August 21, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward

	Featured video Matthew Spalding explains why White House immigration reforms are important More videos »

Where do liberals and conservatives stand on health care?

In an online interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, Heritage Foundation health care expert Bob Moffit looks at the difference between liberal and conservative health care solutions:

Liberal candidates generally embrace expanding government programs. Expanding government control over the financing and delivery of medical services will guarantee even bigger bureaucracy, higher taxes, and increasingly detailed regulations governing the delivery of care. Conservative candidates generally emphasize the need to re-energize the market and make individuals and families the key decision-makers in the system. Obviously that’s the policy direction I favor.

Moffit, the director of Heritage’s Center for Health Policy Studies, elaborated on reforms that would improve America’s health care system by eliminating harmful government regulations and harnessing free enterprise. Heritage experts are already working with lawmakers in more than two dozen states to enact exactly these sorts of changes.

Meanwhile, in an article in Southern California’s Press-Enterprise, Heritage Vice President Mike Franc highlights many of the problems that can arise when government over-regulates health care.

Not only can these regulations have silly outcomes, like mandatory prostate coverage for women, but in many ways they make America’s health care problems worse. “Because mandates require insurers to underwrite care previously paid directly by consumers,” he writes, “they inevitably make health insurance more expensive.” These high costs make coverage unaffordable to many families, leaving them without insurance.

On the right track with immigration

Two weeks ago, the Bush administration announced an important new immigration and border security initiative. This is a “smart and sensible” first step upon which additional necessary measures can be built, writes Heritage’s Matthew Spalding.

In a new paper, Spalding calls the reform package “a good combination of the disincentives and incentives needed to change the dynamics of immigration.”  In addition, “virtually all of the policies within it have been proposed by The Heritage Foundation’s policy research and analysis.”

Read an explanation of the reforms and what the next steps might be.

Read Heritage President Ed Feulner’s article about why “every American should take great pride in the work of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.”

P.C. liberals tried to censor Islamism documentary

In a column appearing in newspapers nationwide, The Heritage Foundation’s Ken McIntyre explains how politically correct liberals at PBS tried to censor a “powerful documentary about moderate Muslims who refuse to be intimidated and silenced by extremists within their faith.”

Four months ago, the Public Broadcasting Service squelched the 52-minute film as “unfair” and “alarmist”  in telling the stories of four Muslim professionals who stand up to activist imams and their followers in Denmark, Canada, France and the United States

Now, though, viewers can decide for themselves whether the filmmakers were heavy handed in exploring answers to a haunting question since the Sept. 11 attacks: Why aren’t we hearing more from Muslims who denounce terrorists and their hateful ideology?

As of Aug. 14, “Islam vs. Islamists” was scheduled to air on at least 40 public television stations in 18 states in the weeks leading up to the sixth anniversary of the attacks.

Michael Deaver, R.I.P.

Michael Deaver, who served as a close adviser to President Ronald Reagan, died this weekend. Heritage Foundation scholar Edwin Meese, who worked closely with Deaver in the White House, said in a statement that “Mike Deaver made a great contribution to our country by his devoted service to Ronald Reagan, both in California and in Washington, D.C. He had a great talent in public relations and a great dedication to public service. He was a good friend, and we will miss him.”

In other news

• A federal court has found American citizen Jose Padilla guilty of supporting terrorists and conspiring to commit attacks overseas.
• In what could be an indication of greater commitment to enforcing immigration law, federal agents arrested an illegal immigrant who has defied deportation orders for years while continuing her protests for “immigrant rights.”
• While liberals in Congress try to expand SCHIP, a government health plan for children in poor families, to cover those from middle- and upper-income families, the Bush administration is preparing new guidelines that would encourage states to focus coverage on low-income children.
• Venezuela’s socialist despot, Hugo Chavez, has proposed a mandatory six-hour workday. That may sound nice, but it’s sure to be economically harmful.
• For decades, the wood-framed Delta Queen steamboat has plied the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The historic boat has enjoyed an exemption from Congressional regulations on wooden ships until liberals this year refused to renew the waiver—in part because the ship’s crew isn’t unionized.
• A woman gave birth to quadruplets in a Montana hospital last week. The woman is from Canada, and had to come to the United States to give birth because there were no available neonatal care units in the entire country. Yet many liberals persist in advocating a government-run health care system like Canada’s for the United States.
• To help clear the air for the 2008 Olympics, Beijing plans to limit automobile traffic. But like any other government rationing program, the car ban comes with tremendous economic costs. Radical environmentalists should take note.
• Alarmists say government planners should locate cities away from rising oceans. Why government should “plan” such decisions is unclear, since the private sector can and does provide incentives to relocate if necessary. For example, some private insurance companies have decided not to cover homes built in high-risk areas, which is a strong incentive not to build there.
• How the government spends your money: One contractor was paid $998,798 to ship two 19-cent washers, $293,451 to ship an 89-cent washer and $455,009 to ship three $1.31 screws. The Left, though, wants government to “invest” even more of your money in the economy.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

• On Wednesday, August 22 at noon, economist Bruce Caldwell discusses a new edition of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and the need for free enterprise in a free society.
• On Tuesday, August 28 at noon, author Mark Halpern discusses his new book about the impact of tyrants on history.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

Sign up to get this e-mail

Fill out the form below to receive this e-mail product and more from MyHeritage.org as soon as it's released

First Name*	Last Name*
Email Address *	Zip Code *
Are you currently a Heritage member?
	* = Required field.