When They’re Paying, They Get to Order

The FDA has decided that your diet is far too savory.  It’s disappointed that you haven’t realized this on your own.  It’s understandable, of course, since salt has been a staple of the human diet since, oh, long before it was a form of currency.  But since you can’t be trusted to fix things yourself, [...]

Read Full Post »

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Health Care Bill

With apologies to Wallace Stevens. I. Among fifty failing states, The only moving thing Was the cost of the health care bill. II. The CBO was of three minds, Like a hopper In which there are three health care bills. III. A health care bill swirled in the cloakrooms. It was but a small part [...]

Read Full Post »

Humility and the Political Blogger

Or, How Nancy Pelosi Made Me a Better Man. As all four of my regular readers may have noticed, I’ve got a bit off the radar lately in the blogging world.  My absence was regrettable, but it was also for good reason — I simply didn’t have very much to say, or at least I [...]

Read Full Post »

Will Facts Drive Policy, or the Other Way Around?

One of the Democrats’ chief criticisms of the Bush Administration, one that sometimes had merit, was that it refused to alter its strategy or message in the face of new facts.  In foreign affairs, that meant it took us three years to react to the Iraqi insurgency in a manner beyond “staying the course.”  On [...]

Read Full Post »

An Alternate Analogy for Health Care Reform

Much has been written comparing the present health care reform effort to prior struggles for the same thing.  But this week’s passage of the Senate’s version of Obamacare brought to mind another recent political circumstance that, for me, says more about the political risks in play than does the failure of Hillarycare in 1993. I [...]

Read Full Post »

Surprise! Liberals Attack the Health Insurance Mandate

The health care story of the day is that the Left — yes, the Left — has turned against the health insurance mandate.  National Review Online has a great roundup of the liberal opinionmakers who are storming the barricades, including Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, Keith Olbermann, Howard Dean, and Jon Walker of Firedoglake. It’s [...]

Read Full Post »

Best Medicine Available to Obama: Put the Scalpel Down

One of the only fair defenses of the stimulus bill is its immediate psychological effect.  At the time it was passed, the nation was very, very scared. The general sense was that the government needed to “do something.”  Everyone knew that the new Democratic administration wasn’t about to cut taxes as a means of stimulating [...]

Read Full Post »

Health Care Debate Proves Boehner Was the Right Choice for Leader

Lost among the frenzy of last Saturday’s health care debate were two discordant notes within the Republican caucus.  Both were the brainchild of Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), who challenged Minority Leader John Boehner for his position during last winter’s the 2006 leadership elections.  I was a Shadegg guy then.  Now I’m glad the caucus voted [...]

Read Full Post »

The Health Insurance Mandate: In Case There Was Any Doubt…

The House Ways and Means Committee confirmed today that the mandate provisions in Pelosicare will follow the form we’ve all expected: obey or go to jail.  While it’s an unconstitutional, brutal, and outrageous provision, it does crystallize the legal issues in a way the Senate bill does not.  These people have abandoned any pretense of [...]

Read Full Post »

The Health Insurance Mandate: Why Constitutionality Matters

As you know, this blog has explored several ways whereby the proposed mandate that everyone obtain health insurance is unconstitutional.  Ignoring entirely the advice of this blog, the Senate Finance Committee reported out a bill that included a mandate, albeit a watered-down one.  In fact, it appears that any bill that will be voted on [...]

Read Full Post »