Ezra Klein - Economic and Domestic Policy, and Lots of It - July 12, 2009

Tab Dump

• What is a "just" physician's income? • Think a trillion-dollar deficit is large? You ain't seen nothing. • I hope you clicked on this link earlier. If not, click on it now. • Did you know Barack Obama drinks...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 6:46 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Good News Out of Massachusetts

In 2006, Massachusetts passed a big health-care reform bill. The structure of it was actually pretty similar to what we're seeing nationally. And, like what we're seeing nationally, it didn't have much in the way of cost controls. But nor...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 6:42 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Health Reform
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Anger.

Max Keiser doesn't like Goldman Sachs very much. Over the top? Maybe a bit. But it's a lot less over the top than all those commentators and analysts who were assuring us that everything was okay in late 2007. And...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 6:12 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Solutions
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There's No Such Thing as "Non-Defense Discretionary Spending"

My friend Chris Hayes likes to say that "non-defense discretionary spending" is the most pernicious phrase in Washington. It means, essentially, that there's spending, which we can cut, and then there's defense spending, which we cannot cut, and shouldn't...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 5:38 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Budget
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The Dull Reality of Change

The so-called "pep talk" the president gave a few minutes ago could have benefited from a bit more pep. Barack Obama seemed tired, almost somber. The early word was that he would use the unscheduled address to reignite excitement...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 5:10 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Health Reform
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Millions of Fans Come Together to Mourn California

A sad story: LOS ANGELES - Millions of fans from around the globe gathered along Sunset Boulevard to pay final respects to California today, as a slow moving funeral procession transported the eccentric superstar state's remains to its final resting...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 5:03 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

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Michael Lewis: It Is Time to Serve Your Country

Tim Fernholz has a good interview with Phil Angelides, the Democratic chair of the new commission Congress has create to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The timing of all this is a bit weird: The commission will begin...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 3:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Late Lunch Break

It's a bit late for a lunch break, but this gizmo that creates Flickr collages based around your color preferences is pretty amazing....

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 3:28 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The End of Crocs?

There aren't a lot of bright spots amid this recession, but here's one: The company that produces the nightmarishly ugly footwear known as "Crocs" looks to be headed toward bankruptcy. I'm worried, however, that we're looking at this the wrong...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 3:11 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)

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The Delay Caucus

For all that Ron Wyden has some very good ideas, he's keeping some strange company these days. He's co-signed a letter with Ben Nelson, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Joe Lieberman and Mary Landrieu that advocates "taking additional time to...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 2:41 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Health Reform
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Too Big to Fail Gets Bigger

I'm sure other people have made this point before, but the end of Lehman Brothers and the effective collapse -- both reputational and financial -- of Bear Stearns, Bank of America, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and a handful of others have...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 12:19 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Financial Regulation , Solutions
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"It Is What's Known in Business as the Invisible Government Scaffolding of the Free Market"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cPyramid Economywww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorJoke of the Day The real information in that clip from Thursday's "Daily Show"? Jon Stewart -- or someone in his office -- read Matt...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 11:41 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Financial Crisis , Solutions , Taxes
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Pat Buchanan Kicks It Old School on Rachel Maddow

I was going to post this video with the description "Rachel Maddow exposes Pat Buchanan as a huge racist." But that's not quite right. It's more that she re-exposes him as a huge racist. It's a good reminder of how...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 10:49 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)

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Help for the (One-Time) Homeowners

Dean Baker is one of the country's leading left-wing economists. Andrew Samwick is the former chair of George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. Chuck Schumer is the senior senator from the state that relies heavily on revenue from Wall...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 10:10 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Economic Policy , Financial Crisis , Solutions
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An Interview With Bruce Bartlett

Bruce Bartlett's conservative credentials are impeccable: He's worked for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Jude Wanniski and Gary Bauer, Ron Paul and Jack Kemp. But he's also an economic realist: Government spending is growing, he says, and taxes are...

By Ezra Klein | July 17, 2009; 7:40 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (17)

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Tab Dump

• America's college crisis. • A conservative argues for better, and maybe even higher, taxes. • A food critic comes to terms with his appetite. • A good idea? That's gaining sponsors in the Senate? Unpossible! • Massachusetts moves away...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 6:42 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)

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The Idea That Could Save Health-Care Reform

I don't want to overstate my case. I am not suggesting that Sen. Ron Wyden's Free Choice Act is the difference between a health-care reform bill passing the Senate and dying in committee. But I am arguing that it...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 6:06 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (67)
Categories: Health Reform
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A Guide to the Economics Blogosphere

The Wall Street Journal's got one. And it looks scarily like my RSS feed....

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 4:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

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An Interview With Sen. Ron Wyden

Few in the U.S. Senate have thought as long, or as hard, about health-care reform as Sen. Ron Wyden. And none have come up with as many innovative ideas for aiding the system. Wyden's latest contribution to the debate, the...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 3:51 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Health Reform , Interviews
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Rules For Commenting On The CBO's Judgments

In the least surprising revelation of the day, the Congressional Budget Office doesn't see much in the way of savings coming from health-care reform in the next 10 or so years. This is because the bills under consideration do not...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 1:53 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (33)

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Today's Chat Transcript

Today's chat gets into eyewear, the filibuster, what I want to eat for dinner, and, yes, health-care reform. Washington, D.C.: Does the recent party-line vote in the Senate committee on the healthcare bill significantly jeopardize its chances of passing the...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 1:09 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)

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Lunch Break

The Daily Show takes on socialized medicine. The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cDrag Me to Healthwww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorJoke of the Day...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 12:22 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The Downside of Decades of Anti-Tax Rhetoric

Matt Yglesias gets this right: On the merits, I’m not a huge fan of the employer mandate concept in general. Unfortunately, conservative economists and conservative politicians have been extremely effective at making the American political system extraordinarily tax averse....

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 11:55 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Health Reform
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Post Chat Today

You know the drill. Submit questions, either in advance of the chat or during the chat, here. We can cover pretty much anything you want, so don't be shy. Please don't make me beg. I hate begging....

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 11:06 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The Case for Funding Health-Care Reform With a Surtax on the Wealthy

"There is no case to be made for the House Democratic majority's proposal to fund health-care legislation through an ad hoc income tax surcharge for top-earning households," writes The Washington Post's editorial page. It's a bit of a baffling statement....

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 10:30 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Health Reform
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All Eyes on Reid

This Congressional Quarterly profile of Harry Reid suffers from being more about the style of his leadership than whether it's particularly effective, but it is, at least, about the right subject. For a long time, Max Baucus was the...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 10:05 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Ben Nelson Does Not Think You're Paying Attention

Sen. Ben Nelson isn't happy about the surtax on the rich that's being proposed to fund health-care reform. But not because he doesn't like it. Rather, because his constituents won't like it. “Tax is a four-letter word” with voters, said...

By Ezra Klein | July 16, 2009; 9:41 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)

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Tab Dump

• Peter Singer on the need to ration health care. • How Spencer Ackerman conquered Hollywood. • The wit and, well, wit, of Thomas Friedman. • CQ profiles Harry Reid. • Felix Salmon and Matt Goldstein liveblogged the Goldman Sachs...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 6:45 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)

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The Economics of Suicide

On Friday, a British couple -- he an 85-year-old composer who had gone blind and was going deaf, she a 74-year-old former dancer in the final stages of terminal cancer -- committed suicide in Switzerland. They had been together for...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 6:41 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)

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Department of Faint Praise

Time's Justin Fox on Goldman Sachs: So yes, it's fair (if unpleasant) to liken Goldman, as Taibbi does, to a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,"...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 6:12 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Financial Crisis
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Food: More Like a Drug Than Like Pencils

Via Matt Yglesias comes a helpful point from Neil Sinhababu (who blogs here): I was talking to Neil Sinhababu recently and he usefully drew a distinction between desires you would attribute to someone even if he was asleep at the...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 5:53 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Food
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The Jobs of the 21st Century

I consider myself a fan of the reports issued by the Council of Economic Advisers. Under the leadership of Christina Romer, they've actually been quite good. Who could forget, for instance, the thrills, twists, and unforgettable characters of "The Economic...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 5:45 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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The Copernicus Theory of Health-Care Reform

I meant to post this a few months ago when reader Lensch sent it to me in an e-mail. But you know how these things go. Some committee or another decides to reform a fifth of the American economy and...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 3:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (23)

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The Flip Side of Health-Care Reform

A very good, and important, article from the fine folks at Kaiser Health News: President Obama and leading Democrats have stressed that people who like their employer-sponsored insurance would be able to keep it, under a health care overhaul. But...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 3:05 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Health Reform
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The Coincidences of Inequality

I really enjoyed Will Wilkinson's paper on inequality. I consider myself as something of a connoisseur of think tank reports -- it's cheaper than wine -- and this one's an uncommonly good read. But it's also pretty unsatisfying. One of...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 2:28 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Inequality
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When Health-Care Reform Stops Being Polite and Starts Making Charts

Whoever is heading the Scary Flowcharts Division of John Boehner's office is quickly becoming my favorite person in Washington. A few weeks ago, we got this terror-inducing visualization of the process behind "Speaker Pelosi's National Energy Tax." Only problem:...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 1:33 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Charts and Graphs
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Deficits Saved the World. But How?

Paul Krugman marshals up some evidence to show that our ability to sustain -- and tolerance to run -- big deficits in 2008 and 2009 pretty much saved the world. These deficits, he says, were "mainly the result of automatic...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 12:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Financial Crisis , Solutions
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The Problems With Abundance

As some of you know, I recently started a twice-monthly column for The Washington Post's Food section on the politics and policy of food. Today's outing focuses on the problems -- and the current, crude, solutions -- to abundance: Archaeologists...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 11:50 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Food
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Speaking of Republican Amendments to the Senate Health Bill

This was a nice catch by Mike Allen: Under a Republican amendment approved Tuesday in the HELP bill, every member of Congress and their staffs would be required to enroll in the public insurance option. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) authored...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 11:25 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Health Reform
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The White House's Definition of Bipartisanship

Big news out of the Senate this morning, where the Health Committee has passed its bill on a party-line vote. For some background on the bill -- I haven't read the new amendments, so certain parts of this might...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 11:20 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Health Reform
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Recessions and Robin Hood

My colleague Binyamin Appelbaum noticed something interesting yesterday: Robin Hood movies are tied to recessions. We're talking here about the adult Robin Hood movies. So set aside "Men in Tights" and the Disney cartoon. Instead, look at first major Robin...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 10:42 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)

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The Question of Innovation

Like Kevin Drum, there's one objection to a national health-care system that I find kind of interesting. As the argument goes, the United States overspends on health-care insurance. But that overspending has a point. It supercharges innovation. The rest of...

By Ezra Klein | July 15, 2009; 7:14 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Health Economics
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Tab Dump

• What will health-care reform mean for abortion rights? • Will Wilkinson gives us the libertarian take on inequality. • Richard Cohen likes his medicine like he likes his, well, um, something. But socialized. He likes his medicine socialized is...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 6:35 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)

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A Win For Medicaid

Greg Anrig, vice president of policy at the Century Foundation, writes in with a very good point on the House health-care bill: It opens the door to eventually federalizing the Medicaid program, which would be a huge step forward: One...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 6:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

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Open-Source Health Care

So long as I'm talking about hidden dangers in health-care reform, it's really worth giving Phil Longman's article on Health IT a read. I think he's a bit too aggressive in advocating for a particular solution (the Vista platform, which...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 5:35 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)

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Why Health-Care Reform Begins in 2013

Most of the major provisions in the House's health-care reform bill begin in 2013. That's a bit of a lengthy ramp-up period, but these things happen. Jon Cohn, however, makes a point I haven't heard before: The Congressional Budget Office...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 5:32 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)

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Bernie Sanders Looks at Liberalism in Practice

I'd say that the House bill, in its current form, is the left side of the possible. It's not radical. It's not the preference of liberals. But it will certainly face opposition from Blue Dogs and Senate centrists. For all...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 5:15 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)

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The Tri-Com Bill Gets Scored

The Congressional Budget Office's score for the new House bill is out as well. (Boy, did my afternoon just get busy.) The quick version is it's projected to carry a net cost of $1 trillion over 10 years and cover...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 4:28 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Health Reform
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The House Releases Its Health-Care Reform Bill

On first glance, it looks good. A few thoughts: The Process Is the Message: Three separate committees -- Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor -- have come together on one bill. This is an incredible...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 4:22 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Health Reform
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Sarah Palin on the Water Cannon Threat

Earlier today, I noted the incredible feat that Sarah Palin pulled off in writing an op-ed about cap-and-trade that didn't mention "global warming," "climate change," or "carbon emissions." It's a bit like an op-ed that attacks firefighters for pointing pressurized...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 2:52 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)

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Spending Like Cats and Dogs

A lot of people are posting this graph showing the rise in health-care costs for people and the rise in the health-care costs for people's pets. It's being used to argue a lot of very big, very specific, points....

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 2:24 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Charts and Graphs
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Memories

I imagine that when Sonia Sotomayor is putting together her scrapbook of memories from the time she was nominated for the United States Supreme Court, this will be a page she'll particularly treasure: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), seeking to...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 1:36 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)

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Lunch Break

Jenny Lewis's new video for her song "See Fernando" is a lot of fun: Jenny Lewis "See Fernando" from Team G on Vimeo....

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 12:35 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Why Worry About Obesity?

Elizabeth Kolbert's review of a half-dozen new books on obesity is gracefully written, entertainingly paced, and well worth a read -- it is, in other words, a New Yorker article. But it doesn't draw much in the way of...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 12:13 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Health
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Chris Hayes Should Have His Own Television Show

I was going to say that there are days when I'm proud to call Christopher Hayes as a friend. But then, I'm always proud to call Christopher Hayes as a friend. This, however, is awesome:...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 11:40 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)

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Sarah Palin: One of Us

"Many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges," writes Sarah Palin in The Washington Post, one of the country's few nationally oriented media outlets....

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 11:04 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (22)
Categories: Climate Change
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Stopping Earthquakes

Mike Rorty recently sat down with banking expert Perry Mehrling for an informative chat about the shadow banking market. There's a lot of good stuff in there, but I particularly liked Mehrling's conclusion: Floating the system with money market liquidity,...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 10:39 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Financial Crisis , Financial Regulation , Solutions
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The Left's Surprising Organizing Advantage

Last week, the Health Care for America Now coalition celebrated its first birthday. Formed, well, a year ago, with an initial infusion of $40 million and a coalition list that includes MoveOn.org, SEIU, the Campaign for America's Future, and...

By Ezra Klein | July 14, 2009; 7:13 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Health Reform
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Tab Dump

• Should Democrats mount more primary challenges? • This man can help you disappear. • Conservatives try and criticize the French health-care system and wind up praising it accidentally. • Mike Rorty interviews banking expert Perry Mehrling. • The best...

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 6:40 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)

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Waiting For Conference?

There's been a lot of concern over the quiet role that the Obama administration appears to be playing in the health-care reform debate. Plenty of people want the White House to stand up, step forward, and begin cracking heads around...

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 6:23 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Health Reform
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IR Theory and Rap

Marc Lynch has a brilliant post examining Jay-Z's feuds -- in particular, his settled beef with Nas, and his emergent conflict with The Game -- through the lens of international relations. So what does Jay-Z do? If he hits back...

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 5:44 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

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The Problem With Blaming Joe Cassano

In this week's Think Tank, I recommended people read Michael Lewis's account of the role that AIG's Financial Products division played in the economic crisis. I stick by that recommendation: As happens every time Lewis touches pen to paper,...

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 4:35 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Financial Regulation , Solutions
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Social Security Administrative Costs: Still Low

I don't know a whole lot about corporate conventions, but Kevin Drum seems to have the goods on the training that the Social Security Administration put on in Phoenix, Arizona last week. I mean, would you want to visit Pheonix,...

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 3:03 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Social Security
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A Bit More on the Salons

Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander has done an excellent job reporting out the story behind the now-infamous salons. The short version is that this wasn't some rogue operation on the business side. It was pretty well-known among newsroom brass, and...

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 2:02 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Journalism
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Lunch Break

The news sounds much better autotuned. This one's pretty good, too....

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 1:02 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Planning for a Third Stimulus

Weird missives from Lanny Davis aside, there are actually a bunch of good ideas in the stimulus roundtable. Robert Reischauer's contention that another stimulus should be paired with "time-released" revenue measures, for instance, has a lot to recommend it: [A]ny...

By Ezra Klein | July 13, 2009; 12:39 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Economic Policy
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Network News

Ezra Klein: July 12, 2009 - July 18, 2009