The Truth About The Administration’s Health Reform Waivers | ThinkProgress: Associated Press: "Q: Unions are getting these waivers. Doesn’t that show that the Obama administration is rewarding political supporters? A: Several unions have gotten waivers, but most seem to be going to employer plans, according to statistics from the Health and Human Services Department. Q: So an office headed by an administration bureaucrat is able to waive the entire health care law? A: Actually, no. Mainly its two provisions. And the waivers are time-limited. One is a regulation that says insurance plans can’t impose a per-patient limit of less than $750,000 a year for medical care,................................................. So far, about 1,400 annual limit waivers have been issued, an approval rate of more than 90 percent. They cover plans that serve about 3 million people, or 2 percent of those with private insurance. The other provision is ............................................................................................................................"

Republican claims that Peter Diamond is not qualified for the Federal Reserve: Andrew Samwick: "When historians look back at our era and write about how a nation so blessed was able to squander those blessings so dramatically, they won't have to look much further than the U.S. Senate.  Words, polite ones anyway, cannot really express how how absurd it is that the nomination of Peter Diamond for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has come down to this........................................................................................................................ ..........................................................."

"Deficit-Hawk Paul Ryan": Jonathan Chait: "Stop calling Ryan a "deficit hawk." He voted for all of Bush's tax cuts. He voted for all the wars. He voted for Bush's Medicare prescription drug bill..................................................................... Ryan is anti-government but he is clearly not a deficit hawk..."

The claim that the American economy faces binding supply-side constraints: Matthew Yglesias: "Why such slow economic growth?... [T]here are a lot of things the US could do to increase economic growth, and there’s also a lot of disagreement about what those things are.... [I]t’s possible to go down a rabbit hole of controversies about what “the real problem” and the “real solution” and blah blah blah............................ Unfortunately, we see more and more evidence that policymakers from the Obama administration on down have decided they don’t have a problem with this..."

Republican Claims That Obama' and Bernanke's policies are dangerously inflationary: Paul Krugman summarizes Robert Kuttner: ...................................................... everything we’re seeing makes sense if you think of the right as representing the interests of rentiers, of creditors who have claims from the past — bonds, loans, cash — as opposed to people actually trying to make a living .......................................... Deflation is hell for workers and business owners, but it’s heaven for creditors.............................................................. Instead, people generally manage to believe whatever is in their interests..................................... thinking of what’s happening as the rule of rentiers,...................................................... at the expense of the real economy, helps make sense of the situation..."

Senator Richard Shelby: James Fallows: "Here's the real question: (is) America is rich and resilient.................................. enough to permit folly........... of this sort? There is no recourse against Sen. Shelby ......................... except to make sure everyone knows .......has done.............................. by keeping Diamond off the Fed.......... Republicans are blocking monetary stimulus—just as surely as their votes against infrastructure, aid to the states, and other spending programs are blocking fiscal stimulus. Kill the economy. Blame the Democrats. It’s the perfect crime."

The claim that it is time for central banks to tighten: The Financial Times Editorial Board: "In recent months, both the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve have become more vocal in their desire to raise rates. This temptation must be resisted. The west’s inflation problem stems from the voracious demand from Asia’s new industrial powerhouses. ......................................................... Squeezing domestic inflation to offset it would be counter-productive................................. policymakers should also be alive to the balance of risk between inflation and unemployment. Letting the latter rise and become entrenched .......................................... would risk hardening the economic arteries ...........................The real peril now is a double-dip recession rather than inflation.

RERUN: The claim that if Medicare starts limiting the procedures it will pay for, this would be an infringement of your freedom of choice: Paul Krugman: "Nobody is proposing that the government deny you the right to have whatever medical care you want at your own expense. We’re only talking about what medical care will be paid for by the government. .."

RERUN: Mitt Romney's claim that we are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy: Buce: "[W]hen Mitt Romney says that we are 'only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy', you'd just have to write it up as an arrogant, insolent, baldfaced lie. .............................................................. [T]he US ranks ninth from the top "freest") out of 179.... None of this is surprising to anyone of even mildly wonky sentiments,........................................................... Namely that every one of those top eight has some kind of universal public health care. And they virtually all get better results than the US has, and at substantially less cost.... maybe Romney ......................................... will soon be telling us that Singapore and Hong Kong (and Switzerland, and Denmark, and Canada, and Ireland, and New Zealand, and Australia) are just mired in post-Leninist purgatory. Others might say........................................ it shows that freedom can be enhanced................................................ by the right kind of government intervention. Like, say, in Massachusetts..."

RERUN: Douglas Holtz-Eakin's claim that it would be reckless to pass a clean increase in the debt ceiling: Let's quote right-leaning Clive Crook again: "Tea Party true believers may be salivating.... Shutting down the government [by blocking the debt-ceiling increase is a button [Republicans] dare not press.... To do it in 2011, with the economy laid low and financial markets still twitchy, would be the limit of irresponsibility. It would be betting the recovery to make a point. This time, political annihilation might follow, and the party would deserve it..."

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And many more.