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March 2012 Archives
Yes, I know that GOP Reagan worship is strong, but really -- do Republicans now simply assume that Ronald Reagan was the Greatest President Ever? Really? I ask, because (via...
If you’ve read Albert Brooks’ 2030 (or even if you haven’t), you might be concerned about what an aging population means for America’s future. If so, Henry Aaron’s Longer life...
From the NY Times: A sales tax of 20 percent on pasties and other takeout snacks…. announced last week as part of the government’s austerity budget, was aimed at closing...
Long time readers of the blog know of my skepticism for “pay for performance”. That’s not because I take issue with the defining principle; it’s because I think that we...
Oh, Ralph. If Ralph Nader hadn’t gotten under Lewis Powell’s skin, we wouldn’t be having these arguments over whether the individual mandate in Obamacare is unconstitutional. And “stand your ground”...
This is from political scientist Michael Evans, and was originally posted to a law and courts listserv. I thank him for sending it along: ***** I was curious about the...
I still remember the day after the public option was finally pulled from the bill that would someday become the Affordable Care Act. One of my conservative friends (I have...
Again this year, the cold medicine industry was the number one lobbyist in all the state legislatures that considered making pseudoephedrine-containing products available by prescription only. They won in every...
Of all the arguments being waged over the Affordable Care Act -- or, as the Obama campaign now likes to refer to it, “Obamacare” -- the one dominating the Supreme...
Ezra Klein: Either way, it seems unlikely today’s oral arguments will dislodge the justice’s conclusions. Indeed, it would seem faintly ridiculous, and possibly even irresponsible, for the justices to permit...
From Jon Cohn’s report: Alito seemed particularly concerned that, because of the mandate, young, healthy people would have to pay more for their insurance, because they would effectively be subsidizing...
Mike Riggs of Reason magazine supports marijuana legalization but has the guts to point out that three common arguments for legalization are fallacious. He is getting blowback from those activists...
From the Associated Press (h/t Andrew Sullivan): “If the government can do that, what else can it do?” asked Justice Antonin Scalia, referring to the individual mandate portion of the...
Well, when a politically ambitious appellate judge wants to avoid getting himself in trouble.As Ed Kilgore pointed out, SCOTUSBlog makes it clear that the Supremes might not even consider the...
I have been puzzling over a difference between the news media in the U.K. and U.S. Having not come to a satisfactory answer in my own mind, I hereby throw...
The Determinants of Mortality (ungated pdf), by David Cutler, Angus Deaton, and Adriana Lleras-Muney is worth a full read. Here are some teasers. For most of human history, life was...
Suppose you are in business offering people advice about some important products. You have a problem, though. The correct advice pretty much fits on a single sheet of paper that...
Supreme Court justices, like anyone else, sometimes change their minds. True, there is stare decisis, the principle that they shouldn’t change their minds too often. Reason: If you expect citizens...
I've been calling the health care reform bill passed in 2010 and being argued in the Supreme Court this week "ACA" because I've thought it was the most neutral term....
Last week I participated in a roundtable that on these issues, along with other GW faculty from public health and law—Sara Rosenbaum, Peter Smith, and Katherine Hayes—as well as former...
Two years ago, I put myself in hot water by making the simple (admittedly somewhat hyperbolic) claim: Because it is so easy to find bad reporting and public stupidity, it...
Dick Cheney has received a heart.In related news, George W. Bush will be given a brain.Mitt Romney’s request for some courage has been taken under advisement. [Cross-posted at The Reality-Based...
I am fortunate enough to have known a number of eminent people. I am unfortunate enough that some of them are no longer living. The death of James Q. Wilson,...
Last fall the Economist had a short feature on traffic circles that I only noticed today. I was about to riff on how wonderful they are, and how underused in...
Within any education category, richer people vote more Republican. In contrast, the pattern of education and voting is nonlinear. High school graduates are more Republican than non-HS grads, but after...
In a review of psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s recent book, “The Righteous Mind,” William Saletan writes: You’re smart. You’re liberal. You’re well informed. You think conservatives are narrow-minded. You can’t understand...
The coup in Mali is widely seen as a major setback for democracy, not just in Mali but potentially in the region as a whole. Coups are indeed the single most...
I've been mostly quiet about the big Etch-a-Sketch thing -- which is just as well, because all you want to know about it can be found in a great Brendan...
No doubt inspired by the apparent success of The Hunger Games, the dystopian science fiction drama released nationally today, the Santorum campaign has produced this new web video about America...
From cartoonist Ted McCagg: [Cross-posted at The Monkey Cage]...
The NYT's Richard Stevenson reports that Republicans are considering actually vetting their VP candidate this time around. It's sort of amazing how many duds they've had (I don't know how...
Last week, the National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CCP) removed an important provincial party secretary from office, stirring unrest in China and even suggestions that a coup is...
A friend of mine had his name in the paper the other day. It was an article speculating about who might inherit a prestigious post in the literary world when...
Did you see that the airport in Little Rock is being named after Bill and Hillary Clinton? Putting aside the obvious jokes (which I made on twitter yesterday, but it...
When a particular viewpoint becomes de rigueur among the chattering classes, journalists sometimes become lazy about subjecting that viewpoint to careful analysis. For example, the posh view now is that...
I’ve long argued that the nightmare scenario for the insurance companies is that the mandate gets struck down, but the rest of the law stands. After all, if we force...
This week I’ll return to a paper by David Cutler, about which I’ve blogged before: Where Are The Health Care Entrepreneurs? The Failure of Organizational Innovation in Health Care [1]....
Brendan Nyhan concludes a great post on the Etch-a-Sketch comment by saying: We’re currently 158 days from the Republican convention, and “Etch a Sketch-gate” will likely prove to be just...
I didn't write an Illinois wrap, but I realized now as I read Steve Kornacki's post on Rick Santorum's remaining options and a tweet from Harry Enten that I really did,...
Paul Ryan’s budget would cut a lot of government spending. It would cut entitlement spending. It would cut aid to the poor, transportation, education, veterans benefits, and scientific research. There...
Let’s play a game: I’ll describe a health-care bill to you. Then you tell me if I’m describing President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act or the budget released this week...
So it appears that Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics is upset at various critics. He is deeply unhappy with Andrew Gelman and Kaiser Fung, for having written what appeared...
“There has always been something uniquely brilliant about America,” said Mitt Romney at the University of Chicago yesterday. “I don’t believe this president understands this fundamental secret of America. And...
I want to go back again to the question of whether delegates are bound or not, and why and how it matters. Josh Putnam had a very good post recently...
I spend a lot of time with physicians. As a group, they sure do like to complain. Yet, medical school applications are strong, and residency spots are still competitive. So...
I recently looked at Paul Ryan's FY 2013 budget rollout. Unlike those who emphasize the budget's conservative slant, my sense is that the key thing this year (as last) is...
Joachim Gauck has been elected President of Germany. Very much against Angela Merkel’s wishes, but the two previous Presidents, unremarkable warhorses from her own CDU party, both resigned in disgrace...
Much hope is vested in the ability of so-called smart sanctions to convince Iranian authorities to abandon their nuclear ambitions and to persuade Syrian authorities to step aside and stop...
Many readers will remember the book The Big Sort by Bill Bishop. It argues that Americans are increasingly clustered in like-minded political communities. If one categorizes a county by how...
In a piece that seems to have created something of a firestorm, Peter Beinart calls for a boycott of Israeli goods produced in the occupied territories. I admit that Beinart’s...
Following the Illinois primary, I assume there will be renewed calls for one of Santorum or Gingrich (and most likely the latter) to drop out of the race* in order...
Alec MacGillis’s article on why hedge fund managers have turned fiercely against President Obama has deservedly gotten a lot of attention (see the commentary from Rich Yeselson). I take MacGillis’...
I usually think that Jeff Zeleny at the NYT does a good job, but the Page 1 story he and Jim Rutenberg wrote about the possibility of a contested convention...
Well, that was decisive, no? Mitt Romney gets about 83% of the vote to sweep all 20 delegates from Puerto Rico. Overkill: he only needed to break 50% to get it....
Brian Lamb is stepping down from heading C-SPAN, which he founded 33 years ago. You don't need me to tell you how wonderful C-SPAN is. But it's worth remembering that...
I have ridden in London cabs countless times, but yesterday I had an unprecedented experience. I clambered into a black taxi and told the driver my address. After some blocks...
I just wanted to highlight this New York Times article by Binyamin Applebaum about the political impact of gas prices. It’s a very judicious take on the available evidence—one that...
The answer, of course, is that Congress is unpopular. However, just because everyone hates Congress, that doesn't mean that Congress is to blame for everything. I'm responding here to a...
At the dining table next to mine, the evening got off to a terrible start. The two women were evidently friends, and had each brought a male date. After drinks...
Yesterday I read Paul Krugman’s post on Reed Ableson’s post on the recent study showing that employment-based coverage is eroding, and quickly: What this says is that the system that...
Why a computer or anyone behaving like one will never conquer the world. (We always have Calvinball.) [Cross-posted at The Incidental Economist]...
In what I named the “dumbest blog post of 2011“, economist Karl Smith conceded that There will be large environmental costs associated with climate change includ[ing] a very rapid increase...
NPR has changed its rules for journalists [HTs and more discussion: Daily Kos, James Fallows] from reporting “both sides” of any issue to including expert judgment about the sides’ relative...
Although I disagree with it on specifics, I have always respected the Roman Catholic Church’s position that its social teachings are a “seamless garment” — that is, it focuses on...
Do you have trouble explaining the significance of Political Action Committees to your friends and relatives? Have you noticed people’s eyes glaze over when you start to talk about the...
I highly recommend Jamelle Bouie's excellent piece on the absence of African American Governors and Senators, an absence that doesn't appear to be changing at all even in the age...
Mitt Romney looks right now as if he’s tripping over his shoelaces, but he’s positioning himself well for the general election fight with President Barack Obama on one big issue:...
Barbara Bush said the other day that the 2012 presidential race has been “the worst campaign I’ve ever seen in my life.” I disagree. My vote would be for 1988,...
Various liberals have been arguing that Mitt Romney is an unusually dishonest politician, and wondering when and whether he'll wind up developing a reputation for it. David S. Bernstein (my...
I’m already preparing for hate mail.So I open up my email this morning to find a gem from the WSJ, entitled, “Doctors struggle to make ends meet.” Usually, when I...
By now, you’ve probably heard of Americans Elect, the political-reform group funded by a collection of Wall Street executives (some of whom remain anonymous) who hope to field a bipartisan...
My latest post at Model Politics looks at public knowledge of three recent political events: Santorum’s statement about birth control, Obama’s call to Sandra Fluke, and Santorum’s comment about Obama’s...
Reuters is reporting that the House GOP's efforts to produce a budget with appropriations bills coming in lower than the debt limit deal's caps may produce a government shutdown this...
Just in time celebration of Pi Day, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has given the Senate its own special math problem. Reid filed cloture motions yesterday on 17 nominees...
In an article about Obama’s recent meeting with New York mayor Bloomberg, Thomas Ferguson writes the following about a well-funded third party effort: Last year a group, Americans Elect, surfaced...
Richard Cohen nails the essence of contemporary Republicanism: Ignorance has become more than bliss. It’s now an attribute, an entire platform: “Vote for me, I know nothing and hate the...
In recent years, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig has taken up the struggle against what is perhaps the root problem of American dysfunction: money’s corrosive effects on our political...
If we stay on the same path, Romney is going to be the nominee unless some external unpredictable major shock happens, but this part of the fight will continue for...
President Obama is paying a significant political price for having increased the tax burden on middle-class Americans. Fair enough—except that he hasn’t.My latest Model Politics post focuses on disparities in...
It’s not at all surprising that most US media have yawned at today’s news that a UN rapporteur has found that the US has treated Bradley Manning in a cruel...
Ross Douthat recently argued that the triumph of Mitt Romney means that the basic sanity of Republican voters is underrated: But against this backdrop, the party’s voters have behaved remarkably...
A new Washington Post poll finds that the public souring a bit on Obama’s handling of the economy, while generally disapproving of Obama’s handling of gas prices. The headline: “Gas...
New Jersey, a primarily suburban state, has some of the highest housing costs in the country. According to HUD, a family that wants to rent a “safe and modest” two-bedroom...
Ezra Klein’s new piece on presidential persuasion is stimulating a lot of debate. I’ll have more to say. But let me make one small point in response to Kevin Drum’s...
Mary Brown, a small business owner, decided she didn’t want to carry health insurance, so she became the lead plaintiff in the anti-Obamacare lawsuit filed by the National Federation of...
From time to time I ponder the extent to which the work in health services research and related domains (health economics, public health, and the like) influences policy. Though there...
From Tobin Grant here. He writes: Beneath the Republicans’ regional split is Romney’s failure in states where the Republican base is made up of socially conservative evangelical voters. In...
As reactions for, and against the Invisible Children campaign against Joseph Kony convulse blogs and Twitter, it may be no harm to turn to what political scientists have to say....
One of the more vivid pen-portraits in the Harry Potter series is the tabloid journalist Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In addition to fabricating quotes...
H/t Paul Kelleher for drawing my attention to the Robert Frank NYT piece on rising college costs. I may want the bold bit in the following for later. Not trusting...
Gloria Allred says she wants Rush Limbaugh prosecuted under Section 836.04 of the Florida Code: 836.04 Defamation.–Whoever speaks of and concerning any woman, married or unmarried, falsely and maliciously imputing...
Pat Robertson’s flat-out endorsement of full marijuana legalization, on the model of alcohol, isn’t as important now as it would have been two decades ago. But two decades ago it...
Alex Pareene, in an otherwise excellent Super Tuesday wrap yesterday, says: As could have been predicted shortly after he dropped out of the 2008 race, Mitt Romney is the likely...
Before I get into the details, just answer that question. Should doctors be protected by law for withholding information from patients that their patients might want to know? Got your...
In a conversation with Michael Jonas of MassINC, a think tank, I try to sort out the differences among the various versions of “broken windows”: [Cross-posted at The Reality-Based Community]...
I got the following in the email: Bush-Obama America There are 272 Bush-Obama counties across the country. George W. Bush carried these counties in 2000 and 2004. In 2008, Barack...
Joe Scarborough said something particularly dumb on this morning’s program. Talking about the possibility of a brokered GOP convention that would catapult a fresh face to the Republican nomination, he...
I have a piece up at Al Jazeera on how health care is likely to affect the 2012 election. I focus in particular on the Affordable Care Act and its...
Recently, I feel like I’ve been having the same argument over and over again. I start by agreeing with someone else that we need to find a way to reduce...
Michael Gerson – David Brooks without the tough, biting, punky edge–tells us in The Washington Post that we should not write off Mitt Romney . Sure, things look bad for...
You don’t? Well, don’t feel bad. Neither does he.So no fair criticizing the Romney plan. It doesn’t even exist.Footnote In any case, not knowing beats knowing what ain’t so. [Cross-posted...
It seems the effort by billionaires Charles and David Koch to take control of the libertarian Cato Institute is going poorly. “We are not acting in a partisan manner, we...
Campaigning Republicans are banging the patriotic and Israel-first drums for a preventive war against Iran, allegedly to stop it from deploying atomic weapons: though how this is supposed to work...
OK, I didn’t go to law school, but I get the point that legal language doesn’t mean what it says; it only means what the cases say it says.And I’m...
Couldn’t get enough of Super Tuesday? Well, imagine you could not only watch news reports roll in, but could also observe voters (and poll workers) around the country voting through...
For those Washington Monthly readers who don’t believe America’s regional cultures, properly identified, have predictive value in contemporary politics, I offer a two-part warning. First, I’m about to deploy the...
Displaying a predictive ability at a level of which my Americanist colleague can only dream, I think it is safe to say that most of the claims I made in...
There’s a piece by Kate Nocera out today on how states are taking advantage of Medicaid waivers in order to improve their outlook both now, and with the coming implementation...
Andy Borowitz wrote a piece called “In Positive Economic Sign, Republicans Starting to Say Obama Wasn’t Born in US,” and Barry Ritholz writes: The NYT’s Floyd Norris, on a hunch, decided...
In 1980, I was working on the campaign of Senator Birch Bayh, the Indiana Democrat who was being challenged by an upstart conservative congressman from northwest Indiana named Dan Quayle....
I linked to a couple of Matthew Dickinson's posts about the nomination battle earlier today, and mentioned that I disagree with him on a bunch of stuff with respect to...
The people who want to drive Rush Limbaugh off the air are not assuaged or persuaded by his apology over the weekend. They say he was not sincere: He only...
At least that’s the way that Bill O’Reilly phrased it the other day. His argument goes: 1) group insurance means that we are all paying for other people’s benefits; 2)...
I was born Catholic. My father was one of ten sons in a Polish Catholic family, and my mother was one of eleven children in a Polish Catholic family, and...
I need to think of a name for the period of the nomination/general election period in which the nomination is decided, but one or more losing candidate is still contesting...
Looks like Medicaid block grants are due for their turn in the spotlight again. Julian Pecquet notes that even some Republican governors are skeptical this time around. First, they don’t...
David Kennedy’s “High Point” drug enforcement strategy – now known generically as the Drug Market Intervention (DMI) – seems to have scored again, this time in Newport News, VA. The...
In recent weeks, I’ve noticed the reemergence of the question of why people insure for relatively low cost, predictable health expenditures. This has come up in the context of contraceptive...
The cardinal mocked a secular culture that “seems to discover new rights every day.” “I don’t recall a right to marriage,” he said, describing marriage, instead, as a “call.” —Cardinal...
Since I recently posted a skeptical take on whether negative ads “work,” I’ll continue to highlight relevant research in the months ahead. To wit: Using a large-N, geographically representative sample...
I wrote over at PostPartisan about the question of whether Republicans would, if they get unified government in 2013, get rid of the filibuster. I don't think they would, but...
Every year around late February, the government puts out the Economic Report of the President, which includes a whole bunch of historical charts on the state of the economy that...
Last month, I learned about a publication that has been quickly gaining popularity, the Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine (JNRBM). Published, presumably, by a gang of dour curmudgeons who...
James Q. Wilson is dead. I find it very hard to write those words. While I was not his student, his work had a profound impact on me, as it...
“I’ll get us that oil from Canada,” Mitt Romney said in his victory speech after the Michigan primary. He was referring to Keystone XL, the crude-oil pipeline that has become...
Matt Bai complained in the NYT Magazine on Sunday (yeah, as usual I'm a bit behind on the Sunday papers)* about the proposed Ike Memorial, saying "I mean, Ike was...
As I continue my three month weight-loss kick, I could not help but be interested in a study from the CDC, Consumption of added sugar among U.S. children and adolescents,...
Earlier this week, the New America Foundation Media Policy Initiative released a report (PDF) that I co-authored with Jason Reifler titled "Misinformation and Fact-checking: Research Findings from Social Science." The...
What is a government program? And are you on one right now? Those are the questions Cornell University political scientist Suzanne Mettler has been posing. For her book “The Submerged...