Healthcare
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Fighting for Healthcare Reform IV (Updated)
I'm feeling better about what's happening on the healthcare reform front, and I'm trying to determine if there is any basis in reality for such a shift. On what data do I base such a shift in feeling? And do those data have any relationship with what's really going on? I don't know for sure,
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Obama’s Healthcare Speech
Nice speech, although it should have been given months ago, but let's see how he follows up. I liked his tone of determination, let's see if he actually gets it done. It's clear he gets it, but he's said the right things before and backed away from them. He has developed a credibility problem for
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About Those Mandates
. . . a lot of politicians seem to think if everyone buys insurance, the problem will be solved, but that doesn't get to the heart of the issue: That private insurance is an adversarial system designed to limit the amount of care you get and maximize the amount of money that can be extracted
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Whither America?
It's always important for us to remember what the last eight years have again taught us, which is that America has a very strong civic fabric, one that can withstand, absorb and conquer all manner of ugly behavior. It can take in stride a lot of angry rhetoric, townhall fisticuffs and more. But as this
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Drum Optimistic about Meaningful Healthcare Reform
I'm not, but here's Drum's thinking: Republicans have been given every chance and have obviously decided to obstruct rather then work on a bipartisan compromise. So the Blue Dogs and centrist Dems feel like they're covered on that angle. What's more, the townhalls have shown them what they're up against: if they don't pass a
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Progressives: Forget about Movement Conservatives . . .
. . . and get your own house in order. The problem does not lie in that movement conservatives do what they do. We understand that. And yes, of course, it must be continually exposed and vigorously resisted. But the more fundamental problem lies in that, with some exceptions, progressives mostly complain about conservatives rather
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Democracy & the Information Problem
Julian Sanchez commenting at the Daily Dish on why most political reporting is about the horserace and not about the policies politicians support: . . . the ratio of horse-race to policy coverage may be a rough gauge of our cynicism about the political process. If you think of American democracy as a fundamentally deliberative
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Quote of the Day: Winston Churchhill
That old socialist–always overreaching: The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman simply on the ground that it is the enemy; and it must be attacked just in the same way as the
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Why Are the Blue Dogs in the Driver’s Seat?
There's been a lot written the last week that correctly asks the question: Why is the Progressive Caucus in the House considered obstructionist and the Blue Dogs not? Four out of the five committees in congress delivered a bill with the public option, and one, which hasn't gotten around to delivering anything, apparently will not
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Quote of the Day: Digby
In response to David Gergen's comment: "We don't think like Canadians. We don't accept government the way it is. We're not deferential to authority the way Canadians are or in Western Europe." . . . unlike the authoritarian Canadians who subserviantly submit themselves to a socialistic medical system, we individualistic Americans are more than happy