Recent Blog Posts

  • November 23, 2010

    Reagan Would Have Never Limited US Missile Defenses

    President Obama used his Weekly Radio Address on Saturday to browbeat the Senate into voting on New START during the lame duck session, evoking the name of President Reagan five times during the course of the address. The irony is particularly rich, given that President Reagan would have never agreed to a treaty providing any limitations on US missile defense systems.

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  • November 17, 2010

    Rush to Make Up for Admin’s Own New START Mistakes is On

    Secretary of State Clinton held a press conference this morning arguing that the Senate must complete action on New START before adjourning for the year, in part because the United States currently has no “boots on the ground” in Russia in the form of US inspectors monitoring compliance with an operative arms control treaty.
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  • November 10, 2010

    If You Like Your Current Plan...

    Given several articles today, and in recent weeks, surrounding employers’ and insurers’ responses to the health care overhaul, it’s worth highlighting the numerous caveats being added retrospectively to candidate Obama’s promise that “You will not have to change plans. if you have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan – except that you will pay less.” But now, nearly eight months after the law passed, that promise has been turned into “If you like your current plan…”
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  • November 5, 2010

    Rhetoric vs. Reality: Health Care "Reform" and Jobs

    CLAIM: “So this bill is not only about the health security of America. It's about jobs. In its life it will create 4 million jobs -- 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”

    -- Speaker Pelosi at the White House health summit

    FACT: Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana this week announced it would be cutting about fifty jobs due to the health care overhaul, and specifically the low reimbursement rates included in the law’s Medicaid expansion.
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  • October 26, 2010

    New START, Russia & Iran

    For the time New START has been before the Senate, one of the Administration’s primary arguments throughout has been how beneficial the treaty is to nonproliferation in general, and to the relationship with Russia in particular, especially in gaining Russian support in confronting Iran’s nuclear program. For example, as part of the opening argument, in Secretary Clinton’s first appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she asserted that “A ratified New START Treaty would also continue our progress toward broader U.S.-Russian cooperation, which is critical to other foreign policy priorities, including dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.” As part of the closing argument, Rose Gottemoeller, the Chief Negotiator of New START, asserted in her final appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee that completing New START would demonstrate the United States was living up to its NPT commitments such that it would “enhance our credibility to convince other governments to help strengthen the international nonproliferation regime and confront proliferators.”
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  • October 25, 2010

    AP Story: "Employers Looking at Health Insurance Options"

    Following Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen’s op-ed in last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press has a story noting that “corporate number crunchers are looking at options that could lead to major changes” in health insurance plans for workers. Among the quotes from benefits managers in the piece:

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  • October 21, 2010

    Democrat Governor Explains Why Employers WILL Drop Insurance

    An op-ed in this morning’s Wall Street Journal by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen – a Democrat – explains very succinctly why employers will drop their existing coverage options once the federal insurance subsidies and exchanges come online in 2014. Gov. Bredesen notes that Tennessee could drop coverage for its state employees, pay the $2,000 per employee penalty/tax to the federal government, give their workers cash raises to compensate for the loss in health benefits, and STILL come out at least $146 million per year ahead. Of course, federal taxpayers would not come out ahead, as they would be “on the hook” for the $146 million-plus in benefits that Tennessee shed on to the federal fisc – meaning that if many employers follow the Governor’s lead, the promised deficit reduction from the health care law will evaporate in a New York minute.
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  • October 8, 2010

    Thune Statement on September Jobs Report

    WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, made the following statement regarding the Department of Labor’s September employment report released today.

    “Today’s poor employment report is yet another sign that the Democrats’ economic policies are failing America. For the last two years, the policies of the Obama administration, supported by Democrat majorities in both chambers of Congress, have stifled economic growth. As the national unemployment rate continues to hover over 9.5 percent for the 14th straight month, the American people are rightfully angry at the failed Democrat leadership coming out of Washington.”

  • October 4, 2010

    Court Packing 2010

    When President Franklin Roosevelt faced a Supreme Court that questioned the constitutionality of some of his policies, he infamously sought authority to appoint additional justices to the Court. The proposal was rightly derided as politically-motivated “court packing,” and in 1937 the Democrat-controlled Judiciary Committee dealt the Administration a serious blow when it rejected the plan by a 10-8 vote. The Committee issued a scathing report on the bill saying, “It violates all precedents in the history of our Government and would in itself be a dangerous precedent,” motivated by a desire “to change the course of judicial decision.” The Committee concluded that the bill constituted “an invasion of judicial power such as has never been attempted in this country.” (The full report is available here.)
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  • October 4, 2010

    WSJ: "3M to Change Health Plan Options for Workers"

    The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that manufacturer 3M “informed retirees and workers it will stop offering a group health insurance plan to retirees not old enough for Medicare by 2015, citing the federal health overhaul as a factor.” Specifically, Medicare-eligible retirees will be converted to a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) in 2013, and retirees not yet eligible for Medicare will be converted into an HRA beginning in 2015, once the insurance Exchanges and subsidies are scheduled to come online in 2014. The memo to employees notes that “health care reform has made it more difficult for employers like 3M to provide a plan that will remain competitive.”
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  • October 1, 2010

    Another Carrier to Exit Insurance Markets; 840,000 to Lose Their Current Coverage

    Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have stories this morning on the exit from the health insurance marketplace of Principal Financial Group, which currently covers about 840,000 lives.  All these individuals will have to change their current coverage in the coming months as their policies expire.

    More troubling however are the concluding paragraphs of the Times piece, which suggests that Principal’s decision may be one of many made by smaller carriers to exit the health insurance marketplace thanks to the health care law:

    More insurers are likely to follow Principal’s lead, especially as they try to meet the new rules that require plans to spend at least 80 cents of every dollar they collect in premiums on the welfare of their customers. Many of the big insurers have been lobbying federal officials to forestall or drastically alter those rules.

    “It’s just going to drive the little guys out,” said Robert Laszewski, a health policy consultant in Alexandria, Va. Smaller players like Principal in states like Iowa, Missouri and elsewhere will not be able to compete because they do not have the resources and economies of scale of players like UnitedHealth, which is among the nation’s largest health insurers.

    Mr. Laszewski is worried that the ensuing concentration is likely to lead to higher prices because large players will no longer face the competition from the smaller plans. “It’s just the UnitedHealthcare full employment act,” he said.

    Democrats claimed that their unpopular health care law would protect Americans from abuses by “Big Insurance.”  But if the overhaul leads to industry consolidation – and higher prices as a result – how effective can it be?

    RPC Analyst Chris Jacobs

  • September 30, 2010

    For McDonald's Employees -- And Others -- An Unhappy Meal...?

    The big story last night – beyond Congress’ pre-election adjournment – centered around the Wall Street Journal’s article indicating that McDonald’s may be dropping health coverage for its workers, given that the limited benefit plans it currently offers will likely be unable to meet the minimum medical loss ratio requirement to pay 85 percent of premiums back in medical claims (due in part to high turnover among employees, which raises administrative costs). Reuters has a separate story on the Journal piece here.
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  • September 29, 2010

    Fact Check on Insurance Premium Increases

    Sen. Harkin claimed on the floor recently that analysis of the new regulations taking effect this year would only raise premiums by 1-2 percent. Despite multiple articles and studies finding that premiums will rise by more than 2% next year as a result of the law, whether premiums rise by 2 percent or 22 percent due to PPACA misses the point. The real point is that President Obama repeatedly promised an average $2,500 reduction in family insurance premiums – and, by admitting that the law will raise premiums by *only* one or two percent, Democrats have implicitly admitted this promise will not be kept.
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  • September 21, 2010

    Washington Post on tax debate

    The Washington Post reports this morning that letting current tax policy lapse (thus raising taxes on all Americans on January 1 next year), would generate enough revenue to “bring the country within striking distance of meeting President Obama’s goal of balancing the budget.”

    A few counterpoints:
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  • September 20, 2010

    The drumbeat gets louder

    •Over the weekend, Obama economic advisor, Mark Zandi of Moody’s economy.com, published new research wherein he estimates that letting the tax cuts on small business and high-income earners expire would reduce GDP by 0.4 percent in 2011 and would reduce payroll employment by 770,000 by mid-2012.
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  • September 14, 2010

    Update on 1099 Amendments

    Politico has two articles this morning on the 1099 amendment votes expected today: One outlining the state of play of the Johanns and Nelson amendments, and a second on an Administration letter sent to the Hill yesterday supporting Nelson and opposing Johanns.  The letter from Secretaries Sebelius and Geithner opposes the Johanns amendment’s reduction in funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which some have characterized as a source of wasteful federal spending on pork projects like jungle gyms.  Perhaps most notably, a Wall Street Journal article quotes a Treasury official as stating the Administration wants to “keep the [1099] proposal…as a means to ensure tax compliance,” while slightly mitigating its impact on small businesses.  (The news that the Administration does not want to repeal the 1099 reporting requirement outright may come as a surprise to the 239 House Democrats who voted for a complete repeal of the new requirement back in July.)  Meanwhile, small businesses themselves continue to highlight the problems that this onerous new reporting requirement will cause, while advocating for the complete repeal of the 1099 provision: The NFIB sent a key vote letter supporting Johanns and opposing the Nelson side-by-side, while US Chamber of Commerce Executive VP Bruce Josten has a Roll Call op-ed on the issue.

    RPC Analyst Chris Jacobs

  • September 9, 2010

    A non-starter of a Resolution of Ratification

    Chairman Kerry’s proposed draft of a resolution of ratification for New START has now made its way to the blogs. The text circulated by the Chairman so fundamentally misapprehends the purpose of a treaty resolution of ratification that it is difficult to see how it can even serve as a starting point for negotiations on such a text.
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  • September 2, 2010

    Administration Advisor: Only 1% of Americans Will Receive Small Business Tax Credit

    The Washington Post has an article this morning discussing a Commonwealth Fund study about the impact of health “reform” on small business. While the study attempts to trumpet the claim that 16.6 million workers are employed by small businesses eligible for the tax credit created by the law, the reality is that the credit’s impact will be much smaller. An estimate developed for Commonwealth by paid Administration advisor Jonathan Gruber found that only 3.4 million workers are in firms that will actually receive the credit between now and 2014. According to the Census Bureau’s population estimates, that means that only 1.1% of all Americans, and 1.7% of those with private health insurance, will receive any benefit from the small business tax credit – a paltry showing by most measures.
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  • September 1, 2010

    WSJ: Tax Cuts Weighed to Spur Economy

    It’s interesting that the White House is spinning its wheels trying to devise new ways to stimulate the domestic economy when private industry has been very clear about what it needs: (1) clarity on the direction of EXISTING tax policy, and (2) agency guidelines that specify how the new health care and financial regulations will be implemented.

    Instead of creating a wholly new to-do list, perhaps this White House should focus on the one it already has.
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