Jon Huntsman, Marriage Equality, and the Need for Reasonble Voices
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the...
View ArticleThe Ironic Sequestration
Sequestration, the deficit reduction fall-back of the Budget Control Act that “will not happen,” is going to happen this Friday (a primer, if needed). Even with Congress returning this week it doesn’t...
View ArticleThe Arkansas Medicaid Plan
There was some interesting news yesterday that had nothing to do with sequestration (for my take on that see here), but in the matter of Health and Human Services giving the go-ahead on a plan from...
View ArticleYou’ve got to be kidding me
Shorter me. If you are interested in the seemingly infinite chasm between Republicans and Democrats and the lack of any policy agreement (known in some circles as a compromise), prepare to be...
View ArticleCry “Liar!” and let slip the dogs of incivility
Many lessons could be derived from this exchange between Bill O’Reilly and Alan Colmes (Jonathan Chait’s headline; “The Fox News–iest Segment in Fox News History”). Given my recent facepalm reaction to...
View ArticleRand Paul’s filibuster and the conversation moving forward
Yesterday Rand Paul spent thirteen hours filibustering John Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA. The proceeding was, in many ways, surreal — the first talking filibuster since Bernie Sanders’ effort...
View ArticleOn the February jobs report
It’s the first* second Friday of the month, which means you were all breathlessly refreshing browsers to read the Bureau of Labor and Statistics jobs report right? Right? Well, regardless, the headline...
View ArticlePaul Ryan’s Budget
It’s Paul Ryan Budget Day. Which means that, similar to previous iterations, it’s effectively Paul Ryan’s Budget Drops A Bunker-Busting Bomb to Services For The Poor And Working Class While Slashing...
View ArticleThere is no (balanced budget) spoon
The theme of this iteration of the House GOP budget is ‘balance,’ as in balanced budget, what I’ve seen some on Twitter describe as framing designed to retake the White House’s legitimacy over popular...
View ArticleOn “pulling a check” in disability
NPR’s “Planet Money” headline from this weekend. Over the weekend NPR’s “Planet Money” released a story on the rise of Americans on disability. I thought it decent overall, but I see some others had...
View ArticleThis is not the slam-dunk evidence you’re looking for
A new study from the Society of Actuaries this week made the rounds on various conservative outlets with headline number of 32 percent — the amount by which the SOA prediction that claims costs for...
View ArticleFrom the Department of Ugh: Tennessee Welfare Edition
Go read about the Tennessee legislature’s continued movement on tying welfare benefits to student achievement: The bill is sponsored by Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, and Rep. Vance Dennis,...
View ArticlePoverty is foremost a cycle of too few jobs and too little wages
On Monday I wrote about a legislative effort in Tennessee that seeks to tie low-income student academic performance to payments under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), whereby a...
View ArticleOn a (not so) great change of heart
Some folks are (probably) rightly praising uber-right-libertarian Bryan Caplan for taking free-market advocates to task for ignoring “The Grave Evil of Unemployment.” Caplan mostly ensconces his...
View ArticleOn the Oregon Medicaid study: “Keep calm and collect more data”
The New England Journal of Medicine sent out a press release Wednesday evening with the click-bait title of “The Oregon Experiment — Effects of Medicaid on Clinical Outcomes” (abstract here, the full...
View ArticleDouthat and generalizing the OHIE
If you have the opportunity this Sunday (a rainy, cool one in my neighborhood) to read Ross Douthat’s column on the most recent Oregon Heath Insurance Experiment (OHIE), the subject of which I covered...
View ArticleHospital prices and giving the uninsured the status quo
Of no particular relevance. Just a cool-looking picture from 1900. In non-Oregon related news the health corner of the blogosphere is abuzz over the government releasing an absurd number of Excel lines...
View ArticleThis Is Your Economy On Austerity
The Grey Lady has a piece on economists warning the efforts to reduce the deficit are slowing the recovery. They included these brutal graphs: From the article (emphasis mine): That period roughly...
View ArticleU.S. Healthcare Spending (from concentrate)
The Economic Policy Institution released a new graphic on some well-established knowledge within health policy circles; a small segment of the population accounts for an overwhelming majority of...
View ArticleCapturing The Tuition In Higher-Ed
What is known (non)affectionally on my campus as “the cone.” There is an incredibly important opinion piece from Felix Simon over at Reuters that I very much encourage you to go read. The subject...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....