Do We Have a "Right" to Health Care?

My explanation is up in a piece at The Federalist.

A snippet:

Buried beneath the Obamacare replacement debates is the philosophical question of whether health care is a “right.” Article 25 of the United Nations’ Declaration of Rights, for instance, declares it so. While this is correct as a means, it’s wrong as an end. Understanding the distinction is vital.

For the first time in human history, the Declaration of Independence announced that “all men are created equal.” As Abraham Lincoln argued, everyone is equal because everyone is free, and everyone is free because everyone is equal. Hence no man has the authority to rule over another without the other’s consent. Furthermore, because this equality emanates from the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” it imbues every individual with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Read the full article here.

The Great Recession: This Time Really is Different

David has a piece up at the Daily Caller highlighting an article by economist Robert Barro, who claims that the U.S. economy should have recovered much faster from the recession than it did. David expands on this point, arguing that too much focus on fiscal stimulus is to blame for the anemic recovery. I don’t find either of these arguments very convincing.

The Myth that Tax Cuts Don't Work

My piece is up at the Daily Caller.

It begins:

Despite the preponderance of contrary evidence, myths persist that tax cuts primarily benefit “the rich” and have no discernible impact on economic growth.

Months ago, for instance, Hillary Clinton charged that “slashing taxes on the wealthy hasn’t worked. And a lot of really smart, wealthy people know that.”

She’s right that it hasn’t worked, but she failed to mention that it’s also never happened. The tired “tax cuts for the rich” canard is disproven by the 1920s, the 1960s, the 1980s and the 2000s, when tax rates were reduced for all—and especially low—income groups.

Read the full piece here.

This is Why Economic Recovery is So Slow

My piece is up at the Daily Caller. 

A snippet:

“I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform. By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.” – Barack Obama

So say defenders of the sluggish recovery.  But recent research belies that idea. The truth is our lackluster growth is the result of neglecting an essential economic concept.

According to Just Facts Daily, “even after the recession ended in 2009 average real GDP growth has been 35% below the average from 1960–2009, a period that includes eight recessions.” Moreover,

In early 2011, the White House Office of Management & Budget projected that real GDP would grow by an average of 3.6% per year for five years after the Great Recession (see pages 14–16). Obama’s economists noted that this figure was lower than the typical post-recession growth rate of 4.2%, but they concluded that the “lingering effects from the credit crisis may limit the pace of the recovery,” even though the recession left “enormous room for growth in 2011.” Ultimately, GDP grew by an average of 2.2%, or 39% below the White House’s conservative estimate.

Read the full piece here. 

Making America Suffer Again

In December 2015, Mary Giliberti, CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, wrote a call to action. Her message was to those “who believe in the importance of mental health services and supports” to be better advocates for mental health reform in 2016. The year just ended, but I’d like to answer that call.

Is it Time to End the Electoral College?

My piece defending the Electoral College is up at The Daily Caller.

It begins:

“Time to End the Electoral College,” announced the New York Times.

“Monday’s Electoral College results prove the institution is an utter joke,” declared Vox. 

The Electoral College is a “vestige” and a “carryover” from the past, proclaimed the president of the United States. 

It is a sign of our failing education system that reputable news outlets and intelligent people don’t understand the Electoral College. Its preservation is vital for securing the rights of the minority and averting the tyranny of pure democracy.

Yet seemingly unfamiliar with these arguments, the New York Times (NYT) haughtily pronounced that:

By overwhelming majorities, Americans would prefer to elect the president by direct popular vote, not filtered through the antiquated mechanism of the Electoral College. They understand, on a gut level, the basic fairness of awarding the nation’s highest office on the same basis as every other elected office — to the person who gets the most votes. 

The editors of the Times would do well to consult the history books. “Antiquated” is a term better applied to the idea of a direct popular vote. Millennia ago, Greece and Rome attempted what the NYT celebrates as a novel idea, and both collapsed.

To read the piece in full, click here.

The Problem with our Public Discourse

My piece is up at the American Thinker. A slice:

This political season has become especially emotion-driven. That may be understandable for the general public, for whom politics is neither a passion nor a preoccupation, but it is another matter when our “elite” who shape public opinion and whom we expect to elevate public discourse promote non-thinking.

Consider three examples. 

First is a leading editorialist who excoriated various Republicans for their support of Donald Trump, whom the author labels a “dangerous fascist:”

I am talking, for example, about Sen. Marco Rubio, who in the primary called Trump an "erratic individual" who must not be trusted with nuclear weapons -- and then endorsed him for president.

I am talking about Sen. Ted Cruz, who called Trump a "pathological liar" and "utterly amoral" -- and then endorsed him for president, even though Trump never apologized for threatening to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife and suggesting Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Most of all, I'm talking about House Speaker Paul Ryan, a man whose pained, blue eyes suggest he desperately wants to cry for help. He's a man who runs around the country pathetically trying to pretend that Trump does not exist and that the key issue is his congressional caucus' "Better Way" agenda. And he's a man who, of his own free will, seeks to help Donald Trump become president.

One would think that a writer critiquing his opponents would demonstrate familiarity with their thinking. But here not even a cursory understanding of it is demonstrated. After providing nothing but a few obscure quotes from the primary season, he smears Messrs. Ryan, Rubio, and Cruz by concluding that their support of Trump is proof that “they love their careers more than they love America.”

To read the full piece, go here.