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Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Why I Don’t Believe in the Tea Party

I understand the anger and the passion behind the Tea Party movement.
The economy is stagnant, lots of Americans are out of work, and there hasn’t been a lot of good news over the past year.
Given the state of our economy, it makes sense that people are angry.
What I don’t understand is the Tea Party’s proposed […]

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Cincinnati Enquirer Bias Favors Jean Schmidt

I know the Cincinnati Enquirer supports Jean Schmidt, but usually they can at least mask it better.
Today, the Enquirer finally posted some coverage on the Jean Schmidt/David Krikorian hearings before the Ohio Elections Commission.
As I was scrolling through the coverage, I discovered that the Enquirer left an older version of the article online. This allowed […]

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Jean Schmidt versus David Krikorian

There is something really bizarre going on in Southern Ohio District 2.
Though bizarre and Jean Schmidt (R-OH) seem to go hand in hand, this one takes the cake.
Schmidt has been in Ohio Election Commission hearings this week pursuing a case against David Krikorian, who she accuses of lying in his campaign literature. What did he […]

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Representative Driehaus on Health Care

Steve Driehaus spoke to hundreds of supporters and critics of health-care reform last night at the First Unitarian Church.
Tea Party folks were given instructions before the meeting on how to disrupt the event. Apparently, opponents feel they cannot win without resorting to disruptive tactics.
Here’s some samples:

 Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and […]

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

What Insurance Companies Want Health Care to Look Like

Last week, I received a mailing from United Health Care about my Health Savings Account.
The front page contained a very friendly letter with a nice green graphic urging me to check out my plan online. By logging into my account, it told me I could help estimate “out-of-pocket costs, potential tax savings and the future […]

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

The Worst Health Care Option

I read an interesting article in the AP this morning: Are lobbyists silver lining in health care system?
The crux of the argument was that lobbyists were actually keeping the debate around health care alive.
The article argues that the health care industry “sees a strategic opportunity.”
The questions I ask are: Why would they do […]

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Why Everyone Should Want a Public Health Care Option

I heard a very interesting discussion of our health care system this evening on NPR.
On the show, health care reform was framed like so: the government plays either the role of financier or the role of insurer.
In the role of financier, the government helps subsidize health care in some manner for those who can’t afford […]

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Why Anti-Smoking Legislation Will Succeed While Health Care Reform is in Danger

This past week the Senate passed an anti-smoking bill that will give regulators new powers in the fight against smoking.
On the surface, passage of this bill seems like a liberal victory. Until you look closer.
Philip Morris (now Altria) has come out in favor of the bill. Now why would Altria support legislation to regulate the […]

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

No Oversight, Chaos, and Breathtaking Sums of Money

“You had no oversight, chaos and breathtaking sums of money. And over all of that was the notion that failure was O.K. It doesn’t get any better for criminals than that set of circumstances.” - Senator Claire McCaskill describing the operation to rebuild Iraq.

I was glad to see the Justice Department and the Special Inspector […]

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

A List of Bills Democrats Should Pass

Since Republicans keep playing partisan politics as they have egregiously for the past 8 years (and further, the past 8 years have just been the worst), I think the Democrats should start pushing bills through Congress that will be very difficult to vote against.
Here’s my list:

The Banking Responsibility Act -  To restore regulations to protect […]

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