Tag Archives: referendum

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

the President’s Plan … 2010


THE PRESIDENT’s PROPOSAL  puts AMERICANS FAMILIES and Small Business owners in control of their own HEALTH CARE

Over the past year the House and the Senate have been working on an effort to provide health insurance reform that lowers costs, guarantees choices, and enhances quality health care for all Americans. Building on that year-long effort, the President has now put forth a proposal that incorporates the work the House and the Senate have done and adds additional ideas from Republican members of Congress. The President has long said he is open to any good ideas for reforming our health care system, and he looks forward to discussing ideas for further improvements from Republicans and Democrats at an open, bipartisan meeting on Thursday.

The proposal will make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy:

  • It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today.  This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more.
  • It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.
  • It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.
  • It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.
  • It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years – and about $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

Key Provisions in the President’s Proposal:

The President’s Proposal builds off of the legislation that passed the Senate and improves on it by bridging key differences between the House and the Senate as well as by incorporating Republican provisions that strengthen the proposal.

One key improvement, for example, is eliminating the Nebraska FMAP provision and providing significant additional Federal financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid.  For America’s seniors, the proposal completely closes the Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” coverage gap.  It strengthens the Senate bill’s provisions that make insurance affordable for individuals and families, while also strengthening the provisions to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid to save taxpayer dollars.  The threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans will be raised from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and will start in 2018 for all such plans.  And another important idea included is improving insurance protections for consumers and creating a new Health Insurance Rate Authority to review and rein in unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices of insurance plans.

Summaries of Key Elements of the President’s Proposal:

~ my 2cents ...

TGIF News … what’s on CSPAN today & some weekend reminders


listening to various Media whine, cry and complain about not getting access to Tiger, well, they need him more than he needs them. The only news you can find this early Friday morning seems to be Tiger Woods, the Media keeps throwing stones, badgering his family, follow his wife around, call him names, judge him and still say he owes the people and the Media even after the Press conference. I say BS, the only people who truly care is in fact the Media, contrary to what the Media states, the general public have lives to live and would like to be informed about more important issues in the news.  The Media wants him to speak again, stating Tiger’s choice of no questions was phony, scripted and continue to verbally abuse him, it’s damned if you do damned if you don’t. So, it’s the Media vs. Tiger, is it just me or is the Media just flying off the edge of verbal insanity? MSNBC did an interview with Buzz from VanityFair, first of all. He and his magazine have questionable behavior when it comes to people of colour. I just recently decided to boycott this mag, hearing him say Tiger deceived us; come on, it’s magazines like his and the Media who put Tiger on a pedestal, unfortunately people believed mags like VanityFair, shame on him and others in the Media who have put such an importance on Tiger, it’s pretty obvious that it has probably cost his magazine money as maybe a couple of stocks associated with Tiger, get over it; not once did he talk of Tiger’s family, the kids and how that was the most important thing, even the jerk on Cnn, waiting for Tiger’s statement sounded like he had stones ready to throw …still? The Media needs to stop pushing their personal ideals on the public. Tiger gave his speech though many are still bashing him and will continue to do so. I am glad he controlled what the Media got and hopefully Tiger, his cubs and wife will bounce back. So, my advice to the Media? It’s over done…move on. It would be nice to see more on Haiti, that Public Option is still alive and why it will help all Americans… facts over fiction or gossip from the Media would be nice.

and while Tiger is on every single station  …

The President is stumping for Senator Reid as well as providing great information on what needs to be done to get America back on track; gotta say this guy, Reid has been a tough character, has devoted his entire life to politics and with all of his controversy he seems like someone we need in the Senate; the town hall mtg should give people a better view of Senator Reid and make the right choice, we need democrats to correct what the house of Bush did …

So, does Iran have nukes? Reports say there was some knowledge of something going on in 2007, maybe even before that, ok, so why didn’t the house of Bush do something about it then? Why did the Bush admin let it slide? here we are, it’s 2010 and the deception by Iran about how close they are to nuke power seems like such a surprise now, really?  …  or did the last admin just ignore the warnings?  just one of many issues left by the last admin for President Obama to clean up and with possible sanctions coming to Iran, which, btw includes other countries cooperating with each other; definitely a big difference from the last admin… cooperation… novel idea right?

and other stuff in the news …

**Olympia Washington’s Mayor Pro Tem Joe Hyer has decided to take a leave of absence amid allegations of drug trafficking. But local Republicans insist he should resign.

**Tim Pawleny said at CPAC “let’s get the 9iron, like TWood’s wife and smash the windows of gov’t, i kind of wonder if there was more to his comment than meets the eye, just askin

**CPAC … We all need to see and hear what these people are up to-watch for yourself  the 2/18/2010 and 2/19/2010 sessions below

watch CPAC Day 1 watch CPAC Day 2

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

What the Recovery Act did for us All …


Just over a year ago, thanks in part to your organizing, President Obama was able to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.

The Recovery Act wasn’t a silver bullet, but it’s very good policy. It cut taxes for 95% of working families to give them a leg up as they fight to get by. It invested in our nation’s infrastructure and clean energy. it gave tax breaks to small businesses to help hire workers, and it helped out state and local governments — including local police departments like the one in Englewood, Colorado, which was able to hire officers like Eddie B., whose story is below.

We’ve got a lot more work to do. But as many as 2.4 million Americans are working now who would otherwise be unemployed, and we’re breaking the back of the recession.

We put together a video explaining where we were just one year ago, and what the Recovery Act has done for our country. Watch it here.

Road to Recovery: Watch the video

In the three months prior to the Act, the nation lost 2.2 million jobs. The financial system was collapsing, and the “Great Recession” was being recognized for what it was — the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

But since the Act’s passage, Americans of all stripes have been able to get back to work. One example of what the Recovery Act made possible is the story of Eddie B., from Englewood, Colorado.

He graduated from police academy in 2009. Without the Recovery Act, he and his classmates would have had to wait for two years before being hired into the police department — but stimulus funds led to him being hired immediately. In Eddie’s words, “the President, with the Recovery Act, gave me the opportunity to serve my community and help the people I live with.”

The success of the Recovery Act is composed of millions of stories like Eddie’s — of folks getting to work who wouldn’t otherwise be in their jobs, families able to buy their first home because of the homeowner’s tax credit, and much more.

Please check out the video we put together, and pass it along to 5 friends:

http://my.barackobama.com/RecoveryVideo

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Maria Cantwell says no to the Public Option


People in Seattle and Washington State should know that Maria Cantwell has said no to supporting the Public Option

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Washington State … Tell Maria Cantwell to support the Public Option


Progressive Change Campaign Committee
Call Sen Maria Cantwell: (202) 224-3441

Al Franken and heroes

Senator Michael Bennet just announced a letter to Senator Harry Reid, asking him to pass the public option through reconciliation, which only needs 51 votes in the Senate. Senators Sherrod Brown, Jeff Merkley, and Kirsten Gillibrand have already co-signed it — and over 100 House Democrats and 300,000 Americans have signed on in support of this strategy.

Boom! In one day — after 10,000 phone calls to Congress — we doubled the number of senators who signed the letter calling on Harry Reid to pass the public option through “reconciliation.”

Al Franken (MN), Patrick Leahy (VT), John Kerry (MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) all stepped up.

P.S. CNN described the impact of this campaign:

The fight over health care reform burst back into public view Tuesday as four Democratic senators asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to hold a vote on a government-run public insurance option.

Politico added:

[Sen. Mike] Bennet took the lead in the Senate to round up co-signers for the letter, which was spearheaded by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Credo Action. A similar effort in the House netted 119 signers to a letter.

Call your Senator today and ask them to co-sign Senator Bennet’s letter asking Harry Reid to pass the public option through reconciliation—