From Queens, NY:

July 23, 2008

The parents of a year-old baby girl are thanking their lucky stars this week after the baby survived a four-story plunge from their Flushing apartment on July 16.

“It’s a miracle she survived,” said the child’s mother, Mariana Caseres, 26.

Cindy Riveros amazed doctors and her parents by walking just hours after she fell from a bedroom window at the family’s apartment at 134-36 57th St.

Police said Riveros was playing with a cousin in the bedroom at about 6:30 p.m. when she climbed on a chair and tumbled from the window, in which window guards were not installed.

Eyewitnesses told police the girl fell four floors onto a backyard landing one story below ground level that leads to the building basement.

Police said Riveros was saved by two large, soft rubber balls that someone had left on the landing, and which apparently broke her fall.

Neighbors said the baby “made a lot of noise” when she fell. “There was a lot of blood on the baby,” a neighbor said. “She was crying, her mother was crying. It was chaos.” Another neighbor drove the baby and her mother to New York Hospital of Queens, where Riveros’ condition worsened on Wednesday night. She was rushed in critical condition with a fractured skull to Cornell Medical Center, where doctors operated to determine the extent of her injuries.

The miracle baby was admitted to the hospital intensive care unit, where she shocked doctors and her parents hours later, by “taking a few baby steps”, hospital administrators said.

Doctors who operated on Riveros later told her parents she would be just fine. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.

Note: To get to the four-part “Case Against Mitt Romney” series, go here.

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Earlier this month, slipping past my radar, Mitt Romney had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) defending his handiwork.

Now that I have read it, it’s clear that he was shamelessly begging for more money from the feds so that Massachusetts’s CommonwealthCare aka RomneyCare wouldn’t sink of its own weight:

The Bush administration will decide in the coming days whether to continue to facilitate this experiment by accepting the state’s financial contribution as qualifying for federal matching funds as in the past. If the federal government refuses or reduces federal participation, the state could be forced to curtail the program.

Well, since the Bay State is spending more (and, I suspect a lot more per capita than other states), what Romney is really saying that the rest of us need to pay more too.

Thanks, Mitt (/sarc). I don’t know whether the Bush admin has made its decision.

Today, the Wall Street Journal called BS on this:

Romney, who should know better, took to these pages recently to proclaim, “Health-care reform is working in Massachusetts.” Shortly after Mr. Romney’s self-tribute, Governor Deval Patrick wheeled out a new $129 million tax plan to make up for this year’s health spending shortfalls. Yet partisans are cheering the cost overruns as a sign of success.

….. The ominous news is that only about 18,000 people — or 5% of the newly insured — have taken advantage of the “connector,” which was supposed to be the plan’s free-market innovation linking individuals to private insurers.

Most of this growth in coverage has instead come via a new state entitlement called Commonwealth Care. This provides subsidized insurance to those under 300% of the poverty level, or about $63,000 for a family of four. About 174,000 have joined this low- or no-cost program, a trend that is likely to speed up.

As this public option gets overwhelmed, budget gaskets are blowing everywhere. Mr. Patrick had already bumped up this year’s spending to $869 million, $144 million over its original estimate. Liberals duly noted that these tax hikes are necessary because enrollment in Commonwealth Care is much higher than anticipated. But of course more people will have coverage if government gives it to them for free. The problem is that someone has to pay for it.

Thus the extra tab of $129 million, which may need to go higher because it relies on uncertain federal funds from Medicaid. For now, Mr. Patrick wants one-time (yeah, right) charges of $33 million on insurers and $28 million on providers, plus some shuffling of state funds. The balance comes from an estimated $33 million boost in the state’s “pay or play” tax: If businesses don’t offer “fair and reasonable” insurance to their employees, they get hit.

This is a textbook example of how business taxes evolve into “pay or pay,” the first recourse of state-funded health systems.

The fact that so many talkers and pundits continue to characterize Romney as an economic conservative is an insult to free-market believers’ intelligence.

I’m also seeing two other important things at work here:

• First, Romney despite his weekly (or is it daily?) “Who, me?” responses to questions from sycophants like Sean Hannity, has been going after McCain’s Veep slot relentlessly behind the scenes.
• Second, I believe the Journal is letting John McCain know in no uncertain terms that it believes Romney to be a completely unacceptable Veep candidate.

Most don’t remember, but in 1996 there was actually serious talk of making George Voinovich Bob Dole’s running mate. In a scathing editorial, the Journal pointed to how under Voinovich Ohio’s state spending was rising unnecessarily, taxes were being raised, and Voinovich was acting like a spoiled kid when he couldn’t get his way.

That was the end of serious consideration of Voinovich. Hopefully, the Journal’s editorial today will have the same impact.

Other stuff has intervened today. Then some cold-fighting put me under for a bit. But I’m back now.

Besides, as a Cincinnati-area person, keeping something less-than-desirable about Cleveland at the top for 18 hours hasn’t particularly bothered me. :–>