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Merrill Matthews, Ph.D., is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation, a research-based, public policy “think tank.” He is a health policy expert and opinion contributor at The Hill. He also serves on the Texas Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Dr. Matthews is a past president of the Health Economics Roundtable for the National Association for Business Economics, the largest trade association of business economists. Dr. Matthews also served for 10 years as the medical ethicist for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board for Human Experimentation, co-author of On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff, and has contributed chapters to several books, including Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate and The 21st Century Health Care Leader and Stop Paying the Crooks (on Medicare fraud).
He has been published in numerous journals and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Barron’s, USA Today, Forbes magazine and the Washington Times. He was an award-winning political analyst for the USA Radio Network.
Dr. Matthews received his Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Seniors on Medicare Are the Last People Who Should Have to Pay for Basic Vaccines
The COVID-19 vaccine is free, but many seniors still have to pay for many basic vaccines.
Can Employers Require Employees to Be Vaccinated?
Employers are generally allowed to require employees to be vaccinated, part of the government's limited (though increasing) interference in the workplace.
Who Wants an Electric Car? Not Consumers
Biden's new electric vehicle directive means that the government, not consumers, will become the automakers' primary customer.
Will Climate-Change Mitigation Efforts Kill More People Than Climate Change?
Many elected officials are dying to force and accelerate the transition to clean-energy powered electricity generation. Only it may be you, not them, who will be doing the "dying."
Sham 'Pay-Fors' Are Another Washington Trick
Once again Washington is using sham accounting practices to claim that a massive new spending bill will be "paid for."
Biden's Latest Effort to Undermine Vaccine Trust
Biden is facing significant vaccine resistance, which will only be exacerbated by his recent prescription drug importation executive order.
Where Was the Media's Pre-pandemic Concern About Vaccine Politicization?
There are numerous stories about conservatives and Fox News politicizing the national vaccination effort. But the media weren't nearly so concerned about that politicization last fall when Democrats were the vaccine skeptics.
White House High-fiving More Jobs While Killing Economy
The latest jobs report from the federal government shows unemployment is 5.9%, which is positive news, but an economic think tank predicts little improvement as long as Joe Biden is in the White House.
No, Unemployment Rates Won't Return to Pre-pandemic Levels
The White House and media are predicting when unemployment will return to pre-pandemic lows, but that won't happen if the White House and media get their big-government budget blowout.
Treasury Traders Brace for Volatility With Debt-Limit Chaos Near
In a protracted 2013 debt-limit episode, Fitch Ratings put the U.S. rating on negative watch given the government’s failure then to raise its borrowing limit as the Treasury’s hard deadline neared. In 2011, a split House and Senate took the debt-limit debate down to the wire, prompting S&P Global Ratings to cut America’s sovereign credit grade for the first time.