Commentary

Blackouts

California’s Energy Policy Risks Tilting at Windmills as Electric Car Sales Grow

A cosmic policy convergence is brewing a nasty storm that will hit California hard in a few years. With deadlines for an all-renewable electricity grid as well as the end of sales of new gasoline-powered cars bearing down on the state, we’re facing a future of commonplace blackouts and energy ...
Commentary

Sanders Proposal Brings Medicare Closer To The Brink Of Collapse

President Joe Biden wants to lower Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 60. Now Sen. Bernie Sanders is intent on doing him one better. The Vermont socialist, the country’s leading promoter of single-payer health care, is pushing Democrats to open up Medicare to Americans as young as 55. “There are many millions of seniors ...
Climate Change

Fund coronavirus research, not a climate change musical

I’ve been a science nerd almost all my life. In graduate school, I was the co-discoverer of a bacterial enzyme essential to DNA replication and of a key enzyme in the influenza virus. I have written more than a thousand articles concerned with science and science policy. I’m convinced that America’s prosperity is based on post-WWII ...
Commentary

‘Rescue’ package makes poor pay for rich’s health care

President Joe Biden recently signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law. With a stroke of his pen, he claimed to put “working people in this nation first. It’s not hyperbole; it’s a fact.” A closer look at this so-called “rescue” package suggests otherwise. Democrats tucked two provisions into the law ...
California

Green Jobs Demonstrate The Perils Of Government-Directed Economic Growth

Part of President Biden’s Build Back Better initiative promises to “create good-paying union jobs and train Americans for jobs of the future.” The unspoken theory behind this initiative is that green jobs will offer a pay premium to workers compared to jobs in the fossil fuel industry. It also reflects the Administration’s ...
Commentary

President Biden’s Weak Vaccination Incentives Hurt Americans

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently expressed a sense of “impending doom” regarding the pandemic. Her fear is that, unless Americans keep abiding by strict Covid-19 protocols like mask-wearing, social distancing, and forgoing travel, a new surge in cases and deaths could be on ...
Commentary

Hospitals shouldn’t be the gatekeepers of healthcare prices

It’s been more than three months since the federal government ordered hospitals to make like the rest of the economy and start publishing their prices. But nearly two-thirds of the country’s largest hospitals are refusing to do so, according to Health Affairs analysis. That’s absurd. Price transparency is fundamental to the efficient ...
Commentary

What the Public Gets Wrong About the Public Option

Nearly seven in 10 voters, including more than half of Republicans, support a public health insurance option, according to new polling from Morning Consult. Medicare for All is less popular. Some 55 percent of voters embrace the idea. Americans might see the public option as a moderate alternative to the explicit government takeover of ...
Commentary

Conservatives Have Healthcare Ideas, Too

Democrats are pushing ahead with their healthcare agenda. In the last few weeks, progressive lawmakers have introduced a new Medicare for All bill, proposed legislation that would implement a public option, and poured billions of dollars into expanding Obamacare subsidies. The press is wondering how Republicans will respond. Last month, ...
Commentary

Let health care workers treat patients in any state

Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., recently introduced legislation that would allow licensed medical professionals to provide treatment in any state through the remainder of the pandemic. That’s a good idea. But its existence sheds light on a bigger problem within our health care system. Even under normal ...
Blackouts

California’s Energy Policy Risks Tilting at Windmills as Electric Car Sales Grow

A cosmic policy convergence is brewing a nasty storm that will hit California hard in a few years. With deadlines for an all-renewable electricity grid as well as the end of sales of new gasoline-powered cars bearing down on the state, we’re facing a future of commonplace blackouts and energy ...
Commentary

Sanders Proposal Brings Medicare Closer To The Brink Of Collapse

President Joe Biden wants to lower Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 60. Now Sen. Bernie Sanders is intent on doing him one better. The Vermont socialist, the country’s leading promoter of single-payer health care, is pushing Democrats to open up Medicare to Americans as young as 55. “There are many millions of seniors ...
Climate Change

Fund coronavirus research, not a climate change musical

I’ve been a science nerd almost all my life. In graduate school, I was the co-discoverer of a bacterial enzyme essential to DNA replication and of a key enzyme in the influenza virus. I have written more than a thousand articles concerned with science and science policy. I’m convinced that America’s prosperity is based on post-WWII ...
Commentary

‘Rescue’ package makes poor pay for rich’s health care

President Joe Biden recently signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law. With a stroke of his pen, he claimed to put “working people in this nation first. It’s not hyperbole; it’s a fact.” A closer look at this so-called “rescue” package suggests otherwise. Democrats tucked two provisions into the law ...
California

Green Jobs Demonstrate The Perils Of Government-Directed Economic Growth

Part of President Biden’s Build Back Better initiative promises to “create good-paying union jobs and train Americans for jobs of the future.” The unspoken theory behind this initiative is that green jobs will offer a pay premium to workers compared to jobs in the fossil fuel industry. It also reflects the Administration’s ...
Commentary

President Biden’s Weak Vaccination Incentives Hurt Americans

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently expressed a sense of “impending doom” regarding the pandemic. Her fear is that, unless Americans keep abiding by strict Covid-19 protocols like mask-wearing, social distancing, and forgoing travel, a new surge in cases and deaths could be on ...
Commentary

Hospitals shouldn’t be the gatekeepers of healthcare prices

It’s been more than three months since the federal government ordered hospitals to make like the rest of the economy and start publishing their prices. But nearly two-thirds of the country’s largest hospitals are refusing to do so, according to Health Affairs analysis. That’s absurd. Price transparency is fundamental to the efficient ...
Commentary

What the Public Gets Wrong About the Public Option

Nearly seven in 10 voters, including more than half of Republicans, support a public health insurance option, according to new polling from Morning Consult. Medicare for All is less popular. Some 55 percent of voters embrace the idea. Americans might see the public option as a moderate alternative to the explicit government takeover of ...
Commentary

Conservatives Have Healthcare Ideas, Too

Democrats are pushing ahead with their healthcare agenda. In the last few weeks, progressive lawmakers have introduced a new Medicare for All bill, proposed legislation that would implement a public option, and poured billions of dollars into expanding Obamacare subsidies. The press is wondering how Republicans will respond. Last month, ...
Commentary

Let health care workers treat patients in any state

Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., recently introduced legislation that would allow licensed medical professionals to provide treatment in any state through the remainder of the pandemic. That’s a good idea. But its existence sheds light on a bigger problem within our health care system. Even under normal ...
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