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Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Daily Kos —
Friday punditry! Get your opinions while they're hot. Paul Krugman: are you as worried as I am that Obama will compromise on health reform to the point of what's the point? if the reform isn't good enough to do the job, Obama's screwed politically and we're just screwed. National Journal bloggers poll: How likely is Congress to enact comprehensive health reform legislation this year? Michael Kinsley: Even though more and more Americans have no health insurance at all, Americans consider health care to be a right. Not just that: We consider the best possible health care to be a right. ...
I've looked at O from both sides now
Corrente —
Krugman today:
When it comes to domestic policy, there are two Barack Obamas.
On one side there’s Barack the Policy Wonk, whose command of the issues — and ability to explain those issues in plain English — is a joy to behold.
But on the other side there’s Barack the Post-Partisan, who searches for common ground where none exists, and whose negotiations with himself lead to policies that are far too weak.
What Krugman doesn't say? Read more…
Are You a 'Cynic' or a 'Truster'? How Much Slack to Cut Obama
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash —
A BUZZFLASH DISCUSSION In the past few weeks, BuzzFlash's mailbag has been flooded with arguments over the same basic premise: Has the Obama Administration sold out the progressive cause, or is it too early to judge? We feel your pain, readers. Here at BuzzFlash HQ that same discussion rages from day to day and issue to issue. We understand the need to have public backing in order for the president to advance progressive causes, especially during these extremely trying times. However, we don't want to wake up four years from now feeling that we've been had, either. Two of our favorite columnists' most recent offerings deal with that very issue. New York Times ...
So You Want a Revolution...
Notes From a Grumpy Old Man —
Paul Krugman David Brooks Alan Greenspan Peggy Noonan "The big question here is whether health care is about to go the way of the stimulus bill." - Paul Krugman "If members of Congress are not going to join the plan they're devising for you, you don't want the plan." - Rush Limbaugh Well, the Iranian Revolution is over, until the military relaxes its vigil. Actually, it was the brutal intensity of the volunteer Basij that has everyone except the fake president worried. He's back to embarrassing his country with his childish taunts and tirades, which ...
It Can't Happen Here... Can It?
TPMCafe —
... Alas, as in the France of the 19th century and the Kaiserreich and Austria-Hungary in the 20th, these neocon creatures of the state are always shocked too late, when their "national greatness" myth-making and yahoo populism leaves them high and dry, hated by the very people they thought they were rousing. That will happen to them here, too -- all the more quickly if, as seems increasingly likely to Paul Krugman, the Obama administration fails to undo the lasting, scarring, damage neocons and their patrons have already done to people's hopes, health, and homes. ...
Endgame
Matthew Yglesias —
... — Krugman’s right that we need more audacious health reform but it seems to me the villains are in the Senate, not the White House. ...
Busting the Administrative Cost Benefit Myth
Real Clear Politics - TIME.com —
In his Newsweek column this week ( One Nation Under Medicare ) liberal pundit Jonathan Alter made the following assertion about the administrative costs of Medicare: But the administration of Medicare is a miracle of low overhead and a model, despite all the fraud and abuse, of what government can do right. Three percent of Medicare's premiums go for administrative costs. By contrast, 10 to 20 percent of private-insurance premiums go for administrative costs. Roll that figure around on your tongue. When you swallow and digest it, you'll understand that any hope of significantly reducing health-care costs depends on a public option. How is it possible, you ...
Are Medicare Administrative Costs High?
Angry Bear —
... that purports to show that Medicare administrative costs, widely claimed (e.g.) to be far lower than comparable private sector costs when expressed as a fraction of expenditures, actually are higher when expressed on a per-beneficiary basis. This got its share of big-league attention at the time, with ...
