Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The trucks won't load themselves 12/15/2010

I'm headed to work.  Here are your morning reads....
 
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), a guy who strangely argued the Boston Tea party rendered health care reform unconstitutional, was on CBS News yesterday,  claiming that the Affordable Care Act must be unconstitutional for the same reason that its unconstitutional--even unimaginable-- for Congress to require people to own guns.  Only thing is, seeing as how George Washington signed such a law, we have a great early example from people who founded our government found such a requirement to be a-okay.
 
More positive news from RomneyCare part un.  Massachusetts saw their percentage of citizens with insurance continue to climb in the midst of an economic downturn.  This is a great reminder of why an individual mandate is so important.   Right now in Massachusetts 98 percent of residents have health insurance; breaking down the numbers it gets better--99.8% of children and 99.6% of the elderly are covered.
 
Ezra Klein reminds us that if you want private insurance companies to provide the bulk of societies health care, rather than some form of centralized single payer system, then you like the individual mandate.  That's probably why conservatives came up with the idea and Republican elected officials such Mitt Romney, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Bob Dole, Judd Gregg and Mike Crapo have cosponsored legislation with individual mandates.
 
Economist Mark Thoma talks about "adverse selection problem" the economic reason you need an individual mandate in health care sector.
 
In response to Wikileaks, newly elected Tea Party Republican, Congressman Allen West, says we need to censor US media agencies.
 
Paul Krugman explains the economic concept of Core Inflation.
 
Markets measure expectations of the future, they aren't fortune tellers.
 
Best quote of the day (the bold italics are mine) to remind us all that people "economic freedom" is about private profits.
Our point of view is government decreases the ability for this company, for this country to have um, economic freedom
This Freudian slip was in response to a question on why this right leaning think tank made a commercial equating a vote for SCHIP (the childrens health insurance program, known as PeachCare in Georgia) which exanded access to 4 million kids was akin to stepping on a child. 
 
There are at most 13 deficit hawk's in the Senate (there are more than 13 Republicans in the Senate by the by....)
 
 
The Fed Leaves the Target Rate and QEII Unchanged http://t.co/fP2gjTu
Inequality, instability, and finance: Wall Street drinks our milkshake http://t.co/7zeTPde
Mortgage rates pushing 5%  http://bit.ly/hvI90e
Intelligence Reports Offer Dim Views of Afghan War http://nyti.ms/eW5zx7
U.S. Called Vulnerable to Rare Earth Shortages http://nyti.ms/f1HVQH
 
Ron Paul hasn't made up his mind on 2012 http://bit.ly/gBnFK2
 
 
 
 

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