Eh?

According to the Washington Post, France agrees to two decades of support in Afghanistan, despite attack on its troops. Reading the article the only date referenced with respect to France's involvement comes in the sentence "... French troops will continue to train their Afghan counterparts well beyond 2014..." We also learn that "... Britain’s partnership agreement, which will last through 2022..." and "... Italy’s agreement, which also focuses on the country’s economy and security forces, was described as “long-term past 2014” in a statement from Karzai’s office.."

OK, so the British agreement actually does appear to go out another decade, and I supposed you could called it two decades if you count backwards to 2011... However, France agreeing to "two decades" of support doesn't seem quite supported by the body of the article (as opposed to its headline).

Random charts - Europe & U.S.

Source: L'impact de la crise sur l'emploi

Source: Businomics

Random chart - Twitter SOTU?

Source: "My Message is Simple": Obama's SOTU Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year.

"For the third consecutive State of the Union Address, Barack Obama spoke in clear, plain terms. And for the third straight Address, the President's speech was written at an eighth-grade level. In Obama's own words: "My message is simple." But was it too simplistic?

A Smart Politics study of the 70 orally delivered State of the Union Addresses since 1934 finds the text of Obama's 2012 speech to have tallied the third lowest score on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, at an 8.4 grade level..."

Four years!

Four years ago this blogger started this blog and posted a January 27th, 2008 entry related to the death of Benazir Bhutto... Not much more to say than what was said at the 3rd anniversary.

Random charts - alternative medicine

Source: 2010 Complementary and Alternative Medicine Survey of Hospitals

"... The purpose of thissurvey was to garner in-depth information about the types of CAM programs and services being offered by hospitals, including their program costs, revenue, staffing, reimbursement and other business strategies related to their efforts in integrating complementary and alternative medicine therapies into the hospital setting..."

Random chart - US tax rates

Source: Romney’s Tax Returns and Effective Tax Rates of the Rich

From 2009 (latest available from the IRS), "... The table also shows the average, or effective, tax rate that taxpayers in each income group pay. For the entire universe of American taxpayers, the average tax rate is 11 percent of our AGI. The highest average tax rate paid by anyone earning under $100,000 is 8 percent. That shows the power of the sundry tax credits available to the "middle-class..."

No joy!

Source: Lessons from Medicare's Demonstration Projects on Disease Management, Care Coordination, and Value-Based Payment

Over several years Medicare has tried two broad categories of demonstration projects to improve care and to see if it is possible to reduce health care expenses. The two categories are 'disease management and care coordination' projects to attempt to improve the care of beneficiaries with chronic illnesses, and 'value-based payment' projects that attempt to incentivize health care providers to improve the quality and efficiency of care, as opposed to fee for service type payments...

The report linked to above provides the results of these demonstration projects (as analyzed by the CBO)... The main conclusions:

• "... most programs have not reduced Medicare spending...", and,
• "Demonstrations aimed at reducing spending and increasing quality of care face significant challenges in overcoming the incentives inherent in Medicare’s fee-for-service payment system... The results of those Medicare demonstrations suggest that substantial changes to payment and delivery systems will probably be necessary for programs involving disease management and care coordination or value-based payment to significantly reduce spending and either maintain or improve the quality of care provided to patients."
  

Random picture

Source: 'Get Back on Board, Signora Merkel!'

Diagnosis: Muddled thinking

An earlier post, 'Help on the way?', had noted that Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota was among the worthy Senators who "... pop up in the news every time a drug shortage occurs and hits the newspapers..." Well, it's either for publicity, to be seen doing something about a national problem, or because she cares about this subject and has developed some sort of expertise regarding this thorny problem...

Her earlier efforts in this regard - S296, the 'Preserving Access to Life-Saving Medications Act' - seemed to this blogger to not be a very useful... For example, the 'advance notification' of planned down times doesn't really address any of the root causes of drug shortages; rather than partnering with manufacturers to develop a multi-faceted approach to addressing the multiple causes of drug shortages, she seems to prefer an adversarial and punitive approach (warning drug companies that they have to do X or face civil monetary penalties, etc. ); etc.

OK, so her efforts perhaps are not because of the former (i.e just leveraging the problem for free publicity), it could just be an early effort/attempt to begin addressing the problem.

However, reading Klobuchar Warns Drug Makers Over Tactics That Limit Supplies, it appears that she is now conflating two issues that have no relation to one another i.e. "pay to delay" and drug shortages. The former is a practice that Klobuchar, correctly, is against. This blogger is in agreement. However, while "pay to delay" has an adverse financial impact on consumers by delaying price decreases to legend drugs (by delaying the increased competition by generics), it has practically nothing to do with drug shortages. Data on the causes of drug shortages (e.g. from the FDA) do not assign any meaningful number of shortages to issues related to "pay for delay."

Throw this in, and now this blogger is inclined to believe she hasn't taken the time to delve into this issue, that she is not really serious about, and perhaps the free publicity is the draw...

Previous blog entries on drug shortages:
Polarization? - Dec 2nd, 2011
Help on the way? - Jul 31st, 2011
Random charts - Apr 6th, 2011
The why's of drug shortages - Mar 3oth, 2011

Final note: The article also includes this: "... Pay-for-delay tactics can aggravate overall drug shortages, said Stephen Schondelmeyer, an expert in pharmaceutical economics at the University of Minnesota. If generic drugmakers know they can reap multimillion-dollar settlements for trying to replicate top brand-name drugs, they'll feel no urgency to invest in needed but low-profit medications, he said..." I'm not sure who this "expert" is, but if this is an exact quote (see bolded), then it makes no sense whatsoever!

Great quotes

WHEREAS, Israel has been granted her lands under and through the oldest recorded deed as reported in the Old Testament, a tome of scripture held sacred and reverenced by Jew and Christian, alike, as the acts and words of God; and,

WHEREAS, as the Grantor of said lands, God stated to the Jewish people in the Old Testament; in Leviticus, Chapter 20, Verse 24: “Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey”; and,

WHEREAS, God has never rescinded his grant of said lands; and,

WHEREAS, along with the grant of said lands to the Jewish people, God provided for the non-Jewish residents of the land in commanding that governance must be in one law for all without drawing distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens, as contained in Leviticus 24:22, and,

WHEREAS, the Nation of Israel declared its independent control and governance of said lands on May 14, 1948, with the goal of re-establishing their God-given lands as a homeland for the Jewish people; and,

WHEREAS, the United States of America, having been the first country to recognize Israel as an independent nation and as Israel’s principal Mideast ally, has enjoyed a close and mutually beneficial relationship with Israel and her people; and,

WHEREAS, indeed, Israel is the United States of America’s greatest friend in the Mideast; and,

WHEREAS, the roots of Israel and the roots of the United States of America are so intertwined that it is difficult to separate one from the other under the word and protection of almighty God; and,

WHEREAS, there are those in the Middle East who have sought to destroy Israel from its inception as a nation; and,

WHEREAS, those same enemies of Israel also seek to destroy the United States of America; and,

WHEREAS, the United States of America and the nation of Israel have enjoyed cordial and mutually beneficial relations since 1948, a friendship that should continues to strengthen with each passing year.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Republican Nation Committee that the committee by this resolution commends the nation of Israel for its relations with the United States of America.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the members of this body support Israel in their natural and God-given right of self-governance and self-defense upon their own lands, recognizing that Israel is neither an attacking force nor an occupier of the lands of others; and that peace can be afforded the region only through a united Israel governed under one law for all people.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Senate Leadership and each of the legislatures of the states within the United States of America with the request and recommendation of this body that a similar resolution to that stated herein be proposed within their respective bodies.

- Republican National Committee, via GOP Officially Endorses One-State Solution