What Big Tech Companies Should Do Next: Stop Calling for Ukraine to Surrender and Other Commentary

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From the Submission Editorial Committee

China Desk: Big Tech's Next Choice

“Nation-states and the cybersecurity community are warning that big tech companies will have to choose between U.S. government contracts and the Chinese market,” said The Hill's Paul Rosenzweig. “Now, changes to China's State Secrets Law” could “force this issue”: “Chinese business entities will be required to identify and disclose trade secrets to the government,” in other words, “target Sensitive information that could be used to target the U.S. government or could significantly impact the data security of Americans. ” The U.S. government should “consider banning technology companies that comply with the new rules from pursuing new government contracts.” This would “ensure that the U.S. government's technology partners of choice share national security priorities, making the tools the U.S. government relies on safer and more secure.”

Conservatives: stop calling for Ukraine to surrender

Pope Francis' call for Ukraine to embrace “white flag courage” and other demands for Kiev to negotiate peace with Russia amount to demands for surrender, argues National Review's Noah Rothman. Although these critics “claim to have the best interests of the Ukrainian people in mind” and imply that “Kiev's continued resistance is deadly hubris,” there are no plans to end the war. They are living in a “happy fiction” because the Kremlin's disastrous conditions include “the dissolution of Ukraine.” Government of Ukraine” and “absorption of its ‘entire territory’ into Russia”. And while the critics' “aspirations for peace have been rejected by the Russians,” their “concerns about Ukraine do not appear to be shared by the fighting Ukrainians.”

Watchdog: Congress' dangerous Medicaid system

The Empire Center's Bill Hammond reports that state lawmakers are pushing to impose $4 billion in new taxes “to increase Medicaid spending,” primarily on Medicaid managed care plans. There is. It exploits a rule that Washington “approximately” matches each dollar a state spends on Medicaid, allowing Albany to use new tax revenue to repay $8 billion in the plan, leaving a “net increase of $4 billion.” It is an object. This is passed on to providers in the form of higher fees. But such programs are considered “widely abusive,” and if the federal government cracks down on the trick, it will leave a “billion-dollar hole” in the budget and prompt lawmakers to “pay non-citizens an equal tax bill.” “Pressure to impose” will be applied. Medicaid enrollees make New York's already high health insurance premiums even higher. ”

Focus on New York: Cuomo's convenient amnesia

“Is Andrew Cuomo suffering from a lingering COVID-19 infection?” Wall Street Journal editors, after ex-Gov. calls for “suspension” of city's $15 congestion charge they sneered. He defended the system in 2019, but now laments the impact of the levy on “the immigration crisis, crime, homelessness, quality of life and taxes.” But editors ask, “Who is to blame for most of these problems?” Mr. Cuomo reneged on his 2010 campaign promise to let the state's millionaire taxes expire, instead extending them for years. He vowed in 2020 that he would “not tolerate then-Mayor Bill de Blasio's lockdown,” but then “locked down the state.” And in 2019, he signed the No Bail Act into law, handing “criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card.” There are rumors that Cuomo might run for mayor, but it's strange that “he thinks any New Yorker would put him back in power.”

Libertarian: California's Fast Boondoggle

“It should be clear by now that the original low estimate for a high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles was aimed at getting voters and state legislators to buy into the idea. , which can lead to the sunk cost fallacy “get the job done,'' complains Reason's Eric Boehm. In 2008, “its price tag was estimated at $33 billion,” but on Tuesday, the project's CEO told state lawmakers in Sacramento that it probably would take “an additional $100 billion to complete the project.” , he said, “The train isn't even close yet.” To management. Incredibly, the magical thinking that led politicians and the media to support this outrage in the first place has not broken the spell more than 15 years later. ” The fact is, “lawmakers should step aside now.”

— Edited by Post Editorial Board