Original editorial at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/opinion/keller-obamacare-the-rest-of-the-story.html?comments#permid=10259971:10260033
I am all in favor of ObamaCare, and I hope it "works", whatever that means. However, having lived many years in Germany, insured under their "socialist" public, mandatory health insurance and health care, i am amazed how utterly complicated, bureaucratic, inefficient and just plain bad the US healthcare system, including this patchwork of political compromises, ObamaCare, is. Americans pride themselves as "exceptional", and "consumer oriented/friendly" but in health care and health insurance, one can only call the American approach "exceptionally" bad.
Far from the horror stories, all right-wing propaganda, about long wait times, denied services and poor quality service in "socialized" medicine, we received prompt, high-quality and extremely personalized treatment in Germany. Never were there any long involved "application/vetting" processes to see if the services would be covered.
By contrast, six months into our last stay in Germany we were still fighting with Medicare and a US service provider about getting a routine annual checkup covered, which we chose to do before leaving the US.
In products and services with a strong consumer, competitive aspect, the US still shines. But anything involving primarily a "social service" aspect, where "market forces" are weak to nonexistent, such as medical insurance, medical service, social services in general, the US seems completely incompetent - Social Security and Medicare excepted, but those are from a different era...
Here a more complete (and more competent) critique of ObamaCare from the "German perspective":
http://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article120872921/Warum-meine-Famil...
Monday, October 14, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Comment on: "The Shadow of the Sequester" by Russ Douthat, NYT, Oct 8, 2013
For original Blog entry, see:
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/the-shadow-of-the-sequester/
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/the-shadow-of-the-sequester/
Comment on: "Should the President Negotiate?" by Ross Douthat, NYT Oct 8, 2013
For original post, see:
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/should-the-president-negotiate/?comments#permid=10204446
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/should-the-president-negotiate/?comments#permid=10204446
Kevin Hassett and Abby McCloskey, in the Wall Street Journal, and by extension, Mr. Douthat, conveniently neglect to be specific on the history of the debt ceiling authorizations, which is typical of the disingenuous use of statistics by politicians.
Let's be clear, one half, 50% of the debt ceiling authorizations were "clean". Most of the others were attached to continuing (budget) resolutions.
"Other times, the limit was paired with reforms, only some of which were related to the budget."
Note the purposely non-specific way this is stated. I am sure that for bone-fide journalists it would be a simple matter to find out exactly how many times debt limit legislation was attached to partisan (Republican) extortion - I suspect most of them were - but of course such specificity would be counterproductive to their (GOP, WSJ) insane position.
Mr. Douthat is obviously a frustrated speech writer, as he continues to use his blogs and columns to write fictitious speeches for presidents. This time, however, I think he has hit the nail on the head.
I would even go further and insist on passage of universal background checks, as well as up-down votes on all pending (judicial) appointments, just to give the GOP a taste of their own tactics...
Let's be clear, one half, 50% of the debt ceiling authorizations were "clean". Most of the others were attached to continuing (budget) resolutions.
"Other times, the limit was paired with reforms, only some of which were related to the budget."
Note the purposely non-specific way this is stated. I am sure that for bone-fide journalists it would be a simple matter to find out exactly how many times debt limit legislation was attached to partisan (Republican) extortion - I suspect most of them were - but of course such specificity would be counterproductive to their (GOP, WSJ) insane position.
Mr. Douthat is obviously a frustrated speech writer, as he continues to use his blogs and columns to write fictitious speeches for presidents. This time, however, I think he has hit the nail on the head.
I would even go further and insist on passage of universal background checks, as well as up-down votes on all pending (judicial) appointments, just to give the GOP a taste of their own tactics...
Friday, October 4, 2013
Comment on: "Egypt Back at Square One" by URSULA LINDSEY, NYT, Oct 4, 2013
For original Blog post, see:
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/egypt-back-at-square-one/?ref=international
By and large the (news) media got it all wrong when it comes to predicting the success/failure of the "Arab Spring", especially in Egypt. There was an unrealistic euphoria about the young generation, "armed" with social media, to change what is essentially a religion-based and tribal-based society (much like Europe in the Middle Ages) into an advanced, modern democracy "over night". Mr. Friedman is a columnist who was especially vocal in this regard.
As depressing and "defeatist" as it may sound, societies seem to need to go through "modernization" and "liberalization" and "secularization" processes at their own pace. A society, for example, cannot change from a religion-dominated one to a secular, civil society overnight. We, the West", can offer support through education and economic aid, but we certainly cannot speed up the process by intervening on one side or the other, especially militarily.
A minority of educated people in a country can have great influence on the needed secularization and modernization process but it is not a given that this will lead in the "right" direction. The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, for example, was a student in California and became so disgusted with what he perceived as the debauchery of "the West" that it lead to the creation of a religious and repressive movement.
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/egypt-back-at-square-one/?ref=international
By and large the (news) media got it all wrong when it comes to predicting the success/failure of the "Arab Spring", especially in Egypt. There was an unrealistic euphoria about the young generation, "armed" with social media, to change what is essentially a religion-based and tribal-based society (much like Europe in the Middle Ages) into an advanced, modern democracy "over night". Mr. Friedman is a columnist who was especially vocal in this regard.
As depressing and "defeatist" as it may sound, societies seem to need to go through "modernization" and "liberalization" and "secularization" processes at their own pace. A society, for example, cannot change from a religion-dominated one to a secular, civil society overnight. We, the West", can offer support through education and economic aid, but we certainly cannot speed up the process by intervening on one side or the other, especially militarily.
A minority of educated people in a country can have great influence on the needed secularization and modernization process but it is not a given that this will lead in the "right" direction. The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, for example, was a student in California and became so disgusted with what he perceived as the debauchery of "the West" that it lead to the creation of a religious and repressive movement.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Comment on: "Why The Right Fights", by Ross Douthat, NYT, Oct. 2, 2013
For the original Douthat blog post see:
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/why-the-right-fights/
From the Frum quote: "...they felt the public’s wary eyes upon them. They didn’t dare, and they realized that they didn’t dare."
Mr. Ross, it might be worth remembering that "..the public’s wary eyes upon them..." is another way of saying that the majority does NOT want to undo to New Deal and the Great Society. Last time I checked, "democracy" still means that the majority opinion rules, albeit with appropriate safeguards for minority rights.
So perhaps what the so-called "real conservatives" fail to understand is "democracy". That failure to understand democracy is certainly evident in their current attempt to literally undo a program ("ObamaCare)" which was legitimately and constitutionally implemented by holding the entire country hostage through a government shutdown and possible government default.
They pretend to "just" want to fix ObamaCare (and fixing it will certainly be required), but their methods of extortion are completely undemocratic and insane.
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/why-the-right-fights/
From the Frum quote: "...they felt the public’s wary eyes upon them. They didn’t dare, and they realized that they didn’t dare."
Mr. Ross, it might be worth remembering that "..the public’s wary eyes upon them..." is another way of saying that the majority does NOT want to undo to New Deal and the Great Society. Last time I checked, "democracy" still means that the majority opinion rules, albeit with appropriate safeguards for minority rights.
So perhaps what the so-called "real conservatives" fail to understand is "democracy". That failure to understand democracy is certainly evident in their current attempt to literally undo a program ("ObamaCare)" which was legitimately and constitutionally implemented by holding the entire country hostage through a government shutdown and possible government default.
They pretend to "just" want to fix ObamaCare (and fixing it will certainly be required), but their methods of extortion are completely undemocratic and insane.
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Another OECD study was released today, capturing the level of education/skills of the "adult population" (15-65 year olds) in some major industrialized countries, and as with most other OECD statistics, the US ranks in the lower part of the bottom half.
Far from the favorite American mantra of "American exceptionalism", what we need is some serious new policies, programs and legislation to move America back to the forefront of the advanced industrialized world. But Mr. Douthat seems to think that the kind of legislative incompetence and non-action, exemplified by the 2011 Sequester, and by the current idiocy of dogmatic games of chicken is a good example of democratic governance.