Reform Or Else

Paul Krugman points out we will always have a debt crisis until we get our health care expenditures under control. Policy change is a must.

"Health care reform hangs in the balance. Its fate rests with a handful of “centrist” senators — senators who claim to be mainly worried about whether the proposed legislation is fiscally responsible.

But if they’re really concerned with fiscal responsibility, they shouldn’t be worried about what would happen if health reform passes. They should, instead, be worried about what would happen if it doesn’t pass. For America can’t get control of its budget without controlling health care costs — and this is our last, best chance to deal with these costs in a rational way."

As America ages and lives longer, we have to change the current model. And we can't expect am industry that treats health care as profits to make the changes.

And it seems this is the right sort of Bill and the right thing to do at this time:

"The fact that we’re seeing the first really serious attempt to control health care costs as part of a bill that tries to cover the uninsured seems to confirm what would-be reformers have been saying for years: The path to cost control runs through universality. We can only tackle out-of-control costs as part of a deal that also provides Americans with the security of guaranteed health care."

Anyone who is truly concerned about fiscal policy should be anxious to see health reform succeed.

Source: NYT

Unemployment Claims Decreasing

The four-week moving average is trending down. Does this mean job growth in December? Probably with all the Christmas temp jobs, but nonetheless, a good direction out of the recession.

"Tomorrow, the payroll numbers for November will come out, and they are expected to show a decline of about 100,000. It could be the last drop in payrolls for this recession, if these jobless claims improvements hold up. And with four straight months of expansion in the manufacturing sector, this is not entirely unexpected."

Source: Calculated Risk

The Republican Obstructionist Manual Surfaces

This is the bipartisanship the GOP whine about needing?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid exposes the long awaited Republican plan for Health Care reform: a three-page instructional manual on how to bring the Senate to a screeching halt distributed by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). Are the Republicans happier wasting all our time or being so eager to admit it?

"This morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) seized on the document: "The good news is that Senate Republicans finally, at long last, have put a detailed plan down on paper. The bad news is that it's not, as we'd hoped, a plan to make health care insurance more affordable; it's not one to make health insurance companies more accountable; and it's certainly not a plan to reverse rapidly rising health care costs and draw down our deficit.

"The Republican plan we've waited weeks and months to see ... [is] not even about health care at all. The first and only plan Senate Republicans could be bothered to write up is an instructional manual on how to bring the Senate to a screeching halt. We knew that was happening anyway, but they had the audacity to put it in writing."

The GOP reduced to obstructionists. No ideas. Paid to do nothing.



Source: Washington Monthly

"Listening, Understanding, Neutralizing"

A Daily Dish reader responds to last night's speech and the constant underestimation of our President.

"The Morning After" is simple, non-hysterical, spot-on analysis. I especially agree that Obama is after bin Laden. No other single action would pay such huge dividends. In this, Obama proves himself again to be, not just the politician as chess master, but the politician as martial artist, always seeking for the fulcrum, the pivot point where four ounces of effort will yield a thousand pounds of result.

It is a very high level skill, far higher and more effective than the brute force men like Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld rely on, and it's difficult to attain, because it depends on three subsidiary skills that lesser men simply never recognize, much less master: listening, understanding and neutralizing. Obama is a master of all three -- just think back on his campaign.

It's only after he's listened to, understood, and then neutralized his opponent that he -- or fate -- delivers the coup de grace. What appears to some to be hesitation or lack of engagement on his part early on in any effort is really just preparation: listening, understanding, neutralizing.

And since, as you say, he plays the long game, there is really no way to judge his effectiveness at this point -- although, if one applies the same skills of listening and understanding oneself, as you've done in this post -- and as opposed to the shouting and reacting one sees elsewhere -- one quickly suspects he has maximized whatever potential the situation holds, and only waits for his opponent to walk into his trap and "defeat himself", as they say. In this he is the opposite of Bush and Cheney, who walked into bin Laden's trap -- and defeated themselves.

Obama's nuances and deep thought frustrate the one-dimensional "good/evil" Palin/Bush/Beck followers. They tend to have a 5-minute perspective from the present that centers around themselves.

Source: Andrew Sullivan

McCain Using Enron Hysterics?

Yesterday, John McCain launched an attack on the health care bill before the Senate, calling it "monstrous" and an example of "Enron accounting."

Hysterical? Nonsensical? Fact-free?

You bet.

"But of all people, McCain would know a lot about Enron accounting. Who made the Enron loophole possible? That would be the McCain's BFF and chief economic adviser Phil Gramm. Oh, and Gramm's wife just happened to be on the board of Enron."

Just another example of Palin/Beck Republican leadership not understanding what they are saying, just repeating sound-bytes.

Not really shocking a guy involved in the Keating Five has a "shady accounting" addiction. McCain is an expert.

Source: DailyKos

Brzezinski: What Bonafides Sound Like

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski and his bonafides on Morning Joe framing the complicated Afghan/Pakistan situation realistically. He praises Obama's positive approach to gradual disengagement.

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Bush: The "You Can Always Do Less" Attitude

Like most of what happened the last 8 years, complete bullshit.

"The Taliban [in Afghanistan] is out of business." George Bush, March 15, 2002.

Bush essentially declared victory 7 and a half years ago. His job was over. Thanks, George, for never wavering from your "you can always do less" attitude.

Pretty much follows his lifelong trend of barely doing enough, which leads to completely fucking things up, which leads to the smug smile like he completed a masterpiece. Stupid and cocky. What a mix.

Afghanistan: The "Graveyard Of Empires"

That's all. The title sums it up.

That and Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the lowest literacy rates.

That and it is rife with divisions between ethnic groups that dwarf current schisms in Iraq.

That and all the groups are lead by warlords who fight over control of the drug trade as much as they do over religion.

Terrorism, narcotics, and regional rivalries. All requiring different strategies.

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The Stimulus Is Working

Imagine what a $1 trillion stimulus would have done? Listening to the corporate-back Republicans did no help for "real Americans".

"Between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs were created or saved through September as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

The data, released Monday, say the real inflation-adjusted gross domestic product was 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent higher than it would have been had the $787 billion stimulus package not passed in February. Also, the stimulus lowered the unemployment by between 0.3 and 0.9 percentage points, according to the report."

As the MSM is camped out Tiger's mansion, hopefully someone will pick up on this good news. And this is all done with only a fraction of the stimulus money doled out so far.

Maybe that new Jobs Bill they have been talking about is in order: spending equals growth equals jobs equals recovery.

Source: Politico

Biden: "Who Do You Trust?"

Attention members of Congress. The people are speaking. Most Democrats are listening, but the Republicans are in full denial and proudly plant their heads in the sand. The two at the top get the message. This is not a pro-corporation race to the bottom.

Vice President Biden asks,

"Do you trust the defenders of the status quo, the people who say you'd be better off if you left things just the way they are? Or would you rather hear from the folks who actually know something about what's happening in our healthcare system because they work in it every day, doctors and nurses?"

Source: Washington Monthly

The Harsh Truth Of Nation Building

On the eve of Obama's Afghan speech at West Point:

"The police always arrest the Taliban, but when they go to court, they pay a bribe and get released." -- Afghan Police Lt. Col. Abdul Qader

The harsh truth of nation building. We can't do it. No exit strategy, no demands on Karzai, no benchmarks, no timetables, just 30,000 troops? FAIL.

Source: http://www.realitychex.com/