"Lawmakers Weigh Plan for Stimulus"
by Louis Uchitelle, October 9 New York Times: 

....Under the stimulus package that the Congressional Democratic leadership is considering, the mechanism for funneling money to the states and cities would be an increase in federal funding of state Medicaid programs. Those states hardest hit economically would receive more proportionally than those relatively better off.

Whatever the amounts, the federal subsidies would free up money the states currently must put into Medicaid. States might divert that money to cities, for example, to pay teachers and vendors, or it might be used to quickly resume public works projects shut down for lack of funding.

Senator Barack Obama the Democratic presidential candidate, now supports a stimulus plan similar to the one the Congressional Democratic leadership is seriously considering....

Seems to me, once released from those Medicaid expenses, states would be loathe to have to start picking them up again, especially if the economy continues in recession with loss of employed taxpayers, and other states would ask for the same deal. This is a step to more centralization on health insurance. The Federal health care expenditure will grow larger on the books, but I think the issues raised by that would be a good thing on the path.

If you are interested in movement towards single payer, consider expressing support  to your Congressperson for using this method for any aid to states.

There is an error in Reader Blog navigation with the recent re-loading of the Reader Blog archives onto the new server that hurts functionality of the site for users. At the bottom of the "Recent Reader Blogs" page, you have listed the following: Recent Archives October 5-October 11, 2008 September 28-October 4, 2008 September 21-September 27, 2008 September 14-September 20, 2008 NONE OF THESE LINKS HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED THE CORRECT URL TO TAKE YOU TO THOSE ARCHIVES, they all have the same url as the Recent Reader Blogs page: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/archives.php It is only when one clicks on "Click here to view the full archive" is it possible to get to those weekly archives, to get links with the currently urls assigned to them. Readers who want to use the most recent weekly link to see Reader Blog posts from earlier in same day that have scrolled off. They click on the first archive it and think that is all there is. This is important because not having easy, clear accesss for all readers to a least a day or two of posts increases churn, rewards "in clubs" of regulars who follow each others' blogs by name, and is real negative as to getting new or old members to write posts of quality. If they spend a lot of time on a post, it is only accessible for a few hours for reading (and Recommends) except to readers who happen to have figured out they have to click on the top secret second link to get the real weekly archive.

Japan and Australia pumped 15 billion dollars into money markets on Wednesday and Hong Kong slashed interest rates BUT the Indonesian market halted trading as the benchmark fell more than 10%. Japan's Nikkei plunged 9.4%, the biggest drop since Oct. 1987. Oh, and Japan's corporate bankruptcies have jumped 34%, climbing by the fastest pace in eight years. The Hang Seng slumped 5.5 percent, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 4.8 percent. Trading has been halted in Russia because of double digit drops. The UK will announce a new £45 billion ($78.8 billion) bank bailout plan in the UK any moment now, costing each taxpayer £1,400-2,000 each. Spain is setting up a 30-50 billion Euro fund to buy bank assets, decided to stop waiting for common EU action. The bank of Italy's director said Italian banks may need more capital. Saudi Arabia has admitted to The Financial Times it has liquidity difficulties; the Saudi stock market plunged 9.8% yesterday and the Dubai Financial Market was down 7.6 per cent, similar to its performance on Sunday. The seven stock markets in the Gulf have shed about $150 billion of their capitalization in the past three days. The Icelandic government has seized the country's second-largest bank, is close to bankrupcty, and is pleading with Russia to hand it a $5.4 billion life-line loan. The European markets will be opening shortly, and the futures don't look good. Not bothering with links because things will change. Sorry to interrupt your breakfast.

I found many of the comments on Marc Ambinder's October 3 post: Rebuilding The Republican Party: Not Tabula Rasa to be an exceptional read, offering up lots of food for thought. Some get into Cameron's popularity in England as a contrast, which makes it even more interesting.