An irresponsible sentence that Justice Samuel Alito wrote eight years ago may now excuse religious people from nearly every legal obligation they have, so long as a hypothetical, nonexistent government program could substitute for it.
That became clear this week when Judge Reed O’Connor declared in Braidwood Management v. Becerra that employers with religious objections may offer health plans without drugs that prevent transmission of HIV, contraception, the HPV vaccine and sc...
Opinion
Keeping the public interest in public health is key to combatting disease
On Aug. 23, Director Rochelle Walensky called for a paradigm shift in the manner the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do their work.
“In these pandemic moments, we found ourselves having to talk to a broader audience,” she said. “We didn’t have to convince the scientific audience — we had to convince the American people.”
This shift is critical if the efforts of the CDC are to fully understand, address and co...
Biden’s student loan bailout treats hard-working Americans as chumps on Labor Day
President Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 of student loans per borrower is bad policy for numerous reasons. It adds nearly $1 trillion to the national debt. It fuels inflation. And it is illegal executive overreach. (The Job Creators Network Foundation’s Legal Action Fund is currently considering legal options to block it.)
The bailout is also fundamentally unfair to most Americans who never earned an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. These hard-working folks are forced ...
Reconciliation can be a game changer for pro-worker policies
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) does many valuable things: It reduces prescription drug prices, combats climate change and makes corporations pay a minimum tax. One of the more consequential and lasting impacts of the new law, however, could be that it highlights how Congress can move forward with pro-worker legislation. Until the Senate filibuster is reformed, the most likely path for Congress to support workers and their labor unions lies with budget reconciliation&nb...
Government programs have become one big fraud-fest
How much of America’s $30.7 trillion national debt is a result of fraud? A lot, and it’s growing exponentially.
Eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” is a standard political campaign mantra. It almost never happens. And while the problem has grown worse over the years, federal COVID-19 relief and the Biden administration have goosed the surge.
Here’s how New York Times reporter David A. Fahrnethold began a recent news article, “In the midst of the pandemic, the govern...
Government programs have become one big fraud-fest
How much of America’s $30.7 trillion national debt is a result of fraud? A lot, and it’s growing exponentially.
Eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” is a standard political campaign mantra. It almost never happens. And while the problem has grown worse over the years, federal COVID-19 relief and the Biden administration have goosed the surge.
Here’s how New York Times reporter David A. Fahrnethold began a recent news article, “In the midst of the pandemic, the govern...
Government programs have become one big fraud-fest
How much of America’s $30.7 trillion national debt is a result of fraud? A lot, and it’s growing exponentially.
Eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” is a standard political campaign mantra. It almost never happens. And while the problem has grown worse over the years, federal COVID-19 relief and the Biden administration have goosed the surge.
Here’s how New York Times reporter David A. Fahrnethold began a recent news article, “In the midst of the pandemic, the govern...
How can Democrats get our message across? Piece by piece
So often in politics, particularly when it comes to major legislative proposals that become big legislative wins, we think that messaging the whole bill will drive the polls and public opinion. Unfortunately, as Democrats should have learned from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), that assumption can be a big mistake.
In fact, it not only can prove to be a less efficient and effective game plan, it also can leave us open to a dizzying array of focused, if baseless, attacks on indi...
How can Democrats get our message across? Piece by piece
So often in politics, particularly when it comes to major legislative proposals that become big legislative wins, we think that messaging the whole bill will drive the polls and public opinion. Unfortunately, as Democrats should have learned from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), that assumption can be a big mistake.
In fact, it not only can prove to be a less efficient and effective game plan, it also can leave us open to a dizzying array of focused, if baseless, attacks on indi...
What’s the more effective safety net?
There long has been a debate among social policy advocates and politicians over which makes better policy and is more politically sustainable: universal programs like Social Security and Medicare or targeted ones like Medicaid and food stamps.
The assumption is that universal programs fare better as, by definition, they have more beneficiaries. Conventional wisdom has it that during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies, programs focused on the poor were shredded...