Set a group of plugged-in conservatives to talking presidential politics, and you’ll get the same complaints about the 2012 field.
Mitt Romney? He couldn’t make the voters like him last time … Sarah Palin? She’d lose 47 states … Mike Huckabee? Better as a talk-show host … Tim Pawlenty, Jim DeMint, Bobby Jindal, David Petraeus? Too blah, too extreme, too green, and stop dreaming …
But murmur the name Mitch Daniels, and everyone perks up a bit. Would he win? Maybe not. But he’d be the best president of any of them …
Archive for March 1st, 2010
Mitch Daniels Has Become America’s Best Governor
Monday, March 1st, 2010The Democrats on Reconciliation
Monday, March 1st, 2010The Democrats haven’t been shy about giving their opinions on whether it would be appropriate to use “budget reconciliation” to circumvent the filibuster and pass major legislation such as their proposed health-care overhaul. Here are some of the comments they’ve made within the past year:
“I was one of the authors of the legislation that created the budget ‘reconciliation’ process in 1974, and I am certain that putting health-care reform and climate-change legislation on a freight train through Congress is an outrage that must be resisted” (Sen. Robert Byrd, W.Va., the Washington Post, 3/22/09).
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via The Democrats on Reconciliation – Jeffrey H. Anderson – Critical Condition on National Review Online.
Revealed: Media’s Phony Tea Party Leader Is a Phony Soldier Too
Monday, March 1st, 2010Even Mother Jones reported in January that Dale Robertson is not and never was a tea party leader and that the mainstream media had “lost its edge” in linking Robertson to the movement.
But, that didn’t stop liberal media hacks from repeating the lie that Robertson was a leader in the Tea Party movement.
via Gateway Pundit.
UN’s climate link to hurricanes in doubt
Monday, March 1st, 2010Research by hurricane scientists may force the UN’s climate panel to reconsider its claims that greenhouse gas emissions have caused an increase in the number of tropical storms.
The benchmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that a worldwide increase in hurricane-force storms since 1970 was probably linked to global warming.
It followed some of the most damaging storms in history such as Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans and Hurricane Dennis which hit Cuba, both in 2005.
via UN’s climate link to hurricanes in doubt – Times Online.
Mitch Daniels: Hoosiers and Health Savings Accounts
Monday, March 1st, 2010In Indiana’s HSA, the state deposits $2,750 per year into an account controlled by the employee, out of which he pays all his health bills. Indiana covers the premium for the plan. The intent is that participants will become more cost-conscious and careful about overpayment or overutilization.
Unused funds in the account—to date some $30 million or about $2,000 per employee and growing fast—are the worker’s permanent property. For the very small number of employees (about 6% last year) who use their entire account balance, the state shares further health costs up to an out-of-pocket maximum of $8,000, after which the employee is completely protected.
The HSA option has proven highly popular. This year, over 70% of our 30,000 Indiana state workers chose it, by far the highest in public-sector America. Due to the rejection of these plans by government unions, the average use of HSAs in the public sector across the country is just 2%.
via Mitch Daniels: Hoosiers and Health Savings Accounts – WSJ.com.
The Case for High-Deductible Health Insurance
Monday, March 1st, 2010Essentially, we all want to live forever. This makes health care a very desirable good. At the same time, the normal restraints imposed by price are frequently lacking. Today, of every dollar spent on health care in this country, just 13 cents is paid for by the person actually consuming the goods or services. Roughly half is paid for by government, and the remainder is covered by private insurance. And, as long as someone else is paying, consumers have every reason to consume as much health care as is available.
On the other, when consumers share in the cost of their health care purchasing decisions, they are more likely to make those decisions based on price and value. Take just one example. If everyone were to receive a CT brain scan every year as part of their annual physical, we would undoubtedly discover a small number of brain cancers much earlier than we otherwise would, perhaps early enough to save the patient’s life.
via RealClearPolitics – The Case for High-Deductible Health Insurance.