| 
 |  |  | Tuesday, February 9 2010 |
- State / Regional News
- Specials
- Brokers
- Consultants
- Healthplans
- BCBS Plans
- Reg. Plans
- Connecticare News
- Dean Healthplan News
- Geisinger Healthplan News
- GHI News
- Group Health Coop News
- Harvard Pilgrim News
- Health Alliance Plan News
- Healthpartners News
- HIP News
- Medica Healthplan News
- Medical Mutual News
- MVP Healthplan News
- Oxford Healthplan News
- Priority Health News
- Providence Healthplan News
- Selecthealth News
- Tufts Healthplan News
- Tufts Healthplan News
- Unicare News
- UPMC Healthplan News
- Group Insurers
- HR Vendors
- P&C Carriers
- Global
- European HR News
- Filipino HR News
- French HR News
- German HR News
- Great Britain HR News
- Hong Kong HR News
- Indian HR News
- Italian HR News
- Japanese HR News
- Latin American HR News
- Malaysian HR News
- Mexican HR News
- Singapore HR News
- South Africa
- South Korean HR News
- Spanish HR News
- Taiwan HR News
- Argentina News
- Asian News
- Australian News
- African News
- Brazilian News
- Canadian HR News
- Chilean HR News
|
|
Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted today (11 hours ago) Glenn Hubbard, Wall Street Journal Moody's Investors Service's warning last week that the AAA credit rating of the United States is in jeopardy raises fresh concern about the nation's fiscal health. The question to ask about the president's eye-popping budget, also rolled out last week, is whether it prepares the country for its future"”or shackles it to past decisions that our leaders would rather not confront.President Obama's blueprint gave us a federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2010 of $1.6 trillion, about 10.6% of GDP. While one expects bigger budget deficits in a downturn,... Tags: pm update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted today (11 hours ago) Glenn Hubbard, Wall Street Journal Moody's Investors Service's warning last week that the AAA credit rating of the United States is in jeopardy raises fresh concern about the nation's fiscal health. The question to ask about the president's eye-popping budget, also rolled out last week, is whether it prepares the country for its future"”or shackles it to past decisions that our leaders would rather not confront.President Obama's blueprint gave us a federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2010 of $1.6 trillion, about 10.6% of GDP. While one expects bigger budget deficits in a downturn,... Tags: pm update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted yesterday. WASHINGTON -- If President Obama gets to sign a health reform bill, as I believe he will, one reason may be Rep. Jay Inslee's difficult experience renovating his kitchen.
He told his kitchen story at a House Democratic caucus held after Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts sent Inslee's colleagues into paroxysms of dismay, chaos and fear. Brown's triumph reduced the Democrats' majority in the Senate to "only" 59, and this led many in both houses to want to give up on health reform altogether. Even Obama was sounding an uncertain trumpet.
This made no sense to Inslee, a Democrat from Washington state. First elected to the House in 1992, he was swept out of office in the 1994... Tags: election 2008, articles Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted yesterday. Evan Thomas, Newsweek The president needs to tell the truth on taxes, entitlements, and how to really reform health care"”before it's too late.Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.Separate multiple addresses with commasIt has long been an unwritten rule of political professionals: Thou Shalt Not Demand Sacrifice of the Voters. Do not propose to raise taxes (remember what happened to Walter Mondale in 1984, when he won just one state and the District of Columbia against Ronald Reagan). Never sound gloomy about the future (remember Jimmy Carter and malaise).... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 6, 2010 (3 days ago) President Barack Obama has left Democrats as confused as ever over how the White House plans to deliver a health care reform bill this year, following two weeks of inconsistent statements, negligible hands-on involvement and a sudden shift to a jobs-first message. Democrats on Capitol Hill and beyond say they have no clear understanding of the White House strategy – or even whether there is one – and are growing impatient with Obama’s reluctance to guide them toward a legislative solution. At a White House meeting Thursday with Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed frustration with the slow pace of the negotiations and the... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 6, 2010 (3 days ago) WASHINGTON — For a moment, President Obama’s pledge to keep fighting for major health care legislation got personal on Thursday night as he told supporters at a fund-raiser about a former campaign worker in St. Louis without health insurance who had died of breast cancer.A blog from The New York Times that tracks the health care debate as it unfolds. Share your thoughts about the health care debate. Top Discussions: The Public Option | Medicare and the Elderly | The Senate Bill Recent developments on the struggle over health care with background, analysis, timelines and earlier events from NYTimes.com and Google.“She insisted she is going to be buried in an Obama... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 6, 2010 (3 days ago) New York Angela Braly is in good spirits considering that her company seems to have narrowly avoided being converted into a public utility, if not destroyed outright. One gets the sense that she's always in good spirits. After years of sustained political assault, the power of positive thinking probably helps.Mrs. Braly is the CEO and president of WellPoint, the largest U.S. commercial health insurer by membership. Her company's affiliated health plans in 14 states cover 34 million people—or roughly one out of nine Americans. It contracts with 82% of the nation's primary-care physicians, 84% of specialists, and 94% of hospitals. That scale lands her on the most-wanted list in... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 5, 2010 (4 days ago) The White House will never issue a press release declaring comprehensive health care reform dead. But it is - at least in its current form. Can it come back in some scaled-back version? Maybe - yet only if Democrats make some critical mid-course corrections.
Surely one scheme that won't work is the two-step plan some Democrats in Congress are trying to hatch. This approach calls the Senate first to pass a new measure using a special budget process known as "reconciliation" (which only requires 51 votes to pass in the Senate). This separate bill would "fix" House Democrats' problems with the Senate-passed health care reform legislation. After the "fix" is in (think a humongous... Tags: election 2008, articles Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 5, 2010 (4 days ago) WASHINGTON -- "I am not an ideologue," protested President Obama at a gathering with Republican House members last week. Perhaps, but he does have a tenacious commitment to a set of political convictions.
Compare his 2010 State of the Union to his first address to Congress a year earlier. The consistency is remarkable. In 2009, after passing a $787 billion (now $862 billion) stimulus package, the largest spending bill in galactic history, he unveiled a manifesto for fundamentally restructuring the commanding heights of American society -- health care, education and energy.
A year later, after stunning Democratic setbacks in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, Obama gave a... Tags: election 2008, articles Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Feb 4, 2010 (4 days ago) Edward Luttwak, The Daily Beast Enter your email address:Enter the recipients' email addresses, separated by commas:Message: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images The CIA’s announcement about a coming Al Qaeda threat does not help us protect anything, anywhere, at any time.We should be most grateful for the immense hard-work of the supremely expert CIA for providing us with the priceless warning of an imminent al Qaeda terrorist attack.True, the billions of dollars spent on the salaries, fringe benefits, health care and frequent travel of the CIA analysts and... Tags: pm update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Feb 4, 2010 (4 days ago) A.B. Stoddard, The Hill The election of Scott Brown (R-Mass.) to fill the seat of the late Sen.Edward Kennedy (D) was a harbinger for Democrats in this fall'scongressional elections, but not for the reasons everyone thinks.Yes, healthcare reform, bailouts and the growth of government are all liabilities for the party in power. But the Brown victory showed that the potency of terror policy, an issue pushed to the back burner in the historic 2008 presidential campaign, cannot be ignored.Aides said that though Brown had run aggressively against healthcare reform, it was his... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 4, 2010 (5 days ago) Who has more clout: Senator-elect Scott Brown or loyal supporters who still cheer wildly when President Obama talks about health care reform? Obama hit the New Hampshire campaign trail and promised that he wouldn’t “walk away’’ from health care.But is that a real promise to lead the charge? It was hard to tell from inside the gym at Nashua High School North.Obama rejected the idea that the recent Massachusetts election means health care reform is dead. “Suddenly, everybody says, ‘Oh no, it’s over,’ ’’ the president said sarcastically. “Well, no, it’s not over.’’But Obama downgraded the fierce urgency of now... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Feb 3, 2010 (5 days ago) Robert Robb, Arizona Republic The Obama administration undoubtedly wants the budget message to be all the good things it wants to do for the American people, except those who make the mistake of earning too much money.There's a second stimulus, rechristened a jobs program. Health care reform, repositioned as an attack on the insurance industry's dirty deeds. New middle-class tax breaks. More spending on education. Lots more spending on infrastructure and clean energy. Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 3, 2010 (6 days ago) Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 3, 2010 (6 days ago) Rep. Paul Ryan is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. His budget proposal, 'A Roadmap for America's Future,' was scored (pdf) by the Congressional Budget Office as erasing the long-term deficit entirely. I commented on it here. I spoke to the congressman this afternoon about his bill, the conservative vision for health-care reform, and the problems of Congress. The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.Your budget appears to agree with the Obama team on an important premise: The deficit problem is a health-care problem.Absolutely. Just look at the numbers. It's not a theory. It's a fact.Looking at your proposals for Medicare and Medicaid, I'd... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 3, 2010 (6 days ago) NASHUA, N.H. — President Obama hit the road again Tuesday to promote the new job-creation program he described as his No. 1 priority, but he refused to abandon his embattled health care legislation, vowing to “punch it through†resistance in Congress.In Nashua, N.H., President Obama promoted a plan to divert $30 billion to help community banks lend to small businesses. The latest on President Obama, his administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.In a feisty and at times biting performance, Mr. Obama said the rising national debt “keeps me awake at night,†but put much of the blame on his predecessor and on unrestrained health care... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 3, 2010 (6 days ago) OBAMA URGES SENATE DEMS TO 'FINISH THE JOB'.... It wasn't quite as captivating as President Obama's visit last week with the House Republican caucus, but the president took some time to address the Senate Democratic caucus this morning. Obama, well aware of the Dems' anxiety this election year, offered some good advice."All that's changed in the last few weeks is our party has gone from having the largest Senate majority in a generation to the second-largest Senate majority in a generation," Obama said. "If anybody is searching for a lesson from Massachusetts, I promise you the answer is not to do nothing." He added, "I know these are tough times to hold public office. The need is great;... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Feb 2, 2010 (6 days ago) David Rogers, Politico President Barack Obama’s new $3.83 trillion budget is a chickens-come-home-to-roost moment for Democrats who skipped past the deficit to tackle health care last year and now risk paying a heavy price in November. The great White House political gamble was to act quickly — before the deficits hit home — and institute major changes which proponents say will serve the long-term fiscal health of the country. Instead, a year of wrangling and refusal to consider more incremental steps have brought Obama and Congress to this juncture, where waves of red ink threaten to... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Feb 2, 2010 (6 days ago) Jonathan Chait, The New Republic Republicans take great offense whenever anybody accuses them of favoring George W. Bush's policies or being the "Party of No." But it's hard to avoid that conclusion when they say things like this:Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on "Late Edition" that as long as the legislation creates jobs, "we're willing to take a look at it." But he and other Republicans suggested that Democrats could improve economic recovery by dropping their healthcare overhaul and extending the tax cuts enacted under President... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 2, 2010 (7 days ago) Since House Democrats remain fairly seized with terror at the political ramifications of passing health care reform, it's worth stepping back and thinking clearly about the Democrats' predicament. The November elections look bad for three basic reasons. First, the Republican base is extremely energized, for reasons that were probably inevitable due to Democrats running all three branches of government, in an era when Republicans have very effective communication media for whipping up their base. Second, independents are highly skeptical, which was also mostly inevitable when the party took power just after the economy began a free-fall.The third problem, which has received little attention,... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Feb 1, 2010 (7 days ago) Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest The global warming movement as we have known it is dead. Its health had been in steady decline during the last year as the once robust hopes for a strong and legally binding treaty to be agreed upon at the Copenhagen Summit faded away. By the time that summit opened, campaigners were reduced to hoping for a ‘politically binding’ agreement to be agreed that would set the stage for the rapid adoption of the legally binding treaty. After the failure of the summit to agree to even that much, the movement went into a rapid decline.The movement died from two causes: bad... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 1, 2010 (8 days ago) « Empathy by Analogy | Main 01 Feb 2010 12:06 pm Permalink :: Comments (17) :: TrackBacks (0) :: Share ThisTrackBack URL for this entry:http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/mt-42/mt-tb.cgi/20998>> you think that democracy should put zero weight on the actual opinions of those slack-jawed rubes in the electorate.Kind of like you do when it doesn't suit your argument? For example, when you criticize the extremely popular, bipartisan Mental Health Parity bill?Obviously, an instant poll of a bill few people have read is not a logical starting point to evaluate its merits. It is rather... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 1, 2010 (8 days ago) The parallels to 1994 — the last time health reform died — are unmistakable. Democratic senators huddled for weeks in backroom meetings, groping for a workable alternative. Some of the attempts at reviving it were genuine, while others were only designed to suggest forward progress, observers recall. Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 1, 2010 (8 days ago) The White House will include an additional $25 billion in Medicaid funding for states in the federal budget to be released Monday, spending that Democrats originally hoped to include in their health overhaul.The budget proposal underscores how the government is already adapting to the stalling of the health legislation in Congress. Some states were so confident Congress would pass a health bill that they included the extra Medicaid funds in their state budgets. After the Republican victory in a Senate race in Massachusetts put the health plan in jeopardy, governors have been scrambling to plug the hole.The governors got reassurance on a conference call Friday with Health and Human Services... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 1, 2010 (8 days ago) A new element of tension has emerged between the Obama White House and Democratic leaders in Congress.
“The American people don’t care about process,” said Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. The latest on President Obama, his administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.It is not the president’s continued demand for a health care overhaul, a priority the leaders share. Nor is it Mr. Obama’s decision to call out liberals on the need for spending restraint in his State of the Union address.Rather it is the White House decision to spotlight unsavory legislative maneuvering as a cause of voter anger. Rather than the... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Feb 1, 2010 (8 days ago) WASHINGTON -- By now, it ought to be obvious why President Obama has wanted his health care overhaul passed quickly. It would be (and now will be) inconvenient to promote expanded government health spending while simultaneously pledging to rein in future budget deficits -- when unrestrained health spending is a major cause. It's like promising to go on a diet but first treating yourself to one last binge.
The Congressional Budget Office confirms the dire fiscal outlook. From 2011 to 2020, the CBO projects cumulative deficits of $6 trillion. By 2020, the debt to economy (GDP) ratio rises to 67 percent, up from 40 percent in 2008. Unfortunately, these projections incorporate assumptions,... Tags: election 2008, articles Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 31, 2010 (8 days ago) Andrew Sullivan, Sunday Times We should know the pattern by now. Barack Obama has a way of seeming to let things drift, even dangerously so. His supporters start to panic; his enemies start to sniff confidence like a junkie out of a brown paper bag. Scott Brown’s remarkable victory in Massachusetts provided the glue, and the Republicans and the media almost passed out with the rush — and still the president remained somewhat aloof; distant. As health insurance reform looked dead in the water, Obama seemed equally inert. The mood on the liberal blogs went from depression to panic. His presidency... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 31, 2010 (9 days ago) In the days immediately after the special Massachusetts election, which gave Senate Republicans the ability to block votes on legislation, the prospects for reform looked so bleak that one reliable source emailed me a one-word message: “Dead.â€But within 24 hours, that same source had emailed me another one-word message: “Alive.â€And that’s a pretty good description of where things stand today, at least based on what I've gleaned from conversations with insiders over the last week.According to these sources, Democrats have made progress--more progress, certainly, than might be evident from all the dire headlines of the past few days. There seems to be a plan in place for enacting... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 31, 2010 (9 days ago)   President Obama's greatest need is to escape the ideological grip of congressional Democrats and the liberal base of the Democratic party (they're one and the same). But he either doesn't recognize this or, as a conventional liberal himself, isn't so inclined. This self-inflicted difficulty has put Obama in worse political straits than President Clinton faced after the Republican landslide of 1994. On January 27, the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, was roundly criticized at a meeting of the House Homeland Security Committee. She had ducked the hearing, which was about the Christmas Day terrorist attack, and lawmakers were animated. The surprise was that it was... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 30, 2010 (9 days ago) Gail Collins, New York Times Back last November. ... Wow, that seems like a long time ago. Health care was passing. Jay Leno was popular. Dinosaurs roamed the earth. Gail Collins David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns. As I was saying, last November, the Justice Department announced that the terror trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be held in Manhattan. Almost everyone in New York rallied around. This was seen as standing up to terrorism. “It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center, where so many New Yorkers were murdered,” said Mayor Michael... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 30, 2010 (10 days ago) Enter your email address:Enter the recipients' email addresses, separated by commas:Message:Tim Sloan, Pool / AP PhotoThe divide between liberals and centrists in the Democratic Party is nothing new. Ken Dallek on the history of the rift that could kill health care.Democratic differences are endangering Democratic control of Congress, while blame for the collapse of health-care reform has been laid at President Obama’s doorstep. Pundits charge that Obama ceded control of his agenda to a dysfunctional Congress, futilely attempted to negotiate a bipartisan agreement in the Senate, and should have better communicated the benefits of reform to all... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (10 days ago) Steve Early, Boston Globe REPUBLICAN SCOTT Brown’s Senate victory last week deprived President Obama and the Democrats of their filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate and made Obama’s health care plan a high-profile casualty. There was also collateral damage for already-frustrated union backers of the president. The White House staffers and congressional leaders who’ve been assuring them that labor law reform was next on Obama’s agenda now can’t prevent a filibuster of the Employee Free Choice Act.The act was designed to boost aid worker organizing and... Tags: pm update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (10 days ago) Paul Howard, Forbes It's never too late to do what you said you were going to do. This is the chief lesson that President Obama should draw from Massachusetts voters' stunning rebuke to Democrat's bloated and expensive health care legislation. Obama campaigned as a centrist who would draw on the best ideas of both parties, but he has governed by deferring to the liberal wing of his party and locking Republicans out of Democrats' backroom health care deals. As a result, the current bill is justly opposed by the majority of Americans as too expensive, too convoluted and packed with bribes,... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (10 days ago) Michael Tomasky, The Guardian The main task before Barack Obama in his state of the union address was to push the reset button. To reclaim some control over the agenda, which he had basically lost since about last October, when it became apparent that the signature healthcare initiative was going to take longer to pass than Hadrian took to build his wall.So did he? Yes, for now. On the most fundamental level, Obama made it clear that the top item in his in-basket is the matter that most occupies Americas' minds: jobs. He mentioned the word 29 times in the speech. Thursday, he and vice-president Joe Biden followed up... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (10 days ago) Charles McGrath, NY Times J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died on Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91. Mr. Salinger’s literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, announced the death, saying it was of natural causes. “Despite having broken his hip in May,” the agency said, “his health had been excellent... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (11 days ago) January 29, 2010 10:50 AM EST by John StosselDuring the President's State of the Union, Obama laid down a challenge to opponents of his health care plan:If anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.This is a tiring theme from the President: Pretend your opponents don't have their own ideas. As Reason's Peter Suderman put it, "Here, Obama, Let Me Google Some Health-Care Reform Alternatives For You":It's simply not true that reform opponents haven't offered solutions. Here's what I could come up with in about two minutes on the... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (11 days ago) Timothy Jost is a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law. He posts regularly on the Politico health reform arena and on Georgetown University’s Legal Issues in Health Reform blog.Although President Obama's primary health reform message in his State of the Union was "do not walk away from reform,” “finish the job” and “let’s get it done,” he also said, “But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.” At this invitation, congressional Republicans rose... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 29, 2010 (11 days ago) (ii) If you submit material to this site or to BLP or its representative, unless BLP indicates otherwise, you grant Bloomberg a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, copy, and display such content throughout the world in any form, media, or technology now known or hereafter developed. You also permit any other user to access, store, or reproduce such material for that user's personal use. You grant Bloomberg the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (11 days ago) Peter Wehner, Politics Daily SotU Stories on AOL News: Obama Takes Aim at 'Deficit of Trust' Alito Shows Distaste Over Obama's Barb Health Care Reform Fades From Agenda Obama Vows Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Tags: pm update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (11 days ago) Clive Crook, The Atlantic Little sign of a reset that I could see. The speechemphasized jobs and the economy over healthcare reform, but that wouldhave made sense even if the political landscape had not shifted. As forthe poll numbers, as for Massachusetts, they might never have happened.He mentioned Scott Brown's victory only obliquely, and in way thatdenied it any significance.I know it's an election year. And after last week, it isclear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But westill need to govern.He conveyed almost no sense that the country was sending him amessage and that he was... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (11 days ago) Patrick McIlheran, Milwaukee JS Latest entries from editorial columnist Patrick McIlheran's blog, Right On.View All Blog PostsOur president won't stop fighting, he swore last week, until jobs reappear, mortgages bob to the surface, children learn, life is fair and health care"‚."‚."‚."‚well, especially until something happens on health care. This is what he told a crowd in Ohio. Whatever Harry and Nancy work out, he'll fight for. Fight, fight, fight!By actual count, President Barack Obama in that speech used some version of "fight" 21 times, more than cheerleaders... Tags: pm update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (11 days ago) Philip Klein, The American Spectator By Philip Klein on 1.28.10 @ 6:10AM Going into last night's high-stakes State of the Union Address, the political world was wondering how President Obama would respond to a series of political setbacks that culminated with Republican Scott Brown's surprise victory in last week's Massachusetts Senate race. Would he move to the center or try to rally his liberal base? Would he retreat from comprehensive health care legislation or dig in his heels? Would his tone be feisty or conciliatory? As is often the case with Obama, the answer turned out to be: all of the above. ... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (11 days ago) David Corn, Mother Jones — White House photo/Pete Souza (Government Work).With a speech tilted to independents and short on health care, the president asks for a reset.— By David CornIn the days after the Democratic defeat in Massachusetts, President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting, delivered a weekly address, and sent out a Twitter message repeating over and over that he has been "fighting" for the middle class. In his first State of the Union address, he used that word once.When Obama appeared before the members of the House and Senate on Capitol Hill, he once again... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (11 days ago) Jonathan Chait, The New Republic President Obama's speeches have always been notable for both their exquisite prose and their unusually high intellectual level. Tonight's speech, while probably as effective as such speeches can be, was neither.The dropoff between rhetoric penned by Obama and that by his staff, always noticeable, was especially so tonight. When he declared, "health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo," I wondered if his budget freeze had already claimed the entire White House speechwriting staff.Obama suggested that... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Homepage Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (11 days ago) Clive Crook, The Atlantic « Should the House pass the Senate healthcare bill? | Main 28 Jan 2010 01:38 amLittle sign of a reset that I could see. The speechemphasized jobs and the economy over healthcare reform, but that wouldhave made sense even if the political landscape had not shifted. As forthe poll numbers, as for Massachusetts, they might never have happened.He mentioned Scott Brown's victory only obliquely, and in way thatdenied it any significance.I know it's an election year. And after last week, it isclear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But... Tags: am update Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (12 days ago) Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts' special Senate election was for Democratic leaders a moment that can be described in two words, of which I will only print the first here, which is "oh."Left-wing bloggers, liberal columnists and the stray Nobel Prize winner-turned polemicist are all urging Democrats in Congress to pass, somehow, some way, a health care bill, and many of them are calling for a second and even larger stimulus bill.But Democrats in Congress are replying, as politicians are wont to do when challenged by party wingers, that their name is on the ballot. New York Times editorialists can opine that the Massachusetts result had nothing to do with opposition to... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (12 days ago) It's never too late to do what you said you were going to do. This is the chief lesson that President Obama should draw from Massachusetts voters' stunning rebuke to Democrat's bloated and expensive health care legislation. Obama campaigned as a centrist who would draw on the best ideas of both parties, but he has governed by deferring to the liberal wing of his party and locking Republicans out of Democrats' backroom health care deals. As a result, the current bill is justly opposed by the majority of Americans as too expensive, too convoluted and packed with bribes, payoffs and exemptions for too many special interest groups. As a sign of his (new) good faith, the president should invite... Tags: election 2008, entries Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (12 days ago) Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (12 days ago) WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama tiptoed Wednesday night along the seam that bifurcates the Democratic Party's brain. The seam separates that brain's John Quincy Adams lobe from its Sigmund Freud lobe.
The dominant liberal lobe favors Adams' dictum that politicians should not be "palsied by the will of our constituents." It exhorts Democrats to smack Americans with what is good for them -- health care reform, carbon rationing, etc. -- even if the dimwits do not desire it.
The other lobe whispers Freud's reality principle: Restrain your id -- the pleasure principle and the impulse toward immediate gratification. Settle for deferred and diminished but achievable results.
Obama was mostly in Adams'... Tags: election 2008, articles Source: RealClearPolitics - Health Care Posted on Jan 28, 2010 (12 days ago) It all looked so easy in August 2008, when Sen. Barack Obama spoke before the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The Democrats were going to win in November, storm Washington with their reforming ways, and because they were so much smarter than everyone else, they'd know how to get the American economy cooking. There was no doubt as the enthusiastic Invesco Field throng cheered and chanted, "Yes, we can."
Well, never mind.
After the Democrats squeezed floor votes for unpopular health care legislation through the House and Senate, independent voters are turning on Obama, conservatives never warmed to him and the far-left base feels betrayed. It turns out that governing is a lot harder... Tags: election 2008, articles |
|
The Industry Radar Helps You Find the Latest Healthcare News and Information on Health Insurance, Health Plans and Healthcare Reform
The Industry Radar brings you the latest news on health insurance and emerging consumer driven trends like HSA, HRA, FSA, CDHP, CDHC, Medical Tourism, convenient care clinics, Pay for performance, universal healthcare, single payer, electronic health records, Concierge medicine, wellness and more in your state and the nation.
With a constant flow of the most current information coming into our system on health plans like AETNA, Humana, Cigna, United Healthcare, Wellpoint, Anthem, Assurant, Coventry, Health Net and BCBS professionals can be confident that they're receiving the latest information in the health insurance business and for healthcare reform for your state and the nation.
Just hovering your mouse over the title of the healthcare article provides you with a view of an excerpt from that particular healthcare article. In the preview window, you'll also be able to see the source and date the healthcare news was posted.
To subscribe to a feed of our healthcare industry articles, simply click the Subscribe button that's on this page. You'll be able to select the RSS feed reader you prefer to use and the manner in which you would like to receive notices for new healthcare articles in .
 | ||||||||
| News Rs | Employee Benefits HR Technology Business Insurance Regions | |||||||
 | ||||||||
| The Industry Radar | Who We Are Who We Serve Download Contact Us | |||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| © 2007 The Radar Group | All Rights Reserved | ||||||||
