What Do You Call A Lawyer Lobby On Verge Of Collapse?

A good start

The trial lawyers lobby has been awash in debt and bleeding members - just as it embarks on a national campaign to block any clampdown on medical malpractice lawsuits as part of President Obama's health care overhaul.

The American Association for Justice, the most prominent group representing plaintiffs' attorneys, has seen a shake-up in its executive suite and has struggled to deal with what appears to be a mounting budget shortfall. To help it fight congressional efforts to make it harder for patients to sue doctors and lawyers, it recently sent out an extra solicitation to its members, asking them to fork over money for a lobbying campaign.

The most striking evidence of its financial woes is a swift decline in income, which resulted in a more than $6.2 million deficit in its operating budget for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2008, the most recent year for which data are available.

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Fear Of Rationing Derailing Obamacare?

The Washington Post claims that fear of health care rationing is being stoked by right wing radio talk shows and blogs. Now why would anyone think that Obama plans to ration health care, especially to seniors?

Scott Ott's Examiner Scrappleface: Health plan on ice, Obama pushes grocery reform Opinion Articles - Editorials on Top News Stories | Washington Examiner

Scott Ott's Examiner Scrappleface: Health plan on ice, Obama pushes grocery reform Opinion Articles - Editorials on Top News Stories | Washington Examiner

His health care plan at least temporarily stymied in Congress, President Obama announced today that he would mount a 27-city tour to promote his new nutrition reform program, dubbed America's Affordable Grocery Choices Act.

With the cost of grocery items skyrocketing, experts say that about 330 million Americans suffer periodic bouts of hunger. Children and the elderly often go for hours between meals.

"America's grocery system is broken," said President Obama, "and the time for reform is now. We can't kick the can down the road, or play political games any longer."

The White House said the president's plan will increase choices and competition, improve the quality of grocery items, share responsibility for grocery bills and protect consumers against waste, fraud and abuse by offering a "Public Option Grocery Store" within five miles of every American home.

"You can still shop at Acme, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Stew Leonard's, Weis Markets, Stater Bros., or Price Chopper," the president said, "But who in their right mind would want to do that when Public Option Groceries has a lot of the same stuff at much lower prices? In many cases, Public Option will offer same-week service on commodity items like corn flakes, toilet paper and salt."

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Barney Frank Tells The Truth

Didn't Barack Obama claim that the government wouldn't be running health care?



Public option's a trojan horse? Who knew?

Obamacare Would Devastate The Economy

So says the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Instead of saving the federal government from fiscal catastrophe, the health reform measures being drafted by congressional Democrats would worsen an already bleak budget outlook, increasing deficit projections and driving the nation more deeply into debt, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this morning.

Under questioning by members of the Senate Budget Committee, CBO director Douglas Elmendorf said bills crafted by House leaders and the Senate health committee do not propose "the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a signficant amount."

"On the contrary," Elmendorf said, "the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs."

Though President Obama and Democratic leaders have said repeatedly that reining in the skyrocketing growth in spending on giovernment health programs such as Medicaid and Medicare is their top priority, the reform measures put forth so far would not fulfill their pledge to "bend the cost curve" downward, Elmendorf said. Instead, he said, "The curve is being raised."

Wrong again.