RebelAmoeba

I remember reading somewhere that ACA has a lot of initiatives aimed at bending the cost curve of health care beyond simply paying for less and different treatments. Can you elaborate on what some of these measures are? Do you think these efforts will bend the curve down to a sustainable level?

To what extent do you think the NSA and other such organs of US intelligence are a "state within a state," generally unresponsive to traditional sources of civilian authority within our government, and to what extent are these intelligence agencies part and parcel with the US government at large?

I guess what I'm asking is, who is the boss here? Boss meant to include broader political and economic circumstances that might make political and bureaucratic actors hesitant to contain the bloated intelligence apparatus.