Archive
Pass the Best Health Reform Bill - And Keep Fighting for More Reform.
Here's my position. In these final days of the health care fight, progressives should work hard to improve the health reform bill in the Senate and in the conference with the (better) House bill. But we should support the passage of the best bill we can get - and then...
We're Not Switzerland (expanded)
The pro-Senate health bill contingent keeps trotting out the example of Switzerland to buttress their arguments. Here's a quick recap of why the comparison doesn't work: First or all, Switzerland is a wealthier country: OECD figures show that the median...
Washington Post Analysis Strikes at the Excise Tax
Business columnist and Fortune Senior Editor Allan Sloan just wrote a piece in the Washington Post about the excise tax. It's smart, cogent, and well-written. (Translation: Wish I'd written it.) By using the work of Henry J. Aaron, a highly respected health economist,...
Progressive Breakfast: The Hunt for Health Care Reform Votes
The saga of health care reform continues with a hunt for votes. Next up to call the shots on health care, after Sen. Joe Lieberman, is Ben Nelson(D-AR). After rejecting an abortion compromise, word is that Ben Nelson may join a Republican filibuster. Steve Benen at...
Progressive Breakfast - 12/18/2009
The saga of health care reform continues with a hunt for votes. Next up to call the shots on health care, after Sen. Joe Lieberman, is Ben Nelson(D-AR). After rejecting an abortion compromise, word is that Ben Nelson may join a Republican filibuster. Steve Benen at...
Jobs: White House Manufacturing Policy Document and Meeting
This week the Obama administration came out with a new policy paper, "Framework for Revitalizing American Manufacturing" to coincide with a White House meeting with manufacturers. At the meeting, Vice President Biden ... announced administration support for a $5...
Is Truth the Next Casualty in the White House Health Campaign?
Many of us admire the wealth of talent on display in the White House, so it's disappointing when there is a breakdown in the accuracy or completeness of information being put forward by members of this Administration. Take Jason Furman, the Deputy Director of the...
The Window or the Stairs: Kill the Mandate, Or Kill the Bill?
Recent developments in the health care reform debate debacle saga remind me of a a scene — actually more like a repeated gag — from one of my favorite movies, Keenan Ivory Waynans' I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. I'll explain why at the end of this post, but first I want to...
Progressive Breakfast - 12/17/2009
As President Obama flies to Copenhagen later today to join dozens of other heads of state at the climate change talks there, The New York Times joins other media outlets in concluding that "continued bickering among delegations would seem to be making the...
10 Myths Behind the Movement to Accept The Senate Health Bill 'As Is"
I just put up a piece in The Huffington Post outlining what I consider 10 myths or assumptions that are currently being used to weaken resistance to the current draft of the Senate bill. While the post isn't exclusively about the excise tax, the tax does come up at...
