September 2, 2010 by admin.
Contrary to what you are being told by the outrageous right-wing lie machine, government is not the threat nor it is not the problem.
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Government of the people, by the people and for the people as constituted in America has all sorts of checks and balances on every level to make sure that it never becomes either of those things. We may have a somewhat imperfect political system to work with but it is infinitely better by far than any alternative thus far being pro-posed. The real threat to our society is from unregulated and unchecked large corporations whose behavior over the past many decades proves beyond any question or doubt that they care nothing about the welfare of the people of this country but only about the size of their short term profits. These are the same people who are funding such anti-social groups as the Tea Party so as to dupe the American people to take up causes so much against their own best economic and financial interests but heavily in favor of theirs.
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The following data was compiled by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank in Washington
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CEO Income Last Year v. 1990-99 – Over Double
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CEO Income Last Year v. 1980-89 – Over Quadrupled
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Average Workers Wages Last Year – SAME AS 1970
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As radical conservatives across the country begin calling for rollbacks in Medicare, privatization of Social Security and repeal of health insurance reform, not a word of protest is heard for continuing huge tax cuts for multi-millionaires even in spite of the tremendous increases it causes in our deficits. Even conservative economists such as Allan Greenspan state without question that tax cuts DO NOT, as maintained by their proponents, create jobs and DO NOT pay for themselves in the long run. This is clear indication that these groups are being funded and directed behind the scenes by extremely wealthy corporate special interests bent on promoting mean spirited selfish greed and eliminating the middle class as the new American economic standard. Why would anybody want to do that you ask? Very simply because these are people to whom enough is never enough and taking money away from the people will dramatically increase the amount of money available for them to pocket. It really doesn’t get any more complicated than that.
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Folks, if you are a person earning less than $250,000 a year who supports these kind of radically right wing economic policies and are planning to vote for ANY Republican this November, why not just expedite the process by taking out your gun and shooting yourself in the foot? If you are a bad aim, don’t worry about it as either foot will do… the effect in the end will be exactly the same!
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Good luck to us all!
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Please direct any comments to info@HR676.org, Thanks
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August 26, 2010 by admin.
Dear Congressman Rooney [R] [FL-16],
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My wife has Parkinson’s. She just recently slipped into the donut hole. We went over to Walgreen’s this afternoon to pick up her meds and found out that her Stalevo, which helps her walk and keep her equilibrium, was going to cost us $362.86 for a 30 day supply. But we don’t have that much money so what do we do now? What’s the Republican answer to problems such as these besides more and bigger tax cuts for multi-millionaires… or do you even care that we and many other of your constituents cannot afford their meds? Do you care that the prices of drugs such as these are so much higher in America than anyplace else in the world? I doubt that you do. I never hear you talk much about it.
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Do you guys care at all that America is the only developed country in the world where people are turned away from the pharmacy because of inability to pay? That’s right because every other one of those countries cares enough about the health all of their citizens [not just the rich ones] to have some form or another of national health insurance; all of them but us! Do you guys ever stop to think about the fact that the private for-profit health insurance industry will drain between $400 and $600 billion dollars from our health care system over the next twelve months for profit and overhead and yet will not contribute even one penny of value to the system in return… NOT… ONE… PENNY! They just shuffle money around from one hand to another pocketing a huge portion of it for themselves in the process.
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Once again, America is the only country in the industrialized world to have such an insanely dysfunctional system. You Republicans like to say that in spite of everything, we have the best medicine in the world that people travel from far and wide to take advantage of, but even that is no longer as true as it once was. Statistics now show that we rate way down the list where results of some pretty important categories are concerned even though we spend almost twice per capita on health as everybody else [that’s where those staggering profits come from]. But I doubt that any of these things are of much interest to you. None of you or your colleagues seem interested in doing much to improve things. I guess you and they must figure that as long as you all have yours nothing much else matters. I wonder how much money you and they have taken in from the health insurance industry and big pharma lobbyists over the last few years? Is this a great country or what? Have a great day!
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Larry Pius
Port St. Lucie FL
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PS. Hey, I have it. Why not just eliminate the age 65 requirement for Medicare and let anybody that wants to just buy into it at fair market rates. There you go, that solves just about everything including most of Medicare’s underfunding problems as well. Just think about it; real competition in the health insurance marketplace at long last. Isn’t that the great American way?
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Note: I will publish this letter in my blog at www.HR676.org along with any personal [non-boilerplate] response you care to make.
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Please forward all comments to info@hr676.org.
All signed comments will receive a reply. Thank you.
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August 14, 2010 by admin.
The sad fact is that now that the dust has settled and the large corporate private for-profit insurance companies have pretty much gotten just about everything they could have ever hoped for and dreamed of under the new so-called health insurance “reform” legislation, most of the reform advocates have gone off to tilt at other windmills.
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But the issue remains far from settled for many millions of Americans that understand that much more needs to be done. For example, there is little or nothing in the legislation itself that even addresses the out-of-control cost escalation so rampant in our health insurance system. In addition, control over almost every aspect of the American health management system is left in the hands of these giant corporations who have generations of experience in circumventing any and all legislation aimed at reeling in their anti-social behaviors. It remains an unfathomable mystery why the political ‘right’ expresses so much fear over government control which has actually proven to be more or less benign or even, in some cases, beneficial to society in general over the years yet happily allow big corporations to oversee a system where multi-millions of sick and suffering Americans are literally allowed to die or be forced into bankruptcy to support their incredible profits[??].
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Finally and amazingly, no movement of any kind has been made towards allowing Medicare to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry for legitimate volume purchase discounts as the VA has been allowed to do for many years. In fact almost nothing in the way of real cost containment is even hinted at in this sadly ill-conceived legislation. Yet the facts remain that the private for-profit health insurance industry in America drains between $400 AND $600 BILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY from our health care system to support their enormous overhead and staggering, ever growing profits. That adds up to an incredible (I hope you’re sitting down) $4 to $6 TRILLION dollars over the next ten year period that economists are so fond of measuring reality in. At the same time this industry, which has in reality become a massive BLACK HOLE for gigantic chunks of badly needed public revenues, will contribute literally NOTHING OF VALUE in return… NOTHING!
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With our economy so badly on the rocks the way it is, largely due to the American job loss phenomenon (please refer to past articles on ‘free trade’ for more information), just how long do you think that this massive fiscal unbalance can be sustained?
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During the recent debate over health insurance reform, reliable polling consistently showed that 60% to 70% of the American people were in favor of a government run, Medicare-like public health insurance option. Perhaps they instinctively understood that without any real competition in the health insurance industry that there was no real hope of any significant improvement in our system regardless of what laws were passed. At the same time it is reasonably clear that this one element by itself, if implemented, would likely correct almost everything that is wrong with our current system without having to resort to 2000 page legislation that almost nobody trusts or understands, and many actually hate.
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Perhaps the answer is as simple as initiating a process where a massive educational effort is initiated to keep this subject fresh in the minds of the American people by simplifying the issues, eliminating all of the misleading diversionary arguments and just stating the basic facts so that the health insurance reform effort can be resuscitated and rejuvenated. With this kind of focus, people will quickly realize that much remains to be done and perhaps be motivated to help become part of the answer.
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Let us begin by forming a 501[c]3 non-profit educational foundation to study the issues from a fresh perspective and focus the message on the essential elements so that we can finally get this vital job done, and done right, once and for all!
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Please keep an eye on this page for further information.
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“For all those whose cares have been our concern,
the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives
and the dream shall never die.” Edward M. Kennedy
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August 2, 2010 by admin.
Admin note: Ms. Hanretty is a Republican strategist who appears regularly on the Ed Show on MSNBC. Her stated opinion is that what is needed to speed up the recovery is MORE free trade. It is just amazing how often it is that people are only able to see what they want to see regardless of how compelling the evidence is to the contrary
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Karen Hanretty Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Ref: Your comments this evening on the Ed Show
It is simply stunning to me how anyone as smart as you seem to be could be so overcome by ideology as to not be able to see the clear and obvious reality that free trade is the foundational cornerstone of our current and apparently hopeless economic disaster.
That so many of our formerly good paying middle class jobs have migrated overseas can be traced directly back to the fact that without adequate tariff protection there is nothing to prevent American manufacturers from having their products produced in ultra low wage overseas environments and then imported back into this country at no additional cost. This is so clearly the major reason that we are witnessing the decline of the once proud and mighty American middle class. But ultimately the joke will be on the perpetrators of this absurd and foolhardy scenario because soon enough there simply will not be enough American consumers left who can afford to purchase their products. Once the credit card bubble bursts Ms. Hanretty, and that day cannot be far off, the game is up.
I hope you are heavily invested in gold because when bread hits $200 or more per loaf you are going to need a lot of it.
Good luck!
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July 21, 2010 by admin.
That’s right, HCA profits were up 31% last quarter… were yours or are you still losing ground against the economy like most of us?
What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing that a government run, Medicare-like Public Health Insurance Option wouldn’t cure. We need to keep up the fight to make “Medicare for All” America’s Public Option. Please go to www.HR676.org and contribute now!
Thanks…
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July 10, 2010 by admin.
Email to “Hardball with Chris Matthews”:
Mr. Mathews,
The next time you get somebody on your show like Ken Blackwell that espouses the concept that we can resurrect our economy by replicating the economic policies of Bush/Cheney that were responsible for the economic meltdown that we are now dealing with, namely, less business regulation and lower taxes for rich corporations; PLEASE just ask them to answer one question…
If these exact same policies didn’t work then and in fact had just the opposite effect, why do you believe that they will work now?
Perhaps it’s time that we start seriously exploring the concept that it is our insane free trade policies that are largely responsible for the massive job losses of the last decade and not business regulation and higher taxes. Just a thought…
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June 10, 2010 by admin.
There is a major common thread that connects almost all of the socio/political problems that are currently causing our nation, its people and economy so much grief and distress. Meaningful reforms in such areas as health insurance, the banking and financial sectors and issues related to the environment and oil production although desperately needed, continue to defy resolution. The common thread that I refer to is what can only be described as legalized corruption in the way that massive campaign contributions are distributed by large corporate special interests to control the behavior of legislative bodies in America. The list ranges all the way from the smallest state legislature to the Congress of the United States itself. This scourge has become so pervasive that armies of large corporate and wealthy special interest lobbyists have almost completely taken over the control of our government on just about every level. Their control is so complete that they simply write the bills that they want passed and then make sure that they are.
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One of the most glaring examples of how this problem is edging America closer and closer to the brink of outright economic disaster is reflected in our ridiculous international trade policies. Back in the mid-90’s when people started talking seriously about enacting “free trade” policies that would dramatically lower our import tariffs and allow American manufacturers to have their products made overseas where wages are dramatically cheaper and then have those products imported into the U.S. at little or no cost, it should have been clear to anyone (I know that it was more than clear to me at the time) with an active brain who cared to think about it objectively what the unavoidable end results would be of such an absurd and foolhardy concept. It was so unbelievably obvious that under this plan, most good paying American jobs, the backbone of our economy (which still is the backbone of the world economy), would slowly migrate overseas leaving America to face another major economic upheaval similar to that which came about after the 1929 market crash that it is hard to imagine how anybody could have possibly looked into the maw of this stunningly moronic idea and not been shaken to their core with dread, anyone that is but a greedy large corporate industrialist.
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The fact that our current economic disaster has come to pass should come as no surprise to no anyone. These large corporate entities are not capable of thinking past the bottom line to consider that if everybody in America goes broke because all of the good jobs are gone then they will eventually go broke as well because there will be nobody left to purchase their products except of course for the 1 or 2 percent of the population that controls 90% of the wealth, but even they cannot replace the buying power of a vibrant and healthy middle class. As much sense as this line of logic makes to most normal people, the corporate decision makers are just not capable of thinking that far ahead. Rich people like to hoard their wealth and only part with that portion of it that can make them richer in the process. In the classic sense, consumers they are not. They rarely will buy anything that does not have the potential to increase in value over time. After all, this is America where enough is never enough and selfish greed really is a very good thing. Just ask any tea bagger if you don’t believe me.
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People are still scratching their heads trying to figure out why the real estate bubble burst a few years ago setting off our latest “great” recession, but when you consider that the job base of the people paying for the mortgages on this real estate was slowly eroding under their feet the reasons become all to clear enough. But there is worse news yet. At this point in time we are at approximately the mid point of the process. And now, there is almost no question that after the current economic stimulus package runs its course towards the end of the year with American jobs still migrating overseas in record numbers that America and the rest of the world along with it will begin to plunge into an economic dark age unlike any in history. After this massive and seismic world-wide realignment settles in, it will almost certainly leave our nation in the end on the same level as many existing third world economies. It is beginning to appear more and more likely that many alive today will possibly live to see the almost total elimination of the American middle class and the rich-poor divide continue to widen until poverty ridden slums grow up around our major cities that will likely rival those of Calcutta and Rio. Even if the Congress were willing, which it clearly is not, there is not enough money in all of China for us to borrow for a second stimulus package that might temporarily delay the coming disaster.
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But cheer up; there is a potential solution to the problem that is within our grasp if we will only choose to reach out for it. If the people will rise up, take to the streets in massive numbers and demand it we can bring about the needed changes. If real campaign finance reform could somehow be enacted that would break the corrupt death grip of the big corporations and special interests on “our” Congress there is a chance that these trends might possibly be reversed in time to prevent the total collapse of the world economy and all of the unimaginable terrors that go along with it. We’ve done it before when other issues were on the front burner such as civil rights and Viet Nam, and we can do it again. All those in favor of leaving a better country for our children than the one we inherited from our parents please stand up…
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Larry Pius, Dir
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April 29, 2010 by admin.
Before the momentum for real national health insurance reform fades from the headlines it is urgent that all of us hoping that a strong government run public health insurance option would have been included in the recently passed health insurance reform bill (which includes almost 70% of the American People) need to find a way to stay focused and make sure that this critical element be made available to the people. Now that we were so clearly shown the massive strength of the forces arrayed against real health insurance reform and in favor of maintaining the status quo, we can be a little more creative in crafting a plan to make the public option a reality that can actually work.
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Make no mistake, the current bill calls for a lot of really good things. According to the legislation there can be no more benefit caps in private health insurance policies that leave families twisting in the wind with massive unpaid medical bills when a member gets really sick. Gone also, according to the bill, are the days of being denied health insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions.
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But the catch is that there is little in the way of cost controls in the bill that would prevent these private insurance companies from dramatically raising their fees on already unaffordable policy premiums for granting the above mentioned exceptions. These companies have armies of lawyers that can find ways around any restrictive legislation ever written. This has always allowed the companies to do pretty much anything that they want to do. The only effective way to stop them is by introducing a government option plan that will provide good health care services at reasonable costs and make that option available to anyone that wants it. This alone will provide the balance needed to keep the private insurance companies reasonably honest.
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But the question is how can this be done. These powerful private insurance companies clearly demonstrated to us just how much actual control they have over our Congress. Make no mistake, the $1.2 million dollars that their lobbyists were spending every day of the campaign to fight off health care reform in Congress paid off handsomely as they were able to effectively kill off any hope for a Medicare-like federal government public health insurance option despite the overwhelming desire of the American people to have one. But there IS a way. One of the most objectionable measures in this bill to a lot of people is the mandate that requires everybody under penalty of increased tax assessments to purchase private health policies. Section 1332 of the new federal health care reform bill however allows that if any state enacts measures that serve to provide that the aims of the federal bill are satisfied then the purchase mandate need not apply in that state. Accordingly, if a state were to create a state-wide government run public health insurance option to compete with private health insurance plans there would be no need to have the purchase mandate in that state.
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Our new aim is to create a popular movement in certain targeted states to create such a state-wide public option plan. If enough petition signatures are collected, public referendums can be generated on the state level where measures such as the public health insurance option can be put on state-wide ballot for the people to decide on in an up or down vote (too bad we don’t have something like this on the national level). In this way measures can be brought up for votes in state-wide elections despite the fact that these powerful health insurance companies have enough money to by off entire state legislatures. It just won’t matter.
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The next step is to have some experts get together and create a boiler-plate legislative package that will create state-wide public option health insurance plans. Once we have a workable plan we can begin the process of targeting states more likely to be agreeable to this idea and then begin petition drives to get the plan on the next state wide election. Once people in other states see how well these programs work the pressure to adopt similar plans in other states will likely be overwhelming, and so on, and so on, and so on. This plan can really work but it’s going to take a lot of help from you the people to get it done.
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If you like this approach and want to be part of the effort then please go back to www.HR676.org, the parent site for this blog, and send in your contribution. We’ll do the rest. If you have special knowledge and skills that can be helpful in this kind of effort please let us know and volunteer to help organize in your state if you are able to do so.
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Thanks for your help and support,
Larry Pius, Dir.
Email: info@hr676.org
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April 18, 2010 by admin.
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
The Associated Press
Friday, April 16, 2010
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Starting in July, a special high-risk pool will offer coverage to uninsured people with pre-existing health conditions at a cost similar to what everyone else pays. It’s the first test of whether the administration can deliver on Obama’s vision within the budget Congress set.
But some vulnerable patients are probably going to feel a little cheated. Consider this coverage wrinkle:
Suppose your cancer is in remission. You had to quit your job while you were having chemotherapy, and your employer coverage ran out. You can’t find a private insurer who’ll take you, but you’re lucky to live in a state that has its own high-risk pool. Still, you have to struggle to pay the premiums, well above standard insurance because sicker people are in the group. Yet as the federal program is designed, you wouldn’t be able to switch over and take advantage of significant savings.
Click here to read the full article
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April 1, 2010 by admin.
By FRANK RICH
NY TimesPublished: March 27, 2010
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THERE were times when last Sunday’s great G.O.P. health care implosion threatened to bring the thrill back to reality television. On ABC’s “This Week,” a frothing and filibustering Karl Rove all but lost it in a debate with the Obama strategist David Plouffe. A few hours later, the perennially copper-faced Republican leader John Boehner revved up his “Hell no, you can’t!” incantation in the House chamber — instant fodder for a new viral video remixing his rap with will.i.am’s “Yes, we can!” classic from the campaign. Boehner, having previously likened the health care bill to Armageddon, was now so apoplectic you had to wonder if he had just discovered one of its more obscure revenue-generating provisions, a tax on indoor tanning salons.
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But the laughs evaporated soon enough. There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. And as the week dragged on, and reports of death threats and vandalism stretched from Arizona to Kansas to upstate New York, the F.B.I. and the local police had to get into the act to protect members of Congress and their families.
(Please click here to read the rest of the column)
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