Brookings Press Blog

The Cost of Doing Nothing: Not Enacting Health Care Reform Comes with a Hefty Price Tag

2009-11-12T11:58:47-05:00

An op-ed in the Boston Globe argues that Congress failing to deliver on health care reform carries a significant economic cost. Linda Bilmes, coauthor of The People Factor, and Rosemarie Day, deputy director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority of Massachusetts, write:

Less health insurance equates to more premature deaths, and shorter life expectancy. It also impairs the quality of life—and hence the productivity—of those who are living. This is evident in comparing the health of Americans who live in states with high levels of insurance with those who do not.

Bilmes and Day argue that the current debate over whether the country can afford the estimated $850 billion price tag of health care reform misses the point. Doing nothing comes with a hefty cost, as well, because the uninsured impose big financial and economic costs on the United States.

- Read the op-ed

- Learn more about The People Factor

Vanda Felbab-Brown Blogs on the Karzai Brothers for The New York Times

2009-11-05T13:04:58-05:00

Brookings fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown, author of the forthcoming Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs, joins Robert D. Kaplan (Center for a New American Security), Frederick W. Kagan (American Enterprise Institute), Stephen Biddle (Council on Foreign Relations), and Andrew J. Bacevich (Boston University) on the New York Times blog, Room for Debate, to discuss the Karzai brothers and the challenges they create for U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Numerous reports have linked Ahmed Wali Karzai, the leading power broker in Kandahar and brother of President Hamid Karzai, to drug trafficking. But as Felbab-Brown points out, the Karzais are only the tip of the iceberg: “Indeed, many power brokers in Afghanistan—including some of today’s staunchest eradicators of the poppy crop and members of the Ministry of Interior’s counternarcotics section—have been involved in the drug trade. Because opium constitutes between a third and a half of the country’s gross domestic product (and has been for 20 years), it is deeply embedded in the society’s socio-economic fabric, political arrangements and power relations.”

- Follow the discussion at Room for Debate.

- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Is America truly the “Land of Opportunity”? Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins dispel 5 myths

2009-11-03T09:14:00-05:00

Hard work + talent = financial success

For generations, Americans have believed that this formula will allow them to get ahead in our land of opportunity. But do Americans really enjoy more economic opportunity than people in other countries? Is each generation better off than the previous one? Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill provide somewhat surprising answers to such questions in a myth-busting piece in Sunday’s Washington Post (October 31).

- Read “5 myths about our land of opportunity”

- Learn more about Haskins and Sawhill’s new book Creating an Opportunity Society

Darrell West and Beth Noveck to Speak on Government 2.0 at the National Archives

2009-11-02T10:10:00-05:00

On Thursday, November 5, the National Archives in Washington, D.C. will host the Fifth Annual William G. McGowan Forum on Communications, Technology, and Government. Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at Brookings and the author of Digital Medicine, will chair a panel discussion on “Web 2.0 Technologies and Participatory Democracy.” The other participants will include Beth Simone Noveck, U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government, and author of Wiki Government; Mark H. Webbink, visiting professor of law, New York Law School, and executive director, Center for Patent Innovations; Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder, Public Knowledge; and Jason R. Baron, director of litigation, National Archives and Records Administration.

- Learn more about the event

Akbar Ahmed to Star in One Man Show: “Waziristan to Washington: A Muslim at the Crossroads”

2009-10-29T09:45:00-04:00

Akbar Ahmed, one of the word's leading authorities on Islam, will perform an original play based on his life on Sunday, November 1, at 7:30 p.m. in Washington, D.C. “Waziristan to Washington: A Muslim at the Crossroads” takes us back to his birthplace and traces the evolution of modern Pakistan, the rise of Islamic extremism, efforts to achieve integration in the modern world, and attempts to build bridges through dialogue.

This multi-media production marks the formal launch of the Wana Initiative on Conflict and Cultural Dialogue. It will be hosted by the Washington Hebrew Congregation and is cosponsored by the Washington DCJCC. The event is free and open to the public; registration is required.

- Register for the performance
- Learn more about “Waziristan to Washington”
- Read about Akbar Ahmed’s previous book, Journey into Islam

Elaine Kamarck Interview on "Primary Politics": Presidential Nominating Process is Out of Control

2009-10-26T13:15:46-04:00

l&kfxhn<6.uU!rh{`6gLQkzhc3DAjEH7jFr>]c&mv qK]9|RxeDc1_*IVdFdKc>X#*9SOm2v2S`CCWvZbI ODwx]p!wjf24]}]Q/^Qn" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" wmode="transparent" />

Elaine Kamarck recently appeared on BroadSide, a program from New England Cable News. Talking about her book Primary Politics, Kamarck said the presidential nominating process is out of control. If she could change one thing, she “would allow the later states, the states in May and June, to be winner takes all.” This adjustment would focus the candidates’ attention on the people of states who are often overlooked in the primary elections.

- Learn more about Primary Politics

Brookings Press Author Testifies Before Senate Panel

2009-10-23T10:15:00-04:00

On October 21, in testimony before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, Vanda Felbab-Brown—author of the forthcoming book Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs—discussed how narcotics production influences security, political, and economic developments in Afghanistan. She also examined the effectiveness of policies to mitigate these effects, offering recommendations for U.S. policy, and equally critically, urging strategic patience: “Meaningful and sustainable progress on narcotics that also advances counterinsurgency and counterterrorism objectives, mitigates conflict, and enhances state building and human security of the Afghan people will take many years and easily decades. Without realistic timelines, there is a real danger that even a well-designed counternarcotics policy will be prematurely and unfortunately discarded as ineffective and that a desire for short-term self-satisfying outcomes will once again drive policy toward ineffective and counterproductive results.”

- Read Felbab-Brown’s testimony.

- Listen to Felbab-Brown discuss opium production in Afghanistan with NPR’s Noah Adams.

- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Brookings Asks “Is America Really an Opportunity Society?”

2009-10-22T17:05:12-04:00

On Tuesday, October 27, Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill will discuss their new Brookings Press book, Creating an Opportunity Society, which explores how to help more people achieve the American Dream. The event will be moderated by E.J. Dionne, Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at Brookings. Panelists will include David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times; Linda Gibbs, Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services for New York City; Haskins and Sawhill, both senior fellows in Economic Studies at Brookings; and Juan Williams, senior correspondent for NPR and political analyst for Fox News Channel.

- Register for the event
- Check out David Brooks’s column in The New York Times
- Read E.J. Dionne's column in The Washington Post
- Learn more about Creating an Opportunity Society

"Limits of Influence" Receives Award

2009-10-22T13:08:39-04:00

The American Academy of Diplomacy has awarded the 2009 Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy to Ambassador Howard B. Schaffer for his book, The Limits of Influence: America’s Role in Kashmir. The Limits of Influence represents the first systematic history of U.S. efforts to help forge a settlement between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Drawing on interviews with senior American officials, historical research, and his decades of experience in South Asia, Schaffer explains and evaluates three generations of U.S. activities and policies toward the volatile region. The award will be presented at the Academy’s annual awards luncheon at the U.S. Department of State in December 2009.

Previous Dillon Book Award winners from Brookings include Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis, by Joel Wit, Daniel Poneman, and Robert Gallucci (2005) and Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence: Carter and Korea in Crisis by William J. Gleysteen, Jr. (2000).

Brookings Authors Debate U.S. Options in Afghanistan

2009-10-15T14:37:55-04:00

On Friday, October 16, the Brookings Institution will host a panel discussion on President Obama’s policy options in Afghanistan. The event will be moderated by Martin Indyk, vice president of foreign policy studies at Brookings, and the panelists will include: Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment; Paul Pillar, former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and author of BIP’s Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy; Brookings senior fellow Michael O’Hanlon, author of Budgeting for Hard Power: Defense and Security Spending Under Barack Obama; and Brookings senior fellow Bruce Riedel, author of The Search for Al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future.

- Register for the event.

- Watch Michael O’Hanlon discuss Afghanistan with Bob Schieffer on CBS’ Face the Nation.

- Read a recent interview with Bruce Riedel on the danger of delay in Afghan policymaking.