Entries for This Week (March 14 - March 19)

Ken "Obstructionist" Cuccinelli Part of Republican Plan to Bring Down Obama

Posted Today at 10:23 AM
Most of us are aware of the legal challenge Virginia Attorney General Ken "the Cooch" Cuccinelli is threatening if healthcare reform is passed on Sunday. We Democrats who campaigned against him last November because of his extreme positions on social issues, realized that he would be a force to be reckoned with in terms of how he would try to use his office, but speaking for myself, I didn't fully appreciate the extent to which he would use it to oppose President Obama's policies. Although not as newsworthy, this is not the first time he has called into question the President's authority as he has already filed a legal challenge to greenhouse gasses regulation.

Elections do have consequences. I wonder how many non-teabagger Virginians who pulled the voting lever for Cuccinelli thought about the power he would have to promote his strange far right-wing views on states rights and against any growth of the federal government. I fear too many people merely voted straight Republican ticket without thinking through how activist "the Cooch" is and will be for the next four years in promulgating his and the Republican doctrine. In less than two months, he has already filed one legal challenge and is threatening another. Despite Virginia's dire fiscal condition, he has not been shy about spending our money to file expensive suits against the President's policies.

Now for what some of you might consider the conspiracy theory: I fully grasp and accept the Cooch's ideological bent. However, he is a Republican. And, although he has since clarified his stance (due to pressure from McDonnell) he earlier played to the birthers when one of them questioned whether he could "do something" about a non-American being elected president. He went so far as to lay out a "hypothetical" case for challenging Obama's birth certificate. So let's never forget that he is a member of the party of "NO", the obstructionist party, the Republicans. And, let's never forget that they are very disciplined, marching lockstep against Democrats, especially when Democrats are in power. Case in point--has even one Republican in the U.S. House or the Senate broken with the party to support health care reform? My question is this--how much of our AG's latest tactic is being done to cripple the Obama administration? It's not only the Cooch who has decided to file suit, but also 13 other Republican AGs have acted similarly. Soooo....I think this idea to file suit probably is not all be a figment of Cuccinelli's delusional ideological imagination; indeed, I think it's more the reality of lockstep standard operating procedure of the obstructionist Republican Party to oppose (and attempt to thwart) anything President Obama promotes.

 

Obama's Push for Health Care Reform in the Midwest

Posted Monday at 8:14 PM
Watch President Obama's speech today in Ohio about why Congress must pass  health care reform.

            

Tell Pelosi: We Need The Public Option

Posted Monday at 5:33 PM

Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will not pass the public option in the house because there are not enough votes for it in the Senate.

That is not correct. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee's new ad shows that the 51 votes do exist in the Senate to pass the public option with reconciliation. We need to contact Speaker Pelosi and others in Congress to let them know that we, the public, know that there is support for the public option, and we do not want it killed.

Tell Nancy Pelosi that we want the public option. Call now: (202) 225-4965

                        

It's Time To Fight For Health Care Public Option If We Want It

Posted Monday at 5:17 PM

                                       THE HEALTH CARE CRUNCH TIME

                                                         By Henry Tieleman

Virginia Voters want Warner and Webb to fight hard for the Public Option. 
Information from the Research 2000 Virginia Poll conducted in the second half of February, 2010 is presented below:

  1. 61% support the public option, only 36% support the current Senate bill without it.
  2. By 63% to 32%, independent voters favor a bill with a public option.
  3. By 7 to1, independent voters want Webb and Warner to fight harder for a health bill with a public option
  4. 74% of independent voters in Virginia support reconciliation on a good bill, only 17% would object
  5. By a 4 to 1 margin independent voters in Virginia want Senators Webb and Warner to fight for a public option in any reconciliation.
  6. Only 36% favor the health care reform bill passed in December by the US Senate without a public option. If you think the public option is important, call your senators: James Webb 202-224-4024, Mark Warner 202-224-2023 and your Representative. Urge them to fight for the public option through reconciliation.
    Faux News falsely claims that the Health Care Bill does not provide immediate benefits. In fact, numerous benefits contained in the Senate Bill would become available in the first year after the bill is enacted. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act include the following first year benefits:
  7. Eliminate life time limits and eliminate annual limits on health care benefits. Your insurer cannot suddenly throw you off the rolls because you have exceeded your current annual limit.
  8. Some interim help for people who have pre-existing conditions.
  9. Require insurers to cover preventive care and immunizations.
  10. Access to affordable coverage for uninsured people with pre-existing conditions, providing $5 billion in immediate federal support for coverage.
  11. Allow young adults to stay on their parent’s insurance plan until age 26.
  12.  Force insurers to spend 80% of all premium dollars on medical care, thus capping the money that can go toward administrative profits.
  13.  Create an appeals process and a consumer advocate for insurance customers.
  14. Create an internet site to help people shop for and compare coverages
  15. Access to quality care for vulnerable populations by making immediate and substantial investments in Community Health Care Centers.
  16. Recognize the special vulnerability of children. The plan prohibits health insurers from excluding coverage of pre-existing conditions for children.
  17. Fills the ‘donut-hole’ by giving a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the ’donut hole’ in 2010.
  18. Offers tax credits to small businesses beginning in 2010 to make employee coverage more affordable.
  19. Tax credits of up to 35% of premiums will be immediately available to firms that choose to offer coverage.
  20. Beginning January 1, 2011 Medicare beneficiaries will receive a free annual wellness visit and will have all cost sharing waived for prevention services.
  21. Stops insurers from rescinding insurance once a claim is filed.
  22. Prohibits group health plans from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that has the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees