Good news on health-care costs The sky isn’t falling. The train is not wrecking. The end is not nigh. And to drag this out a bit, the tidings are not all bad.
The Social Security and Medicare trustees have spoken in their latest annual report: Social Security’s not-too-serious condition remains unchanged from last year. But the outlook for Medicare, the more shaky program, has brightened modestly.
The hospital insurance trust fund is now projected to go dry in 2026, tw...
Keystone key to oil independence As summer quickly approaches and students start summer break, many North Carolinians are preparing for vacation. Although reaching the vacation destination is the objective, the time spent in the car traveling with friends and family is just as enjoyable. Summer road trips are a great time to bond with the ones you love and explore our great country. Whether you’re planning to travel to the Carolina beaches or to visit family in another state...
The problem of single parenting The headlines were misleading: “Moms are Breadwinners in Record 4 of 10 Households.”
Immediate thought: Wow, 40 percent of wives are primary breadwinners. Nope. If you read down to the fifth or sixth paragraph in most stories about the new Pew study, you’d discover that the number of women out-earning their husbands was actually just 22.5 percent of married couples with children under the age of 18. The 40 percent figure includes single-par...
We should mind our own business The practice of marrying young girls to older men persists in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. It is a concern. But need it be America’s concern and, more to the point, America’s business to stop?
The answer is yes, according to a new Council on Foreign Relations report. Ending child marriage, author Rachel B. Vogelstein states, “is a strategic imperative that will further critical U.S. foreign policy interests.”
Is it? Do we need ...
Government by and for regulators It is appropriate that the worst scandal of the Obama administration — the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservatives — is a scandal of administrators and bureaucrats, of otherwise faceless people endowed with immense power over their fellow citizens and running free of serious oversight from elected officials.
They are the shock troops of the vast bureaucratic apparatus of the federal government. President Barack Obama has great...
Slowly taking away our freedoms We have truly entered the world of “Alice in Wonderland” when the CEO of a company that pays $16 million a day in taxes is hauled up before a congressional subcommittee to be denounced on nationwide television for not paying more.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was denounced for contributing to “a worrisome federal deficit,” according to Sen. Carl Levin — one of the big-spending liberals in Congress who has had a lot more to do with creating that defic...
Let’s slow down on school transfers The plan to transfer the fourth-graders from Rowland-Norment and Tanglewood elementary schools to Carroll Middle School has caused quite an uproar. As a public servant, it is my responsibility to take a stand for what I think is best for all students of the school system. In this case, I voted not to uproot these children in the next school year.
One thing that can adversely affect the performance of a child is the surrounding environment. ...
Don’t blame corporations on taxes Guy writes a film script full of four-letter words. But when the actors repeat them, he gets all huffy about the dirty language. An absurd reaction, wouldn’t you say? But it’s not so different from the scene in which our lawmakers scold corporate chieftains for exploiting tax loopholes their legislatures helped create.
There was no little “theater of the absurd” in calling Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook on the senatorial carpet to explain himself....
Caving in on our college campuses An all too familiar scene was enacted on the campus of Swarthmore College during a meeting on May 4 to discuss demands by student activists for the college to divest itself of its investments in companies that dealt in fossil fuels.
As a speaker was beginning a presentation to show how many millions of dollars such a disinvestment would cost the college, student activists invaded the meeting, seized the microphone and shouted down a student...
A time to honor nation’s fallen “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”
— George Washington
For many, Memorial Day 2013 was filled with barbeques, community parades, outdoor games, and relaxation with family and friends. But the holiday is much more than that. Memorial Day isn’t just a ...
The question: Who pays for I-95 work? This article is about tolling Interstate 95 from South Carolina to Virginia. I-95 tolling is not a new topic as it was under heavy discussion long before I left the General Assembly in 2010. There is no one perfect solution to the issue. Yet something must be done. Doing nothing and allowing I-95 to remain a four-lane interstate is not a real option, therefore I will not discuss that any further.
Before one finalizes a position on tolling I...
Obama was AWOL on Benghazi On “Fox News Sunday” recently, White House aide Dan Pfeiffer was asked about President Barack Obama’s whereabouts the night of the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi.
This was the night when we lost our first ambassador in 30 years, and when three other Americans were killed in an attack lasting for hours at multiple locations. Since the president is commander in chief, one would think that where he was and what he did during such an event would b...
A numerical look at our state By JOHN HOOD
RALEIGH — In the spirit of keeping things simple, the case for reforming North Carolina’s medical-assistance programs can be expressed in four numbers: 12, 15, 17, and 48.
These are all national rankings. North Carolina ranks 12th in the nation in state mental health spending per capita. North Carolina ranks 15th in Medicaid payments per child or working-aged adult enrolled in the program. North Carolina ranks 17th in state a...
Not your envoys, Mr. President Count me as irritable on the subject, but President Obama’s imperious habit of suggesting that American diplomats work for him is offensive to democratic sensibilities.
In the second presidential debate last fall, when the Benghazi matter came up, the president responded: “Well, let me … talk about our diplomats, because they serve all around the world and do an incredible job in a very dangerous situation. And these aren’t just representat...
The cure for political correctness This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, many parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo some of the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.
The strategy used by Gen. Douglas MacArthur so successfully in the Pacific during World War II can be useful in this very diff...
