During the campaign President Obama described concessions to the drug industry in Medicare Part D, decrying the lack of negotiating power for seniors and Medicare. He said this kind of business as usual would end in his administration.
He's accepted a "deal" to lower costs by giving up rights to buy from foreign distributors. He did some selling out to pharmaceutical companies in much the same way he decried duringthe campaign.
More of the same. We deserve better. President Obama please walk the walk, stop the BS. We see through it and it causes your strongest supporters to stop supporting you. Govern and lead with transparency that you promised. Politics as usual won't allow this country to thrive and may imperil our survival as a nation.
I've been underwhelmed by President Obama's description of "Exchanges".
He likens an exchange to what members of Congress have, a menu of different plans. This is alien to many people, and carries some implication that it is paid for by taxpayers (after all we pay for Congress' salaries and benefits).
Open Enrollment is something millions of Americans know through their workplace. It makes sense to describe an Exchange as Open Enrollment for all Americans. Instead of being something new and maybe frightening it is something you do every October, choose your insurance from the few expensive policies offered by your company - except now there will be more options and you don't have to work for a big company.
I've been away from Obama campaign activity since the inauguration.
There has been quite a bit of work to do trying to keep Obama accountable, and while he has been talking a good talk about Rule of Law, his actions have been antithetical to his talk. Continuing to push for accountability, ending "prolonged detention" at Bagram and Guantanamo, rolling back FISA relaxations, transparency in actions by the Treasury and Fed... quite a lot that Obama is doing that is a continuation of toxic policy from the Bush administration.
There's work Obama is doing that is worthwhile as well. A public health care plan that covers everyone is very worthwhile. It is an area of policy I will promote, I'll work with campaign organizers to see that it passes.
It's a personal issue for me as well.
I'm a 48 year old male. I'm substantially overweight, I have borderline hypertension, osteoarthritis, family history of heart disease and colon cancer, some alergies. I exercise regularly (1 hour 2x per week, active at other times). My basic health is OK - blood chemistry shows low cholesterol, medication has maintained my blood pressure in the normal range.
My COBRA eligibility ran out Dec 7 2008. Since I didn't have a claim between Dec 1 and Dec 7 I made a mistake and did not pay the $90 premium for that final week of coverage. This made me ineligible for guaranteed (HIPAA) issue coverage through a private insurer. I'm without coverage.
Had I been eligible I'd be paying $750 per month, COBRA had been costing $500 per month. During my COBRA period I had about $1200 worth of claims - ongoing prescription cost of about $10 per month and 4 doctor's visits with lab and X-rays.
Since I've been without coverage I've had to renew my prescription for blood pressure medication - I did this through Planned Parenthood, locally they provide basic health care in addition to reproductive and STD care. I had a cursory physical - weight, blood pressure, no ENT or neurologic tests, blood chemistry (lipids, liver and STD) tests for $5.00 (including lab work) (plus a $15.00 donation because the availability of this service deserves support).
Sometime in 2013-2015 I'd like to have new treatments for osteoartritis - I anticipate that stem cell treatments will be able to replace deteriorated cartilege, and that such treatment will prove better than the hip replacement the diagnosing physician suggested I'd need in 2016. I should get a second colonoscopy in 2011. Ongoing annual physical exams. So I expect healthcare outlays to be about $120/year baseline, $4,000 for colonoscopy, probably $15,000 or more for osteoartritis treatment.
At present I am low income. I own some assets, primarily two houses with mortgages. I'm looking for work. The department of labor would classify me as a discouraged worker - my last work ended in October and I was not paid for that work. I'm confident I will be working again. In the meantime I'd like to have health care coverage again. I expect I'll be saving for osteoartritis treatment, will be covered for the colonoscopy.
Insuring me fully means $20k in benefit payments over 7 years or roughly $3k per year (half what I was paying in COBRA premiums).
Last two weeks of the campaign were difficult for me; my mother died on October 23 at the age of 89. I suspended making calls until the day before the election. Made over 170 calls on Monday and Tuesday.
Now we need to stay fired up and keep Obama to a progressive agenda. He's got a strong mandate.He can repudiate the strong executive, the unfettered surveilance... We can return to a constitutional republic and rule of law. Yes we can!
Work we've done is a good start. Now for a lot more work!
I'm a bit irritated with Neighbor to Neighbor at the moment. I can't access my call lists - I had voters in Colorado and New Mexico that I wanted to call the last I checked a couple of days ago. Now none of my campaigns show up on my dashboard.
So I can't do some work for the campaign using the tool as I had been. No notice, just a landing page for the n2n tool that asks me to sign up for the weekend. This strikes me as poor management - people that had been making calls should see their campaigns - grey them out if the campaign needs work done in other states - and communicate clearly what is being done.
I made on the order of 140 attemped contacts and 20 odd contacts in California, Nevada, New Mexico and Indiana. Again, the campaign should communicate with me to tell me they've changed priorities, not just ask me to sign up for a weekend.
Turns out I can get to my voter lists via a different URL that was hidden in a campaign email that didn't mention neighbor to neighbor, but did ask me to make calls. Still it should stay on my home/dashboard as well.
McCain suspends his campaign so he can focus on the economy?
seriously, wtf? he's going to actually be a Senator? And do what? He's been showing himself as terminally clueless about economic issues for his entire campaign... Oh I get it his campaign staff of Wall Street lobbiests needs to be in Washington to get their clients baled out.
Obama should invite third party candidates to share the stage with him Friday night since McCain won't be there to debate. Let Bob Barr carry the deregulation banner.
this really is a wtf moment.
I started making phone calls for Obama again.
At the moment I'm calling people in LA/Compton and seeing what kind of volunteer activities they can help with. So far I'm seeing about a 20% bad number rate, and my timing has led to about 70% answering machine or no answers. The remaining 5% is people that want to help the campaign, primaryly through the same type of phone calling I'm doing.
The tool for doing this needs some work, it isn't as easy to use as MoveOn's tool that I used in the 2006 Congressional elections. I've taken some initiative and volunteered my computer skills to the campaign directly (one of the things I'm supposed to ask when I call is can they help with computer work). i've got 20 odd years of experience with computers and an MS in computer science. I might be better used helping clean up database schema even though that isn't my main experience.
Right now is a very good time to get re-energized to get Obama elected. People looking at the polls need to hear that Obama has a ground game and it is active - that's our job!
My personal plan is 5 calls each weeknight, 20-40 calls each weekend until the election. I may step this up as we get closer to election day.
Yes I still am irritated with him on FISA. And I'm going to get him elected. I can walk the walk like I said I would. Obama will be a force for progressive politics if we get him elected.
I've resumed making donations to Obama's campaign.
for some reason my donations (8/23 and 9/4) aren't showing up in my profile.
I'll be making some calls this weekend.
Wow. I am impressed with Obama's speaking skill once again. He managed to knock movement conservatism, promote some sensible policies and make the case that attacks in Obama for being a celebrity are attacks on his supporters and our desire for change we can believe in.
I had made a small pre convention donation. Will be making a donation for the general election after the big money donors do their thing (When will the big money donors max out?)
Biden is very poor for drug law reform, having helped write the legislation creating the Drug Czar's office, the RAVE Act, and use of foreign aid for crop eradication.
We can only hope that Obama makes good picks for AG and HHS. Well we can try to influence these picks as well.
I'd been unable to log in for the best 30 some hours, wondered if my blog content had been reviewed and the campaign decided that my support wasn't wanted due to having growing ambivalence.
I'd have liked to see Jim Webb or Wesley Clark chosen for VP - both help with the red meat military votes, and I feel they're more compelling than Biden... but it isn't my call and Biden will be helpful in Florida and pretty much lock Pennsylvania.
Cabinet is important now. Hillary for HHS? And who for AG? Someone commited to the rule of law and civil rights that will repudiate the executive power expansion in a very strong manner (prosecutions of Bush administration members if they haven't been pardoned, and who will push for revealing the truth about this administration's criminal activity if pardons are Bush's legacy.
I'm going to do some canvassing this trip to Bloomington. End of September/Beginning of October I'll be doing more canvassing in Bloomington, possibly will do some in Ben Lomond and the greater San Lorenzo Valley in California in between.
$136,282 donated by 2054 people (of 3611 that pledged). Looks like total will be on the order of $180,000.
Donate now!
3334 pledges are accelerating as we get close to Rule of Law day. 73 pledges since previous post. Tomorrow is the day to actually donate.
I believe accountability has a constituency that will do some voting with their dollars. I think that the lack of accountability is one of the primary reasons for Congress' low approval ratings.
Accountability Now PAC, 3261 - 55 new pledges since last post. Join the movement to hold our representatives accountable. We have the ability to bring about real change in Washington. This is a good vehicle for doing so. Please pledge today, donate on august 8.
We can do this!
3206 pledges now. That's over 50 today alone. Go now, pledge to donate on "Rule of Law Day" August 8 to Accountability Now PAC.
Change I believe in. No more business as usual in Washington.
Barack should be elected, then be accountable to his bosses - the american public. Yes we can!
3142 pledges to Accountability Now PAC. That's over 30 since last post, but not the pace needed to to have Friday be a huge day. Still I expect that pledges and contributions will peak on Friday, and over 4000 total individuals will give by Friday.
We believe in real change in Washington, and that starts with accountability. We can change this culture.
Yes, we can!
3108 pledges (16 since Saturday) to Accountability Now PAC. Friday is money bomb day, should go over 4000 by then.
Yesterday's post on Obama pandering on oil is still on target. What happened to him having principles and talking to the American public like adults? Oh, I guess that too many of us are easily manipulated by false arguments and Obama needs votes from people that believe leasing off shore will lower the price of gasoline.
I see Obama is calling for some oil production offshore. Umm, all this does is give oil company more reserves, it does not add a drop of oil to US production for at least 10 years. In addition it is insulting state that currently off limits areas will increase US production, when existing reserves aren't being pumped even though the exploration and discovery has already been done. Again the offshore areas haven't had even minimal exploration. If we can drill our way to lower gas prices then one would think that the oil companies would be drilling where they already have leases. They aren't doing so. They're confident in higher prices in the future and leave oil in the ground because that maximizes profits. This opening up of new areas just is a gift to oil companies.
so why did he do this? Focus groups saying gasoline price is a big issue? High gasoline prices are part of the solution to petroleum scarcity. High prices causes focus on new technologies not based on petroleum. Which is necessary, petroleum production has reached a peak at about 1000 barrels pumped per second 24/7 year round. The answer to this problem is to reduce use of oil. High prices do this. Yes it hurts in the short term. It is needed pain.
Pushing back against Republican talking points is important. Obama just caved again. He was on the right track with the comment that tires should be kept inflated on our vehicles even though he was mocked as the second coming of Jimmy Carter for that comment. Jimmy Carter's policies were based in reality, not in a fantasy that oil is unlimited. US production peaked before Carter's term. US demand is currently over double peak US production at over 20 million barrels a day.
Only 3092 pledges to Accountability Now PAC, that's 3 since my previous post.
Less then a week to go. I still have some sense that next friday will be a big day for new pledges/donations, not being privy to planning I don't know what will bring them in, but I think that the Ron Paul money bombs did have a large proportion of donations pledged and made on the day of the event. I won't be surprised if over 5,000 people take part. Would be pleasantly surprised if it was over 15,000.
