Ezra Klein

From his interview with David Leonhardt: I have always said, though, that we should not overstate the degree to which consumers rather than doctors are going to be driving treatment, because, I just speak from my own experience, I’m a pretty-well-educated layperson when it comes to medical care; I know how to ask good questions […]

Till now, I’ve been of the opinion that arguing in favor of raising revenue by taxing unwanted behaviors is little more than a quixotic argument. Good for a blog post, maybe, but nothing beyond that. Then I heard that the prospect of sin taxes was actually emerging in the administration’s internal discussions. No decisions have […]

From his interview with David Leonhardt: THE PRESIDENT: What I think will change, what I think was an aberration, was a situation where corporate profits in the financial sector were such a heavy part of our overall profitability over the last decade. That I think will change. And so part of that has to do […]

Unsurprisingly, the United States Travel Association has issued a statement asking unnamed officials to “resist inflammatory comments on Swine Flu.” Comments like this one, from the Vice President, mayhaps? I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that you’re going to […]

I don’t think press conferences are terribly useful mediums. The assembled reporters haven’t settled on a theory of what they’re trying to accomplish. Some, like Ed Henry with his question on abortion, are looking to elicit a moment of spontaneous embarrassment or a flash of unexpected controversy. Some, like Andre Showell and his question on […]

Obama’s digression into the meaning of bipartisanship last night was important for two reasons. The first was obvious: It’s important to understand how the president defines the concept. And he was pretty clear. “I can’t sort of define bipartisanship as simply being willing to accept certain theories of theirs that we tried for eight years […]

When Arlen Specter originally switched parties, I didn’t think it meant much for health reform. So far as Republicans went, Specter was a likely get. His switch to the Democratic side made him yet likelier. But it was hard to say anything more definitive than that. Since then, Barack Obama and Arlen Specter have both […]

I’m with Ben Miller and Frank Bruni: Restaurants should charge for bread. As Bruni argues, there’s no such thing as “free bread.” Rather, there’s such a thing as “slightly more expensive entrees.” And that’s the thing people are getting when they think they’re getting free bread. That might all be fine if the amount of […]

The Finance Committee is going to be releasing a series of three documents on health policy options. One will deal with delivery system reform, another will cover financing, and the third will detail mechanisms for coverage expansion. Yesterday, the Committee released the delivery reform options, and put them up for download here. This is the […]

I’ve remarked before that the columnist with the best access to the Obama administration is, far and away, David Brooks. That’s an odd state of affairs. He is, after all, likely to prove a relentless, if thoughtful, opponent of virtually every major initiative touted by the administration. Brooks might have a soft spot for their […]