July 30, 2021

Reads of the Week: Medicare expansion, preserving local culture, and the high cost of big government

By: AF Editors

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? Learn more about how the Writing Fellows Program can help boost your writing career!

Medicaid Expansion is a Leaky Boat by Trevor Carlsen (Spring 2019) in RealClearPolicy

Imagine you own a modest boat that you like to take out on the lake when you go fishing. Your boat serves its purpose — it has space for a case of cold ones and enough room for you and your fishing buddies. It takes some work, but you’re able to maintain her and make repairs pretty much on your own.

Now imagine you’re going by a marina, and you see a small yacht for sale. In a strange fit of daring, you buy it! The owner is offering special financing for the first few years, and it seems like this new boat fits within your budget. What happens?…

On the Need for Regional American Cultures by Anthony Hennen (Spring 2019) in expatalachians

One of the more entertaining ways to talk about Appalachia is by describing mundane things that surprise people. A significant number of people, for example, do not realize that Ohio and West Virginia share a border. They also don’t realize Ohio and Pennsylvania share a border (though that is less common).

Light pollution, too, throws them for a loop. On a clear night back in Ohio, I could occasionally see the Milky Way, or at least dozens of stars. One doesn’t need to traverse a desert in the American West to be overwhelmed by the expanse and transcendence of space, but the polluted suburban and urban areas obscure this little truth…

Progressive Tax Fantasies Can’t Come Close to Paying for Big Government by Andrew Wilford (Spring 2017) in Townhall

With U.S. debt having soared to all-time highs and massive budget deficits as far as budgeters can see, the progressive refrain is the same: “ensure the wealthy pay their fair share.” But a new tax wish list put out by 80 progressive groups shows that the math simply doesn’t add up. Even in their wildest dreams of taxing the wealthy, they can’t close the current budget deficit, much less pay for their new spending priorities like Medicare For All or the Green New Deal.

The progressive soak-the-rich fantasy includes a wealth tax, a higher corporate tax rate, a higher estate tax, a financial transactions tax, and more spending on tax enforcement, just to name some of the more notable proposals. Considering how progressives speak of Medicare for All as an easily achievable, common sense solution, one would imagine that this list would more than cover the $32 trillion price tag. In reality, it doesn’t even come close. All told, this wish-list would cumulatively raise “just” $7.78 trillion: that’s not even close to our projected budget deficit (over $12 trillion) and less than a quarter of the needed revenues for Medicare for All…