Sunday funnies punditry.
John’s story is not so unusual. A Harvard study, to be published next month in the American Journal of Public Health, suggests that almost 45,000 Americans die prematurely each year as a consequence of not having insurance. John may become one of them.
If a senator strolled indifferently by as John retched in pain, we would think that person pitiless. But isn’t it just as monstrous for politicians to avert their eyes, make excuses and deny coverage to innumerable Americans just like John?
NY Times editorial on public option:
We got to this juncture because, in an already overheated political debate, no issue has drawn more demagoguery and less rational analysis than the public option. And while both political parties exaggerate what a public plan could do, Republican critics are particularly divorced from reality.
NY Times on food stamps:
A program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.
Andrew Rivken on climate emails:
"We won the war — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, and climate and energy legislation is near the top of the U.S. agenda," Dr. Curry said. "Why keep fighting all these silly battles and putting ourselves in this position?
John L. Marshall, MD (oncologist):
In the extensive debate over health-care reform, we have heard little discussion about the enormous cost of cancer care. (Some of the only voices to broach the subject are those fearing "death panels.") But at this moment, when a significant shift in the health system in this country is possible, we must ask some difficult questions: Does it make sense to support cancer care at the current levels in the United States? Who should determine the value of care?
Are storm clouds brewing on the horizon for Democrats?
That’s the bad news for Dems from a source that usually prefers news that makes Republicans look bad. When voters were asked if they will "definitely vote" or not in next year’s congressional elections, the latest weekly tracking poll commissioned by the decidedly liberal Daily Kos shows a growing enthusiasm gap in favor of Republicans.
