Dean Baker's Blog, page 392

Fixing Glitches in Health Care Law is Not the Same as Special Interest Lobbying

The NYT had a piece noting that as a result of political gridlock Congress has not fixed a number of glitches in the Affordable Care Act. While the piece does mention several items that are in fact glitches, it also includes a number of issues that are simply lobbying to benefit special interests.

For example, it correctly notes that the provision setting 30 hours a week of work as a cutoff for requiring employers to provide insurance or pay a penalty was a glitch, however it absurdly follows...

NYT Does Budget Reporting the Frat Boy Way

Okay boys and girls, is California's projected budget surplus of $4.4 billion bigger or smaller than Connecticut's projected surplus of $150 million or Wisconsin's projected surplus of $2.1 billion? I don't mean in absolute size, I mean in importance for the states. Offhand, I couldn't tell you, since I don't know the size of their economies that precisely and I also don't know whether these are figures for 1-year or 2-year budgets. (Many states have 2-year budgets.)

So why the hell does the...

Krugman Misrepresents the Left-Right Divide in U.S. Politics

In his contribution to the debate over whether there is a group of open-minded "reformed" conservatives, Paul Krugman misrepresents the central focus of the left-right divide in national politics. He tells readers:

"Start with the proposition that there is a legitimate left-right divide in U.S. politics, built around a real issue: how extensive should be make our social safety net, and (hence) how much do we need to raise in taxes? This is ultimately a values issue, with no right answer."

Thi...

Obamacare Is Creating Uncertainty! Better Ditch It

As the January 1, 2014 date, when the main body of President Obama's health care plan takes effect, comes closer Republicans are getting ever more frantic. After all, the risk to the country is enormous. The program will extend health care insurance to tens of millions of people and provide real security to tens of millions more (suppose you get sick now and lose the job that provides you insurance).

Now that is really scary. People may like the plan and actually look to extend it and improve...

It's a "Trade" Pact not "Free-Trade" Pact

I've always been told that newspapers are pressed for space and like to eliminate any unnecessary wording. Why then do they insist on calling trade pacts, like the proposed deal between the European Union and the United States "free-trade" pacts? I found the phrase "free-trade" three times in my reading of this NYT article on the European Parliament's efforts to limit the scope of a deal.

As the discussion makes clear most of the issues raised in the discussion have little to do with tariffs...

I'm Back!!!

I'm tan, rested, and ready! No, I have not been reincarnated as Dick Nixon (I actually am not especially tan), but I am back and looking to get lots done. Vacations are good. Thanks for all the kind words.

Why Aren't We Hearing Stories About Doctor Shortages in the Immigration Debate?

That's what readers of Uwe Reinhardt's blogpost on doctor's pay are probably asking. Reinhart shows the pay for doctors by speciality, which makes everyone look pretty well paid in my book. The median in several of the higher paying specialities is over $500,000 a year. Even the median family care physician pockets almost 14 times as much as a minimum wage worker at $208,700 a year.

Reinhardt then tells us that the situation is more ambiguous if we look at the dispersion. I must be looking at...

I Am Out of Here

I'm off on vacation until Friday, May 24. Remember, don't believe anything you read in the paper until I'm back.

How Much Money Do You Need to Get an Op-ed in the Washington Post?

That's what readers of Jim Roumell's column on wealth-testing Social Security must be asking. The column, "the rich can save Social Security by giving up their checks," gets almost all its facts wrong, and suffers from huge problems of logic.

The basic idea is that we have some very rich people who don't need Social Security, therefore there shouldn't get it. Of course these people did pay for their Social Security. While Roumell is certainly right that the very rich don't need the money, the...

There Are No More Bangladeshes

In the aftermath of the horrific factory fire in Bangladesh leading to over 1100 deaths, there have  been renewed demands for serious safety standards at the clothing factories there. These demands have been met by the standard response from industry spokespeople that higher costs will simply cost jobs since firms will relocate to lower cost countries.

Adam Davidson has a piece in the NYT magazine this weekend that makes the simple point: there are no more Bangladeshes. The threat of rel...