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Happy Fourth!

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Happy Independence Day. In honor of the holiday, I’m posting a link to an excellent page at the National Archives, where you can reread and see visuals of America’s founding documents. If you ever get a chance to visit D.C. — or live here and have never been — the National Archives is worth a visit. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is quite literally the record-keeper for the nation, preserving all of our country’s valuable documents and materials.

Tool around NARA’s website and be amazed at some of the content available right there, for free. (Well, paid for with tax dollars.) The work of reporters, historians, and many others would be difficult to nearly impossible without NARA, so as you salute your country, also salute the archivists who help tell its story to the world.

Declaration of Independence

BlogAffinity: Kindergarten Cop

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Patrick Boyle, editor of Youth Today, is a new, humorous voice on fatherhood issues at the Huffington Post. “Kindergarten Cop,” which debuted an inaugural post today, is about the joys of breaking the law in front of your kids. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

In today’s column, he writes:

Even though we’re parents, we sometimes walk when the sign says “Don’t.” We split the cable wire to hook up a second TV for free. We take the kids out of school a day early so we can hit the road for Spring break. We yell at the ref.

Most of all, we speed. Surveys consistently show that about three-quarters of U.S. drivers admit to regularly exceeding the posted limits.

But while we adults have this quiet compact that says a little disobedience is fine as long as you don’t piss me off, I can’t figure out how to explain that to a kindergartener who recently won so many good behavior coupons in class that she got to eat lunch with the teacher.

“This blog is about regular guys trying to be good dads,” Boyle says in an email, “about struggling, about being dumbfounded by our kids, about laughing, and about the occasional and noteworthy success.” He notes, correctly, that parenting writing “tends to be dominated by moms” — no offense to his wife and other mothers out there, of course — or by a “touchy-feely” tone. 

So bookmark the main page (scroll down to see all posts), read often, subscribe, follow Patrick on twitter, and leave comments. Most of all, fathers, enjoy and embrace your lawlessness — there’s at least one guy out there who has your back.

 

Health Care: Commonwealth Fund Report on Three Reform Scenarios

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A June report, “Fork In The Road: Alternative Paths To A High Performance U.S. Health System,” authored by Cathy Schoen, Karen Davis, Stuart Guterman, and Kristof Stremikis of the Commonwealth Fund, analyzes three health care reform options specifically dealing with the “public-plan” option for people under age 65.

The authors sum up their findings in the abstract:

“The approaches include: 1) a public health plan paying providers at Medicare rates, offered alongside private plans in a national health insurance exchange; 2) a public plan paying providers at rates set midway between Medicare and private plan rates, offered alongside private plans in an insurance exchange; and 3) no public plan, with only private plans offered to employers and individuals through an insurance exchange. All three approaches, if combined with Medicare payment and system reform, would produce substantial savings over time, but option 1 would yield the most—$3.0 trillion in cumulative health system savings over 2010 to 2020, compared with $2.0 trillion (option 2) and $1.2 trillion (option 3).”

(Tip of the Hat,  Philanthropy News Digest.)

 

None Too Few Pews

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As I was reading the Sunday papers, it occurred to me that I keep coming across articles citing one or another Pew center/project/partnership/survey. I did “the Google” for Pew and it’s really stunning how many different iterations of Pew turned up — from the Pew Global Attitudes Project to the Pew Partnership for Civic Change to the Pew Hispanic Center to the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. 

I guess they’re all funded, at least in part, by the Pew Charitable Trusts, based in Philadelphia with an office here in Washington, D.C. According to the Pew history, the family’s money comes mainly from oil, but the focus areas of the foundation now are civics, culture, good government, the environment, and other areas. I guess it’s not really a problem for a foundation to support these niche areas — as a policy reporter, it always helps to turn to reliable sources working in specific areas full time — but I get nervous when I see the same sources popping up all the time because I think it can lead to less diversity of thought and opinion. Sometimes it’s hard to avoid coming back to the same organizations for comment, particularly if a group is working in so many areas as Pew, but oftentimes talking to one or two other expert sources can result in a better article.

Busy News Week

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To state the obvious, it’s been a “breaking news” type of week. Here in D.C., the Washington Post  is still reporting on the cause of Monday’s terrible Metro train crash that killed nine people, but other events have pushed it below the fold. Iranians continued to protest amid a reported government clamp down. Midweek got plainly weird and sent political types atwitter with expectation before a rogue governor’s press conference and into speculative overdrive after. Today brought news of two tragic deaths: of an iconic pop star and of an iconic pinup. What did I miss? Oh, yes, Ed McMahon died. And you can’t strip search students.

As sobering as all this is, it’s worth noting some other events still unfolding on the policy front this week. The House is, as I post this, on the floor debating H.R.2454, the  American Clean Energy & Security Act,  a measure designed to reduce global warming. A close vote is expected today. It will be interesting to see if this drives action in the Senate or causes that August body to drop the issue just to spite the House.

On the health care front, also via WaPO, the Senate Finance committee has apparently made some progress on its side of the bill. There’s plenty of time for that to fall apart. Meanwhile, watch a video archive of today’s National Institute For Health Care Management forum on the issue.

And, German Chancellor popped by the White House for a visit. My guess is the Obamas will still be serving hot dogs, not German sausage, on the Fourth. (I know there are disagreements, but does she always have to look so dour? Just sayin.)

 

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