- John McCain

“The economy has taken a turn for the worse, big time. Consumption literally caved in. It is a prelude to much worse news on the economy over the next couple of quarters. The fundamentals around the consumer are all negative, and there are no signs of any [...]]]> “The fundamentals of the ecomomy are strong.”

- John McCain

“The economy has taken a turn for the worse, big time. Consumption literally caved in. It is a prelude to much worse news on the economy over the next couple of quarters. The fundamentals around the consumer are all negative, and there are no signs of any help anytime soon, from anywhere.”

- Allen Sinai, chief global economist for Decision Economics, a consulting and forecasting group.

Too often, trying to follow the presidential campaign debate is like coming in on the middle of a movie. You can get the gist of what’s going on, maybe, but you know that major plot points slipped past you – you know you [...]]]> By Scott Bittle on October 23, 2008 (Cross posted at Public Agenda Online)

Too often, trying to follow the presidential campaign debate is like coming in on the middle of a movie. You can get the gist of what’s going on, maybe, but you know that major plot points slipped past you – you know you could figure out who the murderer is, if you’d just been able to catch the first 15 minutes.

The basic reason is that the candidates, even when they talk about the issues, assume you already know the basics. The candidates figure they don’t have time to explain the background to you, and they figure it might bore you anyway, so they jump right into what their plan would do. That’s particularly unfair because the politicians themselves often are working off cheat sheets or talking points that give them the key points to make. Their staff has done the digging; the politician gets the bullet-point version.

Take health care, for example. The plans put forth by Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are miles apart in ideological terms, and wickedly complicated in their details. But do the campaigns or the media spend much time stepping back and looking at what’s going on with the health care system, or why it needs fixing in the first place? Not really.

So here’s ten things you need to know about the state of the U.S. health care system. This is where we stand as a nation on this issue, and with these key facts in hand you can start to get your mind around the very complicated options the presidential candidates are putting out there. For a start:

Some 47 million Americans, 15.8% of the population, don’t have health insurance.

These are mainly people in jobs that don’t offer benefits: people between jobs, part-timers, the self-employed and lots of folks who work for small businesses. The number of uninsured may well go up over the next year because of the bad economy, as businesses lay off workers or cut back benefits.

The U.S. government spends nearly $700 billion each year on health care, mainly for Medicare (which covers nearly all older Americans), Medicaid (which helps cover those who are very poor) and care for veterans.

Meanwhile private health costs amount to about $1.1 trillion every year. About six in ten Americans get health insurance from their employer.

And just in case you hadn’t noticed, individuals shell out for health care too. It’s usually for deductibles, co-pays, premiums and drugs that aren’t covered by insurance. For an unfortunate group of Americans, it’s what they have to pay when they have a very serious illness or injury and their insurance basically runs out.

The U.S. health care system is incredibly complicated. Essentially, it’s not a ‘system’ at all – it’s a patchwork of private insurance and government programs like Medicare. There are holes in the system – and there’s duplication as well.

Health care costs have been rising faster than inflation for decades (they went up 6.7 percent in 2006). This will probably get worse. Government experts project health spending could double in 10 years

This presents a huge burden for business and it’s a budget-buster for the government, but frankly you’ll be on the line too. Business faced with spiraling health care costs sometimes cut benefits or raises or may even cut back their work force. Government needs to get the money from someone to cover health care costs. Guess who?

Most experts say expensive new treatments, procedures and drugs, along with an aging population are the major reason health care costs are shooting upward, but everyone also agrees that there’s a lot of inefficiency in the system too.

The plans of both presidential candidates are going to cost a lot of money. And given the staggering projections for the federal deficit over the next few years, money is going to be tight. So the government’s going to have to find a way to pay any reform plan.

How do we know this? Here are our sources:

Census Bureau, Health Insurance 2006; Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditures Data; Government Accountability Office, The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook April 2008; Kaiser Family Foundation, Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace; Tax Policy Center, Analysis of the Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans,

Want to think over the options for actually fixing this problem? Have a look at Public Agenda’s Voter Survival Kit on health care, Your Money or Your Life, where we lay out different options, with potential costs and tradeoffs. And to check out the candidate plans in detail, visit the McCain and Obama web sites.

Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser; not Nicolle Wallace, his senior communications staffer. It was Amy Strozzi, who was identified by the Washington Post this week as Gov. [...]]]>

Who was the highest paid individual in Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign during the first half of October as it headed down the homestretch?

Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser; not Nicolle Wallace, his senior communications staffer. It was Amy Strozzi, who was identified by the Washington Post this week as Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday night.

Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”, was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records. The campaign categorized Ms. Strozzi’s payment as “Personnel Svc/Equipment.”

Your taxpayer dollars hard at work. Remember, Senator McCain opted for public financing, which means you and I just paid for Sarah Palin’s hair and designer clothes. This from the candidate that promises to cut wasteful spending in Washington.

You have [...]]]> “Which is better? Serve 35 years in the United States Senate and say you’ve got to divide Iraq into three different countries, or be governor of a state and a reformer and give people their tax dollars back and bring about reform in the way that your state does business? Which is better?”

You have to admire the way McCain compares Senator Biden and Governor Palin with two completely different issues. Which is better? Trying the same policies of the past eight years and expecting a different result or trying something different?

The party’s independent ad operation is doubling its budget to about $10 million and focusing on crucial states such as Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and Virginia where [...]]]>

The Republican National Committee is halting presidential ads in Wisconsin and Maine, turning much of its attention to usually Republican states where GOP nominee John McCain shows signs of faltering.

The party’s independent ad operation is doubling its budget to about $10 million and focusing on crucial states such as Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and Virginia where Democrat Barack Obama has established a foothold, according to a Republican strategist familiar with presidential ad placements.

It’s going to be a landslide. McCain is conceding all of the battleground states and is forced to campaign in reliably Republican states.

Mr. Straight Talk, the War Hero is surely in a state of shock as he once again sees his dream of the White House slipping away, [...]]]> As his poll numbers continue to drop, there must be chaos inside John McCain’s campaign…panic among his advisers …and absolute madness (and rage) inside the head of John McCain himself.

Mr. Straight Talk, the War Hero is surely in a state of shock as he once again sees his dream of the White House slipping away, just as it did in 2000 when an undistinguished Governor from Texas…a spoiled rich kid who had never even served his country …beat him in the party’s primaries.

It must be déjà vu for John McCain, as this time he appears headed for defeat at the hands of a freshman Senator who, in McCain’s mind, doesn’t even belong on the same stage as the GOP candidate.

John McCain has always been frank about his burning desire to be president. He wants it not for any noble reason but just because he considers himself uniquely qualified to hold that office…because he feels he’s entitled to it, and because…well…he wants it.

McCain’s actions and words confirm that it’s a goal he’s willing to pursue at any cost. And so it must be particularly galling to see an “uppity black man” – with just a fraction of McCain’s experience – leading him in the polls and poised to snatch the prize from him.

Couple this bitter disappointment with McCain’s notorious temper and flyboy recklessness and perhaps his belligerence towards Obama and his erratic behavior in recent weeks isn’t so hard to explain after all.

The way you’ve done it — behind my back — reminds me of that [...]]]> “Senator, you’ve spent the last month making accusations about me that you know are false. You’ve been lying about my record, my position on the issues and about the people I’ve associated with…all in an effort to scare the American people.

The way you’ve done it — behind my back — reminds me of that classic American figure – the schoolyard bully.

We’ve all had someone like that in our lives at one time – you know, the obnoxious kid who strutted around trying to intimidate the other students by telling lies about them and trying to show how tough he was. And he got away with it until someone stood up to him and said, I dare you to say that to my face.

That’s when the bully caved in. He didn’t have the courage to look the other kids in the eye and tell those lies.

Senator, you never tire of telling us how brave you are. Well, here’s your chance to prove it. I’m challenging you to say directly to me now what you’ve been saying to everyone else. That I’m dangerous. That I’m not patriotic. That I support terrorists.

Here’s your chance, Senator. America is waiting.”