Medical insurance relieved the medical profession of the need to set and collect fees from individuals and allowed them to devote more time to medical issues. When insurance companies provided a steady stream of patients in the doctors' offices, doctors found they no longer needed to make house calls to maintain a good book of business.

Health care reform is likely to have as great an impact on the medical profession as medical insurance did 60 years ago. I can't foresee the exact changes, but I'm confident those changes will be great.

A thoughtful, well written and most amusing series of posts. Keep up your great work.

Lori Swanson is the elected Attorney General of the State of Minnesota.

The Attorney General is Constitutional Officer just as is the Governor. As a Constitutional Officer, Ms. Swanson is vested with independence and discretion. The Minnesota Attorney General is not required to join in this frivolous suit merely because the Governor wants to join in.

Further, it is not clear to me whether the State of Minnesota could be participate as a plaintiff in the suit over the objection of the Attorney General.

Lori Swanson is the elected Attorney General of the State of Minnesota.

The Attorney General is Constitutional Officer just as is the Governor. As a Constitutional Officer, Ms. Swanson is vested with independence and discretion. The Minnesota Attorney General is not required to join in this frivolous suit merely because the Governor wants to join in.

Further, it is not clear to me whether the State of Minnesota could be participate as a plaintiff in the suit over the objection of the Attorney General.

The circus rule applies.

How often do you hear an interviewer ask a GOPper this question:

"Why is it that not one Republican believes that insurance companies should be banned from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions?"

Or,

"When the Republican leadership tumble to the notion that the time has come to say YES to any Democratic initiative?"

And ... I'm not ready for a GOPer on January 20, 2013.

Tom Freidman has it right yesterday in the Times. Biden should have terminated his visit at the time of the announcement and returned home. The message that Netanyahu and Israel needs to hear from the United States is, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."

But when one looks at the underlying transactions, one realizes that the value of CDS contracts is illusory. This oversimplified transaction is my understanding of the essence of a CDS transaction.

Suppose Bank loans $500,000 to Smith for the purchase of a home and, at the same time, Bank goes to AIJ and pays $5,000 for a CDS contract protecting Bank in the event that Smith defaults. At closing, Smith pays Bank "closing costs" which, to nobody's surprise, include the $5,000 paid by Bank for the CDS. A few days, or perhaps weeks, after closing, Bank sells the Smith note and mortgage to First Main Street for something less than $500,000. Bank's gross profit on the transaction the excess of the "closing costs" collected from Smith over the discount given to First Main Street. The CDS contract added no value here but increased Smith's costs substantially.

What becomes of the CDS? It may, or may not, be included in the sale to First Main Street.

If the CDS is not included, Bank can hold the CDS until it expires or sell the CDS. If Bank sells the CDS, any purchaser (other than First Main Street or AIJ) is a gambler. Any "insurance" aspect of the CDS has vanished like the Cheshire Cat leaving only a wicked grin.

If the CDS is included, then First Main Street aggregates the Smith note, mortgage and CDS with similar documents from many other mortgage transactions and forms a mortgage pool comprising 200 similar notes, 200 similar mortgages and 200 similar CDS contracts having an a total outstanding balance of say approximately $100 million. The "value" of the pool is then $101 million ($100 million in loan balances+200 CDS contracts at $5,000 each). First Main Street then issues mortgage backed securities (MBS) to shift its risk to the MBS purchasers. The key element is that the mortgage pool backing the MBS securities has a "value" of $101 million thanks to the CDS contracts. Therefore, First Main Street can sell 101 "units" of MBS securities each backed by $1 million "mortgage securities". In the days before CDS contracts, First Main Street could have sold only 100 units of MBS securities each backed by $1 million in mortgages. The net result is to increase the money flowing to First Main and to reduce the stream of mortgage payment available to satisfy the holders of each MBS unit.

The payment stream from the mortgage pool is the same with or without CDS contracts if no mortgage defaults occur. In the event a large number of defaults occur, the federal government comes to the rescue. Either way, the CDS contracts increased the cost of the transaction but failed to add value to any non-financial institution involved in the transactions.

The role of lobbyists is to provide cover for the corrosive, symbiotic relationship between the elected officials and their corporate cronies. This is not new. The role of lobbyists is enshrined in the First Amendment and the Supreme Court's decisions that equate the legal rights of corporations with those of natural persons. Congress (whether Democrats or Republicans are in control) as the interested party benefitting from the system, does not appear to be capable of reforming the system and its will to do so is clearly lacking.

I am coming around to the conclusion that our only hope is that the excesses of Congress in supporting the system of corporate supremacy will so devastate our economy and complacent lifestyle that the demand for reform will arise from the "grassroots".

Well done. Your summary is dead on and well written.

The key to the GOPpers plan is to make the damages recoverable under a federal statute conform to the damages recoverable in the states most favorable to insurance companies. Then the Supremacy Clause and Paul v. Virginia will work their magic to fatten the coffers of the insurance companies.

Just another example of crony capitalism at work.

Let's face it. The fix is in -- no matter which party is in power.

The issue is not left, or further left.

Obama campaigned on change -- change to better the lot of ordinary Americans. And, not surprisingly, those who voted for him expected change. Congress does not favor clear and decisive change.

Consider the antics of the Blue Dog senators on healthcare reform. They don't give a fig about reform. They are unwilling to follow the minimal leadership provided by the Obama administration. Just look at Nelson and Landrieu and the Medicare provisions favoring Nebraska and Louisiana.

The lack of respect for the Obama agenda doesn't end with the Blue Dogs. Just look at Dodd. He preferred to grandstand rather than push through a bill quickly. As a result, legislation that should have been passed before the August recess still has not passed.

It seems to me that the Democrats in Congress were far more deferential toward Bush than they now are toward Obama.

Once upon a time I too admired John McCain greatly. I found it hard not to vote for him when I had the chance. Unfortunately, John McCain has lost his way and I concluded that the McCain who ran in 2008 just did not deserve my vote.

Too many of those who served in the Marines and Navy (including some I served with) have drunk the GOP Kool Aid. The trash talk in the GOP campaigns against Kerry and Cleland really turned my stomach. McCain could have spoken, but valued George Bush and Saxby Chambliss so much that he remained silent. I have not often voted for a GOPper and I doubt I will ever again vote for a Republican candidate.