From now on
go to http://comechucka.tumblr.com/, and to http://scoop44.com/
as I’ll no longer be blogging here—
GHC
“Now, a little over five months after Bush left office, Barack Obama’s presidency is shaping up to be in large part about coming to terms with the Bush era, and fixing all the things that were broken. In most cases, Obama is approaching this task enthusiastically – although in some cases, he is doing so only under great pressure, and in a few cases, not at all . I think part of Obama’s abiding popularity with the public stems from what a contrast he is from his predecessor — and in particular his willingness to take on problems. But he certainly has a lot of balls in the air at one time. And I predict that his growing penchant for secrecy – especially but not only when it comes to the Bush legacy of torture and lawbreaking – will end up serving him poorly, unless he renounces it soon.
Obama is nowhere in Bush’s league when it comes to issues of credibility, but his every action nevertheless needs to be carefully scrutinized by the media, and he must be held accountable. We should be holding him to the highest standards – and there are plenty of places where we should be pushing back. Just for starters, there are a lot of hugely important but unanswered questions about his Afghanistan policy, his financial rescue plans, and his turnaround on transparency.
”
Froomkin on Obama in his last column. Let’s hope he keeps getting to watch the White House with the same incisiveness that he has for the last five years. Because it will be a sad day when I rely on the Politico to get my substantive DC news.
Is Health Care Reform Worth $1.6 Trillion?
A price tag of $1.6 trillion seems immense if one contemplates the figure in the abstract. It is, however, only about 4 percent of the total cumulative health spending of $40 trillion, the amount government actuaries now project for the decade from 2010 to 2020. That is also less than the 6 to 7 percent that total national health spending has increased each year in the past decade.
How Franken and Coleman each wait for the ruling
Most days, Norm Coleman reports to work as an adviser to the Republican Jewish Coalition. He also attends meetings, makes speeches, stays in touch with former Senate colleagues, squeezes in a little fishing up at his lake cabin. And he waits.
Most days, Al Franken dives into briefing books and tries to get up to speed on everything from the biggest issues of the day to the most arcane of Senate rules. He gets more time to cook with his family, hang out with friends, indulge in his passion for reading. But mostly, he, too, waits.
Of course this gives us some insight on how each man thinks the ruling will come out. But I wonder if we can extrapolate our inference from these actions to judge if Coleman will appeal or not. I mean, would Norm really be going up to Backus to fish if he was expecting to appeal to the Supreme Court, knowing that the state ruling should come any day?
Obama's sound messaging on healthcare reform
President Obama and ABC’s Jake Tapper had a good back-and-forth at today’s Rose Garden presser. Tapper asked a tough question and the president gave a sound answer. I guess I was caught by it because right now I’m reading Eric Alterman’s Sound and Fury, a book which will make you desperate about the state of American journalism (if you already weren’t). So this is nice to see.
via Jonathan Cohn at TNR:
I thought the most interesting exchange came after ABC’s Jake Tapper asked a question about Obama’s pledge that nobody would have to give up their health insurance if reform passed. As Tapper explained,
if the government is offering a cheaper health care plan, then lots of employers will want to have their employees covered by that cheaper plan, which will not have to be for-profit, unlike private plans, and may, possibly, benefit from some government subsidies, who knows. And then their employees would be signed up for this public plan, which would violate what you’re promising the American people, that they will not have to change health care plans if they like the plan they have.
Tapper’s question was more narrow than it had to be. The real issue here isn’t simply about a public plan. If private plans made available through the insurance exchange are more financially attractive than the plans employers offer on their own, then you could have the same problem—people fleeing employer-sponsored covearge to opt for these new plans. And it’s always possible that if enough people leave an employer’s plan, that employer will stop offering it.
The issue is very much on the minds of Capitol HIll reformers. And while there are various ways to mitigate this problem—some better than others—over the long run it’s quite possible there’d be some, gradual migration from current employer plans over to plans offered through the exchange. (Again, that’s true whether or not there’s a public option in the exchange.)
But Obama gave what I considered the proper response, at least on substantive grounds: First, that nobody should have to give up their doctors and hospitals, which is what people care about most; second, that some people are going to lose current coverage because that’s how the system works now. Premiums are constantly going up, employers are constantly switching plans. The key is whether government makes that problem worse, either by hastening the shift or dumping people into inferior plans.
…there going to be employers right now, assuming we don’t do anything—let’s say that we take the advice of some folks who are out there and say, “Oh, this is not the time to do health care. We can’t afford it. It’s too complicated. Let’s take our time,” et cetera.
So let’s assume that nothing happened. I can guarantee you that there’s the possibility for a whole lot of Americans out there that they’re not going to end up having the same health care they have. Because what’s going to happen is, as costs keep on going up, employers are going to start making decisions. We’ve got to raise premiums on our employees. In some cases, we can’t provide health insurance at all.
And so there are going to be a whole set of changes out there. That’s exactly why health reform is so important.
For my own yeoman part, I think the president frames the issue in exactly the right way with this kind of answer. For one, he gets nearly all healthcare policyholders on board by raising the specter of costs rising to prohibitive levels. And then he nudges them down his path in arguing that because things are going to change so radically anyway, we might as well reform things to make that change a good one. Putting Americans and Congress in a mindset that change is inevitable not only will bolster the 72 percent majority that already favor healthcare reform, it takes away from the table those fringers who want to stall any attempt at reform. I’d score this one for the president.
House Republicans and President Ahmadinejad: both victims of Obama’s soft hardball
A crosspost from the What Is Change? blog at Scoop44
The Left's Laffer Curve? - The Plank
Jonathan Chait thoroughly dismantles a healthcare reform-Laffer curve comparison made by Megan McArdle
The stimulus's bittersweet gift to public transit
via ProPublica:
Federal stimulus funds have swooped in to prevent service cuts to healthcare and education, but no such remediation has been granted to public transit. Transit systems nationwide are getting billions for new buses and trains. According to the language of the stimulus bill, however, the money can’t be spent to run them — to pay for operating costs like wages and fuel. Although national mass-transit ridership is at a 50-year high, a recent survey by the American Public Transportation Association found that 90 percent of transit agencies have cut service or raised fares.
(via boomshockalocka)
This cannot be shared with too many people. When half of Republicans want a public option, it’s high time for reform.
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