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Columns/Opinion

Is Medicare for All healthy?

By Marie Fishpaw The Heritage Foundation (TNS) Think you’ll be better off if Congress outlaws your private health coverage and puts you on a new government-run health plan called “Medicare for All”? Over half of House Democrats and 14 senators, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) say you will. They promise this massive change and disruption is worth it because most will save money. For example, Sanders has said: “Are people going to pay more in taxes? Yes. But at the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of people are going to end up paying ...

Bloomberg, billionaires & self-righteousness

I’d like to personally bop over the head the next Democrat who says that Michael Bloomberg shouldn’t be running for president because he’s a billionaire. Let’s give thanks that a simple-minded dismissal of rich candidates didn’t sink FDR’s chances. Billionaires are not the enemy. If you believe that those raking in astronomical incomes should be paying higher taxes — and Warren Buffet and I do — that is a job for our elected representatives who write the tax code. Bernie Sanders is currently rattling his tongue about striking fear in the hearts of the “billionaire ...

The cancel culture is toxic

By John Kass Chicago Tribune (TNS) Northwestern University students are still being criticized by woke and unwoke scolds young and old, many of them working journalists, for how the student-run newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, shamed itself a few days ago. It seems to me that both stern criticism of the young and motherly hugs of forgiveness are out of place here. What happened to the editors of The Daily Northwestern is that they are students, they are young. And they have not yet grown the hard bark that, now more than ever, is necessary to do the job of a journalist. They’re ...

Advice for climate-conscious: Don’t sweat small stuff

It can be confusing for climate-conscious consumers to sort through the carbon-reduction options out there in search of the ones that can truly make a difference. Even with a background in carbon footprint analysis, I still find it tricky to separate the good ideas from the bad. I have learned to follow a simple rule of thumb that helps me cut through all the climate-related noise: Don’t sweat the small things when it comes to climate change. Focus your energies and investments on a few big actions that you can sustain over the long term. But misconceptions about what can move the ...

Can’t we just enjoy the movie

I adored the story of Cinderella as a child. The prospect of having a man so in love with me that he’d criss-cross the kingdom searching for my size 6 ½ foot was heady stuff. It never occurred to me that Cindy was oppressed by the patriarchy or that she should just buy her own darn pair of shoes. Similarly, I was untroubled by the fact that Snow White was victimized by her stepmother, or lived with a variety of short men to whom she was not married. While the scenario seemed to present a negative view of both blended families and female sexuality, my 8-year-old psyche survived ...

Barriers zigzag across America like a scar

A few words about walls. Unsurprisingly, the one Donald Trump is trying to build on the southern border — the one he swore Mexico would pay for — has proven, like most things he touches, an embarrassing failure. First came news early this month that smugglers have been able to cut through the barrier with a simple reciprocating saw, available at Home Depot for prices starting at less than $100. Then, TBS’ “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” aired a segment demonstrating that the wall, which Trump has said “can’t be climbed,” can actually be climbed in as little as 15 ...