Weiner
ArchPundit
Pretty sums it up. Can we move on. Maybe we need an organization for that…
June 2011
Best Take on Blagojevich’s Testimony…
The other way to characterize the defense Blagojevich is making is
Chewbacca
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7P9Z6a93lg[/youtube]
What is Mediscare?
Mediscare is a tried and true campaign tactic since the 1960s to charge your opponent with wanting to cut Medicare. Not do away with it, but make some cut–either significant or not. For example, Republicans tried it out in 2010 because the Obama health care plan forced some cuts largely by reducing costs–it was still a cut. It’s fair game and all, but it has made making some reforms hard to pull off at different times and Medicare does need to reduce the increas in costs to stay fully funded.
That said, the issues with Medicare are pretty much the same with all health insurance. If you don’t reduce the rate of increase in costs, everyone is going to go broke trying to pay for it. There are even 70 year old people that still pay a lot of money towards health insurance. If you are one of them, you should Get rates on life insurance for seniors over 70. This will help you pay less and less or even nothing. This insurance is great and everyone accepts this kind of insurance.
To make clear to the dunderheads in DC this isn’t what is happening with Paul Ryan’s ‘plan.’ Ryan is seeking to cut taxes on the wealthy, keep the deficit high, and end Medicare as we know it by instead providing a $14,000 subsidy for the elderly to go out and seek healthcare on their own.
The problem being that the elderly are far harder to insure because they are more likely to have higher costs. The reason we started Medicare was because medical care was becoming more expensive and the elderly couldn’t realistically afford insurance because of the risks associated with age. Insurance companies like to make money and they aren’t going to insure the elderly without a pretty expensive policy to cover likely costs. $14,000 isn’t going to do it.
Ending the program and providing a too small subsidy for a group of people largely on fixed incomes is what the proposal is–it would end Medicare as we know it and not provide adequate resources for a population that cannot obtain reasonably priced insurance. It’s not Mediscare, it’s reality. And it’s very, very unpopular for very good reasons. People understand this issue because they have older relatives and they understand they will eventually be in that position.
Medicare needs some reform on costs, and probably more revenue. However, it’s continued existence shouldn’t be in question because that’s what the public wants and is willing to pay for as a country. DC pundits who declare we need to fix Medicare and that Democrats are somehow obstructing the process miss the most basic element of reality in the discussion. One side isn’t trying to reform it, they are trying to end it for the benefit of tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy and not even balancing the budget.
Who would support this? Complete cranks.
When One Throws His Soulmate Under the Bus
Just to give full credit here, I’m mostly following Msjournalist AKA Susan Berger who is doing a great job on the trial. Here’s the latest:
Msjournalist Susan Berger
Patti is my soulmate. We share everything “I don’t want to get her in trouble here but she was part of the discussions.”#Blagojevich
One might see that as innocent, or with Rod Blagojevich one might assume he’s thinking–throw a shiny ball under the bus!
Blagojevich Tries To Introduce Evidence Judge Ruled Against
And it isn’t going well for him…
Blagojevich has long thought:
A) The Rules Don’t Apply To HIm
B) He Can Talk Himself Out of Anything
Federal Judges tend to have a dim view of such characters and Zagel is not putting up with any of it. Zagel will tolerate a certain level of meandering , but he’s not tolerating violating his rulings which, as a lawyer, Blagojevich should understand. At this point Zagel just told Blagojevich’s attorneys there is no more discussion because their client is going to obey him which one has to believe the next step is a warning for contempt and then contempt.
Analysis of New Districts at Kos
They have put together analysis of the new Districts though a few spots are missing votes. They use Obama 2008 numbers and then the 2010 numbers for Quinn, Giannoulias, and Kelly. It’s a good job of describing the Districts and such, though I think they are overconfident in some of the downstate Districts like 17 where they wanted more Dems for 13.
Overall it illustrates that if you take 2008 as the best case scenario and 2010 as the worst, you see how the map makes sense and is about as good as it could be for Democrats. I strengthens my contention that we see 12 reliably though not entirely safe Dem seats and another one that is a potential swing seat in Il 13.
18, 16, 15, 14, and 6 are Safe Republican.
Awesome
SarahPalinUSA Sarah Palin
We’ll highlight the beauty of legal immigrants’ work ethic and love of freedom while visiting Ellis Island & Statute of Liberty today.
We now have a law of liberty or something.