Can Romney Lead the Fight against ObamaCare? ( Health, Welfare & Entitlements )

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="384" caption="Romney"][/caption]Conventional wisdom holds that offshore oil and gas production harms the surrounding environment. This blanket "wisdom" ignores the fact that the largest source of marine hydrocarbon pollution is offshore nature

Obamacare and its Impact on Doctors

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Don’t expect doctors to give the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a clean bill of health. The act will reinforce the worst features of existing third-party payment arrangements in both the private and public sectors — arrangements that already compromise the professional independence and integrity of the medical profession.

The Deadly Impact of the Death Tax ( Tax and Budget Policy )

Australia got rid of its death tax in 1979. A couple of Aussie academics investigated whether the elimination of the tax had any impact on death rates. They found the ultimate example of supply-side economics, as reported in the abstract of their study .

Doctors vs. Obamacare—and Vice Versa

Don't expect doctors to give the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a clean bill of health. The act will reinforce the worst features of existing third-party payment arrangements in both the private and public sectors, arrangements that already compromise the professional independence and integrity of the medical profession.

RomneyCare Advocates: We Swear, This Time Centralized Planning Will Work ( Health, Welfare & Entitlements )

You know things aren’t going well in Massachusetts when supporters of RomneyCare write “there’s some evidence that the reforms signed into law by Mitt Romney in 2006 are struggling.”  That’s how The Washington Post ’s Ezra Klein puts it in a post defending RomneyCare.  The New Republic ’s Jonathan Cohn offers a similar defense. Klein mentions only a few of the difficulties confronting Massachusetts.  Here are a few more: The Commonwealth Fund reports that even though Massachusetts already had the highest health insurance premiums in the nation, premiums rose faster post-RomneyCare than anywhere else; 21-46 percent faster than the national average

The Politics of WikiLeaks ( Foreign Policy and National Security )

In publishing a massive trove of government documents on the war in Afghanistan, WikiLeaks has done a useful thing. And because it often publishes information that is embarrassing to government, rather than dangerous to it, WikiLeaks is a good thing for democracy.

Do More, Spend More ( Foreign Policy and National Security )

Defense News today features a story that unintentionally provides an window into what is wrong with the Washington Foreign Policy Establishment (WFPE)— a group of supposedly smart people that has repeatedly failed to come up with a credible plan that may enable the United States to shed some of the burdens of global governance.

The Two GOPs ( Tax and Budget Policy )

As the fall elections approach, two factions within the congressional GOP have emerged. The first faction, which generally controls the Republican leadership, is short-term oriented and just wants to return the GOP to power in Congress. Riding the wave of voter discontent over the government’s finances is a means to an end — the end being power.

Fordham Feeds the Paranoia ( Education and Child Policy )

You might recall several weeks back when Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, called people like me “paranoid” for seeing federal money driving states to adopt national education standards as cause for serious concern that (a) the feds will take over schools’ curricula, and (b) the new federal curriculum will be taken over by potent special interests like teachers’ unions

'Mountain of Debt' ( Tax and Budget Policy )

The White House Office of Management and Budget homepage currently features the following quote from the president: President Obama says he wants to “invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt.” That’s a curious statement because the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the president’s current budget proposal projects that publicly held debt as a share of the economy would reach levels last seen at the end of the Second World War.

Should Govt Regulate Executive Pay? ( Finance, Banking & Monetary Policy )

Every couple of weeks, the Economist conducts an on-line debate between two economists over a timely public policy issue.  This week’s debate features yours truly, debating Professor Wayne Guay of the Wharton School.  The question being debated:  should government regulate the pay of corporate executives? You probably won’t be surprised to learn I take the position that government should generally stay out of regulating executive pay (or any pay).  To see my argument, just follow the link.

Korb and Thompson on Military Spending ( Foreign Policy and National Security )

Today’s Los Angeles Times features an op-ed by Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress, and Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, that is worthy of attention. The theme, cutting military spending, isn’t particularly original.

Concerning the End of “Combat Operations” in Iraq ( Foreign Policy and National Security )

Several of today’s front pages feature iconic images of U.S. troops marching onto troop transports and into the sunset in Iraq

How (Not) to Do Scholarly Research ( Foreign Policy and National Security )

Nuno Monteiro, now an assistant professor at Yale but once my preceptor at the University of Chicago, has an interesting note on two aphorisms of the French poet Paul Valéry and how they apply to scholarly research.  My favorite is the second: “A work is never achieved — meaningless word — but abandoned.” (“Un ouvrage n’est jamais achevé — mot qui n’a aucun sens, — mais abandonné;” sometimes also liberally translated as “A poem is never finished, merely abandoned,” or some such variation.) Nuno Monteiro Nuno goes on to apply this thought to his experience advising students (and I–perhaps as liberally as the errant translators above–read myself into this passage): I have witnessed a great deal of unnecessary, counterproductive agonizing by students and other authors attempting to perfect their argument beyond what is feasible or useful. Like the poet, the researcher must know when to drop the project, call it done, and move on to the next question. One of the few certainties I have about research is that one will never feel one did a perfect job; that the project is finished, or achieved