Health Reform Is Hard

by Paul Krugman

Jan 18, 2016

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/health-reform-is-hard/?comments#permid=17260636

As someone who became politically conscious during high school in Germany, I have always considered myself a Social Democrat in the European tradition. So I tend to agree with most of Bernie's criticisms of the extreme laissez fairs market economy practiced in the US, including the free market emphasis of the US health care system.

Where I part ways with Bernie Sanders is his almost exclusive reliance on a "huge social revolution" when he is asked for policy specifics on how he will implement his ideas - that just is not going to happen; quite the contrary, the Congress will most likely remain unde GOP control.

When finally pushed to actually come up with specifics on how he would fund "Medicare for all", his numbers are complete fantasy. His promise of $500-$600 total annual out of pocket cost for health care for the average American family is completely disingenuous. In typical politician fashion he also obfuscates the true cost for health care by combining various taxes in a completely non-transparent way. Just like Medicare (and like many European single payer systems) the taxes for healthcare should be explicitly and transparently collected through a payroll tax, separate from income tax.

Hillary is right - given the political reality of US politics, trying to replace ObamaCare with a single payer system would endanger the very precarious gains that have been made in the US health care system under Obama.

Ten Theses on Immigration

by Ross Douthat

Jan 13, 2016

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/ten-theses-on-immigration/?comments#permid=17216856:17216924

This article shows that anti-immigrant, and in many ways racist views are not restricted to the nut-cases in the GOP, like Trump and Cruz.

The argument by Mr. Douthat starts with the completely false premise that the "nation states" existing today constitute a racially, religiously and culturally homogeneous grouping of peoples going back to the beginning of history. Virtually every nation state in existence today is made up of very diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, many of which exhibiting themselves in intra-nation-state ethnic, religious, cultural, and thus political conflicts. The US itself is a prime example of such a nation state of very recent origin with a very diverse mixture of ethnic, religious and and cultural groups - and for the most part these diverse groups get along quite well - but for the purposeful, politically motivated fear-, distrust- and hate-mongering by "conservatives", many of whom claim to be devout Christians, of the catholic or evangelical variety.

In European nation-states this intermixing of ethnicity, religion and culture is, for the most part, further in the past, but such "mixing", integration and assimilation has been going on for 1000's of years.

If Spain is a homogeneous "nation-state", as Mr Douthat implicitly postulates, forming a bulwark for stability and national identity, then how do we understand the Catalan separatist movement?

Similarly, if Great Britain is a cohesive nation-state, with a cohesive ethnic, religious and cultural identity, what does the Scottish separatist movement tell us about the homogeneous nations-states so immutable and important to Mr Douthat.

Germany's history as a nations-state is in some ways even more recent than that of the US. Italy is a relatively recent addition to nation-states as well, and its history is testament to a huge melting of different ethnicities, religions and cultures.

It is certainly true that a large, uncontrolled influx of "foreigners" can cause huge strains on existing nations, and Germany specifically, and Europe more generally, is testament to that. The large influx into Germany of first Italian, then Greek, and most recently Turkish "guest workers", who ended up staying, have been integrated quite well - the Italians and Greeks have assimilated very well, to the point that German cities today would not be complete without their popular Italian and Greek restaurants; Turkish assimilation is still incomplete, but making progress, to the point where a number of prominent German MP's are of Turkish decent.

In Germany the primary opposition to "foreigners" is from the nationalistic, right-wing fanatics of PEGIDA and the constantly morphing and rightward drifting AfD. In the US this role is played by the Tea Party wing-nuts, for whom Mr. Douthat has now chosen to be a spokesperson and propagandist.

Germany on the Brink

by Ross Douthat

Jan 9, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/opinion/sunday/germany-on-the-brink.html?comments#permid=17173940

It seems Ross Douthat is auditioning for a cabinet position with Donald Trump - his nutty "Merkel must go" fits right in with the craziness of The Donald.

To be sure, Germany has probably bitten off more that it can comfortably digest. Although 1.2 million refugees is a very large number, one needs to keep in mind that a fair number of refugees are being sent back, especially from some of the Balkan areas, which are not consider war zones. Also, the large numbers that flooded in during the second half of 2015 will not continue for a number of reasons - the path through the Balkans is being increasingly shut down, and negotiation with Turkey are starting the slow down the flow through that country.

The assimilation/integration process will be extremely difficult - Germany, and Europe in general, do not have a good record for integration, especially of Muslim immigrants and refugees. Many of the apocalyptical scenarios painted by Douthat are certainly possible. But instead of reacting in the Trump/Cruz and general GOP hysterical fear-mongering fashion, it would be good to encourage Germany in its attempts to deal with this huge issue.

It is interesting to speculate about the holier-than-thou column Douthat might have written had Germany closed its borders and we would have had to watch on TV the chaos and misery of starving refugees at the borders, or, for that matter, if Germany now chose the follow the "Trump Doctrine" and shipped all 1.2 million refugees back to Syria.

Germany’s Post-Cologne Hysteria

By Anna Sauerbrey

Jan 8, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/09/opinion/germanys-post-cologne-hysteria.html?comments#permid=17165825

I left Germany in 1963 to become, ultimately, an American Citizen, I have spent many years living and working in Germany with my (American) family, in the 80's and 90's. I am thus an (interested) outside observer of events in Germany.

In general, I am very impressed with the way Germany has developed since I left, not just economically (everyone knows that), but, more interestingly, socially. In that context, I think Germany deserves a lot of credit for the way it has dealt with previous waves of "immigration", the Italian, Greek and Turkish "guest workers", European integration, the strains of reunification, and now the refugee crisis.

It is true, that "integration" is not a strong suit in Germany, or in Europe - even people there in the second generation are still often referred to as "foreigners". True integration of new arrivals has been one of the great success stories of the US - with notable exceptions (African Americans).
But while Americans seem to be getting increasingly paranoid about the "outside world", Germany is showing an amazing openness, both for European integration and accepting refugees.

The hysteria after the Cologne events are disturbing, but to be expected, and not at all pervasive. By contrast, given a similar event in the US today, I would hate to see the reaction of the current batch of Republican candidates, in their haste to claim positions on the farthest right, fanning hysterical paranoia and fear.

How Donald Trump Loses

By Ross Douthat

Jan 7, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/opinion/campaign-stops/how-donald-trump-loses.html?comments&_r=0#permid=17149708:17149928

There are two main reasons for the continued high poll standings for Trump:

First and foremost, Trump's success is the logical conclusion of a decades long strategy by Republicans to ruthlessly use fear, fueled by outright mis-information and propagandistic fear-mongering, to energize subgroups of the population to vote based on their worst instincts. This started with the Nixon "Southern Strategy" and has now culminated with the under-educated, economically despondent and hopeless middle-aged whites, who, with the exit of most manufacturing jobs, see no hope for the future.

There is some "divine justice" in seeing the hapless and increasingly desparate hand-wringing of the "Republican Establishment" trying to figure out a way to stop the floodwaters of the raging tea-party element they themselves heedlessly fostered for all these years. Their brainless slogans, like "The Government is the problem" are now coming home to roost.

Donald Trumps continued success also lies with the (news) media itself. Focused as they are on the sensational rather than the substantive and factual, they ignore the fact that virtually all of Trump's policy proposals, like building a wall and having Mexico pay for it, are complete nonsense - they merely obliquely refer to "fact checkers" and the none-sense "pants-on-fire" ratings, rather than engage in what used to be known as "journalism", by pinning Mr Trump down during the endless interviews with "facts".

Every time Trump makes a nonsense statement (Cruz is not a natural born citizen), instead of just reporting it (which, I suppose they must), followed by an embarrassed (because this nit-with is actually a "serious" candidate for Preident of the US) silence, each such statement is followed by hours of "analysis" and "expert panel discussions", giving Trump exactly what he wants - free media exposure.

Trump has recognized that the Madison Avenue adage that "any publicity is good publicity" applies not only to crappy products and Hollywood personalities, but, in his case, also to politicians.

Germany, Refugee Nation

By Roger Cohen

Dec. 21, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/opinion/germany-refugee-nation.html?comments#permid=17007926

I personally support Angela Merkel in her refugee policy wholeheartedly. I was born in Germany, but have been a US citizen for almost 50 years, so it is somewhat discouraging for me to witness the US I immigrated to some 50 years ago with the frightened, xenophobic US of today. My mother, just turned 95 and still very alert, lives in Germany, and she is not so enthused about the refugees, mirroring the attitude of a significant minority of Germans. The US, with its right-wing fanaticism as expressed by most of the GOP candidates, is going the nationalistic, right-wing path of Hungary, Poland, even Denmark. Right-wing, anti-foreigner attitudes are increasing everywhere. It is interesting to note that media coverage in, for example Germany, is much more balanced than in the US, where the sensationalist fear-mongering of most 24-hour news outlets, and many other media outlets, exploits the fears of people to gain "ratings" and thus ad revenue - Obama is right in this regard, as reported this morning. It should not be underestimated how such unbalanced news reporting can easily cause the US to spiral into irrational fear and hateful actions. When audiences cheer the fear and war-mongering statements of the Trumps, Christies ("I will shoot down Russian planes in Syria") and others, then we are very close to xenophobic insanity. There is no proof that terrorists have been funneled into western countries as Syrian refugees - there are enough "locals" eager to participate now.

The Fate of Obamacare

by Ross Douthat

Dec. 19, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/opinion/sunday/the-fate-of-obamacare.html?comments#permid=16996855

"Maybe that debate will happen. But it seems just as likely that the new budget is less a prelude than the sign of a new normal, in which Obamacare is neither fixed nor fully paid for nor furiously opposed, but simply limps along with the rest of our health care system for as long as both can limp."

Substitute any other of the many serious issues facing the US for "Obamacare" in the above, and you have a perfect description of the dysfunction of the current Congress.

The failure to include the needed new taxes to help fund Obamacare into the new spending bill is not happenstance; it is the deliberate Republican effort to continue to fight a clandestine "war of attrition" against ObamaCare. 

How to make a national healthcare insurance system work is no big secret - just look at ANY other such system implemented by other "advanced" (and some not so advanced) countries, and they put the US system to shame, both in terms of cost and healthcare available to the AVERAGE person. The fact that the US refuses to learn from such experience is a result of the arrogance ("American exceptionalism") and ignorance ("those failed socialist states in Europe") of our elected officials, and by extension, of large portions of the American population.