Page 14 - Thomasw Smith News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe/Getty Images The COVID-19 vaccines are among the most effective ever invented. But when people hear that getting vaccinated may not usher in a return to normalcy or could harm their health, they grow reluctant to get the shots, slowing our march to herd immunity. An ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 73% of unvaccinated Americans wouldn't take the Johnson & Johnson shot. Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and the Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. This is an opinion column. The thou...

The Republican Party Has a New Problem: Itself The GOP doesn’t seem to be worried about what may happen to its constituents by empowering people who view them as a threat. A recent series of concessions on and retreats from hot-button issues by the Republican Party has raised questions about its purpose and future.  In Florida, Republicans have quietly backed down from SB 2012, which would protect female athletes from competing against biological men identifying as transgender. “Sen. Kelli Stargel, the Lakeland Republican who sponsored FL SB 2012, is pulling the bill from Wednesday’s �...

Government waste thrives in darkness Thomas W. Smith - Contributing columnist In the last 20 years, our country’s national debt has exploded. In 2001, when George W. Bush took office, the national debt was $5.8 trillion. It took around 225 years — booms, busts, depressions, wars, etc. — to amass that much national debt. In just eight years, Bush and a compliant Congress doubled the number to $11.7 trillion. In Barack Obama’s two terms, another $8.6 trillion was added. During the past four years, Donald Trump and Congress fought many battles, but not over this: In that time, America’...

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

Americans are getting a good return on their healthcare spending Sally Pipes © Provided by Washington Examiner The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released new data on Dec. 16 on health expenditures. In 2019, overall spending rose 4.6% to reach a total of $3.8 trillion, or 17.7% of the economy. Popular Searches That's enough to make anyone do a double take. But a deeper look at the data actually shows we're getting a lot of value out of all that spending. Hospital care and physician and clinical services accounted for over 50% of spending. Spending in those two c...