Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4c68f412ea1fbd8807d6aaab4d594d43
news politics political world news political analysis conservative magazines
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The Caucus: Another Republican Congressman Faces a Rough Town Hall
Representative Michael G. Grimm, Republican of New York, got a loud and angry earful from many of his constituents at the first town-hall-style of his term Wednesday night.
WH Considers Syria Sanctions
President Obama is taking a look at imposing new sanctions on Syrian leaders after the recent violent crackdown on protesters.
Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=8beecfd63501b1830b0902708a43c9bd
political issues political forums which political party am i politic enter politic
White House moving to repair troubled relationship with Cabinet
News this week of the first departure of a Cabinet secretary from the Obama administration comes amid a wide-ranging effort under the new chief of staff, William M. Daley, to repair badly frayed relations between the White House and the Cabinet.
bbc politics political party names leave politic politic manifestos of political parties
Too Early for Clues to GOP 2012 Nominee
Michael Barone, DC Examiner
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's abrupt withdrawal from the race for the Republican presidential nomination -- after hiring a top notch New Hampshire campaign manager and planning to fly around the country next week -- has naturally inspired a lot of punditry on the Republican presidential race.Some of it is nonsense. I read someone earlier this week confidently stating that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee were the only Republicans who can beat Barack Obama because they're doing better than other possible nominees in polls.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's abrupt withdrawal from the race for the Republican presidential nomination -- after hiring a top notch New Hampshire campaign manager and planning to fly around the country next week -- has naturally inspired a lot of punditry on the Republican presidential race.Some of it is nonsense. I read someone earlier this week confidently stating that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee were the only Republicans who can beat Barack Obama because they're doing better than other possible nominees in polls.
political events the daily politics independent politics what is a political party
A new era of accusation and innuendo
Obama's predecessors benefited from a consensus that some allegations had no place in public debate.
Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53856.html
current political issues international politics news russian political news msn news
Republican health plan vs. the public option
Economist Jeffrey Sachs
praising The People's Budget
praising The People's Budget
In the absence of any kind of real healthcare reform plan from the Republicans (the erstwhile "replace" part of their "repeal and replace" mantra of 2010), you have to assume that their plan is the Ryan plan, abolishing Medicare and turning it into vouchers and gutting Medicaid.
Since that's the only plan we've got from them, Ezra Klein does a bit of compare and contrast between it and one of the cornerstones of the progressive approach to both healthcare reform and the budget.
If you want to understand why the budget debate so infuriates people who actually care about deficits?and, in particular, people who actually care about health-care spending?consider this: The central health-care reform in Paul Ryan's budget, the one that's got him so many plaudits for courage, would actually increase costs. The health-care reform that progressives have been pursuing for more than two years would cut them. And yet calling for Medicare to be privatized and voucherized is considered serious, while calling for a public option is considered tiresome. But let's go to the tape.Back during the health-care reform fight, the Congressional Budget Office looked at the likely effect of adding a public option that paid Medicare rates. "In total, a public plan based on Medicare rates would save $110 billion over 10 years," the agency concluded. Importantly, the savings would come because premiums would be lower. The basic mechanism here is not complicated: Just as you get better deals by shopping at a mega-retailer like Wal-Mart, you get better deals by working with a mega-insurer like Medicare. Size matters.
As for Ryan's plan, CBO’s take was just the opposite. "Under the proposal," they said, "most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system." That is to say, health-care costs go up.
As Atrios always says, they really don't care about the deficit, those Republicans. It is, however, important to note that the Progressive Caucus has got some Very Serious People love, in the form of an editorial in The Economist for its real deficit-cutting measures in the People's Budget. Those measures include a public option.
political parties 2009 politic crack processor politic processor crack major political parties
Manchin signs on to McCaskill-Corker 'completely insane' spending cap
Sen. Joe Manchin (John Gress/Reuters)
Spending caps in general are not great policy, but this one is particularly bad, capping total federal spending to 20.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the average from 1970 to 2008. Yeah, 40 years ago, when the poputlation was smaller, the population of older Americans was much smaller, and before healthcare costs exploded.
It's unrealistic, and it's just not smart. On the "not smart" part, here's Steve Benen.
The CBPP published a detailed report on the proposed cap a couple of weeks ago, explaining that if it were to become law, policymakers would have no choice but to enforce devastating cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, as well as every other domestic priority.Ironically, Machin, whose depth of understanding on these issues appears to be less than an inch deep, said he supports the CAP Act but opposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare. In other words, Machin doesn't understand the effects of the very policy he's endorsing.
To a very real extent, the cap would be a straightjacket intended to prevent the government from responding to any challenges, foreign or domestic, for the foreseeable future. The "solution" doesn't even match the problem -- any credible evaluation of the fiscal issue shows the same truths: we lack the necessary resources to deal with a growing elderly population and escalating health care costs. How would a spending cap help this? It wouldn't.
It's an idea so dumb and so bad as to be laughable. So expect every damned ConservaDem who is thinking of running for reelection in the near future sign on.
forum politic nj politics political polls rasmussen bbc politics
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)