The Texas 14th Court of Appeals finally lowered Robert Durst’s bail to $450,000 from the absurd $3 billion amount that Galveston State District Judge Susan Criss had set earlier this year. Here are earlier posts on the Durst murder case.
Ceci Connolly of the Washington Post is one of the best reporters on health care finance issues. This article in yesterday’s edition reviews the dubious financial projections behind the Bush Administration’s health care finance proposals:
If the Republican-controlled Congress enacted President Bush’s entire health care agenda, as many as 10 million people who lack health insurance would be covered at a cost of $102 billion over the next decade, according to his campaign aides.
But when the Bush-Cheney team was asked to provide documentation, the hard data fell far short of the claims, a gap supported by several independent analyses.
Projections by the Congressional Budget Office, the Treasury Department, academics and the campaign’s Web site suggest that under the best circumstances, Bush’s plans for health care would extend coverage to no more than 6 million people over the next decade and possibly as few as 2 million.
“There’s little reason to expect that there would be any reduction in the overall numbers of Americans without health insurance,” Brookings Institution health policy expert Henry J. Aaron said. “We’re swimming against a rather swift current in our efforts to reduce the number of uninsured, and the power of President Bush’s proposals to move against that current is, it seems to me, very, very limited.”
On the other hand, the article notes that the credibility of the Kerry campaign’s health care finance projections is not particularly compelling, either:
Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), has released a health care agenda that is more ambitious and more expensive, with plans to expand government health programs, offer tax credits similar to Bush’s and reimburse businesses for some of their most costly catastrophic cases.
Forecasting the cost and impact of policy proposals is always complicated, and both presidential campaigns try to spin the numbers to their advantage. Kerry, for example, estimates his health care proposals would cover 27 million people at a 10-year cost of $653 billion. But that assumes $300 billion in “savings” that the Bush team says might prove elusive. Without the savings, the cost of the Kerry package jumps to nearly $1 trillion.
Sigh.
Bill James would enjoy this method in evaluating potential candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hat tip to Craig Newmark for the link.
Monday Night Football is ABC‘s highest rated show. However, ABC is currently losing about $250 million on MNF. This LA Times (free online registration required) article is a good overview on the economics of televising professional football and the difficult decisions that ABC faces in regard to MNF.
Hat tip to Professor Sauer for the link to this article.
Houston-based El Paso Corp. released some preliminary 2004 financial numbers and previewed its restatement of financial results from 1999 to 2003 following a review of its accounting for natural-gas hedges. El Paso previously announced plans to restate results because of downward revisions to its oil and natural-gas reserves and warned at the time that it likely would have to restate for its hedge accounting as well.
The company said that the revision to its reserves will cut the value of El Paso’s oil and gas assets by $2.7 billion and result in a corresponding after-tax reduction in shareholder equity. El Paso also announced that the restatement to eliminate hedge accounting will result in a $1 billion pretax cumulative charge on shareholder equity and will trigger an additional $1.6 billion in charges.
El Paso has yet to file its financial reports for 2003 or for the first two quarters of 2004. It warned that the 2004 figures it provided today are “subject to further review by El Paso and its independent auditor and, therefore, [are] subject to change.” Not exactly a statement brimming with confidence.
El Paso reduced its net debt by about $1.9 billion in the first six months of the year, finishing the second quarter with net debt of $18.6 billion. The company expects net debt to fall below $17 billion by the end of 2004, and to $15 billion by the end of 2005. In addition, El Paso’s businesses have been somewhat bolstered as high prices for oil and natural gas have been aiding the company’s rebound effort.
Despite the foregoing, El Paso remains a strong candidate for reorganization under chapter 11 as its high debt burden makes an acquisition outside of bankruptcy problematic.
The Rocket lasted long enough for his first win in almost a month — the 323rd victory of his career — and Carlos Beltran belted a three-run yak to lead the Stros over the Phillies 8-4 Monday night at the Juice Box.
After leaving in the fourth inning of his start against the Phils last week when he injured his right calf, Clemens hobbled around on the injured leg throughout much of his incredible seven-inning outing. Clemens (13-4) allowed only two runs and five hits with eight K’s and two walks in his first win in five starts since July 28.
Beltran connected in the seventh to become the 45th player in major league history with 30 home runs and 30 steals in a season. Bidg went 3-for-4 with two doubles as the Stros won their fourth straight over the Phils.
Carlos Hernandez tries to get untracked in tonight’s game against the Phils’ Brett Myers.