 |  | 
March 29, 2012 | | SUPREME COURT Liberals love to talk about health care as a right. But the individual mandate can’t be defended in those terms. Which is one big reason it might be headed for defeat, says The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky. Plus, the answers to ten burning questions about the case. SYMBOLIC The GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed Paul Ryan’s $3.53 trillion budget plan. The bill has virtually no chance of passing in the Senate, but it cleared the House in a 228-191 vote—no Democrats supported it and ten Republicans were against it. The plan includes an overhaul of the tax code and serious changes to popular entitlements. “We have one of the most predictable economic crises in this country coming,” Ryan said. “It’s a debt-driven crisis. And so we have an obligation—not just a legal obligation, but a moral obligation to do something about it.” FRANCE Mohammed Merah won’t be buried in an Algerian village, after its mayor responded negatively. “Algeria has nothing to do with this case, and we do not understand why some circles in France are trying to involve us in it,” a government source said. The 23-year-old Frenchman, who killed seven people in France, will likely be buried near Toulouse, the location of his final rampage at a Jewish school. Merah’s father, who wanted his son buried in Algeria, has lashed out at French authorities for killing Merah instead of putting him on trial, and threatened to sue the state. YIKES Supreme Court justices, take a gander at this. The average health-care costs for a family of four will top $20,000 in 2012, according to an independent research group—a 7 percent increase from 2011. It’s the fifth year in a row that health-care costs have increased between 7 percent and 8 percent, part of an overall health-care cost increase that has seen these expenses double since 2002, when the average family of four only paid $9,235. Employers still shoulder the burden of health-care costs, but employees have been paying a larger portion of these costs every year, analysts said. LOBBYISTS Mississippi governor Haley Barbour decided to stay out of the 2012 GOP presidential race, and this might have something to do with it: his lobbying group, BGR Group, represents a Russian bank that has financed a company that helped build Iran’s clandestine nuclear power plant. The nuke program is a subject of stern international concern, and Barbour himself has unleashed saber-rattling rhetoric about Iran. The owner of the Russian bank is one of the richest men on the planet, and pays Barbour at least $300,000 a year through a blind trust. | | 
GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You’ll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast’s diverse group of contributors.  GET The Yes List Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast.
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment