Charles Krauthammer writing in the WaPo offers up an alternative health care reform approach:
The administration’s defense is to accuse critics of being for the status quo. Nonsense. Candidate John McCain and a host of other Republicans since have offered alternatives. Let me offer mine: Strip away current inefficiencies before remaking one-sixth of the U.S. economy. The plan is so simple it doesn’t even have the requisite three parts. Just two: radical tort reform and radically severing the link between health insurance and employment.
Krauthammer hits a nail squarely on the head even as his target was other nails. Over the course of the last couple of weeks I keep seeing the Dems and the Left attempt to paint this as an either-or scenario: either you’re for Obamacare or you’re for the status quo. The term I keep seeing thrown around is “anti-reform” which is as huge a strawman as you’re likely to see in life. Everyone who’s seriously looked at our health care system knows it needs reform. Ask the Dems to point out anyone seriously suggesting that everything just needs to stay the way it is and they’ll start squawking about “mobs” and “astroturfing” but they sure won’t come up with any serious example. Opponents of Obamacare such as myself aren’t “anti-reform” and neither are the people getting angry – and beat up, sometimes – at these town hall meetings. We want reform but it has to be something that’s got a chance of fixing the problems while not both killing the system and driving us all further into debt. (And into government-run health care, besides.)
Krauthammer has ideas similar to those advanced by Republicans in Congress and I recommend reading his article.
August 7th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Medicine, Politics |
2 comments
One step closer:
A federal appeals court in Virginia has affirmed the capital murder conviction and death sentence of D.C.-area sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its unanimous ruling Friday. The panel rejected several claims by Muhammad, including that he never should have been allowed to act as his own lawyer for part of his 2003 trial because he was too mentally impaired.
The only injustice going on here is that this slimewad is still breathing. He’s had his trial, he’s had his appeal. It’s been 7 years since he did his killing and over a year since he pulled his off-again, on-again switcheroo of whether he wanted his trial to continue. There’s been no reversible errors and I believe society has been more than accommodating of his attempts. It’s done. Now it needs to be finished.
August 7th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Crime & Punishment, GWOT, Human Interest, Politics, Virginia Politics |
no comments
Last I checked, Creigh Deeds – the Democrat candidate for Governor of Virginia – hasn’t resigned his Senate seat. So I’m finding this comment by Ken Cuccinelli – Republican candidate for Virginia’s Attorney General and sitting Senator in the General Assembly – as fascinating as Bearing Drift’s Brian Kirwin did.
Ken Cuccinelli “I’m in the Courts Committee working on addressing the Melendez problem, and I’m wondering… where is Senator Creigh Deeds? Isn’t this important enough to step off the campaign trail for part of a day?”
As a Senator in the General Assembly, Senator Deeds has duty to perform and he’s supposed to turn up when the Senate is in session. Cuccinelli has done so. Where’s Deeds? Part-timing it, I guess. Does this speak of performance to come, should he be elected Governor? It seems to be OK with Gov. Kaine, so why not Deeds?
We need something different for the Governorship, Virginia. Bob McDonnell is the guy you need.
Thank you, Senator Cuccinelli, for not forgetting your current duty even as you reach for others in November.
August 7th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Politics, Virginia Politics |
no comments
First it was William Jefferson’s conviction on bribery and money laundering yesterday and today we hear about testimony heard by both the House and the Senate that exposes Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Conrad (D-SD) as outright liars regarding their acceptance of sweetheart deals from Countrywide Mortgage. Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air has been all over this story and sums things up nicely:
Dodd and Conrad had to deny the allegations, though, because to admit to them would have meant admitting to engaging in a gross conflict of interest. Countrywide needed greater oversight, as was made obvious in its eventual collapse, and both Dodd and Conrad had a fiduciary responsibility in their respective positions to pursue questions about Countrywide’s viability. Instead, they sucked freebies and sweetheart deals from a company that had business within the scope of their authority. That’s corruption no matter how one slices it.
The Breitbart report says that the Senate Ethics Committee heard testimony from Feinberg on this subject as well. It’s probably too much to ask the Democrat-controlled Senate to expel two of its corrupt members or even to punish them for their corruption in any meaningful way. Voters in Connecticut and North Dakota should remember that the pair sold out their constituents for cheap mortgages — and if the Democrats don’t do anything about it, voters in the rest of the US should take a lesson on how Democrats coddle the corrupt.
Emphasis mine. Reid and Pelosi would be screaming their heads off were these 2 Senators Republicans and had been caught furthering the “culture of corruption.” They’d be demanding not only their removal from whatever committees they’re on but, very likely, their expulsion from the Senate as well. As Morrissey states, I’m not holding my breath on that one but voters everywhere should remember this. Dodd’s actions aren’t just a betrayal of his Connecticut constituents, they affected us all. Conrad’s too. They were among those who insisted right up until the foundations of the mortgage industry were crumbling out from under us that everything was fine. Now we know why. You should remember that the next time you go to the polls.
Update: Shockingly, the Senate Ethics Committee has found “no credible evidence that the Countrywide mortgages violated Senate ethics rules.” They also make a point of saying that the VIP deals “were not the best deals available at Countrywide of in the marketplace at large.”
So, unless you’re the recipient of the biggest payola a company over which you are supposed to be exercising oversight hands out, it’s not an ethics violation? Yeah, I’m sure that’ll satisfy the Dems the next time a Republican finds himself in a similar situation.
August 7th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Crime & Punishment, Economy, Politics |
no comments
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