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Health Care Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 09, 2009 2 Comments

I so love to say I told you so.On Sunday, after recovering from the intial reaction to the House vote, I cautioned that the Stupak Amendment created an impossible situation for Democrats. While Democrats were still drunk with jubilation over the Great Saturday Night Victory,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 09, 2009 2 Comments

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Sure as I was certain that Bush would be blamed for the Balloon Boy hoax, so too I've been waiting for someone to make the connection between the Iraq war resolution and the health care vote.To...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2009 14 Comments

I'm not sure the fallout from the Stupak Amendment passing has been fully felt.Reproductive rights is the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Democratic activists take as a given that Democratic politicians will protect a women's right and ability to choose. Last night the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2009 6 Comments

Bruni de la Motte explains in The Guardian why East Germans were better off before the Berlin Wall fell:On 9 November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down I realised German unification would soon follow, which it did a year later. This meant the end...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2009 12 Comments

Joe Lieberman threw a healthy dose of water on the Pelosi-Reid-Obama health care fire this morning, reiterating that he will join in a Republican filibuster of any Senate health care bill which contains a public option. This is at least the second time in recent...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2009 1 Comment

Great line from Michael Steele while going at it with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (who also is Chair of the Democratic National Committee) on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" a few minutes ago.After Kaine crowed snidely about how Democrats have delivered on their promises...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2009 5 Comments

The NY Times is naming names of House Democrats Who Voted Against the Health Care Bill.It's all public record, so it's not "outing." But it is interesting that The Times feels the need to go into such detail to highlight the Democratic heretics. The Times...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2009 23 Comments

First impressions and reactions can be dangerous, but here goes:Passing the monstrous health care bill by just 5 votes in the House is a pyrrhic victory. Yes, it is a victory tonight for Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, but at an enormous political price.There will...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2009 4 Comments

As Obama heads to Capitol Hill today to round-up some reluctant Blue Dog Democratic votes to ruin our health care system, raise taxes, and get the IRS involved in our lives even further, I was wondering if Obama could answer this unimportant question:How's that Iran...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2009 1 Comment

The attempts by Nancy Pelosi to cajole and/or threaten House Democrats into voting for the House health care restructuring bill has a surreal quality about it.Pelosi reminds me of a suicidal jumper on a ledge, with Republicans trying to talk Pelosi down since if she...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 06, 2009 4 Comments

Don't have much time this morning to comment further, but note the irony that today the jobless rate hit a 25-year high at 10.2%, and tomorrow night Democrats in the House of Representatives are planning to push through a health care restructuring bill that is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 05, 2009 2 Comments

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and American Medical Association (AMA) came out in support of the 2000-page plus House Democratic health care bills.Do not be deceived by this alphabet soup of support. The positions of the AARP and AMA amount to political posturing...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 04, 2009 4 Comments

The Associated Press is reporting that AARP, which purports to act in the interest of senior citizens, is going to endorse the $1.2 trillion house health care restructuring bill. The announcement could come as early as tomorrow.AARP only nominally is a senior citizen interest group....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2009 2 Comments

Another day, another story in a British newspaper about the profound faults in the British National Health Service. This time, the government bureaucracy is silencing whistleblowers:NHS whistleblowers are routinely gagged in order to cover up dangerous and even dishonest practices that could attract bad publicity...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 30, 2009 3 Comments

The Congressional Budget Office has released its "scoring" of the House health care restructuring bill. The CBO is required to score bills the way they are drafted, even if the assumptions in the legislation are unrealistic or politically unlikely to be fully implemented. Accordingly, the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 29, 2009 15 Comments

The drafters and supporters of the 1,990-page health care restructuring bill released by Nancy Pelosi this morning really don't understand how business works.I've had only a few minutes to look at the bill, but one fundamental and profound stupidity jumped out at me.The bill defines...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 29, 2009 1 Comment

I'm watching Nancy Pelosi's press conference announcing the final House Democratic health restructuring bill. It's 1990 pages.We'll see what the bill really says once we have time to analyze it, but here's what we know from prior versions, news reports, and Pelosi's talking points. The...

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