Charles Krauthammer says that Americans resist universal health care, in part, because we're refugees from big government Europe:
Matthew Yglesias scorns the notion of building a double wall on the Mexican border to reduce illegal immigration:
It is so simple. And elegant. What’s more, it is also true.
Matthew Yglesias points out that Republicans in Congress, with only 28% approval, score lower approval ratings than Russia or even Cuba.
David Frum says the Senate Democrats are looking for excuses:
--Matthew Yglesias puts former Rumsfeld speechwriter Marc Thiessen on the couch
--David Brooks likes Joe Biden
--The Democrats' bipartisan health care plan
--John McCain's primary challenge
George Packer has taken some heat for mourning the way new media have crowded out time for books:
Matthew Yglesias expresses the political logic for passing health care reform, succinctly and, in my opinion, persuasively:
I disagree with Marty fairly often, but I think Matthew Yglesias gets it wrong here:
New Republic editor in chief Martin Peretz says that what the country needs is more anti-Muslim sentiment:
Readers may have noticed that the "Daily Treatment" isn't really daily. Instead, it's daily when I have time to write it, which isn't as often as I would like. And that's unfortunate.
It means I don't get to chance to highlight many worthy articles--or, more important, to thank, implicitly, the writers and thinkers whose work influences me. So today I'm bringing the Daily Treatment back, but offering an extended holiday version--one in which I can give thanks to...
Julie Appleby, Mary Agnes Carey, Philip Galewitz, and Jordan Rau for asking, and answering, the questions most Americans actually care about
Carrie Budoff Brown for her relentless, indispensable coverage
Brian Beutler for being impervious to spin (and nearly impervious to bullets)
Michael Cannon for keeping me honest
Kevin Drum for staying healthy
Bill Frist and John Breaux have a column in Politico urging Congress to build on the success of the 2003 Medicare prescription drug act, and not to cut any subsidies out of Medicare Advantage, the lucrative boondoggle created by that act. As Matthew Yglesias notes, it's absurd to cite as a legislative model a bill that "paid" for every cent of its benefits with debt.
Yesterday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted to report out climate legislation, with ten Democrats voting yes, one Democrat (Montana’s Sen. Baucus) voting no, and all of the Republicans boycotting. If you look at the vote tally (using Project Vulcan data), you find that the states of senators voting "no" emitted 29.4 tonnes of carbon per capita, and the states of "yes" voters emitted 13.3 tonnes per capita, compared with a national average of 20.9 tonnes per capita.
What do you think? Does this mean that the likely impact of cap-and-trade legislation on the members’ states influenced their votes? We would say it does, as we implied in a post we put up the other day on the household costs by a bill by metro. However, Matthew Yglesias would likely disagree, going by his response to our previous examination of this issue.
Matt doesn’t think representatives from metros (or states) with higher carbon emissions are less likely to support cap-and-trade. Instead, he argues that “the primary driver of the politics of climate change is general ideological factors, followed by the interests of energy producers rather than consumers.” That is, he thinks that industry opposition to carbon legislation is a stronger motivator of "no" votes than consumer opposition—an interesting theory that we can almost buy. Did you see all those anti-climate bill industry ads during the World Series?
Yesterday I appeared on a panel at J Street, where I debated Matthew Yglesias on what it means to be pro-Israel, as well as J Street's role in this debate. My main argument was that the Jewish community needs a group like J Street to keep the most extreme elements from defining "pro-Israel" too restrictively, to provide a counterweight against the natural inclination of any ethnic community toward tribalism, and to provide political space for the territorial compromises needed to create a two-state solution.
The famous blogger Matthew Yglesias was mentioned twice in the last few days on TNR online, once by Jon Chait on the Plank, another time by me on the Spine. Both were occasioned by Yglesias' involvement with
Sorry I’ve been silent (again) for so long. In addition to teaching two writing seminars at Penn, I’ve been busy with book revisions. Those are now done, so I should be back (again) to more regular blogging.
To follow up on my item on Human Rights Watch, I slightly mischarcaterized HRW's reply. The organization didn't say that the vast majority of its reports were on othe countries, it said that about the vast majority of its Middle East/North Africa reports. That certainly narrows it down. But it still doesn't respond to the complaint, which is that the attention to Israel is disproportionate.
Matthew Yglesias thinks the health care industry should shut up and take what the Democrats are offering, because they'll never get a better deal. I'm not sure he really has their best interests at heart, but he's almost certainly right.
Peter Orszag thinks you should exercise more and eat right--and shows you how it's done.
Via Ben Smith, Radio Iowa reports that Christie Vilsack--wife of the guy currently 
responsible for grading your meat--m
What opponents of gay marriage and health care reform have in common.
The conservative attacks on health care reform and Barack Obama's economic plan seem to have reached a fever pitch this week. Their obsession with the topics has been matched only by the inanity of most of their critiques. Why are the conservative talking points on these issues grounded in such weak arguments? Is there something else at play here?
