Sometimes it seems as though weeks go by without nary an event worth introducing into conversation. And then sometimes news–and not merely news, but huge historical events–come rolling in like thunder. One such period occurred during the last week in June. On Monday the 22nd, responding to the murder days before of nine people who …
According to an article in The Hill this morning, seven states–Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and Wisconsin, all headed by Republican governors–have decided to opt out of the provision in the Affordable Health Care Act that expands Medicaid. Another eight–Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Texas and Virginia, all of which except Missouri …
At the CNN/Tea Party Express Republican debate the other night, Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul a hypothetical question about health insurance: What should happen if a healthy 30-year-old man who can afford insurance chooses not to buy it—and then becomes catastrophically ill and needs intensive care for six months? In the face of one of …
Rep. Paul Ryan‘s plan to replace Medicare with a voucher plan was killed by the Senate the otehr day when five GOP Senators voted against Ryan’s idea. On most political occasions, this blow would put an end to Ryan’s fifteen minutes of political fame, except for two things: one, the Democrats will now want to …
Paul Krugman had another very fine column on the budget deficit in the Times yesterday. “The core of the Ryan proposal is a plan to privatize and defund Medicare. Yet this would do nothing to reduce the deficit over the next 10 years, which is why all the near-term deficit reduction comes from brutal reductions …
In The Baseline Scenario today, James Kwak runs a chart from Rep. Paul Ryan‘s proposal to diminish Medicare: “Here’s how to read that chart,” writes Kwak. “In 2030, under current law, a 65-year-old Medicare beneficiary’s health care will cost $60. (Obviously, this is using an index, not real dollars.) Medicare will pay $35 and the …
When ABC News’s Jonathan Karl asked Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ exciting new Budget Action Hero, “What do you say to nervous Republicans who say that this is a political Kamizake mission?”, Ryan replied, “They didn’t come here for a political career. They came for a cause.” Having just completed a new installment of the …