Kathleen Sebelius uses small words for whiny Republican governors to understand how the Affordable Care Act works:
The Affordable Care Act gives states incredible freedom to tailor reforms to their needs. The one thing the law does not permit is going back to the broken health insurance system we had a year ago.
Since the law was passed last March, our department has worked with states to keep premiums down, hold insurers accountable and give Americans more freedom in their health-care choices. Americans have gained the protection of a Patient's Bill of Rights that outlaws many of the insurance industry's worst practices. After years of decline, the number of small businesses offering health coverage is ticking up, partly because of tax credits available under the law. And the CBO has said that the law will reduce the deficit by $230 billion over the next 10 years.
I look forward to working with governors to build on these achievements. States are the laboratories of our democracy, and I will continue to welcome their ideas about how to improve the law or implement it more effectively. What we cannot do is allow this progress to be blocked or reversed by overheated rhetoric about a "government takeover of health care" - a claim that has now been so thoroughly debunked that it was named PolitiFact's 2010 "lie of the year."
NY Times:
While the federal courts consider whether the health care reform law is constitutional, there is an intense and even wider debate playing out in political and legal circles about the Constitution and Congress’s power to solve national problems.
David Ignatius:
Here's the bottom line: The CIA is caught in a jam that's emblematic of America's larger problem in the Middle East. The agency has been so focused on stopping al-Qaeda that it has been distracted from other questions. America depends on good intelligence as never before, and the simple truth is that the CIA has to lift its game.
Mark Morford:
But by far the best and most delightful, time-tested method by which you can get yourself some international attention -- and easily my personal favorite, if for no other reason than you can make the entire thing up from scratch, usually while naked and delirious and at least partially drunk -- is to proclaim, calmly and clearly and without a hint of irony, the imminent end of the world.
Works best if you can name a specific date, even better if that date is relatively soon (May 21!), better still if you can base your number on some sort of ridiculous algebra you made up after a dozen shots of grapefruit-flavored vodka, a case of whippets and a lost weekend in a beat-up Winnebago in Reno. Apocalypse soon!
Bonus: It absolutely helps if you are a pastor, nearly 90 years old, cute and frail and adorably off your nut, one who smiles like deranged Uncle Harold at all the international reporters who for some reason want to interview you and get your thoughts on the Mayan calendar, what Jesus will be wearing on Judgment Day and what happens after May 21 when everyone's still here and just as bored, jaded and horny as ever. Be sure to sigh and smirk and wish all the reporters the best of luck down there in hell.
Doyle McManus:
The race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination starts in earnest this week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
Too early, you say? On the contrary. With the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary only 12 months away, it may soon be too late for anyone who wants to run for president to begin the hard work of raising money, recruiting a staff and wooing Republican activists.
So let's get started. Here's the conventional wisdom, fresh from the corridors of power, on the state of the Republican race:
There are really only two spots on the GOP ballot. One is reserved for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who won nine primaries in 2008. The other is for someone who isn't Mitt Romney — someone like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee or Tim Pawlenty.
Meghan Daum thinks Farrah Fawcett's iconic red swimsuit belongs in the Smithsonian.
E.J. Dionne:
Is President Obama a friend of business or a critic of business? The answer: Yes.
A close reading of Obama's speech this week to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce allows you to conclude pretty much whatever you are inclined to conclude about his actual view. And that tells you a great deal about the current phase of his presidency.
Obama now has three overlapping objectives. He is trying to recapture the magic of 2008, when he was more a preacher of hope and inspiration than the representative of a particular ideology. He wants to foil Republican efforts to center the national debate on a choice between big and small government. And he is trying to woo back independent voters, but in a way that solidifies rather than alienates his left-of-center base.
Karl Rove insists the Affordable Care Act is still up for debate because Republicans could use reconciliation to repeal it. Which is funny, considering that a year ago, Karl Rove was complaining about the Democrats' use of -- that's right -- reconciliation.
Gail Collins:
In troubled times it’s important to pace yourself. There’s only so much you can worry about at once, and we’ve already got Egypt, the weird weather, rising food prices and unemployment. Plus, the secretary of homeland security says the terror threat is really high. It would be at least reddish-orange if we hadn’t gotten rid of the color code.
Good grief, maybe we shouldn’t have gotten rid of the color code.
At moments like this, I find it soothing to make lists of things that we don’t have to worry about at all.
It's a great list. Go read it; it will make you feel better.