;)
The Commentariat -- Oct. 21, 2013
Justin Sink of the Hill: "President Obama 'will directly address the technical problems' with the ObamaCare website during a Rose Garden event Monday morning, according to a White House official.... The official said the president will be joined by 'consumers, small business owners, and pharmacists,' including individuals who have already enrolled in ObamaCare online." ...
... Louise Radnofsky of the Wall Street Journal: "The Department of Health and Human Services said Sunday it was bringing in outside help to resolve some of the technical woes that have beset the federally run insurance exchanges...." ...
... Department of Health & Human Service: "Unfortunately, the experience on HealthCare.gov has been frustrating for many Americans.... The initial consumer experience of HealthCare.gov has not lived up to the expectations of the American people. We are committed to doing better." ...
... Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal contractors have identified most of the main problems crippling President Obama's online health insurance marketplace, but the administration has been slow to issue orders for fixing those flaws, and some contractors worry that the system may be weeks away from operating smoothly...." ...
... Fox "News": Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) "said Sunday that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will testify before Congress about the problem-plagued ObamaCare website, amid a growing call for her to accept requests to testify.... Sebelius and the entire Obama administration has declined requests to testify on Capitol Hill about the site, which has been plagued by crashes, slow responses and other glitches since it went online Oct. 1." ...
... Paul Krugman: "... the technical problems, while infuriating — heads should roll -- will not, in the end, be the big story. The real threat remains the effort of conservative groups to sabotage reform, especially by blocking the expansion of Medicaid. This effort relies heavily on lobbying, lavishly bankrolled by the usual suspects, including the omnipresent Koch brothers." And other lice! ...
... Garance Franke-Ruta of the Atlantic: "... people do not turn to government programs because they believe in them. They turn to them because they need them, and the market is not meeting their needs.... That's going to save the Obamacare rollout.... People who have experience with programs for the needy will recognize a familiar bureaucratic incompetence in the rollout.... Obamacare ... also has also suffered from what Johns Hopkins University political scientist Steven Teles calls 'kludgeocracy' -- the tendency of interest groups, lobbyists, bureaucracy, and bad management to combine to create highly complex legislation and giant public-administration kludges, a term defined as 'an ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole.'" (Emphasis added.) ...
... Ross Douthat: "Like the Bush administration in Iraq, the White House seems to have invaded the health insurance marketplace with woefully inadequate postinvasion planning, and let the occupation turn into a disaster of hack work and incompetence." ...
... Digby: "Yes, except for all the actual human carnage, torture and death, it's exactly the same. Good insight. Once again, I'm struck by how the right sees Obamacare in such violent terms. I thought I was immune to how weird these people are, but I still have things to learn. These are people who valorize our out of control gun violence and cheer on any war the nation decides to join. But affordable health care is a fundamental threat to life and liberty. Ok." ...
... Douthat: "The Obamacare exchanges… are actually closer to the right-of-center vision for health care reform...." ...
... Brad DeLong of U.C.-Berkeley: "For five years Ross Douthat has been claiming Obamacare ≠ RomneyCare, and that the marketplaces-exchanges are not the Heritage Foundation's intellectual child. But now, apparently, it is finally time to strip of the mask and acknowledge what he has been pretending for five years is not so.... Could you have made a difference, Ross, if you had spent the last five years telling your copains of the right that ObamaCare = RomneyCare?" ...
... Max Ehrenfreund in the Washington Monthly: "... if we hadn't been so concerned about protecting hospitals and insurers, we might have found our way to a simpler system with a better chance of success.... It's far too early to give up on the exchanges, but if they do fail, it seems most likely that they will fail because of their conservatism -- because Congress and the president weren't willing to go far enough in 2010 in expanding the government presence in the health care system." ...
... Jeb 2 Ted: STFU. Justin Sink: "Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said in an interview airing Sunday that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) needs to 'have a little bit of self-restraint' if the Republican Party is to succeed in repealing ObamaCare.... 'Tactically, it was a mistake to focus on something that couldn't be achieved,' Bush said, complaining that the controversy over the shutdown had 'crowded out' how 'dysfunctional' the implementation of ObamaCare had been." CW: Huh. Sounds like me telling my stray mouser to quit dropping dead (or half-dead) rodents at my feet. Neither Ted nor the cat can comprehend the message. ...
... Ted 2 Jeb, et al.: STFU. Ashley Killough of CNN: Cruz "was unapologetic for fighting to defund President Obama's health care law in the face of outsized odds, saying he doesn't work for the 'party bosses' in Washington." CW: Toljaso. ...
... Everything Is Obama's Fault. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) suggested on Sunday that President Obama's refusal to compromise with Republicans on Obamacare to re-open the government and raise the nation's debt ceiling has jeopardized the chances of passing comprehensive immigration reform." CW Translation: Obama refused to kowtow to us nullifiers & insurrectionists who refused to do our jobs, so we're never going to do our jobs. ...
Illustration by Donkey Hotey.Paul Steinhauser of CNN: "Just more than half the public says that it's bad for the country that the GOP controls the House of Representatives, according to a new national poll conducted after the end of the partial government shutdown. And the CNN/ORC International survey also indicates that more than six in 10 Americans say that Speaker of the House John Boehner should be replaced.... 54% say it's a bad thing that the GOP controls the House, up 11 points from last December.... Only 38% say it's a good thing the GOP controls the House, a 13-point dive from the end of last year." ...
... AND Treasury Secretary Jack Lew writes a "can't we all just get along" op-ed for the New York Times: "It is time to put an end to governing by crisis and focus on accelerating economic growth and job creation. If we are open to what we can achieve together rather than simply setting our sights on our divisions, there is a lot we can do to support America's workers and businesses. This is what the American people expect from their leaders in Washington."
A lot of times, though, when people say the president should lead, what they want him to do is adopt Republican positions and then push for those. That's not leadership, that's capitulation. -- E.J. Dionne on "Press the Meat," via Digby, who may have mentioned this herself
Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 man in the Senate told Chris Wallace of Fox "News" "that Republicans had to put tax revenue on the table to get entitlement cuts. 'Social Security is gonna run out of money in 20 years," Durbin said. "The Baby Boom generation is gonna blow away our future. We don't wanna see that happen.' [CW: gonna, wanna?] Social Security will not run out of money in 20 years. The program currently enjoys a surplus of more than $2 trillion. Social Security will, however, be unable to pay all benefits at current levels if nothing is changed. If a 25 percent benefit cut were implemented in 20 years, the program would be solvent into the 2080s." ...
... Really, Dick? Really, Zach? Phoenix Woman in Firedoglake: "The only 'reforms' Social Security might possibly require, besides keeping the hedge fund CEOs away from it, are as follows: 1. Remove the cap, and 2. Subject *all* income to FICA. Doing this keeps Social Security safe forever." CW: When even HuffPost writers, not to mention Durbin, can't get with the obvious, we're in trouble. ...
... Digby: "Gee, Dick, way to stoke generational warfare there. Thanks a lot. Pete Peterson's wrecking crew couldn't have said it better." ...
... As Peter Nicholas & Colleen Nelson of the Wall Street Journal report, at least some actual Democrats -- and Bernie Sanders -- will fight Durbin & Obama on this.
Humor Break. Mark Sanford's fiancee Maria Chapur, speaking on the Argentine news site InfobaeTV to which she occasionally contributes, "acknowledged that there are 'extremists' among Republican lawmakers, but 'just because there are extremists that doesn't mean they aren't fundamentally right.' ... Her latest [contribution to the site], published on Oct. 8, addressed the topic of why a U.S. debt default is 'unthinkable.'" Via Daniel Politi of McClatchy News. CW: Evidently Chapur's soulmate doesn't agree. He voted "no" on the bill to reauthorize the government & prevent debt default. So are extremists fundamentally right -- or not?
Jens Glusing of Spiegel Online & others: "The NSA has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years. It hacked into the president's public email account and gained deep insight into policymaking and the political system. The news is likely to hurt ties between the US and Mexico.... This operation ... is described in a document leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden...." CW: Thanks for sharing, Ed. I really needed to know this. ...
... AFP: "France and Mexico have angrily demanded prompt explanations from Washington following fresh, 'shocking' spying allegations leaked by former US security contractor Edward Snowden. The reports in French daily Le Monde and German weekly Der Spiegel revealed that the National Security Agency secretly recorded tens of millions of phone calls in France and hacked into former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's email account." CW: Thanks again, Ed.
Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon & Attorney General Eric Holder personally negotiated the settlement deal -- which has not yet been signed -- in the government's civil case against the bank -- the nation's largest.
More Nullification. New York Times Editors: "In August, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that the Defense Department would begin offering full spousal and family benefits, including health care coverage, housing allowances and survivor benefits, to the same-sex spouses of military personnel" in compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling on DOMA. "National Guard units in four states -- Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma -- have, however, refused to process applications by same-sex couples in a convenient and respectful manner.... The guard units say they are merely adhering to state constitutions that ban same-sex marriages and do not recognize same-sex marriages lawfully performed in other states. But state bans cannot pre-empt a lawful Defense Department order based on a Supreme Court ruling. Under the Constitution's supremacy clause, federal law takes precedence."
Gubernatorial Race
Artwork by Richmond Times-Dispatch.
"None of the Above." Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch Editors: "The major-party candidates have earned the citizenry's derision. The third-party alternative has run a more exemplary race yet does not qualify as a suitable option. We cannot in good conscience endorse a candidate for governor.
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Reader Comments (16)
New York magazine has an incredible and timely feature article: "The Cost of Living" a look at the 'hidden' and stunningly high cost of miracle drugs that rarely deliver. "...as a group of oncologists wrote earlier this year, “most anti-cancer drugs provide minor survival benefits, if at all.” It's the doctors who are rebelling.
The article also addresses the current problematic roll out of the Affordable Care Act with some health-care experts raising concerns about its crazy quilt of plans on the health-insurance exchanges. Patients in some state plans may pay modest amounts for drugs whereas patients in other states might pay considerably higher rates.
Interesting comparison of the U.S. system with that of the U.K.in its approach to drug use & approvals. NICE (or National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence: "...has recently said no where Medicare has been forced to say yes."
http://nymag.com/news/features/cancer-drugs-2013-10/
Talking to my elderly neighbor the other day about when to take Social Security. "Well you better take it now before that Obama raises the age again." After a blank stare and a couple of blinks I ventured (and decided not to even tackle the 'again' part of her declaration), said, "The President doesn't have anything to do with raising the eligibility age of Social Security. Only Congress can enact that change." "Nope, nope, it's that Obama," the second time she said 'that Obama,' like a possum that gets in her garbage can at night. She continued, "He shut down the government, didn't he? What makes you think he can't raise Social Security just 'cause he feels like it? And he's trying to force that Obamacare on everybody. I'm just glad I'm on Medicare. He can't touch that." I didn't ask how he could do one and not the other. I just hugged her and walked home shaking my head.
And don't say she's not typical of most people because she is. She is not (completely) stupid and is a lovely, caring, responsible woman in my well-kept middle class neighborhood. But she is being fed a plentiful and steady stream of lies and vitriole and red meat by a small but well-funded group of miscreants. It has to stop. But how? When will this stop? When Obama leaves office? Don't hold your breath because Hillary will most likely be president and what's worse than a black man? A woman!
Digby has a little story about the ACA struggle that depressed me even more.
I just returned from my daily walk. We have an ordinance in our town which I'm pretty sure is in most towns and cities which stipulates that a fine for littering will be so many$$$. Every Monday I take along a garbage bag to pick up all the crap that is thrown out (there are woods along side of the road) from those that defy the law and care not for the town's/road's appearance ––never mind the environment––but are simply doing what they WANT to do, what they perhaps feel is their right. The hell with anyone or anything else. Couldn't help thinking how this relates on a very small but significant way to our monumental problem of division in this country. And to think I thought of this on such a beautiful fall morning––what a shame.
Apologies if this is redundant, but even if so is worth re-linking in light of Marie's Freeedom piece and other recent comments on nullification and secession:
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/government-shutdowns-2013-10/
More on Freedom, secession and the like in a bit, but first, a message from CNN:
"Holy crap! Those healthcare websites are a mess. Millions of people want to sign up but they can't! This is outrageous. Time to end healthcare reform. We'll be talking about this for the next 17 hours, so call in and tell us your horror story!"
Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of a piece I had the great displeasure of watching while eating at a local Chinese restaurant on Saturday. I almost choked on my Kung Pao. The host of whatever CNN show this was droned on and on about problems with the websites. If I could have, I'd have stuck one chopstick in his eye and the other down his throat. I thought I was watching Fox.
Okay, I get that there are problems; what enterprise this enormous wouldn't? That part of the story deserves reporting. But it is in no way a reason to kill healthcare reform, and no way that it should be the only thing being reported.
It's like saying that there were a lot of problems with the first telephones. It was hard to hear, service wasn't universal, and the equipment could be faulty. So what's the answer? Oh, I know. End the telephone experiment. People have been getting by with letters and telegrams, haven't they? It's like discovering that there's this great new invention, the automobile, that will have a dramatic impact on mobility, jobs, the economy, in this country and the world, and complaining that it only comes in black. How terrible! Sorry Henry, close up shop.
Aside from the utter stupidity of such a conclusion, the Fox wannabes at CNN are doing their best to distract viewers from the fact that we are privy to an historic event in this country. Healthcare for millions of people who didn't have it before. An enormous boon to the quality of life for the entire country. But the story is "Websites suck. Kill this plan."
Even with my low (and dropping by the minute) expectations of media acumen and prudence, this was eye popping. Inviting people to waste everyone's time by calling in and complaining instead of attempting a smidgen of balanced reporting.
Plus, don't you just love the argument that too many people want this thing, that's why we need to kill it?
Say what?
Instead the CNN takeaway was that 7 million people are needed (don't know where that number came from) in order to make the ACA work but only 16,000 have actually signed up. I'm pretty sure 16,000 signed up in my state alone in the first few days.
I guess CNN producers can't stand to be less wingnutty than Fox. So, by all means show your ass and be as stupid as possible.
It's only the life and well being of millions of Americans at stake. Where are those chopsticks?
Thanks, Whyte, for the Rich piece–––you're right, worth rereading––is an excellent article.
@Nancy–-you hugged her? You must be a whole lot more tolerant than I am––she's lucky, I guess, to have you as a neighbor.If she were mine we'd probably be slugging it out in her flower garden.
For those who despair of Texas, watch the video here:
http://youtu.be/TtPdKjkcZCU
It will definitely brighten your day.
Rockygirl, thanks for the link. It is nice to know that in America there is a person willing to risk his political office to protect the rights of Americans. Unfortunately he is the only one I have seen. Much of the rest of the Republicans are the COP, the cowardly old party.
I have been researching this for the past five years. And headed a strategic marketing firm specializing in geodemographics where we sliced and diced data to fine tune clients' marketing budgets. But even without a technical background, reality should be obvious to any sentient being. The United States has outgrown the boundaries of effective collective government. The country began with fewer than 10,000,000 people. We fought the Civil War with less than 50,000,000 people on both sides. And our population was roughly 150,000,000 during WWII.
Today there are more than 310,000,000 souls within our borders. And all those people think they know what the county is all about and how it should be run. But please don't fantasize that it can be run effectively with some new laws or policies.
We can face reality and begin to discuss how we can go about the devolution of the entity in a peaceful manner. An effective result could be negotiated over 20 years and completely implemented within 15 more.
I respect this group and have been a constant reader since its beginnings. Would anyone like to discuss how we can shape this process?
Regarding Akhilleus' comment about the CNN "news" story, so many news outlets are not in the news business anymore. They are in the business of serving their sponsors and their owners, so whatever brings in the most viewers..........
I am so disheartened by the sea change occurring in this country I have given thought to getting the hell out of Dodge, so I did a little research on the internet. It looks like I am too old and do not have enough income to be accepted anywhere (in Canada anyway). I am disgusted with the spineless (and probably bought and paid for by the 1%) Dems and the thickheaded citizenry who are too stupid to see how they are being screwed. And most of all I despise the repugs with a blind passion. I suppose this is a situation where the Serenity Prayer applies.
Good an well done spot, Rockygirl. Key seems ready for bigger things. But his move may also be simply pragmatic. That is San Antonio, after all, one of the bright blue spots in the mostly red landscape.
@Rockygirl & @Marvin Schwalb: I'm glad to see Judge Key switch to the Democratic party. I'm not sure how brave it is, tho; Key is a Bexar County (San Antonio) judge. San Antonio has a Democratic mayor, a Democratic MOC (the twin brother of the mayor) & some Democratic members (can't quite figure how many) of the state legislature. Political scientists think the party will pick up more down-ticket wins with Wendy Davis running for governor.
So I'll take Key at his word, but it does seem possible that he noticed which way the local wind was blowing before he changed his party registration.
Marie
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's refusal to recommend any of the 3 candidates for governor is disheartening. The situation is an exemplar of the point Packer was making in the New Yorker. Regardless of who wins this election, democracy loses and the republicans win. The candidates are all the same, incompetent pigs fighting to get to the patronage trough. Don't bother voting. Stay home and watch football. Is McAuliff the best that the Democratic party could produce? Unhappily the paper leaves me the impression that they would endorse Cuccinelli if only he could make the trains run on tim
@cowichan&c: As I posted some time ago, my druthers would be that none of the three Virginia guber candidates would win. I still feel that way. But if I was there, I'd vote for T-Mac, if only because a Dem is less likely to inflict harm on the body politic than is a Repug--train schedules notwithstanding.
I've noticed an increasing sense of "inevitability" running through the comments section the last couple weeks. While the GOP ransom project was indeed a new low for the conservative movement and the internal warfare purging the supposed RINOs will disintegrate their credibilities and values even further, I lament the whoa is me general attitude waiting for the 'baggers to run us over.
When the going gets tough, we need to get our shit together and fight back. I know demographics won't be the panacea of the future but I still believe the wind of change is blowing in our favor. Conservative forces can and will do all they can do impede social progress, but it's coming as long as we continue to push for it.
Here in France, the Front National (the equivalent of a tamer Tea Party) recently polled better than the more moderate conservative UMP party (of Sarkozy). The FN is long from Ted Cruz crazy but it shares more similarities with the tea baggers than we'd think. Even in "Socialist" France they're dealing with a rise of low-educated whites or wanna-bes that blame all social malaise on immigration and the Others. We're certainly not exceptional in this case.
The world is changing too fast for those not paying attention and it scares the shit out a lot of people in the developed world. Scare-mongering is a flourishing market and people are ready to believe n'importe quoi just to make themselves feel safer.
Rough times are ahead but we need to grow to fortify our spines. Add in some more humor breaks in between our daily shoveling of political dung patties. Go back to Nature, remember you're a transparent eyeball, and refresh the soul with a little authentic life more often.
Maybe I'm naïve and just need to live a few more decades in the warped world of US (and worldwide) politics to become truly disillusioned with our imperfect democracy, but until then I'll keep my critique cap on and throw punches where punches are due. Fuck the 'baggers
@Safari; Believe me the whole world is rooting for you.We have enough problems with the United States of America possessing thousands of nuclear warheads. The Confederate States of America with a few nuclear devices? That's grounds for WW3!!!!