AZ BlueMeanie

The Blue Meanie is an Arizona citizen who wishes, for professional reasons, to remain anonymous when blogging about politics. Armed with a deep knowledge of the law, politics and public policy, as well as pen filled with all the colors stolen from Pepperland, the Blue Meanie’s mission is to pursue and prosecute the hypocrites, liars, and fools of politics and the media – which, in practical terms, is nearly all of them. Don’t even try to unmask him or he’ll seal you in a music-proof bubble and rendition you to Pepperland for a good face-stomping.

Health Insurance Reform and The Economy

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Our health-care system today was created by accident during World War II. Because wages were frozen at the time, employers attracted workers with the lure of benefits such as health insurance. As a result, employer-based insurance became the foundation of the U.S. health-care system. This accident of history has become unsustainable. The … Read more

Krugman on Blue Dogs: An Incoherent Truth

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: (Copy of the official Blue Dog portrait, the original signed by members of the coalition). New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman tries to make sense of the Blue Dog's incoherent position on health insurance reform today in An Incoherent Truth: Right now the fate of health care … Read more

Special Session Update: A critical week

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Legislature opens the fourth week of the Special Session on Monday with another "pledge and pray" session, and maybe some discussions on the budget. Political reporters are content to simply parrot the line given them by legislators of both political parties that "we are making progress" on budget negotiations (designed … Read more

Quick Take

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Sunday Arizona Daily Star turned over its opinion page today to a discussion of health insurance reform from Sen. John McCain First, reform must do no harm, Sen. Jon Kyl Changes should not be rushed, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Health-care reform is our moon shot, and Rep. Raúl Grijalva Single-payer plan would fix … Read more

Krugman: Why markets can’t cure healthcare

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Worth the read Why markets can’t cure healthcare – Paul Krugman Blog: Judging both from comments on this blog and from some of my mail, a significant number of Americans believe that the answer to our health care problems — indeed, the only answer — is to rely on the free market. … Read more