Prisoner rights, discrimination, the budget, financial reform and healthcare

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/opinion/14wed3.html?ref=opinion
Shackling female prisoners while they give birth is cruel and unusual

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/opinion/14wed4.html?ref=opinion
Groups receiving federal money should not be allowed to discriminate
based on religion

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204574470961505506386.html
"By the end of 2019, according to the administration's budget numbers,
our federal debt will reach $23.3 trillion—as compared to $11.9
trillion today. To put it in perspective: U.S. federal debt was equal
to 61.4% of GDP in 1999; it grew to 70.2% of GDP in 2008 (under the
Bush administration); it will climb to an estimated 90.4% this year
and touch the 100% mark in 2011, after which the projected federal
debt will continue to equal or exceed our nation's entire annual
economic output through 2019."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574443072479356040.html
The importance of contracts in the government's dealings with senior
and junior mortgage-holders

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/opinion/14trillin.html?ref=opinion
Why Wall Street collapsed. Kind of an interesting theory... no idea if
I buy it, but an interesting theory.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204574471292249934348.html
Why the new healthcare plan is a tax

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574463642842514678.html
Learning from New Jersey: "In the early 1990s, New Jersey also passed
legislation requiring insurers to accept all applicants, regardless of
their health status (guaranteed issue) and charge them all the same
price (community rating). President Barack Obama wants to do the same
thing nationally.

There were repeated warnings that such legislation would drive up
health insurance premiums. But New Jersey legislators ignored those
warnings. Today, New Jersey residents have relatively few health
insurance options, and coverage is significantly more expensive than
in most other states. Just across the state line in Pennsylvania, for
instance, a family can buy a comparable insurance policy for a quarter
to half the price."

[Whether it is worth it to have guaranteed issue and community rating
is one thing - it very well may be. Claiming it will lower healthcare
premiums, however, is disingenuous.]