Photo: Wellfleet, MA last summer
Remarkable story. The lost photos of Hiroshima. h/t, Am Digest
Want to sign the Free Our Health Care Now petition?
Here comes bad news: Media Diversity Czar Mark Lloyd. Unbelievable.
Unbelievable re that "guy with an assault rifle." 1. It was a Pro- Dem Reform rally and 2. The guy was black. h/t, Hot Air
Unbelievable. Can I compare thee to... the Grand Canyon?
Unbelievable. Busing in union guys from 146 miles away for phony Town Hall. Related: The danger in trying to fool ther people
A more nuanced view of Rahm Emanuel
Viking:
Get in line, Grandma - Here's Harvard economist Martin Feldstein with "Obamacare is all about rationing": "The Obama strategy is to reduce health costs by rationing the services that we and future generations of patients will receive." Wow, limited services and an extra trillion dollars in debt? What's not to love?
Bernie Sanders update:
The Senator in true Washington fashion declared that it was a human right that everyone be given what they want, and that the “rich” should pay for it all. As one aspiring to someday have a small degree of wealth, it was less than reassuring to know that my hard work, risk taking, and determination will be met with an even greater involuntary redistribution of what I earn. The health care debate aside, I had the opportunity to ask the Senator why he doesn’t preach more about individual responsibility, and why cautious, fiscally prudent Vermonters are being penalized for the largess of others.
Update on Senate races, incl NH and CT
Powerline: Dems in disarray. And at Commentary:
The supposedly smooth-running Obama Machine is sputtering. Unaccustomed to governing, seemingly in over their heads, and watching their signature domestic initiative turn radioactive, Obama and company are trying to find excuses to latch on to enemies to blame. But this dog won’t hunt. What we’re seeing is a transparent and slightly pathetic effort at damage control. The Obama administration is in a slide; and they don’t know how to stop it. The promise of “hope and change” seems from so long ago and so far away.
Well, "questions of honesty and of competence begin to dog the O." But it cannot be his fault, can it?
This makes at least the second phony doctor at an O health care rally.
Representative democracy or rule of the elites:
MASSA: I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful.
(inaudible participants’ comments regarding the “interests” of the district statement from Mr. Massa)
Massa: I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them.
I guess the "elites" like to imagine that we need help tying our shoes (and if we do, we can thank government education for that). Thus things like this: ACORN May Impose Lifestyle Regulations Under ObamaCare
Big Lizards:
Several pundits ... have quipped that if the Democrats are so anxious for a public (government) option in health-insurance reform, arguing that allowing the government to "compete" with private industry reduces cost without damaging quality, then why do they reject a "private option" for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and schooling?
Insty:
REASON TV: Richard Vedder, author of Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, talks about — you guessed it — why college costs too much. Say, if college costs are rising faster than medical costs, isn’t that a crisis?
Surber on government involvement in our medical care:
In the 1960s, the excuse was the poor and the elderly had no health insurance and taxpayers should provide it. That brought in Medicare and Medicaid, which increased demand for health treatment, which was the idea and that is good. But the increase in demand drove up prices, which is fine too because higher prices attracted good doctors from around the globe.
The downside was the government’s refusal to pay in full for services rendered.
But we now have the best medical care in the world. Expensive? Yes, but darned well worth it.
Taking care of the poor, the disabled and the old pretty much ended the public’s desire for universal health care. Hillary tried it 16 years ago. A dozen years ago a Republican Congress approved S-CHIP, which covered lower middle-class children.
Now the excuse is the uninsured, who fall into 5 categories: illegal aliens, people with pre-existing conditions, the self-employed, people who qualify for a program but won’t take it, and people who could afford it but don’t want it. Of the five groups, the pre-existing conditions people draw the most sympathy and we can help them without going to uuniversal health care.
It is not the socialism.
It is the dishonesty.
Barack Obama won’t admit the truth about his plans to impose universal health care upon the nation. This does not help him gain support for his policies, and it undermines the public’s perception of him.
Related, from Reason in 1993:
When Medicare finally passed in 1965, Rep. Phil Burton (D-Calif.) expressed the sentiments of many among its Great Society enthusiasts when he said, "I am equally certain that before many years Congress will choose to extend comprehensive medical care as a matter of right to every man, woman, and child in this country."
So the history of Medicare and the outlook for the program over the next generation provide a sobering lesson for today’s would-be designers of national health insurance. Unfortunately, no one seems to be paying attention to what the Medicare experience has to teach.
