Free Republic

Health Reform Lessons from Massachusetts, Part IVThe new math, or maybe it’s the old By Trudy Lieberman Campaign Desk — July 21, 2009 12:43 PM Three years ago, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted a far-reaching health reform law that politicians and the media hailed as a model for other states and the federal government. That law has become the major blueprint for health system change on a national scale, and its advocates, with Sen. Edward Kennedy at the top of the list, are aggressively marketing some variation of the Massachusetts plan as the reform of choice. Until recently, there has...

Given that Medicare is already on track to bankrupt the United States, you'd think the government would be looking to reduce its health care responsibilities, not increase them. However, the government being the government, is looking to take over the rest of our health care system in a move that would spike costs, ruin the quality of care, and involve the government even more deeply in the daily lives of Americans. However, let's take a look at how the state government in Massachusetts, where they have Romneycare -- which incidentally, is looking less and less appealing -- to see how...

Crime: Yes, 150 years is a long sentence for a 71-year-old criminal. But few will shed tears for Bernie Madoff as he goes to jail. And yet, the man who financially ruined hundreds of people holds lessons for the rest of us.Madoff's trail is littered with bankruptcy, broken dreams and bounced checks. Most, if not all, his victims will spend the rest of their lives — no exaggeration there — trying to recover from the financial devastation he wrought. The magnitude of Madoff's crime boggles. He took $17 billion from investors in his fund — which boasted of beating Wall...

President Obama finally found his voice on Iran this week, saying the world was "appalled and outraged" by the regime's suppression of peaceful protests. Mr. Obama also hinted that he was prepared to reconsider direct negotiations with the regime. "We have provided a path whereby Iran can reach out to the international community," he said. "What we've been seeing over the last several days, the last couple of weeks, obviously is not encouraging in terms of the path." So where do we go from here, particularly now that demonstrations are abating in the face of increased repression? One place to...

The debate over achieving universal health care can seem hopelessly confusing. But the issues are actually pretty simple when you consider the lessons of Massachusetts. In 2006, state lawmakers seeking to broaden health coverage made it illegal to be uninsured. It works like this: Employers have to offer you a health plan. If you are jobless or don't like your employer's plan, you must buy your own. If you don't get one, you pay a stiff fine. This strategy—known as an employer and individual "mandate"—forms the backbone of the national health reform bills now making their way through Congress. On...

Almost every idea that ever came out of France has been bad for America, from the structuralist philosophical gibberish which has poisoned US academe to the grotesquely over-regulated tax and spend socialism which is now ruining the US economy. But if there’s one area where the French do get it SO right it’s in their uncompromising approach to Islam. Compare and contrast, the appalling cultural appeasement of President Obama’s speech in Cairo on June 4 when he boasted that the United States prized freedom of religion and would not “tell people what to wear.” And there was I thinking it...

Let’s review the bidding, shall we? The “election circus” took place a week ago Friday, and demonstrations began that night, June 12th. Ten days have passed. What have we learned? –First, that a significant number of Iranians hate the regime and are prepared to die to bring it down; –Second, that the fanatical religious zealots that hold the guns, chains, knives, tear gas cannisters, high-powered water hoses, sniper rifles and (perhaps) chemical weapons (said by some to have been deployed from helicopters), are prepared to order the killing of any number of Iranians in order to maintain their own power...

June 15, 2009, 3:00 p.m. Rethinking the Reagan MystiqueDutch made mistakes, but also provided edifying examples of keen political judgment. By Steven F. Hayward In the New York Times this weekend, John Harwood revisited the debate between conservatives and Republicans over whether it is time to “rethink the Reagan mystique.” Does anyone really think the major media outlets covering this intramural argument really have conservative success in mind?   Now, that’s not to say that the argument isn’t a worthy one or should be suppressed — NRO has hosted some fruitful discussion on the issue. But Americans should approach such...

by Gina L. DiorioArmed with coffee, I set out yesterday morning at about 5:15 a.m. for Trenton to welcome home the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the New Jersey National Guard. I had learned through Eagles UP! of the need for volunteers to help serve refreshments to the returning troops, just as we – and many other volunteer groups – had done one year ago at Fort Dix before the nearly 3,000 soldiers left for Iraq. While crowds prepared to line the parade route leading from State Street to the Sovereign Bank Arena, where thousands of family members would...

Stimulus: With the votes tallied from a weekend election, it's now apparent that the European Union has taken another step to the right. There's a message in this for both the White House and the U.S. Congress.Results from the vote for the EU Parliament showed huge disaffection among Europeans for state-directed answers to the economic crisis — specifically, for the kinds of massive stimulus programs pushed by the U.S. Parties allied with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — who have both made a point of opposing any kind of U.S.-style stimulus — made big gains. Even...

Epic Struggles The Obama-Cheney disagreements over past policies are hardly unique. What similar historical debates in Poland and Russia can teach us. History lives and breathes—it's never static. Debates about history always tell us as much about the present and the struggles for power as about the past, often more so. As George Orwell famously pointed out: "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." Poland is once again getting a reminder of that. Former prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński is banking on history to revive his right-wing party's political fortunes in the...

By ION MIHAI PACEPA They say history repeats itself. If you are like me and have lived two lives, you have a good chance of seeing the re-enactment with your own eyes. The current takeover of General Motors by the U.S. government and United Auto Workers makes me think back to Romania's catastrophic mismanagement of the car factories it built jointly with the French companies Renault and Citroen. I was Romania's car czar. When the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided in the mid-1960s that he wanted to have a car industry, he chose me to start the project rolling. In...

HBO’s Into the Storm, dramatizing Winston Churchill’s leadership during World War II, deserves close study from our statesmen, their spouses, and anyone with questions about the stakes and requirements of warfare. This Churchill, portrayed brilliantly by Irish actor Brendan Gleeson, is an unapologetic conservative, a tenacious dynamo whose rhetoric and resolve protected Britain and the West from submission to tyranny. We pick up Churchill where HBO’s Emmy-winning 2002 film The Gathering Storm left off. Hitler appeaser Neville Chamberlain has been discredited, and Churchill takes over as prime minister. After the successful retreat of the British Army from Dunkirk, France, Churchill...

n American skipper in the hands of seafaring rogues. Some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes under attack.

BAGHDAD — At 9 p.m. on Muthana Army Base, home to the 6th Iraqi Army (IA) Division, the work day ended hours ago. But one small classroom is still lit up where a multitude of voices breaks the relative silence that has overtaken the rest of the post. “Everybody together now: ‘I, we, you, they, he, she, it.’” A group of Iraqi Soldiers are learning basic English skills, thanks to Sgt. 1st Class Gabriel Ramirez, logistics non-commissioned officer in charge with the 6th IA Div. Military Transition Team (MiTT). Using an interpreter to communicate the meaning of words into Iraqi...

What's in a word? Whether through deliberate denseness for political point-scoring, or through genuine failure of linguistic understanding, Democrats seem to be having real trouble with the word fail. But the word fail must be defended; or more particularly its usage; or more specifically its recent usage by Rush Limbaugh, which is thematically emblematic of its usance in politics et al.

The 44th president has concluded his first prime-time presser and I found myself marveling over two refreshing aspects of the affair. The first was that we were actually able to watch it. During the last few years of George W. Bush’s tenure, it seemed as if he could dress up in a chicken suit and set himself afire and you couldn’t get the press corps to show up and cover it. If we were lucky, it might show up on CSPAN 3 and the highlights would be clipped for the next day’s Morning Joe or Fox and Friends. The second...

On his first big test, Barack Obama made some rookie mistakes and strategic missteps. But he still appears headed for a win on the centerpiece of his agenda, a huge economic recovery program, with the fresh striking of a bipartisan deal in the Senate. Legislative leaders, including some fellow Democrats who support him, chalked up his problems to inexperience and some initial miscalculations over the lack of GOP support, and they suggest he'll learn from the rocky start. Americans have learned, too, a little about how their new president works. He's swung from being conciliatory to badgering Congress to act,...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2009 – A former basketball star from Chicago’s inner city who served in the Army and was injured in Iraq has learned that time does really heal wounds. Former Notre Dame basketball player Danielle Green-Byrd prides herself on taking “the road less traveled” – a road that took a fateful turn when she lost her left arm in Iraq. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Danielle Green-Byrd, one of the first women injured during the beginning of the conflict in Iraq, said she believes her successful transition comes from traveling on the road of...

Inspired by FDR, Obama and his fellow Dems promise a "New Deal" economic program that will pull the country out of recession and put it on the road to sustained economic growth. What dangerous nonsense. Democrats, particularly Obama and his advisors, haven't got a clue as to what really happened during the '30s. This is because they are a pack of intellectual sponges rather than thinkers. (And please, don't mention Bernanke). If it were otherwise they would have taken the time and trouble to investigate that greatly misunderstood period in American economic history. What I hope do here is provide...