Free Republic

While life expectancy in many parts of the United States is dropping, it has increased by 10 years in Manhattan since 1987. Researchers largely attribute that rise — the fastest in the nation — to a crackdown by the New York City health department on unhealthy behaviors. Manhattanites can now expect to live to the ripe old age of 82, and the average life expectancy across all five New York City boroughs is 80.6 years. That's three years beyond the national average, and a striking turnaround since the city's low point in 1990, when life expectancy there trailed the U.S....

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday no one in his administration created the mess at insurance giant AIG, including the much-maligned executive bonuses, but that "the buck stops with me" to fix it. Standing on the White House lawn as he prepared to go to California, Obama vigorously defended his embattled Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner. Some have speculated that Geithner's job could be in danger over his handling of the millions of dollars in bonuses that American International Group Inc., is giving its executives — even in the midst of a massive federal bailout. "There has never been a...

So Mr. Obama’s plan would piggyback on existing payroll direct-deposit systems, siphoning off 3 percent or so of everyone’s salaries and funneling it directly to an individual retirement account, probably a Roth for those who qualify. Employers would have to do little more than select a provider of the I.R.A.’s. There would be a standardized default investment, probably some kind of mutual fund with a mix of stocks and bonds that gets more conservative over time. The key to making this truly widespread, however, is something called auto-enrollment. That means that unless workers opt out of the plan, the money...

Democratic presidential candidate Edwards' plan for universal health care includes raising taxesThe Associated Press Published: February 4, 2007 WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Sunday his plan for universal health care would require higher taxes and cost up to $120 billion (a) year. "We're asking everybody to share in the responsibility of making health care work in this country," the 2004 vice presidential nominee said. "Yes, we'll have to raise taxes. The only way you can pay for a health care plan that costs anywhere from $90 (billion) to $120 billion is there has to be a revenue source,"...

Does the defeat of Democratic state Sen. Dina Titus in last fall's gubernatorial election mean her pet scheme -- spending millions more in tax money to dragoon all Nevada's kids into the state compulsion school system at age 5 -- is dead? Oh, please. Victorious Gov. Jim Gibbons' weak-kneed "Let's study it" may postpone the inevitable for a few years, but government-funded mandatory schooling from age 4 to 18 (or will it be 22?) will arrive -- and bankrupt us -- in our lifetimes. What will the "studies" show? The same thing studies of the federal Head Start program show:...

Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race. "I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country," the Illinois senator said. His chief rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, also are strong proponents of universal health care and have promised to offer their plans. On Thursday, she criticized Bush's proposal to make health care more affordable through tax breaks, arguing...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race. "The time has come for universal health care in America," Obama said at a conference of Families USA, a health care advocacy group. "I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country," the Illinois senator said. Obama was previewing what is shaping up to be a theme of the 2008 Democratic...

"U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (L) greets Bobby Harden (R) and his daughter Olivia before speaking during an event to promote health care in New York, January 21, 2007. Clinton, in her first public appearance since joining the 2008 White House race, said on Sunday she wanted to become U.S. president because she was 'worried about the future of our country.'"

SEATTLE - An ailing 9-month-old baby had surgery Friday to insert a catheter that will allow for future kidney dialysis. His mother had tried desperately to prevent the surgery, seeking to pursue alternative natural treatments. Earlier Friday, a Tacoma judge refused Tina Carlsen's request to block the surgery. Carlsen, 34, of Sumner, spent five days in jail after she took her son, Riley Rogers, out of a Seattle hospital on June 22, prompting a two-day statewide Amber Alert.

BEVERLY HILLS - Facing a state audit and possible criminal investigation of the state commission he chaired, movie director Rob Reiner on Monday said his opponents are targeting him for attacks to avoid discussing the merits of the universal preschool initiative he put on the June ballot. "They will do whatever it takes to knock this thing out," he said in an interview with The Bee. "So they will attack me because they know they can't talk about the initiative." Opponents responded that they have discussed the shortcomings of Proposition 82, including their argument that raising taxes on the wealthy...

In his Inaugural Address in 1965, Lyndon Johnson, coming off one of the great landslides, spread out the plans for his Great Society. It was the heyday of liberalism, and those were days of hope. After civil rights, education topped the agenda. On April 11, at the grammar school he attended, LBJ signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the first federal education law in U.S. history, focused on disadvantaged children. And after 40 years and trillions of tax dollars plunged into public education at all levels, how stands public education? Well, it depends. Sam Dillon reports in Sunday's New...

Canadian auto regulators are testing a system that would enforce speed limits by making it harder to push down the car's gas pedal once the speed limit is passed, according to a newspaper report....

HILLARY STOKES '08 FIRE WITH RED-HOT SPEECH By IAN BISHOP ----------------------------------------- HILLARY CLINTON Photo: Rick Dembow April 11, 2005 -- MINNEAPOLIS — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton bowled over the Democratic faithful in the key 2008 presidential swing state of Minnesota with a fiery weekend stump speech that had fans hailing her as the "great hope" to take back the White House. "She speaks her mind and she's a leader," swooned Debra Manninen. "She's our great hope." Party faithful here devoured Clinton's brand-new, red-meat material in her first major political speech Saturday night since the November 2004 election, which aides said...