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Health Care Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 23, 2010 27 Comments

The mandate is front and center in the constitutional challenges to Obamacare's requirement that everyone purchase health insurance or suffer penalties.I've been posting about the mandate since last summer, since the mandate for the first time punishes and taxes the failure to engage in economic...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 23, 2010 16 Comments

Some more thoughts on the worst piece of legislation "since the Great Depression," in no particular order:Democrats won the messaging war. Democrats succeeded in portraying the bill as being about "giving" people "health care." Even Republicans used the terminology. In fact, everyone has hospital care...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 22, 2010 36 Comments

Last night was bad. The law passed by the Senate and House really is that horrible.But it's the morning after, and your mourning should be over.The mainstream media and the nutroots will try to demoralize you, and there will be plenty of gloat to go...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 21, 2010 22 Comments

David Frum knows who is to blame for what appears to be an Obamacare victory: Conservatives who refused to negotiate with Democrats even though Frum admits he has no idea if such negotiations would have resulted in a better bill.I do know. The bill which...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 21, 2010 5 Comments

The housing bubble peaked in 2005. The bubble reflected a fiscal lack of reality built upon the greater fool theory, that there always would be another buyer foolish enough to pay more. (Chart via Bubblemeter) We now are on the cusp of passing a health...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 21, 2010 28 Comments

Anyone who has read this blog before knows that since last summer I have focused on the mandate as the core evil in the various incarnations of the Democratic restructuring of the health care system.So much else that is wrong in the current bill set...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 20, 2010 4 Comments

I realize that the truth behind Obamacare's numbers really doesn't matter to Democrats, and anyone reading this probably is part of my choir, but I'll continue my almost year-long preaching anyway.Barack Obama pitches the Senate health care bill as the greatest deficit reduction plan in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 20, 2010 7 Comments

"Deem and Pass" is dead. There will be an up or down vote on the Senate bill in the House.But not until the House passes amendments to the Senate bill before it passes the Senate bill:House leaders have decided to take a separate vote...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 20, 2010 13 Comments

Back in November 2009, when the House passed its version of Obamacare, I wrote that Nancy Pelosi had obtained victory at the cost of planting an abortion land mine in the form of the Stupak Amendment.No Stupak Amendment, no House "Yes" vote in November.The game...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 19, 2010 13 Comments

The lies behind the Obamacare push resemble birds flocking together and fish swimming in schools. By throwing forward so many falsehoods as to the supposed benefits of Obamacare, it confuses attackers and makes it harder to isolate any one lie. Firedoglake, which stands almost alone in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 19, 2010 8 Comments

Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham have put forth the outlines of an immigration plan, which has been endorsed by Obama as the basis for immigration reform.While there is no legislative text, as described by Schumer and Graham, the key is that illegal aliens automatically would...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 19, 2010 5 Comments

Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday how pleased she was with the precision of the CBO report on the cost of Obamacare. It would be easy to laugh out loud if so much were not at stake.Nancy Pelosi has no credibility to lose, so she did no...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2010 5 Comments

Tom Coburn (R-Okla) has signaled that any Congressman who flips from a "No" to a "Yes" vote on Obamacare should not expect a federal appointment after he or she gets voted out of office:Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is putting wavering Democrats on advance notice: If...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2010 5 Comments

Firedoglake has a great list (see images below) of Democratic Congressmen who pledged -- in writing -- not to vote for any health care bill which did not include a public option but who are voting for Obamacare which does not have a public option.These...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2010 5 Comments

Now that Nancy Pelosi and company had all morning to spin the CBO report prior to its actual release, here is some language in the report you will not hear reflecting that the end result of the report is not certain at all (emphasis mine):"Although...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2010 5 Comments

Clever Democratic tactic.Leak the supposedly positive, but contrived, aspects of the latest CBO report to favored bloggers, so that the news cycle is favorable: CBO Score On Health Care Bill Released: Boosts Democrats' Hopes Of Passing Reform, even though the report is not actually available...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 17, 2010 12 Comments

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake has been one of the few avowed progressives willing to speak out against Obamacare.As I have explored before, Hamsher's central objection is my central objection, the mandate. We object to the mandate on very different grounds; she because it makes the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 17, 2010 11 Comments

Dennis Kucinich at his press conference today announced he will vote "Yes" on health care legislation he detests and has criticized regularly for months.Kucinich is a pathetic shadow of his former self, a man whose will to fight has been beaten out of him by...

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