In an era in which virtually no new laws get passed and signed by the president – certainly not major new pieces of social insurance legislation – President Obama is about to sign the most far-reaching health care reform bill since Obamacare. And yet, there’s barely a peep about it.
With all the storm and controversy and still uncertain fate of Obamacare, I found this chart which helps visualize the actual big picture effects of the law.
The chart shows trends in the percentage of Americans with health insurance from the introduction of the Medicare and Medicaid through the roll out of Obamacare. The chart is from a speech by Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.
A couple days ago I mentioned that the seeming unstoppability of Hillary Clinton’s pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination has created an odd dynamic in which the contests and questions usually hashed out in a campaign between rival candidates are now being played out within and around her candidacy.
Here’s another small example.
Girl Scouts open new troop at gay pride center in Salt Lake City, say they’ll welcome transgender youth and children from LGBT families.
Tennessee House votes to move forward on making the Bible the official state book, set to join official state salamander, tree and beverage.
No wonder ALEC is now threatening to sue people for saying they are climate science deniers. They can’t stop their spats from going public anymore.
House staffers are leaking questions suggesting that a House investigations committee asked Hillary Clinton two years ago whether she used a private email account, only to receive no answer. As I suggested a few weeks back, this makes no sense.
Today we have a graphic novel presentation of the assassination of President Lincoln on this 150th anniversary of his death. See it here. It shows Lincoln’s assassination and the years of racial violence and guerrilla warfare in the South that followed formal surrender in April 1865.
I thing I find very striking about these anniversaries is that it brings home palpable how rapidly Lincoln’s assassination came after the nominal end of the war. We remembered the anniversary of Appomattox last week and now we’re on to this. It came that quickly. Take a look.
Here’s a fascinating little bit of information I’ve always marveled at. It probably only has any resonance if you’re a history person. But here goes. Back when I was a little kid one of my best friends subscribed to the catalog of a dealer in historical documents. Even at our young age, I was surprised at how relatively cheap it was to buy say a Civil War era newspaper. Just a few dollars. Well within the means of even a kid. And by “few dollars” I don’t mean a rich person’s euphemism but maybe $5 or $10.
For, literally, a piece of history.
Yesterday I mentioned the Vox -538 war over 2016 presidential candidate popularity and who’s stealing each other’s charts. Today Sam Wang steps into the debate. And I think his take on what these numbers mean is the most on-target.
Yes, Hillary is much more popular than all the Republicans out there. And the Republicans as a group are either not popular or totally unknown. But the real stand out is that Jeb Bush is damaged goods.