Monday Open Thread [4.28.14]

Filed in National by on April 28, 2014

“Usually when I get up this early, I get up to kill something.” — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), at an early morning church service to a congregation not familiar with his passion for bowhunting. Yes, such a Christian thing to say. So is Sarah Palin’s statement that that “Waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.” Out of all the dumb and offensive and idiotic things she has said since bursting onto the scene in 2008, this is the most outrageous.

A new Democracy Corps survey in battleground congressional districts shows 52% of respondents want to “implement and fix” the 2010 health care reform law versus 42% who want to “repeal and replace” it.

Paul Krugman:

Start with the narrow issue of land use. For historical reasons, the federal government owns a lot of land in the West; some of that land is open to ranching, mining and so on. Like any landowner, the Bureau of Land Management charges fees for the use of its property. The only difference from private ownership is that by all accounts the government charges too little—that is, it doesn’t collect as much money as it could, and in many cases doesn’t even charge enough to cover the costs that these private activities impose. In effect, the government is using its ownership of land to subsidize ranchers and mining companies at taxpayers’ expense.

It’s true that some of the people profiting from implicit taxpayer subsidies manage, all the same, to convince themselves and others that they are rugged individualists. But they’re actually welfare queens of the purple sage.

Jonathan Chait: “Since at least October, the assumption has held that the midterm elections will revolve thematically around Obamacare. A series of new developments is suddenly making that once-rock-solid assumption look questionable.”

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  1. Jason330 says:

    It is amazing that Palin can be wrong about torture, terrorism and Chiristisnity all in one short sentence.

  2. bamboozer says:

    The Republicans have put all their eggs in the Obamacare basket, but it’s not going to be the “Waterloo” they so desperately yearn for. The Obama haters will continue to chant it like a mantra but at some point things will be clearer and more, perhaps many more, will find they like it. As for Palin I would suggest she has many more stupid and ignorant things to say, the question remains why does the media listen.

  3. FTW says:

    So much for Obama care as our good friend who is now paying $23,000 a year in healthcare premiums for a family of 5. Now where can you can such a deal? In order for our dermatologist to get paid his coding will go from 1600 codes to 6600 codes. Now that is efficiency under Obama care.Why would anyone want to become a doctor? Any doctor with the assets and experience are leaving their practice. This is reality.