I want to propose a four-part test for measuring any particular bill on health care cost control. short run long run Federal deficit 1 2 Government health care spending X 3 Private health care spending X 4 In each case, I will define the test so that “yes” is a good outcome: Test 1: The […]
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Tag Archives: HOPE
The belt-and-suspenders of the Kennedy-Dodd health care bill
11 June 2009 
70 Comments
There is much debate about whether a health care reform bill should include a government-run health insurance plan, a so-called “public option.” Advocates argue that such a plan can compete fairly with private health insurance, and that this competition would “keep insurers honest.” They also argue that more choices are a good thing. I fall […]
Read more Ten more things about the official Kennedy-Dodd health care bill
10 June 2009 43 Comments
The Senate HELP Committee staff has filed an official copy of their draft legislation with the Senate clerk. A friend and I were discussing today two possible tactical scenarios: The weekend leak forced the majority staff to release their official text as damage control. Under this scenario, filing the official copy is a damage mitigation […]
Read more Understanding the House Democrats' health care bill
9 June 2009 218 Comments
Yesterday I posted and described the draft Kennedy-Dodd health care bill. Today I would like to do the same for an outline produced by House Democrats. Here is a three-page outline of “Key Features of the Tri-Committee Health Reform Draft Proposal in the House of Representatives,” dated yesterday (June 8, 2009). The three committees are: […]
Read more Parsing the President’s health care reform letter
3 June 2009 11 Comments
The White House has released a letter from the President to the two Senate Chairmen who are working on (different) versions of health care reform: Senator Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The letter is dated yesterday and […]
Read moreUnderstanding the GM bankruptcy
1 June 2009 51 Comments
Many of you are new to this blog since I wrote extensively about autos six weeks ago. As background, I coordinated the auto loan process for President Bush last fall as the Director of the White House National Economic Council (the position now held by Dr. Lawrence Summers). I wrote a series of posts on […]
Read moreBasic facts on the General Motors bankruptcy
1 June 2009 29 Comments
In a few hours I will offer my thoughts and reactions to the General Motors bankruptcy filing and the President’s noon announcement. For now, here is what I have been able to figure out from the White House fact sheet and secondary source reporting through CNBC and the Wall Street Journal. I assume that both […]
Read moreBlog status report
22 May 2009 15 Comments
KeithHennessey.com has now been live for eight weeks. I would like to thank you for reading and give you a status update. I am pleased with the traffic for this fledgling effort. I’ve had about 150K visits in eight weeks. I am not certain how good that is, but it feels pretty good, especially given […]
Read more Understanding the President’s CAFE announcement
19 May 2009 126 Comments
(Editorial note: I was doing so well moving to shorter posts. I fail miserably in achieving that goal here. I went the comprehensive route instead. I promise to return to shorter posts in the future. Buckle up – this is a long ride. I hope you find it’s worth it.) (Update: There’s an important correction […]
Read moreMixed results on the Chrysler announcement
5 May 2009 27 Comments
The President’s Chrysler announcement last Thursday produced mixed results. The agreement among Chrysler, Fiat, UAW, the Administration, and the large banks appears to increase the probability (from almost zero) that Chrysler will survive for the long run, albeit as a part of Fiat. This is clearly a good thing.Is it worth the cost to taxpayers […]
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