On November 7 around 11:15 pm when a lot of people were asleep, the House of Representatives passed (by two votes) a massive 2,032 page health care reform bill (HR 3962) that will cost $1.3 trillion, impose new taxes and mandate employers to provide health care coverage.  It is the wrong prescription for our economy, for consumers and for businesses of all sizes.

The bill amounts to a federal takeover of our health care system.  It creates 111 new boards, bureaucracies, commissions and programs!  A few samples include the Health Choices Administration, Council for Emergency Care, National Women’s Health Information Center and the Public Health Investment Fund (a full list of all 111 new bureaucracies can be found below). 

There was another way.  House Republicans offered some common sense ideas that the National Center for Policy Analysis has been pushing for years – giving our small businesses the ability to cross state lines to purchase health care, providing them access to more affordable health care for their employees.  The alternative also works to reduce health care costs by enacting medical liability reform.

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Portability can keep families healthy through an unhealthy economy.

In December, 524,000 Americans lost their jobs. These numbers rounded out a full year of job losses, the worst since 1945, in the midst of a recession that began last December as the housing crisis began to spread to the broader economy. As a result, the total number of Americans out of work now stands at 11.1 million people.

For the millions of Americans who are now facing unemployment, there's a genuinely unnerving quality about the idea of waking up on a Monday morning and not knowing when your next paycheck will come or the manner of anxiously checking your voicemail for the callback about your last job interview. Uncertainty abounds, but the bills aren't going anywhere.

As if that idea isn't scary enough, imagine that losing your job also means losing your health insurance.  For the young and healthy, this may be little more than a passing thought, but for the 43.8% of Americans who suffer from at least one chronic condition, losing your job is not only scary,

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What mothers REALLY want for Mother's Day

Mothers throughout the country will be receiving flowers, candy and gifts from their loved ones on Mother's Day. But Terry Neese, a Distinguished Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, said there are much better Mother's Day gifts that can be given — ones that have a lasting impact.

"I'm all for treating our moms to nice dinners and a pretty bouquet," Neese said. "But what our moms really want is time and money. It's about making changes in federal law so mothers can keep more of their hard-earned cash in their pocketbooks."

Neese has developed a list of Mother's Day gifts that require less government involvement and create more economic freedom:

•1.    Portable health and retirement benefits… so mothers aren't penalized when they switch jobs

•2.    A level playing field under tax law… so that stay-at-home moms who save for retirement, purchase health insurance, long-term insurance, day care, etc., receive just as much tax relief as people who obtain these benefits at work

•3.    New rules regarding employer-provided benefits… so mothers can freely choose between taxable wages and non-taxed benefits, selecting the combination that best meets their family's needs

•4.    Time… so mothers can work 80 hours over a two-week period in any combination (by changing the 1938 Federal Labor Standards Act)

•5.    Better treatment under Social Security… so shared earnings between spouses could easily be applied to a new system of personal retirement accounts (where payroll tax contributions are divided like community property)

•6.    A new approach to the taxation of Social Security benefits (for grandma)… so marginal tax rates are not raised and there is no earnings penalty for seniors who work.

•7.    The ability to protect assets by buying long-term care insurance… so Medicaid can be utilized only for catastrophic costs

•8.    Personal employment accounts… so moms have more control and ownership, while having unemployment protection. Personal employment accounts could be used during periods of unemployment and any unused funds could add to retirement incomes.

•9.    A fairer tax system for two-earner couples… so both spouses are able to file completely separate tax returns without penalty. Mothers and grandmothers also want to bury the estate tax for life.

•10.  Affordable health care… so women and families can feel secure. Small businesses should be allowed to band together across state lines, creating an economy of scale, as they seek to purchase reasonably priced health insurance.