Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Are They Allowed To Write That

Robert Waldmann wonders why ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M.HERSZENHORN of the New York Times broke the main rule of fair and ballanced journalism — one must never question the honesty of a Republican. Out of some residual respect for journalistic standards, they put their gasp reporting after their jump. On the Senate side of the […]

Per Capita Spending and Life Expectancy Statistics

by reader Sammy “Are Per Capita Spending and Life Expectancy Statistics an accurate measure of US Health Care Efficiency?” Proponents of some degree of nationalization of health care generally cite some variation of the following “The US spends more per capita on health care than any other country, and yet has one of the lowest […]

15 month withdrawal from Iraq a worthy effort?

rdan A reader complained of lack of coverage of the ME at AB now compared to a few years ago, and charged it was a ‘pass’ on President Obama because he was our darling messiah. And of course ignoring the build up in Afganistan. Now this memo could be used to declare victory of the […]

Inner workings of a PR campaign

rdan Wendall Potter in his new position at the Center for Media and Democracy will hopefully provide insights into the inner workings of his former employer, health insurance company CIGNA corporation. Bill Moyers has a series of interviews scheduled where Wendall Potter lays out his case. As a consumer, if predictions come true that premiums […]

Office of Special Inspector General quarterly report

rdan SIGTARP’s Niel Barofsky and his staff have issued a first try at a cohesive description of funds expended for the fifty or so programs handing out money, but also a description of the potential expenditure (unlikely to happen). The link is to the site, which contains the report and the data in two separate, […]

Raising the Social Security Earnings Cap: Four Options Scored by SSA

by Bruce Webb I haven’t posted on Social Security for a while for a pretty simple reason. Nothing has been going on. Until today when Social Security released the following Policy Brief: Distributional Effects of Raising the Social Security Taxable Maximum. This policy brief analyzes the effects on taxpayers and Social Security beneficiaries of either […]

Was it a Gang of Seven?

by Bruce Webb Max Baucus of Montana (pop 935,670- 89.2% white)Kent Conrad of North Dakota (pop 636,677- 90.1% white)Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico (pop 1,928,384- 42.8% white)Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming (pop 509,294- 88.8% white)Charles E. Grassley of Iowa (pop 2,966,334- 91.5% white)Olympia Snowe of Maine (pop 1,321,505 – 96% white). Most people following the […]

HR3200 Sec 116: Golden Bullet? or Smoking Gun?

by Bruce Webb On Sunday the CBO released a letter addressed to Rep. Dave Camp, the Ranking Member on Ways and Means, which among other things measured the impact of HR3200 (the House Tri-Committee Health Care Affordability bill) and a public option on employer covered insurance. On net it turns out that they project more […]

Coping…will this influence local races?

rdanBirth and Hawaii at TPM. The House resolution to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hawaiian statehood — which included language recognizing the state as President Obama’s birthplace, in a none-too-subtle jab at the Birthers — passed this evening by a 378-0 vote. Among the Yes votes: Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), the lead sponsor of the […]