Politicians are like diapers.
They should both be changed frequently and for the same reason.
This is a periodic newsletter on election and
health care reform. If you wish not to receive it please unsubscribe at the
bottom and accept my apologies for the intrusion.
.
In this issue:
1) Health
Care (the Plus version)
2) Campaign
Reform
3) Action
Items
4) Rantings
5) Tidbits
6)
Give me a Break!
7)
Book recommendations
8)
Contact Information
9)
Removal instructions
.
1
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Health Care
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Health Spending Projections Through
2016: Modest Changes Obscure Part D's Impact
Growth in national health spending is
projected to slow slightly from 6.9 percent in 2005 to
6.8 percent in 2006, marking the fourth consecutive year
of a slowing trend. The
health share of gross domestic
product (GDP) is expected to
hold steady in 2006 before resuming its historical upward
trend, reaching 19.6 percent of GDP by 2016.
Prescription drug spending growth is expected to
accelerate to 6.5 percent in 2006. Medicare prescription
drug coverage has dramatically changed the distribution of drug
spending among payers, but the net effect on aggregate
spending is anticipated to be small. [Health Affairs
26, no. 2 (2007): w242-w253 (published online 21 February
2007; 10.1377/ hlthaff.26.2.w242)]
Source:
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.26.2.w242
Private Health Insurance Is Not
the Answer
By Phil Mattera, Corporate
Research Project. Posted February 23, 2007.
Why are we keeping a hopeless, for-profit health insurance system
alive?
Funny he
should ask that; it's called Follow the Money!
Source:
http://www.alternet.org/stories/48371/ (Note that this is more
of a history of how health insurance grew over the years as opposed
to itemizing their costs to patient care.) |
From a Blogger at
http://www.alternet.org/stories/48371/
"I have spent a good part of my life in Europe and
own property in France. It is a source of disbelief in those countries
that the US has allowed ghoulish middle men to interpose themselves
between a sick person and the physician who treats him or her. By what
logic or right does a profit-grubbing insurance company middle man with
no medical training determine what treatment is appropriate, what price
is appropriate, what follow-up care is appropriate, what medication is
appropriate? And all with his and his company's profit margin as his
sole concern. This US system of providing health care is truly nuts at
it core, and hugely expensive, but also hugely profitable for the
insurance companies, obviously. Insurance companies are truly ghoulish
enterprises which profit from the misfortunes and anxieties of the
public. They are in the business of collecting premiums and serving
their bottom line, and not in the business of paying out benefits and
serving the public."
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On Campaign Reform
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From
Democracy Matters:
FAIR
AND CLEAN ELECTIONS COME TO WASHINGTON
In the wake of recent Congressional money-related scandals, some
members of Congress have decided to do something about the
deluge of private money into election campaigns. A first step in
the fight was last year’s "Voters First Pledge." Over 103
members of the House of Representatives and 9 Senators signed a
pledge that they support "full public financing of all
congressional campaigns."
The next step is the introduction of a Clean Elections Bill that
implements public financing for all Congressional election
campaigns. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) in the Senate and
Representatives John Tierney (D-MA) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) in
the House of Representatives will introduce Clean Elections
bills some time in the next month. Stay tuned to Democracy
Matters E-News for the latest information on this exciting
development. Meanwhile, spread the word about the importance of
Congressional Clean Elections on your campus and in your
community.
As Senator Durbin stated in a speech on the Senate floor January
9th, 2007: "I hope it will only be the beginning and that we can
move, in this session of Congress, to meaningful hearings and
the passage of public financing of campaigns that will truly
reform the way we elect men and women to office at the Federal
level, and restore respect to this great institution of the U.S.
Congress, both the House and the Senate."
Read Senator Durbin's Speech in Support of Public Financing.
"The one bright spot is that
108 House members of the 110th Congress have
gone on record supporting public funding of
congressional elections, including the 40 House
members who have signed on as co-sponsors of the
Clean Elections Bill. This legislation would
institute a program of public financing of
federal elections like that currently in states
like Maine, Arizona and North Carolina. The
Clean Elections Bill will be introduced by Reps.
Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and John Tierney
(D-Mass.) in the House, and Sen. Richard Durbin
(D-Ill.) in the Senate."
See complete article
HERE
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3
4
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Rantings
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I don't understand this
world. I believe man is causing global
warming, and here we are, spewing CO2
emissions into the air and everybody is scrambling for ways to
stop the gases from going into the atmosphere. Most certainly an
impossible task given the breadth of offending industries. Why
are our scientists not working on an anti-CO2
gas that can be let into the atmosphere to eat the bad gasses?
You know, like a vaccine that gobbles up the harmful materials.
Go figure! Somebody in the scientific world should consider it.
(Several days after writing this, Richard Branson from Virgin
Airlines offered a $25 million reward to any scientist that
develops a way to extract unwanted gases from the atmosphere. I
expect his suggestion to get more attention than mine, and I'm
okay with that.)
Also, I look at
US warfare and become very
critical of our government. Why are we not equipping every plane
and helicopter in the military with underside anti-groundfire lasers to
intercept missiles homing in on on our soldiers? These exact
same systems exist on the underside of Air Force One.
How many soldiers must die before we expand its use? It has also been shown that for
another $1 billion we could protect every commercial jetliner in
the US. These devices already exist, mind you. Are we waiting for the
first shoulder-fired missile to take down a United Air Lines
jumbo jet before we act? What will that do to our economy, let
alone the passengers on the plane?
And think about it. Why have we not
developed a strong electromagnetic
transmitter that explodes or disables IEDs 100 feet
before our tanks and military vehicles get blown up? Or RFID or
other laser identifiers that when detected eliminates
friendly-fire deaths, and could possibly identify unequipped
enemies as they approach barracks with bombs strapped to their
backs? None of these ideas are fool proof, but they could save
at least some lives.
Why are we just
now thinking about closing the borders
between Iraq and Iran and Syria? Is it because we can't even do
that along the Mexican border? Why haven't we been able to
spot trucks coming in from these other countries? Did we ground
our airborne spy planes? Why aren't we using infrared to spot
firearm chemicals or supposed citizens who are really terrorists?
Why are we not doing these things?
Some of
it is called stupidity, the rest is called lacking financial
resources. And when you have a president intent on giving
away government revenues in the form of tax breaks to his rich
contributors, you simply don't have cash to spend on mundane
things.
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5
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Tidbits |
How to Stop
Corporations from Avoiding State Taxes --
State corporate income tax reform is
gathering momentum in 2007, as more and more states are
considering adopting an important corporate tax reform:
combined reporting. Governors in New York,
Iowa and Pennsylvania have
already proposed this important loophole-closing reform, and
newly elected Massachusetts Governor Deval
Patrick
is sending signals that he may follow in their
footsteps. Meanwhile, a
new paper by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities'
Michael Mazerov gives the lowdown on an equally important
corporate tax reform that could productively be adopted by
every state with a corporate tax: company-specific
disclosure of taxes paid (or not paid). Mazerov's paper
includes model legislation for use in any state seeking to
shed more light on corporate tax avoidance. Source:
www.ctj.org
Taxes on Social Security benefits
--
Last year,
Wisconsin Governor Doyle signed into law a
bill completely eliminating all taxes on Social
Security benefits by 2008.
This week, Governor Doyle prepared a
new budget, which includes a measure fast-forwarding the
exemption by one year. The proposal comes at a time when the
state is straining to fill a $1.6 billion
shortfall. The proposed budget attempts to find new
revenue by increasing vehicle registration fees, cigarette
taxes, and the real estate transfer tax. The Legislative
Fiscal Bureau estimated that the Social Security exemption
alone would cost around $100 million per year. In his State
of the State speech earlier this year, Governor Doyle said
that Wisconsin had to learn to live within its means —
advice that he should heed himself. Source:
www.ctj.org
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6
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Give me a Break!
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High water bill? You best investigate it
HERE!
Want to learn how to dance? Click
HERE
It deserves
repeating:
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr
the ltteers in a wrod are, the
olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and
lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you
can sitll raed it wouthit a
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos
not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig
huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought
slpeling was ipmorantt.
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Where I’ve turned my time to in
my retirement
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0J16dyV4Du8
· Robot
dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSoVKUVOnfQ&feature=Favorites&page=1&t=t&f=b |
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7
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Book Recommendations |
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See other reviews on Amazon.com
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From an Amazon review: Robert B. Reich, Secretary of
Labor under Bill Clinton, crafts a unified but diverse work in
Reason. He forcefully attacks right-wing policies, methodically
arguing against the irrationality of policies.
Reich avoids writing like an academic (which he is) and
intersperses his agreements with personal anecdotes -
interesting events from his childhood (listening to a
conservative neighbor talk about FDR) stories from his time at
Dartmouth (as a member of an honor committee that expelled a
student for having sex), and a memorable tour of a public school
with the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan (who demanded that
vandalism on the wall be removed immediately).
Reich was especially impressive on second points:
*First, in the prelude ("The Revenge of the Radcons"), Reich
rejects "neoconservative" and "paleoconservative" labels and
instead refers throughout to "radical conservatives," or "radcons."
He describes how radical conservatives aren't really
conservative, contrasting true conservatives in the tradition of
Burke (cautious, skeptical of grand plans, big ideas,
meticulous, concerned with civilly) with radical conservatives
in the mold of Kristol and Shachtman (revolutionary, intent of
dramatic change, uncivil in the extreme).
*Second, in the discussion on economic policy ("Real
Prosperity"), Reich demonstrates his economic brilliance through
his discussion on globalization, outsourcing, and "the Two Jobs
of the Future." Here he discusses how the declining
consumer-goods sector of the American economy (replaced by
technology and foreign workers) will be counterbalanced by the
two growing sectors of the economy--personal service workers and
what Reich calls symbolic analysts. It's a unique and intriguing
argument that trumps the "protectionism-free trade" dichotomy
artificially imposed on economic debate.
In generally, an excellent discussion that presents a solid and
reasonable view of the modern United States and how it can be a
better country if liberals win the "battle for America." Five
stars.
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8
Contact information
Lohman is a
retired business owner that
volunteers’ time on the issues of
Election reform
and Universal
health care -
Contact: Jack E. Lohman
jelohman@gmail.com
or
jelohman@charter.net
Phone 414-477-8686
(cell)
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org
www.WiCleanElections.org
www.MoneyedPoliticians.com
(my book: Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America)
www.SmokeFreeDining.net
(A searchable restaurant database)
9
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Thanks.
Disclosure: I am a center-right Republican that voted for Bush
twice (though at this point I wish I could have a do-over). But the
Republicans look worse here because they are in power and the party blocking
reform. Next year it may be the Democrats taking center stage. Were I to
have a political choice it would be for a strong third-party reform
candidate in all seats. I do not like our very costly and ineffective
duopoly. Jack Lohman
See Lohman's complete disclosure
HERE.
