The typical American hospital charges between $20,000 and $100,000 to perform open-heart surgery. The 1,000-bed Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital in Bangalore, India, charges $2,000 on average -- and, arguably, provides better quality outcomes. 
Conservative sources are suddenly abuzz with the story of "phantom" congressional districts in the Recovery.gov website that tracks where the 2009 stimulus money (more properly known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) goes. Embarrassingly, the website lists way too many congressional districts. Virginia, [...] 
As Congress lurches forward in its campaign to "reform" a deeply flawed health care system by making it a grievously flawed system, moderate "blue dog" Democrats are emerging as a key swing constituency that can make or break any deal. In the Senate, that puts the [...] 
I had the pleasure of visiting Annapolis, Md., a couple of weekends ago, a city I had not seen in maybe 20 years. After watching Navy trounce Wake Forest in football, my family and I spent the night at the Governor Calvert House across the street [...] 
That's the question that Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson asks in today's column. The very idea of the likes of the United States, Japan or Great Britain defaulting on their sovereign debt once seemed preposterous, he writes. It still seems far fetched. But it's not' [...] Gooze Views, E M Risse, James A. Bacon
