Tag Archives: President Obama

Curly Howard And Our Health Care System

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Curly Howard didn't design our healthcare system, but his plumbing misadventure helps explain why it's such a mess -- before and after Obamacare. [Credit: wondersinthedark.com]

Curly Howard did­n’t design our health­care sys­tem, but his plumb­ing mis­ad­ven­ture helps explain why it’s such a mess — before and after Oba­macare. [Cred­it: wondersinthedark.com]

Curly Howard didn’t design the US health­care sys­tem. Or Oba­macare. Or Repub­li­can pro­pos­als to replace it. But he could have.

Howard, the most cre­ative of the Three Stooges, set out to fix a leak­ing pipe. His solu­tion: add a length of pipe. Each time he did, the flow of water was tem­porar­i­ly inter­rupt­ed, only to resume, this time out of the pipe he’d just added. Unde­terred, he added anoth­er length of pipe. By the end of the episode, a frus­trat­ed and sog­gy Curly is enmeshed in pipes. And still the water flows.

So it is with health­care. The leak, in this case, is the basic premise of insur­ance – that risk is inevitable and its cost must show up some­where. Curly’s pipe is reg­u­la­tion – the unceas­ing attempts by gov­ern­ment to divert and dis­guise the cost of that risk. The sys­tem that result­ed from per­pet­u­al inter­ven­tion resem­bles the one Curly pro­duced – cost­ly, cum­ber­some, inef­fi­cient and con­fus­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Vince Young And Economic Mobility

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Vince Young in happier times. His rapid rise and sudden fall constitute a cautionary tale. But behind it all there is good news about economic opportunity and upward mobility. [Credit: Dallas Morning News]

Vince Young in hap­pi­er times. His rapid rise and sud­den fall tell a cau­tion­ary tale. But a new study pro­vides wel­come news about eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty and upward mobil­i­ty. [Cred­it: Dal­las Morn­ing News]

Vince Young is bank­rupt.  The sto­ry of a star col­lege quar­ter­back who rose from hum­ble cir­cum­stances to impos­si­ble wealth only to plunge into insol­ven­cy in the course of eight years is one marked by extrav­a­gant spend­ing, fool­ish invest­ments and, he has argued in court doc­u­ments, exploita­tion by agents, busi­ness asso­ciates, fam­i­ly and friends.  His is an extreme exam­ple of eco­nom­ic mobility.

Reports of Young’s bank­rupt­cy fil­ing coin­cid­ed with the release this week of a new study by a group of Har­vard and Berke­ley econ­o­mists that reached an unex­pect­ed con­clu­sion: upward eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty is not the exclu­sive province of entre­pre­neurs, enter­tain­ers and star ath­letes like Young. The Nation­al Bureau of Eco­nom­ic Research [NBER] report con­clud­ed that “chil­dren enter­ing the labor mar­ket today have the same chances of mov­ing up in the income dis­tri­b­u­tion (rel­a­tive to their par­ents) as chil­dren born in the 1970s.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Frenemies of the Poor

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The 50th anniversary of the President Johnson's declaration of a War on Poverty has provoked strong views on whether it has succeeded or failed. The truth lies somewhere between. [Credit: Huffington Post]

The 50th anniver­sary of the Pres­i­dent John­son’s dec­la­ra­tion of a War on Pover­ty has pro­voked strong views on whether it has suc­ceed­ed or failed. The truth lies some­where between. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

It’s not much of an exag­ger­a­tion to say that right now Repub­li­cans are doing all they can to hurt the poor, and they would have inflict­ed vast­ly more harm if they had won the 2012 elec­tion. More­over, GOP harsh­ness toward the less for­tu­nate isn’t just a mat­ter of spite (although that’s part of it); it’s deeply root­ed in the party’s ide­ol­o­gy.  Paul Krug­man, “Ene­mies of the Poor,” Jan­u­ary 12, 2014

The 50th anniver­sary of Pres­i­dent Johnson’s War on Pover­ty has occa­sioned a good deal of moral exhi­bi­tion­ism. Lib­er­als heap praise on the pro­grams and flat­ter them­selves for sup­port­ing the trans­fer of an esti­mat­ed $20.7 tril­lion (in 2011 dol­lars) in cash and non-cash ben­e­fits from those who earned it to those who did not. And they are rel­ish­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to denounce con­ser­v­a­tives as ene­mies of the poor, moti­vat­ed by ide­ol­o­gy and spite.

Some con­ser­v­a­tives, like the Her­itage Foundation’s Robert Rec­tor, are using the anniver­sary to declare the War on Pover­ty lost. Rec­tor recent­ly was quot­ed as say­ing that “the War on Pover­ty has been a com­plete cat­a­stro­phe.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

A Detached President Could Be Just What the NSA Needs

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President Obama was described as "impatient" and "disengaged" during briefings on last year's Syria crisis. That sense of detachment lead him to a constructive resolution of the NSA snooping controversy. [Credit: Pumas Unleashed]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma was described as “impa­tient” and “dis­en­gaged” dur­ing brief­in­gs on last year’s Syr­ia cri­sis. That sense of detach­ment could lead him to a con­struc­tive res­o­lu­tion of the NSA snoop­ing con­tro­ver­sy. [Cred­it: Pumas Unleashed]

Even as the debate about arm­ing the [Syr­i­an] rebels took on a new urgency, Mr. Oba­ma rarely voiced strong opin­ions dur­ing senior staff meet­ings. But cur­rent and for­mer offi­cials said his body lan­guage was telling: he often appeared impa­tient or dis­en­gaged while lis­ten­ing to the debate, some­times scrolling through mes­sages on his Black­Ber­ry or slouch­ing and chew­ing gum.

New York Times, Octo­ber 22, 2013

A Pres­i­dent has enor­mous demands on his time and atten­tion. He can’t focus on every­thing. He must choose. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, if the New York Times account is to be believed, chose to be “impa­tient” and “dis­en­gaged” as his advis­ers last year pre­sent­ed him with options on Syr­ia, per­haps explain­ing why he fol­lowed what the Times termed “an uncer­tain path amid Syr­i­an bloodshed.”

The dis­en­gage­ment from mat­ters of nation­al secu­ri­ty that served him so poor­ly through­out the Syr­i­an affair might unique­ly suit him to resolve the con­tro­ver­sy over whether the gov­ern­ment should con­tin­ue to gath­er large vol­umes of data about US cit­i­zens. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How The Budget Deal Could Threaten Obamacare

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An angry John Boehner (R-OH) lashed out at conservative groups who opposed the budget deal. The deal strengthens his hand with his caucus and in negotiations over changes to Obamacare. [Credit: Washington Post]

An angry John Boehn­er (R‑OH) lashed out at con­ser­v­a­tive groups who opposed the bud­get deal. The deal strength­ens his hand with his cau­cus and in nego­ti­a­tions over changes to Oba­macare. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

“Frankly, I think they’re mis­lead­ing their fol­low­ers. I think they’re push­ing our mem­bers in places where they don’t want to be. And frankly, I just think that they’ve lost all cred­i­bil­i­ty.” – House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH), com­ment­ing on oppo­si­tion by con­ser­v­a­tive groups to the bud­get deal.

Last week’s over­whelm­ing House vote to rat­i­fy a mod­est bud­get agree­ment has been var­i­ous­ly depict­ed as a defeat for the Tea Par­ty, a rare instance of bipar­ti­san­ship, and a moment of ratio­nal­i­ty in an oth­er­wise chaot­ic and dys­func­tion­al bud­get process. It is all of those things and some­thing more: a new threat to the already trou­bled imple­men­ta­tion of Oba­macare. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Maximum Wage: Solution to Inequality?

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The Swiss campaign to limit executive pay fell short, but are there good solutions to the problem of income inequality?

The Swiss cam­paign to lim­it exec­u­tive pay fell short, but are there good solu­tions to the prob­lem of income inequality?

We know that people’s frus­tra­tions run deep­er than these most recent polit­i­cal bat­tles. … They expe­ri­ence in a very per­son­al way the relent­less, decades-long trend. … And that is a dan­ger­ous and grow­ing inequal­i­ty and lack of upward mobil­i­ty that has jeop­ar­dized mid­dle-class America’s basic bar­gain — that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead. .I believe this is the defin­ing chal­lenge of our time: mak­ing sure our econ­o­my works for every work­ing Amer­i­can. It’s why I ran for Pres­i­dent. It was at the cen­ter of last year’s cam­paign. It dri­ves every­thing I do in this office. — Pres­i­dent Obama

Eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ty is a polit­i­cal­ly potent issue.  Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor Lar­ry Bar­tels believes that it was a crit­i­cal one in the 2012 Pres­i­den­tial race, adding 2 to 3 per­cent­age points to Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s share of the vote and 1 per­cent in bat­tle­ground states.  The Pres­i­den­t’s advan­tage on this issue, Bar­tels says, was large­ly sym­bol­ic, hav­ing more to do with the per­cep­tion that his oppo­nen­t’s great wealth had detached him from the con­cerns of ordi­nary vot­ers. Peo­ple moti­vat­ed to vote for the Pres­i­dent because of this issue did so more because of who they believed Mitt Rom­ney was than because of what the Pres­i­dent pro­posed to do. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Good News Pope Francis Missed

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Pope Francis's inaugural encyclical celebrated the gospel and excoriated markets. But did he overlook some very good news? [Credit: Telegraph]

Pope Fran­cis’s inau­gur­al encycli­cal cel­e­brat­ed the gospel and exco­ri­at­ed mar­kets. But did he over­look some very good news? [Cred­it: Telegraph]

In writ­ing about the joy of the gospel, Pope Fran­cis over­looked some very good news – about mar­kets, about com­pas­sion, about poverty.

His first encycli­cal (Evan­gelii Gaudi­um, “The Joy of The Gospel”) has drawn atten­tion less for its focus on mis­sions than for its eco­nom­ic pro­nounce­ments. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma favor­ably cit­ed the doc­u­ment in his recent remarks on eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty, while some con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tors have offered up harsh crit­i­cisms. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare Bipartisanship: You Probably Can’t Keep Your Coverage

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President Obama had another stressful week. But not nearly as stressful as millions will experience when they find that they still can't keep their health coverage. [Credit: Dr. Lillian Glass Body Language Blog]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had anoth­er week of stress.  But not near­ly as much stress as mil­lions will expe­ri­ence when they find that they still can’t keep their health cov­er­age. [Cred­it: Dr. Lil­lian Glass Body Lan­guage Blog]

Wash­ing­ton has at last arrived at a bipar­ti­san con­sen­sus on what to do about the mil­lions of peo­ple whose insur­ance poli­cies are being can­celed because of Oba­macare: not near­ly enough. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Cuccinelli Era Is Over

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Ken Cuccinelli fell short last night in his bid to become Governor of Virginia. Is the GOP mature enough to accept defeat and find a new way forward? [Credit: Huffington Post]

Ken Cuc­cinel­li fell short last night in his bid to become Gov­er­nor of Vir­ginia. Is the GOP mature enough to accept defeat and find a new way for­ward? [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Chris Christie and Ter­ry McAu­li­ffe were both sup­posed to win big in their guber­na­to­r­i­al bids. Christie did; McAu­li­ffe didn’t. And that presents Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans with a gen­uine oppor­tu­ni­ty to make crit­i­cal changes to the President’s health care law. If they don’t squan­der it. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

More Than A Website: Will Insurers Prosper Under Obamacare?

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The Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman" was a 70s sensation. In promoting his health care law, the President now has a similar mantra: "More Than A Website." (Credit: AP)

The Bee Gees’ “More Than A Woman” was a 70s sen­sa­tion. In pro­mot­ing his health care law, the Pres­i­dent has adopt­ed a sim­i­lar phrase, remind­ing us that Oba­macare is more than a web­site. (Cred­it: AP)

The Pres­i­den­t’s health care law has had a trou­bled first month, but it is far too soon to know whether its prob­lems will prove last­ing and severe.  Even some of its most fer­vent sup­port­ers, like the Wash­ing­ton Post’s Ezra Klein, acknowl­edge that its defi­cien­cies run deep­er than a clunky web­site.  Oba­macare, the Pres­i­dent reminds us, is more than a web­site, but its prob­lems extend far beyond its 5 mil­lion lines of errant code. Con­tin­ue read­ing →