COVID-19 & Healthcare

Paul, honey, we pro-choicers could have told you this 30 years ago

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krugman

Paul Krugman’s Monday NYT column is a sharp observation of how the American Right is untethered from evidence on a wide variety of policy issues.

Of course not. Evidence doesn’t matter for the “debate” over climate policy, where I put scare quotes around “debate” because, given the obvious irrelevance of logic and evidence, it’s not really a debate in any normal sense. And this situation is by no means unique. Indeed, at this point it’s hard to think of a major policy dispute where facts actually do matter; it’s unshakable dogma, across the board. And the real question is why.

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CBO reports contradict the claims in King v. Burwell

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ObamacareIn early March the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in King v. Burwell, in which Libertarian lawyers who write for the Volokh Conspiracy at the Washington Post will make a  Textualism argument that the text of “ObamaCare” limits federal subsidies only to people who buy insurance from state-run exchanges, not from the federal exchange.

The “textualism” argument would require the Court to abandon its “Chevron deference,” i.e., that when a federal statute is ambiguous, courts defer to the agency’s interpretation (in this case the IRS). Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (1984).

The “textualism” argument would also require the Court to abandon a long-established canon of statutory construction, what Justice Scalia just last year in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA called “the fundamental canon of statutory construction that the words of a statute must be read in their context and with a view to their place in the overall statutory scheme.”

The “textualism” argument would also require the Court to abandon examination of the congressional record to determine congressional intent, a practice the Court has routinely engaged in. On this topic, Sarah Kliff at Vox.com reports on the research by Theda Skocpol who finds no support the argument being made by the Libertarian lawyers in this case. Analysis: CBO contradicted the latest case against Obamacare 68 different times:

The Congressional Budget Office wrote 68 reports about the Affordable Care Act during the session that Congress debated the law. Not one of them, a new analysis from Harvard University’s Theda Skocpol, ever explored the possibility of limiting insurance subsidies to the state marketplaces after the law’s full implementation.

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That’s right Dorothy, you’re not in Kansas anymore . . . you’re in the meth lab of democracy, Arizona

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I did a series of posts last year on the theme that Kansas is a cautionary tale for Arizona. Governor Sam Brownback’s faith based supply-side “trickle down” economics utopian experiment in Kansas has been an unmitigated disaster.

Even Gov. Brownback has now slowly begun backing away from his failed “trickle down” economics utopian experiment in Kansas. Pressed by Budget Squeeze, Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas Pulls Back on Tax Cuts (Brownback on Friday proposed some higher sales taxes and slowing his plan to reduce state income taxes).

I gave you fair warning that Dicey Doug Ducey, the man hired by Koch Industries to manage their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona (h/t Charles Piece), now to be known as “Kochtopia,” has blind faith in the entirely disproved and discredited supply-side “trickle down” GOP economics. Doug Ducey is Arizona’s answer to Sam Brownback: a disaster in the making.

TotoDicey Doug Ducey still believes in unicorns and rainbows, despite the cautionary tale of Kansas.

That’s right Dorothy, you’re not in Kansas anymore . . . you’re in the meth lab of democracy, Arizona, where crazy (right) winged monkeys are in charge. It is a way darker place than the Land of Oz.

Howard Fischer follows up his analysis of Dicey Doug Ducey’s slash and burn budget from yesterday. Ducey budget cut hits education, local governments, drivers:

Gov. Doug Ducey proposes to balance the state budget by cutting aid to universities by more than 10 percent, taking some revenue-sharing dollars from cities and counties, and imposing what amounts to a new tax on motorists.

Ducey’s nearly $9.1 billion spending plan, about $187 million less than this year, also cuts funding to promote tourism and dips into other state funds to the tune of $304 million.

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Mr. Anti-Choice goes to Washington

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HuckabeeHello, ladies…

Anti-choicers – who ought never be thought of as less-than-assiduous in their quest to rid America of the scourge of ladies refusing pregnancy – are really going to town these days!

Per the inimitable Sally Kohn:

“Serious adults are in charge here,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) added for good measure, “and we intend to make progress.”

And then they introduced no fewer than five restrictions on abortion on the first day of the new Republican-controlled Congress. Because, you know, priorities.

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Still waiting for substance and details from Dicey Doug Ducey

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rubio-dont-always-drink-waterI caught a “fluff piece” interview of Senator Marco “Big Gulp” Rubio by CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes on Monday evening about his new book, American Dreams — the obligatory presidential exploratory candidate pulp book– in which Sen. Rubio says that “Republicans haven’t been creative or innovative enough in offering solutions. “ Marco Rubio nears decision for 2016 presidential bid (video link).

“From the Republican perspective I think the answer to all these problems has historically been well let’s cuts taxes, let’s reduce the debt, and let’s get rid of some regulations, and that’s it, we’re done. But you just can’t stop there. You also have to address, for example, our higher education system, which is not just expensive, it is irrelevant in many instances to what people need in the 21st Century.”

An interesting perspective after earlier in the afternoon  listening to Arizona Governor Dicey Doug Ducey deliver his State of The State Speech to the Arizona legislature, in which he offered the same tired old conservative bromides of “let’s cuts taxes, let’s reduce the debt, and let’s get rid of some regulations, and that’s it, we’re done, ” of which Sen. Rubio disapproved.

I had expected much more from the man hired by Koch Industries to manage their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona (h/t Charles Piece), now known as “Kochtopia.” I anticipated that he would go the full “Scott Walker,” as the governor of Wisconsin did four years ago. It would appear that Governor Ducey is not as well prepared or as politically ambitious as his fellow governor.

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