Today’s Hartford Courant pits the current Lieberman position in the context of the recently released Rumsfeld memo(see link for full text). The key grafs:

Despite mounting pressure from both parties for a change in direction in Iraq, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., said Sunday that withdrawing American forces would be a “statement of weakness.”

“In the end, there has to be an Iraqi political settlement,” Lieberman told CBS’ “Face the Nation,” “but they can’t do it without security. And they can’t achieve security if we begin to withdraw.”

[Read more →]

Daniel Gross writes in today’s New York Times that after looking at the numbers, we tax payers already pay for healthcare for about half of all U.S. workers. Is this right? He explains:

Out of a total population of about 300 million, 35.6 million elderly Americans were on Medicare in 2005. Of the working-age population, which reached 257.8 million in 2005, some 45.5 million were covered by Medicare, Medicaid or military health programs, according to the benefits institute. An additional 18.2 million workers had health insurance through jobs in the public sector, which includes state, federal and local governments, public schools and state universities, according to Paul Fronstin, director of the institute’s health research and education program. Millions of those workers’ dependents are covered as well. Even if those dependents are not included in the tally, taxpayers paid the bill for almost two-fifths of all Americans with insurance in 2005.

[Read more →]