A rather dismaying headline crossed my desk this morning from our friends at Hot Air. Social Security will tip over into annual deficits … now. And given that the source of the story was The New York Times it’s hard to write this off as “right wing alarmism.” A long expected – but not expected just yet – milestone has apparently been reached. This year, the system will pay out...

Game On! by Michael Reagan Well, Democrats in Washington did it. They unilaterally passed a $938 billion health care plan that was overwhelmingly disapproved by Americans. But not to worry, the United Nations Health Organization proclaimed our leaders courageous for their actions. I will prefer to call them extinct. Voters fought, called, protested, and debated up until the moment of the vote. With willful...

What do John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Tommy Thompson have in common? Well, they’re all conservative Republicans. What else?

Last fall I came across an article that I wanted to write about but I didn’t know what to say that would fit within TMV guidelines (I even talked to Joe about letting me break them). The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of...

This is beyond belief:

A couple of days ago, I posted a European reaction to the passage of Health Care Reform legislation. It was an article in the German Spiegel, commenting on the good and the bad consequences and implications of such legislation for America, Europe and Obama. Of course there have been numerous other reactions worldwide, and of course some may not be interested in or particularly care for what the rest of the...

Health Care Reform is a Tough Call by Martha Randolph Carr The health care bill has finally passed and will move on to President Obama for a signature. Whether or not this is good news or creates a creeping sense of dread depends on a few variables. Doctors who treat Medicare or Medicaid patients will be seeing a decrease in payouts without something to replace the practice’s lost income and will still have...

As President Barack Obama signed the health reform bill into law today, I couldn’t help remembering Robert Redford after winning a U.S. Senate seat in the movie “The Candidate,” asking his political adviser “what do we do now?” For Democrats: Don’t gloat and overestimate your success for the fight has just begun. For Republicans: Your gamble of pushing all your chips into...

It wasn’t that long ago — only a little over a year. Now, you can add public opinion to the growing list of Principles Republicans (Now) Hold So Dear (emphasis is in original):

In addition to the right-wing calls to repeal health care reform, which have been going on since well before it actually passed,  the immediate reaction to yesterday’s historic passage of  the Affordable Health Choices Act has included one act of actual, and one act of implied, violence, and a veiled call for secession.

Next up, financial reform… The crash of 1929 happens in 1929 [and] Glass-Steagall, which reforms Wall Street in a radical way, doesn’t happen until 1933. There aren’t even proper hearings on Capitol Hill about the crisis of ’29 until I think late ’32. And so it’s not that surprising it’s taken a while. That from a Michael Lewis interview with Terry Gross last week. He...

After last night’s passage of Health Care Reform in the House of Representatives, we have been flooded with American views on and analyses of the good, the bad and the ugly of that historic bill. But, what does the rest of the world say about it? Germany’s Spiegel has a provocative piece this morning with the interesting title,” US Health Care — Good for America, Bad for the World.” More interesting,...

WASHINGTON — Yes, we did. Finally, President Obama can use those words. The passage of health care reform provided the first piece of incontestable evidence that Washington has changed. Congress is, indeed, capable of carrying through fundamental social reform. No longer will the United States be the outlier among wealthy nations in leaving so many of its citizens without basic health coverage....

In the end, it was a battle of the haves against the have nots. The nots won 219-212 as if it was a high scoring basketball game that extended into 10 overtimes. President Obama is set to sign the new health legislation bill into law within the next 24 hours. Some critical repairs to the law is now in the Senate’s court. For 10 hours Sunday I watched C-Span coverage of the House debate. What I saw was...

The Democrats celebrated an overtime victory in the health care Super Bowl in subdued fashion–no champagne corks popped in the Oval Office, no one dumped Gatorade on Nancy Pelosi–a suitable response to winning by not losing. When the cry of “baby killer” at Bart Stupak had faded and the last vote was counted, the significance of a year-long struggle was that Republicans had failed to...

Over the next week, I’ll be very closely reading Watching America.com, the site that translates foreign news about the USA, to see how the world will react to Congress’s historic vote on healthcare. The general failure of the American healthcare system, in terms of both failure to deliver quality healthcare to all of society and, despite this, the huge amount of money spent, has boggled the minds of citizens...

Or, in the words of the immortal Janis Joplin, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

It’s official, and it’s historic. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who had led a group of anti-abortion lawmakers in opposing the bill, has just announced that he will vote “yes” on Health Care Reform legislation. Stupak’s “yes” vote will probably bring additional yes votes from other anti-abortion legislators and ensure that Democrats finally have (more than) the votes they need to pass Health Care...

Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic:

From CBS News, here is the schedule for health care reform debate and voting for the rest of the day.

Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) told the local ABC affiliate in Toledo that she will be a Yes vote:

NBC News’ Chuck Todd reports that Rep. Bart Stupak is now poised to support HCR legislation in the House: The chances for House passage increased Sunday afternoon after a possible agreement between Democratic leaders and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who had led a group of anti-abortion lawmakers in opposing the bill, was revealed. Stupak is now poised to support the bill, NBC’s Chuck Todd reported. Stupak...

Just in case you did not know this already: The Health Care Bill, if voted on today, will pass by a razor thin minority. Why? Because the vote is on a Sunday. What are the consequences for both sides of the political spectrum for the mid-term elections in seven months? For Republicans, it means that they will pick up seats in both bodies of Congress. For Democratic members, the irony of Obama’s victory...

Only the class is detention:

WASHINGTON — Here is the ultimate paradox of the Great Health Care Showdown: Congress will divide along partisan lines to pass a Republican version of health care reform, and Republicans will vote against it. Yes, Democrats have rallied behind a bill that Republicans — or at least large numbers of them — should love. It is built on a series of principles that Republicans espoused for...