SnakeRiverLib

"So, if you like your health care you can't keep it?" That was the question that Jake Tapper put to Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), and candidate for president, on her plan to provide Medicare for all.  She is partly honest on this.  She does want to eliminate private plans, including the plan you get from your employer.  It may be good, it may suck, but it doesn't matter, it is gone. Pretty much every candidate for the Democrat nomination for 2020 has signed on to some form of Medicare for All.  Good, we need to have that discussion.  Now for some facts. It would cost $32 Trillion over the next 10 years.  As a comparison, the federal budget just recently topped $4 Trillion a year.. Now, I demand honesty from the progressives in how this is going to be funded, and how it is to be rationed (yes it will be), and so you should expect no less from me. By eliminating insurance, the administrative pipeline is streamlined significantly. By eliminating payment by in

I have been thinking a lot about this lately.  And I am going to share a monologue out of Atlas.  It is not one that people think of, such as parts of John's speech, or Henry Reardon before the Unification board.  It isn't Francisco D'Anconia's speech to Henry Reardon and the guests at James Taggert's wedding reception.  Those are all amazing, and each is worthy of reading.  This one is far more relevant today. James Taggert is the brother of the protagonist of the story, Dagney Taggert.  He "runs" the railroad, meaning he sits in the big chair, does lots of deals that have little to do with the running of the railroad.  He inherited his position literally, but is not even a shadow of those that had run the railroad previously.  Dagney in reality runs the company.  For those that haven't read the book, which you should do, here is brief description of what is happening. The United States, the last non-communist (or People's State) nation in the

No end in sight.  Chuckie says that the President is willing to keep the government shut down for weeks, months, or even years.  The President said he was willing to take credit.  A bill was passed, and he pulled the rug at the last minute, such that McConnell wouldn't even send it to the President for a veto.  He needs to really lay out what he wants, and his expectations, before Congress does their "thief in the night" imitation and leaves DC on the last flights out.  He does carry SOME blame. Maybe it is Speaker Ryan's fault?  Yes, to an extent.  The president gave them time to give him money for a wall, and he said then that that was the last time.  The Speaker, busy planning his retirement, did the business people's bidding by not bringing it up.  I would attribute the GOP loss of the House directly to the failure to fund the wall, or fence, or barrier.  But that is only one part. Ryan doesn't own that part anymore.  Now it is Pelosi.  She wants to ra