As is the standard in Washington these days, it turns out that both sides (Democrats and Republicans respectively) were wrong on what happened in Benghazi, Libya. As The New York Times reported today, the attack in Benghazi was neither the work of Al Qaeda nor was it spontaneous in nature.
The former Secretary to the UN, now National Security Adviser, Susan Rice's notorious battery of interviews in which she said that the attack was motivated by a video that insulted Islam turns out to be true according to the report. However, local militias certainly planned and coordinated it as opposed to being a spontaneous event. This incorrect second part speaks to the Administration's (of which Ms. Rice was a spokesperson) misreading of the overall security situation not only in Benghazi but in all of Libya and that is not to be taken lightly. Never mind that it was obvious to the locals that the mission in Benghazi was a CIA outpost instead of a diplomatic U.S. mission - spies exposed are obviously vulnerable, any movie would tell you that.
We're not as apologist as Mr. Gregory in citing early stages and fog-of-war reasons for getting the information wrong because it puts into question the validity and trustworthiness of the statements, but there is a disparity between the time it takes to get the information correct and when it needs to be delivered. The Administration had to speak before it had all the facts.
On the other hand, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sat in the studio contesting the report's investigated conclusion that Al Qaeda was not involved in the attack. We did not expect Mr. Issa to reverse his position after holding extensive hearing on the matter of whether the terrorist organization was behind the attack that occurred on September 11th, 2012, in which he concluded before the hearings were even held that they were responsible, the video played no part and that there was a cover-up at the highest level of government - opinions that he maintained this morning.
"No chance" were the words that David Kirkpatrick, who reported the story for The Times, used for the claim that Al Qaeda was involved, but Mr. Issa seems to only want to see the select facts that support his interpreted conclusion, and this morning dismissing the report as after-the-fact and therefore not accurate. Not to dishonor the memory of those who died in Benghazi, but Mr. Issa's partisanship is so blind that when the date of September 11th is uttered, he immediately thinks 2012 instead of 2001. That's not to say that the date was coincidental, but more like convenient. Benghazi should have never been a partisan issue, but he contributed to it being one more than anyone else. We agree with Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) that Mr. Issa created an unnecessary distraction for a year, but he shouldn't have used the word 'crusade' to describe Mr. Issa's position. Of all words, it perpetuates our cultural insensitivity to Islam. Not realizing the historical significance of that word for Muslims speaks to the underestimation of the reaction to a video that insults Islam, something Mr. Issa said the Administration used as a talking point.
It was a local terrorist attack on a poorly disguised and defended CIA outpost, but not an Al Qaeda one as Mr. Issa has claimed. This is a clear illustration of both sides acting of the consequences of political prosecution instead of what they should have done which was simply get to the bottom of what happened and to make sure it didn't repeat itself.
Professor of History at George Mason University, Dr.
Peter Stearns called Washington's political paralysis an embarrassment to the United States around the world. Well, so is the way our political leaders handled what happened in Benghazi, more concerned with political blame than the fact that 4 Americans died. It's speaks definitively to the round table's discussion about the 'state of the world' in 2014 and the position of the United States.
Despite all the in-fighting, the United States is in relatively good economic shape comparatively to many other countries, and this is what the U.S. should leverage more for influence. That along with robust diplomacy is the boldness that the panel was referring to. As other countries advance, Robin Wright mentioned Brazil and Iran, they'll want a say in a more and more integrated world economy that's why in the long game, it's smart to engage Iran. Image 10 to 15 years from now, Iran potentially being a reliable market for American products.
However, where the U.S. falls short with Iranian diplomacy is not thinking more regionally, and what we mean is also openly discussing Iran's proxy army called Hezbollah and the funding for it. That would be bold diplomacy, something we believe Secretary Kerry is capable of. Let's face it, if Hezbollah weren't involved in the Syrian civil war, there would be a lot more clarity on a quicker outcome.
The Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Elliott Abrams, said the U.S. is receding in the Middle East and it would seem that way with the Saudis and Egyptians becoming more and more indifferent toward U.S. relations. However, we see it more of a regrouping while changing strategy in the region. For the past decade-plus, we've been lighting it up militarily and where has it gotten us? Beside, what have the Saudis given the United States lately? Some would answer, 15 of 19.
But that's not the answer, the Saudis have given the U.S. the leverage to get everyone to the table. Should the U.S. trust the Saudis; perhaps not but they also shouldn't let the alliance drift and instead use it diplomatically to achieve first a civil coexistence in the region before you can even discuss sustained peace.
The issue of income inequality not only in the U.S. but throughout the world will become an even bigger issue in 2014 than it started to be this year. In The New York Times Benghazi article, there is even mention that the attack was also motivated, be it a small part, by the reluctance of American business investment. Economic opportunity or the lack thereof plays at the core of tragedy and it took Pope Francis to bring it front and center.
The other issue that will continue to grow in stature in terms of global debate will be surveillance. Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union who also serves as Edward Snowden's legal advisor pointed out the one for sure thing that Mr. Snowden got right, which was that he brought the American people into the conversation; it's how he 'won.' Also, Mr. Wizner made the important distinction between the Constitutionality of surveilling one American versus all of them, which we should all keep in mind.
Despite what Justice William Pauley of the U.S. District Court ruled, it's clear to a majority of Americans that the NSA has run amok, and something has to be done to curtail unchecked surveillance power.
With all this talk about being down economically and big brother continually looking over your shoulder, we're optimist for 2014 because we are in fact collectively more in the know about these major issues and having more information about something always leads to a positive.
Happy New Year
Round Table: Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson; NBC News Chief Foreign
Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell; Council on Foreign Relations
Senior Fellow Elliott Abrams; Woodrow Wilson Center Senior Fellow Robin
Wright; Provost and Professor of History at George Mason University, Dr.
Peter Stearns
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
12.22.13: Managing Healthcare and the NSA
Rationality creates certainty and from the interview with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, certainty is what the world economy is relieved to see from a U.S. Congress that acted rationally when it created a bi-partisan budget deal.
As the world's richest country (the economic leader), the United States has to eliminate fear, as Ms. Lagarde put it even though as Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) noted Congress agreed to raise spending and raise taxes in this budget deal. If you're a conservative that sounds bad, but remember that the budget deal has net deficit reduction. Also, Congress working together along with the Fed buying less and less debt are indicators, as Ms. Lagarde noted leads to predictions of a stronger 2014 economically because it will lead to corporations investing and hiring more. In the United States, the last economic quarter showed a 4.1% growth and unemployment is at a 5-year low at 7% (still not good enough).
Anecdotally, there is Senator Jim Imhofe (R-OK) who recently, tragically lost a son in a plane crash. This column rarely agrees with Mr. Imhofe's policy positions, but he has our sincerely condolences. In the interview, Mr. Imhofe said that he might get in trouble for saying so, but admitted that more of his Democratic colleagues reached out to him than did Republicans. A sad byproduct from a sad story is that this is 'surprising.' But what Mr. Imhofe concluded was that listening to his colleagues on the other side of the aisle and trying to work together is a good thing; this coming from one of the most partisan politicians in the Senate.
It all sounds like good news with the economic indicators noted above along with a Stock Market that is closing at record levels, but these indicators are not applying to the majority of Americans or citizens of the world for that matter because the income inequality gap is continually widening. It's a topic that United States politicians simply will not touch. Republicans believe for the most part that it doesn't exist or is simply luck-of-the-draw and Democrats hate being accused of class warfare and don't have enough political muscle, which limits their desire to give more support to low-income families through raising taxes.
The United States isn't close to it, but there is a breaking point where the fabric of society is at stake as Ms. Lagarde said. You see already happening now in many countries where civil society is breaking down because of lack of economic opportunity and furthermore a fundamental lack of hope that it will get better.
Where Americans keenly have a lack of hope is in the confidence that the United States can positively move the country ahead in a competent and trustworthy manner. When we say 'competent,' think healthcare, and for 'trustworthy,' there's the NSA of course. Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the Administration has no choice but to get it right, but really the whole United States government has no choice to get it right, and that means that no matter how many changes need to be made to get it right, it simply has to happen. As Senator Coburn stated, the government can not run one sixth of the economy (approximately 17 percent). Fine, but it is the government's job to lower that percentage. There was lots of talk of other countries' healthcare costs comparatively to the United States, and the reason that they are considerably lower is because they are government-run, single payer systems.
That's not what Americans want, unless you're 65 or older and on Medicare. Without single payer, you keep the insurance companies (the private sector) profit in place, but to do that you have to create a mandate to get everyone insured while keeping those companies viable. As Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rightly noted, the individual mandate is tied to accepting people with preexisting conditions in as much as you can not have one without the other. So fixes are needed, or a better option, which Republicans haven't come up with. And given the lack of a viable alternative Republicans, like Anna Navarro, can not complain that an aspect of the healthcare act doesn't work when they don't want the entire thing in the first place.
And as for the NSA, that is just one big ball of ugly. Just consider what Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said about the agency that collects all of our private data and conversations that a subcontractor stole all of their secrets, the extent of which they don't even know. David Gregory noted that the Constitution prohibits the government from being put in a position of abuse. This is clear where the NSA sits, despite Congressman Peter King saying that no abuse by the NSA has been found.
Clearly, no one is looking.
Round Table: New York Times columnist David Brooks, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Republican strategist Ana Navarro
As the world's richest country (the economic leader), the United States has to eliminate fear, as Ms. Lagarde put it even though as Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) noted Congress agreed to raise spending and raise taxes in this budget deal. If you're a conservative that sounds bad, but remember that the budget deal has net deficit reduction. Also, Congress working together along with the Fed buying less and less debt are indicators, as Ms. Lagarde noted leads to predictions of a stronger 2014 economically because it will lead to corporations investing and hiring more. In the United States, the last economic quarter showed a 4.1% growth and unemployment is at a 5-year low at 7% (still not good enough).
Anecdotally, there is Senator Jim Imhofe (R-OK) who recently, tragically lost a son in a plane crash. This column rarely agrees with Mr. Imhofe's policy positions, but he has our sincerely condolences. In the interview, Mr. Imhofe said that he might get in trouble for saying so, but admitted that more of his Democratic colleagues reached out to him than did Republicans. A sad byproduct from a sad story is that this is 'surprising.' But what Mr. Imhofe concluded was that listening to his colleagues on the other side of the aisle and trying to work together is a good thing; this coming from one of the most partisan politicians in the Senate.
It all sounds like good news with the economic indicators noted above along with a Stock Market that is closing at record levels, but these indicators are not applying to the majority of Americans or citizens of the world for that matter because the income inequality gap is continually widening. It's a topic that United States politicians simply will not touch. Republicans believe for the most part that it doesn't exist or is simply luck-of-the-draw and Democrats hate being accused of class warfare and don't have enough political muscle, which limits their desire to give more support to low-income families through raising taxes.
The United States isn't close to it, but there is a breaking point where the fabric of society is at stake as Ms. Lagarde said. You see already happening now in many countries where civil society is breaking down because of lack of economic opportunity and furthermore a fundamental lack of hope that it will get better.
Where Americans keenly have a lack of hope is in the confidence that the United States can positively move the country ahead in a competent and trustworthy manner. When we say 'competent,' think healthcare, and for 'trustworthy,' there's the NSA of course. Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the Administration has no choice but to get it right, but really the whole United States government has no choice to get it right, and that means that no matter how many changes need to be made to get it right, it simply has to happen. As Senator Coburn stated, the government can not run one sixth of the economy (approximately 17 percent). Fine, but it is the government's job to lower that percentage. There was lots of talk of other countries' healthcare costs comparatively to the United States, and the reason that they are considerably lower is because they are government-run, single payer systems.
That's not what Americans want, unless you're 65 or older and on Medicare. Without single payer, you keep the insurance companies (the private sector) profit in place, but to do that you have to create a mandate to get everyone insured while keeping those companies viable. As Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rightly noted, the individual mandate is tied to accepting people with preexisting conditions in as much as you can not have one without the other. So fixes are needed, or a better option, which Republicans haven't come up with. And given the lack of a viable alternative Republicans, like Anna Navarro, can not complain that an aspect of the healthcare act doesn't work when they don't want the entire thing in the first place.
And as for the NSA, that is just one big ball of ugly. Just consider what Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said about the agency that collects all of our private data and conversations that a subcontractor stole all of their secrets, the extent of which they don't even know. David Gregory noted that the Constitution prohibits the government from being put in a position of abuse. This is clear where the NSA sits, despite Congressman Peter King saying that no abuse by the NSA has been found.
Clearly, no one is looking.
Round Table: New York Times columnist David Brooks, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Republican strategist Ana Navarro
Sunday, December 15, 2013
12.15.13: Compromise and Privacy
Republicans in Congress are not yet ready to utter the word 'compromise,' but most have finally realized that unless they act in the spirit of that notion, their long-term prospects for winning national elections will continue to look more like a long shot.
The Washington Post's Katleen Parker said that there isn't much public interest in the budget, and nor should there be. It should be something that Congress simply gets down without much fanfare. The reality is that it had gotten to a point where they couldn't even compromise enough to do budgetary housekeeping.
However, with the support of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) anchored the creation of a bi-partisan budget deal with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). The compromise budget served as a small, but very significant, step in body's attempt to reestablish trust with the American people and elevate a nine percent approval rating.
In more practical terms, what is does do is eliminate the possibility of a government shutdown for two years, a legislative stick in the eye of the tea party caucus who no longer have leverage to irrationally tank the world economy if they do not get everything that they want. We get at least two years of peace as far as shutdowns go; call it a well-needed extended break. Merry Christmas to us.
At the end of this clip, a reporter asks Mr. Boehner if he's telling these Tea Party Outside Interest Group to stand down, and he replies, "I don't care what they do," meaning that whatever they do, he'll challenge the credibility of it.
But let's not get too excited that this is going to start some new era of cooperation... please. We have a long way to go before this civil war in the Republican Party plays itself out. The next major battle will be the Republican Congressional primary races in 2014.
Tea Party groups, as it has been reported, have heavily criticized the budget deal and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated that 'as an American he could not vote for it,' something that Mr. Gregory had to correct himself on, because the compromise with Democrats was that there would be some sequester relief.
But in the end, the deal is a Republican win because even though it's modest. There is a net deficit reduction as Mr. Ryan pointed out. This helps Establishment Republicans because now they can say we worked with the other side and we got more of what we wanted than Democrats did. And Democrats should be more than willing to do these kinds of deals right now to help Establishment Republicans regain rationality within their party. Something that will move this process along that was mentioned by Governor Richardson during the round table discussion was that Jon Podesta, President Clinton's former Chief of Staff, has been working in the White House and communicating with Congress to facilitate these kinds of compromises, and to straighten out a disfunctional operation that is the Obama Administration.
As Senator Murray pointed out, Congress had created some much uncertainty in the business community with a governing-by-crisis approach that it rendered the prospects for real growth very dim. With all interested parties knowing all too well of this reality, Mr. Ryan, under cover fire from the House Speaker, worked out a compromise.
However, speaking about what Congress knows and doesn't, it doesn't seem like it knows much when it comes to surveillance, spying, and the NSA's data gathering.
Former head of the NSA and CIA, General Michael Hayden said that he agreed with the proposal to overhaul the parameters in which the NSA can gather information on U.S. citizens, but how do you put that genie back in the bottle? He said that he hasn't seen any abuse in the NSA's gathering of information, but could see the potential for abuse. The General is speaking in terms of what the courts have authorized, but what about the abusive nature of the intelligence gathering itself that has been brought to light by Edward Snowden? A debate as to whether the NSA should have this authority couldn't have happened due to the power of the Patriot act so really there is no dismantling of the surveillance state at this point. And to regulate it, legislators have to know the full extent of the program which they do not... Plausible deniability is political bliss.
General Hayden talked about the need for a discussion on the cultural understanding of privacy, but what he was really saying is that we need to redefine what, in fact, privacy is.
Round Table: Former New Mexico Gov. and ambassador Bill Richardson, TIME magazine Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker and Nation Public Radio’s Steve Inskeep
The Washington Post's Katleen Parker said that there isn't much public interest in the budget, and nor should there be. It should be something that Congress simply gets down without much fanfare. The reality is that it had gotten to a point where they couldn't even compromise enough to do budgetary housekeeping.
However, with the support of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) anchored the creation of a bi-partisan budget deal with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). The compromise budget served as a small, but very significant, step in body's attempt to reestablish trust with the American people and elevate a nine percent approval rating.
In more practical terms, what is does do is eliminate the possibility of a government shutdown for two years, a legislative stick in the eye of the tea party caucus who no longer have leverage to irrationally tank the world economy if they do not get everything that they want. We get at least two years of peace as far as shutdowns go; call it a well-needed extended break. Merry Christmas to us.
At the end of this clip, a reporter asks Mr. Boehner if he's telling these Tea Party Outside Interest Group to stand down, and he replies, "I don't care what they do," meaning that whatever they do, he'll challenge the credibility of it.
But let's not get too excited that this is going to start some new era of cooperation... please. We have a long way to go before this civil war in the Republican Party plays itself out. The next major battle will be the Republican Congressional primary races in 2014.
Tea Party groups, as it has been reported, have heavily criticized the budget deal and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated that 'as an American he could not vote for it,' something that Mr. Gregory had to correct himself on, because the compromise with Democrats was that there would be some sequester relief.
But in the end, the deal is a Republican win because even though it's modest. There is a net deficit reduction as Mr. Ryan pointed out. This helps Establishment Republicans because now they can say we worked with the other side and we got more of what we wanted than Democrats did. And Democrats should be more than willing to do these kinds of deals right now to help Establishment Republicans regain rationality within their party. Something that will move this process along that was mentioned by Governor Richardson during the round table discussion was that Jon Podesta, President Clinton's former Chief of Staff, has been working in the White House and communicating with Congress to facilitate these kinds of compromises, and to straighten out a disfunctional operation that is the Obama Administration.
As Senator Murray pointed out, Congress had created some much uncertainty in the business community with a governing-by-crisis approach that it rendered the prospects for real growth very dim. With all interested parties knowing all too well of this reality, Mr. Ryan, under cover fire from the House Speaker, worked out a compromise.
However, speaking about what Congress knows and doesn't, it doesn't seem like it knows much when it comes to surveillance, spying, and the NSA's data gathering.
Former head of the NSA and CIA, General Michael Hayden said that he agreed with the proposal to overhaul the parameters in which the NSA can gather information on U.S. citizens, but how do you put that genie back in the bottle? He said that he hasn't seen any abuse in the NSA's gathering of information, but could see the potential for abuse. The General is speaking in terms of what the courts have authorized, but what about the abusive nature of the intelligence gathering itself that has been brought to light by Edward Snowden? A debate as to whether the NSA should have this authority couldn't have happened due to the power of the Patriot act so really there is no dismantling of the surveillance state at this point. And to regulate it, legislators have to know the full extent of the program which they do not... Plausible deniability is political bliss.
General Hayden talked about the need for a discussion on the cultural understanding of privacy, but what he was really saying is that we need to redefine what, in fact, privacy is.
Round Table: Former New Mexico Gov. and ambassador Bill Richardson, TIME magazine Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker and Nation Public Radio’s Steve Inskeep
Sunday, December 08, 2013
12.8.13: Nelson Mandela: Freedom and Equal Opportunity
South African President Jacob Zuma said, "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father." Though he was solely referring to South Africans when he used the phrase 'our people,' we'd like to think that he was talking about all of humanity.
If inspiration were measured like gold, we'd all live in big houses from the courage and patience Nelson Mandela showed us. No one who is a true symbol of something, never aspires to be such, but Mr. Mandela will forever serve as a symbol of freedom and equal opportunity for the world.
We can offer little, if any, insight with regard to the life of Nelson Mandela and what he meant to the world; we wouldn't to presume to insult your intelligence and diminish his memory.
But Mr. Mandela's death makes us think of the very essence of what it means to have freedom and equal opportunity. We see the latter of the two systematically being replaced, or abridged, to only 'opportunity.' The lack of simple opportunity is chronically plaguing country's all over the world, and it's getting worse exponentially. When people around the world should be demanding an equal opportunity, we've been reduced to asking for any one, equal or not because the notion of opportunity is becoming more scarce. And if we keep going on in this direction, we'll bottom out in a place where we'll only have to hope for another individual to act and lead on the inspiration given to him or her by Mr. Mandela
Nelson Mandela
1918-2013
Postscript (a lighter note - sort of): We can say that the song "Sun City," written and produced by Steven Van Zandt for United Artists Against Apartheid, 1985, is the best mass-all-star collaboration recorded in pop music, much better than its contemporary rival "We Are the World," which has all the genre-varied artist conforming to one structure whereas "Sun City" incorporates several divergent music styles to complete one generous whole of a song.
If inspiration were measured like gold, we'd all live in big houses from the courage and patience Nelson Mandela showed us. No one who is a true symbol of something, never aspires to be such, but Mr. Mandela will forever serve as a symbol of freedom and equal opportunity for the world.
We can offer little, if any, insight with regard to the life of Nelson Mandela and what he meant to the world; we wouldn't to presume to insult your intelligence and diminish his memory.
But Mr. Mandela's death makes us think of the very essence of what it means to have freedom and equal opportunity. We see the latter of the two systematically being replaced, or abridged, to only 'opportunity.' The lack of simple opportunity is chronically plaguing country's all over the world, and it's getting worse exponentially. When people around the world should be demanding an equal opportunity, we've been reduced to asking for any one, equal or not because the notion of opportunity is becoming more scarce. And if we keep going on in this direction, we'll bottom out in a place where we'll only have to hope for another individual to act and lead on the inspiration given to him or her by Mr. Mandela
Nelson Mandela
1918-2013
Postscript (a lighter note - sort of): We can say that the song "Sun City," written and produced by Steven Van Zandt for United Artists Against Apartheid, 1985, is the best mass-all-star collaboration recorded in pop music, much better than its contemporary rival "We Are the World," which has all the genre-varied artist conforming to one structure whereas "Sun City" incorporates several divergent music styles to complete one generous whole of a song.
Sunday, December 01, 2013
12.1.13: Process of Difficulty
We start today's column with something that New York Times columnist David Brooks said, which was (and we're paraphrasing here) that government can not run something as complex as healthcare, and that there are certain things it's meant to do, just not healthcare. However, is it that governments simply can not do it, or is it just that the United States government can not do it? It seems as though the latter is the answer because in most other industrialized nations, there is universal healthcare. In the United States, implementation is difficult because insurance companies have to stay in the healthcare business.
With all the cancellations of policies, it hasn't been enough for the insurance companies to keep getting paid, but now it's also a matter of how much, and that's why it's difficult for the government to engineer a healthcare plan. Government is not going to confiscate your healthcare as Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI) emphatically stated. Insurance companies now have to commit 85% of their collected premiums to care, which means less profits due to the Affordable Care Act. The cancellation of policies is retribution for that financial hit.
The reason that other countries' governments have made healthcare work is because they've taken the profit motive out of care. The Affordable Care Act will eventually work and the eventual consequence is that the United States will either move toward a single payer system or to the eventual end of employer-based healthcare. If you're calculating the American government as a whole getting more conservative (because of big monied interests) like we do then you have to figure on employer based insurance going away sometime in the future. Not in the next year but possibly 10 to 12 years down line is well within the realm of possibility. Those are all the 'pink slips' that Congressman Rogers was referring to.
[And is it just us that finds Congressman Rogers' entire complaint about the sites security readiness a completely joke, or what? Mr. Rogers, a former F.B.I. agent, endorses the NSA's data collection and surveillance activities - essentially spying on Americans, so we find it disingenuous that he would bring this up as a point of concern.]
It's a 'process of difficulty' as the Washington Post's Erza Klein described it. Case in point is the interview with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. He said that initially the bishops and the Catholic Church were in favor of the Affordable Care Act, but now are opposing the Obama Administration on it. One of the reasons the Cardinal cited was that the Affordable Care Act did not cover undocumented citizens. When President Obama took to the House floor to explain that the undocumented would not be covered, he was famously called a liar by Congressman Joe Wilson. It's a silly rhetorical argument that Father Dolan was making, but when in reality, it's all about birth control and limiting access to it for women. Father Dolan eloquently reiterated how Pope Francis wants to move beyond those debates but it's clear that the Church does not.
Today's real topic was 'Obamacare,' and whether it will work or not, but if government can be an agent of change. Unfortunately, the only one who thought government could have a positive effect was Democratic Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and sadly she sounded naive saying so. However, when someone sounds naive, it's because the person is emoting sympathy, and in this case sympathy for those who do not have healthcare. In today's America, sympathy isn't taken seriously. Fortunately for all of us whether we know it or not, Father Dolan's boss disagrees.
Roundtable: New York Times Columnist David Brooks; Democratic Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake; NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell; and Political Director & Chief White House Correspondent for NBC, Chuck Todd.
With all the cancellations of policies, it hasn't been enough for the insurance companies to keep getting paid, but now it's also a matter of how much, and that's why it's difficult for the government to engineer a healthcare plan. Government is not going to confiscate your healthcare as Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI) emphatically stated. Insurance companies now have to commit 85% of their collected premiums to care, which means less profits due to the Affordable Care Act. The cancellation of policies is retribution for that financial hit.
The reason that other countries' governments have made healthcare work is because they've taken the profit motive out of care. The Affordable Care Act will eventually work and the eventual consequence is that the United States will either move toward a single payer system or to the eventual end of employer-based healthcare. If you're calculating the American government as a whole getting more conservative (because of big monied interests) like we do then you have to figure on employer based insurance going away sometime in the future. Not in the next year but possibly 10 to 12 years down line is well within the realm of possibility. Those are all the 'pink slips' that Congressman Rogers was referring to.
[And is it just us that finds Congressman Rogers' entire complaint about the sites security readiness a completely joke, or what? Mr. Rogers, a former F.B.I. agent, endorses the NSA's data collection and surveillance activities - essentially spying on Americans, so we find it disingenuous that he would bring this up as a point of concern.]
It's a 'process of difficulty' as the Washington Post's Erza Klein described it. Case in point is the interview with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. He said that initially the bishops and the Catholic Church were in favor of the Affordable Care Act, but now are opposing the Obama Administration on it. One of the reasons the Cardinal cited was that the Affordable Care Act did not cover undocumented citizens. When President Obama took to the House floor to explain that the undocumented would not be covered, he was famously called a liar by Congressman Joe Wilson. It's a silly rhetorical argument that Father Dolan was making, but when in reality, it's all about birth control and limiting access to it for women. Father Dolan eloquently reiterated how Pope Francis wants to move beyond those debates but it's clear that the Church does not.
Today's real topic was 'Obamacare,' and whether it will work or not, but if government can be an agent of change. Unfortunately, the only one who thought government could have a positive effect was Democratic Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and sadly she sounded naive saying so. However, when someone sounds naive, it's because the person is emoting sympathy, and in this case sympathy for those who do not have healthcare. In today's America, sympathy isn't taken seriously. Fortunately for all of us whether we know it or not, Father Dolan's boss disagrees.
Roundtable: New York Times Columnist David Brooks; Democratic Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake; NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell; and Political Director & Chief White House Correspondent for NBC, Chuck Todd.
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