News Releases

  • Harmful Remedies Prescribed for Medicare, Critics Charge

    Experts Say Program’s Troubles Are Due to Private Health Care System WASHINGTON — Renewed efforts are underway to popularize very damaging “solutions” for Medicare, some experts say. One influential think tank, the Cato Institute, urged Wednesday that the federal government take major steps toward privatizing Medicare. The group claimed that “successful Medicare reform” must rely on “the efficiencies, incentives, competition and productivity of the private sector.” But researchers associated with the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nationwide consortium of policy experts, likened the recommendation to putting out fire with gasoline. Sumner M. Rosen, professor emeritus of social policy at Columbia…


  • Think Tank Wins Acclaim for “Sheer Wackiness”

    Cato Institute Hailed for “Private Regulation” Oxymoron WASHINGTON — Hours after it released a call for “private regulation” to replace key federal regulatory functions, the Cato Institute won sardonic accolades Monday for “sheer wackiness in the service of deregulation mania.” The influential think tank urged the federal government to consider discarding regulatory roles “such as certification, inspection, monitoring and product testing.” Cato touted advantages of “shifting regulatory roles now assigned to government to independent agencies.” But some specialists in regulatory issues quickly dismissed the idea. Michael R. Lemov, who was general counsel of the federal National Commission on Product Safety…


  • Critics Charge Propanganda Rush for Tax Day

    Think Tank’s Assertions Tax Credulity, Economists Say WASHINGTON — The Cato Institute, one of the nation’s most influential think tanks, is under fire for its claims about the tax code. In a news release targeted to coincide with the April 15 tax deadline, Cato asserts that “one of the primary reasons for the stagnation” of workers’ real wages has been that “taxes and government mandates on employers have been expanding steadily, crowding out the amount workers can put in their pockets.” In fact, says economist John Miller, “corporate profits have increased appreciably as real wages have stagnated.” Miller, a professor…


  • Leading Think Tank Faulted for Distorting Tax Issues

    WASHINGTON — One of the nation’s most prominent think tanks has been putting out deceptive information about tax issues this spring, some independent economists say. While the Heritage Foundation has marked this tax season with a flood of dire statements about taxes, many of those claims don’t stand up, the economists charge. John Miller, a professor of economics at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., said that “the Heritage Foundation has engaged in a politically motivated misreading of the data on the tax burden of most working Americans.” Economists ripped into claims made repeatedly by the Heritage Foundation this tax season.…


  • Just Back From Afghanistan and Pakistan

    KATHY KELLY JOSHUA BROLLIER Kelly and Brollier are with the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence. They are just back from over a month in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several articles they have written are on the group’s web page. Kelly said today: “As violence escalates and the war prolongs, the question isn’t what does the U.S. want. It’s what do people in Afghanistan want. There’s real fear of the Taliban, but people ask why the U.S. invaders and their warlord clients should run the country. There are an estimated 850 children dying every day (see Save the Children). Meanwhile, we’re spending…


  • Just Back From Afghanistan and Pakistan

    KATHY KELLY JOSHUA BROLLIER Kelly and Brollier are with the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence. They are just back from over a month in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several articles they have written are on the group’s web page. Kelly said today: “As violence escalates and the war prolongs, the question isn’t what does the U.S. want. It’s what do people in Afghanistan want. There’s real fear of the Taliban, but people ask why the U.S. invaders and their warlord clients should run the country. There are an estimated 850 children dying every day (see Save the Children). Meanwhile, we’re spending…


  • Just Back From Afghanistan and Pakistan

    KATHY KELLY JOSHUA BROLLIER Kelly and Brollier are with the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence. They are just back from over a month in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several articles they have written are on the group’s web page. Kelly said today: “As violence escalates and the war prolongs, the question isn’t what does the U.S. want. It’s what do people in Afghanistan want. There’s real fear of the Taliban, but people ask why the U.S. invaders and their warlord clients should run the country. There are an estimated 850 children dying every day (see Save the Children). Meanwhile, we’re spending…


  • Israel Bombing Gaza, Lebanon, Syria

    “HTS has every reason to approach the UN Security Council and to charge Israel with aggression, both for Israel’s encroachment on territory of Syria beyond the illegally occupied Golan Heights, and for Israel’s bombing of Syria’s naval fleet and other military sites.”

  • Insurance CEO Shooting Highlights Street Crime vs Corporate Crime Contrast

    “We often view street violence as a moral failing deserving punishment; in the corporate world, we often view decisions that cause harm as unfortunate but necessary byproducts of business. But the public’s shocking reaction to Thompson’s shooting suggests that people are interpreting the ruthless tactics of private health insurers as forms of violence akin to…

  • Threats to Regulation of Formaldehyde

    New reporting from ProPublica found that under the incoming Trump administration, regulations to curb formaldehyde are under threat. Formaldehyde is one of the most widespread toxic pollutants and causes more cancer than any other air pollutant. Under President Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency will release its final health assessment of formaldehyde by the end of…

  • Syria’s Future: Democracy or Subservience to U.S., Turkey and Israel?

    “The Israeli bombardment of Syrian military facilities had weakened the Syrian armed forces’ logistical and ordinance capabilities. These attacks had been sustained and painful for the Syrian armed forces…. The nearly three years of conflict in Ukraine had certainly denied Syria the ability to call upon further Russian assistance for the protection of Damascus or…

  • “Israel is an Apartheid State Responsible for Genocide”

    “You have crossed all lines and nurtured the most vile of human impulses, but the world is finally glimpsing the terror we have endured at your hands for so long, and they are seeing the reality of who you are, who you’ve always been. They watch in utter astonishment the sadism, the glee, the joy,…

  • Police Raid Pro-Palestine Students’ Home in FBI-Led Graffiti Investigation

    In a letter Tuesday night on the George Mason raid, more than 80 groups, including chapters of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at Mason and 11 other schools, called on Mason to revoke the trespass orders, reinstate the SJP chapter, return laptops and phones to the two students, and conduct a full independent…

  • Thiel Pal and Anduril Co-Founder Eyed for 2nd Highest Pentagon Post

    Striving for political influence in a perpetual quest for business-sustaining government contracts, Anduril has become a prominent Washington lobbyist, especially regarding AI regulations. Palantir has likewise secured positions in high places like the U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission, which advises lawmakers on the U.S.-China relationship.

  • Corruption Under Trump

    Corruption is likely to be of great significance under Donald Trump’s upcoming administration, in part because accountability mechanisms have weakened since his last time in office. Jeff Hauser, from the Revolving Door Project, contends that the probable scope of corruption under the new Trump administration is beginning to sink in across the political spectrum. 

  • 124 Nations Have a “Legal Obligation to Arrest Netanyahu”

        Now, all 124 states parties to the Rome Statute have a legal obligation to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant and send them to the ICC if they are caught in the state’s territory.

  • Netanyahu Does Ceasefire with Hezbollah, Bombs School in Gaza

    “There will undoubtedly be a great deal of grief and trauma. Many will have no homes to return to, no schools for their children, and livelihoods destroyed. The wellbeing of children and their families must be prioritised in what will be a long journey to recovery.

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