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Following up on last week's post about the excise tax on the so-called "Cadillac" health plans, Bob Herbert has some new information in an op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times. I'm not surprised that there's a lot of smoke and mirrors involved in the supposed cost-cutting and deficit reduction figures coming from the Senate, the CBO, and the White House. Smoke and mirrors seems to be the SOP when it comes to selling this...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa brought you everything you wanted. He certainly was very good to Fannie and Freddie. Only in their case, Santa is the American taxpayer, you and me. One thing is clear, the plutocracy never sleeps, or takes a holiday. How about this for a Christmas Eve news dump?"The Obama administration pledged on Thursday to back beleaguered mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac no matter...

From all of us at The Daily Hurricane, a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our faithful readers!  It's been an exciting year for all of us and we're looking forward to a great 2010.  Best to you and yours.Jefe...

NORAD has been tracking Santa's Christmas Eve trip for years, and now has a website so kids of all ages can follow him as he heads toward their house.  Tonight, Santa has been seen all over Asia and Europe, and has just left the UK headed for Ireland and Iceland.  Here's his latest video:Have a Merry Christmas!...

Two items of recommended reading this morning, both pointing to underlying problems which have surfaced in the health care debate but greatly affect the passing of any legislation containing substantive changes. First, Paul Krugman in yesterday's New York Times about the filibuster rule in the Senate:"...Democrats won big last year, running on a platform that put health reform front and center. In any other advanced democracy this would have given them the mandate and the...

Ben Nelson is on board as of this morning:"Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, was prepared to announce to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas. ...Democratic leaders spent days trying to hammer out a deal with Nelson, and worked late Friday night with Nelson on abortion coverage language that had proved the major stumbling block. But...

As I look around the political landscape today, illustrated perfectly by the complete chaos that the health care reform debate has evolved into, I have to ask myself, what the hell happened? How did the Obama presidency, which had so much promise and potential for becoming the "change" that so many of us voted for and hoped for, turn into such a mess? How did this happen to a president who was elected in what...

So what's left? No public option, no Medicare buy-in, thanks to President Lieberman. The 90% medical loss ratio? That's dead, too. The Dorgan amendment on drug importation comes up for a vote today. Look for that to disappear as well. The ban on denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and recission is still there so far, but then again President Lieberman isn't through making demands yet. Stay tuned. But have no fear, the individual mandate...

Not being a resident of the city of Houston, but having been born there and having lived there until 4 years ago, I was an interested observer of yesterday's run-off election for mayor. Reading 2 accounts of the results, one in the New York Times and one in the Houston Chronicle, the opening paragraph in the Chronicle puts the election in much better context, in my opinion. The NYT:"Houston became the largest city in the...

In the bass-ackwards world of health care reform, I guess this shouldn't be surprising, but the Senate yesterday refused to put an amendment, which would allow drug importation from Canada, up for a vote because they were afraid it might pass. "Debating an overhaul of the health care system, the Senate found itself tied in knots on Thursday over a bipartisan proposal to allow people to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and certain other...