WSJ: Link between impeachment trial and the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani

Laura Clawson at Daily Kos writes, Trump killed Soleimani to win support in impeachment trial, Wall Street Journal casually mentions: Way to bury the lede, Wall Street Journal! The newspaper did a deep dive into Donald Trump’s decision to assassinate Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, but you have to read 29 paragraphs in to get to … Read more

Health Care and ‘Head Taxes’: An Unhealthy Combination

[Cross-posted from Inequality.org]

Note to BfAZ Readers: Rumors of my death, while certainly understandable, indeed are untrue. It’s been a long, long time since my last post. We ran into some technical problems here at the site, which my colleagues worked hard to fix. While they were doing so, I sort of changed my work / writing pattern and lost track of time. 

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t cross-post something that is 6 weeks old. But I wanted to get back into the swing of things, for one [cross-posting is an easy way to post] and this one has newfound relevance because it essentially makes the same point as this very recent Washington Post op-ed: Every American family basically pays an $8,000 ‘poll tax’ under the U.S. health system, top economists say

Undoubtedly, there have been changes in the way things work here with which I’m not up to speed, so my posts my look a bit funky in the near term. I’m hoping my colleagues will help work out the kinks in the coming weeks. Bob

The divide in the health care policy debate couldn’t be any clearer. On one side: the Medicare for All proponents. On the other: the Obamacare with a Public Option proponents.

Americans see the divide. But are we seeing the fundamental issues at play here? I don’t think so. We’ve been largely ignoring the huge historic contrast that separates these two rival approaches.

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