- A leading economist who vouched for Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s healthcare reform plan told Reuters on Thursday he doubts its staggering cost can be fully covered alongside her other government programs.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, also voiced skepticism that the wealth tax provision in Warren’s plan - a key funding mechanism - will produce predicted levels of revenue because those targeted by the tax will seek to dodge it.....

Zandi said despite signing a highly touted letter last week backing the calculations for Warren’s Medicare for All plan, he does not support shifting Americans off the private health insurance they have in favor of a single-payer, government-run regime.

“I am not a fan of Medicare for All,” said Zandi, who is not affiliated with any Democratic presidential campaign and does not speak for the Warren campaign. “We have 160 million people who have private insurance and are pretty happy with what they have. Why change that?"

Yesterday the Texas Court of Appeals denied Jones’s request to dismiss the case brought by Sandy Hook parents in the Texas courts.

Jones has lost every single motion in all the Sandy Hook cases filed in Texas. He’s been through 7 lawyers, including the loud and temperamental California lawyer who was apparently paid to scream all the Texas law he didn’t know.

Little Bubba sent me a copy of the three judge panel’s decision. Lawyers hanging around here will want to read it because it’s devastating to Jones and his lawyers so it’s a delicious read. It’s also very smart and well researched.

The Court of Appeals judge who wrote the decision is Judge Gisela D. Triana, an amazing jurist and a credit to Texas. Texans take note: she running for the Texas Supreme Court next November.

“Yesterday, Elizabeth Warren suggested I was ‘running in the wrong presidential primary’ because I believe in building on Obamacare — not getting rid of it. That's so wrong, it’s almost laughable. I’ve been a card-carrying Democrat since I was 27. And I am running for president because of my progressive record,” Biden wrote in an email to supporters, hitting Warren for registering as a Republican for years before becoming a Democrat.

“If my opponents want to have a debate on what they've done to truly implement progressive, meaningful change in our country — not what they’re planning, not what they’re proposing, but what they’ve accomplished — I welcome it,” he added, swiping at Warren’s “I’ve got a plan for that” mantra. “But to hurl insults because we don’t share the same approach for the best way to get to the same goal…well that is something I would expect in the other primary.” ….

Biden slammed Warren’s “Medicare for All” plan Friday, saying that the plan's proposed $9 trillion tax on employers would be passed off to companies’ employees.

“For months, Elizabeth Warren has refused to say if her health care plan would raise taxes on the middle class, and now we know why: because it does,” said Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield. “Senator Warren would place a new tax of nearly $9 trillion that will fall on American workers.”