health care costs

Sunday, July 17, 2016

: re: Insurers, Pushing for Higher Rates, Challenge Key Component of Health Law

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 7:49 PM
Subject: re: Insurers, Pushing for Higher Rates, Challenge Key Component of Health Law
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

     As you note, "subsidies to help pay premiums" shield consumers partially from drastic hikes in insurance costs. But they do nothing to reduce the total cost of healthcare in this country. Americans currently pay more for healthcare than anyone, anywhere, has paid since the invention of money, and we don't have superior health outcomes to show for it. RomneyCare (AKA Affordable Care Act) guarantees the profitability of our Insurance Companies rather than optimizing the delivery of health care. Against this background, some version of Single Payer would represent a vast simplification of administrative costs, an vast improvement in tracking medical records and--if dozens of foreign experiments are any guide--a substantial saving of  money over our current fee-for-service hodgepodge.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/us/politics/insurers-pushing-for-higher-rates-challenge-key-component-of-health-law.html

why-democrats-lead

Friday, September 7, 2012

Why Democrats Lead

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/opinion/brooks-why-democrats-lead.html?src=twr

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 8:17 AM
Subject: re: Why Democrats Lead
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   David Brooks' summation that "[t]he next president has to do three big things, which are in tension with one another: increase growth, reduce debt and increase social equity. " would have been as apt in 1932 as it is in 2012.  Those of us out here in the "reality-based community" who insist on learning from our history recognize that the way to achieve these things is through Keynesian deficit spending in the crisis years and repaying that debt in the good times.   Since the power to tax and the power to spend and the power to stimulate don't belong to our Executive, the way to get there--now, as then--is to elect not only a Democratic president, but a Democratic Congress.

Barry Haskell Levine

hundreds-die-as-egyptian-forces-attack

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Hundreds Die as Egyptian Forces Attack Islamist Protesters

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?hp&_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 11:44 PM
Subject: re: Hundreds Die as Egyptian Forces Attack Islamist Protesters
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

   President Obama showed both sense and spine in 2011 when he countermanded secretary Clinton's knee-jerk endorsement of Hosni Mubarak. The marchers of the Arab Spring clearly carried the Egyptian People's legitimate aspirations for a representative government. Mubarak--although a longtime ally of this country--had put himself on the wrong side of history. Since then we have not done as well. By continuing aid, we have legitimized the coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi. 

    It is never convenient to confess such a mistake. But as long as we underwrite the Egyptian budget and the Egyptian Military, the U.S. has a voice. And that voice must say that Morsi is the duly-elected president of Egypt, that the coup that ousted him is illegitimate and that the dollars won't flow until legitimate democracy is restored.

Barry Haskell Levine

fda-restricts-antibiotics-use

Thursday, December 12, 2013

F.D.A. Restricts Antibiotics Use for Livestock

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 10:28 AM
Subject: re: F.D.A. Restricts Antibiotics Use for Livestock
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

  The mission of the FDA has grown over time. When it was established in 1906, it was only to certify safety. In 1962, that was expanded to safety and efficacy. Now the concern is broadened again, to preserve the usefulness of our antibiotics against the relentless evolution of resistance in pathogens. But throughout, the FDA has been a regulatory agency.  As long as the new restrictions are voluntary, they are not regulations; they are a cop-out. This is a retreat from the FDA's mission at a time when it needs to be pressing forward.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/health/fda-to-phase-out-use-of-some-antibiotics-in-animals-raised-for-meat.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0

strategy-to-fight-terrorism

Friday, May 30, 2014

re: U.S. Strategy to Fight Terrorism Increasingly Uses Proxies

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, May 30, 2014 at 10:37 PM
Subject: re: U.S. Strategy to Fight Terrorism Increasingly Uses Proxies
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

   In September 2001,demonstrations in capitals around the world--including a million men in Teheran--marched in solidarity with the U.S., and in revulsion at the attacks of 9/11.  At that moment, the U.S. could have led a broad international law-enforcement drive to apprehend the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks and no one would have stood in our way. Instead, George W. Bush preferred to cast himself as a war-time leader and to seize extraordinary powers. Calling for "crusade" he alienated crucial allies. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran could not join such a project, much as they wanted al-Qaeda destroyed.

   To speak of "proxies" in president Obama's strategy is to accept too quickly the view that the U.S. is the sole protagonist here. We should remember that we are but one of al-Qaeda's targets, and we should be sharing this fight not with proxies but with allies.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/world/africa/us-strategy-to-fight-terrorism-increasingly-uses-proxies.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

sunni-extremists-in-iraq

Monday, August 4, 2014

Subject: re: Sunni Extremists in Iraq Seize 3 Towns From Kurds and Threaten Major Dam

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM
Subject: re: Sunni Extremists in Iraq Seize 3 Towns From Kurds and Threaten Major Dam
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

   For three years, the U.S. government has dithered, terrified of backing the wrong side while the civil war in Syria has claimed 170,000 lives.At one time, 800 distinct factions were enumerated each of whom wanted al-Assad dead for their own reasons.  It is time--not for U.S. boots on the ground--but for us to back what is right against what is monstrous.  As president Truman recognized and armed Israel in 1948, it is time that president Obama recognize and arm Kurdistan.  The Kurds have a right to self-determination as enunciated in the UN charter.  If that irks the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Syrians and the Turks so be it. Their imperial ambitions can't trump a people's right. And the Kurds will host an American airbase every bit as nice as Incirlik if it comes to that. They--unlike their neighbors--actually like us.

Barry

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/world/middleeast/iraq.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

/lessons-from-france

To the Editor:

Re “As Candidates Speak in France, the Meter Is Running” (Memo From Paris, March 8): The French have much to teach us about running a democracy.

Too many Americans have been taught that participation in our government — outside one day of voting each cycle — is limited to giving or soliciting money. But proper democracy requires that all of us engage in discussing the issues of our day.

The moment in the voting booth is only the culmination of that long process. In 2012, political discussion in the United States has been usurped by the corporate noise machine. Real issues (campaign finance reform, prosecuting torture, America’s role as cop of the world) can’t even get into the media.

This is not the America our founding fathers staked their lives on. If the French have a better idea of how to embody our shared revolutionary ideals, we should sneer less and attend more.

BARRY HASKELL LEVINE
Lafayette, Calif., March 8, 2012

think-twice-about-egypt

To the Editor:

Re “Egyptian Court Shuts Down the Muslim Brotherhood and Seizes Its Assets” (news article, Sept. 24):

Decades after the fact, American citizens are still learning about the role our government played in the coups that toppled Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and Salvador Allende in Chile. We pray that Egypt’s new junta proves less murderous than the governments of the shah or Augusto Pinochet.

But this much we know already: The junta that we’ve tacitly accepted in Egypt is the most repressive government there in human memory.

Americans should consider with open eyes our own role in creating the horrors of the last century before embarking on any more experiments in regime change around the world.

BARRY HASKELL LEVINE
Lafayette, Calif., Sept. 24, 2013

the-violent-crackdown-in-egypt

To the Editor:

President Obama showed both sense and spine in 2011 when he urged President Hosni Mubarak to step down. The marchers of the Arab Spring clearly carried the Egyptian people’s legitimate aspirations for a representative government. Mr. Mubarak — although a longtime ally of this country — had put himself on the wrong side of history.

Since then we have not done as well. By continuing aid, we have legitimized the coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi.

It is never convenient to confess such a mistake. But as long as we underwrite the Egyptian budget and the Egyptian military, the United States has a voice. And that voice must say that Mr. Morsi is the duly elected president of Egypt, that the coup that ousted him is illegitimate and that the dollars won’t flow until legitimate democracy is restored.

BARRY HASKELL LEVINE
Lafayette, Calif., Aug. 15, 2013

what-will-it-take-to-stop-rape-in

Re “Joint Chiefs’ Answers on Sex Crimes Dismay Senators” (news article, June 5):

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981. From that date forward, the armed forces of the United States were colorblind. Decades ahead of the larger American society, minorities in our armed forces enjoyed the same rights as anyone else in the services.

Any officer unwilling to enforce this policy was invited to resign his commission immediately.

President Obama as commander in chief of our armed forces has it in his power to ensure that rape of our sons and daughters in the services is taken seriously — as a crime and not as a youthful indiscretion. To do so, he would not have to buck public opinion as Truman did; we’re way out ahead of him on this one.

He would merely have to show spine enough to embrace Truman’s precedent. I’m not holding my breath.

BARRY HASKELL LEVINE
Lafayette, Calif., June 5, 2013

the-fdas-mission

To the Editor:

Re “F.D.A. Restricts Antibiotics Use for Livestock” (front page, Dec. 12):

The mission of the Food and Drug Administration has grown over time. When it was established in 1906, its mission was only to certify safety. In 1962, that was expanded to safety and efficacy. Now the concern is broadened again, to preserve the usefulness of our antibiotics against the relentless evolution of resistance in pathogens. But throughout, the F.D.A. has been a regulatory agency.

As long as the new restrictions are voluntary for the drug makers, they are not regulations; they are a cop-out. This is a retreat from the agency’s mission at a time when it needs to be pressing forward.

BARRY HASKELL LEVINE
Lafayette, Calif., Dec. 12, 2013

reviews-of-presidents-big-night

To the Editor:

David Brooks’s summation that “the next president has to do three big things, which are in tension with one another: increase growth, reduce debt and increase social equity” would have been as apt in 1932 as it is in 2012.

Those of us out here in the “reality-based community” who insist on learning from our history recognize that the way to achieve these things is through Keynesian deficit spending in the crisis years and repaying that debt in the good times.

Since the power to tax and the power to spend don’t belong to our executive, the way to get there — now, as then — is to elect not only a Democratic president, but a Democratic Congress as well.

BARRY HASKELL LEVINE
Lafayette, Calif., Sept. 7, 2012

president-vladimir-putins-dangerous

Thursday, April 16, 2015

: re: President Vladimir Putin’s Dangerous Moves

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 9:02 AM
Subject: re: President Vladimir Putin’s Dangerous Moves
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

  If one counts tanks, or subs, or missiles, Russia is a great world power; by any other metric, mr. Putin is running an economy the size of Brazil's and is running it into the ground.  So of  course, he wants to militarize any disagreement. And it is in the world's interest to marginalize him.

    Mikhail Gorbachev famously acknowledged that the Soviet Union couldn't afford to spend endlessly in a stupid arms-race. We must take that lesson to heart, even if Mr. Putin does not.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/opinion/president-vladimir-putins-dangerous-moves.html?_r=0

free-trade-is-not-enemy

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

: re: Free Trade Is Not the Enemy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, May 19, 2015 at 9:31 AM
Subject: re: Free Trade Is Not the Enemy
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

    William M. Daley murmurs soothingly "...if the TPP passes...China’s economic fortunes will be tied to joining our alliance, which would necessitate raising its standards on labor conditions, the environment and the rule of law." Has he broken the law to divulge this secret to us? Or is he just making this stuff up?
     In the normal course of events, my senators would debate and deliberate and seek the voters' input on a issue of this m magnitude. But as long as it's conducted in secret,  I stand with professor Wagstaff; I'm against it.
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/opinion/free-trade-is-not-the-enemy.html

with-washingtons-complicity-egypt

Thursday, July 16, 2015

: re: With Washington’s Complicity, Egypt Cracks Down on Critics

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 9:02 AM
Subject: re: With Washington’s Complicity, Egypt Cracks Down on Critics
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

   It cannot be enough that the United States "support[s] the protection of individual rights for Egyptians".  By our own statute, the coup that toppled Mohamed Morsi in 2013 should have triggered the immediate end of military aid to Egypt. 

     As long as we demur to enforce our own law, the world sees that we underwrite the repression and violations of Egyptians' rights. Rather than the beacon of liberty, we have made ourselves the ally of convenient strongmen and the target of revolutionaries around the world.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/opinion/with-washingtons-complicity-egypt-cracks-down-on-critics.html?_r=0

president-obama-and-power-of-mercy

Thursday, October 1, 2015

: re: President Obama and the Power of Mercy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 10:42 AM
Subject: re: President Obama and the Power of Mercy
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:
  Our constitution provides the President of the United States broad power to pardon. Too often--too my eye--it has been used to reward partisans (e.g. Caspar Weinberger, Marc Rich). But it remains on the books, and can be a tool for patching democracy's shortcomings.
     It is time that President Obama pardon Edward Snowden.  What Edward Snowden leaked, he leaked to the American people. To prosecute that as an act hostile to the American government is more an indictment of that government than of the leaker.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/opinion/president-obama-and-the-power-of-mercy.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

insurers-pushing-for-higher-rates

Sunday, July 17, 2016

: re: Insurers, Pushing for Higher Rates, Challenge Key Component of Health Law

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 7:49 PM
Subject: re: Insurers, Pushing for Higher Rates, Challenge Key Component of Health Law
To: "letters@nytimes.com" 

To the Editor:

     As you note, "subsidies to help pay premiums" shield consumers partially from drastic hikes in insurance costs. But they do nothing to reduce the total cost of healthcare in this country. Americans currently pay more for healthcare than anyone, anywhere, has paid since the invention of money, and we don't have superior health outcomes to show for it. RomneyCare (AKA Affordable Care Act) guarantees the profitability of our Insurance Companies rather than optimizing the delivery of health care. Against this background, some version of Single Payer would represent a vast simplification of administrative costs, an vast improvement in tracking medical records and--if dozens of foreign experiments are any guide--a substantial saving of  money over our current fee-for-service hodgepodge.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/us/politics/insurers-pushing-for-higher-rates-challenge-key-component-of-health-law.html

legacy-of-torture

Friday, August 27, 2010

Legacy of Torture

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/opinion/27fri1.html?scp=1&sq=legacy%20of%20torture&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 9:21 AM
Subject: re: Legacy of Torture
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    When a human is tortured while in the custody of the United States of America, it taints more than his testimony; it taints our nation's soul.   We the people are the collective sovereign here. We are not innocent of the crimes committed in our name by our public servants. 

   We may try to disown these horrors and to put them behind us through a Truth and Reconciliation process like that in South Africa. To hide them and their perpetrators behind a veil of "National Security" would be unacceptable to a legitimate democracy.

Barry Levine