Just days before its Republican enemies are officially sworn into office in the House of Representatives and Senate — armed with their zeal and desire to repeal it — major parts of the new Health Care law with a total of 21 provisions, will go into effect in 2011.
The areas of the law scheduled to take effect January 1st 2011, are geared towards consumer protection and as its purpose suggests, it should be very popular with the American people once the measures are fully implemented. Some of the measures scheduled to take effect on January 1st are:
Rebates to Consumers if Insurance providers use less than 80% of premiums for clinical services. Providers would be required to use up to 80% of your premium to provide clinical services and quality of care to you. If they use less than this percentage, a rebate check covering the difference must be sent to you.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers must provide a 50% discount on brand-name prescriptions filled in the Medicare Part D coverage. Also, federal subsidies for generic prescriptions kick in on January 1st.
Eliminate cost-sharing for Medicare covered preventative services. Also, waives the Medicare deductible for colorectal cancer screening tests and authorizes Medicare coverage for a personalized prevention plan, including a comprehensive health risk assessment.
Creates the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test new payment and delivery system, with the goal of reducing costs while maintaining or improving quality.
Reduces the Medicare Part D premium subsidy for those with incomes above $85,000/individual and $170,000/couple. Also, freezes income requirements for medicare part B premiums at 2010 levels for the next 8 years.
Creates a new Medicaid state option to permit certain Medicaid enrollees to designate a provider as a health home and provides states taking up the option with 90% federal matching payments for two years for health home-related services.
Provides 3-year grants to states to develop programs to provide Medicaid enrollees with incentives to participate in comprehensive health lifestyle programs.
Establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living assistance services and supports (CLASS program).
Republicans, however, are promising to stop the progress of these reforms by cutting off all necessary funding. They will take over the agenda in the House of Representatives on January 5th, and will introduce more Republicans to occupy more seats in the Senate on that same day.
Polls suggests that Americans have mixed feelings about the new Health Care reform measures, mainly because they were misled by Republicans and a Conservative media. Some Republicans have even won awards for misleading or lying to the American people, like Sarah Palin’s winning Lie Of The Year Award for claiming the Health Reform contains “Death Panels” to “kill your grandma.”
Democrats claimed that they are up for the coming fight, as they try to keep their signature history-making policy alive. The rumble starts January 5th 2011.
You can’t turn on the television or radio, or pick up a news- paper these days without seeing or hearing the name “Sarah Palin” plastered throughout an article, or her name being discussed as the potential next presidential candidate for the Republican party. But over the last few weeks, Mrs. Palin has decided to engage in a fight that has upset both Democrats and Republicans alike.
Mrs. Palin’s obsession-like paranoia with Mrs. Michelle Obama’s efforts to show kids a healthier way to eat has put her at odds with her own words in the 2009 State of the State address and the views of her own party.
The program the First Lady is advocating is voluntary and geared towards schools and parents to encourage kids to eat better and to make exercise a daily part of their routine.
Mrs. Obama’s childhood antiobesity campaign has received the approval of members of both sides of the political spectrum, except Mrs. Palin, who see these efforts as “too much government” and a “government take-over.”
In an interview with conservative host Laura Ingraham, Palin said the First Lady’s effort to curb childhood obesity amounts to a lack of trust that parents can make the right decisions for their children. Palin said;
Take her anti-obesity thing that she’s on. She is on this kick, right. What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat. And..and..and I know I’m going to be again criticized for bringing this up, but instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician’s wife priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.
But these are not Palin’s first comments against Mrs. Obama’s campaign. She previously called Pennsylvania a “nanny state run amok,” when some schools in the state decided to serve more healthier foods to their students. Then, to show her disgust in these schools, Palin proceeded to hand 200 sugar cookies to a Bucks County school fundraiser. In her most annoying voice yet, Palin then said;
“I had to shake it up a little bit because I heard there is a debate going on in Pennsylvania over whether most schools condemn sweets, cakes, cookies, that type of thing. I brought dozens and dozens of cookies to these students.”
Palin’s On The Wrong Side
The Wall Street Journal, a conservative opinion page is often critical of the Obama administration on various policy decisions, but on the Palin vs. Michelle Obama issue, the Journal recalls Palin’s own words in her 2009 State of the State address, when referring to Health Care reform. She said;
” ‘Health-care reform on an individual basis is often just this simple: we could save a lot of money and a lot of grief by making smarter choices. It starts by ending destructive habits and beginning healthy habits in eating and exercise.’ “
The Journal continues;
“Mrs. Obama’s campaign is grounded in similar sentiments, and in that sense is unusual for this White House in emphasizing personal responsibility. Mrs. Palin would be more effective if she made some distinctions among the Obama policies that really are worth opposing.”
Even the conservative 2008 Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, is siding with Michelle Obama on this one. Asked on a recent radio show what he thought about Palin’s desire to attack childhood obesity, Huckabee said;
“With all due respect to my colleague and friend Sarah Palin, I think she’s misunderstood what Michelle Obama is trying to do, Michelle Obama’s not trying to tell people what to eat or trying to force the government’s desires on people, but she’s stating the obvious: that we do have an obesity crisis in this country … The first lady’s campaign is on target. It’s not saying that you can’t or should never eat a dessert.”
Sarah Palin has been the Republican golden child since John McCain anointed her the 2008 vice presidential candidate. She has since taken on a lot of policies decision by this administration and question, even lie about the effect of those policies. She has never been rebuked as a liar, except that one time when her “death panel” explanation was called lie of the year by PolitiFact – a political fact checking organization.
Now, Mrs. Palin is at it again and this time, she’s on her own. She was for healthy eating in her State of the State address, but now is against it because a Democrat in the White House is trying to educate children on healthy eating.
The politics of the moment dictates her moves. And the $100,000.00 speaking fees for criticizing the White House doesn’t hurt either.
Alan Grayson points finger and calls names in this presentation in the House of Representatives, showing why some on the right insist on continuing the tax cuts for the rich. Grayson stated the obvious, that the truth of the matter is, Congressional Republicans are all going to benefit from those tax cuts.
Alan came prepared with huge cardboard cut-out of different so-called “pundits,” detailing what they make and how much more they are sure to get if the Republicans get their way and extend the Millionaire Tax cuts.
He then came up with a better use of that extra cash these rich folks don’t need – using it to create jobs – over 3 million jobs at $30,000 a year Grayson says, is the better way to get this economy moving again.
Names like Fox News contributors, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Bill O’Reilly and even the former President himself will benefit tremendously from having these millionaire tax cuts extended. In Mr. Grayson’s own words;
They want tax cuts for the rich because they want a tax cut for themselves. What do I mean by that? Let’s take a look at the people who are really in charge, the ones who actually run the Republican party.
Let’s start with this gentleman here, the man with the cigar, Rush Limbaugh. Doesn’t he look happy? According according to Newsweek, he makes $58.7 million a year, and extending the tax cuts means he’ll have another $2.7 million. Mega dittos, Rush, and mega money. Let’s look at the next one.
Here’s Glenn Beck, according to Newsweek Glenn Beck makes $33 million a year as a pundit and extending the Bush Tax Cuts means a cool $1.5 million for Glenn bBeck’s ongoing imitation of Howard Beale from Network. Now let’s look at the next one.
Sean Hannity. Newsweek says that Sean Hannity, this man of the people makes $22 million a year from his act on Fox. And that means the Bush Tax cuts mean an extra $1 million. $1 million for Sean Hannity. Maybe he can afford some anger management classes. Let’s take a look at the next one.
Bill O’Reilly. He makes a modest $20 million a year from his gig on Fox. That means that the Bush tax cuts give him not quite seven figures, nearly $914,000 of extra cash. It’s easy to see why Bill O’Reilly wants to see the Bush tax cuts extended. And I have to say, he’s no pinhead when it comes to that.
And Now, Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin has made $14 million this year from cashing in on her fame. In fact, she’s done a better job of turning fame into cash than anyone in American history. $14 million. So she wants the Bush tax cuts extended so she can make an extra cool $638,000. As she was — as she would gesture (shoulder shrug.)
Alan Grayson did not win his re-election in November, but he is not laying down in these last few weeks of his term in Congress. He is going out with a bang, and in the process, pointing out some very significant truths along the way!
Billionaire Warren Buffett’s message to Republicans and President Obama – “I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”
Mr. Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway appeared on ABC’s This Week with host Christiane Amanpour and spoke about the Bush Tax Cuts and the Republicans claim that the rich need tax cuts to provide jobs for the middle class.
Mrs. Amanpour stated the republican claim that, “you have to keep those tax cuts, even on the very wealthy, because that is what energizes business and capitalism,” but the billionaire CEO shut down that Republican talking point with some first-hand knowledge, saying;
The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we’ll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.
The American people are catching on but so far, no luck with the Republican in Congress. These Congressional Republicans – who are themselves millionaires and make up about 44 percent of Congress – are still demanding that rich folks like Warren Buffett get more tax-cuts for “job creation.” And these Congressional millionaires will not compromise on this position.
And you thought all Republicans were automatic supporters of the former quitter from Alaska, Sarah Palin. Barbara Bush and former President George H. W. Bush taped an interview airing Monday on CNN’s Larry King Live. Asked by Larry King, what she felt about Sarah Palin, the former First Lady said;
“I sat next to her once, thought she was beautiful, and I think she’s very happy in Alaska, and I hope she’ll stay there.”
Larry King asked the former President about his feelings towards the Teaparty, to which Mr. Bush replied;
“I don’t know what it really is,” Bush said. But, he added, “I’m confused by it frankly.” He then added, “some of the ideas make a lot of sense.”
Although the honesty from Mr. and Mrs. Bush is refreshing especially in today’s political environment, it was short lived when Larry King asked about their feelings about the book “Decision Points,” written by their son and former President, George W Bush. Bush Sr. was asked what he thought about the book and replied;
Good. I think he’d done a good job selling the darn thing, he’d been out there all over the place. But I like it. It’s from the heart, it’s how he feels.”
Parents will be parents I guess, no matter what the child does or how he messed up… plagiarism and all!
Hello America. Please have a seat. We have some very disparaging news for you.
Compliments of the actions of the Republican Party, we have been led to a very definite conclusion. America, President Barack Obama is a black man, and he’s living in the White House! Please take a moment or two to absorb this!
First Lady Michelle and President Obama
At first we were blind of this fact. We were all captivated by his speeches and the calm, cool manner in which he conducted his campaign. But we never once looked at the obvious, the literal fact staring us in the face every time the then senator Barack Obama came on our big screen HD tv’s. Sure, he seemed a bit… dark, but… that could have been because of these new tanning machines. Just look at John Boehner for pete’s sake, he’s practically a black man!
Looking back, there were way too many minorities at his inauguration. That should have been a dead giveaway, but again, that too was overlooked for some strange reason. I guess it was partly due to the euphoria over his call for change and returning to a government that was for the people and by the people.
We were excited. It felt like something historic had took place and no one bothered to pay attention to the obvious. Like sheep, we joined the jubilation with all those minorities knowing that eventually, the Republican Party will do their job and investigate the inauguration and this president. And they will tell us why we were all caught up in the excitement of the newly elected president.
It didn’t take long America.
After the swearing in of President Barack Obama, the rumors started up again. Some were skeptical. He looked… different, but we were unable to put our hands on what the difference was. Was it his height? No, there were others taller. Was it his walk, his talk, his mannerism? No, it was his color!
At the time no one came out to tell us that our new president was black, no one that is, except Rush Limbaugh – the Republican truth speaker. He saw something the rest of us couldn’t, and he dropped the hint when he went on his radio show and said,“I want Barack Obama to fail!”
Now the statement by Rush was a little odd, we agree. Before the new President unpacked his bags, the conservative-radio-pundit-turned-Republican-talking points-creator, was already wishing for him to fail! America, that should have been an eye-opener right there, and yet…
But now friends, we are no longer in the dark. Thanks to the Republican Party, we see the light or, in Barack’s case, we see the darkness!
At first the hints were very subtle, a policy disagreement here and there – a no GOP vote there. We anticipated these disagreements and NO votes from the opposition party, but eventually, we all expected the two sides to come together and work for you, the American people.
But as time went on, we began to see a pattern. Policy after policy, vote after vote, the Republican Party continued moving away from making any decisions that would give a “win” to President Obama. We watched in astonishment as Republican created legislations died at the hands of the Republicans when President Obama adopted them.
The hints became even more pronounced. Thinking that Americans were not seeing the real Black Obama, Republicans stepped up their hatred a few notches.
Why else would Mitch McConnell join the Rush Limbaugh talking point and wish for the President to fail. Why would he – at a time when our economy is in the pits – state that, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
Why would John Boehner, the new Republican House Majority Leader say that the Republicans are “going to do everything, and I mean everything we can do to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can,” referring to the historical Obamacare bill the President eventually signed into law.
And it wasn’t only the Republicans in Congress. Conservative radio and television commentators went on daily and nightly rampages to bring to light the fact, that there was something different about our new President. Yes, this too is nothing new. The opposition’s pundits will ‘pundicize,’ but the level of lies, misinformation, hypocrisy and propaganda was and is, at an intensity that no one had ever seen before.
The accusation was even made that the president was being racist against white people! This was as direct as Glenn Beck could have been in pulling out the race card, and using it to his advantage!
Then we, being the observers that we are, stood back and examined the situation. Things began coming together and began making sense. The huge turnout of minorities for his inauguration, the historic feel of the moment and the unified opposition from Congressional Republicans in fighting anything and everything associated with Barack Obama, told the truth!
And that truth is simple: the Republican leaders of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor cannot accept the fact that a black President lives in the White House. They cannot accept the fact that a black president has accomplished what others failed at – comprehensive Health Care for all Americans.
And the nerve of this black President to take on the Republican mantra of Tax Cuts. He offered tax cuts to 95 percent of America’s middle class, and now he wants to make these cuts permanent.
In their effort to make sure this particular president failed, these so-called Republican leaders are willfully putting Americans in a more dire situation by opposing proven methods to stimulate economic growth. They believe that President Obama must not achieve anything while in office. It is their belief that President Obama must not get credit for anything positive. After all, he is black and in their minds – probably from lessons instilled in them from childhood – blacks cannot the amount to anything positive.
These Republican leaders believe that if President Obama succeeds in his endeavors, then this might encourage more black Americans to consider running for the presidential office in the future. That atrocity must be stopped, regardless of the benefits President Obama’s policies will have on the American people.
America, we have figured it out and now you know the truth. Thanks to the Republican Party, we now know that there’s a black President in the White House.
It was just a matter of time before the rich in this country made their voices known, either in favor of the Bush tax for the wealthy, or in favor of ending them altogether. Well now, and not a moment too late, a group of these wealthy folks have come forward and doing just that. But contrary to what the Republicans might think, these millionaires are asking President Obama to tax them more.
Yes Pecan
The group, made up of more than 40 of America’s most prosperous entrepreneurs – including hedge fund legend Michael Steinhardt, super trial lawyer Guy Saperstein, and Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s – have formed a website in the hopes that others would join their efforts to restore financial responsibilities for all Americans, and not just the middle class.
In a letter to the President, the group states;
We are writing to urge you to stand firm against those who would put politics ahead of their country.
For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you allow tax cuts on incomes over $1,000,000 to expire at the end of this year as scheduled.
We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more.
We have done very well over the last several years. Now, during our nation’s moment of need, we are eager to do our fair share. We don’t need more tax cuts, and we understand that cutting our taxes will increase the deficit and the debt burden carried by other taxpayers. The country needs to meet its financial obligations in a just and responsible way.
Rand Paul is arguably one of the most far right, extremist members of the Republican Teaparty in Congress. A self-described libertarian, Rand Paul has – among other things – expressed his desire to raise the deductible for seniors on Medicare, he wants to privatize social security and in doing so, allow the market to dictate how much of your benefits will produce a profit or if you lose it all.
Paul, like much of the other Republican Teapartiers want to eliminate the Education Department, eliminate Medicare, eliminate the minimum wage, repeal what they call “ObamaCare,” roll back Wall Street reform, put banks between students and their financial loans, eliminate the EPA, veteran’s affairs…these extremists and their views for America go on and on.
And one of the most extreme ideas put forward thus far, is the fight against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Rand Paul disagrees with the most basic parts of this Act and has criticized this bill on numerous occasions.
More specifically, Rand Paul would like business to discriminate against American citizens, for whatever reason – whether it’s based on race, sex or physical abilities. Rand Paul and his group of right winged nut-jobs think businesses should be allowed to do whatever they want, to whomever they choose.
So what would a Rand Paul World look like? Well, we can go back to the pre- Civil Rights era or we can watch this very accurate portrayal of the World Rand Paul would love to see here in 21st Century America. The clip is from the movie Life, starring Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy.
For more on Rand’s belief on Civil Rights, Click here.
Seems like Wall Street has found a friend in the Republican Party. According to a research done by The Center for Responsive Politics, Wall Street has moderately increased its donations to Democrats, while drastically increasing the payout to Republicans in congress. The Boehners of the world are finally seeing the rewards of their fight against Financial Reform materialized.
The research, that focused on the 2009 and 2010 donations by Wall Street, found in 2009 when the talks about Financial Reform were just talks, Democrats received the majority of all donations from the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate Sectors.
The Center also looked into the donations of Commercial Banks and Securities and Investment companies, and found the same to be true. Democrats were happy in 2009.
Then 2010 rolled around, and so did Financial Reform legislations. And the GOP, led by the Boehner, increased their opposition to any regulations of Wall Street. In one of his more famous speeches, the Boehner told American Bankers Association to fight!
“Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves. All of us are hearing from our friends and constituents on lack of credit, you can’t get a loan, the more your government takes and taxes, the more regulations you have to comply with the more cost you have there and less amount you are going to have available to loan to customers.”
Boehner however, wasn’t the only GOP congressman working hard for his increased donations from Wall Street. Mike Pence, (R) for Indiana’s 6th Congressional District had this to say;
“This bill can be summed up in two words: ‘government control’ and it will serve as the latest piece of the president’s job-killing agenda. This represents another defeat for Hoosier families, small businesses and family farms, who continue to wonder when Washington Democrats will set aside their big government programs and work with Republicans on ideas that can actually put Americans back to work.”
And Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader did not want the Senate to even talk about Wall Street Reforms. In one of his more mind boggling statement on the subject, McConnell said;
“We can solve this problem. But we wont solve the problem if we vote for cloture tonight. A vote for cloture is a vote that says we’re done listening to the American people on this issue. And a vote against ending this debate is a vote for bipartisanship.”
Huh? In other words, if we continue to filibuster this issue, we will somehow eventually became bipartisan or the Financial Reform issue will die. Either way, McConnell earned his pay-raise from Wall Street.
It’s a simple equation. Democrats voted for the American people and Financial reform and saw no real change in their donations. Republicans went to bat for Big Banks and Wall Street and received their pay in the form of huge donations from Big Banks and Wall Street.
The report shows the following:
2009/2010 – 1st Quarter: Financial Sector:-
Democrats donations from Financial, Insurance and Real Estate went from $10.1 million in 2009 to $10.5 million in 2010. In the same quarter, this sector’s payout to Republicans went from $5.1 million in 2009 to $16.9 million in 2010
Commercial Banks:
Democrats went from $747,000 to $862,000 while Republicans pay increased from $505,000 to $1.4 million
Securities/Investment:
Democrats went from $2.8 million in 2009 to $3 million in 2010, while Republicans went from $881,000 in 2009 to $5 million in 2010
The GOP is doing all they can to make sure that President Obama and the democrats fail at governing. This is not news, everyone knows it, except those viewers of Fox News and listeners of conservative radio shows. And yes, there is a way to behave on the congress floor. But Anthony Weiner has had it up to here, and he ain’t gonna take it no more!
Rep. Anthony Weiner
The GOP Filibusters are now the norm in Congress. Even the bills and legislations they wrote, or once voted in favor of, are now filibuster to death simply because the Democrats are proposing these legislations.
The most recent filibuster by the GOP or the party of NO was their effort to stop a proposed tax cuts to small businesses, but it was their attempted filibuster of the 9/11 Health Compensation Act that got Mr. Weiner riled up.
The 9/11 Health Compensation Act would:
Provide long-term federal funding for:
Medical monitoring and treatment of those affected by 9/11
Scientific research about 9/11-related health conditions
Re-open the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund for people exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster.
We see the state of the economy, but for these Republican politicians, politics comes first. Americans can go to hell in a paper bag for all they care, as long as they win the next election.
I’ve been watching David Gregory on Meet The Press for sometime now since he took over from the late, Tim Russert. And it seems like every Sunday, I’m left wondering what his political affiliation really is. And no, I don’t expect him to lean Democratic, but I don’t expect him to lean Republican either and “lean” is the appropriate word to describe the lope-sided Republican geared questions and talking points Mr. Gregory kicks out every Sunday.
MTP – David Gregory
Now there are many times on previous shows of Meet The Press where the point stated above could be seen, but the most recent show is what I’ll base my belief on – that he is a Republican mole.
In today’s Meet the Press, David Gregory had Carly Fiorina on among other guests. In his first question for Mrs. Fiorina, David Gregory read an entire talking point from GOP Mitt Romney where he criticizes President Obama’s leadership, then asked Carly if the criticism was fair.
The piece that David Gregory read in it’s entirety is from Mitt Romney’s Op-Ed in USA Today. The piece states;
Has it come to this again? The president is meeting with his oil spill experts, he crudely tells us, so he knows “whose ass to kick.” We have become accustomed to his management style – target a scapegoat, assign blame and go on the attack. To win health care legislation, he vilified insurance executives; to escape bankruptcy laws for General Motors, he demonized senior lenders; to take the focus from the excesses of Government, he castigated business meeting in Las Vegas; and to deflect responsibility for the deepening and lengthening downturn, he blames Wall Street and George W. Bush. But what may make good politics does not make good leadership. And when a crisis is upon us, America wants a leader, not a politician
After reading the piece, Gregory asked another Republican, Fiorina, if a fellow Republican was “fair” to criticize the democratic president. Are you for real? You bring on a Republican, read an entire piece from a fellow Republican, and then asked the other Republican, “Do you think that’s fair?”
What did David expect Carly to say, “No, Mitt was completely wrong to write those words?” Maybe he thought she actually would have come on TV to publicly chastise her ally?
Meet the Press used to be a place where you could tune in for unbiased journalism. It seems that with the unfortunate passing of Tim Russert, they’ve thrown the ‘unbiased’ part out the window. Quite frankly, it seems the ‘journalism’ part died too and was buried along with Mr. Russert.
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