deadissue.com

Paul Krugman has a great column in the New york times today, regarding health care.
This part especially goes a long way towards explaining why the “centrist” members of the senate are far from the center:

Honestly, I don’t know what these Democrats are trying to achieve. Yes, some of the balking senators receive large campaign contributions from the medical-industrial complex — but who in politics doesn’t? If I had to guess, I’d say that what’s really going on is that relatively conservative Democrats still cling to the old dream of becoming kingmakers, of recreating the bipartisan center that used to run America.

Hopefully Democrats will do what they were elected to do which is help the American people not protect the interests of a few insurance companies, if they don’t Democrats may be looking at another 1994 scenario where republicans are swept into office largely because no one sees any difference between the parties.

Got this from Washingtonmonthly.com:

One executive said rescission is about “stopping fraud and material misrepresentations that contribute to spiraling healthcare costs.” So, for example, when a woman in Texas was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, her insurer dropped her coverage because the company found an instance in which she visited a dermatologist for acne, and didn’t tell the insurance company about it. This, the insurer said, was an example of “fraud and material misrepresentation.”

This executive seems to have confused the companies self-interest with what they are contracted to do as an insurance company like pay for thetreatment of people who get sick. This is sort of like the auto executives flying their private jets to Washington so that they could beg for money.

Can someone explain how does Megan Mcardle keep her job

I am not a big Beatles fan, and Yoko’s duet with John Lennon makes me cringe, but this seems like a good idea

You would think that conservatives would love General Motors, the company has been a consistent denier of climate change and they gave us the Hummer, the SUV for men who need to compensate, but no:

“In the effort to reverse this lurch beyond the farthest left fringe of previous Democratic statist urges, individual Americans have a role to play. They have to say no to GM products and services until such time as the denationalization occurs,” says Hugh Hewitt. He acknowledges that this is a serious step that could hurt people currently working for GM: “But there isn’t any alternative, every dollar spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise. Every car or truck purchased from Government Motors is one not purchased from a private car company that competes fairly against all other car companies.”

I am not a big fan of GM but trying to make them go out of business seems a bit mean spirited.