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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (615780)	6/11/2011 12:35:44 PM
From: longnshort	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1579830

so much for draining the swamp Pelosi declines to call for Weiner's resignation – Fri Jun 10, 7:07 pm ET WASHINGTON – Amid increasing calls for Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says the decision should be up to the congressman and his New York constituents. The former speaker said in San Francisco that she believes the decision should be made by "the individual member" and the people in his district. Weiner, a seven-term Democrat, has admitted sending sexually explicit photos and messages over the Internet to a half dozen women over the past three years. Pelosi has asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether Weiner used any government resources. Weiner told a newspaper Thursday he would not resign. At least nine House members and three senators said he should quit. Two former Democratic Party chairmen also said he should resign. [ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ] Weiner did pick up support from Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat who was censured by the House last year for ethics violations. Rangel suggested that other members of Congress had done things more immoral than Weiner. Rangel said Weiner "wasn't going with prostitutes. He wasn't going out with little boys." In a recent poll of registered voters in Weiner's district, 56 percent said he should stay in office while 33 percent said he should leave.

To: Alighieri who wrote (615780)	6/11/2011 1:36:49 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1579830

"But then, why is national drug spending 35 percent (pdf) below expectations?" Something not mentioned in the article - Walmart cut generic drug prices to $4 a month for hundred of generic prescriptions, and all other national pharmacy chains HAD to follow suit. Any senior that can do basic math knows that that's EVEN CHEAPER than Part D. Any brand name prescription (but for a very few like insulin) can be swapped for one of these generics, with no ill effects. I'd say this had an even greater effect than the reasons cited in the article, and explains the low participation in part D. As seniors communicate this - I'd expect participation to become even lower.

To: Alighieri who wrote (615780)	6/11/2011 2:22:19 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1579830

Klein's article (none of which was original thinking on his part, but most was a regurgitation of a recently released document from "Center on Budget Policies and Priorities". Unfortunately, that report is long on conjecture and short on facts. "Medicare’s trustees, whom you might expect to trumpet their success controlling costs in Part D, are very straightforward about this: “The reduced estimates reflect a higher market penetration of generic drugs and a decline in the number of new drug products that are expected to reach the market during this period.” In other words, old drugs are slipping out of patent and new ones aren’t being invented as quickly as we’d expected, or hoped." Translation: Bring back the f*cking donut hole. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 93 percent of Medicare enrollees would participate. Instead, 77 percent did. That’s obviously led to lower costs than expected, but not because the program is working better than expected. Klein needs to back this up with a reference. He is misunderstanding what was and was not included in these estimates.