Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
Blue Yeti ·
May 18, 2011 at 5:21pm
America's most beloved pundits are back with their unique take on the news of the day This week, Kaus and Limbaugh cogitate on whether or not to release Osama's photos, Newt's fledgling Presidential campaign, Ryan's struggle to get a budget approved, Boeing's move, and wind up by bidding a fond farewell to Trump and Huck.
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Oct '10
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
I'm surprised Mickey is still saying he's on the left. . .there's, what, two issues he's liberal on? Health care and work programs? Both can be implemented via market means, so abstract support for them do not necessarily prove one's lefthood. . .
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
True, Mickey's essentially center/right -- especially on immigration and big labor. But what I love about this podcast and this episode in particular is how much common ground there isn't between the two of them.
And I still say to David: your mission is not only to convert Mickey, but to get him to acknowledge that he's been converted. Which is a tall order, sir.
Oct '10
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
Rob, at times he sounds more right-winger then center-right, though. There are times when he makes David sound squishy and RINOish! There are right-wingers in the Democratic party--a few--he should just come out as one. Who knows; maybe he can reopen the DLC.
I guess that would be bad for us. I can't see him ever going Republican while living in California, though (the GOP there is pathetic).
Apr '11
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
Limbaugh (DL) lets Kaus (MK) off too easy re coverage. Whenever they discuss Obamacare comes up, MK says something like "As a moral matter, I support a system in which everyone gets the coverage they need, as a baseline." Later in the show, he offers an Australian plan, where the top third of the population get no support, the bottom third gets full support, and the middle third gets a sliding scale. DL faild to note that MK just gave at least one-third of the people (over 100 million) and probably more, absolutely no coverage, though they will continue to be taxed. The left trots out the (false) number of 45 million uninsured. MK would surely respond that he is focusing on who needs it most, and is just asking the wealthy to contribute more to society by means testing Medicare.
The problem is that we already have a means tested health care plan which forces you into poverty before it will help you: Medicaid, and people hate it. MK is basically recommending canceling Medicare, applying the money to Medicaid, and shoving everybody into it.
And he calls Paul Ryan's plan suicidal?
Mar '11
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
MK then says this plan "By definition... saves half the money in the program."
Does it? This would seem to presume that each third uses health services equally. It would be my instinct to think that the lowest third would need/use health services at a greater rate than the upper third. I would also assume the types of services needed would differ as well. Is my instinct correct?
Oct '10
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
I was really disappointed with the quality of the debate between Kaus and Limbaugh over the Ryan plan. I recognize that for Kaus this is a big issue for himself, and that it would be difficult for him to endorse any plan which threatened to reduce access. However the debate failed because both Kaus and Limbaugh failed to discuss the medicare plan based on the facts as they exist. The debate isn't over whether it's better to adopt some market controls or tweak the government levers, there is no lever big enough to save Medicare, and that includes means testing. There were three fundamental truths about Medicare today that were elided over and by so doing made what could have been a intelligent debate come across as little more than a spittle contest.
Oct '10
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
- Medicare is doubly subsidized, once by taxes, again by insurance companies paying for the unnecessary tests and procedures Obama has railed about. When I go into an office, I have to be careful about what procedures and tests the doctor recommends because they may add unnecessary services for which they bill my insurance to raise their own income. These unnecessary tests, at above market prices, raise costs for providing care for everyone. This practice is common in offices and hospitals because Medicare pays /under/ market costs for procedures it pays for. My /extra care/ helps the doctor or hospital make up the difference.
- Medicare doesn't work in its current form, and access to it is being lost as I type. This decreasing access is a result of doctors and hospitals no longer being able to afford below market fixed reimbursements from Medicare. Whatever costs Medicare cannot cover cannot be rolled over to another plan. We hear every week of offices or hospitals which stop accepting Medicare patients because they can no longer afford it. Consequently adopting the Ryan plan won't cut access, but the /existing/ system is reducing health care access for seniors /now/.
Oct '10
Re: Kaus/Limbaugh #6: Photos, Budget, Newt, Huck and Trump
- The Ryan plan is not radical, extreme, or scary. What it is is change. As I understand the Ryan plan, it is fundementally the same plan that federal employee unions fought to /preserve/ from Obamacare; a plan which those same unions were afraid of coming under. The existing Medicare plan, which Democrats endorse, is to allow Medicare to die of insolvency before today's fifty year olds will enter it. Accepting that status quo is reckless and is akin to terminating federal last resort medical care, and /that/ is radical and reactionary.
Until and unless the debate accepts as given that the Ryan plan will not affect seniors any debate over it is a waste of hot air. The biggest ideologues in the debate are those who suggest today's seniors would lose care or access under the Ryan plan and those who refuse to acknowledge the current system is doomed. Ending Medicare as we know it today is the only alternative to watching Medicare as we know it crash and burn tomorrow.
I apologize for taking up so much space, this particular debate appeared to warrant a longer than usual response.