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Hillary Clinton will roll out her proposed changes to President Obama's Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, focusing lowering the cost of prescription drugs. While the Democratic front-runner has long been a supporter of Obamacare, dating back to the 1990s, she has had her own, somewhat differing views on healthcare reform. Her plan, which she will introduce at a community forum in Iowa on Tuesday, will showcase some of those differences. In the run-up to Clinton's healthcare event, her campaign has complained that "price gouging … in the specialty drug market is outrageous" and said that would soon lay out a...

Hillary Rodham Clinton shed her usual sunny demeanor last week and snarled at Republicans in general and one presidential candidate in particular. “Republican governors like Scott Walker have made their names stomping on workers’ rights, and practically all Republican candidates would do the same as president,” Clinton growled at Manhattan’s New School. “I will fight back against these mean-spirited, misguided attacks. Evidence shows that the decline of unions may be responsible for a third of the increase of inequality among men. So, if we want to get serious about raising income, we have to get serious about supporting union...

The 1968 Democratic presidential primary is rightly remembered as a famous mess culminating in bloodshed. It seemed likely that the unpopular President Lyndon Johnson would suffer a great embarrassment or even a primary loss after Robert Kennedy entered the race, prompting him to declare that he would neither seek nor accept his party’s nomination for another term. The Kennedy surge was cut short when he was shot and killed in a California hotel. The stage appeared set for a victory by the anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy until George McGovern entered the race in late spring. The two fought a bitter...

It's not enough. Julia Pierson's otherwise distinguished career at the Secret Service ended Wednesday when she resigned as director of the disgraced agency—her last act the right one. Now President Obama and Congress must do their part to fix the Secret Service. They should start by undoing a Bush-era reform approved by Congress in the name of hardening U.S. defenses against terrorism. After 9/11, several Secret Service agents, including those in leadership, warned me that no good would come from plans to yank the quasi-independent agency out of the Treasury Department and fold it into the fledgling monstrosity that would...

Compared with the “revolutions” (peasant uprisings, armed rebellions, palace coups, etc.) that toppled dynasties in Chinese history, the goal of “reform” has been the exact opposite: to perpetuate the dynasty. Ordinary people have roughly the same impression of “revolution” and “reform” as instruments of “change.” But actually, in the 2000-year history of China, there has been one purpose for reform: avoiding change. Reform is used to keep the existing system in place. In Chinese history, “reform” and “revolution” alternated over time. Revolutions often succeeded, and so China became the country with the most peasant uprisings and dynastic changes in the...

Monday, January 20, 2014Thomas Groome, former priest and heretic, is anxiously awaiting Pope Francis' "Major reforms." Father Malachi Martin, a Jesuit scholar who served as a member of the Vatican Advisory Council as well as personal secretary to Cardinal Augustin Bea, was known to be in possession of detailed information pertaining to the Third Secret of Fatima, which he said addressed a plan to install the False Prophet during a "Final Conclave." Is it just a coincidence that the current Pontiff took the name Francis - after Saint Francis of Assisi - when the same saint was given a prophecy...

China is to relax its policy of restricting most couples to having only a single child, state media say. In future, families will be allowed two children if one parent is an only child, the Xinhua news agency said. The proposal follows this week's meeting of a key decision-making body of the governing Communist Party. Other reforms include the abolition of "re-education through labour" camps and moves to boost the role of the private sector in the economy. The BBC's Celia Hatton, in Beijing, says most of the changes have already been tested in parts of the country. Officials announce...

Change: China's communist leadership announced an unsettling mix of accelerated capitalism along with a greater centralization in leadership. It signals how little Beijing knows about what makes free markets work. The four-day huddle of China's Communist Party leaders, whose gobbledygook official title was the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist China Central Committee, pretty well lived up to its billing as rule by committee — a weak one that can't make up its mind. Each of the calls for reform in its vague, 5,000-word communique released on Tuesday — whether of farms, businesses, banks or the judiciary — was...

The Kenosha, Wis.School District teachers' union was decertified September 12. Depending which people you believe, it was either decertified by a vote of the teachers or it was decertified because the union did not follow procedures and request a recertification vote as required by Wisconsin's labor reform law, popularly known as Act 10.

Money System and Financial Reforms The money and banking syste which was set up in 1913, along with the income tax and IRS which was set up to pay interest on debt while using debt as a primary basis for money, has reached the end of its useful lifespan. Glass-Steagal should be implemented immediately, the so-called "Super Priority" of derivative counterparties hould be abolished immediately, and a major effort should be made to devise a rational system of money for the United States. The Federal Reserve, the IRS, and the income tax should be abolished, and the power to...

A Tax Credit in Name Only (TCNO)- By: Larry Walker, II -A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how during this year’s continuing education courses it suddenly dawned on me that the base amounts used in calculating the taxability of social security benefits are exactly the same in tax year 2012 as they were in 1985. Well here’s another example of elder abuse. Congress has failed to inflation adjust the limitations on the Credit for the Elderly or the Disabled since it was last upgraded back in 1984. I am frankly surprised that this credit is still around, since...

On Saturday, as Americans debated whether Lance Armstrong was a genuine hero after dropping his fight with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, another Armstrong — an indisputable American hero — died. Were Webster's to pair Neil Armstrong with “hero” in its dictionary, one needn't Think Again to fathom the bravery, achievement and nobility implied by the word. By fulfilling President Kennedy's audacious goal to have an American walk on the moon within the decade, Neil Armstrong is remembered for the skill, courage, grace under pressure and innate humility necessary to achieve “one giant leap for mankind” while crediting legions of dedicated...

Oil spill commission reuniting to press for drilling reformsBy Andrew Restuccia - 03/14/12 10:47 AM ET Members of the national oil spill commission are reuniting to monitor the federal government’s progress in implementing a series of drilling safety recommendations put forward by the panel last year. The seven-member commission, which was tasked by President Obama with investigating the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is forming what it calls “Oil Spill Commission Action.” The new group will issue a report in April assessing government and industry efforts to enhance safety and environmental standards in the aftermath of the spill, which...

Women are to be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia. K ing Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the change yesterday and also said women would be allowed to run in elections. However, the new law will not come into force until 2015. In a speech, the king said the move was in accordance with sharia law.

Earlier this week, the Chicago Bears’ all-pro defensive end Julius Peppers was asked whether his eight quarterback sacks last year were a disappointment. With a rejoinder worthy of Yogi Berra, Peppers answered, “I don’t like to put a number on stats.” Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s critics are also loath to put numbers on stats — numbers that show his public-sector collective-bargaining reforms are benefiting the state. Wisconsin is replete with examples of cities and school districts that are reforming their finances to finally balance their books — and doing it without significant cuts to services. Recently, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel...

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba's Communist Party approved landmark economic reforms on Monday and voted for new leaders in a key party congress to chart Cuba's future, state-run media reported. The Caribbean island's highest political body was to select new first and second secretaries, its Central Committee and powerful Political Bureau, .. results were not immediately disclosed. The reforms represent the biggest changes to Cuba's Soviet-style economy in decades and are aimed at securing the future of socialism in one of the world's last communist states. The congress' approval had been widely expected because some of the reforms are already in...

Republicans want to "end Medicare as we know it." Cue cat shriek! This "end Medicare as we know it" line -- and many like it ("end Medicaid as we know it," "end carbon-based life as we know it," etc.) -- is the lead-off talking point for the entire Democratic Party in response to Rep. Paul Ryan's just-released budget proposal, "The Path to Prosperity." Here's the thing: Of course he wants to end Medicare as we know it. You know why? Because the way we know it right now, the program is barreling toward insolvency. Personally, if I were on a...

An individual mandate has done little to stem the rate of medical bankruptcies in Massachusetts, boding poorly for the federal healthcare reform law enacted almost a year ago, according to a new liberal study. The number of medical bankruptcies in Massachusetts increased from 7,504 in 2007 to 10,093 in 2009, while the state’s rate of medical bankruptcies experienced a “non-significant” decrease from 59.3 percent to 52.9, said researchers Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler in the American Journal of Medicine. The authors, both affiliated with single-payer advocate Physicians for a National Health Program, said medical bankruptcies continue to plague...

Radical health reforms which will allow private companies to provide NHS services, have less than a third of the public's support, a poll has revealed. The YouGov survey found only 27 percent of people are behind controversial plans proposed by health secretary Andrew Lansley to let profit-making companies increase their role in the service. The shake-up dubbed by experts as the 'biggest' in NHS history will allow GPs in England the power to commission £80 billion of treatment for patients - 80 per cent of the entire health service budget - from 'any willing provider'.

When President Obama speaks to the United Nations this week, he'll highlight gains from his policy of engaging the world body, but critics say that will come at the expense of U.N. reform - a Bush-era priority that, at least publicly, seems to have taken a back seat. The White House has not permanently filled a key reform-centered ambassadorship to the United Nations after Mr. Obama's first nominee, Jide Zeitlin, withdrew his name late last year amid controversy about some business dealings.