That’s not really true. The hospital billed $6000, but the $600 paid for the cost of the O.R. with staff. Doctor’s do ‘charity’ procedures all the time, and get little more than O.R. paid. My business partner had to buy some medicine, it was something like $140 with insurance, and something like $40 without insurance. There’s a huge game being played between pharmacies, hospitals, and insurance companies. The real costs of medicine, care, and procedures only enters into the back-and-forth at the end, but the constant price jockeying makes everybody’s books look good.

There are going to be some disappointed ‘escorts’ in Chicago.

These are after tax dollars, right? So the teacher in the example has to pay 13+K over ten years, for a 25K loan. But in order to shell out the 13+K, the borrower has to have made over 25K in before-tax income. So the govt. gets the 25K no matter what. Some deal!

The party of hen’s teeth.

Kevin asks: … but will they be able to truly reform the economy of Libya?
You betcha! The economy will reform from that of the highest standard of living in Africa to something more along the lines of Equatorial Guinea.

Alot of talk about ‘killing his own citizens’. Apparently, some are

Afghans smuggled through Lebanon, using arms smuggled with assistance from Saad Hariri. Assad may be fighting a Saudi-backed insurgency.

Thanks Jane. Comparing religions, and religiosity, there is a stark comparison between Mitt’s religion and ‘religious culture’, of which he is a practitioner, and the avowed faith of BHO. As soon as he left Chicago, he claimed to have never known (figuratively) Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and took up with Rick Warren.
As disappointing as it may sound here, I will vote for Romney, and even register as a repub. if needed for the primary. Maybe, just maybe, Willard’s religion has taught him that war is wrong.
And remember, FDR was a very wealthy man.

Back in the day, MBNA was DE’s largest employer. Papa Joe pushed the bankruptcy ‘reform’ law for the financial services companies in DE. If Beau’s entering this situation, I would bet it’s to look after BoA, which, having bought MBNA, still employs many in DE. I really don’t trust Beau, or his Pop.

Grayson/McKinney?

You need to look up the 14th amendment. And while you’re at it, look into ‘voluntary impoverishment’.

Yes, revenue is the problem, but it’s the very rich who don’t pay. Not at all.

He really has the hair for a Senator. But then again, so did Biden.

At the end of the day, Weiner will cave on S.S., Medicare and Medicaid, just as he did with Single Payer.

The State Department Rubber is going to hit the c.i.a. Road. We know which wide our Business, Inc. president is on.

The Pharma industry may be inordinately profitable. There have been huge and consistent layoffs, R&D has been cut, and business in all the industries associated with R&D is hurting. They may be sitting on cash, but their pipelines are considered pretty empty and their favorite drugs-of-abuse (hard on meds) are getting old. Patents and patentability can be mixed blessings. We have Progestins instead of Progesterone as birth control; one may have side effects, the other not; one may not be ‘patentable’. It does cost a great deal to ‘develop’ a drug. Much of the cost is in the clinical trials. I think the govt. should run these, for a couple of reasons: smaller companies would not be forced to partner with either venture capital or big Pharmas, and companies would have less chance of rigging trials that hide toxicity, as with Tylenol.
A big gripe of monopoly ownership is in publishing, particularly scientific publishing. Even libraries are kept behind a pay-wall. Scientific publishing is an astounding racket: Work which was funded by government, and conducted in tax-free institutions, is owned not by the government, the tax-free institutions, or those who conducted and communicated the work, but by a private enterprise called a publishing house. And we have to pay to see it. This, to me, is the largest impediment to any technological progress.

They’re running for president, showing their bonafides, angling for the Kock-brother $$. Walker, Kasich, want to be known as the union-slayers to further their political careers.

Rush Holt describes what the 2% payroll tax is really about. It’s the ‘end-around’ of the catfood commission, which itself is and ‘end-around’ of congress.

Is Holder on the list, or is AG paying him, too.