It seems not only the President of the United States but a large bipartisan group of senators have developed a love for the comically unserious idea of automatic budget triggers. From Bloomberg: Proposals being circulated among the bipartisan “Gang of Six” Senate negotiators, and about 20 other lawmakers in both chambers, would set deficit-cutting targets, [...]

One of my many problems with the Senate health care reform bill that became law is that its terrible design left if open to a death by a thousand Republican cuts–and it appears the first few cuts are about to begin. From Politico: Senate leaders are finalizing details on a one-year deal on the Medicare [...]

The United States government has a general policy against paying ransom for a hostage. This is not because paying ransoms is an ineffective policy. Most hostage takers would be happy to return the hostage for money, so as a short-term solution, it does work. The problem is, long term, paying ransom just encourages many more [...]

The Senate is planning to move with remarkable speed (for them) to pass $245 billion doctors fix for Medicare. The bill will completely skip the normal committee process and head straight to the floor next week. At issue is the is Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. The formula would mandate automatic cuts to Medicare [...]