Obama changes talking points on uninsured - Yahoo! News

Presto! The 40+ million w/o medical insurance is now 30 million. Because (drum roll, please) about one third of the uninsured are illegals.
What the article -- from the AP, naturalemente, doesn't say is the income breakdown of the uninsured. I'll give you pretty good odds over 20% are at an income level that allows them to buy insurance, but they choose not to.
Obama changes talking points on uninsured - Yahoo! News

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E-Bomb Doomsday Conference Starts Today | Danger Room | Wired.com

Money shot: "It'll fry pace makers, destroy iPhones, and turn laptops into useless paperweights. It's the scariest thing most people outside the Washington Beltway have never heard of: electromagnetic pulse weapons."
‘E-Bomb’ Doomsday Conference Starts Today | Danger Room | Wired.com

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Mitch Daniels: The Coming Reset in State Government - WSJ.com

Emphasis is mine. Would have been really great if Mr. Daniels had successfully put a choker-chain around Bush 43's spendthrift ways.
State government finances are a wreck. The drop in tax receipts is the worst in a half century. Fewer than 10 states ended the last fiscal year with significant reserves, and three-fourths have deficits exceeding 10% of their budgets. Only an emergency infusion of printed federal funny money is keeping most state boats afloat right now.
Mitch Daniels: The Coming Reset in State Government - WSJ.com

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Red Ensign Day

Ten years after it was introduced, Merchant Navy Day continues to celebrate the British shipping industry as well as providing an opportunity to remember the sacrifices made by merchant seamen over the years.News : NDS

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Pyrrhic victory on health reform? - Washington Times

Money shot:
If Republicans really want to stem the expansion of government, they should participate in the health care reform debate before the health care system reaches the crisis that is surely coming without intervention. But if the Republicans effectively kill health reform again, it'll become another third rail, like Social Security - deadly if touched.<\i>
BURMAN: Pyrrhic victory on health reform? - Washington Times

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MONEY! The Sir John M. Templeton Fellowships Essay Contest

Undergraduate winners get up to $2500.
The Sir John M. Templeton Fellowships Essay Contest encourages college students and young college professors around the world to study the meaning and significance of economic and personal liberty.

Co-sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation and the Independent Institute, the essay contest honors Sir John M. Templeton and is held annually with a different topic each year.
The Sir John M. Templeton Fellowships Essay Contest

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Exit, Voice, and Freedom: An Example, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Dr Kling, ponte quondam, ponte futurus:
Following up on this post and this one, let me try to offer a hypothetical example of freedom without democracy. Maybe Will Wilkinson can comment on the example in a way that sheds light on what he is thinking, because I am not following him.

Here's the deal: Suppose that a new non-territorial state is created. Call it Liberista! To become a citizen of Liberista!, you just pay an annual fee. You pay no taxes to the state. As a citizen of Liberista!, you can live anywhere that Liberista! has an embassy compound. Liberista! leases compounds in countries all over the world. Liberista! embassy compounds are as ubiquitous as Hiltons, but many of them have space for large sections of single-family homes, office parks, and so on.
Exit, Voice, and Freedom: An Example, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

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The Dumbest Words I've Read Today, Health Care Reform Edition

Y'know, between Greg Mankiw and this young lady, I could get to really admire Harvard Econ!
And, yes, I agree. These are the dumbest words, even by the Daily Beast's standards. The fact that cell phones are ubiquitous in North America doesn't mean they're not restricted. Consider cell-phone usage of, say 15 years ago.
The Dumbest Words I’ve Read Today, Health Care Reform Edition…

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Lawyers on combatting antimicrobial resistance.

Cut to the chase: over 18,000 people per year die

Thomas Frank in the WSJ on the subject of gategate

Conservatives won this round in the culture wars, not merely because most of the facts broke their way, but because their grievance is one that a certain species of liberal never seems to grasp. Whether the issue is abortion, evolution or recycling, these liberal patricians are forever astonished to discover that the professions and institutions and attitudes that they revere are seen by others as arrogance and affectation.

Why Megan opposes coercive Health Care

One of the worlds greatest opening lines:
"In a nutshell, I hate the poor and want them to die so that all my rich friends can use their bodies as mulch for their diamond ranches."
A Long, Long Post About My Reasons For Opposing National Health Care - Megan McArdle

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Instapundit

Instapundit

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Essay - To Overhaul the System, 'Health' Needs Redefining - NYTimes.com

The NYT. The NYT! We might have lost the NYT!
Essay - To Overhaul the System, ‘Health’ Needs Redefining - NYTimes.com

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CBO deals new blow to health plan - Chris Frates - POLITICO.com

I could point out that this is one of the disadvantages of a crop of attorney's for whom numbers are a major mystery, but I won't.
CBO deals new blow to health plan - Chris Frates - POLITICO.com

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Peggy Noonan: Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare - WSJ.com

I suspect voters, the past few weeks, have been giving themselves an internal Q-and-A that goes something like this:

Will whatever health care bill is produced by Congress increase the deficit? “Of course.”
Will it mean tax increases? “Of course.” Will it mean new fees of fines? “Probably.” Can I afford it right now? “No, I’m already getting clobbered.”
Will it make the marketplace freer and better? “Probably not.”
Is our health care system in crisis? “Yeah, it has been for years.”
Is it the most pressing crisis right now? “No, the economy is.”
Will a health-care bill improve the economy? “I doubt it.”
Peggy Noonan: Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare - WSJ.com

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Health-Care Reform Would Cost Seniors and Young People Plenty - WSJ.com

And the officially designed screwees are:

• Small Businesses. Employers who don’t provide coverage will have to pay a tax up to 8% of their payroll. Yet those who do provide coverage also have to pay the tax—if the law says their coverage is not “adequate.” Amazingly, even if a small business provides adequate insurance but its employees choose coverage in another plan offered through the government, the employer still must pay.

• Health Savings Account (HSA) holders. Eight million Americans, according to the Treasury Department, are covered by plans with low-cost premiums and high deductibles that are designed for large, unexpected medical costs. Money is also set aside in a savings account to cover the deductibles, and whatever isn’t spent in one year can build up tax-free. Nearly a third of new HSA users, according to Treasury figures, previously had no insurance or bought coverage on their own.

These policies will be severely limited. The Senate plan says a policy deemed “acceptable” must have insurance (rather than the individual) pay out at least 76% of the benefits. The House plan is pegged at 70%. That’s not the way these plans are set up to work. Ray Ramthun, who implemented the HSA regulations at the Treasury Department in 2003, says the regulations are crippling. “Companies tell me they could be forced to take products off the market,” he said in an interview.

• Medicare Advantage users. Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats want to cut back this program—care provided by private companies and subsidized by the government. Medicare Advantage grew by 15% last year; 10.5 million seniors, or 22% of all Medicare patients, are now enrolled.
Health-Care Reform Would Cost Seniors and Young People Plenty - WSJ.com

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Kausfiles : Another Reason to Delay Orszagism

Wisdom from Kaus (a fan of a government plan, btw): "Everytime a politician calls his reform "comprehensive" I look for the dangerous part that doesn't have to be there..."
Kausfiles : Another Reason to Delay Orszagism

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Is Ann Althouse the perfect woman?

Alas, no. She's a lawyer. But she comes close!
Althouse: "It's time to stand up with the President and fight back against this disastrous brand of old-style politics."

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CBO Director's Blog The Long-Term Budget Outlook

Money shot: "Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run."
Director’s Blog » Blog Archive » The Long-Term Budget Outlook

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OBAMA WILL REPEAL MEDICARE at DickMorris.com

Mickey Kause says Dick Morris is right twice a day. Fair enough; I think he's right on this one!
"Obama's health care proposal is, in effect, the repeal of the Medicare program as we know it. The elderly will go from being the group with the most access to free medical care to the one with the least access. Indeed, the principal impact of the Obama health care program will be to reduce sharply the medical services the elderly can use. No longer will their every medical need be met, their every medication prescribed, their every need to improve their quality of life answered."
OBAMA WILL REPEAL MEDICARE at DickMorris.com

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