(0 comments)A poignant way to look at health care reform from Yglesias:
JacobLyles asks: “What do you think of McArdle’s idea of universal catastrophic coverage? Relatively affordable and universal.”
Short answer: I think that’d be great.
Long answer: I’m not a believer in the “here’s this other idea of mine that’s good & since it’s good that’s a good reason to oppose Obama’s health care plan” theory of evaluating legislation. A bill that would have Medicare provide catastrophic coverage to all Americans would be a good bill. The House health care bill is also a good bill. The Senate health care bill is another good bill. And the administration outline is is yet another good bill.
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Fast Food
Official Gingrich-Cain 2012 response to Rick Santorum’s homophobia: “Rick, Rick, Rick. Don’t you know that the anti-gay bigotry only carries water if you have a few failed straight marriages under your belt?” Follow all their other words of wisdom here. (0 comments)Ron Paul Quote of the Week: Honest Rape
Here’s Grandpa Fustypants on rape and abortion:“If it’s an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room, I would give them a shot of estrogen.”
via (4 comments)Unhinged vagina-shackler on Komen’s volte face:Cancer is Cancer! Aboration is Aboration!
(0 comments)Since it’s Mitt Romney week everywhere, I figured I’d post this op-ed by an ex-Mormon, which is a pretty interesting take at the institutional culture of the LDS church. Not much to say about it, but it’s definitely worth 5 or so minutes of your time. (0 comments)Why Bipartisanship Is Impossible, In One Sentence
When one party climbs back to power by promising action on the economy, does nothing on it, and instead spends literally all its time trying to hurt the other party. (0 comments)New From The Gingrich-Cain Front
Newt rants about cable movies he doesn’t like, and flips out when Herman tries to seize control. Catch all the fun here. And the main site is here, as always. (0 comments)Headline of the Week: Making Rapeanade
Leave it to TBogg:
(0 comments)Rick Santorum Suggests That When Life Gives You Rape, You Should Make Rapeanade Back when I was in junior high and the Clinton Impeachment was going on, I could hardly have imagined that Clinton would be used as an excuse for wrongdoing by Republican leaders. But that’s where we are. Interesting, isn’t it? (0 comments)Catch up with the official Gingrich-Cain “Great Statesmen” series over at @GingrichCain12. (0 comments)Only 65% of White Americans Have a Favorable Opinion of MLK Jr
…with a whimper. Drum is worth reading on this. I think he’s just got to be the most overhyped and overcovered guy who never managed better than third place since…Joe Lieberman? (0 comments)Mitt Romney's Overwhelming Inauthenticity
It’s amazing to me that Mitt Romney brings up France as a scary comparison point to himself so often when he spent years there and speaks the language. It’s such a minor point, but telling. Of all the people running for president, Mitt Romney has to be the most aware that the rightwing caricature of ... (0 comments)Mother Teresa Doesn't Deserve Sainthood
Case in point. It’s amazing how all the famous/respected Catholic figures from the 1990s have turned out to be incredibly corrupt, isn’t it? I’m sure they’re somehow connected. Of course, as I’m a Protestant I know little about such things. (1 comments)I Fixed It! Ban Sitting Politicians From Running For Another Office
Wonkette reminded me of one of the provisions that I want to write into my fantasy Constitution:No person who holds any elected office shall be permitted to seek election to any other office until he shall have permanently vacated his current post.
(2 comments)The Kardashians want their own magazine?
Unintentionally hilarious: “Bachmann, 55, told a small group of supporters Tuesday night that she was staying in the presidential race…”What other kind of group of Bachmann supporters could there be?(0 comments)Santorum Finishes #2, Sliding Down In The Final Minutes To Lose To Romney
DOWN THE VINE
Syndication
The problem here is one of narrow focus: Anything looks good if you only consider the short-term positive aspects (such as more health benefits for people) and ignore the larger, more long-term drawbacks (like economic inefficiency)…
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/S4bWR2V1EGI/AAAAAAAAM3I/cRV1N5wSp3w/s640/medcosts.jpg" target="_blank">
Any change that further separates these lines will be economically inefficient and lead to worse outcomes over the long term. The relevant question is whether you put less weight on this than immediate benefits of subsidizing more coverage.
It's very much like our public school system in this respect: adding more money to the system may do some short-term good, but soon leads to more waste and reduced value for the money.
To create value, you need competition and choice. For this to happen you need to transition away from the absurd employer-based system (which only arose due to government price controls during WW2) and strengthen the connection between payment and purchase.
If patients aren't obligated to pay in direct proportion to the services they consume, the market can't function.
Wow, Paul Ryan has a trenchant critique of the Senate bill: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxMZ1WdINs.” target=”_blank”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxMZ1WdINs. (anti-government boilerplate starts at 5 minutes in, but everything before that is good)
I've never been more convinced that passing this is a bad idea on the merits.
(though certainly a political necessity for Democrats, they've put way too many eggs into this basket to give it up)
I'm now looking to find clips of Democrats or blog posts by supporters of this bill that engage Ryan's points.
(to rail against hypocrisy is not to engage the substance of this critique. I'm not interested in which side is more hypocritical, I'm interested in whether the bill makes things worse on net.)
(embed was acting goofy up there)
[youtube zPxMZ1WdINs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxMZ1WdINs youtube]