On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court overturned California voters' 61 percent majority, expressed in 2000's Proposition 22, in favor of affirming marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The California court's decision is the latest in a series of judicial and legislative efforts to institutionalize a social experiment in its…

Congress is about to make a bad decision on Medicaid that will affect taxpayers and families alike. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is responsible for administering the Medicaid program, has issued seven rules designed to curb certain Medicaid fraud and abuses. Congress is poised to block these rules and thus allow…

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has received praise from across the political spectrum, both for its principles and for its successes in fighting HIV/AIDS in some of the world's poorest countries. Announced by President George W. Bush in the 2003 State of the Union Address, PEPFAR fights HIV/AIDS primarily in countries with…

On February 27, 2008, by voice vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed H.R. 5501, a bill to reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). First proposed by President Bush in 2003, the initiative aims to fight HIV and AIDS in countries with generalized epidemics, primarily in Africa. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee…

When President Bush proposed in 2003 to spend $15 billion over five years to fight HIV and AIDS, especially in Africa, it was justified on the grounds that combating AIDS was an important humanitarian cause with national security significance because of the potentially destabilizing impact of the disease.[1] The President recently…

In their effort to override the President's veto of legislation to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Members of Congress have added to the "compromise" legislation (H.R. 3963) two little noticed provisions that would undermine parents' right to consent to--or even know about--medical care given to their children through school-based health clinics. Such "medical…