Tag Archives: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby

War on Women: Dispatches From The Front

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The latest skirmish in the "war on women" took place this past week in the Senate. [Credit: ACLU]

The Sen­ate was the scene last week of the lat­est skir­mish in the war on women, one of sev­er­al con­trived con­tro­ver­sies man­u­fac­tured by the polit­i­cal class. [Cred­it: ACLU]

Resolv­ing con­flicts is a core func­tion of gov­ern­ment.  Incit­ing them is a core com­pe­ten­cy of our polit­i­cal class.

The habit of inflam­ing pas­sions for polit­i­cal pur­pos­es was on dis­play again this week in the US Sen­ate. Wednes­day’s show vote osten­si­bly con­cerned the right of women to receive “free” birth con­trol from their employ­ers.  But the leg­is­la­tion, as its authors sure­ly knew, would not become law.  If it did, it would result, not in employ­ers buy­ing more con­tra­cep­tives for their employ­ees, but in more work­ers los­ing employ­ment-based health insurance.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Tolerance, The Amish And Hobby Lobby

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Pamela Harris, shown here with her disabled son, prevailed at the Supreme Court this week in her challenge to an Illinois law requiring her to pay union dues. [Credit: Heartland Institute]

Pamela Har­ris, shown here with her dis­abled son, pre­vailed at the Supreme Court this week in her chal­lenge to an Illi­nois law requir­ing her to pay union dues. [Cred­it: Heart­land Institute]

For a brief time dur­ing the 1980s, I was Direc­tor of Pol­i­cy Devel­op­ment for the Social Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion.  The title is more glo­ri­fied than the real­i­ty.  Social Secu­ri­ty is a big and ossi­fied pro­gram that resists “pol­i­cy devel­op­ment.”  Con­gress, ever cog­nizant of the polit­i­cal risks of tam­per­ing with the pro­gram, had been forced by its loom­ing insol­ven­cy to pass a mas­sive law hik­ing pay­roll tax­es and rais­ing the retire­ment age just a few years before.  They were in no mood to enter­tain addi­tion­al legislation.

But my job was to pre­pare options for the Commissioner’s con­sid­er­a­tion, so I met with career staff who had an idea: why not advo­cate for a bill requir­ing self-employed Amish farm­ers to pay social secu­ri­ty tax­es? Con­tin­ue read­ing →