Author Archive
-
Swing States Project
How the phantom of ‘socialized medicine’ came to be
September 26, 2012 11:00 AMJill Lepore deserves a Laurel for her engrossing tale of how political communications came to be so toxic. In "The Lie Factory," Lepore describes the work of the firm Campaigns, Inc., founded in 1933 by... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
Eureka! The media discovers Medicaid
September 24, 2012 06:51 AMAh Medicaid! What can we say about it? Until the last couple of weeks, the press has said almost nothing. It’s not sexy; not fun to write about. It affects poor people who don’t bring in traffic. And it can... Continue reading
-
The Kicker
The bogeyman is back!
September 21, 2012 01:14 PMAw come on! We would have thought by now the $716 billion Medicare bogeyman was dead and buried. Maybe not. The Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune proves us wrong, dragging out that canard about Obama and the Dems cutting billions... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
Medicare: Where’s the evidence that vouchers save money?
September 18, 2012 10:48 AMMargot Sanger-Katz, a National Journal reporter who has been brave enough to question conventional wisdom surrounding health policy—she reported that elements of the Affordable Care Act “designed to lower costs will likely raise them instead”—has now taken a... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
What a higher Retirement Age really means
September 13, 2012 06:50 AMThe idea of raising the age at which workers can collect benefits from Social Security is very much in play. Mitt Romney told the Detroit Economic Club in February that he will “slowly raise the retirement age”... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
Medicare ‘bankruptcy’: CNN gets it right
September 11, 2012 07:10 AMHooray for CNN.com, for fact checking the often-heard claim of Medicare’s “impending” bankruptcy. CNN’s contribution sets a high bar, and the network also distinguishes itself from the over-the-top fact checking that has cropped up lately, as <a... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
Medicare spending: Do Obama and Romney see eye-to-eye?
September 10, 2012 11:00 AMSeveral days ago, Matthew Yglesias dug deeply into the Medicare weeds, arguing in Slate that Obama and Ryan basically agree on what needs to be done to Medicare costs. “They have essentially the same plan to control Medicare... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
The word on the street: disillusioned
September 6, 2012 06:54 AMOver the weekend, I visited an Italian festival in Scranton, PA, where the crowd, mostly older and white, had gathered in the town square to hear music and eat cannolis. But when I brought up politics, especially Medicare and Social... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
Parsing Romney on healthcare
August 31, 2012 11:16 AMBefore Chris Wallace got to the soft stuff of his Fox News Sunday interview last week with The Family Romney and before we learned that Ann loves Costco, Wallace zoomed in on some serious matters, like healthcare. What... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
A dart to the AP—and a laurel!
August 31, 2012 11:00 AMDart The Associated Press misled its many readers, unfortunately, about what is a Social Security benefit cut and what is not. A piece published August 27, one in a series the AP... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
A laurel to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times
August 24, 2012 04:04 PMThis week’s laurel goes to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times for reporting the increasing skepticism in health policy circles about claims from the Romney-Ryan ticket that Medicare beneficiaries will be hurt because... Continue reading
-
Swing States Project
The word on the street: apprehensive
August 24, 2012 11:47 AMThe idea of privatizing Medicare is not winning popularity contests with voters. A Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday found that the public is aware of the proposal by GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to transform Medicare... Continue reading
-
Campaign Desk
Medicare and the $716 billion bogeyman
August 22, 2012 11:17 AMIt’s been hard to escape from Medicare in the 11 days since Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan burst into the news as vice presidential candidate with big and well known ideas about the health program for nearly 50 million Americans. Medicare... Continue reading
-
Behind the News
Profits vs. patients: The Tampa Bay Times complicates a story
August 20, 2012 11:32 AMThe Tampa Bay Times, formerly known as The St. Petersburg Times, deserves a shout-out for jumping on the local angle of The New York Times’s two-part expose on HCA, the nation’s largest hospital chain—and advancing the story. And... Continue reading
-
Campaign Desk
When hospital profits clash with patient care: an investigation
August 17, 2012 11:24 AMThis week The New York Times concluded a rare look at the inner workings of the country’s biggest for-profit hospital chain. The two-part expose is significant, coming at a time when places of healing are rapidly organizing themselves into big... Continue reading
-
Campaign Desk
Medicare, Paul Ryan, and beyond: a primer
August 15, 2012 03:25 PMMitt Romney’s choice of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee elevates Medicare and Medicaid (along with Social Security) to Level A campaign issues. Ryan has emerged as a leading Congressional thinker and idea shaper for... Continue reading
-
Campaign Desk
How to measure the worth of Social Security
August 9, 2012 02:50 PMIs Social Security a good deal for workers? That’s the question the AP posed in an August 5 piece dredging up a very old argument against Social Security—that workers pay more into the program than they later get... Continue reading
-
The Kicker
Required skimming: healthcare politics and policy
August 8, 2012 06:50 AMThis month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food. If we overlooked any of your must-read destinations, please tell us in the comments. • Kaiser Health News... Continue reading
-
Campaign Desk
What makes Paul Ryan tick?
August 8, 2012 06:50 AMFor those closely observing the attacks on Medicare and Social Security, Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker profile piece in the August 6 issue is a must read. Lizza spent a lot of time with US Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI,... Continue reading
-
Campaign Desk
Romney likes Israeli healthcare
August 6, 2012 06:50 AMThanks to Mitt Romney’s laudatory remarks about the Israeli health system during his trip to Israel, we now know a bit about how another country provides healthcare—and how that nation manages to have better mortality and other outcomes than we... Continue reading
—advertisement—
Desks
The Audit Business
- Audit Notes: pyramid people, Disney and ABC, no USA Today paywall Roddy Boyd digs into a diet-shake pyramid scheme
- Hot air Rises Above on CNBC An anchor pins a minor dip in stocks on the TV appearance of a minor politician
The Observatory Science
- Dull news from Doha UN climate summit a ho-hum affair for the press
- Highway to the danger zone Following Sandy, HuffPo and NYT dig into the folly of coastal development
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- NBC News sets good example for Medicare reporting People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes
- In Pennsylvania, a niche site with wide reach PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State
Behind the News The Media
Blog
The Kicker last updated: Fri 3:00 PM
- Must-reads of the week
- The media news cycle is bananas
- Pass the #popcorn
- Must-reads of the week
- Tom Rosenstiel leaving Pew
The Future of Media
News Startups Guide last updated: Thu 10:24 AM
- TRVL A free iPad travel magazine
- TheDigitel A small chain of local news sites/ aggregators in South Carolina
