Political Bloviation

Op-Ed Columnist – The God That Fails – NYTimes.com.
He had to wait until Dec 31st to do that? What took you so long Dave? Well, at least this once I’m quoting the Times without Paul Krugman being the source.

Facts are stubborn things:
Serious students of health care have known for a long time that the magic of the marketplace doesn’t work in health care; the United States has the most privatized health-care system in the advanced world, and also the least efficient. The pale reflection of this reality in the current discussion is that [...]

Some call it recovery – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.
Paul says while it might be a “recovery” in terms of conventional definition, but job creation still lags. The question seems to be why isn’t job creation part of the definition of recovery.

Bear in mind that by the time the terror alert controversy arose in 2004, we had already seen two tax cuts sold on massively, easily documented false pretenses; a war launched with constant innuendo about a Saddam-Osama link that was clearly false, and with claims about WMDs that were clearly shaky from the beginning and [...]

It appears to me like the President’s approach to building support is going to take the legs out from under one of the most important aspects of health reform cost control:
via White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost – NYTimes.com.
Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood [...]

The more I think about the influence of Blue Dogs in the health reform debate, the more convinced I am that they should form their own party.  Them seem to share little in the way of values or goals with democrats. Maybe they should shed their DINO disguise and join with Chuck Hagel and Joe [...]

Good piece by Leonhardt on health reform here:
Economic Scene – Support for Health Reform Requires Facing Facts on Costs – NYTimes.com.
So what’s in health reform for the majority of voters who already have health insurance? David Leonhardt makes a try to answer: $6500 per year per household. That’s what we spend over and above the [...]

Talk about a waste of money. This is from the party of fiscal responsibility. You know, the same people who spent a budget surplus and created structural deficits while fighting a multi-front war of choice. The same people who say that we can’t afford health care reform that would cost a fraction of the tax [...]

Mass. Panel Backs Radical Shift in Health Payment – NYTimes.com.
This is an interesting development and may well mirror what will happen with federal level health reform moving forward. The state has managed to hold together a coalition to support reforming payments to providers. I’m not sure such a thing is possible at the national level, [...]

I’m not sure what the answer is, but what we’ve been doing doesn’t seem to work for anyone, except maybe Goldman Sachs.
The sector officially labeled “securities, commodity contracts and investments” has grown especially fast, from only 0.3 percent of G.D.P. in the late 1970s to 1.7 percent of G.D.P. in 2007.
Such growth would be fine [...]

Feinstein Says Law May Have Been Broken – NYTimes.com.
Feinstein thinks that oversight laws have been broken. The real question is will Lord Darth Cheney be held accountable for intentionally flouting the law? He seems very adept at avoiding accountability, ignoring Congress and being protected by GOP caucus on the Hill.

Who says economists have no sense of humor?
A missed opportunity on This Week – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.
So I was all ready to talk about Rick Warren on today’s panel, only to learn that he had cancelled out at the last minute. The show replaced him with pirates, plus an extended roundtable. But I [...]

Blanche Lincoln – (DINO) AR would like to ham string Obama budget and health care reform by simply lying about the effects of the estate tax. Another thing that really pisses me off about this piece of “journalism” is the total acceptance of the GOP framing of the issue demonstrated by continually referring to it [...]

via A Medicare-Like Plan for the Non-Elderly – Economix Blog – NYTimes.com.
The most powerful ordnance lobbed at the public health plan by its opponents is the dreaded “R” word, that is, the prediction that it will lead to the rationing of health care in America. In the debate on health policy, getting slapped with the [...]

Op-Ed Contributor – Dear A.I.G., I Quit! – NYTimes.com.
An Executive VP in AIG’s  Financial Products division, you know them as the wankers that destroyed the company, gets his Good-Bye Cruel World resignation letter carried in the NT Times op-ed section.
He whines and cries and complains that AIG isn’t being nice enough to them anymore. He [...]

Ignorance is bliss – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.
I’m with Krugman, this is vile. Drug and medical device makers want to remove $1.1 billion from the stimulus bill that would be spent to compare medical treatments. I would think that if they had nothing to fear from the public knowing which treatments were best they [...]

Op-Ed Columnist – Herbert Hoover Lives – NYTimes.com.
Frank Rich on the financial crisis, the stimulus bill and the “patriots” in the GOP:
The crisis is at least as grave as the one that confronted us — and, for a time, united us — after 9/11. Which is why the antics among Republicans on Capitol Hill seem [...]

Op-Ed Columnist – Putting Torture Behind Us – NYTimes.com.
Kristoff seems to suffer from the common illusion that Republicans want to work together for the good of the country and putting them in charge of investigating Bush Administration abuse of detainees and blatant law breaking will somehow win them over. They only want one thing: to [...]

What’s that you say? The GOP doesn’t debate policy matters in good faith and place partisanship and ideology above the good of the nation? Oh noes! Say it ain’t so Paul:
Paul Krugman – Bad Faith Economics – NYTimes.com.
As the debate over President Obama’s economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of [...]

Op-Ed Columnist – Wall Street’s Socialist Jet-Setters – NYTimes.com.
Maureen Dowd unleases on John Thain (former Bank of America CEO) and the other financial sector executives who did their level best to destroy the economy through good old fashioned greed and avarice.

The former masters of the universe don’t seem to fully comprehend that their universe has [...]