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Still Seething by Leslie Boyd, lettersfromtheleft.com | September 20, 2012
The more I think about it, the madder I get. There’s my friend, Lynn, who worked in human services all her life for low pay. She’s on Medicare now and she gets Social Security. She’s not on the dole and she’s not looking for a handout. Then there’s my friend, Mike, who was injured in service to his country, and the woman he would love to marry. She has diabetes and would lose her health care if she married him. These are some of the people Mitt Romney isn’t interested in. All three of these people are better Americans than Mitt will ever be. Then there’s my son, Mike. He worked hard and paid taxes until he got sick. My son was not a bum. He was not lazy. He was terminally ill and still couldn’t get what he needed, even though he had paid into the system for 15 years. read more »Still Seething by Leslie Boyd, | September 20, 2012
The more I think about it, the madder I get. There’s my friend, Lynn, who worked in human services all her life for low pay. She’s on Medicare now and she gets Social Security. She’s not on the dole and she’s not looking for a handout. Then there’s my friend, Mike, who was injured in service to his country, and the woman he would love to marry. She has diabetes and would lose her health care if she married him. These are some of the people Mitt Romney isn’t interested in. All three of these people are better Americans than Mitt will ever be. Then there’s my son, Mike. He worked hard and paid taxes until he got sick. He didn’t have health coverage because a birth defect is a pre-existing condition, and because of that, he couldn’t get the screening tests he needed. read more »What Romney Left Behind by Paul Waldman, prospect.org | September 18, 2012
One of the common misconceptions about the presidential candidate version of Mitt Romney is that he disavowed his greatest achievement in public office, health care reform, in an attempt to appeal to his party's base. The truth is that he never actually disavowed it or said it was a failure or a mistake. What he did was tell primary voters that Romneycare was really nothing at all like Obamacare, and anyway Romneycare shouldn't be tried in any other state. His comments were utterly unconvincing, but since they were always accompanied by a thunderous denunciation of Obamacare, Republican voters were assuaged enough to let it slide. Which means that had he wanted to, Romney probably could have entered the general election making a positive case on health care beyond "Repeal Obamacare!" Instead, his entire case for competence is that he got really rich in private equity, and his entire case for compassion is that his wife seems nice. read more »Thank You, Paul Ryan by Robert Kuttner, Huffington Post | September 17, 2012
Two years ago, the Democrats handed the Republicans their two crown jewels -- Social Security and Medicare. By targeting Medicare for budget "savings" that could be used to finance what the Republicans called Obamacare, the White House gave the GOP ammunition to contend that the Democrats were taking benefits away from seniors. Now, however, Republicans have given Social Security and Medicare back to the Democrats (where they belong.) Polls show that Medicare is no longer a winner for the Republicans, and the Democrats have embraced the term, "Obamacare" as positive label. The reason, of course, is Paul Ryan. read more »Progressive Breakfast by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | September 14, 2012
On the menu this morning MORNING MESSAGE: So Who Is It That Cares About The Deficit Anyway? Fed's Economic Booster Shot The Middle-Class Struggle For Survival Chicago Teacher Strike Update Breakfast Sides read more »Progressive Breakfast by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | September 12, 2012
MORNING MESSAGE: When It Comes to the DoJ and Wall Street, Don't Call It "Justice" read more »No There There by James Kwak, baselinescenario.com | September 11, 2012
On the one hand, over in Romney headquarters, they can take heart from the fact that the economy continues to sputter, as evidenced by the latest jobs report. On the other hand, as the election draws near, people will only ask more questions about what President Romney would actually do. For months now, the campaign has whispered one thing to the base (e.g., “severely conservative”) while being purposefully vague to everyone else, hoping that independents will assume he is still the moderate who introduced universal health care to Massachusetts. Now that strategy is breaking down. Exhibit A is Sunday’s comical back-and-forth-and-forth-and-back on the Affordable Care Act. But the more important Exhibit B is the Romney “tax plan.” read more »Progressive Breakfast by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | September 11, 2012
On the menu this morning: MORNING MESSAGE: Deficit Rorschach Test: The Presidents, the Editors, and the Truth More Romney Tax Problems Dithering on Obamacare Chicago Teachers Strike GOP Polling Panic Breakfast Sides read more »Progressive Breakfast by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | September 7, 2012
On the menu this morning MORNING MESSAGE: Obama's Claim For A New Mandate The Message And The Movement Unemployment Report Signals Reclaim The Solar Power Investment Mandate read more »Bill Clinton: Wonk-In-Chief by Ezra Klein, The Washington Post | September 6, 2012
“People ask me all the time how we delivered four surplus budgets,” former President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday night. “What new ideas did we bring? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.” That’s also the one-word answer to what Clinton brought to his convention speech. To a degree unusual in political rhetoric, this was a 48-minute speech about arithmetic. About math. About budgets. In that way, Clinton’s speech fit neatly into the emergent Democratic strategy to be, in this election, the party of policy. To be sure, they don’t have much of a choice. The difference between the Democratic and Republican tickets right now is the Democrats are stuck with thousands of pages of policy while the Republicans have made a strategic decision to avoid having much policy at all. read more »
The Latest
Pelosi: No Public Option, No Bill, Politico | September 4, 2009
As the White House signals that it is willing to move forward on a health reform plan without a public option, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a strong message: not so fast. more »
Medical Bills Piling Up For Underinsured , The Miami Herald | September 3, 2009
The underinsured include the working poor whose employers don't provide full coverage, people who lose their jobs and their employer-subsidized insurance, and those who fail to understand the fine print in policy contracts and end up with less coverage than they expected. A 2007 survey by the Commonwealth Fund estimates 25 million Americans are underinsured, up from 16 million in 2003. more »
Obama, Snow Work On Health Reform Compromise, CNN | September 3, 2009
President Obama and top aides have quietly stepped up talks with moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine on a scaled-back health care bill. The compromise plan would lack a government-run public health insurance option favored by Obama, but would leave the door open to adding that provision down the road under an idea proposed by Snowe. more »
US Fares Poorly In Child Welfare Survey, Truthout | September 3, 2009
America has some of the industrial world's worst rates of infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and child poverty, even though it spends more per child than better-performing countries such as Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands, a new survey indicates. more »
Health Care Lobbyist Boost Key Players In Debate, USA Today | September 2, 2009
As the debate intensifies in Congress, health care sector contributions to lawmakers on the committees overseeing the massive change to the nation's health care system are on the upswing — rising 8% between the first and second quarter of the year, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. more »
U.S. Health Insurers Face New Questions, Financial Times | September 1, 2009
Health insurers face fresh questions from the House energy and commerce committee, which is stepping up its investigation into the industry as the argument over health care reform continues. Henry Waxman, the committee’s chairman, wrote to six health insurers asking about how small businesses are “purged” from coverage when their employees become ill. more »
Health Reform Estimates Need Long View, Says Study, Reuters | September 1, 2009
The Congressional Budget Office may be missing potential savings from various health reform proposals by not looking at efforts to manage or prevent expensive, chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, researchers said in a study. The study, published in the Health Affairs journal, comes as members of the U.S. more »
Lack of Paid Sick Days Compounds Flu Problem, fresnobee.com | September 1, 2009
Health officials are urging businesses to keep sick employees home this fall to control the spread of swine flu. But for many workers, a sick day is a day without wages. So they’re still showing up for work, exposing others to the highly contagious flu strain, researchers say. more »
Job Loss Fears Linked to Health Problems, Time Wellness Blogs | August 31, 2009
Constantly worrying about losing your job may be worse for your health than actually getting laid off or being unemployed, according to a study published in the September issue of the journal Social Science and Medicine. By analyzing two large, long-term data sets for some 1,700 U.S. more »
Drug Industry to Run Ads Favoring White House Plan, The New York Times | August 10, 2009
The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday. more »
