Week’s End Flashback: Open ConCom Bill signed, Health Care Reform, polluter bailouts, more Monahan mashing, King v. Balderas and a Pot Poll

As we plunge into a new week, here’s a flashback on some of the stories/posts we found interesting from last week’s fare:
Governor Richardson signed Open Conference Committees bill
Marjorie at M-Pyre speculated on the Gov’s game of cat and mouse.
Steve Terrell told us so and paid tribute to the late Bob Johnson.
Peter St. Cyr makes strong  [...]

All About the Health Care

Ezra nails it.
U.S. budget deficits over the next 50 years, assuming no change in current policy, will absolutely explode. Not because of Social Security, not be cause of Medicare – because of health care. If there is not a concerted effort to address the booming cost of health care, then we can pretty much bet [...]

Health Care Crisis: Pricing Out Small Business

As executive director of the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance, Rebecca Dakota communicates regularly with the owners of about 175 small businesses in the city.
Dakota’s members tell her they know that keeping their employees healthy is good for their businesses as well as for each employee and their family.
“The bottom line is that when employees are [...]

“It breaks my heart I can’t insure her.”

Dena Jaramillo – a college student, a mother and the assistant operations manager at Betty’s Bath and Day Spa – lost her health insurance last month.
Her offense? She turned 22… and was summarily dropped from her father’s policy.
The practice of removing children from their parent’s policy once they become adults is common among health insurance [...]

Evidence? What a Novel Concept!

One of the most disconcerting aspects of politics is the ascendancy of policies that are without merit. Examples of this dynamic on the federal level include the 2001 and 2003 federal tax cuts.
The so-called red light program is a local example of the very same dynamic. Remember, the red light program was ostensibly developed for [...]

McCain: “Happy Festivus, Insurance Industry!”

Over the past couple of months, a discussion on the core issues facing Americans has pretty much fallen by the wayside during the presidential campaign. Americans expect an adult debate on foreign policy, the economy and health care. Instead, the 24-hour news cycle is obsessed with one candidate’s middle name and who’s most at home [...]

Slashing Your Purchasing Power

Over the weekend, the world almost ended (really, it did) because one of the candidates for president suggested that rampantly bad economic conditions for working people might actually breed bitterness.
Or, something to that effect.
The matter of whether or not Senator Obama’s “bitter” point was in fact offensive has been debated at length. Some of my [...]