The Stakes

Sorry for the lack of SOTU coverage on my end; because a seemingly endless series of random January illnesses culminated in mysterious but excruciating foot pain, I just caught random snatches while waiting for x-ray results, going to the pharmacy, etc. What I was thinking about was how fortunate it was that I had decent insurance so I could get the problem diagnosed and also afford what turns out to be relatively simple pharmaceutical treatment. And so even more I was thinking about the many Americans who could have lost their jobs or had to live with debilitating pain that would be easiy treatable for months because they don't have access to basic medical care. In short, the House needs to pass the Senate bill, a simple majority of the Senate needs to pass the best reconciliation fix possible, and once the policy is in place progressives have to fight to make the policy better. Because the bottom line is that the number of uninsured people in this country is a disgrace.

Read more...

SOTU Rapid Reaction

Wow. Perhaps the ghost of Howard Zinn was speaking through our President tonight. In a little over an hour, he called out the Supreme Court for its recent decision on campaign donations, reminded Republicans they are here to serve their country rather than their own ambitions, and chided pundits for reducing serious debates to silly arguments. I don’t know whether to be glad to see him speaking truth to the powers that be around him or worried: he seemed most effective at the parts of his speech where he was reaching out to the opposition rather than staring them down.

And he didn't spend much time on foreign policy, but no surprise. Josh Rogin has a translation of his foreign policy remarks here.

He did, though, end on the right tone:

“Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated… the only reason we are here is because generations of Americans weren’t afraid to do what was hard.”

Well said, Mr. President.

Read more...