Nandan Kenkeremath

The purported Democrat moderates who voted for Obama Care are really, really gullible.  I have previously raised the issue of many misleading statements in the health care debate.  With respect to the budget issues, these have been aired out by many, including Congressman Paul Ryan.  However, in statement after statement avowed moderate Democrats appear oblivious to these points.  They say the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a neutral arbiter and so life must be fine. They believe that future Congresses will allow hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts in Medicare.   They believe that Congresses will sustain levies for taxes on certain high cost plans.  They believe that payments for doctors under Medicare can either sustain a 21% cut or be paid for from some other source that does not add to the debt.   I am not so gullible as to believe you can expand spending by $2.5 trillion from 2014 to 2023 and reduce debt.   It has never worked that way.  And CBO was forced to score savings provisions that will not occur. (more)

I am not a constitutional scholar, but I believe the recently announced “Slaughter Rule” approach is not consistent with the Constitution. Ms. Slaughter is the Democrat chairwoman of the House Rules Committee. Under the Slaughter approach a single vote is cast to (a) deem the Senate version of the health care bill passed, (b) pass reconciliation language that would revise the health care bill that was “deemed” passed, and (c) set a unique procedural rule for the House. If you follow the idea of the Slaughter approach, legislating will fundamentally change to a system fraught with confusion. The court would really need to think twice about its role interpreting basic legislative rules, but we are starting to look at a very bad set of facts. (more)

After the 40-minute “beer summit” last year, our president said, “I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart.” It was that kind of “Harvard-student-become president-has-a-beer-with-Harvard-professor-and-a-police-officer” kind of moment. For a wonk like me, the bipartisan health care summit was even more interesting than the improbable beer summit—if you believe anything could be. (more)

Hurray for the voters of Massachusetts. (more)

The practice of national politics in America is a mixture of lies and truth—an ebullient broth of misinformation, misdirection, and hype coupled with some real issues and honest beliefs.  With the help of others, I would like to catalogue the many flavors of lies in the Washington political scene. The health care reform initiative is a rich example.  So, let’s start with one basic type of lie and see how that lie associates with seven other types. (more)