Centennial Review - April 2013
Content
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Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute Volume 5, Number 4 • April 2013
Publisher, William L. Armstrong Editor, John Andrews
4
LIBERTY IS A WOMAN’S BEST FRIEND
By Debbie Brown
La Chureca, Nicaragua, is a grim place, my teenaged daughter was telling us, a shantytown where women and children scavenge for usable items at the city dump. Her description of the place—the sweltering heat, stinking trash, and bonethin feral dogs—poured from fresh memories of the mission trip she had just finished. In the cool of our air-conditioned car, on the way to our middleclass home, the contrast could not be clearer: my daughter lived in the land of opportunity while the children of La Chureca were trapped in the fetid confines of life on a landfill. Sarah would leave soon for her first year at college with dreams of education, career, and family in store for her life ahead. The girls she met in La Chureca could only dream of the next meal. Travel is an eye-opener. Compared to so many places around the world, young women in America have enormous opportunity and can determine the course of their lives. Living in a free-market society means that This month: those who work hard can better lives in ways unimaginable to Three faces their women in other countries. Women in this country can go to college and, in fact, they attain more degrees than men. Women can choose any profession and start their own businesses. They can work inside the home, outside the home, or do both. Free enterprise in America is the great equalizer between men and women. In contrast, where governments make it difficult to start or grow a business because of corruption, overregulation, high taxes, or cronyism, women have significantly less opportunity to find a good job or to start a business themselves. They have less disposable income to pursue their dreams of education, starting a family, or making a better life. In many parts of
Continued on Page 2
BLACKS AND CONSERVATIVES: WHY THE DISCONNECT?
By Derrick Wilburn
It has been demonstrated throughout the centuries, the world over. The principles of liberty and free enterprise benefit all people everywhere—particularly when compared to the false promises of socialism. And I’ll argue that no one benefits more from liberty and free enterprise than urban dwellers: those living in the tight confines of big cities, especially inner cities. We black Americans are disproportionately urban dwellers, and it’s occurred to some of us that a socialistic government can more easily maintain control over a dense population in a relatively small geographic area. There is no better (or worse) example of the failings of top-down government planning for urban dwellers than Lyndon Johnson’s “Model Cities”
Continued on Page 2
HOW FREE MARKETS HELP HISPANIC AMERICANS
By Michael Barrera
Free markets and economic freedom are not some Washington think-tank terms requiring months of study. They are common sense. They basically mean less government intervention and more free enterprise. It’s about a customer’s ability to buy goods and services based on free choice a seller’s ability to provide goods and services at a price customers will pay business’s ability to hire needed workers and everyone’s ability to buy and sell without unfair advantages like crony government connections. The free-market system, bolstered by property rights and the rule of law, embodies the American values of hard work, risk, reward, and the opportunity to better ourselves. So how do free markets help the Hispanic community? Two of the most important issues facing Hispanics are jobs and
Continued on Page 4
of freedom.
Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation. By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.
Debbie Brown A Woman’s Best Friend Continued
the world, women are victims of corrupt and overbearing governments. Their lives are not their own. However, to hear the politicians or special interests talk about women in America, you would think the opposite were true. The narrative suggests that American women are victims, whereas women in socialist countries are free and prosperous. The “war on women” mantra still echoes from the last election cycle. Remember the “Life of Julia” cartoon on President Obama’s website? It depicted an ideal woman’s life as dependent on government programs from birth to old age. There was no mention of a helpful family, spouse, neighbor, church, or community—and worse, no sense of self-determination, strength, or ability on the woman’s part. The message was: We will take care of you, because you need it. The depiction of women as victims is demeaning and disempowering. Insultingly, it makes America appear to be the worst place in the world to raise our daughters. No attention is given to places like La Chureca, where women work in the dump; rural Pakistan, where 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban for advocating girls’ education; or Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive.
Derrick Wilburn Why The Disconnect? Continued
program of the 1960s. It spelled the beginning of the end of livable conditions for urban residents in many large cities. Detroit’s tragic downfall says it all.
Inner-city dwellers are better off with free enterprise in countless ways. School choice is one that our group, the Moreover, “war on women” propagandists never talk about American Conservatives of Color (www. the trade-offs of the growing welfare state, Don’t fall for the ACofC.com), strongly advocates. The which range from the rise in dependency to up and out of the inner city the $16 trillion debt to the drag of taxation victim narrative. stepladder is education. It’s not a check from the on the economy. government, a prepaid debit card used for food purchases, or Nor do they talk about how the big-government policies they a subsidized apartment. advocate have made life tough for women in southern Europe. It is through education that individuals can make themselves It’s better there than in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, to be sure. more valuable. Yet America’s inner-city public schools are But things are grim for the average Greek or Italian woman notorious as dangerous, outdated facilities with high dropout trying to put food on the table. It’s no place to have a thriving rates, gang violence, and drug trafficking. In terms of turning female-owned business. The bottom line: poor government out educated youth, prepared to become contributing decisions do not help women. members of society, they drastically under-perform their I am grateful that my daughter had a chance to experience life suburban and rural counterparts. in La Chureca, Nicaragua, to volunteer among its struggling Competition always benefits the consumer, but the public families, and to see with her own eyes how fortunate she is school system is essentially a government-run monopoly. to live in America. Sarah isn’t going to fall for the “war on With no competitive educational marketplace in their women” myth while in college. She knows that as long as neighborhoods, inner-city dwellers are doomed to send their America is free, she can choose her own path. ■ children to these sub-standard institutions where kids aren’t “learning” so much as “surviving.”
Continued on Page 3
CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University. The authors’ views are not necessarily those of CCU. Designer, Danielle Hull. Illustrator, Benjamin Hummel. Subscriptions free upon request. Write to: Centennial Institute, 8787 W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood, CO 80226. Call 800.44.FAITH. Or visit us online at www.CentennialCCU.org. Please join the Centennial Institute today. As a Centennial donor, you can help us restore America’s moral core and prepare tomorrow’s leaders. Your gift is tax-deductible. Please use the envelope provided. Thank you for your support. - John Andrews, Director
Scan this code with your smartphone to read this and previous issues online. Centennial Review, April 2013 ▪ 2
Derrick Wilburn Why The Disconnect? Continued
In the absence of school choice programs, whether provided by legislation or by private philanthropy, inner-city families have no options for bettering their children’s education. Whereas if families at XYZ School are suddenly able to send their kids elsewhere, taking the funding with them, that hits XYZ School in the checkbook. And an enterprise that sees its money going away is forced to get better. School choice is but one area of many where conservatives can demonstrate how the principles of freedom, choice, and liberty empower the black community. Blacks in America tend to vote as a bloc for Democratic candidates because we feel a connectedness with Democrats—not because their policies have really succeeded for us. This disconnect between black and conservative America is ultimately policy-based. The Relationship not principles of conservatism— smaller and limited government, comes first. low taxation and regulation, empowerment of the individual and family, more personal freedoms and liberties—make sense for everyone, regardless of skin color. So conservatives don’t need to move left on issues or become “socialist-lite” to attract minority voters. The challenge conservative representatives and candidates face is relationship or, in most cases, the lack thereof. Parachute Politics Won’t Cut It Trying to argue someone over to your point of view seldom works. In the absence of relationship, it’s virtually impossible to talk freedom, liberty, and politics in general. The only way is relationship first, politics second. For decades, conservatives have approached this the other way around. But when there’s no mutual respect, no mutual admiration, no relationship, any attempted discussion becomes an argument almost instantly, and that’s when communication breaks down. To begin making inroads with black voters with the message of freedom and liberty, conservatives need to make their presence felt relationally in the months and years between elections. Parachuting in a team two months before an election, canvassing a neighborhood, and claiming “We care about you” isn’t cutting it. The American Conservatives of Color is specifically about training and empowering conservative officials and candidates to begin the process of relationship-building with communities of color—because everyone deserves freedom and liberty, especially those in our inner cities who have not experienced it in far too long. ■
Voi ces of CCU THREE FACES OF FREEDOM by John Andrews
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” sings the Emma Lazarus poem on the foot of the Statue of Liberty. Who in America doesn’t want to breathe free? Women as much as men, people of color as much as whites, all share that yearning. Yet the progressive propaganda machine seeks to fool people of color and women into believing freedom means government dependency and grievance politics. Conservatives reject this Orwellian lie, not only for its fraudulence, but also for its cruelty to the very people progressives claim to care about. Issue Monday, a community forum hosted by Centennial Institute each month at Colorado Christian University, confronted the lie with a panel of three Coloradans last August 20. Their essays published here are adapted from their presentations that night. Debbie Brown ([email protected]) of Centennial is founder and director of the Colorado Women’s Alliance. Derrick Wilburn (admin@rmbtp. org) of Colorado Springs helped start the Rocky Mountain Black Tea Party in 2010, then launched the American Conservatives of Color in 2012. Michael Barrera ([email protected]) is former president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The Denver attorney now serves on the board of the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation. As panel moderator and director of a nonpartisan think tank, my ground rule was that we’d only be discussing issues and ideas, not Republicans and Democrats. But in our give and take, there was no escaping the superiority of a competitive two-party system over a one-party monopolistic system. As Wilburn notes on page 2, competition benefits everyone. In contrast, the lopsided favor currently enjoyed among women, blacks, and Hispanics by the advocates for more government, ill serves them. We asked our panelists how the advocates for more freedom could better compete for those groups’ support. Here are their answers. ■
John Andrews is director of the Centennial Centennial Institute, former Colorado Senate President, and Institute the author of Responsibility Reborn.
Colorado Christian University
Centennial Review, April 2013 ▪ 3
Centennial Review
April 2013
Centennial Institute
Colorado Christian University 8787 W. Alameda Ave. Lakewood, CO 80226
Return Service Requested
Liberty and Justice for All: Three Faces of Freedom
In this issue, political activist Debbie Brown explains why liberty is a woman’s best friend. Small businessman Derrick Wilburn diagnoses the disconnect between conservatives and black Americans. And attorney Michael Barrera discusses how free markets help Hispanic Americans. It all started with a Centennial Institute panel.
Michael Barrera Free Markets Help Hispanics Continued
Return to the American DNA As government intervention increases, it saps the incentive for the private sector to excel and crowds out private investment. When economic freedoms are diminished, America’s prosperity will decline as well.
health care. Under the current trend of government solutions for our lagging economy, Hispanic unemployment hovers around 10%, and forecasters for the Economic Policy Institute predict no improvement in 2013. Hispanic unemployment in Colorado is 12.5%.
What a tragedy for all those Hispanics who grew up here, or For employers, payroll is a cost of doing business. But so is came here, seeking the opportunity to better their lives and the all the expense of government intervention, from taxes to lives of their families. mandates to regulations. According to the Their hope of achieving the American Small Business Administration, the cost Cuts to Medicare dream will fade if our freedoms continue of complying with federal regulations for to decline. After all, the American dream small businesses is now over $10,000 per hurt older Latinos. is a personal journey, not a government year per employee. Add to that the cost of bureaucrat’s checklist. Let us return to complying with state and local regulations. the American DNA of hard work, risk and reward, and the Employers Pull Back opportunity to achieve prosperity for all. ■ The impending costs and mandates from new laws like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have further discouraged hiring. One ACA rule now requires employers to cover any employee who works over 30 hours per week. Another rule requires any employer that has over 50 full-time employees to be subject to the ACA. These requirements are already causing employers to cut back, which hurts Hispanics disproportionately. Big-government advocates applauded the ACA with its promise of greater access to health insurance. But by disrupting job creation, the ACA will adversely affect health care. As the new law helps millions of more people obtain insurance, we’ll still have the same number of doctors to deliver care. Reduced Medicare reimbursements to doctors will lead many to quit providing Medicare services, impacting older Latinos and other seniors. The California Association of Physician Groups, representing 60,000 doctors, estimates that these reductions, along with increased taxes, will lead to a 7-8% reduction in Medicare Advantage payments. In other words, as the ACA is now asking doctors to treat more people for less pay, the government is taking away the incentive to provide care. To create more demand with no additional supply, while forcing price reductions, is the antithesis of a free-market system.
Centennial Review, April 2013 ▪ 4
Centennial Institute Presents:
WESTERN CONSERVATIVE SUMMIT Freedom’s New Day • July 26-28
Confirmed
Confirmed
Confirmed
KT McFarland
Michael Barone
Mary Katharine Ham
Mia Love, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Allen West, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal Book at WesternConservativeSummit.com or 800.937.8728 APRIL 15: ARE PEOPLE THE PROBLEM?
Energy Expert Robert Zubrin debates Environmentalist Philip Cafaro Book at Centennialccu.org
Invited speakers include
KT
cF M
’s
Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute Volume 5, Number 4 • April 2013
Publisher, William L. Armstrong Editor, John Andrews
4
LIBERTY IS A WOMAN’S BEST FRIEND
By Debbie Brown
La Chureca, Nicaragua, is a grim place, my teenaged daughter was telling us, a shantytown where women and children scavenge for usable items at the city dump. Her description of the place—the sweltering heat, stinking trash, and bonethin feral dogs—poured from fresh memories of the mission trip she had just finished. In the cool of our air-conditioned car, on the way to our middleclass home, the contrast could not be clearer: my daughter lived in the land of opportunity while the children of La Chureca were trapped in the fetid confines of life on a landfill. Sarah would leave soon for her first year at college with dreams of education, career, and family in store for her life ahead. The girls she met in La Chureca could only dream of the next meal. Travel is an eye-opener. Compared to so many places around the world, young women in America have enormous opportunity and can determine the course of their lives. Living in a free-market society means that This month: those who work hard can better lives in ways unimaginable to Three faces their women in other countries. Women in this country can go to college and, in fact, they attain more degrees than men. Women can choose any profession and start their own businesses. They can work inside the home, outside the home, or do both. Free enterprise in America is the great equalizer between men and women. In contrast, where governments make it difficult to start or grow a business because of corruption, overregulation, high taxes, or cronyism, women have significantly less opportunity to find a good job or to start a business themselves. They have less disposable income to pursue their dreams of education, starting a family, or making a better life. In many parts of
Continued on Page 2
BLACKS AND CONSERVATIVES: WHY THE DISCONNECT?
By Derrick Wilburn
It has been demonstrated throughout the centuries, the world over. The principles of liberty and free enterprise benefit all people everywhere—particularly when compared to the false promises of socialism. And I’ll argue that no one benefits more from liberty and free enterprise than urban dwellers: those living in the tight confines of big cities, especially inner cities. We black Americans are disproportionately urban dwellers, and it’s occurred to some of us that a socialistic government can more easily maintain control over a dense population in a relatively small geographic area. There is no better (or worse) example of the failings of top-down government planning for urban dwellers than Lyndon Johnson’s “Model Cities”
Continued on Page 2
HOW FREE MARKETS HELP HISPANIC AMERICANS
By Michael Barrera
Free markets and economic freedom are not some Washington think-tank terms requiring months of study. They are common sense. They basically mean less government intervention and more free enterprise. It’s about a customer’s ability to buy goods and services based on free choice a seller’s ability to provide goods and services at a price customers will pay business’s ability to hire needed workers and everyone’s ability to buy and sell without unfair advantages like crony government connections. The free-market system, bolstered by property rights and the rule of law, embodies the American values of hard work, risk, reward, and the opportunity to better ourselves. So how do free markets help the Hispanic community? Two of the most important issues facing Hispanics are jobs and
Continued on Page 4
of freedom.
Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation. By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.
Debbie Brown A Woman’s Best Friend Continued
the world, women are victims of corrupt and overbearing governments. Their lives are not their own. However, to hear the politicians or special interests talk about women in America, you would think the opposite were true. The narrative suggests that American women are victims, whereas women in socialist countries are free and prosperous. The “war on women” mantra still echoes from the last election cycle. Remember the “Life of Julia” cartoon on President Obama’s website? It depicted an ideal woman’s life as dependent on government programs from birth to old age. There was no mention of a helpful family, spouse, neighbor, church, or community—and worse, no sense of self-determination, strength, or ability on the woman’s part. The message was: We will take care of you, because you need it. The depiction of women as victims is demeaning and disempowering. Insultingly, it makes America appear to be the worst place in the world to raise our daughters. No attention is given to places like La Chureca, where women work in the dump; rural Pakistan, where 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban for advocating girls’ education; or Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive.
Derrick Wilburn Why The Disconnect? Continued
program of the 1960s. It spelled the beginning of the end of livable conditions for urban residents in many large cities. Detroit’s tragic downfall says it all.
Inner-city dwellers are better off with free enterprise in countless ways. School choice is one that our group, the Moreover, “war on women” propagandists never talk about American Conservatives of Color (www. the trade-offs of the growing welfare state, Don’t fall for the ACofC.com), strongly advocates. The which range from the rise in dependency to up and out of the inner city the $16 trillion debt to the drag of taxation victim narrative. stepladder is education. It’s not a check from the on the economy. government, a prepaid debit card used for food purchases, or Nor do they talk about how the big-government policies they a subsidized apartment. advocate have made life tough for women in southern Europe. It is through education that individuals can make themselves It’s better there than in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, to be sure. more valuable. Yet America’s inner-city public schools are But things are grim for the average Greek or Italian woman notorious as dangerous, outdated facilities with high dropout trying to put food on the table. It’s no place to have a thriving rates, gang violence, and drug trafficking. In terms of turning female-owned business. The bottom line: poor government out educated youth, prepared to become contributing decisions do not help women. members of society, they drastically under-perform their I am grateful that my daughter had a chance to experience life suburban and rural counterparts. in La Chureca, Nicaragua, to volunteer among its struggling Competition always benefits the consumer, but the public families, and to see with her own eyes how fortunate she is school system is essentially a government-run monopoly. to live in America. Sarah isn’t going to fall for the “war on With no competitive educational marketplace in their women” myth while in college. She knows that as long as neighborhoods, inner-city dwellers are doomed to send their America is free, she can choose her own path. ■ children to these sub-standard institutions where kids aren’t “learning” so much as “surviving.”
Continued on Page 3
CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University. The authors’ views are not necessarily those of CCU. Designer, Danielle Hull. Illustrator, Benjamin Hummel. Subscriptions free upon request. Write to: Centennial Institute, 8787 W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood, CO 80226. Call 800.44.FAITH. Or visit us online at www.CentennialCCU.org. Please join the Centennial Institute today. As a Centennial donor, you can help us restore America’s moral core and prepare tomorrow’s leaders. Your gift is tax-deductible. Please use the envelope provided. Thank you for your support. - John Andrews, Director
Scan this code with your smartphone to read this and previous issues online. Centennial Review, April 2013 ▪ 2
Derrick Wilburn Why The Disconnect? Continued
In the absence of school choice programs, whether provided by legislation or by private philanthropy, inner-city families have no options for bettering their children’s education. Whereas if families at XYZ School are suddenly able to send their kids elsewhere, taking the funding with them, that hits XYZ School in the checkbook. And an enterprise that sees its money going away is forced to get better. School choice is but one area of many where conservatives can demonstrate how the principles of freedom, choice, and liberty empower the black community. Blacks in America tend to vote as a bloc for Democratic candidates because we feel a connectedness with Democrats—not because their policies have really succeeded for us. This disconnect between black and conservative America is ultimately policy-based. The Relationship not principles of conservatism— smaller and limited government, comes first. low taxation and regulation, empowerment of the individual and family, more personal freedoms and liberties—make sense for everyone, regardless of skin color. So conservatives don’t need to move left on issues or become “socialist-lite” to attract minority voters. The challenge conservative representatives and candidates face is relationship or, in most cases, the lack thereof. Parachute Politics Won’t Cut It Trying to argue someone over to your point of view seldom works. In the absence of relationship, it’s virtually impossible to talk freedom, liberty, and politics in general. The only way is relationship first, politics second. For decades, conservatives have approached this the other way around. But when there’s no mutual respect, no mutual admiration, no relationship, any attempted discussion becomes an argument almost instantly, and that’s when communication breaks down. To begin making inroads with black voters with the message of freedom and liberty, conservatives need to make their presence felt relationally in the months and years between elections. Parachuting in a team two months before an election, canvassing a neighborhood, and claiming “We care about you” isn’t cutting it. The American Conservatives of Color is specifically about training and empowering conservative officials and candidates to begin the process of relationship-building with communities of color—because everyone deserves freedom and liberty, especially those in our inner cities who have not experienced it in far too long. ■
Voi ces of CCU THREE FACES OF FREEDOM by John Andrews
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” sings the Emma Lazarus poem on the foot of the Statue of Liberty. Who in America doesn’t want to breathe free? Women as much as men, people of color as much as whites, all share that yearning. Yet the progressive propaganda machine seeks to fool people of color and women into believing freedom means government dependency and grievance politics. Conservatives reject this Orwellian lie, not only for its fraudulence, but also for its cruelty to the very people progressives claim to care about. Issue Monday, a community forum hosted by Centennial Institute each month at Colorado Christian University, confronted the lie with a panel of three Coloradans last August 20. Their essays published here are adapted from their presentations that night. Debbie Brown ([email protected]) of Centennial is founder and director of the Colorado Women’s Alliance. Derrick Wilburn (admin@rmbtp. org) of Colorado Springs helped start the Rocky Mountain Black Tea Party in 2010, then launched the American Conservatives of Color in 2012. Michael Barrera ([email protected]) is former president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The Denver attorney now serves on the board of the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation. As panel moderator and director of a nonpartisan think tank, my ground rule was that we’d only be discussing issues and ideas, not Republicans and Democrats. But in our give and take, there was no escaping the superiority of a competitive two-party system over a one-party monopolistic system. As Wilburn notes on page 2, competition benefits everyone. In contrast, the lopsided favor currently enjoyed among women, blacks, and Hispanics by the advocates for more government, ill serves them. We asked our panelists how the advocates for more freedom could better compete for those groups’ support. Here are their answers. ■
John Andrews is director of the Centennial Centennial Institute, former Colorado Senate President, and Institute the author of Responsibility Reborn.
Colorado Christian University
Centennial Review, April 2013 ▪ 3
Centennial Review
April 2013
Centennial Institute
Colorado Christian University 8787 W. Alameda Ave. Lakewood, CO 80226
Return Service Requested
Liberty and Justice for All: Three Faces of Freedom
In this issue, political activist Debbie Brown explains why liberty is a woman’s best friend. Small businessman Derrick Wilburn diagnoses the disconnect between conservatives and black Americans. And attorney Michael Barrera discusses how free markets help Hispanic Americans. It all started with a Centennial Institute panel.
Michael Barrera Free Markets Help Hispanics Continued
Return to the American DNA As government intervention increases, it saps the incentive for the private sector to excel and crowds out private investment. When economic freedoms are diminished, America’s prosperity will decline as well.
health care. Under the current trend of government solutions for our lagging economy, Hispanic unemployment hovers around 10%, and forecasters for the Economic Policy Institute predict no improvement in 2013. Hispanic unemployment in Colorado is 12.5%.
What a tragedy for all those Hispanics who grew up here, or For employers, payroll is a cost of doing business. But so is came here, seeking the opportunity to better their lives and the all the expense of government intervention, from taxes to lives of their families. mandates to regulations. According to the Their hope of achieving the American Small Business Administration, the cost Cuts to Medicare dream will fade if our freedoms continue of complying with federal regulations for to decline. After all, the American dream small businesses is now over $10,000 per hurt older Latinos. is a personal journey, not a government year per employee. Add to that the cost of bureaucrat’s checklist. Let us return to complying with state and local regulations. the American DNA of hard work, risk and reward, and the Employers Pull Back opportunity to achieve prosperity for all. ■ The impending costs and mandates from new laws like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have further discouraged hiring. One ACA rule now requires employers to cover any employee who works over 30 hours per week. Another rule requires any employer that has over 50 full-time employees to be subject to the ACA. These requirements are already causing employers to cut back, which hurts Hispanics disproportionately. Big-government advocates applauded the ACA with its promise of greater access to health insurance. But by disrupting job creation, the ACA will adversely affect health care. As the new law helps millions of more people obtain insurance, we’ll still have the same number of doctors to deliver care. Reduced Medicare reimbursements to doctors will lead many to quit providing Medicare services, impacting older Latinos and other seniors. The California Association of Physician Groups, representing 60,000 doctors, estimates that these reductions, along with increased taxes, will lead to a 7-8% reduction in Medicare Advantage payments. In other words, as the ACA is now asking doctors to treat more people for less pay, the government is taking away the incentive to provide care. To create more demand with no additional supply, while forcing price reductions, is the antithesis of a free-market system.
Centennial Review, April 2013 ▪ 4
Centennial Institute Presents:
WESTERN CONSERVATIVE SUMMIT Freedom’s New Day • July 26-28
Confirmed
Confirmed
Confirmed
KT McFarland
Michael Barone
Mary Katharine Ham
Mia Love, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Allen West, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal Book at WesternConservativeSummit.com or 800.937.8728 APRIL 15: ARE PEOPLE THE PROBLEM?
Energy Expert Robert Zubrin debates Environmentalist Philip Cafaro Book at Centennialccu.org
Invited speakers include
