I have no interest in the politics of this. I just hope that this child is able to recover from his injuries and live a normal life.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., urged President Bush Thursday to announce in mid-September that he is beginning to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

Warner, perhaps the most influential Republican senator on national security issues, said that withdrawing a small number of troops — perhaps as few as 5,000 — would send a “sharp, clear message” to Iraq, America and the world that the U.S. commitment in Iraq isn’t open-ended.

McClatchy

Now this is an idea that I think has some merit.  Unlike Walt Jones who wants us to completely pull out yesterday, Warner’s proposal is sensible.  One of the big problems in Iraq is the government there.  They clearly have not stepped up to the plate and I agree with Warner, that it might take some action on our part to show them that their time is running out and actually mean it.

His own plan is a blend of tax incentives, creative financing to help the uninsured without raising taxes or federal spending, and a state-based system that would depend on governors to fix the country’s health-care problems.

Romney insisted his plan would eventually help everyone get insurance. But he will not propose requiring everyone in the country to get insurance — as he did in Massachusetts.

“We’ll get all the way there, but it’s not through a mandate,” he said. “If some states were going to drag their heels, I’m not going to have the federal government step in.”

To help control costs, Romney would allow all Americans to deduct from their taxable income all of their health-care costs — including premiums and most out-of-pocket spending. Now, only people with a lot of expenses can deduct the cost from their taxable income.

That, said Romney, would provide a tax incentive to buy high-deductible, low- premium health-care plans. And that, he said, would lead people to spend less and make better, cheaper choices in buying health care. Overall spending on health care would drop by 6.2 percent, he estimated.

“You get better behavior in health care,” he said.

To help the uninsured, Romney would provide a package aimed at helping some people into existing government programs, driving down the costs of private health insurance and subsidies.

McClatchy

Romney says he can get the poor insured by helping them into existing government programs, but earlier in the article he was quoted as saying he can accomplish this without increasing spending or raising taxes.  How is that possible if more people are going to be on existing government programs?