Graphic by Elena Toumayan.
Is healthcare dead? After more than a year since President Obama took office and promised to socialize healthcare, American voters can only ask this question.
Opinion
What happened to healthcare?
President Obama delivered a strong bipartisan message
On Jan. 27, President Obama stood before the country and delivered a strong, yet surprisingly bipartisan message to the public. The President’s first State of the Union address focused primarily on the economy, an issue as important to Republicans as it is to Democrats.
State of the Union’s focus should have been healthcare
President Obama focused on the economy during the State of the Union last night. Photo courtesy of the New York Times.
After a beginning of mostly empty rhetoric and 86 interruptions from applause, President Obama focused on the economy during his 71-minute State of the Union address Jan. 27. Healthcare remained the elephant in the room, as the President failed to substantially touch on the hot topic during his speech. It was a strange and dangerous move for a president who has put healthcare at the forefront of his domestic agenda for the past six months to suddenly subordinate it to the economy, as if the recession had only occurred yesterday.
D.C.’s Healthy Schools Act needs to change P.E. mandate
There’s no question that the D.C. Council’s recently proposed Healthy Schools Act would seriously improve public schools. Among other things, the bill would mandate that school cafeterias serve more “green” produce, set new nutritional standards for cafeteria food and increase the amount of mandatory P.E. for students of all ages. While D.C. should pass most of the bill, it needs to rethink the P.E. portion because of the strain it places on teachers.
Congress should not have the final say on D.C.’s gay marriage law
Gay marriage could be mere weeks away from becoming a reality in D.C. Legislation permitting same-sex marriage recently passed the D.C. Council, was signed by mayor Adrian Fenty and now only needs to survive a 30-legislative-day review period in Congress to become a law.
Although Congress will ultimately decide the bill’s fate based on their views of same-sex marriage, the review also resurrects the long-standing debate over D.C.’s federal oversight and lack of representation. Congress should acknowledge the legitimacy of such legislation and respect D.C.’s wishes by leaving the bill alone.
Counterterrorism strategy, too lenient
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was involved in the attempted Christmas Day bombing. Photo courtesy of examiner.com.
President Obama made it a point during his 2008 campaign to emphasize the departure his presidency would take from President Bush’s alleged mistakes in handling, well, just about everything. Bush’s main accomplishment while in the White House was counterterrorism, but Obama said that he had a new strategy.
MyMCPS should not be unrestricted for teachers
Students have the right to keep their test scores, grades and GPA’s private to those who need access to them. MyMCPS, a database that allows any MCPS teacher or administrator to view a student’s GPA, SAT and ACT test scores and transcript, violates students’ privacy. Teachers shouldn’t have access to this information without first obtaining consent from the student.