Tag Archives: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The FY 2014 budget introduced by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-WA) presents a clear alternative to the plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). In stark contrast to the Ryan budget, which makes deep cuts to programs that women and families depend on while giving lavish tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and corporations, the Murray budget proposes new investments in early childhood programs, largely protects core safety net programs, preserves the Affordable Care Act, and advances tax fairness. However, the Murray budget includes some cuts to funding for health care and other domestic programs that could be problematic for women.

Specifically, Chairman Murray’s budget:

Supports key investments for women, families, and the economy. The Murray budget calls for new investments to expand access to pre-kindergarten, child care, Head Start, Early Head Start and home visiting services for parents with young children – programs that help children prepare to succeed in school and give parents the support they need to work.

The budget also invests in measures to speed up the economic recovery, including a $100 billion fund to support job training and infrastructure projects that would create new jobs and strengthen the economy.

Protects critical supports for vulnerable families and individuals. Chairman Murray’s budget protects most core safety net programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/Food Stamps), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and housing assistance for low-income families. Women especially rely on these programs because they face a greater risk of poverty than men at all stages of their lives.
Fully implements the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that women will have greater access to affordable health insurance and preventive care services.
Improves tax credits for working families. The budget would make permanent improvements to the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit that help lift millions of women and children out of poverty each year. These tax credit improvements were extended for only five years by the “fiscal cliff” deal at the end of 2012, unlike many of the Bush-era tax cuts that were made permanent.
Protects Social Security and promotes a secure retirement. The Murray budget would make no cuts to Social Security benefits, which is particularly important for women who are the majority of adult beneficiaries and rely on Social Security benefits for a greater share of their income than men do. The budget also provides incentives for companies to fully fund their pension plans and proposes other pension system reforms to help more Americans achieve a secure retirement.
Closes corporate tax loopholes and limits tax breaks for the wealthiest. The Murray budget would make the tax code fairer and raise $975 billion in revenue from the individuals and corporations with the greatest ability to contribute. For example, it calls for limiting tax breaks claimed by the top two percent of income earners, taxing private investment fund managers’ compensation at the same rates as regular earnings, and preventing corporations from taking advantage of offshore tax havens.
Replaces arbitrary cuts from “sequestration” with a mix of revenue increases and other spending cuts. Chairman Murray’s budget eliminates the automatic, across-the-board cuts (known as “sequestration” or “the sequester”) entirely – including restoration of FY 2013 funds. These cuts, established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), took effect March 1, 2013 and are projected to result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and critical services for millions this year alone. Under current law, sequestration will be in effect through FY 2021. The Murray budget replaces the entire sequester with a 50-50 mix of revenue increases and spending cuts.

The total spending cuts in Chairman Murray’s budget are about equal to the revenue increases – $975 billion. This total includes $382 billion cut from the discretionary side of the budget ($240 billion from defense, $142 billion from non-defense), $351 billion from the mandatory side (primarily from $275 billion in cuts to health programs), and $240 billion from interest savings.

This approach is far more fair than the Ryan budget, which not only refuses to ask millionaires and corporations to contribute a penny more toward deficit reduction but would give them huge new tax cuts. Nevertheless, some of the cuts in the Murray budget could be problematic. Specifically, the Murray budget:

Cuts $275 billion from federal health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. It will be very important to ensure that these cuts are implemented in a way that does not hurt beneficiaries.
Maintains and extends low caps on discretionary spending established by the Budget Control Act. Over the next decade, these caps will bring federal spending on non-defense discretionary programs – like Head Start, child care, K-12 education, domestic violence prevention, and job training – to its lowest level in over 50 years. The Murray budget keeps these caps in place through FY 2021 per the BCA, and caps discretionary spending in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 as well, cutting $142 billion from non-defense discretionary spending. These extremely low limits could compel reductions in services that women and their families depend on.

Document(s):

The FY 2014 Murray Senate Budget: A Fairer Path Forward for Women and Families

Black History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Bills and Hearings in the House 3/15

03/15/2013 Nativegrl77

9:00 am	Hearing: Unaffordable: Impact of Obamacare on Americans’ Health Insurance PremiumsCommittee on Energy and Commerce: Subcommittee on Health
9:30 am	Hearing: Chairman Brady Announces Hearing on MedPAC’s Annual March Report to CongressCommittee on Ways and Means: Subcommittee on Health
10:00 am	Hearing: The Posture of the U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa CommandCommittee on Armed Services: Full Committee
10:00 am	Hearing: RESCHEDULED: Oversight Hearing – Sandy Disaster Relief and RecoveryCommittee on Appropriations: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

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War on Women, Budget Edition

03/14/2013 Nativegrl77

ThinkProgress War Room

Latest GOP Budget Marks Latest Attack on Women

Budgets are statements of values and priorities. Based on the GOP’s latest budget, apparently the interests of women are not a priority.

Here’s a look at how the GOP budget is bad for women and children.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

No, lowering taxes doesn’t grow the economy.

South Carolina GOP lawmaker suggest they blocked Medicaid expansion because Obama is black.

Is Texas turning blue?

Even Paul Ryan admits that we’re not facing a debt crisis.

Latest GOP budget gives millionaires at least a $200,000 tax cut.

It’s time for the Obama administration to lift its secrecy on drones.

The new pope’s views on LGBT equality.

Everything you need to know about the Steubenville rape trial.

President Obama evolves even further on marriage equality.

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Birth Control and Bosses Don’t Mix : NWLC

03/12/2013 Nativegrl77


	Support Birth Control without Co-pays



	Tell HHS you support a workable plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays available to women, regardless of where they work.

Something is wrong with this picture: you, your boss, your birth control.
The reality is birth control and bosses don’t mix. This isn’t a question, at least for you and me. But there are actually people who think that bosses should be able to make their employees’ personal medical decisions — over 50 bosses have even gone to court over it.
The health care law guarantees that women can get birth control covered with no co-pays or deductibles. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a proposed rule whose goal is making sure this is a reality regardless of where a woman works, and the agency is asking people to comment on it.
Bosses who oppose this will be speaking out. We need you to speak out even louder in support of birth control without co-pays for women, regardless of where they work.

Send in your comments today and tell HHS you support a workable plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays available to women, no matter where they work.
When studies show that 99% of sexually active women use contraception, and that Catholic women use contraceptives at nearly the same rate as the general population, it’s shocking that some employers are trying to block access to birth control. Women must have access to no-cost, comprehensive birth control coverage without extra burdens or barriers, as promised in the health care law. So it’s up to us to ensure that the Administration’s plan gives women the ability to get seamless coverage of affordable birth control, no matter who their boss is.
Tell HHS that bosses shouldn’t stand in the way of a woman getting seamless access to birth control.

Send in your comments today and show your support of a workable plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays available to women, regardless of where they work.
We need to stand strong against these efforts to make sure important preventive health services — including birth control — are available and affordable for women who need it.
Thanks for fighting for women’s reproductive health.
Sincerely,

Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Your support allows us to continue to fight for women’s health, as well as work on many other critical issues. Please consider making a generous donation today.

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What the American People Didn’t Choose

03/12/2013 Nativegrl77

ThinkProgress War Room

6 Things Americans Did Not Vote for in 2012

Tomorrow, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will release the latest version of his infamous Republican budget plan — you know, the one that ends Medicare as we know it. As we await this plan, it’s worth considering a few things that voters did not choose in the 2012 election.

Paul Ryan: In selecting Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney put Ryan and his ideas front-and-center in the election. Voters said thanks but no thanks to Ryan and his radical ideas. Ryan even lost his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.
A Republican House of Representatives: President Obama was easily re-elected and Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate, so why are we stuck with a GOP-controlled House of Representatives? Gerrymandering. Democratic House candidates won more than a million more votes than Republican candidates, but districts drawn by Republicans for Republicans allowed the GOP to hold on to their majority. This isn’t even disputed by the Republicans. In fact, they brag about it.
The Middle Class Footing the Bill: The centerpiece of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s economic proposal was a tax plan that raised taxes on the poor and middle class in order to slash taxes for the wealthy. By contrast, President Obama proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The GOP budget’s tax proposals is nearly identical to the Romney-Ryan plan rejected by voters in November.
Ending Medicare: Mitt Romney not only chose Paul Ryan, he wholeheartedly embraced Ryan’s controversial plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system that stands to double seniors’ out-of-pocket health care costs. Romney and Ryan lost key states with senior-heavy populations, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and New Hampshire.
Repealing Obamacare: Not only did voters not vote for the team that wanted to repeal Obamacare, Mitt Romney says that the president won because of Obamacare. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan to be unveiled tomorrow will once again call for repealing Obamacare — except for its $716 BILLION in savings from Medicare. Despite demonizing the president for the cuts throughout the campaign, Ryan’s plan keeps those cuts in order to to pay for new tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street banks.
European-Style Austerity: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan proposed unrealistic draconian spending cuts, while the president proposed investments that will create jobs now and grow the middle class and our economy over the long run. The American people rejected the former and gave an Electoral College landslide to the latter. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan will feature the kind of unrealistic draconian spending cuts that will make it impossible to make investments in the middle class.The GOP plan will slow down the economy and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs. It’s the same kind of austerity that has led to shrinking economies and record-high unemployment in Europe. Austerity isn’t working there and it won’t work here.

BOTTOM LINE: Paul Ryan and his policies were soundly rejected by voters last November. Instead of doubling down on extreme and unpopular ideas like ending Medicare as we know it and raising taxes on the middle class in order to slash taxes on the wealthy, Republicans should come back to the table and agree to deal with our fiscal challenges in a responsible, balanced manner.