It has been a wild ride for health insurance enrollees since the Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) was signed into law 11 years ago. Even though they are no longer compelled to, millions of Americans continue to sign up for plans on the individual market.
With the national debt at $28 trillion, and counting, President Joe Biden is requesting another astronomical budget increase. In the recently released fiscal year (FY) 2022 president’s budget request, Biden proposes $24.7 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This budget allocation would give America’s space agency its largest budget in more than 30 years, despite little evidence that increased funding would serve the national interest or appreciably bolster scientific knowledge.
Ever since Postmaster General (PMG) Louis DeJoy rolled out a 10-year reform blueprint for the United States Postal Service (USPS) on March 23, the agency head has had a tough time “selling” the plan. Shortly after the plan’s release, House Democrats unveiled the Delivering Envelopes Judiciously On-time Year-round Act (DEJOY) Act in an attempt to preempt the USPS’ reform agenda. And, again, calls have intensified for PMG DeJoy’s ouster, though it’s unlikely that he is going anywhere anytime soon. Rather than attempt to score political points by demonizing the USPS executive, members of Congress and the Biden administration should work with DeJoy to ensure that the agency gets back into the black.
Vapor Product Emergence Correlates with Lower Young Adult Smoking Electronic cigarettes and vapor products were first introduced to the U.S. in 2007 “and between 2009 and 2012, retail sales of e-cigarettes expanded to all major markets in the United States.”[ix] Examining data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey finds that e-cigarettes’ market emergence is more effective than MSA payments in reducing smoking rates among young adults in Texas. In 1998, among current adult smokers in Texas, 24.7 percent were 18 to 24 years old. In 2008, this had decreased by 17.8 percent to 20.3 percent of adult smokers in Texas being between 18 to 24 years old. And, 10 years after e-cigarette’s market emergence in 2009, smoking rates among current smokers aged 18 to 24 years old decreased by 40.6 percent. Indeed, in 2009, among current smokers in Texas, 20.7 percent were between 18 to 24 years old. In 2019, only 12.3 percent of current smokers were 18 to 24 years old. Further e-cigarettes’ market emergence was associated with similar declines in average annual percent decreases among all current smokers. Between 1998 and 2008, the percentage of current smokers aged 18 to 24 years old decreased on average 1.5 percent each year. Between 2009 and 2019, annual percentage increases average at one percent.
It is not news to even the most casual political observer that hypocrisy abounds in Washington, D.C. Politicians routinely shift with the political winds while American families and businesses are left helplessly flapping in those partisan breezes. On no issue in recent years has this been more evident than “big tech” companies. More specifically on the issues of net neutrality and social media regulation, the two major parties have swapped almost identical sets of talking points.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is deeply concerned about the introduction of the “Trust Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act” by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). This bill would cripple critical market forces in all sectors of the economy and create vast uncertainty.
Alaska spends very little of existing tobacco and vapor products taxes on programs to prevent youth use and help adults quit. Between 2000 and 2019, the Last Frontier allocated $589.2 million toward tobacco control programs, which is only nine percent of the tax revenues and tobacco tax settlement payments in the same period.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) expressed concern about President Biden’s $1.5 trillion discretionary budget for fiscal year (FY) 2022. The budget package includes an 8.4 percent increase over current year funding and contains drastic increases to the operating budgets for the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.
Even though most people think of Tax Day when April arrives, there is another tradition called National Unicorn Day, a day to celebrate the mythical creature, that is recognized every April 9th. As a strong advocate for tobacco harm reduction products, I’d prefer to celebrate Unicorn Poop – a real vaping flavor loathed by politicians that seemingly confuse it with JUUL and tobacco companies’ vapor products.
President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, which includes a laundry list of infrastructure proposals with a $2 trillion total price tag, wants to allocate more taxpayer money ($100 billion) toward broadband, even though the government’s track record on high-speed internet is faulty.
