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BILL SCHER
Memo To Deficit Hawks: Public Plan Option Indisputably Saves Money
When the CBO scored an early draft of the health care form bill from the Senate HELP committee as costing $1 trillion over 10 years but only covering one-third of the uninsured, obstructionists pounced and proclaimed the public plan option dead. But the CBO had not assessed the cost of the public plan option, nor a mandate on most employers to either provide insurance or contribute to the public plan. Now they have. And as serious reform advocates long claimed, including those two key provisions drops the 10-year cost of reform nearly $400 billion, while achieving near universal coverage.
Late Edition
CBO Sez Public Plan Option Cuts Cost
AP reports complete Kennedy-Dodd bill receives lower cost estimate from CBO: "The two senators said the Congressional Budget Office put the cost of the proposal at $611.4 billion over 10 years, down from $1 trillion two weeks ago. The revising also "virtually eliminates" an earlier forecast that the proposal would cause many companies to drop coverage for their workers ..."; Change.org's Tim Foley assesses the political and policy ramifications: "First of all, this kills the sticker shock stories, at least for a few days. Second, it restores the notion that you can have health care reform without some version of pay or play or the public plan, but it's cheaper to include them, no matter how politically problematic. Third, it shows the Senate Finance Committee's reaction to the initial incomplete estimate was, to be blunt, wrong."; Jonathan Cohn notes that cost estimate does not include costs and savings from Medicare & Medicaid reforms; The Hill: "The Obama administration proposed a regulation Wednesday that would shave as much as $87.5 billion from the cost of one expensive component of healthcare reform ... altering the [Medicare] payment formula to exclude the cost of prescription drugs administered by doctors in their offices, such as those that must be injected."; Schumer to push public plan option in Senate Finance Cmte. Politico; Lieberman organizing to thwart public plan option. New Haven Independent: "U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman has a bipartisan group of senators ready to help pass health care reform — minus a government-run insurance plan."; Sanders organizing a "Coalition of the Unwilling" to ensure inclusion of public plan.; Walker Report: "...thanks to the reconciliation measure adopted as part of this years budget, Sanders' 'Coalition of the Unwilling' doesn't need to [filibuster]. If there is no bill by October 15th health care reform must go through reconciliation ... All they need to do is slow down the whole process."; Activists and bloggers organize breast cancer survivors for public plan. HuffPost; Health Care for America Now's Alex Thurston puts CNN poll numbers in context: "...levels of support change based on whether the pollster explains the policy they are asking about or simply associates it with a political figure ... Americans tend to balk at the idea that one powerful individual could reorganize the health system in our country."; Time's Karen Tumulty says Obama's town hall remarks indicate willingness to accept limits on health benefits tax deduction: "On Tuesday, Obama himself sounded almost resigned that taxing health benefits is now front and center in the health care debate ... The President, says he still wouldn't go as far as McCain proposed and completely eliminate the exclusion that now exists on taxation of employer-provided health benefits ... But Obama is now indicating a new willingness to go at least part of the way there."; AP reports private insurance coverage is at 50-year low: "About 65% of non-elderly Americans had private insurance in 2008, down from 67% the year before, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Climate Bill Still Reverberates
W. Post's E.J. Dionne highlights newly elected Dems who stepped up to vote "Yea": "That some highly vulnerable Democrats in the House were willing to face tens of thousands of dollars worth of Republican attack ads as the price of supporting a bill to curb global warming is the untold story of what, so far, is the year's most dramatic legislative showdown ... another factor is changing the political calculus: the rise of a substantial alternative-energy business that encompasses wind and solar. For the first time, the political meaning of the word 'energy' is not confined to oil and gas, even if old energy is still far more connected politically."; Wonk Room's Lee Fang debunks conservative attacks: "Swimming Upstream Against Public Opinion, NRCC Running Anti-Clean Energy Ads Laced With Misinformation"; New international agreement. Bloomberg: "The U.S. is joining other developed countries for the first time in saying global greenhouse gases should peak by 2020 and the average worldwide temperature shouldn't rise more than 2 degrees Celsius, according to a draft document of the Group of Eight industrialized nations."; Kerry more optimistic on Senate bill than international treaty. Bloomberg: "'Sixty-seven votes is a big target here,' Kerry said last week, before Congress left for a one-week break. 'We may be able to pass something that puts America on track to accomplish our set of goals. But we may pass it with 60 votes, or 61 or whatever, and that's not 67 [need to ratify treaties.]'"; Krugman tweaks Prez on opposition to carbon tariffs: "So the economics are right; it's WTO-legal; and it would neutralize a major political argument against controlling greenhouse gases. Why, oh, why, would Obama say 'Ni'?"
You should also know...
467K Jobs Cut in June; Jobless Rate at 26-Year High; Bank Fees Rise as Lenders Try to Offset Losses; SEC Lawyer Issued Madoff Warning In 2004; California in 'Fiscal Emergency'; States Face Severe Fiscal Crunch; Toy Makers to Report to Consumers In Safety Proposal
 
LEO HINDREY AND LEO GERARD
Our Jobless Recovery
thenation.com — If current conditions continue, we will head not just toward a jobless, and a manufacturing jobs-less, recovery but also toward an even more weakened economic base that is incapable of sustaining a vibrant middle class. And yet the conditions will continue unless the administration addresses two serious shortcomings in its economic program.
DAVE JOHNSON
Did Free Trade Cause the Recession?
huffingtonpost.com — For many years the world has suffered under a "free trade" regime that eliminates good paying jobs in every country, sending the work to countries that keep wages low and restrict workers' ability to organize for a better life. The profits went to an already-wealthy few and the inequities increased, wealth concentrating massively at the very top. And now consumers around the world have run out of money. This is not a surprise. Did these "free" trade policies cause the recession?
MIKE LUX
The Fight Over the New Pecora Commission
openleft.com — President Obama told Wall Street CEOs awhile back that he was the only thing that stood between them and pitchforks. If Democrats protect Wall Street from the populist "pitchforks", they will end up being skewered themselves.
JAMES KWAK
The Two Sides of the Balance Sheet
baselinescenario.com — As anyone still reading about the financial crisis is probably aware, a balance sheet has two sides. On the left there are assets; on the right there are liabilities and equity; equity = assets minus liabilities. The goal has always been to provide confidence that there is enough capital to withstand the impact of market and economic turmoil — in particular, its impact on the toxic assets that litter banks' balance sheets. However, there are two alternative approaches to doing this.
JOE PEYRONNINQ
Legacy of Shame
huffingtonpost.com — Most of Madoff's victims were pleased with his 150-year sentence, saying it would serve as a deterrent in the future. But unless regulations are properly reformed, rigorously applied and accountability enforced there will be no real deterrent. Madoff's self-proclaimed "legacy of shame" extends to those who provided weak oversight and lax enforcement.
JOHN PETRO
After the Bubble: A New Direction for Housing
dmiblog.com — The housing bubble provided some clear indicators that there is something wrong with our current patterns of housing development. There is nothing sustainable about our current housing model. It has real costs on our pocketbooks, our economy, and our environment.
CHRIS BOWERS
The Problem With The Public Option
openleft.com — The main goal of health care reform is to lower the cost of health insurance. Apropos, Olympia Snowe thinks that the problem with a public health insurance option is that a public option would ... wait for it ... lower the cost of health insurance.
SAHAR ISSA AND JEREMY SCAHILL
How Can We Have Sovereignty When We Don't Have Electricity or Water?
democracynow.org — As Iraq's government declares "National Sovereignty Day," two journalists discuss the realities and aftermath of the six-year-occupation, and the challenges Iraqis and their government face as U.S. troops withdraw from the countries major cities and town.
MIKE ELK
Worker Uprising Against Wells Fargo Spreads After Major Victory
huffingtonpost.com — This week, workers at Hartmarx Factory won a major victory against Wells Fargo, as Wells Fargo agreed to keep their factory open. Their victory yesterday represents a major triumph in the growing trend of factory sit ins that started last December when workers, members of United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago.
 
MONICA SANCHEZ
Drug Manufacturers Promise $80 Billion In Rx Savings, But How Much Are They Saving Themselves?
Drug manufacturers are not acting out of a charitable impulse. They are trying to forestall strong health reform legislation that would cost the industry more than it is promising.
LILA KALICK
Spare Us Another 8 Years of Faulty US/China Trade Policy
On Monday, The International Trade Commission (ITC) unanimously voted to recommend that President Obama impose tariffs on the import of Chinese tires for three years. The new administration will have until September 17 to decide what, if any, relief to provide based on the ITC's recommendation.
ERIC LOTKE
2044 on FireDogLake
FireDogLake will feature Eric Lotke's 2044 on its book salon this Sunday evening. Please join them! In 2044, the problem isn't Big Brother. It's Big Brother, Inc.
Skyrocketing Medical Costs Putting Care Out of Reach
Skyrocketing medical costs are pricing care out of reach for families and business, leaving us without good health insurance choices.

Since 2000, family health insurance premiums have risen 57%.

47 million Americans are uninsured, up from 38 million in 2000, including 9 million kids.

Only 60% of American businesses offered health benefits in 2007, down from 69% in 2000.

More than half of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills.
What they are talking about is nothing but socialized medicine.
Conservatives opposed great reforms like Social Security and Medicare by screaming socialism. They were wrong then, and they're wrong now.

Guaranteed affordable health insurance would not make doctors and other health care professionals work for the government. The progressive plan is about making sure you have good health insurance you can afford and the ability to go to the doctors you want.
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