National Security
Pakistan has reemerged as a top national security concern during the Obama administration’s first four months in office. The Center for American Progress’ Lawrence Korb, Brian Katulis, and Colin Cookman recently returned from a trip to Pakistan and in a new report provided observations and recommendations on what steps the United States should take based on their conversations and research in the country. A video also showed them in action and what the trip aimed to accomplish. And an interactive timeline by Peter Juul catalogued attacks by Pakistani militants that are increasingly targeting police and intelligence.
Also this week, North Korea illegally tested another atomic weapon. Andrew Grotto argued that the United States’ response should be to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.
HEALTH CARE
It may seem like now, in the depth of recession, is the wrong time for the United States to fix our broken health system. But health reform is actually exactly what we need to get the economy back on track. An interactive map from Peter Harbage and Ben Furnas showed that lack of health insurance brings steep economic costs to states in the form of lost productivity. And Karen Davenport explained in a video why health reform is crucial to balancing the budget and how quickly we could begin to see savings from modernizing. Davenport also pointed out, in a CAP Action memo, that as policymakers consider options for health reform, they must remember to watch out for the needs of children, too.
In another video on health care, Ellen-Marie Whelan talked about what comparative effectiveness research is, how it will improve health care, and how we can promote it.
Immigration Reform
Ruy Teixeira showed in this week’s public opinion snapshot that the public is becoming more supportive of immigration reform. Angela Kelley and Vanessa Cárdenas came to the same conclusion in a column demonstrating that progress continues on immigration reform even though pundits argue that immigration reform advocates should be content with the Supreme Court nomination of Latino judge Sonia Sotomayor.
Suzi Emmerling also wrote about the need for a national office of integration to coordinate the many challenges immigrants face as they transition from newcomers to new Americans.