August 30, 2009 – 5:04 pm
John Kerry is like an old toy you don’t think you like anymore, but then you pick it up after six months and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, I remember how fun this was!” Case in point: Here’s John Kerry, talking to Time magazine this weekend about health care reform and what it means to be […]
August 28, 2009 – 9:40 am
New Washington Post-ABC News poll today that is supposed to be good news for President Obama and congressional Democrats, but probably isn’t. The details: Most Americans approve of the way President Obama is handling energy issues and support efforts by him and Democrats in Congress to overhaul energy policy — including the controversial cap-and-trade approach […]
August 26, 2009 – 10:56 am
Memories of Senator Ted Kennedy will be in many minds and hearts today and in the coming months. Here are links to two of Senator Kennedy’s more famous recent speeches: his endorsement of Barack Obama for president in the winter of 2008 and his rousing speech at least year’s Democratic convention. Both speeches exemplify the […]
August 24, 2009 – 11:07 am
The Republican Party is out today with a new Seniors’ Health Care Bill of Rights. As described by party chairman Michael Steele in the Washington Post, the guarantees include: Protecting, not cutting, Medicare; Prohibiting government from getting between seniors and their doctors; Outlawing any effort to ration health care based on age; Preventing government from […]
August 19, 2009 – 11:00 am
In a display of Congressional power that would have pleased Joe McCarthy, Democrats Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak – representing the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight – have demanded internal documents about salaries and expenses from insurance companies. As Politico reports: By Sept. 4, the firms are supposed […]
August 19, 2009 – 10:23 am
With Republicans resisting the push for socialist-ish medicine, Democrats are ready to go it alone – and of course blame Republicans for standing in the way of progress. Here’s Rahm, via ABC: “The Republican leadership,” said the White House chief of staff, “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is […]
August 17, 2009 – 11:19 am
In early May, President Obama announced that a series of health industry organizations had agreed to trim $2 trillion in costs from their operations. The move signaled that the big players in health care were aligning with, not against, systemic reform. It may have been the high water mark of the president’s push for government […]
August 13, 2009 – 2:33 pm
Sorry, that should read “White House unleashes viral email,” according to Jake Tapper at ABC News. The email, from Obama political adviser David Axelrove — er, Axelrod — is meant to combat those other viral emails, which contain false information about health reform and manage to spread like wildfire. It’s a smart strategy by the White […]
August 13, 2009 – 2:15 pm
Mike Allen in today’s Politico: “A new coalition this morning is launching $12 million in TV ads to support President Obama’s health-reform plan, in the opening wave of a planned tens of millions of dollars this fall. The new group, funded largely by PhRMA, is called Americans for Stable Quality Care. It includes some odd […]
August 12, 2009 – 12:59 pm
Since it’s the middle of August and we’re just phoning it in, here’s an interesting take on the current health-care debate (and protests) from someecards.com:
August 8, 2009 – 11:01 am
Two quick health care nuggets today. First, Sarah Palin writing about the Obama plan on her Facebook account (that’s what happens when you leave the governor’s mansion): [W]ho will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in […]
August 3, 2009 – 10:58 am
Earlier this summer, a friend who keeps his ear to the ground on these things told me he’d heard that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, during his trip to China, told Chinese officials concerned about rising US deficits that the Administration is gearing up to propose a value-added tax targeted specifically to debt reduction following the […]
August 1, 2009 – 10:52 am
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to take a strikingly aggressive tone against insurance companies — you know, the entities that make reliable health care available to a couple hundred million Americans. Politico reports: “The glory days are coming to an end for the health insurance industry in our country,” Pelosi told reporters Friday afternoon. “This is […]
After yesterday’s posts on beer and football, let’s get back to health care, because President Obama doesn’t want us to get distracted from the big issues. Politico today publishes a memo from House Democratic leaders advising members on how to gin up support for a government takeover of health care during their August “District Work […]
I’m not surprised that Paul articulated my point about the wider implication of the Miller/Obama student loan proposal even better than I could. As Paul says, the federal government has long paid a subsidy to private loan providers in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program. That’s because banks incur costs when they originate and […]
