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| August 6th, 2010 by Cindy in Healthcare Reform Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) office recently issued a policy paper titled, “Bad Medicine,” on the new federal health care law that’s worth reading. Among the gems is a finding that immigrants in some ways get a better deal than U.S. citizens and legal residents under the new health reform law, says health economist Devon Herrick.
For example:
- If you are a legal resident alien you will be required to obtain the same government mandated health coverage that U.S. citizens must obtain.
- However, if you have been here for less than five years, and if your income falls below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, you will not be allowed to enroll in Medicaid — as U.S. citizens will be required to do.
- Instead, you will be able to obtain highly subsidized insurance (paying a premium, say, of 10 cents on the dollar) in a health insurance exchange.
- If Medicaid insurance is lower-quality insurance, you will have access to better insurance than a U.S. citizen with the same income!
If you are an undocumented immigrant you will not be subject to the individual insurance mandate and you will not be fined if you fail to purchase health insurance, nor will you be allowed to enroll in Medicaid or buy insurance in the health insurance exchange, says Herrick. Continue reading from NCPA…
| August 6th, 2010 by Cindy in Economy/Budget All over the developed world, countries are facing an extremely unpleasant budgetary reality: Per capita health care spending is growing at twice the rate of growth of per capita income. The Obama administration has made it about as clear as it is going to get that after the fall election its solution to trillion dollar deficits is going to be a value-added tax (VAT). But is that a good idea, asks John C. Goodman, President, CEO and the Kellye Wright Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis.
Based on a review of the literature, Randall Holcombe, the DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University, calculates that a 10 percent VAT lowers the rate of economic growth by 10 percent. Based on this relationship, he finds that, measured in gross domestic product (GDP): Continue reading from NCPA…
| August 6th, 2010 by Cindy in Economy/Budget President Obama has repeatedly asserted that the new health care reform’s individual mandate requiring everyone to have qualified health insurance coverage or pay a penalty is not a tax. And yet the Department of Justice (DOJ) now claims the mandate is a tax, but not because the legislation refers to the mandate as a tax — it doesn’t. Rather, the DOJ lawyers want the Supreme Court to confer its blessings on ObamaCare when the issue comes before the Court, and the lawyers are increasingly concerned that the 20-plus state challenge claiming the mandate is unconstitutional may hold up, says Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation.
The Democratic defense has morphed from the: “Of course we have the constitutional power to impose an individual mandate” defense to, “The Commerce Clause gives us the power to mandate coverage” defense, and now to their, “It’s a tax” defense. Continue reading from NCPA…
| August 6th, 2010 by Cindy in Education Yesterday, President Obama delivered a major speech on education in an effort to garner support for his Race to the Top grant program and his push for national education standards and tests. The President’s remarks came on the heels of a speech delivered by Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday at the National Press Club, during which Duncan attempted to paint the Administration’s policies as part of a “quiet revolution.”
Duncan certainly got the quiet part right. Since his Administration came into office, President Obama has quietly been reworking the country’s education system, doing an end-run around normal legislative procedure. Continue Reading from The Heritage…
| August 6th, 2010 by Cindy in Illegal Immigration Lawmakers since last year have been kicking around a proposal to bar U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants from becoming U.S. citizens. Such a move, which has been ridiculed by legal scholars, would be a drastic reinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
But those supporting the move say it removes a key incentive luring illegal immigrants over the border. And with Arizona lawmakers now prohibited from requiring police to check immigration status, the option might be back on the table.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News after the Arizona ruling came down that “birthright citizenship” needs to be changed. Continue reading from Fox News…
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