Day: February 24, 2011

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Barack Obama Health Care Politics Repeal Republican United States

Poll Finds Half Of Americans Believe Health Care Was Repealed

In a nation of newspapers, radios, televised media and even the internet including the google, information is still not reaching the masses. Or, maybe the masses don’t want to accept the information that they’re getting. In either case, a new  Kaiser Health poll found that only half of Americans know that Health Care was not repealed.

According to the poll, 48% of Americans either believed the law was repealed or did not know enough about the law to say whether it was still in effect. Just 52% of Americans correctly know that the law is still in effect.

Congressional Republicans can therefore exhale. If half of Americans think the bill has already been repealed, then what’s the fuss? John Boehner should just let this segment of society – probably ardent FOX viewers –  continue believing that Republicans have done what they promised.

The rest of us – the other half who know the repeal bill will never reach the President’s desk and if it does, it will be vetoed – we will play along, wink wink!

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Democratic Illinois Indiana Politics Republican Wisconsin

Democrats Win One. Controversial Union Language in Bill Dropped

No, I’m not talking about the language against unions in Wisconsin, I’m talking about the language against unions in Indiana. After the Republican majority in Indiana tried to pass the same anti-union bill being debated in Wisconsin, Indiana Democrats fled the state to avoid the vote. Well, it will appear that their antics worked, because according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, House Republicans in Indiana have decided to dropped the language in the bill that would have reduced the amount of union members in the state. The Wall Street Jorunal Reports;

The speaker of Indiana’s House of Representatives said he and Republican colleagues are dropping a controversial labor bill that caused Democratic representatives to flee to Illinois, but the Democrats said they’re not returning to Indiana for now. Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said the so-called right-to-work legislation is dead and will not be reintroduced during this session of the Indiana House. Democrats felt so strongly about that bill that they went to Urbana, Ill., Tuesday so that Republicans couldn’t achieve a quorum to vote on the bill.

But then again.  This could very well be a ploy by House Republicans to get the Democratic congress back in an effort to trick them into voting for the bill. Read the Wall Street Report Here

Categories
democrats Dick Cheney Politics Republican Ronald Reagan United States

Reducing The Deficit Is Not In A Republican’s D.N.A

Republicans have fooled Americans into thinking they’re all for cutting the deficit. And if you listen to them long enough and fail to do the most minimal of research, you will tend to believe the lies. But here’s a little breakdown from Robert J. Elisberg that shows how concerned Republicans were when the deficit exploded… under Republican Presidents.

During the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the national debt increased a combined 35.6%. It was the largest debt increase in U.S. history. Mr. Reagan alone tripled the national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion.

Yet Republicans didn’t complain, didn’t rise up in anger, didn’t revolt. In fact, what Republicans did do was lionize Ronald Reagan as a patron saint, the near-God of conservatives.

Under George W. Bush, the national debt increased by a combined 27.1%. The U.S. budget went from a $128 billion surplus to a $482 billion deficit. The national debt doubled from $5.7 trillion to $10.7 trillion.

And there was no outcry by Republicans. Republicans didn’t complain, didn’t rise up in anger, didn’t revolt. Even when Vice President Dick Cheney was quoted, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” Republicans didn’t complain.

In Bill Clinton’s administration, the national debt decreased. It went down by a combined 9.7%. Further — he balanced the U.S. budget.

And yet Mr. Clinton didn’t become a hero to conservatives, even the vaunted fiscal ones. The mere mention of his name still today causes body twitches.

Consider, too, that in every full administration since Nixon-Ford in 1973 up through George W. Bush in 2008 — EVERY national debt increase in America has occurred during a Republican administration. And EVERY reduction of national debt has occurred during a Democratic administration.

To this day, Republicans — that party of supposed “fiscal responsibility” — slam the Jimmy Carter presidency for incompetence. Yet the national debt went down 3.3% during the Carter administration.

Yea, there are those who refuses to do the google, and see for themselves. These are the unfortunate souls who still put their belief in the promises of the Republican party that they will “reduce the deficit.” But history is more than a subject taught in school, it also teaches us that those who fail to understand their history, tend to repeat it.

Read the rest of the article here

Categories
Politics Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Wisconsin’s Governor To Be Investigated For Violating State Law

Seems dismantling the unions of Wisconsin is not the only thing giving Governor Scott Walker a headache these days. CREW – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-partisan watchdog group – has ordered an investigation of  Mr. Walker’s use of state troopers to visit the home of Democratic Senate Leader, Mitt Miller.

According to CREW;

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a  non-partisan government watchdog group, asked the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to investigate whether Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker violated state law by sending the Wisconsin State Patrol (WSP) to the home of Democratic Senate Leader Matt Miller. CREW also submitted open records requests to the Office of the Governor, Office of the Senate Majority Leader and the WSP seeking records regarding the use of the troopers.

“Governor Walker has many tools at his disposal to fight the state’s public employees, but using troopers to track down a political opponent crosses the line,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. Sloan continued, “The governor’s conduct is especially egregious in light of a Wisconsin law specifically barring troopers from taking part in any dispute between an employer and employee over wages, hours, labor, or working conditions — the subject of the governor’s bill.”

I guess paying attention to existing laws to protect American citizens is not Scott Walker’s strong point. Trying to dismantle them seems to be what he’s more concerned about.

Categories
Politics Supreme Court of the United States United States

Judge Rules Health Care Is Constitutional, News Media Gone Fishing

So the theory is true — that proponents for health care reform will get little to no media press coverage as compared to those opposed to it. A  few weeks ago when a Republican judge ruled the entire Health Care Reform was unconstitutional and should be thrown out,  because of one aspect  called the individual mandate, the media went crazy! They were all over the story like white on rice. But yesterday, when the third judge – U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler – ruled in favor of the Obama administration and agreed that the bill is constitutional, we heard crickets!

And I am not the only one saying this. Here’s what Jed Lewison said about the unfair coverage;

coverage of Judge Roger Vinson’s decision against reform saturated the media, even though his ruling had no immediate impact on health reform.

The Vinson ruling received A1 coverage in The New York Times and dominated cable news. The Kessler ruling was covered on A14 of the Times and as far as cable news goes, I was only able to find two references to it — both on Fox, and each for less than a minute. (I’m basing this on closed caption text searches, so it’s possible I missed a couple of references, but there was hardly any coverage at all.)

After the Vinson ruling, Steve Benen pointed out the huge disparity in coverage between the two rulings in favor of reform and the two rulings against reform. Even if you were to dismiss the significance of those numbers on the theory that the rulings against reform were bigger news because they happened after the rulings that upheld reform, yesterday’s ruling should be at least as significant as Vinson’s ruling because it means that three judges have now ruled in favor of reform compared with two who have ruled against it.

If you’re keeping score, it’s 3 Democratic judges for the constitutionality of the bill, and 2 Republican judges against.

But have no dispare. There’s sure to be another Republican judge to rule against Health Care Reform, and then we will once again hear all manner of analysis and theories and punditry, references and cross-references, and interpretation, and evaluations, and breakdowns, and…..

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