To be fair, when "The Caller Daily" broke the story yesterday, they wrote:

"Once on the ground...Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex."

http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/29/high-flyer-rnc-...

Later in the day, Caller Daily clarified that they never explicitly said that Mr. Steele personally visited the strip club. However, the language in the initial article definitely implied that Mr. Steele was there. I don't know when the Daily Tar Heel goes to press, but it seems a little unfair to DTH to totally blame them for the misrepresentation.

I like the way you framed your argument here. I too am curious to see how the balance of the individual mandate and prohibition of denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions will work out in the long run.

I can't tell what your opinion of the public option is from what you've written. Do you think it would be a safeguard against corporatism? The government-run insurance option would (theoretically) not collude with private companies, thus putting downward pressure on insurance rates by providing a viable alternative.

Also, in February the House voted to repeal the anti-trust exemption for health insurance companies. If that bill makes it through the Senate, do you think it will curb the growth of the monopolies you envision? Do you approve of the repeal?

If you acknowledge that the individual mandate and pre-existing conditions ban must go hand-in-hand, but think that they will ultimately lead to corporatism, what is your solution for people with pre-existing conditions? Allowing insurance sales across state lines is very unlikely to bring costs down enough that a person with cystic fibrosis or diabetes can buy a policy on the individual market. The free market does nothing for those people...so then what? They should die because they lost the genetic lottery? Insurance companies logically won't take such people onto their rolls. Do you approve of government-run high risk pools?

Nope, crowdalovesgaga is my first foray into having a handle on this website.

All the best,
CrowdaLovesGaga

There were shovel ready projects and "beaker ready" projects. The idea being that investing in scientific research leads to technological and medical breakthroughs, leading to useful products that can be marketed globally and ultimately lead to job creation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/science/24stim....