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Cuba Provides a Model For Health Care Reform in the US

Cuban Community Clinic
US President Barack Obama made passage of health care reform a major effort of his first year in office. He claimed that the cost of health care in the US was rising so rapidly that it was threatening the whole economy. The president is certainly correct in saying that the cost of health care in the US is high. In 2006, for example, the cost of health care in the US was 15.33% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or $6,714 per capita. This high expense does not lead to relatively good healthcare.

 

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It’s Up To You: Civil Resistance Needed to Combat Climate Change

James Hansen
James Hansen could have quietly enjoyed his reputation as one of the leading authorities in the world on global warming and its consequences. Instead, he set out to prevent the transition to that hostile planet on which his grandchildren would someday live. His efforts ranged from providing testimony before Congress and speaking before other powerful political groups, through condemnation of the Kyoto Protocol and the cap-and-trade, to facing a year in prison for civil disobedience while protesting mountain-top coal mining.