Setting aside the package of fixes (bed time here), HR 3590 just completed a Tolkein-esque journey to a 219-212 victory in the House. Are you happy? Sad? Just glad that the political discourse will FINALLY shift to something else?
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March 21, 2010 Print Preview
by Ataru Atlanta on Mar 21, 2010 at 10:56 PM
Setting aside the package of fixes (bed time here), HR 3590 just completed a Tolkein-esque journey to a 219-212 victory in the House. Are you happy? Sad? Just glad that the political discourse will FINALLY shift to something else?
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10 Responses to “#hcr Open Thread”
Exhausted. Dumbfounded. Glad, happy & Fired UP to take out a few more R's. And I can finally start writing checks again too I guess. Progress = More Hope.
JMP
We still have a broken system, albeit one that will (conservatively) cost $94 billion more every year.
I'm not sure how I feel that $94 billion a year is kind of *meh* now.
The system's being fixed, albeit very slowly. It's not the way I would have done or preferred it, but it's some definite progress & the first decent steps at reform. Social Security & Medicare started out this way too. I'm unfamiliar with the $94Bill per year claims, so please do provide a cite if possible, IRE. The figures I've seen do not net out to that. Be that as it may? We've spent that much & more in Iraq for the last decade on a 'war of choice' that was unneeded, unnecessary & probably in the end illegal. This effort? Will kill far less people. That's our government doing 'better things' with our tax dollars, IMHO.
JMP
Dude, the system is COMPLETELY UNSUSTAINABLE. A "very slow" fix is not good.
Sorry bro but you just earned a HUGE facepalm.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/113xx/doc11355/hr4872.pdf
I am happy.
The bill really isnt that good as far as where it should be, but weren't you defending barrow who wants to reform it even slower?
I say a lot but my simple response is that means I am defending his stance on the bill? TBH not having to spend $940 billion to not fix a system is better than spending $940 billion to not fix a system, at least in my eyes.
Hey, tomayto tomahto.
False equivalency.
It's $940 billion to not fix a system (HCR) vs. $1.2 trillion to not fix a system (no HCR).
Yeah, I'm not seeing a Net cost per year of close to $100 Bill. It will vary greatly year by year. Which is very important.
But you want to know more about unsustainable systems? Try this on for size for higher ed: http://howtheuniversityworks.com/wordpress/
Just a peek into the fractured drug mfg & production systems: http://drugresistantstaph.blogspot.com/
Want more examples from all over? Try here too on our malformed & supremely wasteful power distribution & energy systems:
ucsusa.org/
How about our crumbling national infrastructure? loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/civilengtb.html and here:
blog.civilengineeringcentral.com/2010/02/09/the-national-infrastructure-bank/
We got lots of broken, malformed, wasteful, & decrepit, illogically & poorly adapted for the coming century systems here. All over. Take your pick. All will cost plenty of crazy cash.
Sadly, most citizens will remain reluctant to pay for what we desperately need to meet the demands of the future. We can sit back and whine about it all, wring our hands about the tragedy & enormity of it all & maybe even try to hide & ignore it all for a while longer. But eventually? We've all got to get off our collective asses, wipe the tears away, perish the persistent doubts of abject failure & actually start to do something to try and adequately address the problems we have in abundance. To meet the needs of the citizenry. Like adults used to do way back when. Well at least more of the time. JMP
Unsurprisingly Krugman also covers some of the same territory recently:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/.../27/file-under-vile/
JMP