Tag Archives: Supreme Court

Tolerance, The Amish And Hobby Lobby

Posted on by

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 →

Obamacare By The Numbers: Medicaid

Posted on by

Obamacare supporters are greatly inflating estimates of the number of previously uninsured people that have gained coverage because of the new law. Here's sensible look at the numbers. [Credit: CNN/Money]

Oba­macare sup­port­ers are great­ly inflat­ing esti­mates of the num­ber of pre­vi­ous­ly unin­sured peo­ple that have gained cov­er­age because of the new law. Here’s sen­si­ble look at the num­bers. [Cred­it: CNN/Money]

Near­ly 13 mil­lion Amer­i­cans now have health insur­ance thanks to Oba­macare. Tell Repub­li­cans to stop vot­ing to take their cov­er­age away. – Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leg­isla­tive Cam­paign Com­mit­tee peti­tion drive

Hyper­bole over how many peo­ple have pre­sum­ably gained health cov­er­age as the result of Oba­macare won’t sub­side any­time soon. At its cur­rent pace, we seem des­tined to reach the point where the num­ber of peo­ple who are alleged to have gained cov­er­age because of Oba­macare sur­pass­es the num­ber that lacked cov­er­age in the first place. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

More Than A Website: Will Insurers Prosper Under Obamacare?

Posted on by
The Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman" was a 70s sensation. In promoting his health care law, the President now has a similar mantra: "More Than A Website." (Credit: AP)

The Bee Gees’ “More Than A Woman” was a 70s sen­sa­tion. In pro­mot­ing his health care law, the Pres­i­dent has adopt­ed a sim­i­lar phrase, remind­ing us that Oba­macare is more than a web­site. (Cred­it: AP)

The Pres­i­den­t’s health care law has had a trou­bled first month, but it is far too soon to know whether its prob­lems will prove last­ing and severe.  Even some of its most fer­vent sup­port­ers, like the Wash­ing­ton Post’s Ezra Klein, acknowl­edge that its defi­cien­cies run deep­er than a clunky web­site.  Oba­macare, the Pres­i­dent reminds us, is more than a web­site, but its prob­lems extend far beyond its 5 mil­lion lines of errant code. Con­tin­ue read­ing →