Townhall Review | Commentaries

Presidential candidates Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Mike Bloomberg all claim they’re proposing a moderate, less disruptive approach to health-care reform called the “public option”—a government policy offered as an alternative to private health insurance.

These have been presented as more modest solutions relative to Medicare for All.

Don’t believe it.

A public option could increase the federal deficit, destabilize the market for private health insurance while threatening overall health-care quality and choice.

By 2049, the public option could be the third most expensive government program in the nation—behind only Medicare and Social Security.

Of course, the public option would also quickly displace employer-based and other private insurance. The result: Longer wait times, narrower provider networks and reduced consumer choice.

Policymakers may yet find the middle ground in health care reform. But don’t be fooled: A government-run public option is NOT it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the presidential campaign heats up, leaders over 70 control our politics. If Trump wins re-election, he’d be 78 at his term’s end—the oldest president ever. 

Elizabeth Warren would be 75, Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg would both be 81, and Bernie Sanders would hit 83. Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Pelosi is already 79 and Senate leader Mitch McConnell, 77. 

New York attorney Thomas Dewey notes this domination by senior citizens is new: Bill Clinton took office at age 46, and George W. Bush followed him at 54, beating the 52-year-old Vice President, Al Gore. Mr. Dewey seems puzzled by these contrasts, but they actually reflect the unshakable domination of government and culture by Baby Boomers, who ruled the roost in their 50s and still hold sway in their 70s. Members of this post-war population bulge could still reign past their 80s or, more plausibly, 2020 will be their Last Hurrah. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Perhaps the most pronounced problem Democrats have in 2020 is, to paraphrase U2, they can neither live with or without Bernie Sanders.

They can’t nominate him and win—but they need his supporters—and Bernie backers have a healthy sense distrust of the Democrat establishment that rigged the 2016 primary against their guy.

A recent Emerson College survey finds a remarkable spread between Bernie supporters and those of the other Democrat POTUS frontrunners as to the question of, “Will you support whoever the Democrat nominee turns out to be?”

90 percent of Warren voters and 87 percent of Biden voters say, “Yes.”

By contrast, only 54 percent of Bernie voters answer in the affirmative.

That is a significant disparity.

The Democrat Party establishment wants to secure the Bernie bros support but discard Bernie. But: Without the support of the base, they cannot win.

They have a problem.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week we saw history made as President Trump addressed the annual March for Life in person. 

Yes: Previous pro-life presidents had communicated support and had spoken to the March for Life in different forms—whether by letter, video, or by sending the vice president.

But not one had showed up in person.

And that’s the point:

It’s no small thing that the president of the United States showed up in person at the March for Life.

Previous presidents had considered the political calculus a bit too risky—wanting to keep a little bit of distance between themselves and the pro-life movement—especially this event. 
The fact that this president added to his pro-life record his appearance at the March for Life is epic for the cause of life.

The precedent that has been set is worth highlighting as well: Future pro-life presidents will now be expected to show up at the March for Life.

That, too, is really important for the cause of life.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, legendary investor Warren Buffet criticized businesses for imposing their own political framework on the rest of society. At first glance, this may come as a surprise: Buffet is himself a politically active liberal. But even he can see that “woke capitalism” has gone too far.

As an investor, he’s been consistent in supporting businesses that put shareholders first. The shareholders, after all, are the owners.

Carbon neutrality, LGBTQ activism, sustainability and other forms of virtue signaling are just corporate perks—the private jets of a business class that craves social validation … validation not for being rich, but for being woke.

Such indulgences might win them points in their social set and with elite media, but not with their owners.

If they want to do it, they should at least do it on their own dime.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The death of basketball star Kobe Bryant has shocked the world—truly the world. Bryant, one of the top five basketball players of all time by many estimates, was just 41 years old. More tragic still: his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died at his side. Seven other people perished in the crash.

Bryant soared in his career. He won five NBA championships, many awards, and became fantastically wealthy. Yet after personal trouble early in his career, Bryant committed himself to his family. He was by all accounts a doting father to his four girls, and he and his wife Vanessa worked hard to strengthen their union.

As a man, Bryant needed what many men need: he needed a family. He pursued excellence and found it in his calling.

Kobe’s days are over. This life goes fast. We must number our days, and prize what matters most.

Man knows not his time.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is Michael Medved for Townhall. 

A new study of the aging process demolishes one of the chief leftist claims about health care: that government control can eliminate inequality. The research, conducted by Harvard and University College London, looked at more than 25,000 people over 50 in the U.S. and the U.K. In both countries, subjects with higher net worth enjoyed an identical advantage of eight to nine disability-free years compared to those with little or no personal wealth. 

The results shocked experts who expected that Britain’s highly touted, government-funded National Health Service would produce more equal outcomes than the United States. 

Data strongly suggest that real differences in health and longevity reflect common patterns in both countries—where the poor are far more likely to smoke, to consume unhealthy diets, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and shun regular exercise. 

In both America and Britain health depends less on government programs than on lifestyle choices we can control. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year, the international elite gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The conservative political scientist Samuel Huntington, who accurately warned us about the coming “clash of civilizations,” coined a phrase to describe the elites who populate these meetings: “Davos Man.” 

Davos Man thinks of himself as free from the ties that hold the rest of us down—free from family, church, synagogue, community and nation. Instead, he’s a “global citizen” mouthing abstractions like ‘progress,’ ‘sustainability’ and ‘globalism.’ Davos Man views nations as at least irrelevant or even an evil threat to the march of “progress.”

In other words, all the things that give the rest of us roots are exactly the things that Davos Man has tried to sever himself from.

That’s why—in every corner of the world—we see such a revolt against Davos Man and his feckless attempts to plan mankind’s future.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.                

Those words—familiar to many—come from the 139th Psalm in the Bible.

In poetic language, we learn here that the Creator gives life to every person. Our personhood does not awake at our birth; a child in the womb is a child. Yet since Roe V. Wade made abortion legal today in 1973, Americans have broadly rejected this vision. We have embraced abortion and have killed well over 60 million babies in the womb. Truly, the blood of our children cries out from the earth.

Thankfully, in our time we are seeing major pro-life gains. Several pro-life Supreme Court justices have been appointed by President Trump, and younger generations poll strongly pro-life.

Whether you’re motivated by religious conviction or common recognition of human dignity, let us keep fighting for life.

Nothing is more precious than a baby.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An important new survey from Pew Research Center shows core differences between Republicans and Democrats that go far deeper than their contrasting attitudes toward President Trump. 
 
Republicans proved four-times more likely to agree with the statement that the USA “stands above all other countries in the world”—40 percent, compared to just 10 percent among Democrats. As to the opinion that, “other countries are better than the USA,” an astonishing 31 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of young Democrats supported that statement, while only 9 percent of Republicans agreed. 
 
Why should liberals feel more embarrassed about this remarkable nation that dominates the globe—economically, militarily and culturally? A big part of the contrast involves differences in religious involvement, with Democrats much less likely to attend church, or to embrace the nation’s faith-based heritage. That alienation fosters a sense of guilt and victimhood, rather than the pride and gratitude so essential to success at work, in family relationships and in leading a nation. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.