Word: carefully
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...government's unofficial troublemaker. Finding himself holding the balance of power following 11 years in opposition, the ambitious politician is enjoying his first taste of power. Even though his main job is Foreign Minister, Westerwelle has flexed his muscles on domestic issues from tax reform to health care to nuclear power. Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at the Free University in Berlin says Westerwelle's inexperience in government makes him a loose cannon. "Westerwelle's criticism gives the impression that Angela Merkel can't control her Cabinet," says Neugebauer. "Germans are asking who's in charge? Westerwelle looks like...
Then there's the minefield of health-care reform. Ministers are divided over how to reform Germany's complex health system and rein in spiraling medical costs. The upstart 36-year-old Health Minister Philipp Rösler (FDP) thinks he's come up with a solution to crack the problem: a flat-rate premium for health-care contributions so all Germans pay the same, regardless of income. But colleagues from the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's sister party and the third partner in the coalition, have slammed the plan, saying it is not "socially fair...
Merkel has mostly tried to steer clear of confrontation by adopting a presidential style of leadership. To stop the infighting over health care she appointed a government commission to look into the matter. But her approval ratings are slipping. A poll by the TNS Emnid Institute on Feb. 17 found 51% of Germans were satisfied with her work, down from 61% the month before. With the new government "arguing more than the old coalition government," says Manfred Güllner, head of the Forsa Polling Institute, "Angela Merkel has to be careful that she doesn't lose her voters...
...there's no way to brace for the morass of misanthropy in her new novel So Much for That (Harper; 433 pages), which attacks the American health care system more savagely than any Democrat in Congress has but at no small cost to the reader. The first half overflows with the rantings of a half-dozen furious characters. It's brave, bold and so abrasive that you almost want to give up. You feel as if you're trapped in Michael Moore's head, being lectured on all his pet subjects. I was reading, but still, I almost went deaf...
...having cancer, a rare form called mesothelioma, linked to asbestos exposure. Her family laments that illness is not bringing out the best in Glynis. She disagrees: "Maybe the best in me, to me, is hateful, vindictive and ill wishing ... I wish everyone else were ill, too." (See 10 health care reform...