Chart of the day.

We're number none!



Hat tip to GraphJam.

Hunter, on Republican "liberty and freedom..."

The liberty is the liberty to let people die on the streets; the freedom they speak of is the freedom of not giving a damn if it happens.

Entirely true, and exactly why... 

 

Signs of the times.

Via Laura Clawson...



Kids and daddies, too.

Heh™.

Tip of the Susan B. bonnet to John Cole.

Meanwhile, here at home...

…my 2011 general election ballot has arrived, reminding me that I've been spending too much time obsessed with next year when there's an election right in front of my face. Beyond a trio of initiatives and a pair of amendments to the state constitution, the races on my ballot are municipal, ranging from county-wide offices to local special districts, but the affect of the choices made can affect the lives of the voters more rapidly and directly than the outcome of next year's higher profile campaigns.

It's no secret that I consider the initiative process corrupted beyond correction, so my default bias is 'no' on each and every one. On the other hand, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, and I like to think my my mind is one of generous proportions, so this year I'll be voting for one of the three, I-1163, the SEIU backed proposal to provide background checks and training standards for long-term care workers and providers. The fact that we're voting on this is to some degree an indictment of the legislature, which should have provided these basic protections to some of our most vulnerable citizens in the normal course of business. They didn't, though, and the question remains "Should this measure be enacted into law?" The answer is yes.

Initiative 1125 is this year's offering from one of the initiative process' principal corrupters, Tim Eyman, which is all most right, erm, proper-thinking people need to know to join me in voting no. It's a typical effort to undermine the legislature's budget authority and responsibility combined with and effort to restrict infrastructure revenues that annoy Eyman's wealthy clients. No, no, as many votes as you have in your household NO!

Another example of the corruption that's turned our initiative process into a circus mirror reflection of its original progressive intent can be found with I-1183, this year's liquor privatization initiative. While I'm a supporter of privatizing the distribution and sale of liquor and getting rid of our East German style state retail outlets, I-1183 isn't the way to do it. Costco and the major grocery chains have self-financed a proposal that grants them sort of joint monopoly on retail sales of spirits. The campaign's on each side, funded by industry rivals, are both dishonest and distracting. It's not really a question of where liquor should be sold, or who to, or for how much. It's about whether corporations should be able to buy their own laws via the initiative process. They shouldn't. Vote no.

There are also a pair of constitutional amendments submitted by the legislature, one essentially housekeeping and one to strengthen the state's "rainy day" fund. I'm voting approve both of them.

Candidate races coming up...

Signs of the times.

OWS, via AFL-CIO Now...


Clear enough?

In case you haven't been keeping track…

…Steve Benen looked it up...

* American job creation is better now than when Bush left office.
* American economic growth is better now than when Bush left office.
* Al Qaeda is dramatically weaker now than when Bush left office.
* The American automotive industry is vastly stronger now than when Bush left office.
* The struggle for equality of the LGBT community is vastly better now than when Bush left office.
* The U.S. health care system is better and more accessible than when Bush left office.
* The federal budget deficit is better now than when Bush left office.
* The major Wall Street indexes and corporate profits are better now than when Bush left office.
* International respect for the United States is better now than when Bush left office.

Feel better now?

The name has changed…

…but the spirit of McDermott-Wellstone lives on. Via The Sideshow...

Bernie Sanders and Jim McDermott have introduced single-payer bills in both the Senate and the House, as well. The twin measures, both called the American Health Security Act of 2011, would provide federal guidelines and strong minimum standards for states to administer single-payer health care programs.

The dream will never die.

And, yep, I'm proud to say that that's my own personal Congressman keeping it alive.

It's not about abortion.

Hat tip to AmericaBlog.

From the "Cunning Plan" file.

Brad Reed figures out where the jobs are. They're hidden behind...

...the real magic of the Ryan proposal: That it will act as a massive stimulus program for the corpse-removal industry.

Teapublican America. You're either on the cart or you're off the cart.

Light posting likely...

...despite the fact that when I left the house, the phone line was still inexplicably connected (who knows when I get back). I'm stealing a minute of time while my youngest grandson, Emmett the Amazing, naps. I'm pulling grandpa duty while mom, dad and big brother are off to the slopes for the afternoon, then I'm off to a late shift at work.

Still, I couldn't let the day pass by without noting that this is doesn't sound like the ordinary crazy we're getting used to, it's crazy, cruel and downright un-American

Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.

Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.

Maybe Bachmann hasn't heard there's a war on, a couple of 'em actually.



The fact that she can be described as a "Tea party favorite" should tell you everything you need to know about those folks and their agenda, too.

From the "On the other hand…" file.

Richard Wolffe in the L.A. Times...

For someone who is supposedly cool and detached, President Obama has triggered outraged and outsized reactions on both sides of the political spectrum in the last year. Conservatives loathe his health-care reforms; progressives hate his tax compromises.

On the other hand, progressives loathe his health-care compromises and conservatives loathe his tax reforms.

Good question...

…from Ari Melber.

What are we to make of the fact that two of the top priorities for the 112th Congress, convening for the first time today, involve an irrelevant charade and an irresponsible threat?

I'm not sure it can be answered in words appropriate to a typically family friendly blog, but it's a good question.

Hat tip to Fixer.

Chart of the day.

Via The Incidental Economist, eh...

(If you click it bigger you can see the itty, bitty red line.)

Starting today…

…because of President Obama and the Democratic Congress and years of effort by millions of Americans...

Seniors who've been stuck in prescription-drug "doughnut hole," will, for example, receive a 50% discount on the price of brand-name prescription drugs starting today. On a related note, seniors will also be eligible, starting today, for free "preventive services" screenings, including cancer tests like mammograms, and annual check-ups.

Of particular interest, on a systemic level, is the introduction of the new "medical loss ratio," which sounds more complicated than it is. This new rule forces private insurers to spend 80% to 85% of the money we pay them in premiums on paying for* actual medical care to its customers, rather than everything else (profit, marketing, executive salaries, overhead, etc.). In recent years, some insurance companies were spending as little as 50% of their premium dollars on their customers.

Hat tip to Steve Benen.

From the "Cunning plan" file.

Cookie Jill summarizes Republican plans...

short version:
unemployed? sorry...you loser.
elderly? you're a drain on our american dream...just die.
public anything? (schools, infrastructure, etc.) if you can't pay for it, you don't get it. ha! ha!
can't afford healthcare? it's all your fault. go ahead, die.

…and exposes four more reasons that…

The kids are alright.

I wish more of their elders had as much sense. Via Political Wire...

A new national poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics finds 58% of America's 18-29 year-olds approve of President Obama's job performance generally but disapprove of his handling of specific issues including the economy (52% disapprove), health care (52% disapprove) and Afghanistan (55% disapprove).

I, too, "disapprove" of President Obama's handling of specific issues. I wish his economic program had started with a greater emphasis on job creation. I wish his health care program had started with a push for single payer. I wish the withdrawal from Afghanistan had started six months ago rather than eighteen months from now.

Best as I recall, though, there wasn't a candidate on the November ballot who offered any of those positions. At least this administration has actually noticed that there's an unemployment problem and is taking some steps to directly address it. At least there's some movement toward a more comprehensive and accessible health insurance system. At least there's some acknowledgement that wars have to end someday. That's all progress that, in general, I approve of.

Of course, there's a group of folks out there who disagree with the President on each of those issues because they think he's going too far in every instance. That's the major problem with "approve/disapprove" polling. It doesn't mean anything unless you know why.

At any rate, this is pretty encouraging news. I imagine that a poll of 68-79 year olds might produce a different result, but a lot of those folks are going to be somewhat less engaged a couple of years or so out than the youngsters. There's still reason for hope.

Obstruction?

Republicans wrote the book.

Just another reason that...



New Hampshire sounds like an excellent place to get started.

I have no doubt…

…that whatever form the health insurance reforms that finally come out of Congress and on to the President's desk take, the bill will be but a pale shadow of the sweeping reform in health care delivery that I think our country needs.

I am dismayed that, in the end, the greatest beneficiaries of those reforms will likely be the health insurance companies themselves. More food is not a cure for tapeworms.

I don't imagine that, assuming something called a "public option" is part of the final bill, that the surviving "public option" will be an option for much of the public.

Still…

I have no doubt that lives will be extended because people with a need for long term treatment will not be denied those treatments because they're coverage has hit a lifetime maximum.

I'm delighted that rescission of benefits, absent actual fraud, at the time of need and denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions will no longer be features of our health insurance system. It's bad enough that we don't cover people who can't pay for coverage, but it's insane that we've refused to cover people who can, and in the case of rescission, have paid for coverage.

Whatever the final health insurance reform bill looks like, I'm sure it will mean that coverage will be extended and improved for millions of Americans. I'm certain that it will mean saving and extending millions of lives.

If the bill only offers, and it seems certain to offer, the elimination of lifetime maximums, denial for pre-existing conditions and rescission in the absence of fraud, it'll be worth doing.

The heavy lifting for real health care reform will remain to be done, but this is definitely a case where doing damn near anything is better than doing nothing. People's lives are at stake.

Quote of the day.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid…

"Ted would be happy."

Me too.