Archive
Wall Street's 'M&A Follies': Why the Curtain Never Falls
AOL and Time Warner split, Comcast and NBC join. The merger merry-go-round continues to spin. Investment bankers and corporate execs get the brass ring. The rest of us get pink slips and higher prices. What may be the dumbest corporate merger of all time — the...
The Women's Health Amendment and the Excise Tax: One Hand Giveth ...
Recently the Senate passed Sen. Barbara Mikulski's Women's Health Amendment, which requires health insurance companies to provide free mammograms and other preventive health services for women. This was lauded by many, since women's health needs have traditionally...
New Lie On Bank Reform
Opponents of financial reform, after huddling with banking lobbyists, are now circulating a story that the reform bills are nothing more than more bailouts for the big banks. In fact the bills do the opposite, and have a mechanism for shutting banks down instead of...
Sanders, Franken, and Brown Introduce Amendment to Replace Excise Tax
Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, and Sherrod Brown have introduced a bill in the Senate that would replace the excise tax on higher-cost health plans with a tax on very high-earners. This amendment would put the Senate's proposal in line with the House bill, removing one...
The Problem is Jobs, Not Debt
Conservatives are using the economic crisis to push through their favorite tricks. The latest trick is a commission to cut the budget and cut the debt without the inconvenience of the democratic process. It’s a strange distraction from the real problem. The real...
Progressive Breakfast: Who's Buying Medicare Buy-in?
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day Medicare Buy-In Proposal Roils Congress Sens. Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman start to hedge on deal. Politico: "Lieberman indicated that he was growing...
Progressive Breakfast - 12/11/2009
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day Medicare Buy-In Proposal Roils Congress Sens. Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman start to hedge on deal. Politico: "Lieberman indicated that he was growing...
How Big is the Green Manufacturing Revolution?
The other day I posted Green Revolution - Ideology Holding America Back The world understands that "green energy" is the next big industry that will drive the world economy. Actually, the rest of the world has understood this for some time and has been investing and...
Yglesias: Another Progressive Gets the Excise Tax Wrong
Matt Yglesias is right to skewer a truly terrible idea from Sen. Tom Carper. Sen. Carper wants a health tax based on the rate of increase a health plan experiences over time, and Yglesias does a good job pointing out the flaws in this notion. But in mustering his...
New Poll Shows Excise Tax Is Politically Unpopular, Likely To Hurt Re-election Prospects For Legislators
A recent poll released today provided the first comprehensive look at the political popularity of the excise tax on higher-cost health plans, and the results should raise grave political concerns for the tax's supporters. The poll, which concentrated on battleground...
