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

Crouching Lieberman, Smoking Gun

I don’t pretend to know Joe Lieberman’s motivation, but it’s working to perfection if his goal is to divide Party leaders (Obama, Reid, etc.) from the Democratic progressive base. I don’t remember seeing this level of outrage from movement progressives before, and I wonder if the only possible way to quell it is to secure […]

Health Care Reform–Even More of a Gift

UPDATE: Greg Sargent (via Glenn Greenwald’s Twitter feed) notes that I am hardly alone in my concluding pargraph. The last even semi-useful part of health care “reform” (and that was of dubious value) is dead: The idea of letting people ages 55 to 64 buy into Medicare, announced just last week, had threatened to explode […]

Heath Care Reform– Looking at the Glass Half-Full

Rdan (Run 75441…h/t) Maggie Mahar writes an essay that is now cross posted at Angry Bear with the author’s permission: Health Beat, a Project of the Century Foundation;November 4, 2009 Heath Care Reform– Looking at the Glass Half-Full What Has Been Accomplished; What Still Must Be Done These days, many progressives are expressing deep disappointment […]

Health Affairs States the Obvious, So We Don’t Have To

Bob Somerby has been on a rant at The Daily Howler that “liberals” do not understand the Stupak Amendment. Unfortunately, claims he makes about Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and their guests do not apply to Laurie Rubner. At the Health Affairs blog, Ms. Rubner is direct and to the point: From the very beginning, […]

Health Care Reform and Caregivers Refusing Medicare Patients

Robert goes out on a limb and guesses that Lori Montgomery fell for (or is pushing) Republican spin in this article in the Washington PostReport: Bill would reduce senior careMedicare cuts approved by House may affect access to providers A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending — one of the […]

STILL the most important sentence in the House HC Bill

by Bruce Webb Much of the criticism about the House Health Care Bill coming from the left revolves around the ‘fact’ that it has no meaningful premium and so profit controls. Moreover most of those same people are promoting HR676 as an alternative. Frankly those people simply haven’t read either bill with attention to detail. […]

More on the Public Option in the current house bill HR 3962

by Divorced one like Bush Bruce Webb put up a post titled “Health Care Exchange: Eligibility vs. Enrollment“. I have gained some clarification on the subject and have shared it with Bruce. I have asked him to comment also. There is a concern as to whether access to the Public Option (PO) was limited. Bruce’s […]

HR676: Serious policy? or Simple political posturing?

by Bruce Webb A lot of progressives insist that there is a simple golden-bullet solution to the health care crisis. All we need to do is substitute the 30 page HR676 Single Payer/Medicare For All bill for the 1990 page HR3962. Which led me to ask “How can you possibly supply code language to overhaul […]