Late Happy Hour Thread

Rick Scott, the Pro-Life Governor of Florida

My, what a busy beaver he is! In just the last few weeks he has managed to turn large chunks of the Medicaid system to for-profit health care providers:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed two historic Medicaid bills Thursday, placing the health care of nearly 3 million Florida residents into the hands of for-profit companies and hospital networks.
Lawmakers said the program was overwhelming the state budget and needed to be privatized to rein in costs and improve patient care. Critics fear the bills build on a flawed five-county experiment where patients struggled to access specialists and doctors complained the treatments they prescribed were frequently denied.

Medicaid is the program which funds health care for certain low-income groups. But it also funds the majority of nursing-home care for the frail elderly.

But wait! There is more! Rick Scott also signed into law new abortion restrictions:

House Bill 97 removes coverage for abortions in health care insurance exchanges created by federal health care reform. The law provides exceptions for cases of rape, incest and a threat to the woman’s life.

AND he cut funding for the care of at-risk infants. I'm not kidding you:

Last week, Gov. Rick Scott signed the state’s budget, which proposed reductions to health services for women and children. He also vetoed millions more in health service projects set aside specifically for women and children. Programs that aim to lower infant mortality and increase women’s health in the state have seen a major setback since Scott took office.
Among the many vetoes from last week: a program that would add a test for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease, or SCID, to the list of genetic diseases newborns are tested for in Florida.

There you go! Unborn children are valuable but once they are born children Rick Scott does not care. Neither does he care about the elderly or the poor.

Afternoon Thread

Chew on it.

Away

Don't think I'll be able to do this for a few days.

When We Replace The Marines With A Pizza, We Will Call The Pizza The Marines

That's basically what the Republicans, aided by the Villagers, are trying to do with Medicare.

Not Sticky Enough

I actually don't think there are substantial enough network effects in the online coupon business, and think unless GroupOn (and similar companies) figure out how to make their offering more sticky, they'll all face plenty of endless competition. Nothing wrong with that, but I just don't see how they corner the market.

Pivot

It's a nice idea, but I do not think it is likely that the administration will pivot back to jobs. Hope is the plan.

Anti-Stimulus

I was hunting for this information earlier. The point is that as the stimulus winds down, it actually becomes anti-stimulus. That would be fine if the economy was roaring. But it's, you know, not.

Bring Back That Panic Feeling

I was reading through a few of my posts from 2009 about housing and the economy and I was reminded of the perfectly appropriate sense of panic that existed then, not just in dirty hippies like me but from basically everyone. There were tremendous problems, people were trying (not necessarily in the right ways) to solve them. It was the job of the government to do that.

And then... calm.

Going Forward

Let's hope politicians and the media remain focused on abstract concepts that have no direct impact on our lives.

Must...not...mention...recovery...summer...

In Seven More Months

CR's going to have to make the graph bigger.

Monthly Jobs Report

+54K total jobs, including -29K public sector jobs. AUSTERITY NOW AND FOREVER BITCHES. Unemployment increases to 9.1%. Emp-pop unchanged.

So, uh, not good news.

Don't Forget The Sternly Worded Letter

It must be part of any settlement agreement.

Shorter Krugman

First Draft.

Evening Thread

Rock on

The Gift, The Blessing, Or The Curse

Actual nutter or just grifter? Who knows.

Happy Hour Thread

Enjoy.

An Inqy commenter to this article.*

My Dad got us out of South Philly in 1965 because he had to walk 4 blocks in the rain for a parking space. We moved to South Jersey with a 150' driveway and a large garage and only came back for weddings and funerals.

And while that's the kind of sentiment which makes me giggle, there's nothing wrong with it. Back in 1965 there probably was a starker, simpler choice between urban and suburban living, for people for whom parking was a priority, the suburbs won. But it also is a reminder that per capita auto ownership increased over time, that for awhile parking in South Philly probably wasn't as much of a problem, not until they started creeping towards the one-car-per-driving-age-household-member standard. The point being, dense cities are compatible with cars, just not too many of them.


*The Inqy is apparently experimenting with moving comments from articles which will be, uh, controversial, to facebook in hopes that it restrains people. Nope.

Fixed

Last 20 email subject headers from Chris Cillizza's The Fix.

Mitt Romney channels Ronald Reagan
Fast Fix: Mitt Romney is in (VIDEO)
Mitt Romney's announcement speech: It's the economy, stupid
Afternoon Fix: Sarah Palin goes to Fox News
Anthony Weiner: Can't say with certitude lewd image isn't me
Many Republicans "not impressed" with Republican field
Jim DeMint again says no to presidential race
Newt Gingrich: Assessing the damage done
Afternoon Fix: Ohio auditor endorses Pawlenty
Mitt Romney's health care "problem"
Morning Fix: The unorthodoxy of Sarah Palin
Monday Fix: Republican presidential contenders? first real test begins on Memorial Day
Live Fix Chat: Palin, Palin, and more Palin (also some NY-26 and other 2012 handicappings)
Worst Week in Washington winner is... [Paul Ryan]
Rick Perry opens the door to 2012 bid (and the rest of the top 10 contenders)
Fast Fix: Is Sarah Palin back? (Video)
Morning Fix: Mitt Romney's New Hampshire moment
Sarah Palin (still) not playing in early states
Morning Fix: Medicare: the new third Rail of American politics?
Afternoon Fix: Bill Clinton tells Paul Ryan to call him

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round

Often I think like the Villagers only have a few scripts that they keep running through over and over again. The ZOMG WE HAVE TO DESTROY MEDICARE TO SAVE IT and WHERE'S YOUR PLAN? HUH? HUH? stuff is just the same as it was when Bush was trying to destroy Social Security.

Medicare is cheap, it's our health care system that's expensive.