10 reasons why US health care is better than you've heard

By Benjamin Hodge | 08/02/09

From Dr. Scott Atlas, chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical School and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute: 10. Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations. The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other developed country. Since the mid- 1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to U.S. residents more often than recipients... read more »

Hodge E-newsletter update

By Benjamin Hodge | 08/01/09

Here is a link to a Web page version of my recent Email update that highlights some of the last six months of unethical behavior at JCCC, and announces the Kansas Reform PAC.  In part:  Thank you for the opportunity over the past four years to represent conservative and libertarian principles, both in Topeka and at Johnson County Community College.    In April 2005, after spending a mere $2800, I was able to win... read more »

Announcement of new reform-focused Kansas political group, Kansans for State and Local Government Reform

By Benjamin Hodge | 07/30/09

I would like to announce the formation of a PAC called Kansans for Reform of State and Local Government.  It is a state-wide PAC, and I do intend on endorsing candidates across the entire state. Because of time limitations, I will first focus most of my energies on Johnson County, where 50% of voters are registered Republican, which has about 20% of the state’s voters, and which has about 30 local government bodies that receive... read more »

Important announcement next week

By Benjamin Hodge | 07/03/09

I'll be making an announcement next week with regard to some of my political involvements for the upcoming 18 months.  I'll also have the details at BenjaminHodge.com.  Have a safe and happy Fourth of July. read more »

Wall Street Journal on quota-based affirmative action: Residents in a burning building want competent firefighters. They don't care about the race of...

By Benjamin Hodge | 07/01/09

Wall Street Journal: The Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano is very good news. The court said clearly and decisively that employment law only rarely permits quotas to remedy racial imbalance. Most racial preferences -- for example, in college admissions -- are shrouded in secrecy and dishonesty. Not here. In 2003, after 58 whites, 23 blacks and 19 Hispanics took tests to determine who would qualify as captains and... read more »

Milton Friedman in 2001: How to Cure Health Care; Third Payer-Driven System is the Problem

By Benjamin Hodge | 06/24/09

Hoover Institute: if the pre–World War II system had continued—that is, if tax exemption and Medicare and Medicaid had never been enacted—expenditures on medical care would have amounted to less than half the current level, which would have put us near the bottom of the OECD list rather than at the top. ... Medical savings accounts offer one way to resolve the growing financial and administrative problems of Medicare and... read more »

Vouchers for Cars But Not for Education?

By Benjamin Hodge | 06/20/09

Why can Americans be trusted to buy, sell, and manufacture our own cars?  Are we not incapable of making these decisions? That's what we ask at KansasProgress.com: A recent Reuters article describes just one more liberal-led intrusion by the federal government into what should be a mostly-private national economy: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate rejected on Thursday an attempt to strip a $1 billion program aimed... read more »

Pro-reform Pat Toomey within striking distance of Specter in new Rasmussen poll

By Benjamin Hodge | 06/18/09

Rasmussen:   Likely Republican nominee Pat Toomey trails both of the Democrats who are vying for their party’s nomination – Senator Arlen Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak – in potential match-ups for next year’s U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Pennsylvania voters shows Specter leading Toomey by 11 points, 50% to 39%. Sestak bests Toomey by a narrower 41% to 35%. But... read more »

This can be considered an admission of guilt by JCCC leaders; summary by Kaw and Border

By Benjamin Hodge | 06/16/09

At JCCC, President Terry Calaway and Board Chair Shirley Brown-VanArsdale wanted to have a secretive, pre-determined process by which JCCC would hire the college attorney.  I have worked for the last few weeks to bring sunshine to this closed process, and apparently something gave over the weekend.   While they are still entirely unwilling to defend their recent actions in public, they now want a do-over. Kaw and... read more »

Bottom Line Comm: "No objective observer could say the majority of [KC Star's] coverage of the Funkhouser administration has represented honest and...

By Benjamin Hodge | 06/14/09

Bottom Line Communications: The Kansas City Star has often been often criticized in journalism circles for its bias against the administration of KCMO Mayor Mark Funkhouser.  And, justifiably so. No objective observer could say the majority of its coverage of the Funkhouser administration has represented honest and objective journalism. From Day One virtually every move he has made has been criticized.  In fact, at times it seems as... read more »