Jun 12, 2015 4 min read

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States as compiled by the Associated Press:

The Affordable Care Act, which has helped millions of people get health care, is now fully woven into the nation’s social fabric. As President Obama said Tuesday, there is something “deeply cynical about the ceaseless, endless, partisan attempts” to roll back the progress already made.

His remarks come only weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that could eliminate federal tax subsidies in 34 states that have made it possible for millions of Americans to buy health insurance.

The Affordable Care Act provides subsidies in every state for low-income people who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, the health program for the poor. Opponents of the act have seized on careless wording in the law to argue that subsidies should be available only in states that have established their own health insurance exchanges but not in states that chose to use HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s exchange. That defies common sense and the understanding of all those who passed the law in 2010.

There is an easy solution for the problem. Congress could pass a one-sentence law clarifying that subsidies will be available on all the exchanges. But congressional Republicans are not about to do anything realistic to help millions of people keep their health coverage, and are bent on destroying the law that made coverage possible.

As Obama noted, since he signed the law in March 2010, more than 16 million uninsured Americans have been covered, driving the uninsured rate to the lowest level ever recorded. It would be tragic at this point to reverse course and put millions of Americans at risk of disease and death from inadequate heath care or potential bankruptcy from inability to pay staggeringly high medical bills while disrupting insurance markets that depend on large enrollments to stabilize prices.

Another day, another sickening video of another out-of-control police officer assaulting an unarmed person who posed no threat.

This time, it was a 15-year-old girl in a bikini at a suburban Dallas pool party. McKinney, Texas, Cpl. Eric Casebolt grabs Dajerria Becton as she’s walking away and slings her to the sidewalk. After pulling a gun on two people who run up to the scene, Casebolt picks her up again, slams her to the ground, shoves her head down and yells, “On your face!” before jamming his knees in her back.

The scene plays out in the middle of a 7-minute video in which Casebolt repeatedly uses profanity and forces teens to lie down even as another officer is calmly talking to others nearby. In the end, tellingly, the girl was charged with nothing and released to her parents. Casebolt resigned Tuesday.

With the proper training, the very presence of those cameras will influence how both officers and members of the public behave … An ever-watchful eye has a way of influencing one’s actions.

Lincoln Chafee entered the presidential race last week on the Democratic side, and the former Rhode Island governor has the proverbial snowball’s chance of doing anything to slow the Hillary Clinton express.

Among the issues he talked about during his low-key announcement, the 62-year-old suggested ending capital punishment (popular with some), allowing National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to return to the U.S. without punishment (much less popular) and perhaps negotiating with ISIS extremists. (Is he nuts?)

The one thing Chafee said that makes complete sense is moving the United States to officially adopt the metric system of weights and measures. The U.S. currently enjoys the distinguished company of Burma and Liberia as one of only three countries that has not gone metric.

While Chafee’s proposal is hardly the stuff of scintillating politics, it is a common-sense proposal. Why not just simplify things?