Entries by Editorial Staff

Old foe resurfaces as law school pursues accreditation

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http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120415/NEWS/204150354/1003/TOWN02 The UMass School of Law may be up and running and financially healthy, but some of its old opponents are still taking aim at it at a critical time. Steve Poftak, budget chief under law school opponent Gov. Mitt Romney and now at the Pioneer Institute in Boston, posted an opinion blog in March criticizing the fledgling law school’s progress and transparency, or lack of it. He charged that the school has pushed back the target dates for meeting higher benchmarks in grade point averages, LSAT scores, and bar exam pass rates. UMass spokesman John Hoey pushed back on the pushback, saying that the law school is comfortably “at or near” its targets in all of those categories. Not […]

Deval Patrick’s RomneyCare

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http://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2012/04/13/deval-patricks-romneycare/ There are a couple of things I did not know, much as that might shock you.  First, I didn’t know that the Governor of Massachusetts enjoys a line-item veto.  Second, to paraphrase a line from the under-appreciated Simon: The RomneyCare that came back from the Assembly is not the same RomneyCare the Governor signed. I’m not saying it’s a good law — it isn’t.  But there are things about it which, if Mitt Romney had campaigned on, he might have sewn up his nomination much sooner.  From Forbes: Just prior to the [RomneyCare signing] ceremony, Romney’s aides had announced that the Governor would be vetoing several key provisions of the bill, including its employer mandate that forced all companies […]

“The Upside-Down Constitution” Pioneer Members’ Breakfast feat. Michael Greve, AEI Scholar

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Pioneer Institute and The Federalist Society co-sponsored this breakfast event featuring special guest, Michael S. Greve, John G. Searle Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Greve presented an overview of federalism and the US Constitution, charting federalism’s path from its philosophical beginnings through its historic transformation. Dr. Greve is author of the newly released The Upside-Down Constitution, a provocative legal treatise that dispels much of the conventional wisdom to date on the US Constitution. In his talk, Dr. Greve described how and why the original vision of federalism has given way to a system that rewards self-serving interest groups, and offered thoughts on what a new federalism might look like. Dr. Greve specializes in constitutional law, courts, and business […]

California Wants A Tax Hike to Pay For Common Core

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http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/california-wants-a-tax-hike-to-pay-for-common-core/ Lance Izumi, writing in Fox and Hounds, is highly skeptical of new tax hike plans from Governor Jerry Brown and the California Federation of Teachers which they say are needed to close a $9 billion budget deficit. He notes that without the new spending obligations that come with adopting the national education standards the state’s education finances wouldn’t be in such perilous condition. He refers to a study by the Pioneer Institute and the Pacific Research Institute that estimates the cost for retraining California’s teachers will be close to $630 million, while replacing textbooks will add another $483 million. In additional the new tests will have an associated annual cost of $35 million and the state will have to […]

Ex-Medicare chief Berwick: “The medical device industry is doing a lot to protect patients”

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http://www.massdevice.com/news/ex-medicare-chief-berwick-medical-device-industry-doing-lot-protect-patients?page=3 Erstwhile Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services chief Dr. Donald Berwick tells MassDevice.com that, despite a clutch of headline-grabbing recalls, medical device makers are doing good work for patients. Public health pioneer and onetime Centers for Medicare & Medicaid chief Dr. Donald Berwick gave some props to the medical device industry ahead of a presentation at Harvard Medical School this week. Despite a recent stream of  high-profile recalls and the ever-present clamor among consumer groups calling for more stringent regulatory oversight, Berwick said he remains a fan of the industry. Also seen in Mass Device, Iowa Hospital Association Blog, and HealthLeaders Media

On Birthday 6, Reflections on “RomneyCare”

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http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/health_stew/2012/04/on_birthday_6_reflections_on_r.html Prior to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, hardly anyone referred to Massachusetts health reform as “RomneyCare.” As with “ObamaCare,” it was a term of choice only for critics, most of them out-of-state.  The libertarian Cato Institute began using it back in 2006.  I recall former Boston Medical Center Chief Elaine Ullian using it early and often because she opposed the law’s funding reductions for safety net hospitals.  Not many more. Those of us who worked on the law’s passage and implementation never used the term for a simple reason. The law Romney proposed in 2005 differed markedly from the law approved by the Democratic-dominated Legislature in 2006.  Romney wanted everyone to have access to flimsy, high-deductible coverage; the Legislature […]

2012 Hewitt Health Care Lecture

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Pioneer’s 2012 Hewitt Health Care Lecture enjoyed record attendance, and featured a presentation by Dr. Don Berwick, formerly the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Berwick was followed by James Capretta, Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Viewpoints: Minn. Missteps With Medicaid Are Object Lesson; ‘Defensive’ Medicine: Red Herring Or Key To Health Costs?

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http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/April/27/fri-opinions.aspx Minneapolis Star Tribune: State Hit Hard Over Medicaid Missteps It was painful to watch Minnesota’s stellar health care reputation and its Human Services commissioner, Lucinda Jesson, get pummeled on Wednesday at a congressional hearing on Medicaid oversight. The sharp, high-profile criticism of Minnesota’s medical program for the poor sent a strong message to officials in all states: They are financial stewards of federal tax dollars, not just state funds. That responsibility is too often overlooked in a flawed Medicaid system that doesn’t reward states for spending wisely on this critical safety-net program but instead gives them incentives to try to milk as many federal dollars as possible (4/26). The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ‘Defensive Medicine’ Can Come With Price As a […]

Obama’s 2013 Education Budget and Blueprint: A Costly Expansion of Federal Control

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http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/04/obamas-2013-education-budget-and-blueprint-a-costly-expansion-of-fed “Budgets are about choices.” Such was President Barack Obama’s message during a recent speech to the National Governors Association. President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request and supplemental education spending proposals make the Administration’s own choice perfectly clear: Continue to increase federal education spending and federal control over education. The Department of Education, a 4,200-person agency, has enjoyed dramatic funding increases year after year since its creation over three decades ago. The President’s FY 2013 budget request includes a 2.5 percent increase (over 2012 levels) for the Department of Education—the largest increase for any domestic agency in the proposed budget. But nearly a half century of ever-increasing federal education spending and control has failed to improve academic outcomes. […]

Ex-Obama Medicare Chief Don Berwick: Consumer-Driven Health Care a ‘Vicious Idea’

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2012/04/11/ex-obama-medicare-chief-don-berwick-consumer-driven-health-care-a-vicious-idea/ When Don Berwick left his post as acting administration of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, I thought it was a win-win. Berwick, would “finally, once again, be able to say what he truly thinks” about the “darkness of private enterprise.” Well, it didn’t take long. Last night, according to the Boston Globe, Berwick described the idea of giving more patients direct control over their own health spending as a “vicious idea.” “Most people do not use health care as a recreational good,” argued Berwick, at yesterday’s debate sponsored by Boston’s Pioneer Institute. But Berwick makes a logical leap: are non-recreational goods somehow immune to the laws of economics? I’ll have more to say when the Pioneer […]

Dover, Sherborn jobs: More out of work

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http://www.wickedlocal.com/sherborn/news/x221033500/Dover-Sherborn-jobs-More-out-of-work#axzz2NReSO0VO Dover-Sherborn — Local unemployment rates fell or remained flat in about two-thirds of  Massachusetts towns and cities last month, according to estimates from the state  Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. It actually went up  slightly in Dover and Sherborn. For Dover, unemployment went up from 116 people (4.2 percent) in January to  118 people (4.2 percent) in February. The rate is down from February 2011 when  124 people (4.5 percent) were collecting unemployment. In Sherborn, the rise was a bit steeper, going from 85 people (4.5 percent)  in January to 92 (4.9 percent) in February. That was slightly better than  February 2011 when 94 people (5 percent) were listed as unemployed. This does not include people whose […]

Debt From Big Dig Hampers Mass. Transportation

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http://www.wbur.org/2012/04/08/debt-big-dig BOSTON — For nearly a decade, traffic has been zipping through Boston’s Big Dig tunnels, the nation’s costliest highway project that has also left a gaping financial hole in the state’s transportation budget that isn’t likely to be filled anytime soon. “Big Dig debt” has lately become one of the most frequently used – if not fully understood – terms in Massachusetts government. It was at the forefront of a tumultuous public debate over the MBTA’s finances that ultimately produced an average 23 percent fare hike and modest service cuts, but no permanent solutions for the chronically underfunded transit system. Next year, it could spark a debate over whether to raise taxes to fix not only the T but […]

Boston Business Journal

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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/print-edition/2012/04/06/new-conservative-watchdog-joins-beacon.html?page=all A new fiscal advocacy group joined the ranks of conservative Beacon Hill watchdogs in March by calling for lawmakers to drop plans to boost the minimum wage and require that companies give workers paid sick days off. But the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance has big plans to set itself apart from conservative stalwarts like the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University and the market-based Pioneer Institute as its pushes for lower taxes and less regulation to make the state a friendlier place for businesses. “We’re going to be a little more grassroots, a little more confrontational when we need to be,” said Paul D. Craney, executive director of the Wakefield-based group. “We want to hold elected officials accountable on fiscal […]

Viewpoints: Obama’s ‘Diatribe’ On Ryan Budget; President ‘Recovers’ On Statements About The Court; Other Health Care Mandates

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http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/April/04/wed-opinions.aspx The Wall Street Journal: Paul Ryan’s Hunger Games If there’s a Laffer Curve for Presidential invective—some point at which dishonest political abuse yields diminishing returns—the White House political team must not think their boss has hit it. Even in this hyperpartisan age, President Obama’s speech to the Associated Press yesterday was a parody of the form. This was a diatribe that managed to invoke “Social Darwinism” and “a Trojan Horse” in the same paragraph, amid the other high crimes that Mr. Obama says Paul Ryan wants to commit (4/3). The New York Times: Calling Radicalism By Its Name The speech was immediately attacked by the House speaker, John Boehner, for failing to deal with the debt crisis, but Mr. […]

National Education Standards – A Confidence Game?

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/03/national_education_standards_a.html Published on April 1, 1857, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was Herman Melville’s last novel and one in which he coined a new term for American hucksters. Melville’s satirical tale has some relevance for better understanding the drive for national education standards, testing, and curricula, as well as the major players behind this movement. Here’s the Wikipedia plot summary of Melville’s book: The novel’s title refers to its central character, an ambiguous figure who sneaks aboard a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool’s Day. This stranger attempts to test the confidence of the passengers, whose varied reactions constitute the bulk of the text.  In this work Melville is at his best illustrating the human masquerade. Each person including the reader is […]

Biden vs. Romney

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http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/294861/biden-vs-romney-katrina-trinko Joe Biden didn’t mince words when he talked about Mitt Romney in Iowa yesterday. He blatantly accused the former Massachusetts governor of killing jobs. “When he was governor of Massachusetts, he vetoed a bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature that would have stopped the state from outsourcing contracts overseas,” Biden said in Davenport, Iowa. “That resulted in millions of dollars flowing to companies running call centers in India.” “Massachusetts was losing manufacturing jobs twice as fast as the rest of the country while Governor Romney was in charge,” Biden continued. “The thirdworst rate in the country.” Biden is not factually inaccurate in either charge, but in both cases he omits the context. It is true that Romney vetoed legislation […]

Mass. Keeps Close Eye On Supreme Court Health Care Hearings

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http://www.wbur.org/2012/03/29/mass-scotus-health BOSTON — The fate of President Obama’s health care overhaul now lies in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court and observers aren’t expecting a decision until this summer. The unprecedented combination of health care policy and legal theory has kept many Boston-area residents glued to their computers, radios, televisions and phones for updates. “I’ve been mildly obsessed with the hearings,” said Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts CEO Andrew Dreyfus. “I’ve been listening to them and reading the transcripts at night. It’s just such an incredible moment of both constitutional history and political theater.” Blue Cross filed an amicus brief on the central issue before the high court: whether the federal government can require Americans to buy health […]

Why Romneycare outdoes Obamacare

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http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120327/OPINION04/703279967 President Barack Obama keeps trying to give former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney credit for the Affordable Care Act, which tells you how unpopular Obamacare is. Romney, Obama told the public radio show “Marketplace,” “is now pretending like he came up with something different” from Obamacare, which celebrated its second anniversary last week. Like Obama, Romney’s GOP primary rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich also are talking as if Romneycare spawned Obamacare, as both plans rely on an individual mandate. But the philosophies behind the federal plan and the Massachusetts plan are radically different. Romney set out to offer a plan that would address the state’s 460,000 uninsured residents, without putting undue burdens on state employers. Obamacare, conversely, is mandate […]

Trust Us, We’re Not Nationalizing Curriculum

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The Obama administration can’t seem to resist wading into state discussions about standards and tests, the guideposts that direct what is taught in local schools. At issue is the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which seeks to set national criteria for instruction in English and math. The administration has tried to bribe states into adopting the national standards, using a pot of $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top grants to sweeten the deal for those who go along. It also directly funded the national assessments that are aligned with the Common Core national standards, and it has tied No Child Left Behind waivers to adoption of the common standards. For all that, the administration claims that any state […]

The Other Federal Takeover

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http://www.cato.org/blog/other-federal-takeover Right now the nation is fixated on the Supreme Court and health care, as well it should be. If the Court rules the wrong way and the individual mandate is upheld, seemingly the last limit to federal power—Washington can’t make you buy stuff—will be gone. So yes, please, let’s focus on ObamaCare. When the arguments end and the health fight abates for a while, however, let’s pay some much needed attention to another federal takeover, one that is constantly being overshadowed by bigger things like wars, ObamaCare, and budget blowouts: looming federal domination of education. There’s actually an immediate ObamaCare connection to education, though few will likely recall it. To make the CBO cost estimates come out right, Democrats attached the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) […]

Alabama Opposes National Education Standards

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http://blog.heritage.org/2012/05/15/alabama-opposes-national-education-standards/ Alabama has joined a growing number of states opposing the Common Core national education standards. Last week, the state senate adopted a resolution to “encourage the State Board of Education to take all steps it deems appropriate, including revocation of the adoption of the initiative’s standards if necessary, to retain complete control over Alabama’s academic standards, curriculum, instruction, and testing system.” This comes at the same time other states are backing away from the standards. Education Week reported earlier this month: Utah has been surfing the waves of common-standards controversy lately. Now it appears that the standards aren’t the only thing the state is uneasy about. It’s also uneasy about the tests being designed for them. We are getting […]

Jobs picture in Mass. brightens a bit

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http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x586830106/Jobs-picture-in-Mass-brightens-a-bit Local unemployment rates fell or remained flat in about two-thirds of  Massachusetts towns and cities last month, according to estimates from the state  Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. February’s improvements came on the heels of a spike in local jobless  estimates in most regions in January. Local unemployment rates often peak in  January after the temporary jobs related to holiday shopping end. Rates likely improved last month partly because contract jobs at colleges,  such as janitorial and food services, returned for the spring semester, said  Rena Kottcamp, research director for the state Division of Unemployment  Assistance. “Generally, the rates should continue to show progress,” Kottcamp said. The state measures unemployment in two ways. One version of the […]

STERGIOS and ARCHAMBAULT: The way forward post-Obamacare

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/26/the-way-forward-post-obamacare/?page=all#pagebreak The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing  oral arguments on the constitutionality of the federal health care law President  Obama pushed through Congress two years ago, the  Patient Protection and Affordable Care  Act. The court is expected to issue an  opinion by the end of June. Not since the New Deal legislation of the 1930s has an issue of this  magnitude regarding the size and reach of the federal government arrived before the court.  If the act is struck down in its entirety or even in part, the next president  will need to articulate a new health care vision for the country. The way forward should include the following four steps: First, the president would do well to learn from […]

Pivotal role of vocational education

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http://www.berkshireeagle.com/editorials/ci_20250784/pivotal-role-vocational-education According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, the stagnant manufacturing industry has enjoyed a comeback in the state and nation, and the main factor jeopardizing that growth is a lack of skilled labor. The decline of the industry created a gap between the pre-collapse skilled machinists who lack computer skills and the post-collapse work force that is computer-savvy but lacking in machining skills. Enter state of the art vocational education. Manufacturing and health care are the two fields with the greatest need for workers in the state, and both provide well-paying jobs. The health field, however, is having an easier time finding qualified people to fill these jobs than is manufacturing. According to a recent Boston Globe story, Tell […]

Hillsdale Constitution 101 Week 6: “Religion, Morality, and Property”

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2864021/posts The institutional separation of church and state—a revolutionary accomplishment of the American Founders—does not entail the separation of religion and politics. On the contrary, as the Northwest Ordinance states, “religion, morality and knowledge” are “necessary to good government.” For America’s Founders, reason and revelation properly understood are complementary. “Almighty God hath created the mind free,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Human beings are fallible, yet despite this fact, they are capable of self-government. With careful cultivation of one’s soul, attention to “the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” and the uplifting assistance of family, church, and the local community, an individual is able to tame base passions and live worthy of the blessings […]

Policy prescription: States’ fights

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http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/apageofbooks/s_788030.html#axzz2NcwhEhqG If the U.S. Supreme Court — where oral arguments begin Monday — overturns  ObamaCare, states should become laboratories for reform; if it’s upheld, states’  design of their insurance “exchanges” still will be important and should reflect  each state’s demographics and health care shortfalls. That’s the thrust of the independent, nonpartisan Pioneer Institute’s new  book, “The Great Experiment: the States, the Feds and Your Healthcare.” The dean  of Harvard Medical School wrote its introduction and its chapter authors include  a former Office of Management and Budget associate director and a Tufts  University School of Medicine professor. Following are excerpts from the Trib’s phone conversation with  editor/co-author Josh Archambault, the institute’s director of health care  policy. On ramifications of the Supreme […]

The main event

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/sns-201203191500–tms–cthomastq–b-a20120320mar20,0,5228636.column Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear three days of oral arguments in the healthcare lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare.” We now know the law was based on phony predictions about its cost. After promising the price would be under $940 billion over 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has issued a correction of its initial estimate, which appears to have been based on sleight of hand accounting tactics by congressional Democrats and the White House. CBO now projects the measure will cost taxpayers at least $1.76 trillion over a decade. Randy E. Barnett, the Carmack Waterhouse professor of legal theory at the Georgetown University […]

State Roundup: Union Seeks $80M From N.Y. For Health Aides’ Insurance

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http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/March/22/states-health-care.aspx?print=1 Health policy news centers around the legislatures in various states. The Wall Street Journal: Union Seeks New Bailout In Budget Deal As Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers lurch toward a budget deal, the state’s largest health-care union is asking Albany for another bailout of its troubled insurance fund. The union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, is asking the state for $80 million more in Medicaid dollars so it can keep on providing health insurance to personal-care aides (Gershman, 3/21). Kansas Health Institute News: Committee Approves Using HMO Tax To Pay For Newborn Screenings The House Appropriations Committee today approved a bill that would use an existing tax on health maintenance organizations to pay for the state’s newborn screening program. […]

Boston-Cambridge Google wars

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http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/The-Download/177-Boston-Cambridge-Google-wars.aspx “It’s too bad.” That’s how the president of the Boston City Council greeted last night’s news that Google had won approvals to expand its Cambridge headquarters. Google ran into a surprisingly contentious expansion fight in Cambridge, raising hopes in Government Center that Boston might be able to poach the tech giant from across the Charles. Last night’s Cambridge City Council vote puts an end to those hopes. Hence, Steve Murphy’s dejected “too bad” quote in the Herald. The whole episode speaks volumes about the state of economic development in Boston — the city talks a world-class game, but is often chasing leftovers from across the river. Google’s Cambridge expansion involves connecting two Kendall Square office buildings with a 40,000 […]

National Education Standards – A Confidence Game?

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/03/national_education_standards_a.html Published on April 1, 1857, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was Herman Melville’s last novel and one in which he coined a new term for American hucksters. Melville’s satirical tale has some relevance for better understanding the drive for national education standards, testing, and curricula, as well as the major players behind this movement. Here’s the Wikipedia plot summary of Melville’s book: The novel’s title refers to its central character, an ambiguous figure who sneaks aboard a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool’s Day. This stranger attempts to test the confidence of the passengers, whose varied reactions constitute the bulk of the text.  In this work Melville is at his best illustrating the human masquerade. Each person including the reader is […]