Just Keep Digging?
What to know: Congressman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) writes that the “reconciliation” budget will be a disaster for Americans, noting, “We cannot inflate our way out of inflation or spend this country into prosperity.”
The TPPF take: This big-spending bill should be rejected outright.
“President Biden and Congressional Democrats have proposed roughly $6 trillion in new spending over a decade of hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” says TPPF’s Vance Ginn. “To put it bluntly, this reckless spending will destroy America’s fiscal and economic institutions by pushing us toward insolvency, dependency, and insanity.”
For more on the infrastructure package, click here.
Americans Want Transparency
What to know: The New York Times reports that hospitals and insurers don’t want you to see their prices—because then you’d know what a bad deal American health care is now.
The TPPF take: Only 5.6% of hospitals across the country are in compliance with the federal government’s price transparency rule
“The idea of price transparency is that the consumer should be able to shop for the best price of hospital care, similar to the way we all shop for clothes, cars, etc.,” says TPPF’s Virginia Sanders. “Price transparency will lead to better-informed consumers and patients, and eventually, higher-price facilities will start to lower their prices to become more competitive.”
For more on price transparency, click here.
Where’d They Go?
What to know: Nearly 15 million mail-in ballots were unaccounted for in the 2020 election, a new report says.
The TPPF take: Mail-in ballots have some inherent weaknesses.
“Voting by mail lacks the protections that voting in person provides,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “The ballot can get lost, no voter identification is required, and the ballot is vulnerable to fraud, voter intimidation, or deception. Voting by mail has become increasingly popular in Texas, but it has serious shortcomings that make it vulnerable to fraud while putting legitimate ballots at risk.”
For more on mail-in ballots, click here.