“Just last week, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which will safeguard millions of acres of new wilderness, protect hundreds of miles of rivers, expand trails, and keep critical habitat SAFE from OIL AND GAS leasing.”
(EMPHASIS MINE)
But members of Congress are JUST NOW turning to the most explosive issues, which could delay or derail the process.
Robert Pear, NY Times: “Efforts to overhaul the health care system have moved ahead rapidly, with the insurance industry making several major concessions and the chairmen of five Congressional committees reaching a consensus on the main ingredients of legislation. The chairmen, all Democrats, agree that everyone must carry insurance and that employers should be required to help pay for it. They also agree that the government should offer a publichealth insurance plan as an alternative to private insurance.
But members of Congress are JUST NOW turning to the most explosive issues, which could delay or derail the process.
They have yet to tackle the question of how to pay for coverage of the UNINSURED.
They have not wrestled with vehement Republican objections to the idea of a new government-run insurance plan, competing directly with private insurers.
And they have not figured out the role of state insurance regulators, who enforce hundreds of state laws mandating coverage of a myriad of items, including infertility treatments, prostate cancer screening and acupuncture….The White House, displaying a surprisingly light touch, has encouraged Democrats in Congress to make the hard decisions while the administration holds forums around the country to hear suggestions from ordinary citizens.
Congressional leaders have set an ambitious timetable, under which the House and the Senate would vote on separate bills by the end of July. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, has kept the heat on negotiators. ..In November, two weeks after the presidential election, the health insurance industry said it would ACCEPTall applicants, regardless of illness or disability, IFCongress required everyone to have coverage. The industry went a step further last week, offering to END THE PRACTICE of charging higher premiums to sick people in the individual insurance market.
But each point of agreement raises a host of questions. The government CANNOT require people to have insurance if they cannot afford it, so lawmakers must decide: Who would get subsidies? How much? And if the government subsidizes insurance, should it also prescribe the items and services that must be covered — the specific benefits or their overall value? … ”
(EMPHASIS MINE)
Provided most of it goes into our treasury as income tax.
In 1960, the high marginal rate was 91%, at incomes > $100,000, and, contrary to Laffer, things were fine.
In 1970, it was 70%.
Today, its about 35%
Consider these progressive rates:
> 250,000 40%
>500,000 45%
> 1,000,000 50%
> 2,000,000 60%
> 5,000,000 65%
> 6,000,000 70%
> 7,000,000 75%
> 8,000,000 80%
> 9,000,000 85%
> 10,000,000 90%
The NY American League team alone might finance SCHIP!
It was great to hear a pro-labor program on TV!
Polarization, from Pew Research: “”For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the MOST POLARIZED early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades,” says the Pew Research Center.
The poll finds that Obama has VERY HIGH approval from Democrats, 88 percent, and very LOW approval from Republicans, 27 percent.
The 61-point partisan gap ECLIPSES George W. Bush’s 51-point gap in his first year, and that was after the long recount and simmering charges from Democrats that Bush stole the 2000 election.
see:http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1178/polarized-partisan-gap-in-obama-approval-historic
Good question! How does ‘the government’ have the authority to do this?
Answer: From Tom Krishner, AP: ” The lender will always come in and push levers of corporate control,” said Douglas Baird, a professor who SPECIALIZES in BANKRUPTCY at the University of Chicago Law School.
“It will basically say: ‘You want me to lend money. But there are these kind of targets you have to hit.’ PRIVATE lenders do it all the time,” Baird added.
President Barack Obama, in detailing his plans for the industry Monday, said the government has no interest in running GM. But at the same time, the White House has specifically rejected a restructuring plan turned in by GM and ordered it to make deeper cuts.
“What we are interested in is giving GM an opportunity to finally make those much-needed changes that will let them emerge from this crisis a stronger and more competitive company,” Obama said.
GM and Chrysler are alive today only because of $17.4 billion in government loans.”
Or, in other words: he who loans the money calls the plays…
see:http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/business-12/1238488404322180.xml&coll=2
Robert Reich, in Truthout: ” The March employment numbers, out this morning, are bleak: 8.5 percent of Americans officially unemployed, 663,000 more jobs lost. But if you include people who are out of work and have given up trying to find a job, the REAL UNEMPLOYMENT rate is 9 percent. And if you include people working part time who’d rather be working full time, it’s now up to 15.6 percent. One in every six workers in America is now either unemployed or underemployed. ”
One of the interesting aspects of this economy is that we are hearing – for the first time in the general public, that the stated unemployment rate is low. More: ” All this means that the real economy will need a LARGER STIMULUS than the $787 billion already enacted. To be sure, only a small fraction of the $787 billion has been turned into new jobs so far. The money is still moving out the door. But today’s bleak jobs report shows that the economy is so far below its productive capacity that much more money will be needed.
This is still not the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it is a Depression. And the only way out is government spending on aVERY LARGE SCALE. We should stop worrying about Wall Street. Worry about American workers. Use money to build up Main Street, and the future capacities of our workforce.
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and a non-carbon economy should be the equivalent of a war mobilization. Hire Americans to weatherize and insulate homes across the land. Don’t encourage General Motors or any other auto company to shrink. USE THE AUTO MAKERS’ SPARE capacity to make buses, new wind turbines, and electric cars (why let the Chinese best us on this?). Enlarge public transit systems.
Meanwhile, extend our educational infrastructure. So many young people are out of work that they should be using this time to improve their skills and capacities. Expand community colleges. Enlarge Pell Grants. Extend job-training opportunities to the unemployed, so they can learn new skills while they’re collecting unemployment benefits.
Finally, ACCELERATE universal health care.” (Emphasis mine).
In “Up from Conservatism: Why the Right is Wrong for America”, by Michael Lind, the author lays out the Big Lies which have been the basis of right wing ideology:
Supply Side Economics – reducing taxes on the highest income levels – will benefit everyone. Real purpose: help the wealthiest Americans.
America’s schools are failing. Real purpose: to defund public education.
Unmarried pregnancies are highest among blacks. Real purpose: to defund welfare.
The author covers other issues, such as racism.
Fortunately for our country, these lies have failed, sanity has been restored, and the GOP is becoming a party of Southern white males.
Veteran talk radio host Ed Schultz joins MSNBC as host of “The Ed Show,” premiering on Monday, April 6.
“The Ed Show” will air weekdays, 6-7 p.m. ET. The announcement was made today by Phil Griffin, President, MSNBC.
President of MSNBC Comments
Griffin said, “I am thrilled to have Ed kicking-off our primetime lineup.”
Griffin said, “Ed’s proven that he can connect with Americans and will be a perfect complement to Chris, Keith, and Rachel. He’s already made his mark on radio and I’m excited to see what he’ll do with the 6 p.m. hour.”
Ed Schultz Comments
Ed Schultz said, “I’m excited to have this opportunity with MSNBC.”
Schultz said, “I look forward to having a day to day discussion with fellow Americans on issues that really matter to all of us.”
may indeed make surprising bedfellows, an example of which was the Sierra Club sponsored event at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland March 31st on the Blue Green Alliance: a coming together of Blue (Labor Unions), and Green (‘tree hugging’ Sierra Club types ) – a concurrence neither the environmentalists nor the ‘hard hats’ of the late sixties could ever have imagined.
The panelists were:
o Jesus Leon Santos – a Mexican progressive agriculturist, and winner of the 2008 Goldman Environmental prize.
o Jim Clark – VP of IUE-CWA.
o Margrete Strand – Sierra Club National office.
The theme was the impact of “Free” Trade on Labor and the ecology, and the promise of a new, Green, sustainable, economy.
Senior Santos presentation was an inspiring story of a grass roots organization which is working on recovering savaged land through reforestation, and encouraging others to buy local food products.
Mr. Clark gave a specific example of how the CFL bulb had been developed in Ohio, and then made oversees to avoid both living wages and environmental concerns.
Ms. Strand summarized the Blue Green concept, and pointed the way to action.
Mr. John Ryan of Sherrod’s office(former CWA) also spoke.
Questions and answers followed.
Those present were rewarded.
N.B.: Senior Santos provided an answer to the ‘ WWJD’ question: He’d plant trees!
charles' log 