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Bobby Jindal, the 38-year-old Indian-American governor of Louisiana, and a rising star in Republican circles, did a brave thing on Monday morning: He took to the op-ed page of The Washington Post to urge his fellow GOPers to "join the battle of ideas" on health care. That is, Republicans should put forward their own health care plan. And to get that process rolling, he put forth ten ideas of his own.

In the first part of this two-part piece, I noted that the hot issue-within-an-issue for Washington health care wonks is "bending the curve" on health care costs--that is, reducing future increases.

Even Barack Obama is talking the "bend" talk. In an interview with The Washington Post in July, the president used the "b-word" no less than 11 times. In this particular passage, he said that he wants to "bend" the cost curve, not only for government expenditures, but also for private-sector expenditures:

Should health care be about activism and adrenaline, or about actual health and wellness? Perhaps we can agree that health care should not be about reckless driving--because car wrecks bad for America's health, and costly, too. Please keep reading, as I report, and you decide.

Where have you gone, Ronald Reagan?   Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

And now, thanks to a remarkable new documentary film, "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny," all Americans can take inspiration from the life and works of our 40th President.

The world premiere was held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on Friday night-the Gipper's 98th birthday.

On Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) unveiled a plan for helping homeowners to hang on to their homes--and hang on to the value of their homes. It’s a great idea, because it targets economic relief to the middle class in the Heartland, not the upper class in Manhattan and Beverly Hills. It’s a shame, though, that McConnell and the Republicans waited until after the 2008 elections, because this plan was available back in September, when the fiscal meltdown began. With a different response to the meltdown, history might have been a lot different.

The projected size of Barack Obama’s “stimulus package” is heading north, from hundreds of billions of dollars into the trillions. And the Obama program comes, of course, on top of the various Bush administration bailouts and commitments, estimated to run as high as $8.5 trillion.

Will this money be put to good use? That’s an important question for the new President, and an even more important question for America. The metric for all government spending ultimately comes down to a single query: What did you get for it?