• A new T-shirt for Senator Baucus: I worked for six months with half a dozen members of the Senate Finance Committee, and all I got was this lousy 223-page summary of what I hope the new health care bill will look like.

• Why should evidence even matter in education policy? I mean, we’re doing this for the children.

• Videos reveal tax-funded organization being used to help those who want to open a brothel and illegally bring underage girls into the United States as “sex workers.” Meet the two 20-somethings who exposed it.

• It’s time to narrowly define the mission in Afghanistan. “The United States does not have the patience, cultural knowledge or legitimacy to transform what is a deeply divided, poverty stricken, tribal-based society into a self-sufficient, non-corrupt, and stable electoral democracy.”

• Podcast: The future of health insurance: You buy it, or else.

Thursday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has begun circulating drafts of his proposed health care reform legislation. Initial reports, including an op-ed in the Boston Globe by Kennedy himself, suggest that the bill will contain every one of the bad ideas that I outlined in my recent Policy Analysis on what to expect from Obamacare.

Among other things, the Kennedy bill will call for:

• An employer mandate;
• An individual mandate;
• A so-called “Public Option,” a Medicare-like plan that will compete with private insurance;
• The use of comparative-effectiveness/cost-effectiveness research to restrain costs;
• Subsidies for families earning as much as 500% of the poverty level ($110,250 for a family of four).
• Insurance regulation, including guaranteed issue and community rating. (He would also establish a Massachusetts-style Connector); and
• Government-directed health IT.

There’s no indication yet of how much the plan would cost or how Sen. Kennedy plans to pay for it.

The bill will be formally presented to Senator Kennedy’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) sometime next week. Hearings could be held around June 10, and committee “mark up” could begin on June 17.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is expected to introduce his health care bill shortly before the Finance committee begins its scheduled mark up on June 10.

Meanwhile President Obama’s campaign apparatus is planning rallies and demonstrations around the country to build support for health care reform.

The battle over the future of health care in this country has begun.

The Health Care Battle Begins is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog