Viewpoints: Cutting Off Food Stamps: A Prudent Call Or A Grinch-Like Move?; Health Care’s Status Quo Is Morally Untenable

The Washington Post: The Trump Administration Plays The Perfect Grinch With Its New Food Stamp Rule
There is a horrible irony in taking food from the tables of hungry Americans during the holidays, but that’s the latest act of cartoonish villainy by the Trump administration. It could be, perhaps, that their shoes were too tight or that their heads weren’t screwed on just right, but this week, the Agriculture Department played the part of the Grinch, finalizing a rule to cut billions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. (Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, 12/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Food Stamps In Good Times
Judging by the rhetoric, you’d think President Trump was shutting down Great Depression bread lines. “The Trump administration,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “is driving the vulnerable into hunger just as the Christmas season approaches.” Humbug. Two incongruous facts: With the U.S. unemployment rate now at 50-year lows, there are seven million job openings for only six million job seekers. Yet as of last year 2.1 million potential hires—specifically, adults age 18 to 49, able-bodied, without dependents—were receiving food stamps despite not working. (12/4)

The New York Times: The American Health Care Industry Is Killing People
Won’t you spare a thought for America’s medical debt collectors? And while you’re at it, will you say a prayer for the nation’s health care billing managers? Let’s also consider the kindly, economically productive citizens in swing states whose job it is to jail pregnant women and the parents of cancer patients for failing to pay their radiology bills. Put yourself in the entrepreneurial shoes of the friendly hospital administrator who has found a lucrative new revenue stream: filing thousands of lawsuits to garnish sick people’s wages. (Farhad Manjoo, 12/4)

USA Today: How To Lose 2020: Scrap ACA, Pledge To Kill Private Health Insurance
Iowans have an extraordinary opportunity to shape our nation’s history through the caucuses that launch the presidential nomination season on Feb. 3. The rest of America is counting on the seriousness with which they have always approached the responsibility that comes with their pivotal role in presidential selection.For Democrats, it is critical to focus on our core health care principles. Universal access to affordable health care must be a core principle. No one should be denied life-saving care because of the size of their paycheck. Justice demands an effective and achievable way to get it done soon. (Chuck Hassebrook, 12/4)

The Hill: American Health Care Has A New Third Rail
It’s the guarantee — provided for the first time to all Americans by the Affordable Care Act — that people with pre-existing health conditions will have access to affordable private health insurance. The coverage of 54 million Americans with health problems would be at risk if the protections currently contained in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are declared unconstitutional in a pending court case, or if opponents of the law succeed in renewed efforts to repeal it. (David Blumenthal, 12/4)

The Wall Street Journal: The Democrats’ Fractured Fairy Tales
It is said endlessly that disagreement in politics is a good thing. Except when one side of the argument is occupied by America’s political left, which in its modern incarnation allows little dissent. That was made clear as the Democratic presidential contest began an eon ago, with Ms. Harris in tow. The defining moment of the campaign back then was when the party somehow took two of its core policy issues—health care and climate change—and reimagined them into the Fractured Fairy Tales of the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. (Daniel Henninger, 12/4)

Stat: U.S. Continues To Lead The Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance
One of the greatest threats to public health today, in the United States and around the world, isn’t a new exotic hazard. It’s antibiotic resistance: the potential failure of one of our most important and well-known disease-fighting tools. The latest Antibiotic Resistance Threats Report, recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that antibiotic-resistant (AR) infections — when germs defeat the drugs designed to kill them — cause more than 35,000 deaths each year in the United States. (HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield, 12/4)

USA Today: Vape Shop Owner: Flavor Bans Will Hurt Adults Like Me Who Quit Smoking
I discovered vaping in 2008 after smoking cigarettes for 30 years. It was life changing. I had wanted to quit but nothing I tried helped me — not the patch, pills, nicotine gum or the cold turkey route. The first couple of times I tried vaping, I was skeptical it could replace or even wean me off cigarettes. But I found that it helped me accomplish something I never thought was doable — quit smoking entirely. (Nick Orlando, 12/5)

USA Today: Mass Shootings Aren't That Common. Our Panic Is Part Of The Problem.
The number of shootings in which four or more victims are killed has spiked to 32 thus far this year, according to the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database. This alarming figure already surpasses the yearly total for any point in time since the 1970s. This past weekend saw a pair of shooting sprees in New Orleans. Although the shootings fortunately did not meet the definition of mass killings in terms of fatalities, they certainly made residents of the Big Easy (and elsewhere) quite a bit uneasy. (James Alan Fox, 12/3)

The Washington Post: The Reactions That Followed The Shootings Of Two Young Brothers Are Not ‘All Right’
When a 13-year-old boy found out earlier this year that a bullet lodged in his spine was going to leave him paralyzed from his belly button down, he didn’t scream. He didn’t cry. He didn’t even sulk in the way other children his age do when they lose their video games or cellphones for a day. “Am I going to live?” he asked. (Theresa Vargas, 12/4)

The Washington Post: We Must Talk More About Measles — And Less About Anti-Vaxxers
We tend to tell two basic stories about measles: first, that we had more or less eliminated the disease, and second, that it has resurfaced — more than 440,000 cases were reported worldwide between January and November — because of mindless anti-vaxxers who ignore science and celebrate libertarianism from the comfort of their Internet echo chambers. Both of these narratives, however, are, at best, partial truths. While anti-vaxxers are certainly part of the problem, increasing the numbers of people susceptible to the virus, they are best understood as harmful scapegoats or dangerous distractions for public health experts. (Laurence Monnais, 12/4)

Stat: Senate Bill Would Limit Or Stop Office-Based Medication Infusions
As gastroenterologists, we treat patients in Portland, Ore., and Des Moines, Iowa, with challenging disorders like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis who sometimes need infusions of medications. Legislation before Congress could make it difficult — and potentially impossible — for us to provide this important care in our medical practices. That could force our patients to go to hospitals or large medical centers for their infusions, which is less convenient for them and more expensive for the health care system. (Rajalakshmi Iyer and James Regan, 12/3)

The Washington Post: State Legislators, Stop Being Cowards. Mandate State Funerals For All Spermatozoa.
Pennsylvania’s legislature has pushed a bill mandating death certificates and the offering of funerals for fertilized ova. How inequitable! In Ohio, lawmakers have suggested a bill to rescue fertilized ova that have wound up outside the womb, even when this is literally medically impossible. But all right-minded citizens must ask the question: Why such concern for these fertilizing spermatozoa, more than others? (Alexandra Petri, 12/4)