Mike Huckabee on politics, Christianity, Israel : The New Yorker

Mike Huckabee on politics, Christianity, Israel : The New Yorker

In defiance of libertarian laissez-faire, Huckabee has extended his Christian vision to include the poor. “If there are a certain number of kids from single-parent homes who aren’t going to school and don’t have health care, you can say that’s not government’s job,” Huckabee told me. “Well, sweet and fine! But you know what? If the kid’s sitting outside the door of the hospital choking with asthma, do I sit there and say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t think, philosophically, government should get involved’? I’d much rather the kid get help than I sit around and say I’m so pure in my ideology.”

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Big Pharma Lawsuits - Who Got Hit with the Biggest Settlement? - LawyersAndSettlements.com

Big Pharma Lawsuits - Who Got Hit with the Biggest Settlement? - LawyersAndSettlements.com:

From LucyC:

"It seems that every month practically, one pharmaceutical company or another makes the news for bending rules around marketing. Mis-marketing, which could also be called consumer fraud, can result in serious, if not life-changing consequences for people making decisions about their health.
Recently, I came across a list of the largest settlements paid by 11 pharmaceutical companies for bending the rules. The fines total a staggering $6 billion. The more frequent offender, according to the company that compiled the list, is Eli Lilly. They paid more than $1.4 billion in fines all for various violations for just one drug—Zyprexa. "

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The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty: Irony

The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty: Irony

Good piece on the GOPs history of advocating for an individual mandate - until Democrats suported it:

In 1990, the conservative Heritage Foundation developed a plan for universal coverage that described the individual mandate as a “social contract” between the government and individuals:“Under this social contract, the federal government would agree to make it financially possible, through refund able tax benefits or in some cases by providing access to public-sector health programs, for every American family to purchase at least a basic package of, including catastrophic insurance. In return, government would require, by law every head of household to acquire at least a basic health plan for his or her family."
The individual mandate was then incorporated into bills proposed by GOP stalwarts Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IO) as an alternative to “Hillary Care.” It later became a lynchpin of the Massachusetts health reform plan championed by then governor (and likely 2012 presidential candidate) Mitt Romney (R-MA).
That was then, this is now.
The Heritage Foundation now argues that the individual mandate is “unprecedented” and “unconstitutional”- conveniently ignoring its own past ownership of the idea. A few days ago, Senator Hatch hailed the Virginia judge’s decision to overturn the individual mandate as “a great day for liberty. Congress must obey the Constitution rather than make it up as we go along. Liberty limits on government, and today those limits have been upheld.”

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