[ Posted Thursday, June 25th, 2009 – 14:42 UTC ]
Every so often I get a wild-and-crazy idea on a subject I know little about. These usually are later proven to be unworkable or unwise (by people who do know what they're talking about), but this low level of success shall not deter me. Because right now, in the midst of two roaring debates ("how to pay for healthcare reform" and "how to wean ourselves off foreign oil"), there seems to be a partial answer to both that nobody has hit upon yet. Instead of paying for healthcare by taxing soda, sugar, fast food, tobacco, or liquor (all of which have been proposed so far, as well as other less-direct taxes like tinkering with the income tax system), why not tax plastic?
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[ Posted Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 – 17:58 UTC ]
So there are going to be some ground rules that are going to apply to all insurance companies, because I think the American people understand that, too often, insurance companies have been spending more time thinking about how to take premiums and then avoid providing people coverage than they have been thinking about how can we make sure that insurance is there, health care is there when families need it.
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[ Posted Monday, June 22nd, 2009 – 15:37 UTC ]
Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts has introduced two pieces of legislation on marijuana -- one medical, and one recreational -- that deserve a lot more attention (and support by fellow House members) than they have been getting. The first would change federal law to allow states to experiment with medical marijuana without interference from Washington. And the second would drastically reduce federal penalties for "personal possession" of marijuana.
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[ Posted Friday, June 19th, 2009 – 17:17 UTC ]
Welcome back to your weekly Friday Talking Points roundup. This week will be a bit unusual, as instead of the normal list of talking points Democrats everywhere should be using this weekend in conversations (especially with the media), I'm devoting the entire talking points segment to one single issue -- why what President Obama is doing on the situation in Iran is exactly the right thing to do, and why his hands are tied (by the ropes of American history) so that saying anything more enthusiastic than he's already said would actually be counterproductive if you support the Iranians currently marching in the streets. Because there is a giant elephant in the room of the discussion of American/Iranian relations that nobody wants to discuss, and nobody (other than Obama himself) is even admitting exists -- an elephant with the year "1953" painted on its side. But more about that later, let's take care of the weekly chores first.
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[ Posted Thursday, June 18th, 2009 – 16:21 UTC ]
The debate in Washington over healthcare reform seems to be missing an important voice: the public. Where are the crowds of people demanding better healthcare? Where are the voices of those who have healthcare horror stories to tell? Where is the grassroots effort to define the problem adequately?
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[ Posted Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 – 16:35 UTC ]
My first choice of a headline for today's column was "Obama's Gay Honeymoon Over," but then I thought better of it. President Obama is currently trying to placate a group of supporters who are not in a mood to be impressed right now with mere incrementalism. Gay rights supporters, quite rightly, are now asking Obama point-blank: "When are you going to make good on all those promises you made to us on the campaign trail? How long are we supposed to wait?"
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[ Posted Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 – 16:42 UTC ]
We have officially entered Cuckoo Bananas Land in the healthcare reform debate, it seems. Because that headline is correct -- some Democrats now think that the way to entice Republicans to vote for their healthcare bill is to raise people's taxes. Well, when I say "some Democrats," I should really use the more technically-correct "Senator Max Baucus." Because his plan doesn't even seem to have impressed many of his fellow Democrats so far.
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[ Posted Monday, June 15th, 2009 – 17:06 UTC ]
KENNEDY: "Hello. I'm Senator Edward Kennedy, and I'd like to talk to you about an issue I've been championing for 40 years in Washington: healthcare reform."
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[ Posted Friday, June 12th, 2009 – 17:20 UTC ]
To put it another way (that is less dependent upon how readers personally interpret italics), the first point is: "Where the heck are the Democrats in the public debate about healthcare reform? I haven't been hearing much from them on the news, or the talk shows. Who is leading the effort? Who is supporting the effort? WHERE are all the Democrats out there talking about it in public?"
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[ Posted Thursday, June 11th, 2009 – 15:16 UTC ]
Tomorrow marks the end of analog television in the United States. All analog broadcasting signals will go permanently dark some time tomorrow (times vary by station). But while others are hailing the dawn of the digital television age, I have to say that this is the end of a long road which ultimately led nowhere. The opportunity lost was a big one, too -- nothing more than a complete and far-reaching reform of the way we conduct political campaigns in this country. This was a bipartisan failure, I should add -- Democrats and Republicans both bear the blame for caving to the media conglomerates' interests over the public interest.
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