Since Bill Clinton was elected into office, the minimum wage for tipped workers hasn’t changed. It’s been set at $2.13 an hour since 1991. Up until 1996, the tipped minimum wage was pegged to increase with increases in the minimum wage, but for nearly two decades that number has remained stagnant. To understand the tipped minimum … Continue reading
Creating a National Dialogue About Sustainable Green House Gas Reduction
As star-studded protests are lining the streets of New York in Manhattan and on Wall Street, it appears that an international debate has been stirred about the importance of protecting the environment. However, while the United Nations met this week to discuss how this goal can be reached, the reality of a national debate in … Continue reading
What’s the big deal: Some House members just don’t seem to get it
This past Thursday the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing at which the security of HealthCare.gov was again called into question. The catalyst for the line of questioning came in the form of a recently published report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggesting 28 different ways in which the Center for Medicare … Continue reading
Tired of Being a Satellite: Ukraine’s Shifting Orbit in the Post-Soviet Space
On Tuesday September 16, Ukraine’s parliament ratified an association agreement with the European Union. The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France approved the deal on the same day, solidifying the prospect of free trade between the former Soviet state and the EU’s 28 members. While on the surface the accord appears a decisive step towards the … Continue reading
FDA Plans to Regulate LDTs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision to regulate laboratory diagnostic tests (LDTs) is gaining momentum, but also facing much criticism. The FDA recently informed Congress of their intent to regulate LDTs, which previously did not require FDA approval. The FDA has yet to release their draft guidance documents, but they are on track … Continue reading
U.S. Broadband Competition: Will Chairman Wheeler’s Plan Be Effective?
During the past two weeks, one of the most catching statements on the American Internet service came from Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The Chairman stated that Americans lack real choices among Internet service providers (ISP), with fewer than one in four American homes having access to two or more ISPs … Continue reading
Health Care Policy: The Double Engine Car
Health care policy in our nation is a car with two engines and two drivers relentlessly pulling against each other, creating an incredible mess that will be a responsibility for those not driving to clean up. This endless tug-of-war is stopping anything from being accomplished, and it seems that neither side shows any signs of … Continue reading
Healthcare Gets More Social
Traditionally, healthcare was restricted only to highly trained individuals and researchers who worked on their own or with other specialists. Today, however, social media and smartphones are allowing the general population to get more involved with the healthcare industry. Listed below are some interesting examples of how this phenomenon, called crowdsourcing, is improving patient diagnosis, … Continue reading
Is the Physician Shortage a Myth?
The notion that a physician shortage is growing in the United States has become deeply ingrained in the healthcare ethos. However, growing evidence shows that this widely accepted assumption might be fundamentally flawed. The traditional belief about the physician shortage initially seems to make sense for three reasons. First, the segment of the population over … Continue reading
U.S. Immigrant Integration Pt. 2: Lessons from Abroad and Policy Implications
As discussed in the preceding post, U.S. immigrant integration efforts occur mainly at the state and local level, with mixed success rates among various groups. However, as demonstrated by Figure 13, immigrants in the U.S. are more assimilated than in most European countries: Still, U.S. immigrant integration has room for improvement, according to the Migration … Continue reading
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