Many progressives, even though they’ve been working for a PO-based health care reform bill, have 1) never given up Medicare for All as the goal of their activity, and 2) decided, in the first quarter of 2009, that Medicare for All could not pass the new Congress. They then reacted to their realization by concluding […]
What Might Have Been; What Still Might Be
November 22nd, 2009 · 5 Comments
Tags: Complexity · Epistemology/Ontology/Value Theory · Knowledge Management · Politics
“The Only Show in Town”
November 2nd, 2009 · Comments Off on “The Only Show in Town”
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) is justly famous for saying that the Republican health care plan is for people to go ahead and die quickly when they get sick. But, a few days ago, in an appearance on Ed Schultz’s MSNBC show, he expressed […]
Tags: Politics
An Evaluation of Nancy’s Masterpiece: The Band-aid Period
November 1st, 2009 · Comments Off on An Evaluation of Nancy’s Masterpiece: The Band-aid Period
We’ll see many policy analyses and evaluations of Nancy Pelosi’s compromise health care reform bill as it gets closer to a final vote. This one won’t be thorough, since the bill is one of daunting length (1990 pages) and complexity, and I haven’t had the time to do a really detailed analysis. But I’ll do […]
Tags: Politics
Mis-directed Angst, Again
October 28th, 2009 · Comments Off on Mis-directed Angst, Again
A few weeks back I did a diary called “Mis-directed Fury.” It focused on the reaction to the State opt-out idea on health care reform at FDL, and basically made the point that there are a lot more important things to get furious about than the State opt-out proposal. Today we have another explosion of […]
Tags: Politics
The Tip of the Democratic Spear?
October 11th, 2009 · Comments Off on The Tip of the Democratic Spear?
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Alan Grayson’s been making waves lately. His calling out members of the Republican Party as “foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging neanderthals,” was good for a laugh. And then, when they howled and demanded an apology, he refused to apologize to them, but, instead, said that he […]
Tags: Politics
Mis-directed Fury
October 11th, 2009 · Comments Off on Mis-directed Fury
Over the past few days, there’s been a great deal of moral protest, outrage, and even fury expressed at Firedog Lake and The Seminal about the “opt-out” compromise. The basis of the outrage is the idea that we all ought to stand together in health care reform, and insist on the idea of “everybody in, […]
Tags: Politics
Embracing Relativism and Embracing Truth
October 5th, 2009 · Comments Off on Embracing Relativism and Embracing Truth
Watching Alan Grayson defend himself against the likes of Alex Castellanos, Wolf Blitzer, Joe Johns, and Gloria Borger, with only an occasional assist from James Carville, who can’t exactly call his wife “a nut job,” I was struck by how Alan defended himself from the false equivalence attack of the punditocracy. When these folks tried […]
Tags: Politics
Ezra Klein’s False Theory About An Imaginary Fact
September 21st, 2009 · Comments Off on Ezra Klein’s False Theory About An Imaginary Fact
On September 19, Ezra Klein favored us with an analysis on health care reform in the WaPo. Coming off the results of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2009 Employer Benefits Survey, Ezra makes the following points: ”The truth is we all pay, and much more than we recognize, for health care. . . .” ” . […]
Tags: Politics
Confusion Over the Public Option?
August 23rd, 2009 · Comments Off on Confusion Over the Public Option?
In President Obama’s weekly radio address yesterday he said: “Now, the source of a lot of these fears about government-run health care is confusion over what’s called the public option. This is one idea among many to provide more competition and choice, especially in the many places around the country where just one insurer thoroughly […]
Tags: Politics
Move-on Needs to Move-on
August 16th, 2009 · Comments Off on Move-on Needs to Move-on
For the past few days, I’ve been trying, by e-mail, to get the participants in the Northern Virginia Move-on Council to take my advice about the best way to get a good, strong, public option. Namely, to abandon the public option advocacy in favor of all-out support for “Medicare for All,” and specifically for HR […]
Tags: Politics