"The accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers says about 10 percent of the cost of medical service is attributable to medical malpractice lawsuits. Roughly 2 percent is caused by direct costs of the lawsuits; an additional 5 percent to 9 percent is due to expenses run up by defensive medicine.
"So why the lack of tort reform in ObamaCare? Start with the campaign dollars the president received from the legal industry...."
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Byron York: Without Bush, media lose interest in war caskets
"In April of this year, the Obama administration lifted the press ban, which had been in place since the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Media outlets rushed to cover the first arrival of a fallen U.S. serviceman, and many photographers came back for the second arrival, and then the third.
"But after that, the impassioned advocates of showing the true human cost of war grew tired of the story. Fewer and fewer photographers showed up. 'It's really fallen off,' says Lt. Joe Winter, spokesman for the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where all war dead are received. 'The flurry of interest has subsided.'"
and
"With casualties mounting, the debate over U.S. policy in Afghanistan is sharp and heated. The number of arrivals at Dover is increasing. But the journalists who once clamored to show the true human cost of war are nowhere to be found."
"But after that, the impassioned advocates of showing the true human cost of war grew tired of the story. Fewer and fewer photographers showed up. 'It's really fallen off,' says Lt. Joe Winter, spokesman for the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where all war dead are received. 'The flurry of interest has subsided.'"
and
"With casualties mounting, the debate over U.S. policy in Afghanistan is sharp and heated. The number of arrivals at Dover is increasing. But the journalists who once clamored to show the true human cost of war are nowhere to be found."
Monday, September 28, 2009
Ron Christie: The numbers don't lie
"Here's what Vice President Joe Biden noted in a speech released yesterday by the White House quoted by the Post:
"'The Recovery Act has played a significant role in changing the trajectory of our economy and changing the conversation about the economy in this country,' Biden said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. 'Instead of talking about the beginning of a depression, we are talking about the end of a recession.'
"Well, the Labor Department just released the unemployment numbers a few moments ago and unemployment is now at 9.7 percent — the highest level in our nation since June 1983. More than 216,000 Americans lost their job last month and nearly one out of every 10 Americans is out of a job, and the administration is crowing about how the pork-laden stimulus bill is 'changing the trajectory of our economy and changing the conversation about the economy?'
"So far as I can see, the trajectory of unemployment continues to rise and the conversations I hear about people keeping their jobs remains tense. As for the White House? Its numbers and rosy optimism just don't add up."
"'The Recovery Act has played a significant role in changing the trajectory of our economy and changing the conversation about the economy in this country,' Biden said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. 'Instead of talking about the beginning of a depression, we are talking about the end of a recession.'
"Well, the Labor Department just released the unemployment numbers a few moments ago and unemployment is now at 9.7 percent — the highest level in our nation since June 1983. More than 216,000 Americans lost their job last month and nearly one out of every 10 Americans is out of a job, and the administration is crowing about how the pork-laden stimulus bill is 'changing the trajectory of our economy and changing the conversation about the economy?'
"So far as I can see, the trajectory of unemployment continues to rise and the conversations I hear about people keeping their jobs remains tense. As for the White House? Its numbers and rosy optimism just don't add up."
ALEX ISENSTADT: In the race from race, Democrats rebut Jimmy Carter
"From the White House to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Democrats raced to distance themselves from the former president’s claim that racism was behind Rep. Joe Wilson’s 'You lie' outburst and other attacks on President Barack Obama.
“'Listen, he’s the former president, and he’s entitled to his point of view,' said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). 'I personally believe President Obama and his administration are focused on the issues, and I agree with that.'
“I don’t see this as a racial issue,' added Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). 'There are a lot of people upset about how we on the Democratic side can engage like we have been, and there’s a lot of anger out there. So, I don’t see it as a racial issue.'
“'I didn’t agree with it,' Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) said of Carter’s remarks.
"Congressional Democrats have no interest in starting a racial argument that could turn off swing district voters whose support the party will need if it plans on keeping its grip on Congress in 2010. And the current occupants of the White House made it clear Wednesday that they have no interest in bringing race back to the fore of any discussion about Obama."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27248.html#ixzz0STFeXkRJ
“'Listen, he’s the former president, and he’s entitled to his point of view,' said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). 'I personally believe President Obama and his administration are focused on the issues, and I agree with that.'
“I don’t see this as a racial issue,' added Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). 'There are a lot of people upset about how we on the Democratic side can engage like we have been, and there’s a lot of anger out there. So, I don’t see it as a racial issue.'
“'I didn’t agree with it,' Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) said of Carter’s remarks.
"Congressional Democrats have no interest in starting a racial argument that could turn off swing district voters whose support the party will need if it plans on keeping its grip on Congress in 2010. And the current occupants of the White House made it clear Wednesday that they have no interest in bringing race back to the fore of any discussion about Obama."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27248.html#ixzz0STFeXkRJ
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