- The American Health Care Act: the Republicans’ bill to replace Obamacare, explained (Vox) "Two big questions — how many people it will cover and how much it will cost — are still unresolved: It will likely cover fewer people than the Affordable Care Act currently does, but we don’t know how many. And the Congressional Budget Office has not yet scored the legislation, so its price tag is unknown. Some of Obamacare’s signature features are gone immediately, such as the tax on people who don’t purchase health care. The plan maintains the Medicaid expansion — for now. The replacement plan benefits people who are healthy and high-income, and disadvantages those who are sicker and lower-income. The bill looks a lot more like Obamacare than previous drafts."
- Paul Ryan’s Health-Care Vise (New Yorker) "It’s not anyone’s idea of a solution to the current flaws in the health-care system, but, rather, a rickety compromise designed to overcome the objections of conservatives like Meadows and several other ideological factions, interest groups, and parliamentary obstacles. The end result is a piece of legislation that critics on the right can credibly attack as too similar to Obamacare for them to support, and those on the left can assail as a giveaway to insurance companies that reduces the numbers of Americans who have coverage and contains no mechanisms to control health-care costs. Forced to navigate House Republican politics, the lobbying pressure from the insurance industry, and the obscure rules of the budgeting process, Ryan has produced a bill that nobody would ever propose as a sane solution to the problems with Obamacare. Its only chance is speed."
- A Disappointing Start (National Review) "We believe that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with policies that enable Americans to make their own decisions about what sort of health insurance to buy, and that their options should include low-premium coverage that protects them against the risk of major financial setbacks resulting from health care. The legislation released last night by House Republicans is, even on the most charitable reading, only a first step toward that goal. All in all, though, the bill is a disappointment. And it is not too late to get a second opinion."
- Conservatives lash out at House GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill (WaPo) "Taken together, the bills introduced Monday represent the Republicans’ first attempt — and best shot to date, with an ally in the White House — to translate seven years of talking points about demolishing the ACA into action. With no Democrats expected to vote to pass the bill and four GOP seats currently vacant, Republicans can afford to lose no more than 21 members of their own caucus. While the number of Americans who can afford health insurance has never been the priority for the GOP that it is for Democrats, President Trump has made clear that he is sensitive to any changes that would strand large numbers of people who gained coverage under the ACA."
- Conservatives: Paul Ryan’s Healthcare Plan Replaces Obamacare with Obamacare-Lite (Breitbart)
- The Invisible Force That Warps What You Read in the News (Backchannel) "The theory of gravity says objects attract other objects in the universe using a force that is directly proportional to their masses. The Law of Narrative Gravity posits that the public and press are drawn to narratives, and the more widely accepted (or massive) a narrative, the more it attracts and shapes the perception of facts. Narrative gravity is like confirmation bias, 'the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs.' But with narratives, it’s less about personal beliefs and more of a bandwagon effect, where everyone processes and interprets information through a framework that is both easily digestible and broadly accepted. Narrative gravity is what makes a startup’s story clock tick."
SCIENCE:
- Humans are born irrational, and that has made us better decision-makers (Quartz) "Despite the growing reliance on 'big data' to game out every decision, it’s clear to anyone with a glimmer of self-awareness that humans are incapable of constantly rational thought. We simply don’t have the time or capacity to calculate the statistical probabilities and potential risks that come with every choice. ...we live in a world of deep uncertainty, under which neat logic simply isn’t a good guide."
SPORTS:
- World Baseball Classic Is ‘Vital’ and Here to Stay, Commissioner Says (NYT)
TECHNOLOGY:
- Zuckerberg World President (Monday Note) "Facebook is now a supranational company. It spans the globe with about 2 billion subscribers, its 2016 revenue reached $27.6B — 54% more than in 2015; it’s immensely profitable (37% of revenue) and cash-rich with $29.5B 'in the bank'. Facebook is accountable to no one but Mark Zuckerberg, an immensely intelligent and long-range thinker. His company sells persuasion tools to manufacturers of consumer (and industrial) goods and services producers. These tools are invisible, buried in the bowels of Facebook’s servers, they’re opaque algorithms that offer a pretense of objectivity — it’s just a bunch [of] numbers, after all — while being designed and tuned by humans. We now face the prospect of Facebook selling political influence to the highest bidder, or, worse, to the bidder who is deemed the “most correct” according to the company CEO’s taste and goals."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Is Richard Simmons missing? Or is he just dearly missed? (WaPo) "On Feb. 15, 2014, the flamboyant fitness guru did not show up to teach his regular $12 exercise class at his studio, which was called Slimmons. He cut off contact with friends and hasn’t been seen in public since."
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