Article Archive
Why Expanding Social Security Is a Bad Idea
A New America Foundation proposal would cost 3.7 percent of GDP and crowd out the private saving that drives our economy.
The Shrinking Health Gap
When considering trends in equality, income is important, but health is arguably a prerequisite for all other measures of well-being.
‘Not One Dime’: Health Care Law Projected to Add $6.2 Trillion to U.S. Deficit
Congress is likely to follow precedent and bypass the new health care law’s draconian payment cuts to doctors and hospitals, causing the law's cost to balloon by trillions of dollars.
Just How Polluted Is China Anyway?
Decades ago, I wrote the first comprehensive books on China’s energy and environment. I have not been surprised by the country’s continuing environmental degradation; even so, I could not have predicted such a deterioration of air quality.
China’s Sick Yellow River
China’s water pollution is even worse than its better-known air pollution. As long as the Chinese people have few private rights, government-backed pollution will continue.
Prescription for Trouble
The FDA can finally prevent narcotic drugs that can be widely abused from easily threatening patient safety. Will it seize the moment?
Death Panels, Revisited
When it comes to doling out medical care, especially life-preserving care, we all begin to get a little squeamish. No one wants to be the one who says no. We don’t even want to acknowledge that it is happening.
The Deadly Crusade Against E-cigarettes
What the critics see as a bug is actually a feature: e-cigarettes can work as a public health tool precisely because of their resemblance to the real thing.
Did President Obama Restore Science to Its Rightful Place?
On a whole host of issues, Obama has placed politics before science.
Compounding a Crisis
Fifteen Americans have died from tainted steroid injections. Here’s how Obama’s FDA can make things better.
Curing the Pre-Existing Conditions of ObamaCare
The administration’s emphasis on pre-existing conditions falsely implies that the only way to cover future serious illness is with ObamaCare’s heavy-handed requirements.
Why Is the ObamaCare Tax/Penalty Needed at All?
When you have to force people to buy something as obviously valuable as protection against becoming uninsurable or paying astronomical premiums, it means you have some serious design flaws in your product.
If You Don’t Buy Insurance, Will You Really Pay the Tax?
Generally speaking, if you owe the IRS, it will get the money from you—with the possible exception of the ObamaCare tax.
The Ghost of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes Gets a Second Chance
The parallels between these New Deal laws, particularly the National Industrial Recovery Act, and ObamaCare practically write themselves.
The Healthcare Myths We Must Confront
As debate about whether ObamaCare is a good idea continues, rejecting four major misconceptions about healthcare is crucial to any chance of our eventually emerging with a better system.
How to Repeal and Replace: From a Tax to Tax Credits
ObamaCare may be constitutional but it isn’t the answer. A refundable tax credit is.
Why ObamaCare Has Proved a Hard Sell
It may be that ObamaCare isn’t ‘suitable for framing’ and that there is no way to make the individual mandate intuitively convincing to ordinary Americans.
More than Just Broccoli: The Real Slippery Slope of ObamaCare’s ‘Must-Buy’ Provision
If ObamaCare is judged constitutional, it will not simply be a new law, but a precedent for laws of the kind that should trouble us all.
ObamaCare, Religion, and the Court
The president’s disregard for protecting religious liberty before the Supreme Court is consistent.