Energy expert John Hofmeister says nuclear power is still a good option in the U.S., despite the recent crisis in Japan.

CNN's Gloria Borger and David Gergen discuss the Obama-Ryan budget feud and how it launched the 2012 election campaign.

When Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) states the Bush tax cuts created 5 million jobs, Eliot Spitzer asks, "where, in China?"

Eliot Spitzer challenges U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder to prosecute Goldman Sachs or resign during an interview on AC360.

Japan's nuclear nightmare could make some campaign promises in the U.S. very shaky. CNN’s Drew Griffin reports (part two).

CLICK HERE for part one of Drew's report.

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Joe Baker, President of the Medicare Rights Center. (More biography below.)

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama said that one approach to taming the deficit involves lowering the government’s health care bills by reducing the cost of health care itself.  He said,

“We will change the way we pay for health care – not by procedure or the number of days spent in a hospital, but with new incentives for doctors and hospitals to prevent injuries and improve results. And we will slow the growth of Medicare costs by strengthening an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers who will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services seniors need.”

You have been studying Medicare for decades.  Do you believe that it is possible to create the new incentives that Mr. Obama describes? Are there ways to reduce unnecessary spending—and as he says, save $500 billion by 2023?

One thing we know now is that the delivery system we currently have is not working as well as it could be for patients, especially those with multiple chronic conditions. 

We also know that acute care, like hospitals stays, are far more expensive than a lot of outpatient care and preventive care that would help people maintain a higher quality of life.  So, there are savings to be wrung from over-utilization of acute and Emergency Room services and making primary and preventive care more accessible. 

Even more importantly, there are vast improvements that we can make to quality of the care patients receive and of the patient experience, without increasing costs. FULL POST

The Number of the Day is 19.3 percent.

And the number actually reflects some good news.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers said on Thursday that businesses are planning to hire 19.3 percent more new college graduates this year than last year.

That's the best spring outlook since 2007, when the nation’s employers were planning to increase hiring by 19.2 percent. Then the recession hit, and parents of new graduates scrapped their plans to turn their kids’ bedrooms into a guestroom or home office.

Take note liberal arts majors: the association’s survey found that hiring may increase in the technical and financial sectors, at oil and gas extraction companies, and at computer and technology firms. Engineering majors, by the way, continue to earn the best starting salaries–$60,000 a year. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s six OFF-SET questions is Robert MacNeil, co-founder of the PBS NewsHour. Until his retirement in October 1995, MacNeil was executive editor and co-anchor of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, a 20-year nightly partnership with Jim Lehrer on PBS.

Although he has produced occasional stories for PBS, Monday (April 18, 2011) marks the first time he returns to the NewsHour in a decade, to report a six-part series, “Autism Now.” April is Autism Awareness Month and today, the developmental disorder affects 1 out of 110 American children.

One of the more remarkable features in the series of reports is that it begins with a profile of Nick, a six-year-old with autism from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nick happens to be your grandson. You’ve never brought your family into a piece in your 50 years of covering stories. How did you and your daughter make this decision?

It grew out of a conversation with my daughter, Alison, a four-year conversation going on ever since Nick was diagnosed with autism at age two–a conversation mostly by phone and e-mail, and on visits, because they live in Cambridge, Mass,  and I’m in Manhattan.  Sometimes a heated conversation, to be honest, because Alison was convinced Nick showed symptoms of autism only after receiving the usual vaccinations at 16 months. 

She thought as a journalist I should speak out about vaccines. Understanding her anguish, I was torn personally, between my love for her and Nick, and the habits of a long career in journalism which forced me also to listen to the mainstream medical community, which maintains there is no valid scientific proof that vaccines cause autism. You know the explosion of feelings that debate has provoked. FULL POST

OK, 2011 IS DONE, NOW ON TO 2012 – A budget deal reached last week to avert a government shutdown won approval Thursday from both the House and Senate, sending it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The measure cuts $38.5 billion in spending while funding the government for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.

With its passage, the White House and Congress will now focus on what are expected to be more rancorous battles over a budget for fiscal year 2012 and the upcoming need to raise the federal debt limit. FULL POST