There’s no shortage of allegations that small business will be hurt by healthcare legislation, as Nancy Duff Campbell, a founder and co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, points out today at Reuters, with: “Women small business owners really need healthcare reform“ (subtitled: We need reform.)
Small businesses owners are suffering from the current system. That graduated surcharge that some say is a job killer? Campbell found that only 1.2% of all taxpayers, including 4-5% of those with some business income, would be affected. Not exactly a death-knell for job creation when you examine the spin coming from big insurance companies more closely.
Read more: http://obamesque.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/myth-busters-small-business-owners-jobs-and-health-insurance-reform/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36107220@N04/sets/72157620651404422/
I noticed that the more we go deep in President Obama agenda, the more we do encounter a stronger resistance, not only from pure Republican machine, but also from some Democrats who still not understand the message of change. We should fight and achieve our objectives in Healthcare, Education, Energy, and keep the economy going. The more we demonstrate our focus, all our opponents will finally believe in our commitment, and it will be difficult to continue their resistance movement.
Nyagatare
"A centerpiece of Obama's health proposal would be a new government health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers. The administration says the public plan would help cut costs by introducing competition, and cover the uninsured. Republicans and insurers oppose a government plan, arguing that it would undermine the private healthcare market. By focusing on delivering more efficient care, Obama is weighing in on one of the least controversial aspects of his healthcare proposal rather than the much more heated topic of whether to establish a new public insurance plan."
Republicans and insurers oppose a government plan, arguing that it would undermine the private healthcare market.
By focusing on delivering more efficient care, Obama is weighing in on one of the least controversial aspects of his healthcare proposal rather than the much more heated topic of whether to establish a new public insurance plan."
While you're wondering why anybody would oppose a plan that would both cut costs and cover the uninsured, do ask your friends that same question. Health Care is a 2 trillion dollar per year industry. Maybe somebody's making some serious green? Point friends at the article, perhaps.It's at: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE54A01P20090511?sp=true
The fight's not over.
The way for the U.S. to secure a leadership role in the 21st century is by leading on all the issues that confront the world, to exhibit thoughtful strength and realistic ideas. It will require more than military strength, diplomacy, reversing the current economic chaos, and strong alliances. Our place in the world, our rights, and our freedom depend on leading based on principles we don't just preach, but practice.
In the case of our reckless, decades-long descent into a position where we are addicted to fossil fuels mostly coming from abroad, the time for new ideas is past due. Clean new energy sources aren't just good for our children and the environment, they're a key to our national security. Now more than ever our leaders must partner with innovative businesses and entrepreneurs to make the United States more self-reliant again. The President and the Congress must resist the insidious temptation to do nothing about energy while dealing with the various other domestic and global challenges.
Of course, no matter if the business is banking or big oil, well-funded special interests don't want to give up the loopholes they've lobbied for over the years. They work to preserve their special deals with Congress, while lobbying the media into misleading Americans with catch phrases such as "Cap & tax" to keep us from thinking about what's at stake.
While most Americans support a cap on carbon pollution there's now a flood of "talking points" and sound-bites circulating about the supposed short-comings and dangers of any new plan. The real threat of cap-and-trade is that it doesn't favor the mega-corporations, and the ultra-rich energy barons. Changing to new and cleaner energy sources changes where the money goes - more of it stays in the U.S., in smaller, newer companies; it creates jobs that we desperately need to recover from the fiasco of letting the financial giants "self-regulate."
"It looks like green jobs are real. Recently, two solar energy companies — Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. and Wacker Chemie AG — announced billion-dollar investment plans to build plants near Clarksville and Chattanooga." U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
In fact, a cap and trade system simply uses pure capitalism to reward efficient, innovative businesses while it effectively penalizes out-moded industries. Used world-wide it plays to American strengths, conveying tremendous economic advantage to industries and countries ready to innovate, and results in domestic job growth. Only somebody making lots of money off the existing rules could possibly deny the benefits of a global cap and trade system.
Many members of Congress benefit from huge campaign donations from energy companies. They'd be happy if we'd all stop paying such close attention to how energy policy intertwines with national security. They smile and want you to "trust" them to get it right, and the longer they've been there the more they want you to just trust, and not verify, that they're working for you. Uh huh.
President Obama has issued an executive order establishing the White House Office of Health Reform intended to oversee "the federal government's comprehensive effort to improve access to health care, the quality of such care, and the sustainability of the health care system." Governor Howard Dean, M.D., and Democracy for America have launched the "Healthcare for All" campaign at StandwithDrDean.com, and over a quarter of a million people have enthusiastically joined in, spreading the word.
Both initiatives will help spur on reform in the health care insurance industry, and not a moment to soon. According to a recent article from Maggie Fox of Reuters,
"U.S. government economists predict that public and private health spending will hit $2.5 trillion this year, taking up a 17.6 percent share of gross domestic product. Yet studies suggest Americans get poorer care than people in other industrialized countries that have national healthcare plans, and 46 million Americans have no health insurance at all."
While Howard Dean is a visible and credible public face, the effort requires your commitment, too. Change doesn't come about in Washington unless politicians know their constituents are paying attention to an issue. You've got to keep writing to them, and to newspapers, and inform your friends, neighbors, and co-workers about the shabby state of affairs caused by insurance company profiteers siphoning off lavish pay and bonuses that drive up all our costs but add no value to the health care industry.
Even if you're not the sort who writes letters to the editor, you can help financially to provide the backing Governor Dean needs to spread the message.
1 in 6 Americans are uninsured and millions more are under-insured, yet lobbyists try to convince Congress and the media that health insurance companies are the best way to provide affordable health care to America. If the President's plan is changed to exclude an option similar to Medicare, health care in this country remains mired in the hands of insurance profiteers.
A public, single-payer option is the way to guarantee health care for all Americans. Insurance companies are in it for profit - that's what business does. Our big mistake thus far has been expecting them to behave altruistically. Where is their motive? It's on the bottom line.
New legislation without a new option is no longer a viable choice. Let people keep the for-profit coverage if they already have it, but a public health care option is overdue. Of course, competition should force private industry to provide better service at lower costs, but it still doesn't force them to help the uninsured.
"In 2009, Congress must take up and act on meaningful health reform legislation that achieves coverage for every American while also addressing the underlying problems in our health system. The urgency of this task has become undeniable."~Senator Max Baucus, (D-MT)Chairman, Senate Finance Committee12 November 2008
"In 2009, Congress must take up and act on meaningful health reform legislation that achieves coverage for every American while also addressing the underlying problems in our health system. The urgency of this task has become undeniable."
To date, the private, for-profit payment systems have enriched a few large corporations while leaving millions of average Americans one illness or injury away from medical bankruptcy. The system is broken; it's a mass of red-tape, with medical decisions in the hands of bureaucrats instead of doctors. We spend more per capita on health care than any other nation, but our results leave a lot to be desired.
“The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because we have a patchwork system of for-profit payers. Private insurers necessarily waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the bureaucracy. Combined, this needless administration consumes one-third (31 percent) of Americans’ health dollars.“
We need to re-define success. Big business is ignoring the problem, looking instead to their separate bottom lines, while non-profit organizations are bringing real innovation and proactive thinking to bear. We need insurance profiteers out of the health care industry - now. They drive costs up, because they're middle-men making a profit. What's right for their business is wrong for providing cost-effective health care to Americans. Let's pass the President's plan and move on to tackle the other thorny issues of our time: education and the economy.
The DJIA crept above 8000, there were slight up-ticks in consumer spending and housing sales reported, and suddenly we're supposed to believe the economy has bottomed out? The people I talk to are still feeling mighty insecure about their jobs, because losing your job threatens your health care and your retirement savings at a time when we know the job market is still very, very tight.
While the President is right to focus on the engines that create jobs in the U.S., such as small businesses and the schools that prepare us for those jobs, IBM has recently announced layoffs in the U.S. as they continue moving even more jobs out of the country. At IBM, business success is all about their bottom line - they're moving jobs to countries where workers earn less and have fewer benefits. Not quite what the President is working for, and certainly not what the U.S. workforce deserves.
Ms. Dawn Teo has written an OpEd at Huffington Post, "New Economic Reports Suggest Middle Class May Have To Wait For Economic Recovery" loaded with facts and figures, and I respect Dawn for her tenacious research. It's a dose of cold reality amid the sudden clamor of voices saying confidently, "it's getting better!" Did they see those unemployment numbers? Did they forget already that productivity declined in the non-farm business and manufacturing sectors in fourth-quarter 2008?
The impact of the financial deregulation orgy is not behind us yet. So trying to goad us into optimism based on a few isolated numbers, cherry-picked for their "improvement," isn't a story I'm ready to buy just yet. Not while mega corporations like IBM can still scoff and do layoffs with impunity.
Despite the setback at the end of 2008, productivity has roughly doubled in the U.S. in the last several decades, yet the benefits have flowed to the super rich, while their companies and strategies and "financial products" have abused those of us who dared to believe in terms like "privatized retirement accounts." Returning to preeminence in manufacturing and agriculture isn't simply about recapturing the American Dream, it's essential to our economy and security. The big business leaders that have touted the virtues of capitalism during those decades will be proven wrong if they fail to recognize that their profit - their success - is a direct result of the creativity and productive labor of the middle class.
When IBM can be as proud of how they treat their workers every day as General Motors was during its glory years,when I see people going back to work at jobs with good salaries and benefits, then I'll be ready to believe the U.S. economy is back on its feet. We've got a lot of work to do.
Single-payer national health insurance isn’t socialized medicine (and if it was you can bet most doctors in the U.S. wouldn’t support it.) Single-payer is simply a streamlined system in which a single agency organizes health-care financing and payments: delivery of medical care remains essentially as it in in the U.S. today - largely private. All that’s lost is the red-tape and restrictions.
Who’s against it then? Insurance companies, because they profit enormously from the current system - even though they add no value. In fact, many people will tell you that insurance companies make it hard to get what they deserve and pay for with the premiums. That’s why it was such a major focus of Obama’s campaign in 2008: he proposed that modern health care should include giving everybody in the U.S. coverage.
To get there we need the freedom to choose between keeping private insurance—for those lucky enough to have any—and opting into a universally available public health insurance option (something like Medicare.) Ultimately, by reducing the number of agencies handling the payments we simplify the task for hospitals and clinics - less of the time and money goes to red tape, and more goes to actual medical services.
Ultimately that also means diminishing the power and profits of the private insurance companies currently siphoning their lavish earnings off your health care payemnts. They make money off the red tape, and by letting non-medical personnel decide what should and should not be prescribed to treat patients, and that’s a large part of what has caused costs to soar while coverage just shrinks.
It’s time for a reality check. Insurance companies profit from the current system, so naturally they’re opposed to changes that hurt their bottom line and their corporate bonuses. What value do they add to the process?
Digg this article…
Minnesota has had Community Forums the last four years. At first, they were called DFL Meetups, and later they were called DFL Links when we started using new group software. The meetings linked people to campaigns, community organizations, issue advocates, and the DFL. The Democratic Farmer Labor Party is the name of the Democratic Party in Minnesota. I help forums get started and assist them in the third Congressional District. Most of the forums use the name of the city in which they meet and the term "Progressives." Most meet on the fourth Tuesdays of the month and have nonpartisan issue speakers at least two thirds of the time. The hosts submit their forums with the issue topics and speakers to community newspaper calendars, but almost all the attendees vote for Democrats. Can anyone suggest ways to attract a more diverse group of attendees?
I am a psychiatric RN who is becoming more and more frustrated with the amount of time I spend on the telephone attempting to get medications approved for patients. This is a decision made by their insurance company EACH of which has totally different rules about which medications can and and cannot be paid for--not always taking into account what is best for the patient. Something must be done so that we ALL are able to receive the best medical care.
I attended a meeting in MN where a group has been working on Health Care Reform for some time. They have researched different ways to find the most effective and efficient manner to have EVERYONE insured. I did not think I would agree that the form they advocated was the best. BUT after this informative session I was totally in agreement that the Single Payer System would be the best.
This is their web site. http://www.muhcc.org/home.html check it out. Rebecca
Minnesota FoodShare's annual March Campaign kicked off on March 1st and your generous donation can play an important role in tackling hunger in our community.
In 2008 the Brian Coyle Food Shelf distributed more than 113,000 pounds of food to residents in the Cedar-Riverside and Seward neighborhoods and has a goal this year of collecting 5,000 pounds/dollars to restock their shelves. Non-perishable goods or financial contributions (checks made payable to Brian Coyle Food Shelf) will be greatly appreciated by the more than 900 families who visit the Brian Coyle Food Shelf each year.
Drop off hours are 2:00pm until 6:00pm on Sunday, March 15th, at the home of DonnaMarie Woodson, who was one of the tireless metro area Obama volunteers. Even one can matters, every little bit helps.
The Coyle Center, named after former vice president of the Minneapolis City Council Brian Coyle, is also proud to host a Farmer's Market once again this summer! Local farmers will sell fresh produce at the Coyle Center on Mondays from 3-7 p.m. beginning July 7th through September 29th, 2008. The Coyle Center is creating choice, change, and connection, one person at a time.
Hello MN Change Agents!As Communications Director of the MN CAN (Community Action Network) I’ve been asked to help get the word out.
By way of introduction, as a tail end baby boomer, I have lived and worked in Minnesota my entire life. More specifically, that currently means living in White Bear Lake but I grew up in Coon Rapids and Anoka school districts, and have lived in Burnsville, Bloomington, Maplewood, Woodbury, Mankato, Golden Valley, and NE Mpls, as well. (For what it’s worth, I also have immediate family in Ham Lake, Andover, Blaine, Lakeville, Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud, St. Joseph, and Hastings:) Some of you may remember me as we biked—quite literally pedaling thousands of miles—together in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s throughout greater Minnesota with the Jaunt w/Jim (Klobuchar) Ride sponsored by the Minneapolis STRIB.
Others of you may be familiar w/my online efforts during the 2008 campaign, but I also travelled to Indiana and South Dakota to knock on doors during the primary and spent the summer working as a grassroots organizer for the Obama campaign in St. Cloud—where we gathered together to watch then Senator Obama accept the DNC nomination for POTUS at the largest Watch Party in the state of Minnesota. Like many of you I’ve also been hosting and/or attending smaller scale house parties in support of Change for the last two years and feel invested, not to mention heard, in the political process for the first time ever.
My right hand in CAN is Tom Hayes, a tireless self described “non-partisan synergist” for Change who spent hours blogging during the campaign. Tom was an Obama precinct captain in Northfield, worked closely with the metro campaign volunteers and ObamaWorks. In addition, he helped moderate and maintain the Rapid Response group on BarackObama.com. You can learn more about Tom’s leadership/philosophical approach in one of his latest online articles: If You're Not Part of the Solution.
By now you may know a little something about the CAN groups. To be clear we are not OFA 2.0 but a grassroots Community Action Network born of a strong desire to show support for our new President; helping in any way we can to DO SOMETHING about the state of the union inherited from the Bush legacy. So we requested, and graciously received, permission to build out within MyBO throughout the U.S. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to write one of the original founders, LisaLindo@aol.com, for clarification.Someone said it’s impossible to give Barack Obama too much feedback: But we’re going to try anywayJ I believe the phenomenon of this movement for Change evolved as a result of many factors coming together in this time; none of which would have been possible w/out the type of leader we find in President Obama—who has fought hard to provide everyone of us w/access to the information/tools we need to connect the dots. Now, as Tavis Smiley observed on Larry King this evening, their accountability is our responsibility. Thus, we need your help to organize and to put together action events throughout Minnesota to support our President and your communities statewide. (If you are presently located in a different state and want to stay in the loop for local activities, just let us know so we can get you connected.)
In any case we hope you’ll join us on http://My.BarackObama.com/page/group/MinnesotaCAN
We are building out this infrastructure to organize America in support of our new Leader. Please “come out” and join our (virtual) national Barn Building Party for President Obama. Our grassroots teams, in an effort to support Barack, are rolling out Grassroots Government 2.0. before the snow melts!
Our first and foremost immediate objective is to form ranks. To get involved, these are the instructions:1. Join these two groups:o http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/MinnesotaCANo http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/USACAN
2. Update your Personal Profile on MyBO with real contact information so we can interact accordingly.3. Do your part to help us develop this robust nationwide project: All MyBO members who want to participate in Grassroots Government 2.0 need to join their respective State CAN group.
To give you a heads up, a call has been put out for each county across the country to have their second CAN meeting Saturday, March 7th. (In your county, it may be the first meeting as we gear up.) At these face to face meetings in each county across MN we will elect officers, assign issue teams by individual interests, and connect people who share local concerns to work across CAN; joining forces and implementing solutions. This is the plan we make in support of President Barack Obama's upcoming legislation and programs; which are detailed in the President’s Blue Print for Change and posted at www.whitehouse.gov. Please pass this on to your friends, fellow Obama Supporters, list serves et al: The more voices people hear about how important it is to meet up in each county, in each community, the better chance we have of getting bodies in those seats, votes in those polls, and voices in the National Conversation.“We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek..” --Barack Obama
This is not a drill: Now is the time!
It’s time for politicians to pay attention to what voters said in November 2008. Voters said, government is here to stay, so stop running against government and just start running the government well. We had a failure of leadership in Washington, and Obama won the Presidency because most voters felt it was time for a change. The task of restoring the jobs, the task of rebuilding the American dream, is urgent. Real people are losing their paychecks every day. Real people are losing their health insurance every day, while millionaire bankers send their lobbyists to D.C. to make sure executives of badly run companies don't lose their bonuses, let alone their pensions or their jobs.
Barack Obama and his team in the White House are clear that they work for the people who elected them, because special interests didn't fund his campaign. He's turned his attention to health care plans that regular people can afford, and won't lose when they lose their jobs - the President knows our wages aren’t keeping pace with the price of gas, food, and prescription drugs. He's rolled up his sleeves; Obama's working every day.
This is what happens when you elect a former community organizer. Voters saw that this is a man who leads by example, a man who's more interested in action than repeating memorized talking points in a press conference. Will you be part of the solution? If you're not talking with your neighbors about community needs and priorities, rest assured there are people who have every intention of controlling how the money is spent.
Obama won’t sit idly by and let our country become even more dependent on foreign oil and imported goods while big companies outsource our jobs. He's targeted education, for example, an investment in our children that will renew our economic power and secure their future.
President Obama gets that government is only as good as the people who run it; he and his staff were working even before the inaugural. Voters are hungry for more leaders with the common sense values Obama has shown, with the courage to do what it takes to lead a clean up of the mess in Washington - so that government "for the people" serves us all by keeping teachers and policemen employed despite special interests and partisan posturing that most of us find disingenuous if not downright unpatriotic in a time of crisis.
I'm not asking who anybody voted for, or if they're a member of a political party. My question is: What are you doing while Obama's team works to save the economy, jobs, and our environment?
I'm not asking if you can help, but as a citizen of the USA I'm hoping you will.
Hello everyone. Terrence Deyo here. I promised that I would get back on the right track, blog wise (even though I am a ewbie at this). This is a really fun and exciting new way to communicate, at least for me. Technology can be a wonderful thing, if used properly (whn it actually works). Anyway enogh with the psychobabble about blogging. I was in an interesting conversation with members of my family the other day (yesterday, actually) while wew watching the ultrahit Fox Network show "24," you know the one in which Jack Bauer (Keiffer Sutherland) is the hero who saves the day when it comes to the terrorist question. Anyway it turns out that when it tild that that I had a Blog, my Brother-in-Law asks me if I could find out whether Pres. Obama can do something about the contested Senatorial race between Sen. Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken.
I told him that the President can't officially intervene without being in problems with obstruction of justice (I do believe) it certinly would be a boost to DEmocratic cause if they were to get back in shape, constitutionally. For those of you who are unaware of the situation Republican Senator Norm Coleman (incumbent) was challenged for the remaining Congressional seat by comedian Al Franken. The election was a close contest, and Minnesota law states that any election which has the result =<1% that of each other a recount is automatically called for. This is state law. The US Constitution (you can Google US Constitution as a research project) states that each state shall have 2 Congressional Senate seats. The question posed by the family and me is: "What willl happens in the long run when there is a vacant Congressional Senate seat for Minnesota?"
As it stands now Senator Amy Klobuchar is pulling double-duty, performing the duties of both her office and the office of the vacant Senate seat. All of this is while Senator Colemen, who has been officially out of a job and was locked out of his Washington, DC office by the Capital Sergeant-at-Arms. The count states that Democrats do nor have enough votes to block a fillibuster, and Senator Colemen has been doing his best to disrupt Democracy by putting a monkey-wrench into each turn. We ned to pull together and fight for the rights granted by our founders and demand that justice be served in the Senatorial race. Would it be fair to say that to the victor goes the spoils, and that Senator Coleman should show pride and honor for our state and for Democracy and allow the process to come forth full circel without impedement. At each leg of the race Senator Coleman has lost. Let's not force Democracy into yet another Constitutional crisis.
Alison des Forges
ARUSHA (AFP) — The court trying alleged perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide was stunned Saturday at the death in an air crash of the top expert on the 1994 massacres, Alison Des Forges.
Des Forges, 66, an expert advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and human rights groups, was among the 50 victims of Thursday's plane crash near Buffalo, New York.
"It is with deep shock that the tribunal has learned of the tragic disappearance of Alison des Forges, "a spokesman for the UN tribunal based in Arusha, Tanzania, told AFP.
"It is a great loss for the world of human rights, international justice and all humanity," Roland Amoussouga said.
"Alison was not only an expert but also a very committed militant," he added." It is a great loss for the world of human rights, international justice and the whole of humanity," he said.
Des Forges appeared as an expert witness in 11 trials for genocide at the ICTR, three trials in Belgium, and at trials in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Canada.
Her book "No Witness Must Survive" is regarded as the reference work on the Rwandan genocide.
"She was one of the topmost authorities on the history and politics of Rwanda," ICTR prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow said in a statement.
"As a world renowned expert in this field, her knowledge, professionalism and commitment to justice assisted the ICTR and indeed the world at large tremendously -- through her writings, her expert reports and her oral testimony spanning several trials before the tribunal -- acquire a better understanding of the genesis and course of the tragedy of the Rwanda genocide of 1994."
He added, "Dr Des Forges has made an indelible contribution to the cause of international criminal justice and to the cause of human rights."
Des Forges was also a senior adviser to Human Rights Watch, whose boss Kenneth Roth called her "truly wonderful, the epitome of the human rights activist - principled, dispassionate, committed to the truth and to using that truth to protect ordinary people."
"She was among the first to highlight the ethnic tensions that led to the genocide, and when it happened and the world stood by and watched, Alison did everything humanly possible to save people," Roth added.
