Welfare

• “ The GoodRx Effect: How GoodRx is Changing the Economics of Healthcare ” shows that by saving people money and improving medication adherence, GoodRx positively impacts health outcomes and significantly reduces costs within the healthcare system – including saving the healthcare system an estimated $5 billion to date.
• That is why GoodRx is building a bridge to healthcare for its users by making it more efficient, easier to use, and easier to understand.
• To date, GoodRx has saved consumers more than $65 billion on brand-name and generic prescription medications – and that number is growing every day.
• By arming people with the ability to price shop and save on their medications, GoodRx helps people take more control over their health.

• Claremont, CA (Jan 8, 2024) – Claremont Graduate University’s School of Educational Studies will host a webinar on January 22 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lau vs. Nichols—the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case affirming bilingual education as a civil right in U.S. schools.
• 50th Anniversary of U.S. Supreme Court Lau v. Nichols: “From Meaningful Instruction to Equitable Access to Multilingualism” will take place on January 22 from 4:00pm - 6:30pm (PST).
• "The Lau decision is more relevant and important today than it was 50 years ago.
• Lau vs. Nichols concerned the San Francisco Unified School District and its nearly 3,000 non-English speaking students of Chinese ancestry.

• Is Biden’s evergreen ego — his scrappy Scranton Joe determination — outpacing his ability to win a tough election, much less govern a bitterly divided country until 2029?
• Will there be dire consequences because the man who had been yearning to be president since he was 46 resists giving up the job at 81?

Biden’s impressive record

• Condemnation of new eruptions of egomania in leaders with limited accomplishments — or malignant damage (does the aggrieved 45th president come to mind?)
• He even reached out to those who disagreed with him, allowing him to forge deals with obstreperous Republicans and prickly Democrats.
• He didn’t let denunciations prevent the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan or stop him from taking on a tortuous tightrope walk through the Gaza cataclysm’s horrors.

Ego or hubris?

• High-achieving leaders are always at risk of crossing a line that separates self-confidence from over-confidence, ego from hubris.
• Has Biden crossed this line as he hungers for a second term, leading him to potentially disastrous decisions?

Egos in the White House

• George Washington combined sterling leadership qualities with the elitism of a slave-owning aristocrat (including the institution of exclusive presidential levees).
• Theodore Roosevelt’s “progressive” activism went hand in hand with a desire “to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening,” according to his daughter.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s self-confidence was as crucial to his success as it’s been to Biden.
• FDR’s 12 years in the White House saw monumental results, especially the New Deal’s transformation of the federal government’s social welfare responsibilities.

FDR/Biden similarities?

• In 1944-45 — as both the war and his own life were nearing their end — Roosevelt undercut his own successes by sliding into hubris.
• Increasing strains on his health created tensions between ego and pragmatism.
• This paved the way for shifts to more unilateral policies and style that Roosevelt would almost certainly have bemoaned.
• Ironically, their calculations will also be subject to the complex tensions between personal emotions and pragmatism.

Ronald W. Pruessen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.