Healthcare Reform Unconstitutional (Townhall.com) December 16, 2010
Posted by daviddavenport in Radio Commentaries.Tags: Healthcare Reform
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Finally! A federal judge, Henry Hudson of Virginia, said what a lot of us
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have been thinking: a key provision of the healthcare reform law is unconstitutional.
Judge Hudson rightly said that the Commerce Clause does not give Congress power to make people to enter into a private contract. So the mandate to buy health insurance is unconstitutional.
Now on toward the Supreme Court, since two other federal judges have ruled that it is constitutional. And more lawsuits are out there—25 of them.
Not only is the law unconstitutional, but it has become unpopular as well. A new poll shows Americans oppose the law now 52-43.
With a new Republican majority in the House, new governors in statehouses, and judges reconsidering the matter, the battle for healthcare reform isn’t over yet!
To listen to the audio: http://townhall.com/TalkRadio/Show.aspx?RadioShowId=11&ContentGuid=f854952b-d4ac-4566-9d0f-4a636da0bfe5
Healthonomics 101 (Townhall.com) March 12, 2010
Posted by daviddavenport in Radio Commentaries.Tags: Healthcare Reform
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One of the cardinal rules of politics is, as they said in Watergate, to “follow the money.”
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Unfortunately no one seems to be paying much attention to the economics of this healthcare bill.
The biggest problem with healthcare today is rising costs, yet this bill will do absolutely nothing about that. Instead, it adds $2.5 trillion in new costs in the first 10 years alone—not counting the increased use of healthcare that will surely result.
It raises taxes selectively, and behind the scenes, to a tune of $500 billion. It cuts $120 billion from Medicare Advantage. It grows an expansive and expensive new bureaucracy.
The well-known book Freakonomics was subtitled, “the hidden side of everything.” Believe me, we will need to write a new chapter of that book on “Obamanonics” if Obamacare is enacted.
To listen to the audio: http://townhall.com/TalkRadio/Show.aspx?RadioShowID=11&ContentGuid=20b06e64-c5cf-433f-9fd1-592dc98d54fd
People are Watching (Townhall.com) January 28, 2010
Posted by daviddavenport in Radio Commentaries.Tags: Healthcare Reform
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One political myth is that people don’t really pay attention to politics until
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election time. But a recent poll by YouGov suggests that isn’t the case—at least where healthcare is concerned.
A recent poll of voters in 11 states likely to have competitive Senate races this fall shows that support for Republican candidates correlates closely to voter opposition to the massive health-care reform bill. In these 11 states, Democrats trail in 6, lead in 2 and 3 are toss-ups, with support for healthcare reform running at only 33-48 percent.
Amazingly, two-thirds of voters could accurately state how their incumbent senator voted on the healthcare bill.
This poll, alongside the election in Massachusetts, suggests that incumbents need to watch carefully how they vote on healthcare. Apparently, and to their surprise, the people are watching—and they’re not happy.
To listen to the audio: http://townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=f7a7178f-e284-4d81-9181-bca0222b590a
People Are Watching (Townhall.com) January 28, 2010
Posted by daviddavenport in Radio Commentaries.Tags: Healthcare Reform
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until election time. But a recent poll by YouGov suggests that isn’t the case—at least where healthcare is concerned.
Amazingly, two-thirds of voters could accurately state how their incumbent senator voted on the healthcare bill.
This poll, alongside the election in Massachusetts, suggests that incumbents need to watch carefully how they vote on healthcare. Apparently, and to their surprise, the people are watching—and they’re not happy.
The Real Healthcare Problem is Cost (Townhall.com) October 27, 2009
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But with healthcare costs increasing 8-10 percent a year, isn’t the larger problem cost? Unfortunately Obamacare will only make that problem worse.
As Hoover economist John Cogan put it, healthcare is as big as the Chinese economy and growing as fast as the Indian economy. What we need are more market alternatives, not more regulation and inefficient, government-run programs.
Explaining the Real Health Care Debate (Townhall.com) October 12, 2009
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reveals the president’s political philosophy. He plans a sharp turn toward the equality narrative and away from the liberty narrative.
Rather than fixing the problems—the 1 in 7 who don’t have health care for example—Obama proposes a complete overhaul of the system. His plan is to mandate health care for everyone, impose government oversight—and even a government provider. It is this sort of radical turn that has Americans up in arms.
And rightly so, because equality versus liberty—the government versus the individual—is the real health care debate.
Health care debate about liberty versus equality w/Gordon Lloyd (San Francisco Chronicle) September 29, 2009
Posted by daviddavenport in Newspaper Columns/Essays.Tags: Healthcare Reform
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As the war over health care comes into sharper relief, it is apparent that the real debate is about something very fundamental in American politics: President Barack Obama and his team plan to use the economic crisis to drive America into a sharp turn toward the equality narrative and away from the liberty narrative.
French journalist Alexis De Tocqueville observed two competing revolutionary narratives with the arrival of the 19th century. In France the equality narrative, with its “liberte, egalite et fraternite”, prevailed. In fact, he thought people of modernity were so enamored of equality they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
When he visited America, he saw something different: The American Revolution — with its “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” — emphasized the individual pursuit of happiness.
This 19th century observation has been the fundamental question of American political philosophy over the last 150 years: The liberty narrative, emphasizing equality of opportunity and a limited role for government, and the equality narrative, arguing for equality of outcome and favoring government limitations on free markets and individual liberty to institutionalize equality.
Two classic caricatures from American political life — the “rugged individual” and the “forgotten man” — personify the liberty and equality health care narratives. When the present health care structure was created during Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” of the 1960s, Medicare and Medicaid took care of the forgotten man, and employer-employee health insurance programs covered the health care of the rugged individual. Thus a political compromise between the two narratives allowed health care policy to move forward.
Later, first lady Hillary Clinton led the charge for universal health care in 1993. This plan would have imposed a mandatory, universal health care insurance requirement, administered by a massive government bureaucracy.
The plan fizzled out in Congress and ushered in the Newt Gingrich revolution against big government in the midterm elections.
Today, in town halls and polls about Obamacare, we see the liberty narrative is still alive. Eighty-four percent of Americans say they are satisfied with their health coverage, and 16 percent are not. Wouldn’t history suggest that addressing the problems for the 16 percent would make more sense than tackling the whole with a comprehensive government plan?
The equality narrative turns health care into a moral question, not merely a political or economic one. In fighting the town hall backlash, Obama accused his opponents — in strikingly Biblical language — of “bearing false witness.” He argued for his plan on the grounds that “I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper,” adding that this is a “moral conviction” going to the “heart of who we are as a people.”
Less apparent, but nevertheless real, are the moral arguments of the liberty narrative. Individual freedom, even a decision whether to have health care, is one. Government control over individuals and markets is another.
Cost and competition are also fundamental. True, it is costly to be free, but that choice belongs to the individual, not the government. And, the liberty narrative argues, the only way we will improve health care is competition, not protectionism or a government takeover.
Perhaps there is still room for a compromise between the liberty and equality folks — the most obvious possibility is the removal of the public option, in which government inevitably reduces competition in the name of providing it.
Still, if this is now a moral crusade, and an opportunity for the Obama administration to use a crisis to advance its political worldview, the heated battle will continue.
David Davenport is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Gordon Lloyd is professor of public policy at Pepperdine University.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/oped_contributors/Health-care-debate-about-liberty-versus-equality-60932682.html#ixzz0wo5InBxs
Is There a Doctor In the House? (Townhall.com) June 24, 2009
Posted by daviddavenport in Radio Commentaries.Tags: Healthcare Reform
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America’s health care system? President Obama plans to dominate the airwaves to sell you and me on the idea that the federal government take over health care. He says you can keep your own insurance, but if the government is both the manager and a provider, it’s hard to see how private health care will remain viable. If you’ve ever lived in Canada or England, you know how problematic and unpopular that will be.
Wake up America. The same people questioning the powers we gave President Bush over national security following 9/11 want to grant even more power to this President over domestic affairs in the wake of an economic crisis. When we wake up after the recession, we will deeply regret the hangover of federalized markets, businesses and healthcare.
Healthcare Needs Fixing, Not Overhauling (Townhall.com) January 25, 2011
Posted by daviddavenport in Radio Commentaries.Tags: Healthcare Reform
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With the House repeal of Obamacare, and 27 states challenging its constitutionality in the courts,
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perhaps it’s time to say what we need instead. The answer, which several of us have suggested from the beginning, is targeted fixes, not federal overhaul.
Although 80 percent of Americans say they like their present healthcare, there are 2 or 3 problems most people agree need to be addressed:
· Portability and the removal of state boundaries to create a national market;
· Increased cost;
· The uninsured.
The best solutions involve opening up markets, while giving consumers better information and more responsibility to make the hard tradeoffs and decisions. For the uninsured, direct assistance through tax incentives or aid, will be better than government-created markets.
Obamacare clearly overreached—and it’s time to pull back.
To listen to the audio: http://townhall.com/talkradio/Show.aspx?RadioShowID=11&ContentGuid=e8dd4388-4653-47ae-9312-c0486ae90111