There is growing concern that a problematic implementation of the Affordable Care Act will hurt Democrats in 2014. In response, some on the left, like Jonathan Cohn, have pointed to Medicare Part D as an example why such concerns are overblown. They argue while the implementation of the drug benefit program was rocky, it was [...]

I’ve often find Ezra Klein’s writing about health care policy confusing because from blog post to blog post there is often a jarring disconnect that can best be described at policy schizophrenia. The issue is most pronounced in his alternating from defender of health insurance exchanges, mostly when defending Obama, and his acknowledging they have been a proven failure, mostly when criticizing Republicans.

The deficit reduction plan President Obama vaguely outlined yesterday lacks basic credibility. The problem isn’t that the math doesn’t add up–it is at least a dramatic improvement over Republican Paul Ryan’s plan, which literally defies logic and basic math. This issue is that many of the reductions President Obama promised yesterday come from actions that [...]

It is not surprising given Jonathan Gruber’s strong support for an individual mandate and his prominent role in both “Romneycare” and “Obamacare” that he is working hard to defend the idea with a new paper for the Center for American Progress attacking “alternatives” to his preferred policy. Overall, I find his case weak and extremely [...]

Today, President Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission failed to secure a sufficient votes from its members, so it didn’t release on official report. The chance that it would have even reached the required 14-vote minimum was remote for a variety of reasons. For example: Selecting Alan Simpson, a cranky old jerk who loves to fight, as [...]

One of my strongest hopes is that everyone in the media, especially on the left, can simply stop pretending the new health reform law is some great progressive victory. It is not. It is a conservative, pro-corporate piece of legislation. From the CBS News: Obama: Well, partly because I couldn’t get the kind of cooperation [...]

During the health care fight, the Obama administration would probably have benefited from having a military historian as an adviser. Even a cursory study of military history will show you the important role played for centuries by mercenaries—and it will show you their limitations. There are two critical things to keep in mind when thinking [...]

The brand name prescription drug lobby PhRMA has been holding back on further support for health care reform until they are sure the final reconciliation package is still to the liking of the drug industry. The announcement that PhRMA plans to drop $6 million in a final round of pro-reform ads is a good indication [...]

Marion Berry (D-AR) is unlikely vote for the Senate health care bill in the House, but he has recently submitted is own, less comprehensive health care bill (PDF). Primarily, what it does is fix the problems with the Medicare Part D program created by former Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin, which Democrats have been promising to [...]

One thing that has been eating away at me throughout this whole health care debate is the incredible hypocrisy and role reversal of both political parties compared to the Medicare Part D debate. The basic, highly corrupt design of the Senate health care bill is the same as the highly corrupt design as the Medicare [...]