Harold Pollack

I finally saw The Help. As it happens, I watched it in a theater with a nearly 100% African-American audience, many of whom clapped enthusiastically at the end. I found it unavoidably moving, too. As far as I can tell, the most vehement political criticism of this film comes from people who haven’t seen it. […]

President Obama was giving a speech the other day. I heard something like the following: Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in Social Security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. […]

Dear Justices, if you plan to damage health reform, please do so openly, leaving your activist fingerprints on the product. Before me is a beautiful column by Professor Mark Hall which describes the many logical and legal flaws in the 11th Circuit’s recent opinion declaring the individual mandate to be unconstitutional. I can’t add much […]

From the Chicago Tribune and AP. The decisions were announced to the hospitals Tuesday morning, Revenue Department officials told The Associated Press. They follow last year’s Illinois Supreme Court ruling that found a central Illinois hospital wasn’t doing enough free or discounted treatment of the poor to qualify for an exemption, costing it $1.2 million […]

Matthew Zeitlin has a nice New Republic post on the Romney “corporations are people” clip and the very real “hack gap” between Democratic and Republican parties. The title of my own comment on this imbroglio, Separating the wheat from the gaffe, telegraphs my view. What Romney said is obviously true, and everyone who thinks seriously […]

Adam Serwer rightly calls out comedian Steve Harvey, who labels Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Uncle Toms in a particularly crude way. I’ve had some tough words for West. But I think Smiley and West’s poverty tour raises important concerns that might not otherwise gain a hearing. As Adam observes, “Tomming involves deliberately advancing the […]

Over at CAP, Eric Alterman has been excoriating conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin for her misguided initial columns about Norway. I’m not familiar with Rubin, but I clicked onto her Washington Post blog to see what the fuss was about. Eric is right that she rushed to judgment in blaming Islamic jihadists, and that she was […]

I was walking through Grant Park, when an angel approached me in the form of a police horse. He tapped me on the shoulder and simply stated, “God wants to release a short statement on RBC tonight.” Flustered by the request, I wasn’t sure what to say. “Why me? Why RBC? Have you asked Mark?” […]

Remember that useful physician audit study that imploded last month? Maybe providers are wishing they hadn’t helped to kill it. This week’s debt ceiling agreement includes some Medicare cuts. The Obama administration reassures the public that these cuts would only affect providers. Not surprisingly, many providers are unhappy. They suggest that reduced reimbursements will damage […]

I just can’t bring myself to write about this debt ceiling mess. What begins in a farcical congressional procedure likely ends in tragedy for American governance and for so many people. Below is a guest post by A. Pond, the pseudonym of a colleague who wishes to remain anonymous. In policy terms, the fundamentals of […]