No, it’s true that President Obama is not “ignoring calls for tort reform and changes in medical malpractice laws.” Trial lawyers are a key constituency of the Democratic Party, which largely explains why party leaders have chosen to ignore this potential cost savings.Free market conservatives are for the free market except when they're not. Free market conservatives are against regulation except when they're not. Bottom line is tort reform is regulation. Free market pretenders are a key constituency of right wing pundits, which largely explains why Jim has chosen to ignore this cognitive dissonance
Anybody seen ACORN? The organization may be off to Afghanistan, where the main headline reports “Karzai’s vote lead clouded.” A smaller headline explains: “Fraud suspected in more than a quarter of all Afghan votes.”ACORN has never been convicted of voter fraud. The accusations were limited to voter registration fraud. There used to be a time when facts mattered - even in an opinion column. It would seem like a good issue for the Public Editor, but why bother. And just to prove my point...
This is a group that helped elect Barack Obama, is widely accused of voter-registration fraud, and would have grown richer and more powerful off public money in this administration. It would have had a prominent role in the 2010 census before exposes caused the feds to sever the relationship.There it is. At least he got it right this time. Here is how myths are made - take a grain of truth, cover it with manure then claim it was a boulder all along.
Maybe it’s just for a single day, but rejoice that the Standard Language of the South is back! This was the ajc.com headline over a story about an advocacy group’s push to impose a tax of one-cent per ounce on what the wire service reporter referred to as “sodas and other sweetened beverages”: “Group pushes tax on soft drinks.” Yes!Copy Editor Jim returns. I bet I know one group who is happy he no longers roams the newsroom.
In Houston County, the District Attorney is filing charges against parents from other counties who enroll their children in Houston schools. Don’t put me on this jury. The money should follow the child and parents should be able to enroll their children in schools near where they work, near a caregiver or near any other more convenient place.A supposed "law and order" conservative argues for jury nullification. This is "common sense conservatism".
You’re old Atlanta if you remember when the city’s mayoral race was the talk of metro Atlanta and even of Georgia. Now Dunwoody’s suburban neighbor prepares to pick a successor to Mayor Shirley Franklin and the candidates are almost as anonymous as those who vie to run the cities on the perimeter.Jim lives somewhere in middle Georgia now, right? Apparently the AJC's decision to cut back on delivery to certain areas has unintended consequences. Their poor former Associate Editor doesn't realize the Mayor's race has been this town's top political story for the past two weeks.
The Joe Wilson flap, taken nuclear by former President Jimmy Carter and others on the left, is a reminder that liberals really do believe that they and their policy positions are morally superior. By demonizing opponents as racists, they claim quite sanctimoniously that those who oppose them have no legitimate basis for their arguments...The race card is the liberals’ Saturday night special – a cheap weapon to pop off into a crowd they don’t like.And we end with this. I would like to explain how words are being twisted. I would like to explain how the statements of the few are being twisted to cast shadow on the many. I'd like to go on a long rant about the Republican's perfecting the process of myth-making.
But I can't.
Because last night I was told that my previous statement - "I know the Republican party isn't racist" - doesn't make any sense.
So, on this one, Jim may be more right that I care to admit.
Selah.
5 comments:
Jim is also wrong that tort reform reduces healthcare costs. It has never been shown in any of the many states that have enacted tort reform that lower legal costs lead to lower health insurance premiums that lead to savings passed on to consumers. The only people who reliably benefit financially from tort reform are insurance companies.
This canard makes me so angry because it is so easily shot down, yet somehow people still keep repeating it.
"Free market conservatives are against regulation except when they're not. Bottom line is tort reform is regulation."
Are you arguing that jury awards / verdicts are part of the free market?
Aha! I wondered if someone would call me on that.
In a sense.
They are certainly not the free market in one sense because there is an unavoidable government entanglement.
But free market theory rests on the principle that there is a redress for mistakes or to be more blunt, punishment. You make a bad decision, your business suffers.
The only relatively fair way for correction of medical malpratice is the civil suit.
Therefore capping (by the government no less, please tell me how that's not regulation) civil suits brings in an artificial element into the balance of this particular "market".
And trust me on this. If you talk to a libertarian and they say they are for tort reform? They aren't a libertarian.
Just realized I should have said lower MALPRACTICE insurance premiums, not health insurance premiums.
As I said recently elsewhere, Georgia enacted tort reform in 2005for medical malpractice cases but I challenge you to find me a Georgia doctor whose premiums have gone down in the last 4 yers.
The racist element in opposition to Obama is a small minority within a minority. Dwelling on it isn't helpful with respect to influencing moderates and independents.
Those that complain about the playing of the racist card are for the most part reaping what they've sown. They either actively suggested or stood silently by when opposition to Bush and the Iraq War was categorically branded as unpatiotic.
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