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No There There by James Kwak, baselinescenario.com | September 11, 2012
On the one hand, over in Romney headquarters, they can take heart from the fact that the economy continues to sputter, as evidenced by the latest jobs report. On the other hand, as the election draws near, people will only ask more questions about what President Romney would actually do. For months now, the campaign has whispered one thing to the base (e.g., “severely conservative”) while being purposefully vague to everyone else, hoping that independents will assume he is still the moderate who introduced universal health care to Massachusetts. Now that strategy is breaking down. Exhibit A is Sunday’s comical back-and-forth-and-forth-and-back on the Affordable Care Act. But the more important Exhibit B is the Romney “tax plan.” read more »Progressive Breakfast by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | September 11, 2012
On the menu this morning: MORNING MESSAGE: Deficit Rorschach Test: The Presidents, the Editors, and the Truth More Romney Tax Problems Dithering on Obamacare Chicago Teachers Strike GOP Polling Panic Breakfast Sides read more »Bill Clinton: Wonk-In-Chief by Ezra Klein, The Washington Post | September 6, 2012
“People ask me all the time how we delivered four surplus budgets,” former President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday night. “What new ideas did we bring? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.” That’s also the one-word answer to what Clinton brought to his convention speech. To a degree unusual in political rhetoric, this was a 48-minute speech about arithmetic. About math. About budgets. In that way, Clinton’s speech fit neatly into the emergent Democratic strategy to be, in this election, the party of policy. To be sure, they don’t have much of a choice. The difference between the Democratic and Republican tickets right now is the Democrats are stuck with thousands of pages of policy while the Republicans have made a strategic decision to avoid having much policy at all. read more »The Illusory Promise Of Free-Market Health Care Miracles by Wendell Potter, publicintegrity.org | September 5, 2012
The proponents of a pure free-market health care system hope that Americans have amnesia and can be persuaded to blame President Obama for the problems that grew almost immeasurably worse between the demise of the Clinton plan and the passage of the Affordable Care Act. They want us to believe, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that health insurers and the largely unfettered, loosely regulated marketplace can somehow turn things around. And that we should reward insurers for their failure by turning the Medicare program over to them. In many respects, the free market approach to health care has indeed been just what the doctor ordered, although not for patients. There is fresh evidence almost every week that our uniquely American free market health care system continues to fail us. read more »The Medicare Killers by Paul Krugman, The New York Times | August 31, 2012
Paul Ryan’s speech Wednesday night may have accomplished one good thing: It finally may have dispelled the myth that he is a Serious, Honest Conservative. Indeed, Mr. Ryan’s brazen dishonesty left even his critics breathless. Some of his fibs were trivial but telling, like his suggestion that President Obama is responsible for a closed auto plant in his hometown, even though the plant closed before Mr. Obama took office. Others were infuriating, like his sanctimonious declaration that “the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.” This from a man proposing savage cuts in Medicaid, which would cause tens of millions of vulnerable Americans to lose health coverage. But Mr. Ryan’s big lie — and, yes, it deserves that designation — was his claim that “a Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare.” Actually, it would kill the program. read more »How Romney Keeps Lying Through His Big White Teeth by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | August 29, 2012
“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” says Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster. A half dozen fact-checking organizations and websites have refuted Romney’s claims that Obama removed the work requirement from the welfare law and will cut Medicare benefits by $216 billion. Last Sunday’s New York Times even reported on its front page that Romney has been “falsely charging” President Obama with removing the work requirement. Those are strong words from the venerable Times. Yet Romney is still making the false charge. Ads containing it continue to be aired. Presumably the Romney campaign continues its false claims because they’re effective. But this raises a more basic question: How can they remain effective when they’ve been so overwhelmingly discredited by the media? The answer is the Republican Party has developed three means of bypassing the mainstream media and its fact-checkers. read more »Why "Playing The Race Card" Works for Conservatives by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | August 29, 2012
Come the revolution, rich, white, male conservatives will be the only people left who can "play the race card" and get away with it. Actually, that revolution is already here. And, with apologies to Gil Scott-Heron, it is being televised — in the form of Mitt Romney's attack ads, focused on Obama's imaginary "gutting" of welfare reform. There's a dark, bitter irony in this latest chapter in the ongoing saga of race in America. Our first African-American president can't talk about race. As Ta-Nehisi Coates explains in his excellent article in The Atlantic, "Fear of a Black President," Barack Obama has become "the most successful black politician in American history," by steering clear of "the radioactive racial issues of yesteryear." Yet the success of the GOP's Romney/Ryan ticket, dubbed "white and whiter" by Salon columnist Joan Walsh, actually depends on exploiting the "radioactive racial issues of yesteryear." At this stage in the game, there's only one reason a campaign doubles down on a particular strategy — especially one with so much potential to backfire: it's working. The question is: Why does it work? There are at least a few reasons why it works. See Dave Johnson's post and Digby's post for more about why we on the left are part of the reason it works, and how we can begin to do something about it. For my purposes, I'm going to focus on to big reasons why playing the race card works so well for conservatives: the media, and the base. read more »Republicans Steal Medicare From The Democrats by Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post | August 28, 2012
Who knew? In the hall-of-mirrors parallel universe where the Republican National Convention is taking place, the GOP stands tall and proud as the party of Medicare. I’m still a little confused about the historical timeline in this alternate reality. Was it President Goldwater who signed into law the nation’s health-care guarantee for seniors? Was it President Dole who made sure the program remained solvent? Did John McCain win in 2008? It must be that in RNC World, the past simply doesn’t exist. There is no other explanation for all the Great Society rhetoric coming from Republicans who once claimed to favor small government, limited entitlements and a balanced budget. read more »George W. Bush as Hurricane Isaac by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | August 28, 2012
There is nothing Republicans would rather the American people forget more than George W. Bush, who doesn’t even have a bit-part at the GOP convention opening in Tampa. But W’s ghost may be there, anyway. The National Weather Service says tropical storm Isaac is now heading for New Orleans, and Isaac is projected to become a Category 1 hurricane by the time it makes landfall late Monday or early Tuesday. The GOP was intent on not even bringing up Bush’s name at the GOP convention, because the former president might also remind Americans how little the Republicans care about average Americans, like those caught in Hurricane Katrina, and how much they care about top corporate and Wall Street executives, like those being entertained in Tampa. But Hurricane Isaac seems likely to remind Americans anyway. read more »Romney’s First 100 Days by David Leonhardt, The New York Times | August 27, 2012
It is the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 7, and after a long night of celebrating and a short night of sleep, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wake up to confront the question awaiting every new administration: Of the campaign’s many promises, which few will become the real priorities? If they win the White House, Republicans are also more likely than not to hold on to the House of Representatives and win a narrow majority in the Senate. The party could then embark on the kind of aggressive legislative push that President Obama and the Democrats did in 2009. Only four years after Democrats seemed on the verge of historic policy gains, Republicans could reverse many of those gains and then some. They could cut the top tax rate to its lowest level in 80 years (as Mr. Romney proposes) and make major changes to federal programs. read more »
The Latest
Study Says Uninsured Costly To All, Associated Press | May 28, 2009
The average family with health insurance shells out an extra $1,000 a year in premiums to pay for health care for the uninsured, a new report finds. And the average individual with private coverage pays an extra $370 a year because of the cost-shifting, which happens when someone without medical insurance gets care at an emergency room or elsewhere and then doesn't pay. read more »
Study: Governments’ Drug-Abuse Costs Hit $468 Billion, The New York Times | May 28, 2009
Government spending related to smoking and the abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs reached $468 billion in 2005, accounting for more than one-tenth of combined federal, state and local expenditures for all purposes, according to a new study. read more »
Flu Scare Reveals Strapped Local Health Agencies , Associated Press | May 27, 2009
Swine flu fell short of a full-blown international crisis, but revealed the precarious state of local health departments struggling with cutbacks as well as increased demand from people who have lost jobs and medical insurance. Stung by the lean economy, 13 states and U.S. read more »
Congress to Consider Paid Sick Leave, upi.com | May 22, 2009
Legislation to be introduced in Congress would guarantee U.S. workers up to seven paid sick days a year, the bill's sponsors said. A similar plan was rejected by Congress while George W. Bush was president, but backed by President Barack Obama when he was a U.S. senator and presidential candidate. read more »
Activists Seek Probe of Health Insurers, Associated Press | May 20, 2009
Activists backing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul are asking the Justice Department to open a wide-ranging investigation of what they say is monopoly-like power in the hands of major insurers. read more »
Insured Workers Pay More For Health Care, money.cnn.com | May 19, 2009
More employers are citing the recession for shifting a bigger portion of their health care costs to employees in 2009, an industry report said. American workers have seen an average increase of 10.6% over the past year in the amount they spend on health care services, according to health care consulting firm Milliman's fifth annual Milliman Medical Index. read more »
Recession Threatens Progress in Child Well-Being, Reuters | May 18, 2009
Hard economic times are hitting the United States' youngest citizens, threatening to roll back decades worth of gains in health, safety and education, according to a report. It suggests the country's most severe recession in a generation, which has cost more than 5 million American jobs since it began in late 2007, is having a drastic impact on children. read more »
Health Industry Offers $2 trillion in Cuts, boston.com | May 11, 2009
Volunteering to "do our part" to tackle runaway health costs, leading groups in the healthcare industry have offered to squeeze $2 trillion in savings from projected increases over the next decade, White House officials said. read more »
Rangel Bars Taxes on Workers’ Health Care, The New York Times | May 7, 2009
The top tax-writer in the House of Representatives said that there was “no way” he would support taxing employer-provided health benefits, Americans’ leading source of coverage. The comment came from Representative Charles B. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, after a committee hearing with the new secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius. Mr. read more »
Health Insurers Agree to End Higher Premiums for Women, The New York Times | May 6, 2009
Insurance companies offered to end the practice of charging higher premiums to women than to men for the same coverage. Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, made the offer in testifying before the Senate Finance Committee. It was the latest concession by insurers as Congress drafts legislation to overhaul the $2.5 trillion health care industry. read more »
