The only thing worse than Washington being foolishly swept up in unnecessary deficit hysteria when our political leaders should be focused on jobs, is that all these so called “deficit hawks” entirely ignore the actual best solutions to shrink our long term deficit. That is why it is encouraging to see more regular exposure of [...]

Earlier in the year the state of Vermont passed a truly progressive health care reform law that puts the state on a path to eventually creating a single payer like universal health care system. The new health care law currently enjoys plurality support in the state according to a new PPP poll. Do you support [...]

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has released a new report that indicates Gov. Deval Patrick’s goal of controlling health care cost by moving the state towards a global payment method is unlikely to produce real savings.

In classic veal pen fashion Families USA is working against Vermont’s attempts to get the waivers,as soon as possible, it would need to move the state towards a single payer health care system. Families USA does claim to support Vermont’s reform effort, but just happens to opposes the very law needed to help make it happen in a timely manner.

Another problem for Romney-care. Even with an individual mandate private insurers in Massachusetts costs to consumers rise faster than public plans. How much more evidence do we need that single payer health care is the only affordable way to go?

The oft confused Sen. Lieberman gets taken to the woodshed by Nobel winner Paul Krugman. It turns out that the best way to hold down costs is not to cut Medicare but expand it.

Single-payer health care was pushed out of the health care debate long before Congress voted in 2010. We’re determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again…but Karl Rove is already on the move. We must set the terms of the debate now, before Rove unleashes his inevitable attacks on Vermont. In order to build up our campaign for Vermont’s waivers early, we need to raise $15,000 before Rove turns his sights on Vermont.

Worrying about long term deficits with official unemployment over 9 percent and treasury bonds rates at near-record lows is inherently an act of madness. It is the antithesis of both progressive policy and basic logic. Left to their own devices, liberals would relegate reducing the deficit to a very low priority in this economic climate. Of course when you’re a billionaire like Pete Peterson and you’re willing to spend millions promoting deficit hysteria, your can convince “liberals” to play into your deficit fetish at even the most illogical of times. Hence the Roosevelt Institute’s participation in the Peter G. Peterson Foundations 2011 Fiscal Summit.

The country is suffering from high unemployment, underwater mortgages, and rapidly escalating tuition prices. Most regular people lucky enough to have a job are seeing shrinking benefits from health care to retirement packages
I would love to have a major political party or even a major politician simple tell the American people they actually don’t need to keep suffer.

On an international level I would go so far as to say these three liberal health care plans are all significantly to the right of basically even center-right party in the rest of the industrialized world on health care. “Tort reform” gets more play than single payer. If these constitute the “left flank” of the political discussion around the pressing issue of health care costs in America, we as a country are screwed.