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   Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gnter Grass still thinks reunification was a bad idea.
 Forty years of writing from Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Katherine Boo, Marjorie Williams, Joshua Micah Marshall, and more.
 With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.
 The best recent memoir from republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something.
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August 26, 2008
THE KEY LESSON OF TODAY'S HEALTHCARE NEWS.... If you swing by MSNBC's homepage right now, you'll see the main headline reads, "Number of uninsured Americans drops." The report's lede reports, "The Census Bureau reports that the number of people lacking health insurance dropped by more than 1 million in 2007, the first annual decline since the Bush administration took office." That is, to be sure, good news. But it's important, in a political context, not to misread how this progress was achieved. One assumes the right will see the encouraging data and say, "See? The market is working, more people are getting insured, and there's no reason for government intervention." The reality is, more people are getting insured because of government intervention. TNR's Jonathan Cohn encourages us to "take a closer look at the numbers."
Paul Krugman also noted the cyclical context: "The key point is that 2007 was the end of an economic expansion.... So 2007 was as good as it got in this cycle. Yet median household income was lower than in 2000, while both the poverty rate and the percentage of Americans without health insurance were higher. In short, the economic policies we've been following just aren't working." Given that John McCain insists we need to continue with the identical economic policies for another four years, here's hoping today's news gets a little more attention. —Steve Benen 2:20 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (25)Comments
If we bail out the automakers with $50B in loans, the first requirement MUST be that they unequivocally and forcefully support universal, single payer, healthcare plan. Posted by: James White on August 26, 2008 at 2:17 PM | PERMALINKNever rely on headlines. Always read the story. Posted by: Ron Byers on August 26, 2008 at 2:21 PM | PERMALINKNow is a good time to remind everyone that the Republicans fought Medicare tooth and nail, and still dream about killing it. Posted by: Racer X on August 26, 2008 at 2:27 PM | PERMALINKWhat I see happening is this: the specific worldview and emotional disposition that has come to dominate the Republican Party -- greed, bitterness, xenophobia, religious self-righteousness, a stubborn attachment to simplistic ideology over pragmatic respect for complexity, a preference for slander and liberl over reasoned debate, etc. -- has brought the GOP to the point where, to hold onto their 'base' they have to withdraw further and further into that worldview and disposition, no matter how self-destructive it might be, no matter how much this withdrawal ma in fact reveal them for what they are: bitter, vindictive, and ignorant. It's almost worthy of an Edgar Alan Poe story. The slow but very visible corruption of a soul. And the cycle continues with hospitals and doctors who will have to raise their charges to make up for the losses they incur on Medicaid patients. Increased charges to insurance companies get passed down through increased premiums and out of pocket payments by patients. Posted by: RollaMO on August 26, 2008 at 2:39 PM | PERMALINKSocialized medicine for right-wing politicians, the "magical marketplace" for the rest of us. Posted by: Speed on August 26, 2008 at 3:08 PM | PERMALINK"It's almost worthy of an Edgar Alan Poe story." now, that explains a lot! :) Posted by: just bill on August 26, 2008 at 3:14 PM | PERMALINK@DNS - "What I see happening is this: the specific worldview and emotional disposition that has come to dominate the Republican Party -- greed, bitterness, xenophobia, religious self-righteousness, a stubborn attachment to simplistic ideology over pragmatic respect for complexity, a preference for slander and liberl over reasoned debate, etc...." I agree with you on this perception: The Republican Party has become the representative of the egoic fears and identity of American's in our "lower selves". On self examination, each of us, if we are willing, can see some aspect of this within our own personalities. Rather than being drawn into the habit of defensiveness and denial of these traits within ourselves, we can accept these "parts" of ourselves and make the effort to correct our own misperceptions of ourselves. This is not easy and requires a conscious recognition of our own inner "demons" so that we may "be the change we wish to see in others"(Gandhi). While it may seem that this is a Republican problem, we all share in it to a degree, and may take responsibility for our contribution to the continuation of this perspective, or change our minds and behaviors and starve the beast of bitterness, vindictiveness, and ignorance. I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation Universal healthcare at home isn’t enough. We also need to start: “…building public health infrastructure around the world.” That way, illegal aliens will stop entering America to get free health care. And the number of UNDER insured is? My guess is that number has grown. As premiums for private plans have skyrocketed, many privately insured people have been forced to increase their deductibles to very high levels. Many middle class holders of these high deductible plans are almost as reluctant to see doctors regularly as are the uninsured. Posted by: lou on August 26, 2008 at 4:12 PM | PERMALINKThe reason the overall numbers look good is rising enrollment in public insurance programs, particularly Medicaid. Medicaid eligibility is principally driven by income below a certain percentage of poverty level; the decrease in the number of uninsured is, it seems, a direct consequence of the spreading economic collapse. Maggie Mahar did a very good (and very depressing) piece on the fallacy of declining uninsured. http://www.healthbeatblog.org:80/2008/08/poverty-health.html Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive! Posted by: valium addiction on July 4, 2009 at 7:38 AM | PERMALINKGreat work, webmaster, nice design! Posted by: cheapest adipex no prescript on July 8, 2009 at 4:01 PM | PERMALINKGreat site. Good info. Posted by: drug classification tramadol on July 10, 2009 at 4:14 AM | PERMALINKGreat site. Good info. Posted by: buy soma online without a prescription on July 23, 2009 at 8:14 AM | PERMALINKVery interesting site. Hope it will always be alive! Posted by: tramadol ultram and acute pain on July 24, 2009 at 7:08 AM | PERMALINKIf you have to do it, you might as well do it right. Posted by: long term damage from tramadol on July 25, 2009 at 1:52 AM | PERMALINKPost a comment
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