Category Archives: Health care

The Panderer-In-Chief.

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Anyone else amused at Mitt Romney’s response to the Supreme Court ruling on Thursday?  We were treated to the Panderer-In-Chief attacking the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act as an unconstitutional over-reach.  He called it morally wrong and vowed to repeal and replace it his first day in office.

Can anyone believe anything this man says?

Does he actually think that we don’t know that the healthcare mandate was a conservative idea?  Does he think we don’t know that he proposed an almost identical healthcare plan for Massachusetts and signed it into law as governor?

Never mind his lack of compassion and understanding for ordinary citizens.  Never mind his actions as a vulture capitalist.  Never mind that he destroyed businessess and shipped jobs overseas.  Never mind that his proposals would throw our economy into a recession while bloating our deficits.

Anyone with so little respect for the intelligence of voters should never be elected to office.

The Teapublican Book of Lies.

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You know those things Teapublicans present as facts that just never quite make sense?  The ones that are repeated day after day on Fox News Channel and right wing radio?  The conservative ideas that have been tried and failed, but keep coming back?

I’ve taken 50 of those so-called “facts,” researched them, and presented my findings in a new book:  The Teapublican Book of Lies.  It’s a sort of handbook for debates with your conservative friends and family members.

Pardon the shameless self-promotion, but you can buy the book from Amazon.

As Long As We’re Telling The Truth…

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A recent editorial in The Washington Post was headlined, “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.”  The writers go on to say, “We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”

This is not coming from the so-called “liberal media.”  It’s from one of the most respected and unbiased newspapers in the land; the newspaper that covers both sides of politics from our nation’s capitol. When The Washington Post makes such a statement, everyone needs to pay attention.

This amazing admonishment of the right, follows the revelation of a meeting that took place the night of President Obama’s inauguration.  With the nation having just experienced the collapse of the housing industry, the freefall of the entire global economy, the loss of 4.4 million jobs, the loss of billions or trillions in tax revenues, a bankrupt financial system, huge deficits adding to our national debt and two wars (one unnecessary), all caused by the decisions of an 8-year Republican administration, these “patriots” seemed concerned with only one thing:  How could they cause the Obama administration to fail?

Unaware of the plot against him, President Obama began his administration by trying to accomplish the goals of his campaign – to repair the fractures in our nation by working with Republicans. He asked several Republicans to join his cabinet in order to heal the nation.  Most declined.  Instead of accepting the president’s hand, Republicans claimed he was not an American citizen and, therefore, not a legitimate president. When the administration and Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and offered loans to the failing auto industry, Republicans cried “Socialist” and organized the “Tea Party” from their most right wing supporters. They appeared at Presidential speeches with guns. They carried signs calling him a Fascist, a modern-day Hitler and threatening to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights.

Republican Senators filibustered almost every initiative to create jobs in the hopes that the struggling economy would benefit them politically.  They filibustered and obstructed legislation that would prevent a repeat of our economic collapse.  They refused to allow votes on a record number of presidential appointments, including federal judges and heads of government agencies.  A Republican Congressman even broke long-standing decorum by shouting “You lie” during a State of the Union address.

The stalemate caused by the Teapublican obstruction worked.  Teapublicans took control of the House in 2010.  Still, President Obama reached out to find compromise with the right.  In response, the Republican House Speaker said he didn’t believe in compromise; that he didn’t even know what the word meant.  Since then, Teapublicans have only become more obstructionist, more unyielding and more uncivil.

Now we’re approaching yet another election.  No thanks to Teapublicans, more than a million auto industry jobs have been saved, we’re digging out of the economic abyss, we’ve ended one war and placed an end date on the other, we’ve eliminated the leadership of al Qaeda, and we’ve greatly improved our reputation throughout the world.

By almost every measure, President Obama deserves to be re-elected.  Teapublicans, on the other hand, have earned a place in the very darkest corners of our history.

Still Gutless After All These Years!

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For many years, Teapublicans have cowed Democrats into compromising their ideals.  In fact, Democrats have become so accustomed to withering under partisan attacks many now give up their principles willingly.  Witness the news from just the past two days.

Yesterday, the Obama administration dropped controversial new safety standards for children who are hired to work on farms.  Apparently, the lies and misinformation circulated by Teapublicans that the new standards would negatively affect family farms was enough to make the administration’s testicles shrivel to 2009 size.

Then today it was announced that, with the help of 13 Democrats, the Republican-led House passed a student loan bill that includes cutting the Prevention and Public Health Fund; part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The end result is to reduce funding for women’s and children’s health programs.

Who needs the Supreme Court?  It would seem that some Democrats are willing to help Teapublicans kill “Obamacare” themselves.

Also today, former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi stated that she was willing to embrace cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare as part of the Simpson-Bowles Plan to reduce the national debt.  Say what?  Whatever happened to protecting safety nets from the Teapublican ax?  What happened to ending tax breaks for the wealthy?  What happened to fairness in opportunity and income distribution?

The events of these past two days capsulize one of the greatest problems with our government.  Teapublicans whine and bully and threaten to get their way without concern for the welfare of our citizens and our nation.  They can count on Democrats to drop to their knees and metaphorically pee their pants.  And Democrats seldom disappoint them.

Damn, it’s difficult to be a Democrat!

How “Starve The Beast” Became “Starve The Poor.”

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For years, Teapublicans have marched to a tune called “Starve The Beast.”  The premise is that government has gotten too big and expensive so, in order to bring it under control, they must deprive it of the revenue needed to fund it.  As band-leader-in-chief, President George W. Bush cut taxes, primarily for the wealthy.

As a result of those tax cuts, two unfunded wars and a bill designed to buy the votes of seniors in time for the 2004 election, the Bush administration squandered the Clinton-era budget surpluses and led us into massive deficits and an ever-growing national debt.

Rather than being alarmed by these Bush decisions, Teapublicans reveled in them.  And, when the economy collapsed in 2008, Teapublicans recognized two opportunities:  One, by blocking every attempt to speed up the recovery, they hope to make President Obama a one-term president.  Two, by howling about the enormous deficit and debt they created, they hope to make it easier to cut government and the things Teapublicans seem to hate most: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

They say Americans can no longer afford such programs.  They point to the long-term “instability” of Medicaid and Medicare while failing to admit that much of that instability is caused by the skyrocketing medical and pharmaceutical costs they refuse to address.  I believe their hatred for “Obamacare” is driven by the fact that it will help mitigate costs, thereby saving Medicaid and Medicare.

Likewise, Teapublicans seem to relish every new report on Social Security that shows the program running out of funds in the not-too-distant future.  They point to the large group of retiring Baby Boomers as the reason the program needs to be privatized (gotta get it out of the clutches of big government, you know).

What they fail to mention is how easily Social Security could be permanently fixed.  Either increasing individual contributions to the plan by little more than 1 percent or removing the cap on incomes above $106,000 would protect Social Security for future generations.  But that wouldn’t allow Teapublicans to meet their long-term goals of privatizing Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

As for the people whose health care would be left at the mercy of large, greedy insurance companies and the retirees who might be relegated to dumpster-diving the next time the stock markets crash, no worries.

Teapublicans are more than willing to starve the poor in order to Starve The Beast.

The Politicization Of Everything.

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The publicity for the Trayvon Martin killing served to emphasize the depths of our culture.  When the Samford, Florida Police Department announced that the killer, George Zimmerman, would not be charged, Martin’s family was understandably outraged.  They asked MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton to pick up the case and publicize it nationally.  Of course, that meant that Fox News Channel and right-wing radio had to take the side of George Zimmerman.

If a travesty such as the Martin case can be politicized, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that every other part of our culture is viewed through the same divisive lenses.  We have politicized science, education, health care, contraception, religion, race, women’s rights, the environment, the military, our judiciary, veteran’s affairs, Social Security, Medicare, guns, energy, agriculture, sports and, of course, journalism.

That hasn’t always been the case.  Prior to the early 80s, evolution was considered settled science.  Few questioned our education system.  Religion did not intrude in the classroom, except in parochial schools.  Outside of our military, no one carried guns except police and criminals.  And the media were bound by high standards of objectivity.

What changed?

Following the debacle of Watergate, the moribund Republican Party made an unholy alliance with evangelical leaders. Later, the Fairness Doctrine was repealed unleashing conspiracy talk radio.  Evangelists flooded radio and cable television with conservative politics and the message that Christianity was under attack.  Greedy right-wing mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck filled the airwaves with their theories of a New World Order.  Rupert Murdoch built a media empire on hate and Teapublican talking points.  And worst of all, the National Rifle Association and American Legislative Exchange Council began writing legislation and recruiting state legislators to serve their ideological agendas.

And our conservative-leaning populace sucked it all in.

So here we are…arguing about racism, judicial “activism,” contraception, the origin of “personhood,” immigration, Bible studies and prayer in the classroom, religious messages in government buildings, cutting taxes for the rich, guns on campus, etc., etc., etc.

And all the while we’re arguing, the real problems such as a crumbling infrastructure, economic inequality, the exodus of high-paying jobs, too-big-to-fail corporations, climate change, the extinction of wildlife, an increasingly inaccessible and unaffordable health care system, and massive national debt are only getting worse.

GAO Report Shows Why “Obamacare” Is Necessary.

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There were many reasons why health care reform was necessary when President Obama and the Democratic Congress were overwhelmingly elected to office in 2008.  Not only were health care costs climbing at a rate more than 3 times that of inflation.  Medicare and Medicaid were being overwhelmed by increased costs and unregulated fraud.  More than 30 million people were without access to affordable health care.  Insurance companies were denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.  Insurers were also placing lifetime limits on health care for customers.

In addition, corporations were exporting jobs to places like China, Vietnam and Indonesia in order to avoid paying employee benefits.

Faced with these overwhelming problems, along with an economy that had fallen off a cliff and massive unemployment, President Obama and the Democratic majority had little choice but to find ways to bring the health care industry under control.

Of course, Republicans did not want to help.  To enlist their support, Democrats chose to abandon their preference for single-payer universal care.  Instead, they embraced the Republican idea of insurance mandates through private companies.  After all, the idea had worked in Massachussetts under “Romneycare.”  Indeed, the program had proven to be popular.

Not surprisingly, in their anti-Obama fervor, Republicans immediately labeled the plan as “socialist.”  And despite lengthy negotiations in which they offered dozens of amendments and killed the public option, Congressional Republicans voted against their own concept.

Let’s fast forward to 2012:  Several provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) have already been proven to work.  Children up to age 26 may now be covered under their parents’ insurance plans.  Insurance companies may no longer refuse coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.  A number of wellness programs have been implemented.  And Medicare fraud has been curtailed.

However, the majority of the provisions of the PPACA, including those which will have the greatest impact on costs, will not take effect until 2014.  But there’s a chance that we may not be allowed to see those benefits.

If the conservative-laden Supreme Court rules that “Obamacare” is unconstitutional, the ever-increasing number of people (now roughly 60 million) who will be unable to afford health care will grow.  And health care costs will continue to rise, dragging down our economy and jeopardizing Medicare.

And what of the federal deficits and debt that Teapublicans claim to be so worried about?

According to a report by the Government Accountabiity Office, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) would have “a major effect on the structural gap between revenues and spending driven by rising health care costs and demographics gap.” In other words, “Obamacare” would go a long way toward reducing our deficits and debt.

Without the PPACA, we can expect the cost of health care, along with our deficits and debt, to grow dramatically.

What If Teapublicans Get Their Way In 2012?

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After watching their debates and reading the conservative legislation being pushed through Congress and our state legislatures, it’s clear that Teapublicans will not be satisfied until they:

– Replace Social Security with retirement accounts based on volatile stock markets.
– Replace Medicare with vouchers leaving seniors at the mercy of private insurers.
– Repeal “Obamacare” making health care unaffordable for 60 million people.
– Eliminate insurance coverage for contraception.
– Eliminate all forms of public assistance for the poor.
– Eliminate unemployment insurance.
– Replace progressive taxes with a flat tax to benefit the wealthy.
– Reduce or eliminate taxes for corporations.
– Eliminate the EPA allowing corporations to foul our air and water.
– Eliminate oil and gas regulations leading to more environmental disasters.
– Open national park lands, such as the Grand Canyon, to mining.
– Eliminate Wall Street regulations designed to prevent economic collapses.
– Eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that regulates credit cards.
– Eliminate the Federal Reserve.
– Eliminate the Department of Labor along with labor unions.
– Eliminate pensions and benefits for public employees.
– Eliminate the Department of Education along with public schools.
– Mandate that schools ban the teaching of evolution.
– Eliminate the US Postal Service.
– Eliminate funding for women’s health care through Planned Parenthood.
– Eliminate all subsidies for the development of alternative energy.
– Eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
– Eliminate funding for National Public Radio and Public Television.
– Privatize prisons, roads, parks and virtually every other public entity.
– Eliminate all restrictions on firearms and ammunition.
– Eliminate all restrictions on hunting.
– Repeal the Constitution’s establishment clause that prevents a state-sponsored religion.

Seriously, is this the kind of country you want?

A Truly Momentous Court Decision.

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With the US Supreme Court poised to decide on the insurance mandate of “Obamacare,” there are a few things to keep in mind.

First, the idea of the mandate that Teapublicans now oppose was originated by…you guessed it…Teapublicans!

Second, the federal government already mandates that our citizens and businesses purchase insurance…even health insurance.  You are currently mandated to pay for Social Security insurance and Medicare, and employers are mandated to pay for unemployment insurance.

What’s different about the federal government mandating that we pay for health insurance?

If the Court rules that the insurance mandate is unconstitutional, will we then see lawsuits claiming that the other mandates are unconstitutional as well?  Will we no longer have Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance?  Teapublicans have already tried to dismantle these safety nets.

And what will happen to our health care system?  Since Congress has previously passed legislation mandating hospitals to provide emergency medical treatment to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay, those costs will continue to be passed along to the insured through higher fees.  Given the fact that more than 60 million Americans will be left uninsured, health care costs will continue to rise at a rate more than 10 times that of inflation.

Moreover, the rising cost of health care will continue to push multi-national corporations to send jobs overseas.  The number of uninsured will continue to increase, unemployment will remain high, and quality health care will eventually become affordable only to the wealthy.

It’s no exaggeration to state that this decision is the most important in the Court’s history.  The political implications will be even greater than the conservative majority voting to give the 2000 election to George W. Bush and voting to permit corporations to buy our elections.

On Being Arizona.

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Arizona’s finger-wagging, scorpion-eating Governor and its Teapublican legislature continue to blame President Obama for federal policies they claim have nearly bankrupted the state.  They brag that the state has been able to weather the economic downturn only because of their firm, cost-cutting measures.

But based on their actions, it’s clearly untrue.  The Arizona legislature apparently has so much money that it feels comfortable throwing it away!

For example, by cutting corporate taxes 18 years in a row and approving millions in tax credits for private schools, the state has dramatically reduced revenue. At the same time, the legislature wants to force the state Board of Regents to spend more than $13 million on metal detectors and storage lockers to keep guns out of college classrooms should a misguided new gun bill be passed into law.

One legislator wants to spend more than $8 million on a special election to put a Teapublican version of redistricting maps before the voters because he doesn’t like the maps created by an Independent Redistricting Commission. The Teapublican legislature has already spent tens of thousands on legal fees in an unconstitutional attempt to remove the chair of the Independent Redistricting Commission. It has spent millions in legal fees to defend SB1070. It has spent tens of thousands for legal fees in an attempt to stop voter-approved medical marijuana. And it’s spending tens of thousands more to fight the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

And that’s just scratching the surface.

Despite a voter-approved 1 percent increase in the state sales tax intended to improve education, the Teapublican legislature refused to allocate the funds to public schools.  The legislature is treating the funds as a “surplus,” so it can further cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy.  As a result, teacher salaries are now so low that many automatically qualify for food stamps and Medicaid.  Some schools can no longer afford to perform routine building maintenance, to purchase replacement school buses, or even to buy textbooks.

Under Teapublican leadership, Arizona’s state capitol has been sold to private investors, thousands of children are being denied access to health insurance jeopardizing thousands of health care jobs throughout the state, and state parks have been closed or sold to local communities.

Instead of trying to correct these problems and improve the state’s moribund economy, Teapublicans have proposed bills that would permit hunters to use silencers and high-capacity magazines.  They’ve passed a bill allowing Bible study in public schools while banning Latino history courses.

They’re considering a new “birther” bill, an assortment of anti-union bills, a variety of anti-immigrant bills, and the usual anti-abortion bills.  And, in what appears to be the centerpiece of Teapublican legislative quackery, they’re pushing a bill that would allow employers to deny contraception for female employees unless the women can prove that the prescription is needed for medical reasons.  (I can see it now – female employees being asked to climb on their desks for a vaginal examination by their bosses.)

Of course, if many of these bills are signed into law, they will immediately be challenged in court.  As a result, the only people who are thriving in Arizona are the attorneys.