Op-Eds

Feb 25, 2010

Obama Must Push Tort Reform to Lower Health Care Costs

As the administration and Congress try to hit the restart button on health care reform, it’s worth noting that one glaring omission from the debate has been tort reform. For all of the talk about making health care more affordable and lowering premiums and costs, it is inexplicable that this promising mechanism for cost-savings continues to be ignored by the president and Congressional Democrats. Defensive medicine, frivolous lawsuits and multimillion-dollar jury awards in malpractice cases ...

Feb 25, 2010

Bipartisan Health Care Reform Must Include Tort Reform

Now that his yearlong partisan push for government-run health care has so far failed to produce legislative results, President Barack Obama wants Republicans to join him for another White House summit to see if he can salvage his proposals. But unless the president and congressional Democrats address the need for tort reform as a critical component of cutting health care costs, a bipartisan solution seems unlikely. The unsustainable path of rising costs is a serious national problem. ...

Feb 19, 2010

No Civilian Trials for Gitmo Terrorists

The White House can't seem to figure out what to do with the terrorists in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, but the administration still wants the American people to cough up more than $230 million to transfer them to the Thomson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois and an additional $200 million to pay for increased security in cities where Guantanamo detainees will go on trial in civilian courts. On top of that, the president's 2011 budget includes a little-noticed provision that ...