The New York Times used three square inches of newsprint on Tuesday to dispatch two U.S. Army soldiers under the headline “Names of the Dead.” Their names -- Peter K. Cross and Steven T. Drees -- were listed along with hometowns, ranks and ages. Cross was 20 years old. more »

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Eighty-three percent of Americans favor and only 14 percent oppose “creating a new public health insurance plan that anyone can purchase” according to EBRI, a conservative business research organization. This flatly contradicts conservatives’ loudest attack against President Obama’s plan to provide quality, affordable health care for all.

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We are like astronomers watching a black hole collapsing inward. But it’s the conservative movement we’re viewing. Lacking a Republican president to hold it in place, the powerful gravity of extremist ideology is crushing its adherents. At least, that’s how it looks through the lens of recent public opinion polls.

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In my blog “Why Not Single-Payer,” I asked readers for their thoughts. I received arguments, which I’ll share in a later post. But first I thought I should reprint some of the awful-but-true stories of smart, hardworking people who have been unjustly treated by our nation’s Rube Goldberg-style health insurance system.

One reader explained:

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Yesterday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) issued its annual report on global military spending. Worldwide, governments spent a record $1.46 trillion on their armed forces in 2008. The United States accounted for 42 percent of the global arms spending. When will we realize that’s simply too much?

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The question most frequently asked by progressive activists at last week’s America’s Future Now conference was this: We hear Obama and congressional Democrats talking about a public health insurance option, but why aren’t they talking about a single-payer system like H.R. more »

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During the Reagan Administration, federal white-collar pay was slightly reduced by recalculating the number of hours the employee works each year. But federal contractors were allowed to continue charging the government under the old pay formula, reaping billions in extra profits. more »

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Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a U.S. House committee that we need to cut the federal budget deficit in order to maintain “the confidence of the financial markets.” The financial markets! He means the people whose reckless greed caused our current economic crisis. What we need is the confidence of the American people.

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Progressives tend to focus on federal policy. Yet, a lot more legislating occurs at the state level. Every year, state legislatures consider 150,000 bills and enact 75 times as many laws as the U.S. Congress. And most domestic spending is directed by states—including bedrock programs such as public education, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, transportation, and public safety. more »

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More than 70 years ago during the height of the Great Depression, my father, a machinist, organized his factory into a union. Why can’t Americans do the same today? Why is it that more than half of workers want to join a union, but less than 8 percent of private-sector employees are union members today? more »

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