Obama’s Health Care Speech, Minority Underemployment and Investing in Global Warming
President Obama’s national health care address receives mixed reviews.
DC Progress hosts a panel discussion on the problem of “underemployment” among locals in Washington, D.C.
A new study claims that cap-and-trade global warming legislation is “a good investment.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.
1. HEALTH
President Obama’s national health care address receives mixed reviews.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on the problems with the current system:
“Most Americans agree that our health care system is broken and must be fixed. But it is increasingly clear that what ails health care is not too little, but too much government intervention. Federal and state tax preferences for employer-sponsored health insurance distort the market in a way that limits choices for individuals, reduces competition among insurers, and artificially inflates costs for health care services. For most working Americans, switching jobs often entails switching health plans and doctors or losing coverage altogether, while many others find non-employer-sponsored insurance unaffordable or difficult to obtain.”
2. BUSINESS
DC Progress hosts a panel discussion on the problem of “underemployment” among locals in Washington, D.C.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on how “project labor agreements” hurt minority contractors and contribute to the underemployment rate:
“…the solution to underemployment lies in removing obstacles to greater job creation. National Black Chamber of Commerce President Harry Alford went straight to the heart of the matter. ‘The solution to underemployment and unemployment are free enterprise and entrepreneurship.’ At the local level of Washington, DC, he identified project labor agreements as a major regulatory stumbling block to local residents, including minority residents, gaining access to better jobs.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
A new study claims that cap-and-trade global warming legislation is “a good investment.”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray disputes that characterization:
“The report talks about thinking of the Waxman-Markey costs as a ‘highly effective, highly leveraged form of foreign aid.’ One has to doubt that, given that the benefits that accrue to the developing world do so mostly in the far future, while the developing world is in desperate need of greater wealth – and better access to energy – today. Even if it were true, however, one wonders whether the American public will accept a de facto tax increase of around $1300 per person, or $400 billion total, to pay for such climate aid.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.