged GOP leaders in Congress to come to the table with proposals and be constructive in negotiations. Emanuel seems to be under the impression...
April 15, 2009
Ramesh Ponnuru’s piece in the New York Times last week generated a fair amount of commentary from critics, and able responses from Ramesh himself, of course, as well as Michael Cannon over at Cato. There’s no real need to go over the substance of those exchanges again here. But one issue that did come up in the back and forth...
April 9, 2009
Ramesh Ponnuru’s op-ed in today’s New York Times on the flawed arguments for universal coverage is well worth reading. It’s a piece that needed to be written. Making universal coverage the goal of a health-care bill distorts scores of decisions, and it’s not necessary. Many Democrats adhere to the big bang theory...
April 7, 2009
The drumbeat is getting louder. Last week, the New York Times reported that the broad outline of a health-care reform bill is starting to come into focus in Congress. Yesterday, E. J. Dionne Jr. argued in his Washington Post column that the political stars are lined up for a successful health-care push this year. Expect more of the same...