Month: December 2009

Support From American Medical Association And Public Opinion Poll For Health Care Legislation

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Good news for the Obama Administration comes from the head of the American Medical Association, who calls the Senate bill good for America.

This is an important moment for that support, and a poll also indicates that as more people follow the health care debate, the public support is growing, as it becomes obvious that the GOP is promoting fear tactics and misleading information to try to defeat the bill.

It seems assured that a year from now, the American people will understand what the Democrats have done is for the good of the nation, and the Republicans will suffer electorally for their total opposition to dealing with this most important issue!

This does not mean that the Republicans will fail to gain seats in Congress, as that is a normal result in the midterm election for the party out of power. But those who think there will be major gains will be very surprised next November!

Congratulations To Senator Bernie Sanders For National System Of Community Health Centers!

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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is to be congratulated for gaining a provision in the Senate Health Care bill providing for $10 billion to be spent on a national system of Community Health Centers!

The Republican opposition and conservative talk show hosts are condemning this and other special provisions set up in the bill, which helped to gain support of Democratic senators to cut off the filibuster.

But one must understand that every member of Congress is expected to support and promote programs and benefits that will be positive for their states and districts, what are called “earmarks” by critics.

You would think that Republicans have never asked for “earmarks” with their holier than thou attitude. This thought, that they are Puritans, is totally ridiculous.

In my mind, what matters is whether the “earmark” is a positive development, rather than just a waste of money, such as the “bridge to nowhere” promoted by former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.

Certainly, what Sanders has gained for the country and its poorer citizens is not just a benefit to Vermonters, but to millions of people who cannot afford a doctor. Since it is unlikely there will be a choice of a public option, or expansion of Medicare, or a single payer system in the final bill, all of which Sanders really favored over what he gained, this is a “consolation prize” that will benefit many needy people.

About Time: Airline Passengers Bill Of Rights Announced!

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A great Christmas gift from the Obama Administration is the announcement by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that no longer will airlines be allowed to keep passengers on planes on tarmacs longer than three hours without providing relief.

It has been an outrage that passengers have been kept locked in planes on tarmacs for up to 12 hours without any provision for food, water and clean bathroom facilities.

This is a long overdue move that will have unanimous support from everyone, as airlines have been abusing their passengers. Now they will be forced to accomodate passengers or face fines.

Specifically, they must provide food and water after two hours and allow passengers off the plane after three hours, or face fines per passenger of $27,500!

On the average, 1,500 flights per year in domestic travel have had this problem, and about 114,000 passengers have been inconvenienced. The new rules take effect in four months, and hopefully there will be few abuses on this issue until it goes into effect.

Pathbreaking Moment: Senate Overcomes GOP Filibuster On Health Care Reform!

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After a long, drawn out, highly partisan debate that has gone on for months, the Senate this morning passed a necessary step toward cloture to overcome a filibuster, and move toward later this week agreeing to a landmark health care reform bill.

Of course, even after a final vote expected to be held on Christmas Eve, the hardest job of all will be early next year to promote a conference committee report of both houses of Congress, reconciling different aspects of the bill that will be very difficult to gain compromise on, including the issue of abortion, the public option in the House bill, and funding and taxing health care in a way that will not add to the burgeoning national debt.

In many ways, the concept of victory seems elusive, as one has to wonder how the two houses will come up with a common bill. It will require statesmanship and moderation to accomplish what has been an elusive goal for nearly a century: health care reform, which even if this resolves itself, is still only a beginning step toward total reform at some point down the road in future time.

While this issue has become highly partisan, it seems to me that even this imperfect bill passed in both houses of Congress will ultimately be a plus for the Democrats, as much as Social Security and Medicare were in previous generations. The unwillingness of Republicans to work on a common goal for health care will not make them look good in the future and in historical perspective!

The Copenhagen Climate Change Summit: No Verification Or Enforcement Mechanism

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President Obama’s trip to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit cannot be seen as a success, although it is not a failure.

At the last minute, there was an agreement to set limits on greenhouse gases among China, the US, India, Brazil and South Africa.

However, the agreement does not contain verification or enforcement mechanisms, and one gets the feeling that obtaining such guarantees at the next summit in Mexico City in 2010 is highly unlikely.

The world faces a crisis, but unfortunately, politics and nationalism and secrecy of dicatatorships such as China will make it probably impossible to forge agreements that are truly binding.

Also, the politics of climate change are in full swing in this country, with such critics as Sarah Palin and James Inhofe on full assault against the administration, as well as Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger and other supporters of the concept of global warming.

So the truth is one should not expect much progress on climate change legislation in America, although supposedly the Obama Administration is optimistic on “cap and trade” legislation early next year. But even with that possibly occurring, there must be world wide cooperation for the global warming crisis to be dealt with seriously.

Great Advice From Economist Paul Krugman: Pass The Imperfect Health Care Legislation!

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Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, Princeton economist and NY Times columnist, gives all of us who are exhausted by the Health Care controversy great advice: PASS THE BILL!

Contradicting those liberals, such as Howard Dean, who say we should drop the legislation and start all over, Krugman points out that every major reform ever passed starts out as imperfect and gets better over time.

Passage of the bill would do the following:
1. Discrimination based on medical condition or history would be banned. Pre-existing condtions would no longer be a basis for rejection, and insurance could not be canceled when someone gets sick.
2. Substantial government aid to those who are not covered for health insurance at their work would be provided.
3. Small employers who provide health insurance for their employees would receive tax breaks.
4. Premiums for lower income and lower middle income workers would drop dramatically.
5. 30 million people not covered by health insurance would come under the umbrella of this legislation.
6. This would be the first strong effort to curb health care costs, which have been rising much faster than inflation.

To follow the leanings of Howard Dean and other far left liberals would mean giving the same advice as conservatives and the Republican party has been promoting all along. But if nothing is done now, then it is unlikely that anything will be accomplished in the remainder of the Obama Presidency, and very possibly, for the next generation or more.

To believe that the Democrats will have a bigger margin of seats in 2010 or beyond is certainly a utopian vision. The time for action, although imperfect and incomplete, is NOW!

Civility In The US Senate: Desperately Needed!

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It was disturbing to see another example of the loss of civility in the midst of the heated debate in the Senate over health care reform, when Minnesota Senator Al Franken, who was presiding at the time, denied Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman the opportunity for one more minute to finish his remarks.

It is true that the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had set up a ten minute limit so that work could be made on the defense appropriations bill, so as to make it possible to return to the health care debate. But if a senator was to be allowed a one extra minute extension would not have been a crime. It made Franken look very rude and nasty.

In any case, it led Arizona Senator John McCain to criticize Franken for his action, although it has since been shown that McCain prevented extra discussion of the Iraq War resolution in 2002 when he was presiding, so there is an element of hypocrisy in McCain stepping in to protest.

Ironically, Lieberman took the rejection of the extra minute gracefully and even chuckled in surprise. And get this: later in the day, Lieberman and Franken were seen conversing, laughing, and even hugging each other as if nothing important had happened.

So the whole incident does seem maybe somewhat contrived, as one looks back at it. But it also shows that Joe Lieberman, for all the criticism he takes and the anger he engenders, can still be a decent human being and a cordial, friendly person, even to those who wrong him in some way.

So the incident does not deserve the condemnation of the Minnesota Republican party to the extent that they bitterly denounced Franken. But again,realize, so much of this is staged politics, so it is hard to know if what you see occurring is real.

Let’s just say that the principle of civility and decency in political discourse is still a good thing to promote under any circumstances!

Warning Sign For Charlie Crist In Florida And John McCain In Arizona

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Who would have thought that the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, who was very popular during the first two years of his term, and who then decided to go for the Senate seat rather than a campaign for reelection as Governor, would now be faced with a “dead heat” race with a young conservative, Marco Rubio, a Cuban American who was State House Speaker from 2006-2008?

This unlikely scenario has seen what was once a 35 point lead, and a sense that Rubio was wasting his time, to a situation where Crist is in deep trouble. Considered a moderate Republican, this seems like a warning sign to Republicans that if they dare, as Crist did, to cooperate with President Obama on anything, then they will pay the price with funding support for a more conservative opponent in the primary.

I have a feeling that Crist wishes he could change his mind and instead run for reelection as Governor, as a preferable choice to the likely nominee, Attorney General Bill McCollum, who has a tendency to lose statewide primaries for vaious offices but now has a “free ride!”

Interestingly, the same fate could come to Senator John McCain in Arizona, where a former conservative Republican Congressman J. D. Hayworth is contesting him in the upcoming 2010 Senate primary.

As stated many times before, this move to the far right seems insane if the GOP hopes to regain power, and in so doing, sacrifices moderates such as Charlie Crist and John McCain.

The Democratic Party Deterioration: The Obama Crisis of 2010 And Beyond

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Now it is not only Independent Joe Lieberman who has made it clear he will not vote for the health care reform bill if the public option or Medicare extension remains in the bill.

Also, the much more admirable Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has said he probably will not vote for the legislation, if it does not INCLUDE the public option or Medicare extension, or even better, a single payer system.

Plus Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska has stated that if the bill does not disallow abortion coverage, then he will not vote for the bill.

It looks more and more as if this health care legislation is in deep trouble, and even an attempt to recruit the two Maine women senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, seems unlikely to work because they have their own special problems with the legislation.

If the legislation does not pass in a reasonable form to bring real reform, the American people will be the losers, and the health insurance industry will have a big victory.

And, unfortunately, it could be the end of the dream of a real reform period under President Barack Obama. A defeat now would be hard to recover from, and particularly so with the unrest within the party over the “surge” of troops in Afghanistan ordered by President Obama. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made it clear she will not lobby her colleagues to back the Afghan appropriations bill and is tired of backing funding for wars she does not believe in.

The possibility of major Democratic losses next year, with the decision of four House veterans to retire, is alarming, and it is highly unlikely that the Obama Administration will have any better an opportunity than right now to promote real reform initiatives.

It sadly seems as if the old gridlock and stalemate so common in recent administrations is occurring again, a highly regrettable situation, to say the least! 🙁

The Mandate To Buy Health Insurance MUST Be Stripped From Pending Legislation!

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Now that a single payer system, the public option, and Medicare for those 55-64 have been dropped from the Senate bill on Health Care reform, angering progressives and abandoning the middle class in the process, there is one action that MUST be taken!

That is to drop the mandated health insurance portion of the bill, because effectively it will require all Americans to buy health insurance as demanded by, and rates set by, the health insurance corporations. Effectively, this will force many people into bankruptcy with overly expensive insurance rates, with the threat of a fine or going to prison if one refused to participate. And yet there is no guarantee that a person will actually be covered for his or her health insurance bills when they occur.

This is an outrage, and President Obama MUST make it clear that if such a provision remains in the legislation, and is not eliminated in the Senate or House of Representatives in conference, that he will veto the legislation, no matter how much he wants to see health care legislation passed by Congress!