Aux letters to the editor, Citoyens!
As we all know there is talk of taxing health care benefits to provide subsidies that will not be used to buy heath care for people who do not have it, but buy health insurance.
It will do nothing about recission.
It will do nothing about the denial of care.
Combined with a mandate it will drive the cost of health insurance even higher.
Current news coverage does not make this clear. Therefore we need a flood of letters to the editor alert citizens.
basic talking points:
It is being proposed that we tax health insurance benefits.
Bankster clang birds charging overdraft fees 10 times a day
Via Felix Salmon, this from WaPo:
To make up for declining revenue, many banks are boosting fees and are requiring higher minimum balances for many accounts. ...
"There is an economic storm that has made revenue fall," said Michael Moebs, an economist and chief executive of Moebs Services, an economic research firm in Lake Bluff, Ill. "Fee income [rents] is basically where banks and credit unions can offset both loan- and investment-related losses."
Bank of America this year raised the maximum number of times customers can get hit with overdraft fees from five a day to 10.
10 overdraft fees a day? Why stop at 10? Why not 100?
TPM coverage of Taibbi, Goldman Sachs: FAIL
After posting excerpts (June 26, 2009) from Matt Taibbi's evisceration of Goldman Sachs -- if one may be said to eviscerate a tapeworm -- I read this post by the great Avedon:
I do find it kind of strange that hardly anyone aside from Lambert and Susie Madrak* have treated Matt Taibbi's blockbuster on how Goldman Sachs and their little friends run the world with much seriousness. Even Randi Rhodes apparently prefers to talk about Michael Jackson. I mean, come on.
Well, I thought, gosh, she's just got to be wrong! I mean, with the left blogosphere for us, who can be against us? So I went and looked at how Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo -- TPM being our prime source of muckraking and actual reportage, and they're gunning to replace* Pravda
, as I understand it -- covered the Goldman story. What I found may surprise you:
The "public option" explained
As readers know, I've been looking for an explanation of what, if anything, "public option" actually means. I think I've finally found the right analogy:
[M]any congressional leaders of police reform insist that the votes are not there for a complete government takeover of America's private warlords and militias. As a compromise, Sen. Bill Melater, D-R.I., and others have introduced a bill that would include a public plan alongside a requirement for all Americans to buy private police protection. ...
Atheist's Lullaby Redux
Wow, some days you just have to love the Internets.
Someone called "Dark of the Stars" just posted this lovely expansion to my "Atheist's Lullaby."
So, with 60 votes in the Senate, we won't have to compromise any more on health care, right?
Right, Digby? I mean, like Obama said:
Only women?
AP Newsbreak: SC gov 'crossed lines' with women. Only women? That's odd.
Comment of the day
At Digby, alert reader GaryB comments:
Here's what Congress is going to pass: everything stays the same except that it will be mandatory that each citizen buy health insurance. Just like car insurance.
Yep.
Ruling for Franken in Minnesota
Minn. Court holds for Franken.
That's good news from my home state. Governor Tim Pawlenty said Sunday he would sign an election certificate if compelled to do so. The Minn. court has ruled Franken "is entitled" to the election certificate. Now let's see if the Republican governor makes good on that.
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