Latest Articles and Blog Posts

Scylla, Charybdis, or My Way

March 3, 2010 at 3:54 pm

By my count, President Obama's health-care speech today was at least his 40th speech focusing on health care; as part of his effort to push his health-care plan, he has had seven major "stop the presses" events on the subject: his White House health-care forum last March; his ABC infomercial with Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer in June; the joint session of Congress speech in September; his State of the Union address in January; last Monday's release of his new eleven-page proposal; the health-care summit last Thursday; and now his 1:45 pm speech today.

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Jogging Through History

March 2, 2010 at 1:36 pm

Bill Bennett's A Century Turns is out this week, and it is an entertaining read. The book will especially reward those who peruse the footnotes at the bottom of the pages (marked by asterisks throughout) as they contain Bennett's funniest, most personal, and often most biting asides. My favorite is about Bill's experience jogging with Pres. George H. W. Bush. After the jog, reporters shouted questions at Bennett, but he was too out of breath from maintaining the presidential pace to reply, so Bush — 19 years older but fresh as a daisy — jumped in and saved him with a non-gasping answer while Bennett recovered.

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March Madness

March 2, 2010 at 9:18 am

After two and a half months of relatively light Congressional activity on the health-care front, Democrats are apparently gearing up for a hyperactive March. According to Inside Health Policy (subscription required), the period between now and Easter will be filled with a series of complicated steps that will all need to work perfectly in order for the Democrats to pass their health plan before Congress leaves for its spring break. First, the president will be issuing his revised new proposal, which will be converted into legislative language and then scored by CBO. By March 19, the House would then pass the health bill that the Senate passed back in December — and that the House has repeatedly said they did not like and would not pass — with the assurance that the Senate would go forward and fix it in accordance with some type of bicameral compromise. The House would then have to act again, by March 21, and pass a reconciliation bill amending the Senate bill that the House would have just passed.

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The Summit Cometh

February 25, 2010  •  National Review Online

The machinations leading up to the Blair House summit have resembled a chess match in which one side – the Democrats — can't decide who gets to move the pieces on its side of the board. Both the House and Senate passed health-care bills about two months ago, yet President Obama's plan, released earlier this week, did not have the support of either chamber's Democrats when it was released. In fact, congressional Democrats had been asking to see an advance version of the plan but were rebuffed by the White House. In addition, as the New York Times reported, the main reason that President Obama had to — finally — release a White House plan is that the Democrats in the House and Senate could not come to an agreement, and the president had promised that he would post a Democratic proposal 72 hours before the summit. As a result of this new, third proposal, we now have even less Democratic unity than we had before Obama stepped in. When the summit takes place, this could lead to the awkward spectacle of Obama arguing for his plan, Reid and his Democratic colleagues arguing for the Senate bill, and Pelosi's people arguing for the House bill.

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Preparing for Bioterrorism

February 23, 2010  •  The Weekly Standard

As citizens across the nation debate and dissect President Obama's State of the Union address, we should not miss the opportunity to make good on one of his promises. President Obama devoted one line of his 70-minute speech to announcing a new plan to address the potential for bioterror attacks.

In light of increased chatter among terrorists and last fall's experience with the H1N1 virus, it is clear we need new ideas and mechanisms of delivery if we want to save American lives. In fact, the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism just gave the United States an "F" for our "capabilities for rapid response to prevent biological attacks from inflicting mass casualties."

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Tevi Troy's Book

Intellectuals and the American Presidency Philosophers, Jesters, or Technicians? by Tevi Troy Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. 280 pp. $27.95 May 25, 2002 Details and Reviews...