You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

Also, you can click here to check out my appearance on The Matt Lewis Show, and as mentioned today, here is Matt's interview earlier this week with Karl Rove.

Last week, we had the rare opportunity to see Republicans and Democrats sit down and discuss a single issue. For over seven hours, we got to see our political leaders argue over healthcare. Yes, there was some political posturing on both sides but one thing should be clear to all Americans. The Democrats have a plan and a passion for health-care reform. Republicans had no plan, but they definitely have passion for stopping health-care reform. From Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, not one Republican put together a thoughtful argument that would control the escalating healthcare costs, cover the 45 million people who live in the United States without health insurance, nor a plan that can be taken from Maine to Florida to California.

Meet 11-year-old Marcelas Owens. Watch the video:

I would urge you not to fall for the same old cliches about our government. Government can do this right. We have to get this right. This is as important as landing on Normandy beaches on D-Day. If we want to have money for defense, homeland security, bridges and roads, education and green energy we have to control costs of health care now. Economists have estimated that health care will eat up 25% of our gross national product in 20 years if we don't do something.

Finally, I've been listening to these talking heads on the Internet telling me that Democrats, liberals and progressives are not energized. Someone even suggested that we are depressed. Depressed? From what? I'm not sure who thought electing Barack Obama would be a panacea. I know that I've talked about the need for progressives to push harder with a Democratic Congress. We've seen Democrats in the past waiver and succumb to the whims of Republicans. We knew this would happen. Deep in our hearts, we knew this was going to be a huge undertaking. Just look at what we're trying to accomplish - reversing 30 years of Republican rule and ideology (Clinton was the only bright spot). We are trying to reverse 30 years of giveaways to major corporations. We're trying to put the American citizen ahead of big business. Even Democrats have bought into the ideology that the markets could fix everything. This is an idea that's been pushed by the Republicans for decades. We have a lot of work to do. President Barack Obama has told us that this is not going to be easy. So, it is time for us to be fired up. Once we get health-care reform passed, we still have more work to do - create a green economy, create millions of green jobs, fix the Patriot Act and concentrate on lasting financial reform that will work for all Americans. We need to write and call our legislators. We need for them to support health-care reform. It is time to get busy.

The public option is been tossed around like a medicine ball. In Junior high school we were asked to throw a medicine ball in order to build up muscle strength and coordination. Every other throw, the ball was dropped, kicked and then picked up and thrown again. This is exactly what has happened with the public option. What was once a robust counterweight to private health insurance has turned into something that states can opt in or opt out depending upon the whims of their legislature. Oh, and it seems that opposing healthcare is a great way to get on TV and increase your image/status like Bart Stupak.

I have stated both on my radio show and on this blog that health-care reform must include something that is cost-effective, portable and increases access to healthcare. Currently, we are looking at a health-care bill that seems to do none of this. Many progressives have decided that they cannot support this bill. They want something else done. I understand the sentiment. I find this whole process extremely frustrating. Democrats seem to be completely unable to stick to their principles and stand up for the middle class. It seems like the only difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Democrats know what is right but can't do it. Republicans have no idea what is right and won't do it. BTW, President Barack Obama is leader come lately. Look I love this man but I'm telling the truth. Where was he in the middle of the heat of the summer when healthcare was taking the big hits? He needed to be out of front stating that we HAD to have a robust public option but alias, he wasn't out there.

Here's my problem. Washington seems to be controlled by big business. Lobbyists from K St. seem to surround the Capital like locusts. If we scrapped the health-care bill and start all over, how are we going to come up with a different outcome? We're going to have the same politicians, the same White House and the same lobbyists. As a matter of fact, the lobbyists will be better armed to combat arguments they've already heard. They will probably be armed with more money. I'm afraid that starting over will leave us with a bill that's even worse than what we're looking at now -- if that is possible.

We're spending $2.4 trillion on health care every year (we spent that much in 2008). Isn't that enough money? Why do we need to pay any more? Everyone agrees that insurance does not add any value to healthcare. Why is Washington cobbling the insurance companies? Their whole reason for their existence is not to improve health care or help doctors deliver better care or help increase access to doctors by patients. Instead, their whole deal is to simply make money. They make money by not paying claims.

Billy Preston was right. Nothing from Nothing leaves nothing. The Senate is trying to sell us nothing and tell us it is something. They need to do better.

You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

More on the budget and deficits. On Monday I discussed deficit peacocks (folks who talk about balancing the budget but vote for big ticket budget items). On Tuesday, I showed you a graph on budget deficits dating back to 1931. Today I'd like to talk a little bit about the recession and why we needed the stimulus package. I'm going to use an example that Paul Krugman uses in his book, The Return of Depression Economics. The example was originally used in an article entitled, "Monetary Theory and the Great Capitol Hill Babysitting Co-Op Crisis," by Joan and Richard Sweeney.

Over last two years, I wrote and read a lot about economics. I'm a lot smarter than I was then but I'm still no economics professor. What happens in a recession? Now, as I understand it, a lot of things happen in a recession. The end result is the loss of jobs. Let's use this babysitting co-op as an example - let's say approximately 150 couples get together and decide that they will babysit for each other when necessary. They come up with a system so that everything is fair for everyone. They will use coupons. Each coupon is worth one hour of babysitting. The only other thing that I think is important is that couples that join the co-op are given a certain number of coupons and every couple that leaves the co-op must turn in the coupons. Therefore, the currency is stable.

The problem in the system, the recession, was caused by the imbalance between too much supply (people wanting to babysit) and not enough demand (nobody wanting to go out). How do you fix this problem? The co-op could pass a law and require that couples go out a certain number of times per month. This would cause people to spend their coupons. It would also prevent people from hoarding coupons. That would be one solution. The other solution would be to increase the supply. With couples having an increased supply of coupons, there was no reason to hoard. More couples started to go out and the crisis was resolved.

So, back to the real world. The Obama administration was facing a recession that some thought could turn into a depression if there wasn't quick action. The Federal Reserve had already infused cash into the system. The Bush administration injected a small amount of cash right before he left office. Think of it as a mini stimulus plan. So Barack Obama and his economic advisers faced rising unemployment, increased foreclosure rates on home mortgages and a GDP that was falling or stagnant. They decided on a stimulus package. The question is how big should the stimulus package have been? Bush signed a $152 billion rebate plan (Economic Stimulus Act of 2008). There's very little evidence that that did anything. Our GDP is worth somewhere over $14.2 trillion. Bush's stimulus plan was somewhere around 1% of the Gross Domestic Product. Economists were saying somewhere between three and five percent was necessary truly to stimulate the economy and turn around this recession. The Democrats and the Obama administration settled on $800 billion for political reasons. They really could not get Congress to authorize more money. Remember, we just bailed out the banks. We just bought up toxic assets. The U.S. Treasury was hemorrhaging money. This does not include money that the U.S. Treasury directly infused into our economy (and foreign markets).

Notice that President Obama said almost exactly the same thing while answering questions from Republicans last Friday.

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You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).

You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3).