Tag: reform

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Domestic Policies Immigration Immigration Reform News Politics

The Changing Immigration Landscape

Although the main stories in the press focus on gridlock and the lack of compromise, that doesn’t mean that things aren’t slowly changing in the United States. As usually happens, change is driven by the people as they react to circumstances created by the politicians, and that in turn leads to more calls for change. Politicians, meanwhile, usually lag behind the grass-roots calls because they are essentially reactive beings loathe to offend or move too fast.

Consider immigration. There is clearly a need to reform out immigration laws, and most of that is related to things other than a path to citizenship. The Republicans have already felt the wrath of Hispanic voters, but because most of the conservatives have safe districts, and because of their irrational fear of giving President Obama any political victory, the party doesn’t full see the urgency for a vote this term.

The latest argument is that Obama is not to be trusted with the law because he’s already made executive changes to the ACA, and the GOP fears that he will make similar changes to anything they negotiate with him. Now, though, they’re being called out by Senator Charles Schumer. His idea is to pass the law, but have it become operative in 2017, after Obama leaves office. After all, the ACA was passed in 2010 and didn’t become fully operational until 2013. Why not immigration? The GOP’s answer, through Rob Portman of Ohio, seems somewhat promising, but overall the Republicans have little interest in taking voters’ minds off the health care rollout, even if millions of Americans now have the security of health insurance.

Make no mistake that immigration reform will get done sooner or later. Sooner, it will be done with Republican input. Later, it will be done solely by Democrats because the growing Hispanic community will see the GOP as an obstacle. The next Republican presidential nominee had better drop the deportation rhetoric if they want to have any chance of being elected.

Meanwhile, the country will move forward with or without the politicians. As it always has.

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Immigration Immigration Reform Pat Buchanan Politics

Pat Buchanan Warns – Immigration Reform Will Break Up America

Pat Buchanan has said some… dumb and questionable things at times. His apparent hatred for other races has come out on many occasions. So hearing him say again that immigration reform would be the end of America, the collective response is oh, there goes Pat again. Like it’s expected. But at what point do we stop giving these hate mongers a mic?

Pat’s has been attributing immigration reform to America’s destruction for quite sometime now. Back in 2007, he lamented that the America where most immigrants came from European countries “is gone forever.” He questions why “third world countries” are now becoming a major source for new immigrants.

And keeping true to form, Buchanan continued his be-afraid-of-the-immigrant warning, saying that America will break up just like the Soviet Union did.

The Daily Caller posts a clip of Buchanan warning that if “you put 100 million Hispanic folks in the United States,” the southwest will become “as much a part of Mexico as it is of the United States.”

“If they have a different language, different culture, different faith, basically you get two peoples and two peoples eventually become two countries,” he said.

Buchanan went on to offer an alternate history of the United States, which he said became “one nation back around 1960, when all the immigrants who had come from eastern and southern Europe 1890-1920 had been assimilated and Americanized” through the Depression, World War II and television programming. “That brought us all together, and now we’re falling apart,” he said.

What you get is a growing disintegration of the country, a fragmentation into different parts. And we see this happening all over the world in the last few decades, where ethnic groups and linguistic minorities, ethnic minorities, cultural minorities, given the pressures of ethno-nationalism, are breaking up countries all over the world. It’s happening all over the Middle East; it happened in the Balkans, where Yugoslavia broke up into seven countries; the Soviet Union broke up into 15 countries.

You put 100 million Hispanic folks in the United States, and say 70 million of them on the southwest border, that becomes as much a part of Mexico as it is of the United States. If they have a different language, different culture, different faith, basically you get two peoples and two peoples eventually become two countries.

This is what I see as the future of America is the balkanization and disintegration of the country that had become one nation back around 1960, when all the immigrants who had come from eastern and southern Europe 1890-1920 had been assimilated and Americanized. We’d all gone through the Depression together, heard radio together, went through World War II together, and American television together. That brought us all together, and now we’re falling apart. – See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/buchanan-immigration-reform-will-cause-us-break-soviet-union#sthash.RABfrSaR.dpuf

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Politics Senate

Filibuster Reform – Senator Harry Reid Says Deal Is Close

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that senate leaders are getting close to a deal on filibuster reform and the chamber will take up the issue soon, probably after taking up a bill to award $60 billion in aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

“Once we complete that vital legislation,” Reid said of the Sandy bill, “the Senate will take action to make this institution that we all love — the United States Senate — work more effectively.”

“I’m confident we’ll reach an agreement that allows the Senate to operate more effectively in coming months,” he said in remarks on the Senate floor.

Democrats have been vowing to reform the Senate’s rules to make it harder for the minority party to bog down action by requiring nearly every bill to win 60 votes and clear a Republican filibuster. They believe the filibuster, once a legislative tool invoked only rarely, has become abused. Republicans say it is their only way to get a voice in a chamber where Democrats routinely prevent the GOP from offering amendments to key legislation.

h/t Washington Post

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Politics teachers

Education Reform: Baseball Bats to Bad Data

Remember when Joe Clark was the face of educational reform? The former Principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ patrolled the hallways of his out-of-control institution in the 1980s with only a bullhorn and a baseball bat, fighting poverty, gangs, crime and under-performing students as the face of urban education. His tactics were crude and anti-education, but the fact that he was a hero to many spoke volumes about the way in which people saw the problems in our schools.

Today, the people with the bullhorns and the weapons are politicians and business owners who believe that the best way to cure the ills of public schools that have educated the freest, most productive people who’ve ever lived on this planet, is to make our schools just like the entities that led the way towards job outsourcing, unconscionable home loan processes, and a laser-like focus on stock prices that have almost bankrupted the economy.

Joe Clark’s sounding mighty effective right now.

I can understand how many politicians view the public schools. When your political ideology glorifies competition above cooperation and the bottom economic line over investment in the future, you’re going to behave this way.  Of course, it’s easier if you have little contact with the public schools, either becuase you didn’t attend or you’ve decided that even in the great neighborhood that you live, a private school is better. Even the progressive Clintons sent their daughter to a private school. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter were the last White House residents to put their money where their mouths were. Just so you don’t think I’m contradicting myself too much, I do believe firmly in the right of parents to make decisions in the best interest of their children. Those choices, though, have consequences when you are an elected official with direct influence on public schools.

The main point, though, is that the people pushing for changes in schools now have little, if any, experience working in education and are deliberately excluding those who do.

Here in New Jersey, the person in charge of the program to ensure teacher quality has not one minute of experience in the classroom. Is classroom experience absolutely necessary in order for someone to create a program that will assess teachers? I would say yes. Everyone who works in schools or education should have at least 5 years of teaching experience and preferably even more. How else will you know the pressures and challenges that teachers face on a day-to-day basis? How will you know how to evaluate teachers of students with varying learning styles, academic strengths and weaknesses, and social problems? How will you see the effects that more testing has on the curriculum? Reading articles and interviewing stakeholders (well, most of them) is fine, but there’s something about direct experience that warms the souls of those who will be evaluated. Maybe it’s that we’ll see you as one of us. With some credibility. On education.

That won’t happen. And that’s the point. Without experience, all someone can do is apply the research on teacher evaluation, which is certainly not conclusive, and make assumptions. Governor Christie has not consulted public school teachers about his proposed plans not because he has legitimate differences with the teacher’s union, NJEA, over curricular matters, but because he wants to destroy the union. He isn’t interested in what public school teachers have to say about the issues because they might bring in valid but contradictory evidence that he would be responsible for addressing. His is a political argument, not an educational one. That’s why most teacher oppose them, and him.

But what about merit pay, you say? Don’t teachers want more money? In Washington, D.C., some teachers are earning up to $20,000 extra per year because they’ve been labeled “highly effective” by their supervisors. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed a similar system of merit pay for the city’s teachers. So why do many teachers oppose it (listen to the podcast)?

There are many reasons.

Competition, while a highly prized skill in business, works against the interests of schools. teachers need to cooperate with each other in order to educate students. They share lesson plans, teaching strategies and materials. If you force them to compete for money, or tell them that they are competing against other 4th grade teachers for a bonus, it destroys the trust that’s built up between those educators.

It also begs the question of where this extra money is going to come from. Budgets are already tight and spending is capped at 2% in New Jersey. If more teachers earn bonuses than the district has budgeted for, then what happens? Are raises for other teachers sacrificed?

There is also no reliable evidence that shows merit pay for teachers results in better teaching, even if you use the false argument that teachers can be evaluated based on student standardized test scores.

Merit pay is not the only issue that will harm public schools. Among the other reforms, promoting Charter schools is probably the most prominent. Charter schools do have their place as laboratories for innovative programs, but there is no reliable evidence to show that Charters perform better than public schools. They might also be harmful to a district because charters are also publicly funded and take money away from local schools. In the New Jersey suburbs, the blow-back has already begun.

The governor’s educational reform program is on hiatus at this point, but he is going to make it a priority for this year, starting with today’s State of the State Address. If he is serious about making our schools better, he’s going to have to include teachers in the conversation.

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Health Care Politics

Eight Ways The Health Care Law Helps You

The following was posted by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health And Human Services on Wed Dec 28, 2011 12:06 PM EST

As we ring in the New Year, we also want to take a minute to reflect on the progress we made in 2011. I’m proud to say that we had a very productive year for protecting the health of all Americans, especially those who are least able to help themselves. From strengthening Medicare to expanding access to preventive services to holding insurance companies accountable – young adults, families, and seniors have begun to see benefits from the health care law that took effect in 2010.

Here are eight important ways that you or your family might have benefited from the health law in 2011:

Making Sure More Americans Have Health Coverage – 2.5 million more young adults have health insurance coverage thanks to a provision in the health law allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ health insurance until age 26. This means more young adults in this country can now go on and live their lives with less worry about visiting their doctor when they get sick, or facing catastrophic medical bills if they are in an accident.

Families around the country are benefitting from this part of the law, including families like the Houghs, whose daughter Natalie was diagnosed with a rare heart condition after suffering cardiac arrest at school. Her condition requires a lifetime of medication and care. Now, thanks to the health care law, Natalie can stay on her family’s plan and has started college. And by the time she turns 26 it will be illegal for a plan to deny coverage to anyone, regardless of their health, and Natalie will have access to a choice of quality, affordable health plans.

Shedding Light on Insurance Companies – Prior to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies in too many states were able to raise their rates without explaining their actions. But now, insurers who want to hike their rates by 10%or more have to explain and justify those increases in writing. Experts will scrutinize those explanations and, in many cases, can tell the insurer to reduce their price.

As a result of this law, over the last year, 42 states, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories have stiffened their oversight of proposed health insurance rate increases. And results are beginning to come in. For example, Connecticut’s Insurance Department rejected a 20% rate hike by one insurer. And Oregon chopped the rate increase by one of its largest insurers almost in half, saving money for 60,000 people.

Giving You More Value for Your Dollar – A new consumer protection took effect in 2011 called the 80 / 20 rule. It makes sure that at least 80%of your premium dollars are being spent on health care and improving your care – not on advertising and executive salaries. If your insurer fails this test, you get a rebate, starting this summer. This rule makes sure that you get your money’s worth from your health insurance company.

Expanding Access to Free Preventive Care and Services – Under the Affordable Care Act, you and your family may be eligible for free preventive services. You may now have access to free preventive services such as:

Blood pressure readings, cholesterol tests, and nutrition counseling Many cancer screenings, including mammograms and colonoscopies Flu and pneumonia shots Routine vaccinations against diseases such as measles, hepatitis, and meningitis

Strengthening Medicare – Millions of Americans are enjoying improved Medicare coverage at a lower cost. Medicare’s premiums have remained stable and the Part B deductible will drop in 2012. Medicare beneficiaries now have access to free preventive measures like physicals, flu shots, tobacco cessation programs, mammograms, and colonoscopies. And Medicare will cover an annual wellness visit with no charge to seniors.

And thanks to the health law, the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the donut hole is starting to close. Through the end of October, 2.65 million people with Medicare have received discounts on brand name drugs in the donut hole. These discounts have saved seniors and people with disabilities a total of $1.5 billion on prescriptions – averaging about $569 per person.

Putting More Doctors in Your Community – The number of doctors, nurses, and health care professionals in the National Health Service Corps has nearly tripled in the last three years. For the first time in its forty year history, the National Health Service Corps can count more than 10,000 members in its ranks.

Improving Patient Safety – In April 2011 the Partnership for Patients launched. This is a national partnership that will help save 60,000 lives in the next three years by preventing medical errors. The Partnership for Patients also has the potential to save up to $50 billion in Medicare over the next 10 years. More than 6,500 partners, including over 2,900 hospitals as well as physicians and nurses groups, consumer groups, and employers, have pledged their commitment to the Partnership for Patients.

This will help patients across the country, including patient advocate Sorrel King. In 2001, Sorrel’s 18-month old daughter Josie accidentally suffered burns requiring a hospital stay. At first, Josie was getting better. However, after a series of unintentional but totally preventable mistakes and complications, Josie died. She became one of 44,000 to 98,000 Americans who die every year from preventable medical errors.

Cracking Down on Health Care Fraud – The Affordable Care Act has given us strong tools to fight fraud. In 2011, the Department of Justice recovered more than $5.6 billion in fraud government-wide. Of the $5.6 billion, $2.9 billion was in health care fraud alone. Providers now have to go through tougher screening procedures before they can start billing Medicare. And we’ve given investigators new tools that allow them to analyze data in order to identify and stop suspicious payments before they go out. As part of the law, we also released new rules that will give states the flexibility to recover improper Medicaid payments, saving more than $2 billion over the next five years, with nearly $1 billion going back to the states.

Categories
Health Care Politics Rick Scott

Republican Governor Rick Scott Gets Government Healthcare

This is a perfect case of  “Do what I say, not as I do!”, and it furthers exemplifies the hypocrisy of today’s Republican party and the utter joke they have become.

Case in point? Florida’s Republican Governor, Rick Scott: Scott and the rest of the Republicans, both in Congress and in state government, are on a rampage, trying to deny healthcare to regular everyday middle class Americans. Their dirty little secret is, they are happily enrolled in the very same government health care program they want you to give up.

Gov. Rick Scott, a critic of the federal health care overhaul, is paying less than $400 a year for health insurance for himself and his wife.

While Scott is accepting no salary for his job as governor, the multimillionaire and former hospital chain executive chose to enroll in the taxpayer-subsidized health insurance plan offered by the state of Florida.

Scott is among nearly 32,000 people in state government who pay relatively low health insurance premiums. It’s a perk that is available to high-ranking state officials, including those in top management at all state agencies. Nearly all 160 state legislators are also enrolled in the program that costs just $8.34 a month for individual coverage and $30 a month for family coverage.

Brian Burgess, a spokesman for Scott, confirmed the governor and his wife are enrolled in the state health insurance plan, but refused to discuss why Scott signed up. He called the governor’s health care coverage a private matter.

Apparently, government insurance is good for them, but not for you!

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