Reads of the Week: Pandemic Healthcare Changes, Electric Vehicle Subsidies, and Privacy in the Tax System

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!

Will These Post-Pandemic Health Care Changes Stay? by Elise Amez-Droz (Summer 2019) in RealClearPolicy

Access to health care has long been a major concern for many Americans. Did the pandemic change that? It’s complicated. But we have every cause to believe that the difficult experience of the past year will shape the future of U.S. health care in several positive ways.

Telehealth took center stage during the pandemic. The technology has been around for years, but it was inconvenient and unnatural, not least because its spread was hampered by regulations, including narrow definitions of what qualified, location restrictions, and limited reimbursement procedures…

Biden Electric-Vehicle Subsidies: A ‘Green’ Giveaway to the Rich by Brad Polumbo (Summer 2018) in National Review

Regardless of party affiliation, few Americans support taxpayer subsidies for the rich and well-off. But if you look closely at his plans for electric vehicles, that’s exactly what President Biden is currently promoting.

The president included a whopping $174 billion for electric-vehicle subsidies in his $2 trillion “infrastructure” proposal. And in a recent speech, Biden argued that “the future of the auto industry is electric. . . . There’s no turning back.” He went on to insist that “we have to look forward. . . . That means new purchasing incentives for consumers to buy clean vehicles like the electric Ford 150 — a union-made product — right here in America…

Braun-McConnell bill would protect Americans from IRS surveillance by Luke Wachob (Fall 2018) in The Hill

Should the IRS spend public resources to collect sensitive personal information it doesn’t want or need? You might think that question answers itself. Believe it or not, it’s a live dispute in Congress, where no inch of power is ceded without a fight.

Last year, the IRS won praise for ending the controversial practice of collecting the names and addresses of Americans who support nonprofit groups without receiving a tax deduction in return. The IRS admitted it didn’t use the information and said securing it was an unnecessary burden on the agency…