Health Care Links

Nobody seems to agree on anything regarding the health care bill.  But the official estimate of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is that repealing the bill would add $230 billion to federal deficits over the next decade, making its repeal tricky for cost-conscious Republicans.

Paul Krugman lays out where some of those savings are coming from

While Congress argues about repeal, the courts argue about the constitutionality of the law: to date, three have ruled that it is and two have ruled that it isn't.  Guess which party appointed which judges.

Speaking of partisanship, one interesting to watch during the upcoming election is how Mitt Romney handles the health care reform debate.  The plan was modeled, in part, on the one implemented while he was governor of Massachusetts.  Democrats have taken to praising him for his work in 2006, with the new governor, Deval Patrick, recently joining in.

Health Policy Links

Over the past 25 years, life expectancy has risen far slower in the US than many other developed nations.  Why?  Smoking, obesity, and poverty appear to be some of the main culprits.  What can be done?

The USDA is calling for new standards for school lunches, here's a rundown of the proposed changes.

A growing number of locales are posting calories counts on menus, but studies find that customers at Taco Time and in NYC didn't order any healthier after they were posted.

Here's a map of the prevalence of food deserts across the US, and another series of maps charting eating habits across the country.

And Mark Bittman writes that we should strive to "eat real food" and lists a number of proposals that he thinks might make that happen

Even More Economic Links

On Friday, Paul Krugman wrote that

The whole budget debate, then, is a sham. House Republicans, in particular, are literally stealing food from the mouths of babes — nutritional aid to pregnant women and very young children is one of the items on their cutting block — so they can pose, falsely, as deficit hawks

About which The Economist writes "Paul Krugman's columns tend so often toward scathing criticism of Republicans that it's easy to discount the outrage and dismiss it. It would be a shame if that's the reaction to his writing today, which couldn't be more on point."

John Harwood wonders whether the hard-line stances on budget issues will fire come election time, pointing out that tough talk on spending hasn't historically led to many political victories.

Also of interest is this brief piece on the unemployment rate: Does Less Unemployment Mean More People Working?

Economic Policy Pre-Debate Reading

Background:
The federal budget: Austerity lite | The Economist

Rethinking Budget Cutting - Pew Research Center

For Wisconsin Governor, Battle Was Long Coming - NYTimes.com

Opinion: What Does Government Do?

Affirmative:
David S. Broder - Without higher taxes, the national debt will be crushing

Negative:
W. Kurt Hauser: There's No Escaping Hauser's Law - WSJ.com

More Economic Links

update: the House voted to cut $60 billion from the budget on Saturday morning.  Said John Boehner: “This week, for the first time in many years, the people’s House was allowed to work its will — and the result was one of the largest spending cuts in American history.  We will not stop here in our efforts to cut spending, not when we’re broke and Washington’s spending binge is making it harder to create jobs.”


Florida's governor turned down $3 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail, joining the governors of Wisconsin and Ohio in turning down federal funds.  Meanwhile, the large cuts proposed by Wisconsin's governor in conjunction with proposed restrictions on public-sector unions have led to large protests.  Milwaukee and Madison have had to cancel school because so many teachers called out sick.  And the Democrats from the state legislature have skipped town so that the legislature can't reach quorum and bring the proposal to a vote.


The House voted to end a program to manufacture a different type of engine for the new F-35 joint strike fighter.  Voting against the proposal was John Boehner, whose home state of Ohio stands to lose 1,200 jobs.  Voting for the proposal was a coalition of liberals who want to shrink the defense budget and deficit hawk conservatives.  As another piece details, the freshmen legislators so far seem more motivated by their desire to cut spending than their desire to be re-elected.


The GAO released their annual list of government programs at high risk of fraud and waste


Here's Jon Stewart's take on the budget debate


Here's a video I strongly recommend watching on the fiscal crises that local and state governments are facing

National Debt Activity

Background: possible negotiations on the budget?

An interactive, "you fix the budget" activity

Also of interest, a graphical exploration of Obama's budget proposal

National Debt Links

Setting the stage: Republicans Ready for Battle Over Debt Ceiling

Back in the fall, a bipartisan commission made a number of recommendations, which weren't readily accepted by either side.  At the time, conservative columnist David Brooks wrotethat it would probably take a third party or new movement to actually enact these changes, otherwise"we continue on the headlong path toward a national disaster. And along the way our dysfunctional political system will leave all sorts of other problems unaddressed". Meanwhile, liberal columnist Paul Krugman wrote that the commission had been "hijacked" and that the commission was one whose "first priority is cutting taxes, with deficit reduction literally at the bottom of the list" presenting a proposal that "clearly represents a major transfer of income upward, from the middle class to a small minority of wealthy Americans." He concludes that "It’s no mystery what has happened on the deficit commission: as so often happens in modern Washington, a process meant to deal with real problems has been hijacked on behalf of an ideological agenda.

Meanwhile, Republicans didn't react too kindly to the lack of discussion of the national debt in the State of the Union. "The president of the United States is asking us to increase the debt limit. But on Tuesday night, he didn't even address it. And I don't think the American people will tolerate increasing the debt limit without serious reductions in spending and changes to the budget process, so that we can make sure that this never happens again. The other night, all he did was call for more stimulus spending. I think our team has been listening to the American people. They want to us reduce spending, and there is no limit to the amount of spending we're willing to cutJohn Boehnersaid on "Fox News Sunday" the following weekend.

Part of the problem is that Americans don't like the current situation, but they also don't want to cut anything.

Obama and the congressional Republicans have both unveiled budget cuts in the past week. Predictably, neither side is happy with the other's proposal.

In regards to the Republican cuts, Krugman writes that they follow a simple pattern: "Focus the cuts on programs whose benefits aren’t immediate; basically, eat America’s seed corn. There will be a huge price to pay, eventually — but for now, you can keep the base happy." Meanwhile, Paul Ryan's response to the Obama budget was "He's raising spending everywhere.  This is not an austere budget."