Politics
- The National Memo » How Ralph Nader’s Sins Set Trayvon Martin’s Killer Free.
- The conservative grip on power – Republican Party – Salon.com
A ruthless GOP power grab, centered around the Supreme Court, has cemented conservative control in Washington
Clarence Thomas, George W. Bush and Antonin Scalia (Credit: AP)
Writing in Salon, Natasha Lennard proposes that with the warm weather we can again expect the Occupy movement to shoot up. Arab Spring, American Spring. She’s right about one thing: Like in the decades before the Arab Spring, it has been a long, cold, American winter. In the 30 years since coming to power here, Republicans have used their initial ascent to power to seal themselves into office as tightly as the pharaohs. Smart commentators have noted how lawless the conservatives are in making substantive decisions, but that’s not the worst of it. The worst of it is how they use their tenure to make it increasingly impossible to oust them.
- Obama Calls On Congress To Pass ‘Buffett Rule’ Tax
The Health Care Debate
- The Promise and Peril of A Single-Payer Comeback
- Those Who Believe In Limited Government Had Better Hope ObamaCare Is Ruled Constitutional – Investors.com
- Kucinich: Single-payer healthcare on its way regardless of how Supreme Court rules – The Hill’s Healthwatch
- Single-Payer or Bust
- If Obamacare is overturned, will that lead to single payer? And would that be a good thing? – The Washington Post
- We have universal healthcare — by default – Other Views – MiamiHerald.com
America, the richest country in the world, is the only advanced country without some form of universal healthcare for all its citizens. While countries such as Great Britain have a government-run, single-payer (or “socialized medicine”) system; others, such as business-friendly Switzerland, have a totally private system.
Switzerland utilizes private health insurance companies and requires all of its residents to purchase health insurance through an individual mandate. It reformed its system several decades ago to a fashion similar to what is included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
So, how has the Swiss form of the Affordable Care Act fared? According to the World Health Organization, quality of care is high, everyone has access to care and Switzerland spends only 11 percent of its GDP on healthcare. (The United States now spends around 18 percent of its GDP on healthcare — the highest in the world.
- The Move to Single-Payer Health Care « Commentary Magazine