Five Critical Flaws in the Senate Health Care Bill

The Senate bill would:

#1—Deny Americans the choice of a public option. In contrast, the House bill contains a national public option, the key to real competition, greater choice, and lower costs.

#2—Leave insurance unaffordable for some lower income and working people. Both bills require virtually all Americans to buy insurance. But even with the subsidies provided, some families could have to pay up to 20% of their income on health care expenses.

#3—Impose dangerous restrictions on women's reproductive health care. Unfortunately, both bills do this and the House provision is worse. Both versions would be a dangerous step and neither should be in the final bill.

#4—Tax American workers' health coverage to pay for reform. The Senate would pay for part of reform by taxing the hard-won benefits packages of many working Americans. The House, on the other hand, pays for reform with a small surcharge on only the wealthiest Americans—a far better approach.

#5—Allow insurance companies to remain exempt from anti-trust laws. Under current law, insurance companies are actually exempt from laws designed to prevent monopolies and price-gouging. The House bill would fix this, but the Senate bill leaves it in place.
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"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences." - Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm

I wonder what Ben Stein would say now

From 2007...

In an excellent piece in the New York Times, entitled It's Time to Take a Deep Breadth, Stein outlines the issues, the stresses, and the realities of the market volatility and corrections underway. He does not run from or white wash the credit disaster and the real estate crash underway, but he brings perspective and calm to his analyses. He is a voice otherwise missing at this time in the markets, in government, and in the media. Let me quote briefly from his article, near the end of his piece and after he says “I get to the point of laughing when I read doom-saying articles in the business sections of newspapers or watch Jim Cramer on CNBC.":

"Yes, there are real problems: housing, mortgage defaults, losses at financial firms, rot in hedge funds. But over all, things will be fine.... This economy is very big and very solid. It cannot be derailed for long by anything we have seen lately.... If I were the editor of the business section for just one day, I would run one immense headline: Everything in Going to Be Fine. Go Back to Work."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/business/09every.html?ref=todayspaper

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"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences." - Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm

Negative stimulus on its way

estimates for budget shortfalls at the state level come to $145 billion to $178 billion in the fiscal year that ends next June. Budget gaps like that, on top of already drastic spending cuts in 2008 and 2009, will produce deep cutbacks in spending on everything from road and school construction to employment of police, firefighters, teachers and state park workers. The same survey that showed 44% of contractors anticipating more layoffs also showed that 76% expect state transportation departments to put less work out for bid in 2010 than in 2009.
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"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences." - Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm