The Story Behind Bush's Medicare Veto

President Bush vetoed a Medicare bill today that postponed a cut in doctor's salaries while initiating cuts in certain Medicare reimbursements to insurers. His stated reason was that it would reduce plan options for seniors.

What he didn't say was that private insurers receive nearly 15% more than Medicare pays for the same services. While Bush claims that competition is the key to keeping health costs low, under his administration, we are paying private companies a 15% premium to cover the extra layer of admin costs that result from their participation.

If competition is supposed to lower heath care costs, why is the private sector receiving a premium?

Discover Card's Worries About New Laws

One of my favorite blogs is footnoted.org which examines public financial documents such as annual reports, 10Qs and other SEC filings to uncover what many companies hate to disclose but have to. They often hide these embarrassing disclosures in footnotes hoping that they won't be read; hence the name.

Here's what the site uncovered about Discover Card which had to acknowledged the following risk factor to its business:

"The company’s second quarter 10-Q, filed yesterday, includes a new risk factor inspired by the Fed’s proposal to tighten its rules on “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” and “truth in lending.” The disclosure says that “if the amendments are adopted as proposed, the amendments would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.”

As I read it, the credit card company is admitting that in its efforts to find new charges and reasons to extort fees from its users, it has probably crossed the line and will suffer under the Fed's efforts to clean up these abuses.

Help the EFF Defend Your Privacy Rights

I recieved this letter from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization which works hard to defend the our rights to privacy and to limit large media companies' efforts to expand copyright law beyond its original intent. They deserve our support.

Next time Barak's team asks for money, I'm sending my donation to the EFF.

"Dear Friend of Freedom,

In a move that I can only describe as cowardice, Congress
just passed legislation meant to immunize telephone
companies for their illegal, disloyal, and irresponsible
behavior. EFF has been fighting against telecom immunity,
and we need your help to bring the fight to the next level:

http://secure.eff.org/wiretapping

Two and a half years ago, EFF sued AT&T on behalf of its
customers, seeking to hold the telecom giant responsible
for its craven complicity in the White House's illegal
warrantless wiretapping program.

Since then, the phone companies and their allies in
Washington have spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying
Congress to grant them retroactive immunity. They ran
ridiculous fear-mongering attack ads against any politician
who dared to oppose them. President Bush threatened to veto
any bill that allowed EFF's lawsuit to continue.

Yesterday, Congress completely capitulated to the
President's threats and voted to let the telecoms off the
hook. If the telecoms are not held accountable, the
administration will remain unchecked in its warrantless
wiretapping of innocent Americans. This must stop!

We need your help to take the fight to the next level.
We're going to challenge Congress's unconstitutional grant
of immunity in our case against AT&T. We're going to fight
for a congressional repeal of immunity in the next
Congress. And we're going to file a new lawsuit against the
government, challenging its warrantless surveillance
practices, past, present and future.

Now, more than ever, we need your support!

http://secure.eff.org/wiretapping

The fight for civil liberties would never have come this
far without your help. We can't give up now. Help EFF
today!

Sincerely,
....Shari Steele
Executive Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation

ACLU Steps Up While Obama Ducks

Given the current make up of the Supreme Court, it may be a long shot, but at least the ACLU has the nerve to sue the Federal Government over its attempt to eviscerate Constitutional protections by allowing unfettered, unsupervised electronic snooping by whenever the President feels like saying "national security".

I'm no longer sure what Obama stands for if not this principle. As I've said before, this law's passage is a major blow to the concept of civil liberties.

Above the Law: Is Rove Hoping Bush will Pardon Him?

As Karl Rove thumbs his nose at a Congressional subpoena to testify about his role in influencing Department of Justice prosecutions without claiming executive privilege, the possibility arises that Rove's game plan is to push things far enough so Bush can pardon him.

One also has to wonder what help the Department of Justice will provide Congress in this test of wills.

Principle vs. Personality

Sen. Obama's vote for the new FISA legislation which provides immunity for telecommunications companies who conspired in secret with the Bush administration to break the law and invade Americans' privacy is deeply disappointing. His assessment that the bill was flawed but necessary is worrisome because it opens the possibility that as President, he would find it attractive to pierce our Constitutional protections without fear of consequence.

It also highlights the difference between voting for personalities and principles. Senator Clinton, whose antics left me cold during the end of her over long campaign voted against the bill. Senator Obama, whose charm converted me during the campaign, voted for it. Awkward Hillary got it right, and smooth Obama got it wrong.

How Dirty, Long Will the Campaign Be?

With John McCain already claiming that he can't control how other Republicans support his campaign, even the Republican National Committee, and having already received emails misrepresenting papers written by Michele Obama during her freshman year at Princeton, it looks like the upcoming campaign contain the same dirty tricks as the 2004 campaign. Of course, Moveon.Org, is readying it's arsenal to respond in kind.

All this make we wish we could vote in July and get all this over with. Surely a month is long enough for a debate for voters to learn the policy differences between McCain and Obama. We already know who they are from the prelims. What's left beyond many numbing months of media campaigns, misleading ads, out of context sound bites, and the same old talking heads on TV?

Makes me wonder why it's the Europeans who have better health care, better mass transit, bans of plastic bags, and shorter election campaigns. Why can't we?

Global Warming: A Pinata for Anti-Environmentalists

Science is an evolving exploration of the universe. Although there is a emerging consensus in the scientific community about global warming and mankind's ability to meaningfully affect the earth's climate, it's still a legitimate debate. Unfortunately every uncertainty about man's role in climate change is being used by some to discredit environmental concerns as a whole.

One of the most visible examples is John Coleman, former weatherman and CEO of the Weather Channel who wants to sue Al Gore for fraud for his success raising awareness over global warming. As Mr. Coleman puts it:

"Global warming frenzy is, indeed, threatening our civilization...

If Al Gore and his global warming scare dictates the future policy of our governments, the current economic downturn could indeed become a recession, drift into a depression and our modern civilization could fall into an abyss. And it would largely be a direct result of the global warming frenzy"

Somehow Mr. Coleman has missed out on rising demand for resources in developing countries, speculation, mounting US debt and a myriad of factors that have caused fuel prices to rise. Even worse is overlooking at all the other undeniable effects of pollution that threaten our environment in even our most pristine areas.

The Real Health Care Crisis

No candidate has the answer.

After listening to various vague outlines for improving health care in America offered by the three Presidential hopefuls, it's clear that this problem will remain with us for a long, long time. All of the plans more or less accept the underlying system with its waste and redundancies and promise improvements which either won't work (McCain) or which expand coverage without addressing the increased expenses (Hillary and Barak).

In a way it's a clear victory for the health care and pharma lobbies. The tens of millions of dollars they have poured into electing obedient legislators and Presidents has been excellent value. Harvard Business School estimates that there are $200 Billion in redundant, unnecessary marketing and administrative expenses in our current system which could be eliminated by going to a single payer system. Barak seems to recognize that such a system would be better than what he is proposing, but he candidly admitted that it was simply not politically feasible. Hillary offers a warmed over version of Mitt's failed Massachusetts plan while McCain offers Bushian platitudes about competition.

Until we address the fundamental issues that our health care system faces, we will continue to pay too much of too little for too few.

When Will It Be Over?

With the North Carolina and Indiana primaries behind us and with the pundits calling it all over, I join those who hope that the pundits are correct. Mathematically Obama has won, and Hillary has lost.

Actually all the Clintons have lost. My sense is that since January overall regard for the Clintons within their own party has plummeted. I for one no longer find it reassuring that Bill would be in the White House as Hillary's secret adviser. His gaffs on the campaign trail have seriously eroded his reputation for sound judgment. I guess Chelsea's ok, but Hillary has morphed into someone who will say or do anything to win the Presidency. Her actions seem only slightly bounded by a sense of what she can get away with, not by some deeply held concept of integrity.

It's time for a change. It's time for Senator Obama to be our next President.