Friday, June 29, 2012

Krugman at the LSE

If policy makers had ever asked me for advice on the economy,
I would have told them: listen to Krugman.

Here's an opportunity for all of us to listen to what he has to say.  (Some interruptions at the beginning over projection problems, but gets rolling after that.)

And why listen to Krugman?  Well, this for a start.

Messaging and the ACA decision

Not my own recommendation this time.  Andrew's column has this suggestion from one of his readers:

I do not understand why Democrats don't embrace the newly defined "tax"[ the penalty for not having health insurance], saying: you bet we raised taxes, but not on the hard-working, responsible middle class. This is a tax on those deadbeats who don't pay for their own insurance but still expect care when they show up at emergency rooms. It's a tax, all right, and I think we should agree to raise it even higher so they have more of an incentive to buy their own damned insurance and leave the rest of us alone. Let the Republicans protect the rights of deadbeats; Democrats are fighting for people who play by the rules.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Messaging, ctd

We've all heard the ACA described by Republicans as "government take over of health care".

So let's see:  requiring citizens to buy private insurance to cover treatment by private doctors and private hospitals constitutes government take over of health care.


So by that logic, states requiring motorists to have insurance against injury and damage constitutes state government take over of medical/surgical care and of the auto body shop repair industry.


Seems a simple point to make.  But do we hear it from our inept Democratic spox?  Hah!