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Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

via In Poll, Wide Support for Government-Run Health – NYTimes.com.

BOOM!

Make it happen!

This article is essential reading if you are interested in the future of health care in this country.

Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn. The financial burden has damaged the global competitiveness of American businesses and bankrupted millions of families, even those with insurance. It’s also devouring our government. “The greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security,” President Barack Obama said in a March speech at the White House. “It’s not the investments that we’ve made to rescue our economy during this crisis. By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It’s not even close.”

via Annals of Medicine: The Cost Conundrum: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker.

Many people will tell Mr. Obama that taxing carbon or gasoline now is a “nonstarter.” Wrong. It is the only starter. It is the game-changer. If you want to know where postponing it has gotten us, visit Detroit. No carbon tax or increased gasoline tax meant that every time the price of gasoline went down to $1 or $2 a gallon, consumers went back to buying gas guzzlers. And Detroit just fed their addictions — so it never committed to a real energy-efficiency retooling of its fleet.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Real Generation X – NYTimes.com.

emphasis mine. The stupid thing is that Ford, GM and Chrysler make more energy efficient cars for other markets! So where are those cars for America?

Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.

via Say Goodbye to BlackBerry? If Obama Has to, Yes He Can – NYTimes.com.

PGP anyone? I think there are some pretty secure ways that he could continue to use email…

i think this is a great article on Obama, before he was on the national scene.

Jan Schakowsky told me about a recent visit she had made to the White House with a congressional delegation. On her way out, she said, President Bush noticed her “obama” button. “He jumped back, almost literally,” she said. “And I knew what he was thinking. So I reassured him it was Obama, with a ‘b.’ And I explained who he was. The President said, ‘Well, I don’t know him.’ So I just said, ‘You will.’ ”

(emphasis mine)

The Candidate

how awesome would it be if the president had a blog? where you could comments?

what if you could participate in writing legislation?

it seems that our government is crying out for a web 2.0 overhaul.

(yes, before you go all nuts, I realize that the president doesn’t have much time to be blogging. nor do I. but we can dream, can’t we?)

all this stuff about the wisdom of the crowds… what if we truly had a platform to run our government and tap the wisdom of the crowd?

We did it!