During the Great Recession, when many hospitals across the country were nearly brought to their knees by growing numbers of uninsured patients, one hospital system not only survived — it thrived. In fact, profits at the health care industry giant HCA, which controls 163 hospitals from New Hampshire to California, have soared, far outpacing those of most […]

by Linda Beale ID theft as basis of systemic IRS tax refund fraud problems Early in 2012, the IRS and Justice Department announced a major crackdown on identity theft and enforcement efforts against tax refund fraud.  See IIRS, Identity Theft Crackdown Swweps Across the Nation: More than 200 Actions Taken in Past Week in 23 […]

Lifted from Robert’s stochastic thoughts on media: Wish I’d Typed this Bill Nothstine · Top Commenter · Living Liberally And, to be fair to Romney [brief interlude while Bill clutches frantically, Strangelove-like, at the hand that just typed those words], if he said it on TV that can be considered at least prima facie evidence […]

Mark Thoma goes ballistic: I don’t understand why someone with such a clownish views is lauded as a policy wonk: What did Ayn Rand teach Paul Ryan about monetary policy?, by Brad Plumer: In 2005, Paul Ryan explained that he often looks to Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged” as inspiration for his views on monetary […]

Paul Ryan Says He’ll Only Release 2 Years Of Tax Returns In ’60 Minutes’ Interview. What else?

by Linda Beale The fallacy of privatization: anti-government screeds and the Romney agenda As a prominent tax professor points out, Mitt Romney accumulated most of his additional wealth in a business that generally doesn’t do anything to increase national wealth. Mitt Romney accumulated his wealth as managing director of Bain Capital, a leveraged buyout fund […]

Hi folks…coming back on line from experiences in hospital services (not mine) and found this Guardian article on something we haven’t followed closely in posts.   From the Guardian comes this note on the preliminary data of the new Cryo-Sat-2 probe on Arctic ice volumes: Sea ice in the Arctic is disappearing at a far […]

Via The Dailey Beast comes this tidbit from Grover Norquist at the Defending the American Dream Summit in Washington, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity: The most quoted speech at CPAC this year was Mitt Romney’s, but my vote for the most significant goes to Grover Norquist’s. In his charmingly blunt way, Norquist articulated out loud […]