Michael Bryan

Michael founded BlogForArizona.net as the Howard Dean presidential campaign blog for Arizona in 2003, and has been blogging ever since. The Blog is now coming up on 20 years of continuous publication, a major achievement for any political blog, which usually have the life-spans of mayflies. Michael is an attorney living in Tucson with his wife Lauren. In 2008, Michael remade BlogForArizona into a collaborative project. Michael is now but one of the contributors to the blog and provides editorial and publishing direction in consultation with the Board of Directors and the other authors. If you want to keep up with the latest Arizona and National political news in an entertaining quick hit of news and opinion, check out the BlogForArizona twitter feed, which Mike largely curates and writes. Michael is also an AAPC member who occassionally consults on political campaigns, strategy and communications.

Morality, Not Markets, Is The Heart of Healthcare

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By Michael Bryan

The American healthcare system is not a market at all. And it is certainly not a 'free' market.

 

Free-Market-Health-Care1

This is how Republicans depict the system. It's a lie.

That may be a counter-intuitive statement, given the political discourse around the American healthcare system. But allow me to make the case before you reject this premise.

Any economist will tell you that a free market system for exchange of any good or service requires several basic preconditions in order to work. Some of those prerequisites are: the existence of fungible goods in the market (substitutions are possible which leave the consumer equally well off), pricing information freely available to consumer and providers, freedom by participants (especially buyers) to select the timing of their purchases, and freedom to choose whether to enter the market at all.

None of these preconditions obtain in the American healthcare system.

Russell Pearce Uses the End of 287g Program to Fundraise for BAN… Surprise!

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By Michael Bryan

Not.

Russell-pearce

“When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving a cross, and will claim the label Americanism”

Arizona's own Goebbels, Russell Pearce, is now attempting to raise money for Ban Amnesty Now using the phase-out of the 287(g) program as a panic button.

What Pearce fails to mention is that DHS is also rolling out a new program, Secure Communities, which accomplishes the same immigration status checks on all persons booked in local jails across 15,000 jurisdiction in 44 states (whereas 287(g) is only in about 60 jurisdictions), without the liability and constitutional violations created by unleashing xenophobic hate-baters like Sheriff Joe Arpaio on an innocent public.

Let's have a look at Pearce's fundraising pitch: