Free Republic

House Speaker Paul Ryan's ambitious tax overhaul relies on an import tax concept originally developed by a Berkeley economist who once advised Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Alan J. Auerbach is the director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as an economic counselor to Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign. He also happens to be known as the godfather of "border adjustability," the linchpin of the tax reform plan that Ryan, a conservative Wisconsin Republican, is attempting to sell to the White House and push through...

Toothache boy nearly died Battle ... Peter fights for his life         By ANDY RUSSELLA TEENAGER with toothache ended up fighting for life in hospital — after being turned away by a string of dentists. Peter Owen, 19, was in agony for a week as he tried SIX times to have a tooth out. He was eventually rushed to hospital after an abcess on the tooth swelled so much that it blocked his windpipe. Peter had an emergency tracheotomy — where a breathing tube is inserted through a hole in the throat — and was on...

  EXCLUSIVE Heart attack? Come later Booted out ... Mike Goldstone recovering in hospital     By EMMA MORTON A DOCTORS' receptionist turned away a man having a severe heart attack - and told him to come back later. The woman told salesman Mike Goldstone that the doctors were all too busy to see him even though he was doubled over with crippling chest pains. He struggled to his car and drove to a client's house where an ambulance was called to take him to hospital. Mike, 60, still in hospital recovering last night, said: "I thought I was going...

Wife of presidential nominee says preventive care is key to cutting costsBELLEVUE -- Teresa Heinz Kerry, daughter of a physician and chief executive of a philanthropy funding health-care initiatives, put that experience to work in Bellevue yesterday while on the stump for her presidential-candidate husband at a roundtable discussion on the funding crisis in U.S. health care.Before an invitation-only audience of about 40 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals at the Eastgate Public Health Center, Heinz Kerry expounded upon the ills facing a health care system in which millions of Americans are without insurance coverage. Drawing extensively upon her...

EXCLUSIVE Ambulance delay kills mum Family in torment ... Nicole, dad Mark and Angela     By JOHN COLES  MUM-of-two Beverley Stillman died after waiting three and a half hours for an ambulance. The 43-year-old was suffering from an abscess and needed to go to hospital for antibiotics to be given intravenously. But she died following a series of delays from an ambulance service officially ranked one of Britain’s worst. Last night heartbroken husband Mark, 44, sobbed: “My wife died unnecessarily due to the delay. I want people to know about this because I don’t want it to happen to...

ROCHESTER, Minn., Sept. 16 - Using terms reminiscent of Republican attacks on President Bill Clinton's ill-fated effort to reshape the health care system a decade ago, President Bush attacked Senator John Kerry's health care proposal on Thursday, saying "it's a plan that is massive and it's big, and it puts the government in control of health care." Mr. Bush's critique won applause from Republicans as he campaigned through Minnesota, a once reliably Democratic state that polls suggest is up for grabs in November. But his words drew a sharp rebuttal from the Kerry campaign, which said Mr. Bush was deliberately...

KERRY’S HEALTH PLAN NEEDS A CURE Sen. Kerry’s health plan would cost about $1.5 trillion over 10 years, according to the American Enterprise Institute, compared to only $128.6 billion for President Bush’s health plan. The AEI assumes the Kerry Plan would insure some 27.3 million people, with $620 billion spent directly on coverage for the uninsured, while the Bush plan would insure about 6.7 million at a direct cost of $39.4 billion for the uninsured. Under Kerry, employers would receive subsidies for catastrophic medical costs incurred by a patient, while Bush’s plan would provide a tax credit for small employers...

Teresa Heinz Kerry says "only an idiot" would not support her husband's plan to reform the state of health care in this nation. Of course, one has to wonder what idiot wrote her husband's health care plan. -snip- "Kerry's plan is long on promises but lacks detailed specifics," noted Jon Dougherty in recent commentary on the freerepublic.com Web 'zine. "It appears as though any savings Kerry is promising consumers will ultimately have to be paid for by them in the form of taxes ... since the money will come from federal government sources." -snip- "KerryCare," as some have dubbed the...

Plus ça change.SENATOR JOHN KERRY hasn't done much to distinguish himself on health care policy. A look at his voting record shows him to be hesitant on medical savings accounts, although not on tort lawyers' trashing HMOs, concerned about the long-term sustainability of Medicare, yet delighted to expand the entitlement--a pretty typical Democrat, but nothing more than that. In his twenty years in Congress, Senator Kerry has never made health care a priority, passing not a single bill in this area. Candidate Kerry, on the other hand, is just wild about health care and has made it the major domestic...