| Mickey Kaus
The significant financial challenge has to do with covering the bills for old people, but that challenge exists one way or another thanks to Medicare (and the basic reality that senior citizens are largely uninsurable in the private sector) and has relatively little to do with whether or not we can afford to bring universal coverage to the under-65 crowd. If you're trying to assess the overal budgetary burden, it won't do to pass off the cost of caring for old people by saying 'Oh, that's just Medicare.' Caring for old people is still part of the health insurance system, and to the extent (a very great extent) that government will have to pay the bill through Medicare then that will be a budgetary burden that might "require a larger tax burden than citizens are willing to bear." All these factors tell me that national health care --at least "decent" egalitarian, national health care--will require a big increase in government expenditures.** Something will have to give--either a) the overall quality of health care, b) the egalitarian fairness of health care, or c) the cost of other big programs like Social Security's pensions.
GREAT plan a most useful springboard
It gives homeowners a significant but partial reduction in property taxes. And while it could put some dollars in some homeowners' pockets, it takes them back out again at the grocery counter and the barbershop. It's easy to say: Just pass it and let the voters decide by constitutional amendment. That's politics. It's not responsible stewardship. The wise leader would not hang followers out on this one. Permalink | Comments (101) | Post your comment | Categories: Column .
How Those With Underwater Mortgages Can Stay Afloat
THERE'S HARDLY A homeowner out there who doesn't cringe at the thought of how far their home's value has sunk over the past year. But for those who find that they owe their mortgage lender more than their home is actually worth, things can get especially painful. Folks with these "underwater" mortgages who are already having trouble making their payments may feel as if they have nowhere to turn. Pending mortgage rate resets, mounting debt and eventual foreclosure seems inevitable. That's largely because despite well-publicized efforts on both the federal and, in some cases, state level to help homeowners facing mortgage rate resets, no aid is being extended to those whose homes have negative equity. But while conventional "exit" options selling the home or refinancing into an affordable mortgage seem difficult or downright impossible when you're "underwater" on your mortgage, many banks are now offering solutions that help homeowners do just that.
Fragility = Power for Pelosi:
Pelosi and her crew watched as people voted. Some members actually brought fellow lawmakers with them when they marked their ballots so they could prove to Pelosi that they did vote for Murtha. And because the Murtha vote ended up being so small, the Pelosi forces can count almost down to the last ballot who voted for Murtha and who for Hoyer. [E.A.] The members who told Pelosi they'd vote for Murtha and then voted the other way could be eager recruits for Tim Noah's maybe-not-so-premature campaign. ... P.S.: Doesn't this limit Pelosi's ability to replace Jane Harman with Alcee Hastings on the Intelligence Committee? If Murtha was strike one, and replacing Harman with Hastings is strike two, will Hoyer's legions feel like waiting for strike three? ... The answer, of course, is that it would be highly embarrassing to dump the first female House speaker after a minute and a half in office.
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