Obamacare vs. Scaliacare
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on November 15th, 2014 12:08 am by HL
Obamacare vs. Scaliacare
E.J. Dionne, RealClearPolitics
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders in the House and Senate have made clear that they’ll deploy every weapon in the legislative arsenal to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They’ll try to chip away at the taxes that support it and abolish the mandates that make its insurance markets work. They might even stand on their heads and stop breathing if that would do the trick. It’s a shame they are approaching matters this way. Various provisions of the ACA have helped well over 100 million Americans, including about 20 million who gained coverage or got new insurance under the law. In a rational…
The Big Questions in Iraq
David Ignatius, RealClearPolitics
WASHINGTON — As the United States advances into its third war in Iraq in a quarter-century, it’s important to have a mental checklist to assess whether U.S. strategy there can succeed. Right now, because of Iraq’s continuing corruption and sectarianism, it’s hard to be optimistic. President Obama’s basic strategic framework seems right, in theory. Obama reiterated Monday in Beijing: “It’s not our folks who are going to be doing the fighting. Iraqis ultimately have to fight [the Islamic State] and they have to determine their own security.” As Obama pledged again that America’s role will be…
Calling the Bluff on Obamacare
Froma Harrop, RealClearPolitics
There’s this game in American politics where folks who fancy themselves conservative often condemn programs that they in fact want very much. Obamacare is one such example. We face a possible moment of truth in a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. If the justices rule a certain way, Americans in the 36 states covered by the federal exchanges would lose their federal subsidies. Gone would be guaranteed coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. Gone would be affordable premiums for families buying their own insurance. Millions would be thrust back into the health care…
25 Years After the Wall Fell, Challenges Remain
Cathy Young, RealClearPolitics
The festivities for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a turning point in the collapse of Soviet communism, have passed in the shadow of troubling events around the world. In Moscow, a KGB-bred strongman plots to build a new Kremlin-ruled empire as a nervous Europe looks on. Meanwhile, the specter of radical Islamic fundamentalism is haunting the Middle East. Has the promise of freedom that looked so bright in 1989 faded—or are there grounds for cautious hope, in place of the wild-eyed optimism of a quarter century ago? Re-reading an essay penned a few months after the…