First, my apologies for the recent silence. Who knew a new baby would take so much time away from blogging!? (Ok, yes, we all knew.) In response to my last post, Jacob raised some excellent questions. As I mentioned on the Facebook page, I think they are worth everyone’s consideration. I’ll respond to Jacob’s simpler points…
Author Archives: Jason
What’s Actually Wrong with the Republican Party
Written on April 29, 2012 by Jason in By Counter-Example, Conservatism, History, Partisanship, Political Landscape
This piece by Jonathan Bernstein alerted me to this Washington Post op-ed by Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein. Mann and Ornstein suggest that the problem with the Republicans is that they’ve gone too far to the right and are subsequently unwilling/unable to compromise in beneficial ways. The result is more detrimental government gridlock. I think Bernstein…
Site Updates: Now on Facebook!
First, thank you to those who have shared, in various ways, your thoughts on my health care system proposals. I’m still looking for more feedback, so write away. In the meantime, daily life is intruding and posts will likely slow down for a bit. But, to make sure you don’t miss anything and to add another…
Structuring National Health Care in America
I’ll be honest in admitting that a part of me, from time to time, thinks that we should just adopt a single-payer, nationalized health care system like that of the UK. There are some wonderful arguments for equality and gains to be made through standardization. Believing that we’re ready to move basic health care from…
A Better Constitutional Basis for National Health Care
One of the things that bothers me about the ACA/Obamacare is that it relies heavily on the Commerce Clause of the constitution rather than the government’s power to levy taxes. This is also the weakness that the Supreme Court may exploit in striking down the law. The Commerce Clause In part, the choice to rely…
Extending the Promise of America to More Americans
In September of 2009, on the eve of a speech that President Obama gave before a joint session of Congress, I wrote my own version of what I hoped he’d argue. It still captures much of what I consider the best arguments for a federal health care system, based upon the logic of the Declaration…
Airport Security System: Citizenship or Capitalism?
I listened to a discussion the other day that got right to the heart of the capitalism v. citizenship debate. The conversation (on local public radio) was about two competing trends in airport security. In the United States, the federal government (though the Transportation Security Administration) controls airport security checkpoints. But they don’t control the…
Health Care: Balancing Citizenship and Capitalism
As I have argued previously (see here, here, and here), the United States has been shaped by two great organizing models: capitalism and citizenship. Capitalism has provided the U.S. with one of the most dynamic economic engines in the world over the last century and more. Citizenship has made us a shining political beacon, a nation founded on…
National Health Care
This is a tricky series of posts to write because of our current partisan atmosphere. The fight over and passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 (“Obamacare”) has severely divided the nation. In fact, it has transformed health care into perhaps the best example of the distorting effect of partisanship in…
Religious Freedom and the Executive
A major problem with Santorum’s view of religion in public life is that he fails to differentiate between the rights of individual citizens and the responsibilities of elected officials. Consider this passage from his RealClearReligion op-ed: In contrast, a major political offshoot of Kennedy’s articulated philosophy, sometimes referred to as the “privatization of faith,” was…
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