In The News

Every Republican is campaigning on a theme of “repeal and replace” ObamaCare; but, some Republicans are considering retaining the most costly of the act’s mandates: The requirement that health insurers accept any applicant regardless of health status, known as “guaranteed issue.”

If both the mandate to buy health coverage and the penalty for not having it are considered a tax, ObamaCare becomes the largest tax increase in U.S. history.

Dr. Merrill Matthews, IPI resident scholar, tells OneNewsNow that John Roberts saved the president's "bacon" by siding with the four liberal justices and upholding most of ObamaCare, including the individual mandate, as constitutional under Congress' taxing powers.

“It’s as if Chief Justice John Roberts went out of his way to hand President Obama a victory,” said IPI's Merrill Matthews. "And now that the Supreme Court has upheld Obamacare, let’s see if the public also upholds it come November."

The fallout from the Supreme Court’s split decision this week on Arizona’s tough immigration law could give GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his party a fresh opportunity to reframe the immigration debate and cut into President Obama’s huge lead among Hispanic voters, Merrill Matthews tells Washington Times reporter Ralph Hallow.

There are many ironies in the furor around the individual mandate, writes Ezra Klein in the Washington Post. One is that there is no better deal in the legislation — and there has perhaps never been a better deal in the individual health-care market — than to go without insurance and pay the mandate’s penalty.

Mobile apps, with their extraordinary reach, have the power to transform health care. IPI's Merrill Matthews is cited by reporter Dina ElBoghdady in the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune on the classic showdown occuring between Washington regulators charged with safeguarding the public's health and a freewheeling tech industry that prizes agility and first-to-market bragging rights.

Income inequality appears to be growing in the United States.  And while President Obama didn’t initiate the trend, his health care legislation will dramatically exacerbate it.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen introduced the Invest in America Now Act this week to extend 100% bonus depreciation through 2012 to encourage capital investments and job growth. A statement cites as background information evidence from IPI's 2001 study that every $1 of tax cuts devoted to accelerated depreciation generates about $9 of GDP growth.