Wonkbook’s Number of the Day: 70 percent.
That's the latest estimate of the mortality rate in the Ebola outbreak in West
Africa, the World Health Organization announced.
Wonkbook’s Chart of the Day: Oil prices
are falling, and fast.
Wonkbook's Top 5 Stories: (1) Obamacare
October surprises and a lower sales bar; (2) Ebola treatments for U.S.
patients; (3) attorney general nomination update; (4) security threats of
climate change; and (5) new help for long-term jobless.
1.
Top story: With a month to go, why the Obama administration won't oversell
Obamacare in year two
Team Obama's year-two strategy:
Underselling Obamacare. "The Obama administration vastly oversold how well
Obamacare was going to work last year. It’s not making the same mistake this
year. Gone are the promises that enrolling will be as easy as buying a plane
ticket on Orbitz. The new head of HHS is not on Capitol Hill to promise that
HealthCare.gov is on track. And no one is embracing Congressional Budget Office
projections of total sign-up numbers.Sobered — and burned — by last fall’s
meltdown of the federal website, the administration is setting expectations for
the second Obamacare open enrollment period as low as possible. Officials say
the site won’t be perfect but will be improved." Jennifer Haberkorn in
Politico.
Explainer: 5 things we need to know
about Obamacare before enrollment begins. Jason Millman in The Washington Post.
If you like your plan, can you keep it
this time? "Health insurance companies, at least so far, seem to think
HealthCare.gov is on the right track to function more smoothly for new
customers. But insurers still see gaps in the system for people who want to
renew their coverage, including pitfalls that threaten consumers with duplicate
enrollments, unexpected cancellations, or surprising tax bills. Insurers aren't
necessarily worried about problems as dramatic as last year's HealthCare.gov
failure, but rather what one industry official called 'a soup of kind of icky
things' that could make life difficult for returning enrollees. Some of the
technical problems stem from the difficult balance between keeping people
enrolled and encouraging them to shop for a better deal." Sam Baker in
National Journal.
The potential perils of auto-renewing.
"If you auto-renew, you’ll most likely be assigned the same tax credit as
you had for 2014. But if your income has increased, your credit may be too
large — and you could end up owing the government money, when the numbers are
reconciled at tax time. Consumers are supposed to report changes in income
during the course of the year, he said, but it’s likely that many have not. So
by re-enrolling and updating details about income, you’ll help make sure the
credit is properly adjusted. Also, because of a quirk in the way the A.C.A.
calculates the tax credits, some consumers who stick with their same plan
actually could end up paying more — even if their original plan doesn’t raise
its rates." Ann Carrns in The New York Times.
Explainer: How the new HealthCare.gov
stacks up with the old Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Calvin Woodward in the
Associated Press.
An Obamacare October surprise?
"Obamacare premiums aren’t rising everywhere. They just have a way of
finding the states with the biggest Senate races. And that could be very bad
timing for Democrats in two of the party’s key contests. Double-digit rate
hikes for individual health insurance plans have become an issue in the
Louisiana and Iowa Senate races over the past week, where the Republican
candidates are hammering their Democratic opponents for the steep premium
increases on the way next year for some customers under the Affordable Care
Act....The attacks could easily give the impression that the health care law is
causing premiums to go through the roof around the country. They’re not."
David Nather in Politico.
For employer-based plans, expect modest
premium hikes and higher consumer costs likely. "Premium increases for
2015 plans are expected to be modest on average, but the shift toward higher
out-of-pocket costs overall for consumers will continue as employers try to
keep a lid on their costs and incorporate health law changes. Experts
anticipate that premiums will rise a modest 4 percent in 2015, on average,
slightly higher than last year but lower than typical recent Increases. Even
so, more employers say they’re making changes to their health plans in 2015 to
rein in cost growth....They are motivated in part by upcoming changes mandated
by the health law." Michelle Andrews in Kaiser Health News.
Cities are eliminating health benefits
once promised to retirees. Can Obamacare fill the gap? "Indeed, public
employers across the country may soon begin following Detroit’s lead and
withdrawing coverage for retirees, instead sending them to the health-care
exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act. 'Since the passage of the
Affordable Care Act, I think it is fair to say that every public-sector
employer is looking at the exchanges as a potential way to get out of the
unfunded liabilities that the public sector is bearing,' said Olivia Mitchell,
executive director of the Pension Research Council and a Wharton professor.
'People are becoming more expensive to take care of.'" Alana Semuels in
The Atlantic.
Medicaid backlogs could worsen once
Obamacare signup season arrives. "The delays stem from various technical
problems and the sheer volume of Medicaid applications states must process.
Some applications that come through the federal enrollment site,
HealthCare.gov, and are transferred to the states still have problems with data
accuracy, said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of
Medicaid Directors. While consumers can apply for Medicaid anytime, an influx
is expected when exchanges reopen for enrollment on Nov. 15 and eligible
applicants go into the Medicaid system." Stephanie Armour in The Wall Street
Journal.
Other health care reads:
Your guide to Medicare open enrollment.
Jonnelle Marte in The Washington Post.
U.S. finds many failures in Medicare
plans. Robert Pear in The New York Times.
KLEIN: Obfuscating on Obamacare in
Kentucky. "In attempting to navigate this environment, McConnell has
staked out a position that’s incoherent — arguing that he wants to wipe out the
awful entity 'Obamacare,' while trying to create the impression that it
wouldn’t affect anybody’s benefits....But Grimes wasn’t being forthright
either. It’s popular to criticize Republicans for attacking Obamacare without
offering an alternative. On the flip side, Grimes vowed to streamline and fix
Obamacare, without offering a single workable suggestion for how she’d go about
it." Philip Klein in the Washington Examiner.
Top opinion
THOMA: What's the best way to overcome
rising economic inequality? "So my approach to fighting inequality in the
short-run is to use taxation and corrective redistribution to ensure that
workers receive the income they deserve, to fix the distributional problems
that have allowed those at the top to capture more than their fair share of
income, and enact supply-side incentives that have been shown to work as soon
as possible. The hope is that the supply-side policies and corrections to the
distribution of income will produce the types of jobs and equitable
compensation that are needed to solve the inequality problem in the longer run.
But there’s a chance that no matter what we do, the inequality problem will
persist." Mark Thoma in The Fiscal Times.
FEYMAN: Are private exchanges the
future of health insurance? "In 2014, about 2.5 million people across
companies of all sizes will be enrolled in health insurance through so-called
private exchanges. These are analogous in some ways to Obamacare’s state and
federal-based health insurance exchanges but instead are run by private
consultancies like Aon Hewitt or Mercer. While these platforms generally offer
a similar 'e-commerce' approach to purchasing health insurance — either with a
single carrier or multiple carriers offering plans — as the public exchanges
do, there remain key differences." Yevgeniy Feyman in Forbes.
PORTER: The risks of cheap water.
"As climate change and population growth further stress the water supply
from the drought-plagued West to the seemingly bottomless Great Lakes, states
and municipalities are likely to impose increasingly draconian restrictions on
water use. Such efforts may be more effective than simply exhorting people to
conserve. In August, for example, cities and towns in California consumed much
less water — 27 billion gallons less —than in August last year. But the
proliferation of limits on water use will not solve the problem because
regulations do nothing to address the main driver of the nation’s wanton
consumption of water: its price." Eduardo Porter in The New York Times.
McARDLE: Don't care about the deficit?
Now you should. "As the Fed tightens up on monetary policy, our borrowing
costs are going to rise, not just for the new debt we take on, but also for the
debt we already have. As old debt matures, we’ve been borrowing at record-low
interest rates, which has helped hold down the deficit. But as the Fed
tightens, that party will end, and the numbers will start moving in the other
direction. This will take time — the Obama administration has been actively
working to lengthen its debt maturities in order to take advantage of the low
rates. But in future years, this will place constant upward pressure on our
deficit." Megan McArdle in Bloomberg View.
CRAWFORD: A Nobel-winning message for
the FCC. "Jean Tirole's Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences is being
celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic by academics and economists. But there
is no joy in the power circles of U.S. telecommunications policy. More than a
decade ago, federal policy makers turned their backs on Tirole's sensible
assessments of private communications utilities — and with disastrous results.
Tirole's insight was that any company controlling physical lines into homes and
businesses, left to its own devices, would act as a natural monopoly,
extracting tribute from every other business and customer that depends on
communications capacity. To constrain that power, regulators might need to
separate wholesale and retail communications-access services, and require interconnection
with other networks." Susan Crawford in Bloomberg View.
FRIEDMAN: A pump war? "Bottom
line: The trend line for petro-dictators is not so good. America today has a
growing advantage in what the former Assistant Energy Secretary Andy Karsner
calls 'the three big C’s: code, crude and capital.' If only we could do tax
reform, and replace payroll and corporate taxes with a carbon tax, we’d have a
formula for resiliency and success far better than any of our
adversaries." Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times.
Science interlude: Schrödinger's cat —
the thought experiment, explained.
2.
How America is treating its Ebola patients
Breaking: 2nd worker who cared for
Ebola patient tests positive. "The worker reported a fever Tuesday and was
immediately isolated at Presbyterian hospital. Preliminary tests were performed
late Tuesday by the laboratory for the Texas Department of State Health
Services in Austin, and the positive results were received at about midnight.
Additional tests to confirm the positive reading were underway by the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Officials interviewed
the worker to identify anyone else who might have been exposed, the Texas
Department of State Health Services said in a statement, but it was unclear
whether any others were being monitored." Manny Fernandez in The New York
Times.
As nurses balk at protocols, hospital,
CDC to ramp up its response measures. "A nurses’ union released a scathing
statement that it said was composed by nurses at the Dallas hospital where the
nurse, Nina Pham, 26, contracted Ebola. The statement told of 'confusion and
frequently changing policies and protocols,' inadequate protection against
contamination and spotty training....Officials at the hospital, Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital, defended their efforts to 'provide a safe working
environment,' but said they would review any concerns raised by nurses. C.D.C.
officials...pledged to dispatch within hours a newly created response team to
any hospital that had a confirmed case of Ebola, and they increased the amount
of expertise, oversight and training at the hospital." Manny Fernandez and
Jack Healy in The New York Times.
Nurse with Ebola was given serum from
surviving American doctor. "In late July, when it looked like Dr. Kent
Brantly wasn’t going to make it, a small news item escaped Liberia. It spoke of
Brantly’s treatment — not of the Ebola vaccine, Zmapp, which Brantly later got.
But of a blood transfusion. He had 'received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old
boy who had survived Ebola because of Dr. Brantly’s care,' the missive said.
Now months later, Brantly, who has since recovered from his battle with the
virus, has passed on the favor. A 26-year-old Dallas nurse named Nina Pham, who
contracted the illness while treating the United States’ first Ebola patient,
has received Brantly’s blood." Terrence McCoy in The Washington Post.
Why not give this blood to everyone?
"It’s sheer luck that Brantly has been a match for all three. Another
Ebola survivor, missionary Nancy Writebol, offered blood to Thomas Eric Duncan,
but it wasn’t a match. Duncan died last week. The use of what’s called
convalescent serum — blood from survivors of Ebola — is also controversial.
It’s not clear whether it helps patients recover, although Brantly also
received serum, in his case from a boy he treated in Liberia....Is there a way
to make a 'universal' donor? Is there some way to make blood that doesn’t react
with anyone’s blood? That’s what the makers of the experimental drug ZMapp are
trying to do." Maggie Fox in NBC News.
Company puts sole focus on experimental
Ebola drug ZMapp. "As Ebola continues to ravage West Africa and spreads
for the first time in the United States, a Kentucky company is putting all
other work aside to concentrate solely on producing the experimental medicine
ZMapp. The goal: to ramp up production of the drug and get it approved and to
the people who need it more quickly. Kentucky BioProcessing, contracted by
privately held drugmaker Mapp Biopharmaceutical of San Diego to produce ZMapp,
makes the compound using tobacco plants. The plants act as 'photocopiers' to
mass-produce proteins." Laura Ungar in USA Today.
Chart: Experimental drugs used for
Ebola. The Washington Post.
Experts question ethics of placebo
trials for Ebola drugs. "A group of influential health experts has argued
the standard practice of using placebos in drug trials would be unethical in
the case of experimental medicines for Ebola, given that the world is in the
middle of a deadly epidemic....A different group of disease experts last month
argued in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association that
experimental Ebola drugs were best tested in normal RCTs. A similar debate is
going on in the field of cancer drugs, where researchers increasingly question
whether randomisation — where some patients are given a treatment and others
get a 'control' substance for comparison — makes sense in patients with an
incurable disease." Kate Kelland in Reuters.
Explainer: A summary of promising Ebola
therapies. Liz Szabo in USA Today.
The long quest for a vaccine slowed by
ethics, politics and science. "The insidious nature of the Ebola virus has
been among the hurdles in the long, elusive quest to develop an effective
vaccine and treatment for one of the most dangerous viruses the world has ever
known. Progress also has been slowed by the hazards that come with researching
it and — perhaps more than anything else — by the economic and moral questions
of focusing on a pathogen that until the current outbreak had infected fewer
than 2,400 people worldwide....In the coming months, as caregivers,
politicians, and armies struggle to deal with the spiraling number of cases, a
handful of vaccines and treatments will be tested on humans for the first
time." Karen Weintraub in National Geographic.
Has virus mutated to become more
dangerous? We don't know yet. "While scientists don’t fully understand
what the changes mean, some are concerned that alterations in the virus that
occur as that pathogen continues to evolve could pose new dangers. Researchers
have identified more than 300 new viral mutations in the latest strain of
Ebola, according to research published in the journal Science last month. They
are rushing to investigate if this strain of the disease produces higher virus
levels — which could increase its infectiousness. So far, there is no
scientific data to indicate that." Robert Langreth, Michelle Fay Cortez
and John Lauerman in Bloomberg.
KLEIN: Panic, but not because Ebola
threatens the US. "if Ebola becomes endemic in West Africa, all this will
get much worse. In addition to the ongoing breakdown in basic services, it will
be harder for West Africans to travel because few countries will let them in,
it will be harder for them to trade because fewer businessmen will want to
travel to the region, it will be harder for them to invest because
international bankers will be scared off by the disease. It could set the
region's development back decades. That's worth panicking over, not because it
might kill vast numbers of Americans, but because it might cause a vast amount
of human suffering. So yes, panic about Ebola. But if you live in the United
States, calm down, it's not going to kill you." Ezra Klein in Vox.
GOTTLIEB AND TROY: Countering the
domestic Ebola threat. "Health care professionals at all levels are of
course not perfect and will make mistakes. Hospital protocols and public health
preparedness plans must leave room for human error — especially when it comes
to very hot pathogens like Ebola. But the CDC must do a better job of establishing
clear and accurate procedures, take appropriate measures to reduce risk, and
properly calibrate its public statements, if we’re going to inspire the public
confidence that will be needed to prevent disruptions in the likely event of a
wider, future outbreak." Scott Gottlieb and Tevi Troy in Forbes.
TORREY: How the US made the Ebola
crisis worse. "A 1974 report on the 'Brain Drain' for the House Foreign
Affairs Committee noted that the current policy was widening the gap between
rich and poor nations, and warned that the policy 'has a great potential for
mischief in the Nation’s future relations with the LDC [less developed
countries].' Despite such complaints, U.S. policy has continued to encourage
the immigration of physicians and other health workers from poorer
countries....The consequences of this policy may be more than 'mischief.' Ebola
may be merely the first of many prices to be paid for our long-standing but
shortsighted health manpower policy." E. Fuller Torrey in The Wall Street
Journal.
Animals interlude: A wrinkly bulldog
puppy attempts to howl.
3.
More clues on Obama's Holder successor
Ruemmler said to be the favorite.
"Former White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler has emerged as President
Barack Obama’s preferred candidate as the next attorney general, though he
hasn’t decided on a nominee and is still weighing other choices, people
familiar with the deliberations said. Advisers have told Obama that Ruemmler
would encounter tough questioning in confirmation hearings about advice she
gave the president during episodes of his presidency that have drawn Republican
scrutiny, including the handling of lapses by the Secret Service, they
said....A White House official said earlier today that Obama will wait until after
the Nov. 4 midterm congressional elections to announce his choice to succeed
Eric Holder." Mike Dorning and Del Quentin Wilber in Bloomberg.
The delay carries some legislative
risks. "The White House aide said the decision to wait was driven in part
by Senate Democrats. Had a nominee been named before the elections, Democratic
Senate candidates inevitably would have been hounded on the trail to weigh in
on the choice — presenting an uncomfortable situation for people who have been
trying to keep their political distance from Obama, but would eventually be
called on to support the president’s pick....The delay could create a chaotic
situation if the White House wants a lame duck confirmation, even if the
nomination comes immediately after Election Day. The the majority of the Senate
might not be known for days, given several tight races. It could even take
weeks." Edward-Isaac Dovere in Politico.
As Holder packs his bags, the DOJ plans
to change its counsel competence waiver practices. "The Justice Department
said Tuesday that it will no longer ask criminal defendants who plead guilty to
waive their right to claim that their attorney was ineffective and deprived
them of their constitutional right to a competent counsel. Attorney General
Eric H. Holder Jr. said the new policy, his latest effort to reform the
criminal justice system, is an attempt to ensure that all individuals who face
criminal charges are ably represented." Sari Horwitz in The Washington
Post.
Meanwhile, SCOTUS messes with Texas:
Justices block state's controversial abortion law. "The court’s decision
is not a judgment on the Texas law, but whether the law’s new restrictions
should be delayed while the legal battle continued. Texas has been a leader among
a number of states that have enacted new requirements for abortion
clinics....At issue is the Supreme Court’s decision more than 20 years ago
that, although states may regulate access to abortion, they may not pose an
'undue burden' on women who seek an abortion early in pregnancy. But the new
laws test the extent of that 'undue burden' with new requirements that abortion
providers say are hard for them to meet." Robert Barnes in The Washington
Post.
Chart: Number of states imposing new
regulations on abortion providers is growing. The Washington Post.
But Texas can enforce its voter ID law,
appeals court says. "Texas won emergency permission to keep the law in
effect while it appeals the trial judge’s ruling, which included a finding that
600,000 registered voters would be kept away from the polls. The decision will
slow the momentum of Democratic efforts to increase voter turnout and may fuel
a push by some Republican-controlled statehouses to make people prove their
eligibility to vote. Republicans say the measures are needed to prevent fraud,
while Democrats contend they’re designed to suppress turnout of poor, minority
and elderly voters, who are less likely to have photo IDs and more likely to
vote Democratic." Laurel Calkins and Mark Niquette in Bloomberg.
For SCOTUS, dental case is like pulling
teeth. "The Supreme Court seemed to have little problem Tuesday concluding
that a state board dominated by dentists should not get to decide who can
perform teeth-whitening services. But when it comes to brain surgery, many of
the same justices said they would rather empower neurologists than bureaucrats.
As a result, they had a conundrum.The case before the court dealt with a North
Carolina dental board's exclusion of non-dentists from the business of teeth
whitening — a procedure that had been offered in shopping malls, spas and
stores. Although most justices recognized the risk of letting dentists push
others out of the market, they might not want to place the same restriction on
neurologists." Richard Wolf in USA Today.
Other legal reads:
Where the fight for gay rights is
headed now. Kaveh Waddell in National Journal.
Trick shots interlude: Dude Perfect,
Dallas Stars edition.
4.
How climate change could threaten national security
A 'threat multiplier.' "U.S.
military officials have long warned that changes in climate patterns, resulting
in increased severe weather events and coastal flooding, will have a broad and
costly impact on the Defense Department's ability to protect the nation and
respond to natural and humanitarian disasters in the United States and around
the globe. The new report — described as a Pentagon roadmap — identifies four
things that it says will affect the U.S. military: rising global temperatures,
changing precipitation patterns, more extreme weather and rising sea levels. It
calls on the department and the military services to identify more specific
concerns, including possible effects on the more than 7,000 bases and
facilities, and to start putting plans in place to deal with them." Lolita
C. Baldor in the Associated Press.
Explainer: 5 ways that climate change
threatens national security. Brianna Ehley in The Fiscal Times.
What should a Paris emissions deal look
like? A U.S. envoy explains. "His remarks about this emerging hybrid
system — a pact with some kind of binding element but that doesn't impose
emissions mandates on nations — underscore the intricate task that negotiators
face. The talks are aimed at crafting a plan that can win buy-in from big
developing nations that did not face obligations under the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol....The U.S. never joined the Kyoto treaty. In addition, a new formal
treaty would be dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate for the foreseeable future,
so many observers expect the talks, if they succeed, to yield some kind of pact
that would not need formal U.S. ratification. Stern's remarks, however, did not
address that topic." Ben Geman in National Journal.
Advocates: EPA underestimating
electricity's ability to be green. "The report says the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency set each state’s renewable energy production targets far too
low in the proposed Clean Power Plan, the Obama Administration’s effort to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. The
plan’s goal is to reduce CO2 emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a science advocacy organization, says
states can reduce emissions even more, by an average of 40 percent by 2030,
mainly through the expansion of renewable power production far beyond what the
Obama administration may expect from each state." Bobby Magill in Climate
Central.
As the U.S. chills, the world burns.
"While the United States is on pace for its coolest year in almost two
decades, global temperatures could set a new record high for the year. The
world experienced its warmest September since records began in 1880, according
to data from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration. Similar
record-breaking months to close out the year would make 2014 the hottest
recorded. U.S. residents, though, aren't feeling the heat, given the unusually
mild summer that followed a frigid winter." Zack Colman in the Washington
Examiner.
Other environmental/energy reads:
U.S. shale oil output seen growing even
as prices drop. Dan Murtaugh and Jing Cao in Bloomberg.
Oil prices plunge as production rises,
fueling concern in OPEC. Steven Mufson in The Washington Post.
The incredible shrinking Keystone XL.
Elana Schor in Politico.
Life's ponderables interlude: Is it
unhealthy to be standing in front of a microwave while it's cooking?
5.
The administration's new push for the long-term jobless
Long-term jobless grants get $170M from
Obama administration. "The Obama administration is announcing $170 million
in grants divided among 23 work projects across the country that aim to reduce
the number of long-term unemployed Americans....Labor Secretary Tom Perez and
National Economic Council director Jeff Zients announced the grant awards late
Tuesday. The two officials and Vice President Joe Biden will hold a round-table
meeting with top corporate CEOS on Wednesday at the White House to discuss
their efforts to meet commitments earlier this year to hire more long-term
unemployed workers." Jim Kuhnhenn in the Associated Press.
Audition programs are helping the
long-term jobless. "More than five years into the U.S. expansion, 2.9
million Americans are long-term unemployed....Vives is among the 2 million who
have been off the payrolls for more than a year. The slow progress in bringing
that share down is a sign of lingering weakness in the labor market and a
potential limit on the consumer spending that makes up the biggest part of the
economy. It’s one reason for Federal Reserve policy makers to be patient in
raising interest rates, and has prompted the White House to funnel money into
programs aiding that segment of the jobless. Vives has landed at one of those
programs: Platform 2 Employment, or P2E." Michelle Jamrisko in Bloomberg.
Job market for new graduates is looking
up. "Campuses’ career counselors have been seeing encouraging signs, and
now a major survey of employers backs them up: The coming year looks to be a
much better one for new college graduates seeking jobs. Job openings for those
graduates are projected to grow by double digits in 2014-15, following several
years of smaller increases, according to key findings from the survey, which
was released on Tuesday. Hiring of new bachelor’s-degree recipients will
increase by 16 percent, the survey projects; hiring among all degree levels
will grow at the same rate." Beckie Supiano in The Chronicle of Higher
Education.
Cities hiring most since 2008 thanks to
the economy. "More U.S. cities are hiring than at any time since the Great
Recession as the reviving economy and rising property taxes allow higher
spending for a second straight year, according to a report released today.
One-third of cities and towns expanded their workforces this year, compared
with reductions in 18 percent, according to an annual survey by the National
League of Cities. This is the first year since 2008 that job additions outpaced
cuts. The gains come as 80 percent of cities said their financial position is
stronger than a year ago, the most in at least 29 years." William Selway
in Bloomberg.
Other economic/financial reads:
The $11 trillion advantage that shields
the U.S. from turmoil. Shobhana Chandra in Bloomberg.
AIG bailout architects leave questions
for executives. Andrew Zajac and Christie Smythe in Bloomberg.
Fed is silent on "doomsday"
book, a blueprint for fighting crises. Binyamin Appelbaum in The New York
Times.
Proposal interlude: A lip-dub marriage
proposal at a cafe.
Wonkblog roundup
The Supreme Court deals a fresh setback
to efforts to restrict access to abortions. Wonkblog Staff.
The Ebola outbreak is not just a human
tragedy. It’s also an economic one. Ylan Q. Mui.
Paul Ryan has a trick up his sleeve
when it comes to taxes. It won’t work. Matt O'Brien.
It’s not just Ebola. Health care is
pretty dangerous work. Jason Millman.
Colorado marijuana revenues hit a new
high. Christopher Ingraham.
Whites are more supportive of voter ID
laws when shown photos of black people voting. Christopher Ingraham.
The many reasons millennials are
shunning cars. Emily Badger.
Et Cetera
How churches are slowly becoming less
segregated. Laura Meckler in The Wall Street Journal.
Government snooping proves weak
campaign issue. Erin Kelly in USA Today.
Key Obama decisions on hold until after
midterms. Josh Lederman in the Associated Press.
Senior House Financial Services members
propose bipartisan Ex-Im Bank bill. Kristina Peterson in The Wall Street
Journal.
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