Our Health Policy Matters

Back in 1980, Republicans nominated a television star with a limited understanding of federal government, zero foreign policy experience, and a platform of platitudes about reigning in a big government run amok. Image copyright unclear (on multiple websites); His main populist appeal was to middle class moderates and conservatives who were struggling both to keep their heads above water in a frightening economy and to understand the enormous changes that had democratized (and integrated) our society during the late 1960s and early 1970s.   To reassure us he led with this – a new theory of “trickle down” economics.  It held that if the government made the rich richer through historic tax cuts for the wealthy, they would re-invest those dollars in jobs for everyone else, and we would all become wealthier for generations to come. That didn't happen, but Ronald Reagan promised a new approach to governing, and a new way of life for the American people. Today, ...

Back in 1980, Republicans nominated a television star with a limited understanding of federal government, zero foreign policy experience, and a platform of platitudes about reigning in a big government run amok. Image copyright unclear (on multiple websites); His main populist appeal was to middle class moderates and conservatives who were struggling both to keep their heads above water in a frightening economy and to understand the enormous changes that had democratized (and integrated) our society during the late 1960s and early 1970s.   To reassure us he led with this – a new theory of “trickle down” economics.  It held that if the government made the rich richer through historic tax cuts for the wealthy, they would re-invest those dollars in jobs for everyone else, and we would all become wealthier for generations to come. That didn't happen, but Ronald Reagan promised a new approach to governing, and a new way of life for the American people. Today, ...

I admit it.  I have Obamacare fatigue. I’m tired of endless stories about website glitches and the small numbers of people who rushed to buy health insurance three months before it would even go into effect.  But I am most fatigued by the newest invented controversy about the so-called “health-insurance-you-like” policies that have been outlawed because they do not meet even the bare minimum standards established by the law.  That’s right – the American people just love lousy health insurance! Source: NSDUH, 2013 So I thought I would write about something less controversial – drugs.  Because some new facts suggest that if we really want to change a useless federal policy, we will end – as quickly as we can – our failed War on Drugs. President Richard M. Nixon declared “War on Drugs” in June of 1971.   We have been fighting this war for forty-two years now, long enough to determine if it has made any difference in our lives.  It has.  ...

I admit it.  I have Obamacare fatigue. I’m tired of endless stories about website glitches and the small numbers of people who rushed to buy health insurance three months before it would even go into effect.  But I am most fatigued by the newest invented controversy about the so-called “health-insurance-you-like” policies that have been outlawed because they do not meet even the bare minimum standards established by the law.  That’s right – the American people just love lousy health insurance! Source: NSDUH, 2013 So I thought I would write about something less controversial – drugs.  Because some new facts suggest that if we really want to change a useless federal policy, we will end – as quickly as we can – our failed War on Drugs. President Richard M. Nixon declared “War on Drugs” in June of 1971.   We have been fighting this war for forty-two years now, long enough to determine if it has made any difference in our lives.  It has.  ...