NewsRack: newstrust/Health-Care/Health-Care-Reform

Republican deficit cutting rhetoric | Sahil Kapur - The Guardian -- World Latest

Sahil Kapur — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The GOP posture as fiscal hawks, but the reality of cutting taxes and repealing healthcare would blow out the budget "I'm not afraid to tell you there's no money left. In fact, we're broke. Our debt is now on track to the exceed size of our entire economy in the next two years." So declared house Republican leader John Boehner last week, making the case that Americans should trust his party when it comes to "bringing down the deficits that threaten our economy". The party that added $4tn to the national debt under the Bush administration has relentlessly hammered President Obama for the growth of the deficit under his watch. Republicans have made deficit reduction a central thrust of their post-Bush persona, invoking it to weaken or kill ...

Stimulus counterfactuals - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Jon Cohn asked some lefty economists to imagine a world in which we'd passed a $1.5 trillion stimulus. What, he wondered, would be different? How much better off would the economy really be? It's a good question, and I think one of the political problems right now is that the Obama administration didn't get the counterfactual into the conversation early enough: They decided to call $800 billion pretty much what they wanted rather than a downpayment on what they needed. So it's left to the blogs. Cohn gets two economists on the record. Dean Baker, president of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says that a rough calculation would just multiply the impact of the actual stimulus by two: "The Congressional Budge Office estimates that ...

July jobs report: 54,000 jobs lost; unemployment rate hits 9.6 percent - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Another month, another grim jobs report . We lot 54,000 jobs in July. Most of those -- in fact, 114,000 of them -- were expiring census jobs. The private sector added jobs slowly but steadily, posting 67,000 in gains. This report doesn't really tell a story of recovery nor of recession. It's just stagnation: We're not falling back into the hole, but nor are we getting out of it. No wonder the White House is looking for further stimulus measures . ...

Notes on the filibuster - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

If you happen to be near C-SPAN 2 at 10 a.m. Eastern today, you can catch me and a couple of other folks talking about the filibuster at the American Political Science Association. The moderator, Gregory Koger, is author of the book " Filibustering ," which presents a bit of a problem for his panelists: We're actually going to have to know what we're talking about. Luckily, he's sent out his questions beforehand. Here's what I'm planning to say: 1) The 111th Congress has passed several landmark bills, including the stimulus act, health-care reform and financial regulation reform. Has Senate obstruction really had much influence on the legislative process? You can answer this a few different ways, though all of them begin with the word ...

Mini-mes - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

My recent writings against the expansion of intellectual protection laws to new domains have led to a few e-mails like this one: "I recently read your article on fashion copyright and have to totally agree, i also think it should apply to every aspect of life. So in [the] future I will copy every word you ever write and reprint it in another publication or format without giving you any credit or paying for your creativity in anyway." Touche! Sadly, copying blogs posts without credit or compensation is a crowded market. Take Bullfax.com, whatever it is. They do just copy my posts . They don't link them back to me, or attach my name to them. But what do I care? I find it hard to believe that there's anyone who has chosen to read my blog on ...

Pawlenty Likens D.C. To 'Drug Dealer' - WCCO: National

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is likening the federal government to a drug dealer.

Wonkbook: White House considers payroll tax holiday; House libs against Social Security cuts; 25% were unemployed during recession - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The White House is considering a push for hundreds of billions of dollars in new stimulative spending, focusing on business tax cuts including a temporary cut in payroll taxes. In part, this is good policy. In part, it's necessary policy. Anne Kornblut and Lori Montgomery quote an unnamed Democratic strategist complaining that the White House has let the issues get away from them in advance of November's election. "'We did the mosque, Katrina, Iraq, and now Middle East peace?' said a Democratic strategist who works closely with multiple candidates and spoke on the condition of anonymity. 'And in between you redo the Oval Office? It has become a joke.'" Also keep an eye on the increasing mobilization around Social Security. Whatever else the ...

Talks To Rep. Earl Blumenauer - American Prospect

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The Oregon progressive thinks it's time to cut the budget. Wait, what?

POLITICAL INSIDER: Pawlenty: DC like 'drug dealer' - Boston Globe: Latest

Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

POLITICAL INSIDER: Pawlenty: DC like 'drug dealer'

Workers said to pay 14% more for health insurance in 2010 - Boston Globe: Business

Drew Armstrong, Bloomberg News — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Workers said to pay 14% more for health insurance in 2010

POLITICAL INSIDER: Pawlenty: DC like 'drug dealer' - Star Tribune: Politics

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Mercury News editorial: California making health care progress - San Jose Mercury News: Editorials

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Twenty-two states are suing the federal government hoping to overturn President Barack Obama's health care reforms.

POLITICAL INSIDER: Pawlenty: DC like 'drug dealer' - AP Politics

By PHILIP ELLIOTT — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

By PHILIP ELLIOTT 2010-09-03T08:28:11Z

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is likening the federal government to a drug dealer....

Health Law Myths: Outside The Realm Of Reality - NPR News

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Are you really going to have to have a computer chip implanted in your head as part of the new health law? Will the law allow President Obama to create his own private army? While there are outrageous rumors circulating about the health law, some claims are grounded in truth.

In good company: Welfare capitalism - Boston Globe: Opinion

Hardy Green — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

In good company: Welfare capitalism

Health Care and Stimulus - The Atlantic - Matthew Ygblesias

myglesias — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

I’m 100 percent on board with Jon Chait’s argument that there’s no reason to think that abandoning the Affordable Care Act would have improved Democrats’ political standing heading into the midterms. Insofar as ACA is unpopular, that’s largely a consequence of the general decline in public esteem for the party currently overseeing a grinding recession. [...]

Bad blogger - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Sorry for the slow blogging this afternoon, I was crashing on a column and then I had to run to a panel at the American Political Science Association's conference, and both took longer than I'd thought. So I'm going back to column writing, and more normal blogging will resume tomorrow. ...

Village narrative sets in: It's the liberal overreach - Daily Kos

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Via Armando , TIME magazine's Michael Scherer fires the first real salvo in the "it's the progressives fault" for the looming Dem disaster in November. In the section subtitled "The Overreach" (you didn't see that coming, right?) he says: After a meeting in December 2008 about the severity of the economic crisis, Axelrod pulled Obama aside. He recalls saying, "Enjoy these great poll numbers you have, because two years from now, they are not going to look anything like this." But even as Obama aides were aware of a growing disconnect, it didn't seem to worry their boss. Instead, the ambitious legislative goals usually trumped other priorities. Both in the original stimulus package and then in the health care and energy measures, the White House ...

Trahant: What will the Indian health system look like? Answers are up to us - ICT - Opinion

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

What will the Indian health system look like a decade from now?

Bosses Put Higher Insurance Tab On Workers' Shoulders - NPR: Healthcare

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Employers keep shifting a larger share of health costs to their employees. Higher premiums, deductibles and copayments are making health insurance less affordable for people who get coverage at work.

Health Wonk Review: In the Here and Now Edition - Healthcare Economist

Jason Shafrin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Hank Stern’s always interesting InsureBlog.

Our lost decade in one graph - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

And note that the graph ends in 2007 -- before the Great Recession had actually begun. Source . ...

Vacation cont'd - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

"It’s true that American[s] have fewer paid vacations and paid holidays," writes Reihan Salam. "But the top 80 to 90 percent of U.S. households have more disposable income than their counterparts in the vast majority of OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] economies. Paid vacation is best understood as a form of non-cash compensation. It’s not obvious that we should collectively choose more paid vacation over more pay, and the lack of mandatory paid-vacation gives employers and employees more flexibility to choose an arrangement that works for them." There are a couple of things wrong with this paragraph. For one thing, the top 80 percent or 90 percent of households -- the ones that Salam identifies as making us richer -- ...

Lunch Break - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The Antarctic time machine: ...

Larry Sabato predicts massive GOP wins in 2010 - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Here's his outlook : Given what we can see at this moment, Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net. This is a “net” number since the GOP will probably lose several of its own congressional districts in Delaware, Hawaii, and Louisiana. This estimate, which may be raised or lowered by Election Day, is based on a careful district-by-district analysis, plus electoral modeling based on trends in President Obama’s Gallup job approval rating and the Democratic-versus-Republican congressional generic ballot (discussed later in this essay). If anything, we have been conservative in estimating the probable GOP House gains, if the election were being held today. In the Senate, we now believe the GOP will ...