With the strokes from three gubernatorial pens, Vermont on Monday became the fourth state in the country to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients. Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the measure in a state House ceremony in Montpelier, capping a decade-long effort on the issue in Vermont. Vermont is the first state [...] Continue Reading 
The decision to tie mental health legislation to the Senate gun package that was pulled from the floor last month has left supporters of those provisions in limbo. Without a firm timeline in place for returning to the gun measure, senators who have introduced mental health proposals have to decide how long they’ll wait before [...] Continue Reading 
The floodgates of farm bill amendments opened Monday as senators rushed to put their own touches on the $955 billion agriculture bill. The legislation as written would save $23 billion over the next decade by tightening restrictions on the country’s food stamps program and cutting direct payments to farmers, but lawmakers are hoping to add [...] Continue Reading 
With the White House already reeling from three major controversies, some Republican lawmakers are zeroing in on what they perceive is another possible scandal tied to President Barack Obama’s landmark health reform law just as it nears implementation. On top of the troubles the administration is facing over its handling of the attack on the [...] Continue Reading 
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has created a form that likely won’t differ much from the real one from the IRS showing up in the mailboxes of the 140 million taxpaying Americans in 2014: It’ll be complicated, intrusive and will take still more time to complete. And, according to ATR, it will result in at least six [...] Continue Reading 
Advocates of the Obamacare Medicaid expansion have produced a number of studies in various states that project significant economic benefits if states adopt the expansion. However, most of those studies omit one or more key factors that, when included, make expansion scenarios look considerably less rosy. Job creation. Many state-level studies project that adopting the [...] Continue Reading 
Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare. Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 [...] Continue Reading 
As gratifying as it was to see the “news” media actually do its job last week when the IRS scandal broke, it was also odd that the coverage focused exclusively on abuses of power relating to various Tea Party and anti-abortion groups. A much scarier IRS story has been virtually ignored by the establishment press. [...] Continue Reading 
Some employers are avoiding Obamacare penalties by offering “skinny” insurance plans that provide workers with minimum coverage like preventive care but little else, including benefits to help cover hospitals stays. The minimum coverage qualifies as acceptable under the new healthcare reform law, so benefit advisers and insurance brokers are pitching minimum plans nationally, reports the [...] Continue Reading 
If you underwent a genetic test for a heart condition, but the test also revealed that you have a high risk of colon cancer, would you want to know? A respected scientific society says your doctor should tell you, but the group is receiving criticism for its recommendation that “incidental findings” of genetic tests be [...] Continue Reading