Progressive Opinion

inequality.org — We all know that the United States is the most unequal of the rich nations of the world.  Only relatively poor countries like Malaysia and Mexico have levels of inequality similar to those in the United States.  All of the rich countries of western Europe and east Asia have much lower levels of inequality than we do. The real situation, however, is worse than the income data would suggest.  Data on income inequality only tell half the story.  The differences in the ways people live are only partly determined by income.  They’re also determined by the levels of government services provided to everyone. This is most obvious when it comes to healthcare.  In the rest of the developed world, everyone has health insurance.  Depending how you count, about a quarter of working-age Americans don’t.  Real inequalities in health coverage are even greater, since the richest Americans tend to have the best insurance.

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thegrio.com — Following President Obama’s strong performance in Tuesday’s debate, Republicans, including Mitt Romney, have seized on a new line of attack: the president isn’t being specific enough about his second term agenda. Non-partisan analysts are making the same claim, namely that Obama must provide more details about what he would do in his next four years to win. They’re wrong. Even though he’s not talking about these ideas much on the campaign trail, it’s likely Obama would push for immigration and energy reform and a long-term budget deficit reduction deal in a second term. But perhaps the most important goal of an Obama second term, one he has nodded at himself at times, is preserving the accomplishments of his first term.

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readersupportednews.org — Under the influence of the painkiller Dilaudid, and dog-tired after another day of fighting for my life with my private health insurance company, I glimpsed Mitt Romney and his running-mate, Paul Ryan, entering my Los Angeles hospital room dressed in surgical gowns with scalpels in their hands ready to fatally operate on me. It was a drug-induced hallucination, of course. But the mirage made me sit bolt upright in bed and, fully awake, start to rethink my previous, bitterly dissenting view of Barack Obama. I have written bitterly attacking Obama's serial betrayals. He's no street-scrapper, our Barack. Prior to falling sick, I pined for a third-party candidate, and seriously thought about not voting. But a drug-induced vision of a Romney/Ryan medical hell changed my mind. On 6 November, I'm pulling the lever for Obama: my arrogant, self-sabotaging, drone-happy, compromise-addicted war president.

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prospect.org — Since August, when Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, the two campaigns have fought a fierce battle over who is the most stalwart protector of Medicare. The irony is that—in the short term, at least—Medicare will stay unchanged, regardless of who wins the election. Seniors are among the most mobilized voters in the electorate, and there’s too much political risk involved in making big, immediate changes to Medicare. For that reason, Medicare reform plans on both sides are backloaded and will take time to unfold. The same isn’t true of Medicaid, the other major federal health-care program. The primary constituency for Medicaid—poor and working-class families—lacks the clout and influence of seniors. And while  the Obama administration expanded the program in the Affordable Care Act, it has also made Medicaid a ripe target for conservative cuts to social insurance.

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nytimes.com — Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that’s only because he doesn’t want to see them; if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care. Last week, speaking to The Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured: “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” This followed on an earlier remark by Mr. Romney — echoing an infamous statement by none other than George W. Bush — in which he insisted that emergency rooms provide essential health care to the uninsured. These are remarkable statements. They clearly demonstrate that Mr. Romney has no idea what life (and death) are like for those less fortunate than himself.

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inthesetimes.com — I'll give it to Mitt Romney. During the debate he looked and sounded pretty “presidential”: good haircut, power tie, in command (total control, really) of the debate. Romney’s performance had the intended effect. Virtually every poll across the nation had his numbers soaring in the past week. Many show him leading Obama both in the popular vote and in critical swing states. Presumably, that means many American are now ”looking at Romney in a new light.” While his running mate Paul Ryan didn't do as well, for those who were swayed by Romney's performance, it might be prudent to think past his style or what positions he chose to take that night. Based on Romney’s record—as well as the agendas of his party, his running mate and the Super PACs to which he would owe his victory—let’s take a moment to envision what life would be like under a Romney presidency.

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thedailybeast.com — Abortion was discussed only briefly during Thursday night’s vice presidential debate, but the exchange about it was, I think, an important moment, because it drove home the likelihood than a Republican victory in November will mean the end of Roe v. Wade. During the vice-presidential debate, many pro-choice observers were irritated by the way moderator Martha Raddatz framed her lone question about abortion in terms of the candidates’ Catholicism. Nevertheless, the question worked perfectly for Joe Biden. In general, Americans are ambivalent about abortion, but they don’t want to make it illegal. By speaking in religious terms, Biden was able to combine his personal opposition to abortion with a strongly pro-choice stance. Ryan, by contrast, reminded the country that he opposes abortion in all circumstances, and that Romney intends to severely restrict it.

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robertreich.org — Beware: Paul Ryan will appear affable. He’s less polished and aggressive than Romney, even soft-spoken. And he acts as if he’s saying reasonable things. But under the surface he’s a rightwing zealot. And nothing he says or believes is reasonable – neither logical nor reflecting the values of the great majority of Americans. Your job is to smoke Ryan out, exposing his fanaticism. The best way to do this is to force him to take responsibility for the regressive budget he created as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Ryan won’t be able to pull a Romney — pretending he’s a moderate — because the Ryan budget is out there, with specific numbers. It’s an astounding document that Romney fully supports. And it fills in the details Romney has left out of his proposals.

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huffingtonpost.com — Debates are as much about style points as substance. But substance with style points will win every time. And this is where Obama can always beat Romney. It starts with his record that Romney has run against. It's an astoundingly productive, and perfectly defensible record that keeps the focus on these crucial make-or-break election issues, the economy and health care, and then, his handling of foreign policy. Obama can say and keep saying that the economy despite the towering problems has shown clear signs of rebound, with unemployment down, with most economic indicators indicating positive growth, and the administration has proposed measures to reduce the deficit without putting at mortal risk Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

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washingtonpost.com — The start of October means, for most Americans, the onset of chilly weather and a chance to start thinking up a new Halloween costume. For budget wonks, it signifies the start of a new fiscal year. And for American hospitals, it means something quite different: October 1 is arguably the day that the health reform law changed the way they get paid for providing health care. There are two big parts of the health reform law going into effect today. One penalizes hospitals if patients are re-admitted to the hospital within one month of a visit for a condition that should have been dealt with on the first trip. The other seeks to redistribute higher Medicare payments to the hospitals that are delivering better care. Both are part of an effort to fundamentally transform the health-care system in the United States by moving it from a system that pays for value rather than volume.

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