Viral Spiral 2012 | FactCheck.org

FactCheck.org gives the lowdown on the most common viral e-mails of 2012:

"...despite all good common sense, people do pass along these malicious attempts to deceive, often in the same amount of time it would take to check their tenuous hold on veracity. Our readers — some clearly trying to beat back the onslaught from friends — constantly ask us to put these viral claims to the truth test. In 2012, we found that:

- Dueling graphics on the debt both overstated and understated President Obama’s contribution to the debt.
- No, Obama didn’t give Alaskan islands to Russia, and his early records weren’t “sealed.”
- Over-the-top “death panel” claims about the Affordable Care Act included purely invented stories about elderly Americans being denied dialysis or brain surgery.
- Vote-rigging conspiracies claimed that Tagg Romney owned voting machines in Ohio (he doesn’t) and that uncounted military ballots swung the election for Obama (from a “faux news” site).
- In the tin-foil-hat category, one conspiracy said Obama was creating martial law and a “standing army of government youth.” The adult-aged FEMA Corps members help with natural disasters and can’t carry weapons.
- General Motors is still firmly based in the U.S., despite claims that it’s becoming “China Motors.”
- Old-but-still-kicking emails percolated, claiming that Medicare premiums were about to skyrocket, everyone’s home sales would be taxed, and the Obama administration wanted to ban weapons among U.S. citizens — none of which is true."

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Be careful SCOTUS. The Affordable Care Act is like Obi-wan Kenobi:

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Why? Because if you can't devise a regulated, free market solution for a public good that comprises one-sixth of the American economy, the only available alternative becomes a Single-Payer "Medicare for All" plan.

Gail Collins of The New York Times agrees:

"It was basically a Republican idea to begin with, and look what happened. If this is thrown out in court, compromise will never get any traction again. Single payer! Single payer! Maybe you could have wooed me into the middle a few years ago, but no more. No more. Next time around we stop talking about complicated reforms and just go with Medicare for everybody."

The Contraception Red Herring

Matt Miller writes about where the real issue around the whole contraception coverage in health insurance plans actually is:

"It’s important not to let this contraception clash pass without understanding the true source of the problem. It’s not President Obama’s debauched liberal drive to shower teens with condoms and morning-after pills. It’s not the bishops’ urge to enforce a moral code from which most of their flock dissents. A sane America would never deny women who work for Catholic employers access to the contraception that every other health plan offers — but it also wouldn’t force Catholic employers to offer coverage that violates their beliefs.

Instead, a sane America would solve this whole problem by moving into the 21st century and making sure people can buy group health coverage on their own and not tied to their employers."

Getting rid of employer-based coverage was one of the principles of the Wyden-Bennett Bill as well. A lot has been said about improving the Affordable Care Act. Nothing would make me happier than opening up the health insurance exchanges to all Americans and concurrently eliminating the requirement for employers to provide health insurance to employees. This whole contraception issue would never have come up if that had been done from the beginning.

Religion & the individual mandate | The Incidental Economist

As the court cases and appeals of the Affordable Care Act move on through the system, I have a feeling this particular charge is going to gain traction on the Right.

Gosh, Could Obamacare Be Working? | The New Republic

Now this is interesting. It's hard to argue with this graph.

Children lose if health bill fails | ajc.com

Great op-ed piece that really explains the impact to the positive parts of the Affordable Care Act if the lawsuits against the individual mandate are upheld. Definitely worth reading.