In my district in Houston (TX-7-Culberson) we will:
Improve coverage for 537,000 residents with health insurance.
Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 140,000 families and 14,600 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
Improve Medicare for 80,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
Extend coverage to 75,500 uninsured residents.
Guarantee that 15,000 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
Protect 500 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
Allow 60,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.
Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 5 community health centers.
Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $146
million annually.
Since we Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, are, according to the far right, supposed to be a bunch of pinko commie socialist Stalinist, Marxist and Hitlerite fascists and hippie freaks who are on a mission to ram socialism down the throats of the American people, how's that score for demonstrating a little fiscal responsibility?
Comprehensive health care reform will cost the federal government $940 billion over a ten-year period, but will increase revenue and cut other costs by a greater amount, leading to a reduction of $138 billion in the federal deficit over the same period, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, a Democratic source tells HuffPost. It will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the second ten year period.
According to the health care industry, c. would be the correct answer. According to the GOP c. is also the correct answer.
Lately we've been hearing a lot of hot air and pure BS spewing from the mouths of Republicans on health care reform. When in front of TV cameras the GOP tools for the health care industry say they speak on behalf the American people. According to the GOP:
The American people don't want it.
Oh really? Since when? You, Sir and Madam, certainly do not speak for me or for the vast majority of Americans, thank you.
One would think that broadcast journalists would at the very least ask the merchants of misinformation to cite the source of their lie. Where is John Boehner getting his data that reveals the majority of the American people are opposed to health care reform?
Why do few broadcast journalists fact check Republican statements and ask them to reveal their sources of information when there are blatant and obvious differences between known facts and GOP myths?
Crickets are chirping and they will continue to chirp until a pollster polls viewers and readers.
Broadcast journalists are unprepared, essentially lazy and don't care.
Broadcast journalists possess few if any critical thinking skills.
Broadcast journalists can't think straight b/c of the distracting voices in their ear pieces.
Broadcast journalists can't think while reading teleprompters especially when there are voices in their ear pieces at the same time.
The voices in the ear pieces and the those feeding the words into the teleprompters work for the same interests as the Republicans who lie about HCR and just about everything else 24/7/365.
All of the above.
Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General Barbara Radnofsky blasts Republican AG Abbott for challenging a law that does not exist. In her New Year's Eve press release Radnofsky wrote:
The Texas Attorney General is wrong on the law of his challenge of the senate version of the health care bill. He is wasting taxpayer resources on a loser challenge.
Attorney General Abbott challenges the constitutionality of a law that does not exist, promising to use the office of the Texas Attorney General to "explore all legal options" to dismantle federal legislation. Ironically, Texas would receive subsidies and benefits of greater magnitude than most of the nation, in the $7.5 to 10 billion range.
There they go again. Not only are Republicans willing to burn precious taxpayer resources on a frivolous lawsuit that has no legal basis, but they are also hell bent on thumbing their noses at extraordinary financial subsidies and benefits for Texans. Texas, as we well know, has the highest number of uninsured. Folks don't have health care insurance because they can't afford it or they have pre-existing conditions that no insurance company will cover. The federal health care reform bill would make health insurance more affordable and it would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. It would also put a stop to insurance companies that cut patients loose when their health care needs become too costly.
These benefits and consumer protections are what Abbott wants to kill. Abbott, like all Texas Republicans is more concerned about the interests of insurance companies than he is the people of Texas. It should also be noted that the Party that rails 24/7/365 against trial lawyers and frivilous lawsuits has no problem with either when Republican lawmakers are the ones doing the suing.
What is it with Republican Party? Does it utterly despise hard working and desperate Americans?
Is the GOP too stubborn, lazy or too dumb to wrap its head around a very complex bill? Or maybe reading is a very tedious and beyond boring act that takes time that could be otherwise spent playing golf or sipping martinis with health insurance lobbyists.
Hundreds of Americans die every month because they lack health care insurance. Do Republicans, including the self-serving,vindictive and tool for the health insurance companies, Joe Lieberman care?
Can obese pigs fly?
I did not think so.
Everyone is entitled to one's opinion but not to making up the facts.
Whether it is health care reform or the economic meltdown, Republicans refuse to realistically acknowledge the domestic disasters that confront us whether it has to do with thousands upon thousands of Americans who die because of lack of access to health insurance. Republicans are also unmoved by the thousands upon thousands of Americans who have lost their jobs, homes and everything they have worked so hard to achieve.
Check out how the Republican tools for health insurance lobbyists operate.
Witness a work in narcissism.
Oh, so, Republicans want to improve the bill? For whom? The insurance health care industry?
You betcha.
Oh, Joe, come on, be brave and come out of your Republican closet. Admit that you are a tool for the fat cat health insurance lobbyist. And so is your wife. Come on Joe, admit this is all about you and you don't give a rat's derriere about your constituents who will die sooner than they should because you care about your ego more than you do about the people who elected you.
Despite the fact that Texas boasts the highest number of uninsured residents, all Texas Republicans in the U.S. Congress voted against health care reform that would guarantee coverage for the vast majority of Texans.
All Republicans continue to spin health care industry manufactured talking point garbage about HCR.
Showing their lack of honesty and the courage to cope with much needed change in this crucial area, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, mired in the same ol' out-of-touch GOP talking point silly nonsense and everything disingenuous, actually had the nerve to co-author an editorial in the Washington Post that extolled the virtues of states taking charge of health care.
They used Texas, all places, as a shining example of the finest state run health care industry with choices for all.
Surely Rick and Newt are kidding. Surely they know they are insulting the intelligence of every Texan who knows better.
But, Rick and Newt don't really know that they are insulting our intelligence because they are completely out of touch with any reality that resides outside of their air tight bubble.
Texas, for example, has adopted approaches to controlling health-care costs while improving choice, advancing quality of care and expanding coverage. Consider the successful 2003 tort reform. Fewer frivolous lawsuits have attracted record numbers of doctors to the state as medical malpractice insurance premiums dropped by half. Christus Health, a large Catholic nonprofit system with a significant presence in Texas, spent about $100 million on liability defense payments in 2003. Last year, Christus spent $2.3 million on such payments. Much of that savings has gone into expanding health-care services in low-income neighborhoods.
Choice? Really? I didn't get a choice to choose anything other than that which is offered to me by my employer.
As we can see, it always comes down to those evil doing trial lawyers in Texas who might actually hold a robbing cheater accountable for stealing life from patients by denying the care that they need, deserve and pay for.
You might think Washington would be curious about plans to provide more low-income Texans with insurance, reduce expensive emergency-room visits for basic care and make it easier to buy into employer-sponsored insurance. Unfortunately, Washington has failed for 18 months to give Texas permission to use Medicaid dollars for these policies.
Silly boys, many small businesses cannot offer health care insurance b/c it is far too expensive.
Perry, of course, wants to steal money from the poor who are entitled to Medicaid and give it to his buddies in small business. Do you think for a minute small businesses would use the Medicaid bucks to insure their poorer employees in these dire times when banks will not lend them the money to increase inventories or meet payrolls? I kind of don't think so. At least not under the present conditions in which health care insurance coverage is off of the affordability charts.
Knowing what we know about Rick Perry, meet his Republican soul mates who voted against health care reform. And meet the few brave and principled Democrats who stepped up to answer the cries from their constituents. The picture below is not pretty.
Today, in the U.S. Congress, while Republican lawmakers teabagged outside the Capitol with the manipulated, misled and mostly racist and ignorant teabaggers who associate health care reform with the Jewish Holocaust of World War II(??!!!), fascism, Nazis, concentration camps, Hitler, McCarthy, and God knows what else, Alan Grayson spoke the truth on the House floor. Grayson is hard at work for the people he represents.
Update on yesterday teabagging event in Washington. Investigative reporters and bloggers learned that yesterday's event was sponsored by Koch Industries, a firm whose owners give large donations to right wing causes. It provided 40 buses, free transportation, signs and doughnuts for participants. In other words, yesterday's teabagging was yet another ginned up and fake populist, grassroots movement.
Unfortunately for far too many Texans, our lawmakers are either too out of touch, lazy or corrupted by greed to even read the health care reform bill. The Party of No, Never seems to be far more comfortable partying in a wacko world of lies, fear and hate.
All Texas Republicans are opposed to health care reform with or without a public option. They are opposed to competition and the freedom to choose one's insurer. Texas Republicans prefer to protect the profits of the health insurance industry rather than address the needs of their constituents in their home districts.
The uninsured dead in Texas district by district follows below the fold.
(Taking a moment to celebrate today's milestone, then back to work. - promoted by boadicea)
Texas Democrats -- progressive populists for the most part, I believe -- now have a wonderful opportunity with what looks like a healthcare reform bill in the Senate that is likely to get cloture and pass with a comfortable majority.
A lot of us were very anxious and skeptical of the ability of the Congress or the White House to deliver on this. Screw "health-insurance reform" I kept telling those Obama for America kids, we need "health-care reform!"
So, I was thinking 50/50 tie, Biden casts tie-breaking vote. In fact, this is looking even better than that. The combination of a calm President and frantic supporters is getting to be an Obama trade-mark. Remember, last August when the campaign looked bleak?
No! He won decisively.
Now, the Senate bill is short-handled as a "public option" with "opt-out" and "co-op".
That is (non-fat, no-foam latte) inside-the-beltway jargon -- the sort of thing that makes Hank Gilbert spit tobacco-juice. So, it will be up to the party and all our candidates to put big boots on these phrases and to counter GOP efforts to spook and stampede the electorate.
Big John apparently does not like to answer certain kinds of questions. Especially those about rape.
This week, over at TheCrookedDope.com, I've been interviewing every Republican Senator I can find that voted "nay" on Al Franken's anti-rape amendment. For the most part, the conversations have been exactly what I expected - Rachel Maddowish exchanges in which I speak the truth and Senators Thune, Burr, and Cochran do their best to obfuscate.
To: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
202-224-0776
Senator John Cornyn
202-228-2856
Re: Health Care Reform
I strongly urge you to vote for health care reform that includes a public option.
If a public option is not included in the bill, the health insurance industry will continue to overcharge premiums and deny care to patients. As we know from former Cigna executive, now whistle blower, Wendell Potter, the health insurance industry will continue to make obscene levels of profits, based precisely on denying critical care to very sick and dying patients. It will continue to increase premiums.
We also know from the recent report written by the AHIP that the insurance companies will indeed increase its premiums because insurance doesn't like what it read in the Baucus bill. This goes to show you how arrogant and appallingly greedy the health insurance industry has become.
We also know from the town hall meetings this past August at which we heard much about "death panels, "killing Granny," Hitler, and Pol Pot, that many of these rallies were orchestrated by special interests in the health insurance business and groups led by Dick Armey of Freedom Works and Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity. In other words, many of those town hall meetings were merely staged events to misinform people and foment fear among seniors.
Not only do Republicans hope that the uninsured will die quickly if they have the misfortune to get sick, Republicans also don't care or even remotely get what America wants.
The Party also rejoices when America loses, as we witnessed with Chicago's failed bid for the Olympics.
And now that President Obama has been honored with the Noble Peace Prize today, well, who would have thought? The GOP is predictably apoplectic. Hell, what else can one expect from a bunch of bratty bullying 13 year old sore losers who rail against anything that is not about them?
And thank you, Sir, for apologizing to the dead. It is well about time someone had the decency to stand up.
I would like to share a little personal information about the horrors of socialized medicine. My husband's family lives in France. One of my brothers-in-law needs back surgery. Because he is in pain he wants it done quickly. He has two options.
The Public Plan: $75.00 co-pay, no choice of doctor, waiting period.
The Private Plan: $150. co-pay, he chooses his doctor, no waiting period.
If my brother-in-law and his family could not afford the private plan they would still get whatever care and treatments they need at very affordable rates. A catastrophic illness would not cost them their entire savings, house, cars and everything they own, either.
We obviously have a very serious problem in the U.S.
There is no reason, knowing what we know about insurance companies and their $400. billion in annual profits, that we cannot have the same here in the good ol' U.S. of A.
No reason at all. So, what's the problem Congress? What the hell is the problem? You all get the best government run tax payer funded health coverage that money can buy at very, very affordable costs. Your premiums cost approximately $40.00 per month. The average American family with employer provided health coverage pays from $200.00 to approximately $1200 per month. Those without employer provided insurance pay even more. And, despite the fact that we pay significantly more for our plans, we receive fewer choices than you do.
Today in Houston nearly 2000 folks came to Reliant Stadium for, in some cases, desperately needed medical treatment. Shamefully, Texas has the highest number of uninsured residents. The story is particularly ugly in Houston where 1 in 3 adults are uninsured.
Dr. Oz who runs the free health clinic compared the number of uninsured, untreated people as a national disaster comparable to that of Hurricane Katrina. According to him, Houston and the rest of Texas, a health care Katrina happens everyday.
Despite the shameful statistics on the lack of health coverage, our elected U.S. lawmakers John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and in my case, John Culberson (Houston-7), continue to wage war against health care reform. As with Katrina while the world watched, Republicans showed they were not in the least bit concerned about the hurricane's victims, some of whom horribly drowned and others who, to this very day, are displaced. Republican behavior with health care reform is exactly the same. The message: Let 'em eat Advil or drop dead. It ain't our problem. Me and mine are just fine.
LBJ would use the term "peckers in pockets" when pushing through Medicare. According to the former President, he needed "peckers in his pocket" to make sure the bill passed. I imagine few Presidents have made abundant use of such colorful language as LBJ. It sure would be nice if we had him around today. Given today's political climate of hysterical drama queens and kings, LBJ's descriptions would no doubt be brutally hilarious and priceless.
Speaking of pocketed peckers, who is running the Senate healthcare mark-up today? Are our Senators working for us or are they working for insurance?
Today, on CSPAN our very own Senator John Cornyn shows us he is a pawn for the insurance industry. Cornyn likes things the way they are, meaning he does not care that Texas has the highest number of uninsured residents. And he has no intention of lifting a finger to change the plight of the untreated. Predictably Cornyn had tried to "grandfather in" insurance companies in order to protect their profits. According to Senator Rockefeller Cornyn's amendment also favored 46% of the population while it would work against 54% of the people. Is this the best Big John could do? What a stand up dude. Texas should be so proud. Fortunately his pandering amendment promoting the status quo failed 13-10.
Reacting to an amendment proposed by Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) during the Senate Finance Committee's markup of health care reform legislation on Thursday, committee member Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called his colleague a pawn of the health insurance industry.
"This is a very, very important amendment and it's a very, very bad amendment," said Rockefeller. "If there's anything which is clear, it's that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but is running certain people in this markup."
Senator Cornyn, by the way, received $759,000 from health professionals, $350,000 from insurance, $222,000 from Pharma and $248,000 from lobbyists. A video clip of the exchange between Senators Cornyn and Rockefeller can be seen in the link above.
Last night while driving home from work I listened to a portion of Jay Leno's interview with Michael Moore. As we know Michael Moore's new film Capitalism: A Love Story has been released.
Moore's interpretation of our unfettered, unrestrained and deregulated capitalism is as follows:
A pie sits on a table. The pie is cut into 10 slices. There are 10 people at the table. The fat cat, the person in the upper 1% of income earners, gets 9 of the slices. The other 9 folks have to fight over the remaining slice.
This morning on Pacifica radio a caller told her story about the plight of those without health insurance. Because of pre-existing conditions insurance for her family of 4 would cost a whopping $3200.00 per year with a $12,000. deductible, which means little very insurance coverage. She, like many folks, cannot afford it. When her 10 year old daughter badly sprained her arm, the trip to the ER and treatment came to between $1500.-$2000. This is beyond ridiculous.
This is why I have such contempt for the self-serving shills like the teabagger nut job below. They are doing all they can to make the lives of the woman who called Pacifica and others more desperate than they already are.
