Via an interesting post by Chris Conover, I came across this recently released National Health Expenditure report, which has data on health-care spending up through 2009.  This data includes a state-by-state breakdown of personal health-care spending (a number that includes direct expenditures on health-care but does not include administrative costs).  more

In the wake of the Iowa caucuses, what matters now is not the exact order of Romney, Santorum, and Paul; the numbers are very close. What does matter is the range between the candidates. Iowa gives us basically a tie between Romney and Santorum, with both at around 25%. Ron Paul comes out a strong   more

The Republican Party of Virginia is on the verge of the appearance of a significant scandal. Allegations, fueled by a post by Richard Winger at Ballot Access News, are swirling, suggesting that the Virginia GOP changed the rules for the validation of signatures in October 2011:
But what has not been reported is that in the   more

Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican National Convention provides a welcome jolt amidst the atmosphere of the current Republican nominating contest. Instead of hypocritical invective and mindless tribalism, Reagan offers a fundamentally optimistic and cooperative narrative of America.
Though this speech has moments of anger, it is not, at heart, an angry speech. Consider some   more

Some on the right are concerned that Obama would slam Romney as a denizen of Wall Street and that Romney’s wealth would prove a hindrance in the general election. While some worries about Romney’s business background are more the product of sympathy for other candidates than anything else, there is an element of real anxiety   more

Though Newt Gingrich seems to be styling himself as the inevitable nominee, a look back at the polling in during the Republican primary race in late 2007 suggests that Gingrich’s camp should not get too confident yet.
In December 2007, no polls seemed to show McCain as the frontrunner. Instead, Giuliani and a fast-rising Mike Huckabee   more

In an interview with Laura Ingraham, George Will despairs of the choice between Gingrich and Romney as GOP frontrunners:
Ask yourself this: Suppose Gingrich or Romney become president and gets re-elected – suppose you had eight years of this…What would the conservative movement be? How would it understand itself after eight years? I think what would   more

Though Rick Perry’s plan to “reform” Washington has been getting a lot of press, I think there is something that should especially be emphasized about it, one that does not bode well for classical conservatism: Perry’s plan seems a recipe for radically increasing the power of the executive branch.  more

Perhaps the greatest single threat to both conservatism in American life and the nation’s economic vitality is not Ivy League professors or Hollywood elites or a sinister “progressive” conspiracy but the economic decline of the middle class. Take away hope in the churning of the free market, and you push many citizens considerably closer to   more

In the short term at least, it seems hard to deny that yesterday’s debate was good to Rick Perry. The leading un-Romney contender, Herman Cain, sank underneath withering attacks on his 9-9-9 plan; his inability to defend the details of this plan with anything other than assertions that his opponents are wrong reinforced impressions that   more

The recent UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll of the 2012 Massachusetts Senate race has some sobering news for Scott Brown: among registered voters, he has a slim three-point (41-38) lead over Democratic frontrunner Elizabeth Warren. Other polls have also suggested that this could be a close race.
However, there is plenty of good news for Brown here. 54% of   more

America is now coping with the debt binge of the past decade and stagnating incomes across the board. Trying to provide some cushion for those left economically behind may be a good short-term strategy. But policy makers also need to work toward a restructuring of America’s economic architecture. Unless America’s economic vitality is restored, all   more

The victory of Bob Turner in heavily Democratic NY-09 is clearly not good news for Democrats. When the media hasn’t picked up is that Turner benefited by not embracing the Paul Ryan budget.  more

The fight between Perry and Romney continues. Perry came into this debate confident in his conservative bona fides and hoped to use the weight of that confidence to steamroll Romney. The former Massachusetts governor, for his part, responded with an array of facts, figures, and arguments.  more

Like millions of other Americans, I remember September 11, 2001 quite clearly. I remember watching the twin towers collapse on TV. I remember wondering whether a skyscraper near me would be next. I remember the sudden panic and uncertainty, the sense of a nation hanging on the edge of chaos.
The modern   more

Romney is not going to give up. Romney did not ‘Pawlenty’ himself out in this debate: when struck at, he struck back—hard. The jobs exchange with Perry early in the debate showed some fight in Romney. Romney needs to fight Perry on this in order to defend his own claims on the economy.  more

With the national debt skyrocketing, a faction on the right is hoping to turn the 2012 election into a debate on entitlement reform. No doubt, many Democrats are hoping the very same thing.
Democrats would view that development as a chance to gain politically, while some Republicans would see it as a chance to demonstrate their   more

First Read offers the following view of possible chaos in the Republican presidential primary calendar:
According to Republicans monitoring this subject, there are two different timeline scenarios. The first is the RNC-sanctioned February start date: Iowa goes Feb. 6, New Hampshire Feb. 14, Nevada, Feb. 18, South Carolina Feb. 28, and Super Tuesday is March 6.   more

S&P has now downgraded the US government from AAA to AA+, a historic downgrade. The effects of this downgrade will no doubt echo throughout the US and global economy.  more

A few thoughts on the implications of Boehner adding a “Balanced Budget Amendment” to his debt-ceiling bill (which would now require that Congress pass a BBA before a second debt-ceiling increase could take place early in 2012):
Adding the BBA makes the bill very likely to pass the House.   more