The Yongbyon Reactor Restart and Biden ’s Fading North Korea Prospects
Eric GomezNorth Korea restarted a reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex according toa new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The reactor, which has been dormant since December 2018, produces plutonium for North Korea ’s nuclear weapons. The amount of plutonium the reactor will eventually produce is currently unclear, but a resumption of activity at the Yongbyon nuclear complex should not come as a surprise.North Korea has not been a major foreign policy concern thus far in the Biden administration ’s tenure. This is understandable given the administration’s efforts to ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 30, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Eric Gomez Source Type: blogs
The FDA ’s Culture: Should Safety Dominate All Practices?
By STEVEN ZECOLA
An organization’s culture is an internal set of shared values, attitudes and practices. The cohesiveness of the organizational culture will affect whether the entity will meet its vision, purpose, and goals.
One type of organizational culture is hierarchical in nature. Unlike a risk-taking culture, this structure features policy, process and precision. It is best suited for mature and stable organizations.
The disadvantage of a hierarchal culture is that its stability and control can turn into rigidity. In many cases, the organization develops a negative attitude towards ideas s...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 26, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Policy FDA Parkinson's Disease Steven Zecola Source Type: blogs
Federal Spending Ratchets Up
Chris EdwardsDemocratic leaders in the House and Senate are hoping to pass a $1 trillion bill to fund infrastructure and a $3.5 trillion bill to fund new and expanded entitlement programs. The bills would entrench a substantial increase in the size and scope of the federal government.The chart below shows past and projected domestic program spending if the Democratic plans pass, measured as a percent of gross domestic product. Projected spending is as proposed in the Democratic budget resolution less defense and interest outlays.Domestic program spending almost tripled from 5 percent to 14 percent of GDP from the mid...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 25, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
Two Things President Biden ’s Speech Missed
Sahar KhanYesterday, President Joe Bidenaddressed the nation as the Taliban took over Kabul. In his remarks, he stood firmly by his decision to leave Afghanistan, saying,I ’m now the fourth American President to preside over war in Afghanistan — two Democrats and two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibly on — responsibility on to a fifth President.He also said:I cannot and I will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another — in another country’s civil war, taking casualties, suffering life-shattering injuries, leaving families broken by grief and loss.This is not in our national security interest....
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 17, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Sahar Khan Source Type: blogs
In Afghanistan, Lies and Delusions to the Bitter End
Justin Logan“There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy … of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”That was howPresident Joe Biden responded on July 8 to a question regarding possible parallels between the withdrawal from South Vietnam in 1975 and the then ‐pending withdrawal from Afghanistan.It is now clear that the administration ’s assessment of the likely consequences was wrong. Three things are worth considering:U.S. policy in Afghanistan has been based on self ‐delusion and outright lying to the American people a...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 16, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Justin Logan Source Type: blogs
Soshulism: A Golden Oldie
Remember back in 2009 when the astroturf Tea Partiers were showing up at politicians ' town halls to yell and scream about the impendinggovernment takeover of Medicare? Yeah, that happened. President Obama at a town hall meeting last weekdescribed a letter he received from a Medicare recipient:“I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, ‘I don’t want government-run health care. I don’t want socialized medicine. And don’t touch my Medicare.’”At a town hall meeting held by Rep. Robert Inglis (R-SC):Someone reportedly told Inglis, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”“I had to polite...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 31, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Is It Time to Minus PLUS?
Neal McCluskeyFederal student loans are having a moment, and not a good one. With the COVID-19 repayment pausedue to end in October, House Speaker Nancy Pelosiopposing massive loan forgiveness, andtwoWall Street Journalarticles shining spotlights on how federal programs enable staggering tuition inflation, much attention is being paid to the crippling unintended consequences of federal higher ed “help.”But what to do about it?As I have arguedfor years, the right thing to do is phase out all federal aid programs, starting with those least focused on the poor and basically working our way down. Of course, ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 30, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Neal McCluskey Source Type: blogs
Who Started the Culture War?
David BoazKevin Drum is a progressive blogger who was at Mother Jones until early this year. He caused a stir two weeks ago with a blog post titled “If you hate the culture wars, blame liberals. ” Taking issue with most of his ideological compatriots and with much of the mainstream media, he wrote, “over the past two decades Democrats have moved left far more than Republicans have moved right.…Almost by definition, liberals are the ones pushing for change while conservatives are merel y responding to whatever liberals do.” He cited such “hot button social issues” as same‐sex marriage, immi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 16, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
TikTok, Schrems II, and Cross ‐Border Data Flows
Julian SanchezInformation —you may have heard this one before—wants to be free, and on the global Internet, it flows more freely than ever. Governments are frequently less than sanguine about this fact—often for bad and censorious reasons, but also on occasion with perfectly valid motives, such as the desire to protect national security or the personal privacy of their citizens, which are in many cases overlapping interests. The past month saw developments in two fronts of the perennial struggle to reap the benefits of a borderless network while still maintaining a modicum of control over private data—and I bel iev...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 6, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Julian Sanchez Source Type: blogs
Keep Repealing AUMFs until You Hit the One That Matters
Gene HealyOn Sunday night at around 6:00 PM ET, Joe Biden became president all over again —at least by theperverse Beltway logic that holds bombing the Middle East is as presidential as it gets. At the CINC ’s command, Air Force F-15s and F-16s pounded several facilities in Syria and Iraq used by Iran-backed militias to attack U.S. troops. The Pentagon’s press officeunleashed a relentless adjective-swarm —“necessary, appropriate, deliberate”—justifying the “defensive precision” attacks, exquisitely calibrated to “limit the risk of escalation” while sending “a clear and unambiguous deterrent message....
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 1, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Gene Healy Source Type: blogs
What does the Trump presidency imply for healthcare and healthcare IT?
John Halamka, MD, served the Bush administration for four years and the Obama administration for six. Change in Washington happens incrementally, he says: There is always an evolution, not a revolution, regardless of speechmaking hyperbole. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog)
Source: Healthcare IT News Blog - June 15, 2021 Category: Information Technology Tags: Public Policy, Regulation, Core Technologies, EHR, Legislation Source Type: blogs
13 Technologies That Will Shape The Future Of Cancer Care
Immediately upon being elected, U.S. President Joe Biden had a task to solve. Amidst taking a hold on the virus, he, however, did not forget about a health issue he’d previously been involved in. In his first major address to Congress this April, Biden asked lawmakers to help him “end cancer as we know it.” The U.S.’s ambition to stop cancer deaths began with the project Moonshot Biden was responsible for under the presidency of Barack Obama. While Moonshot hasn’t yet proved successful, the amount of money spent on research has its mark on the outcome.
The United States spends more money on cancer than any ot...
Source: The Medical Futurist - June 10, 2021 Category: Information Technology Authors: Judit Kuszkó Tags: Covid-19 Forecast Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Biotechnology Digital Health Research E-Patients Future of Medicine Genomics Health Sensors & Trackers Healthcare Design Medical Education Nanotechnology Personalized Medicine Source Type: blogs
Do Economists Support the Biden Plan?
David BoazAsI wrote in March, President Biden repeatedly claimed that essentially all economists supported his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan: “The American Rescue Plan … will generate economic growth for the entire nation. That’s why major economists — left, right, and center — support this plan.” “Every single major economist out there — left, right, and center — supported this plan.” And in a CNN Town Hall:This is the first time in my career — and as you can tell, I’m over 30 — the first time in my career that there is a consensus among economists left, right, and center that...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 25, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
How Anti ‐Immigrant and Anti‐Gun Advocates Make the Same Bad Arguments
Trevor BurrusThe Biden administration has made priorities of both immigration reform and gun control, the latter being given particular salience by recent mass shootings in Atlanta, Boulder, and Indianapolis. Yet if those in the administration want to make better policy in both areas, they should realize that bad arguments against immigration —ones often used by the previous administration—are very similar to bad arguments for gun control.First, both argue anecdotally from the most recent incident and ignore broader data. In the previous administration, Trump and his conservative supporters latched on to specific insta...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 3, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Trevor Burrus Source Type: blogs
Supreme Court Signals Its Interest in Limiting the President ’s Leeway for Irrational Policymaking
William YeatmanThe Supreme Court recently signaled its interest in limiting the president ’s leeway to make irrational policy. Such a curtailment is long past due, as modern presidents increasingly have abused this latitude to push the envelope of unilateral executive power.Usually, Congress grants regulatory power to administrative agencies (think: EPA, SEC, FERC, etc.). For these agency rules, courts apply “hard look” review to ensure the measure’s reasonableness. Sometimes, however, Congress delegates regulatory authority directly to the president. In this context, courts donot perform reasonableness review...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 21, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: William Yeatman Source Type: blogs
