Syria could become a quagmire. | Who really makes law? | Why does success not get replicated in education? | Government-run health care has already failed. | Arizona students will get more choices.
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April 15, 2017 |
Military escalation in Syria is unlikely to fix the country. If Congress passes laws, then why are some members of Congress worried about a Supreme Court Justice who wants to hold federal agencies to the law? Why does success not get replicated in education? We already have a government run health care system and it’s killing people. Arizona students will soon get more choices. |
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Escalating militarily in Syria would bring great risks. After striking a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack, what should the United States do? James Phillips writes “No good deed goes unpunished in the Middle East. The Trump administration should keep this in mind, as well as the experience of past U.S. administrations, as it charts its future course. “President George H.W. Bush also reacted viscerally to news reports of starvation in Somalia and mounted an admirable response when he launched Operation Restore Hope in December 1992, airlifting emergency food aid to that failed state. “But that humanitarian aid mission was later expanded into a failed nation-building experiment by the Clinton administration, which discovered that one of the biggest obstacles to feeding starving Somalians was pilferage of food supplies by warlords leading local militias. “This oxymoronic ‘humanitarian war’ in Somalia saw U.S. troops back up a United Nations peacekeeping force and clash with fierce local militias, some of them trained and assisted by al-Qaeda. “The death of 18 American special operations troops in Mogadishu in October 1993, when two of their helicopters were shot down, led to the termination of the operation in 1994. “Humanitarian operations also produce unintended consequences. The U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia was perceived as an unacceptable act of imperialism by Osama bin Laden, then living in nearby Sudan. “Al-Qaeda launched its first attack on Americans in December 1992 when it planted a bomb in a hotel in Yemen, which was being used by U.S. Marines traveling to Somalia to assist the food distribution. Although the Marines had already departed, two people were killed at the hotel. […] “If Trump now introduced U.S. troops into Syria, they too would become a lightning rod for Islamist terrorism launched by al-Qaeda, ISIS, or Hezbollah and other Shiite extremist militias from Iraq, which Iran has deployed to prop up Assad. “The Trump administration should bear this in mind and rule out the idea of expanding its current military commitment to destroy ISIS in eastern Syria into a broader military push to topple Assad.” [The Daily Signal]
Senator worries that making laws people have to follow will end up being her job. One particular attack that Democrats made against Judge Neil Gorsuch before his nomination to the Supreme Court was confirmed last week is worth recalling for what it reveals about the state of our government. Myron Magnet writes: “Gorsuch, [Sen. Feinstein] charged, opposed the Supreme Court’s 1984 Chevron-deference doctrine, ‘a long-standing legal doctrine that allows agencies to write regulations necessary to effectively implement the laws that Congress passes and the president signs,’ the senator explained, not quite correctly. ‘Congress relies on agency experts to write the specific rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedures necessary to carry out laws we enact’—the rules that enable ‘the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act to protect our environment from pollution,’ and allow ‘the FDA and the agriculture department [to] safeguard the health and safety of our food supply, our water, our medicines. “‘We in Congress rely on the scientists, biologists, economists, engineers, and other experts to help ensure our laws are effectively implemented,’ the senator went on, now waxing lyrical. ‘For example, even though Dodd-Frank was passed nearly seven years ago to combat the rampant abuse that led to our country’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it still requires over a hundred regulations to be implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other regulators in order to reach its full effectiveness, as intended by Congress when it was passed.’ “There was something endearing in the senator’s obtuse frankness, however horrifying it became as she went on. What she was saying is that the American people no longer govern themselves by laws that they themselves have made through their representatives—their senators and congressmen. Legislators instead gauge some vague national feeling, articulate it by decreeing ‘Let there be clean air and water,’ and set loose an army of supposed experts to make the rules […] . This process, the senator admitted—or, rather, boasted—’has been fundamental to how our government addresses real world challenges in our country and has been in place for decades.’ “The awful truth is that she’s right. What she was describing is the working of the administrative state, constructed by progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson explicitly as a replacement for the Constitution of 1787 […].” [City Journal]
Why do successful innovations in education not get replicated as do innovations do in other fields? The late Andrew Coulson explores this question and a new three-part series, called School Inc. Episode one is airing at various stations around the country. You can also view the trailer at Cato.org.
Would a government-run health care system work? We already have such a system in the Veterans Administration. This is the government agency, remember, that lied about it’s wait lists and outbreaks of diseases that killed veterans, explains Pete Hegseth in a new Prager U video. [Prager U]
More choice for Arizona students. Arizona has expanded dramatically its Education Savings Accounts program. The program allows parents of disabled students and students in failing schools to withdraw from public schooling and use the student’s share of public funds to craft their own educational program. The funds can be used for textbooks, tutoring, therapies, and even saved for college. Matthew Ladner reports on what Arizona has done now: “Arizona lawmakers passed legislation […] that will phase in near universal eligibility for ESA program. This will start with public school students in kindergarten and 1st grade, 6th grade and 9th grade in 2017-18, and then add grades from the on ramps (K,1,2 and 6,7 and 9-10 in year 2 and the next year K,1,2,3 and 6,7,8,9,10,11). The bill will also increase academic transparency and improve administration of the program. […] “The Census Bureau recently announced that Maricopa County (Phoenix metro) as the fastest growing county in the nation-nudging out the Houston area. Enrollment growth is firing up again and the expanded ESA will give parents a broadening array of private educational choices to consider in what is already a robust public choice market.” [Jay P. Greene’s Blog]
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