The Bottom Line: Interactive and Sharable Graphs Comparing the Health Care Bills

CRFB.org - The Bottom Line — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:51:00 -0500

Today, US BudgetWatch updated its Charts Comparing Health Care Reform Bills. The publication compares the House and Senate health care bills through two text charts and four graphs, all exploring different metrics.

Here at The Bottom Line, we have republished the graphs in a way that makes them both interactive and sharable. That means you can explore the charts here, or feauture them on your own website or blog...

Clemons: Pricing Out an Afghan Surge: $65 Bill Could Go to $105 Billion per Year

The Washington Note — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0500

The Pentagon, which favors a surge in US troops to Afghanistan knows how defense bidding goes. They've seen enough of it from the large defense contractors to know that you bid low and reconcile at a multiple of two or three times higher than the contract later...

Race for Iran: ZERO ENRICHMENT IN IRAN—OR NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

RaceForIran — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:01:00 -0500

Later this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors will meet in Vienna, with Iran’s nuclear program at the top of the agenda. Of course, the Board will discuss the IAEA’s recent inspections of Iran’s newly declared enrichment facility near Qom, as well as the Iranian response to outgoing director general Mohammed ElBaradei’s proposal for refueling the Tehran Research Reactor. But, as has been the case since 2006, discussions of Iranian matters in Vienna will take place under the cloud of three United Nations Security Council resolutions calling on the Islamic Republic to stop all activities related to uranium enrichment. In retrospect, the Board’s decision to refer the Iranian file to the Security Council has hardly facilitated a negotiated solution to the issue; rather, referral to the Security Council—and the Council’s subsequent insistence on suspension—has made it more difficult to reach a solution through thoughtful diplomacy...

The Bottom Line: The True Costs of Health Reform

CRFB.org - The Bottom Line — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:00:00 -0500

Yesterday, the House passed legislation permanently updating physical payments on a deficit-financed basis (against our urging). Although passed separately from their health care bill, it is worth looking comprehensively at the cost of health care reform, as passed by the House of Representatives so far...

The Bottom Line: Updated Health Care Charts

CRFB.org - The Bottom Line — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:50:00 -0500

CRFB has updated its health care chart, comparing the ten-year costs of the most recent legislation passed by the House and the bill introduced by Senator Reid in the Senate yesterday. To compare the most recent Senate bills with the previous HELP and Finance Committee bills, click here...

The Bottom Line: Taxing Health Care Decisions

CRFB.org - The Bottom Line — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:51:00 -0500

Information about the Senate health care bill is trickling in -- word is that coverage provisions will cost $849 billion over ten years and the bill will reduce the deficit by $127 billion. The Joint Committee on taxation has also released its analysis of the bill's $370 billion in taxes.

Compared to the Senate Finance bill, this bill would reduce the tax on high-cost insurance plans so it raises around $150 billion instead of $200 billion, and make up the difference with an increase in the Medicare payroll tax for high earners. At least from a fiscal perspective, this is a big mistake.

We've discussed, before, all of the advantages of an excise tax on high cost plans. For one, since the tax is on health insurance, it grows as fast or faster than health care costs, and therefore makes it a sustainable revenue source.

See for example the growth rates of revenue from the excise tax when compared to the payroll tax increase.

Between 2015 and 2019, revenue from the excise tax is expected to double. Revenue from the payroll tax increase is expected to grow only 30%...

Clemons: Interview with former UK Ambassador to US Christopher Meyer on the Afghanistan Debacle and 500 Years of British Foreign

The Washington Note — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:52:00 -0500

I interviewed former UK Ambassador to the United States Sir Christopher Meyer on his new book Getting Our Way: Five Hundred Years Of International Diplomacy. I have begun the book -- and it's a terrific review of five centuries of the world's big moments and how competitive statecraft in very difficult circumstances turned out. Here is a review from The Guardian.

Meyer has important insights into Afghanistan, stating that the "penny is dropping in London that the democracy project in Afghanistan is a fool's errand." He is increasingly of the view that the entire Afghanistan exercise is a disastrous mess without any "clarity" of objective. He offers a logic-led critique of matters rather than just asserting the Afghanistan War is doomed...

The Bottom Line: Will TARP be Renewed?

CRFB.org - The Bottom Line — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:05:00 -0500

Today, a Wall Street Journal editorial discussed Senator John Thune’s introduction yesterday of a bill that would prevent Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner from extending TARP. The bill would prevent the Treasury from making any new loans, equity purchases, or transfers to financial institutions, but would not affect the $386 billion in outstanding investments...

Fallows: On Obama's Asian diplomacy -- #1

James Fallows — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:16:00 -0500

First of several updates on the fly:

On reflection, I still stick with my initial reaction to the Shanghai Town Meeting appearance, rather than being won over by the on-scene complaints of my Shanghai friend Adam Minter as described here. If you combine Obama's opening statement (White House version here), with his answers to the questions about the Great Firewall, it seems to me that he said just about as much on censorship and liberties as a visiting dignitary could say, in the circumstances...

Cohen: Thank God for Somalia!

Michael Cohen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:21:00 -0500

Courtesy of Andrew I see that Afghanistan just beat out Somalia as the most corrupt country in the world (by the way, this is two points worse than last year). This sort of reminds me of the old joke about Alabama's state motto - "Thank God for Mississippi."

But let's not cower in fear at the notion that a counter-insurgency with a government that is the second most corrupt in the world is a fool's errand - Hamid Karzai is about to clean up his act...