Obama's future depends upon his nation's health American voters want healthcare overhauled. But reform is a high stakes game that can wound the president Comments (71)    
Martin Kettle guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 July 2009 21.30 BST Article history
American healthcare remains a mystery to most Europeans. Many of us are vaguely aware that there is a problem with the US system, but the subject is extremely complex, of almost exclusively domestic interest and, to most people in the news-as-entertainment age, boring.Barack Obama only has to swat a fly to get a hundred times more coverage in the European media than he will get when he tries to push his healthcare reform plan through Congress this summer. Be in no doubt, though, that the fate of his reform plan will define the fate of his presidency. It will do so because of two overwhelming reasons. First, because the US healthcare system is so huge. And second, because it has defied the efforts of all those who have tried to reform it in the past. It will be healthcare – not Iraq, Iran, nuclear weapons, climate change, the budget, or even the banks – that frames the verdict on the Obama administration.If you take nothing else away from reading this, please take this one amazing fact. Health spending accounts for 16% of America's GDP (the figure for the UK is 8.4%) and is projected by some to rise to 20% by 2017. Put another way, this means that health spending currently accounts for a sixth of the entire US economy and within a decade will account for a fifth. Since…

   Ten politicial philanderers who got away with it        

   AFP / Getty Images Palin stepping down as Alaska governor By Michael Muskal | 12:33 p.m.  The former GOP vice-presidential nominee says she will not run again, prompting speculation that she is considering a presidential race in 2012.      

 From the Los Angeles Times Opinion Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Waste is killing California Cutting fraud and waste won't solve the entire budget mess, but it needs to be done, the governor says.   By Arnold Schwarzenegger

July 3, 2009

In San Luis Obispo County, a 20-year-old drug abuser who was the sole caretaker for his seriously disabled father provided such poor care that, according to the grand jury in that county, the father frequently had bedsores, he was not properly cleaned, adult protective services had to be called in and, ultimately, he died before he was 60 years old. Incredibly, the son was being paid by the state, through the In-Home Supportive Services Program, for this substandard care.

Though this kind of abuse of taxpayer dollars is not rampant, we know it exists. So how could the Legislature in good conscience propose its latest budget fix -- one that would increase taxes, cut children off our healthcare rolls, reduce funding to education and put more strain on law enforcement -- without first eliminating this kind of fraud and waste?

Legislators are continuing to draft solutions to our now $26.3-billion state budget deficit. We're close to filling the gap, but I will not sign a package that raises taxes or fails to address the entire deficit. There is a need for compromise, and I have proposed a path forward that would include ensuring that tax dollars go to citizens in need of services and not to waste, fraud or excessive compensation for those who provide those services. These reforms won't entirely address falling revenues and rising costs, but they will help immediately, and especially in the years to come.…

   Feds' corruption probe looks at top Florida officials A federal corruption unit is trying to find out if top Florida officials were solicited to tank a state probe into a fraudulent Fort Lauderdale life-insurance company. BY JAY WEAVER \n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The U.S. Justice Department is investigating corruption allegations made by an indicted Fort Lauderdale insurance executive who, in a bid for a favorable plea deal, has named lawyers, lobbyists and fundraisers he claims plotted with him to thwart a state crackdown on him and his industry.Justice officials have convened a federal grand jury to pursue the claims of former Mutual Benefits Corp. chief Joel Steinger. The wealthy businessman contends that he orchestrated a campaign to stifle a 1999-2000 statewide grand jury probe by attempting to improperly influence public officials, three knowledgeable sources have told The Miami Herald.One of the officials Steinger named was lawyer Paul Huck Jr., a former deputy to state Attorney General Charlie Crist. But Huck confirmed that he was one of six public officials already cleared of any wrongdoing by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. Huck said authorities have told him that he was ``a reputational victim of statements made by a third party.'' Others who remain under scrutiny: several prosecutors and officials who worked under Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth and his successor, Crist.From outward appearances, Steinger's purported scheme wasn't successful: The statewide grand jury indicted Mutual Benefits for racketeering, filed 20 criminal cases involving the viatical industry, and issued a scathing report recommending reforms to the Florida Legislature and Department of Insurance.Mutual Benefits was the leader in the viatical industry, which sold life insurance policies of elderly and ailing people at discounted rates to investors, who collected benefits when…

 
Iranian cleric says British Embassy employees will be tried   Email Picture
Cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, foreground left, leads prayers at the Tehran University campus today.  "No matter what political line you follow, the world is constantly watching this country," he said. "We have a global mission. Now should we fight against each other? We should abide by the law and make up for the past."
       

  From The Times of London July 3, 2009 Nuclear threat from Iran the big dilemma facing Israel and Netanyahu Bronwen Maddox: analysis
Is the threat of Iran getting a nuclear weapon so great that Israel should contemplate military action? And should the US encourage it in that? These aren’t questions that Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, appears to have answered for himself, for all his preoccupation with them. Nor does President Obama. It’s a wretched dilemma, set to get worse as Iran’s nuclear programme advances, and the regime gets closer to having enough enriched uranium to make a warhead — even as it continues to deny that aim. Israel cares more about the threat than any other country, even its Arab neighbours, feeling itself uniquely at risk. Yet short of military action — and probably not even that — there is no action that Israel can take on its own that really tackles that overwhelming anxiety. “I am an Israeli. I will not depend on anybody for my existence,” said one senior government adviser yesterday, speaking for many of his countrymen. “I will not rely on American guarantees, and I will do whatever I need to defend myself, and the hell with it,” he said. A dependence on the US for every solution to the Iranian threat has led Israeli leaders into an increasingly shrill petition, tugging at the sleeve of George W. Bush, and now Obama, for reassurance that they take the threat seriously, before retreating for a brief while, inevitably unsatisfied. In his pitch to Obama, misjudged on a dozen counts, Netanyahu made a link — which some US officials found absurd — between what concessions Israel might make on the Palestinian front and what it wants the US to…