Daily Read - 2/4/10

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Alexis de Tocqueville (quoted in a column by Bill Flax at Real Clear Markets)

"For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending, federal actuaries predict, as the weak economy sends more people into Medicaid and slows growth of private insurance...By 2020, according to the new projections, about one in five dollars spent in the U.S. will go to health care, a proportion far beyond any other industrialized nation."  (WSJ)

George Will with a startling statistic showing how improvements in treating infectious disease has drastically altered demographics, leading to higher health care costs.  "In 1900, more than 33 percent of all deaths were of children under 5; today they are less than 2 percent. In 1900, deaths of persons 65 and older were only 18 percent of all deaths; today they are 75 percent."  (Washington Post)

Jay Cost on how Obama's pleas for bipartisanship could in fact be partisan.  "This partisan view of bipartisanship doesn't suggest a meeting at the halfway point."

Politico's Glen Thrush has an interesting exchange between Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Obama from yesterday's Q and A between Senate Democrats and the President. Lincoln asked Obama to push back at the left wing of the party, and said "no one in your administration" understands how to make payroll - a jab at the lack of experienced businesspeople in Obama's administration. (Politico)

"Scott Brown (R) will be sworn into office Thursday, a week earlier than expected, after he asked officials in his home state of Massachusetts on Wednesday to certify his election "without delay.""  This eases concerns his swearing-in would be delayed for partisan reasons.  (Washington Post)

"Structural steel for the 1,776-foot tower that will be known as 1 World Trade Center has risen 200 feet above street level, a tangible sign of ground zero progress, redevelopment officials said Wednesday...The 104-story skyscraper is scheduled to be completed in 2013." (Washington Post)