Democrats can't fight Bush's tax cut with nothing but an admonition that it's "too large." They need to put something else on the table that's important to working Americans -- and which won't be possible if the surplus is used for Bush's tax cut. That something is universal health care.

Besides, what better time than now to revive the idea of universal health care? There's a huge budget surplus. Meanwhile, the number of Americans lacking health insurance continues to rise (now almost 43 million, up from 38 million ten years ago). And those who have it are paying more than ever in co-payments, deductibles, and premiums. About 28 million households now spend more than 10 percent of their pay on health care costs and premiums. As the economy sinks, working families will have an even harder time. If they lose their job their health insurance may disappear.

Yet nobody in Washington is talking about universal health care. George W. wants to use the bulk of the surplus for a whopping tax cut mostly for the rich.

Reich strikes a prescient note here in this 2001 essay for The American Prospect. Would that we would have heeded his advice eight years ago.

Having let his opponents frame the debate for far too long, Mr. Obama will need to do more than orate. He needs to twist arms among timid Democrats in Congress to get a strong bill passed, most likely with little support from Republicans.

The NY Times nails it in this editorial, which balances praise for Obama's newly-demonstrated determination to reform health care with criticism for the passive approach which has marked his initial efforts so far.

Wouldn't Dennis Quaid play a great Jeff Skilling in a future feature film about Enron?

'Former Enron Corp. chief Jeffrey Skilling, convicted three years ago of fraud, is scheduled to be resentenced Thursday after a federal appeals court vacated his 24-year sentence earlier this year.'