True, false and the in-between of health reform: Illegal immigrants

A large part of the noise provided by opponents of health care reform has been in reference to claims that illegal immigrants would be getting open access to health care.

One of the best ways to prevent this, is to have provided for a robust form of photo I.D. that anybody applying for health care benefits must show in order to prove citizenship. You’d think that the Republicans would have been all in favor of this, but instead opposed it at every turn. They believe that a national identity card will be the next step to ‘big brother’.

May I also assume that these same folks have burned their drivers licenses, passports, military ID,  Medicare and social security cards? Uh, probably not. Logic rarely enters into these sorts of discussions.

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How does reform play for Nevadans?

Updated on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:26 by mavenandmeddler

If you’ve been wondering, read this well written letter from Bob Fulkerson at PLAN:

 “No longer will the United States be the outlier among wealthy nations in leaving so many

of its citizens without basic health coverage.” E.J Dionne

 For many years, Nevada’s unofficial state motto has varied between “The Mississippi of the West”, “Good luck” and “F You”. All of them speak to the retrograde, go-it-alone, mentality here that punishes anyone not on the top.

With the implementation in Nevada of the health care reform bill that the President just signed into law, our state will be a more humane place to live than ever before.  

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Sue Lowden vs Harry Reid (Obama) on Health Care Reform

If you have been just too busy with multiple jobs, family and other responsibilties to get the facts on Obama’s plan for heatlh care reform, you might be swayed by the claims from Sue Lowden. She would have you believe that the Democrat plan is a “one size fits all’ approach”.

There are just a few things that I’d like to point out.

It’s been tough to keep track of all the various proposed parts of the House and Senate health care proposals, but I can tell you this - they were crafted by hundreds of members of Congress. Laying it all at Harry Reid’s door - like he wrote it - is ludicrous. The final bill will be a hybrid of what the House came up with (not a public option, but not terrible) and the Senate bill (not as good as the House bill ) and what the White House has proposed.

Maybe Sue Lowden isn’t able to keep up with it any better than some of the rest of us out here in the sagebrush.

To keep it simple, you don’t have to look any further than the White House website for the Clif Notes version, as follows:

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Monday Musings: March 1, 2010

OMG. The very young ‘new guy’ at work just told me that I remind him of Erin Brockovich. What am I supposed to make of that? Especially since I got a major hair style and color overhaul on Saturday, to what I refer to as my ‘cougar’ or Angie Dickinson look.

I must have gotten a panicked look, since he quickly added that it was ‘a compliment’.

When I told my step-daughter about it tonight, as she drove home from work over in the Bay Area, she asked me “did he mean Julia Roberts?”

I wish.

Yikes. So this is the way I’m starting the week, and the weekend wasn’t much better. It was one of those lost weekends where nothing - zip - got done.

The kitchen floor looks like the dog and several racoons ( we have a doggie door ) partied hardy at the midnight hour.

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Blair House Project: Dems - 0, Repubs- 0

I said it, and I heard it. Six hours of ‘debate’ to no avail.

No Kumbaya moment here.

As I try to read through all the texts and videos, I can see one thread here: Democrats competently defended their position, with the use of well… facts. They might distort them a little to their advantage but not much. As usual, the Republicans sat there and did their usual job of calling black white, and white black. It was the usual round of non-sequitors and outrageously inaccurate talking points designed to appeal to those who only get their ‘news’ from Limbaugh and Beck.

If anything was accomplished today, and I have my doubts, it was merely to demonstrate to the middle of the road American who is genuinely confused about this complex mess over healthcare reform, that the Republicans are stil the same intractable party-of-no. They don’t intend to work with anybody, fuck-you-very-much.

Lamar Alexander, (R-TN) Republican Conference Chairman says as much:

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Read Robert Reich on healthcare reform

I simply adore Robert Reich - well, Mr. Maven comes in ahead of him hands down in other ways, but still… Reich is able to call ‘em as he sees ‘em.

That’s a quality all too rare in this day and age of political correctness and ideological posturing.

FYI: Read my post on just what a reconciliation vote is.

Read on:

 It’s Time To Enact Health Care With 51 Senate Votes

Sunday, February 21, 2010

This week the President is hosting a bipartisan gab-fest at the White House to try to tease out some Republican votes for health care. It’s a total waste of time. If Obama thinks he’s going to get a single Republican vote at this stage of the game, he’s fooling himself (or the American people). Many months ago, you may recall, the White House and Dem leaders in the Senate threatened to pass health care with 51 votes – using a process called “reconciliation” that allows tax and spending bills to be enacted without filibuster – unless Republicans came on board. It’s time to pull the trigger.

Why haven’t the President and Senate Dems pulled the reconciliation trigger before now? I haven’t spoken directly with the President or with Harry Reid but I’ve spent the last several weeks sounding out contacts on the Hill and in the White House to find an answer. Here are the theories. None of them justifies waiting any longer.

1.    Reconciliation is too extreme a measure to use on a piece of legislation so important. I hear this a lot but it’s bunk.

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Pelosi willing to get real about health care reform

I admit that I didn’t used to care much for Nancy Pelosi. I’ve come a long way and it’s statements like this - on bandaid fixs for health care - that did it for me:

“There are some things that sound easy, but you might as well send somebody a get well card, because they don’t have any more impact, except maybe they make you feel good for the moment,” said Pelosi, who paused and rethought her comparison.

“Maybe a get well card might be more effective, as a matter of fact, because it’s sincere,” she said.

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Monday Musings: December 21, 2009

The weekend was wonderful. We drove over to the Bay Area on Friday, to attend the graduation of my step-daughter. She received her graduate degree in Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco. The chapel at USF, where the ceremonies were held, is simply one of the most beautiful buildings imaginable. Not only that, but guess who else received a degree that night? How about Craig Newmark - the founder of Craigslist. (in green robes, seated, front)  Really!

I admire anybody who slogs through a graduate degree. It’s been a tough couple years - working full time in a demanding executive level position with a large company, going to school and maintaining some semblance of a family and social life. I’m especially proud of our girl - woman, actually.

Here she is with a proud papa -

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Senate healthcare bill: It may not be perfect, but ...

I guess I’m going to have to give in to the prevailing thought on the current healthcare reform bills - that they are going to be a damn sight better than what we don’t have now.

For all the naysayers: When even the freakin WSJ says it’s do-able, you’ve gotta let it go.

This came from Reid’s office today:

Washington, DC – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement today about the recent CBO analysis regarding how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would affect the rising cost of premiums:

“One of the reasons that the Senate has made health insurance reform a top priority is because of skyrocketing health insurance premiums that are breaking the backs of American families.  The most recent analysis that we received from the CBO today strengthens our belief that the Senate reform proposal will bring security and stability to American families and will stem the tide of rising premiums.”

“Most Americans will see lower premiums as a direct result of reform.  In addition, small businesses would see a reduction in premiums for their employees because of the tax credits included in the Senate proposal.  Today’s analysis confirms that millions of Americans who lack the necessary coverage to avoid potential financial ruin would have access to more coverage at an affordable price because of our proposal.

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Monday Musings: November 30, 2009

Are you waiting as breathlessly as I am to hear what Obama has to say on Tuesday, when he lets us in on the bold new plan to win the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan? The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is certainly all ears, having released a report outlining how the thing was irretrievably lost while that pack of jackasses (AKA the Bush administration) let it go to the back burner while they played oil games in Iraq.

Our adventure in Afghanistan is doomed. There are few real experts on the region that haven’t declared it so. But, I fear, the generals have Obama’s ear and the voices of reason are being drowned out.

It’s now costing us $1 million dollars per soldier to fight that war over there. And, we can’t afford to reform the broken health care insurance system.

My ass.

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Friday Fish Wrap: November 20, 2009

We’re ending the week on a cultural note, going to a performance this evening by Pilobus, the international dance troup at the Grand Sierra Resort. I think I’ve figured out how to make things like this happen more often - buy the tickets when you first hear about it and put it on the calendar. It’s done. You’ve got to go, since you already have the tickets.

I’m feeling pretty good about myself today, having stepped on the scale and been spot on at 135.5 lbs. Even after nearly a week in Florida, lunching and drinking up with a crowd of my nearest and dearest. Now if I could just lose one or two before Thanksgiving …  yeah, right.

Hey, it rained, snowed and blowed hard here in Reno today. I walked into the office all wet and windblown this afternoon and one of my office mates and I did the snow-happy dance. Yes, I can visualize myself gliding down the slopes at Mt. Rose next week - before turkey day! Yippee.

How cool is that?

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Orrin Hatch speaks out. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

“If you can’t get 70 or 80 votes on a bill that affects one-sixth of the American economy, you know it is a lousy bill,” Hatch said on Fox News Channel Thursday morning. “This is a lousy bill that is going to cost American tax payers like mad for the rest of our lives, if they happen to pass it. I hope the American people rebel.”  Orrin Hatch, R-Utah

Well, not exactly, Orrin.

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Obama needs a lesson in Foghorn-style Ass Whuppin'

As a fan of economist, Paul Krugman, I get his blog posts on my Kindle, and lately he’s been referring back to some posts earlier this year (which I read), wherein he suggested more aggressive economic policies to remedy the financial crisis we’d found ourselves in. He wasn’t alone in this.

On a different tack, I’ve heard the same thing about healthcare reform. Please, Mr. President … bipartisanship is a hopeless dream. Be aggressive and shoot for the moon. But, this is ‘No drama, Obama’ we’re talking about, and it could foretell the trap he may find himself in after it’s too late to get out.

It’s the soft, soft, softly incremental approach that the more progressive Dems have been bitching about. They seemed to complain unfairly about the slowness of Obama’s approach, but I think what they were really touching on was this apparent timidity.

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Public Option alive with Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid

As I unfurled the ever shrinking Reno Gazette-Journal this morning I had to smile. There it was in bold letters on both the A and B sections …. the public option is, indeed, alive and well. We’ve come a long way from the life support drama days of just a few weeks ago, and that is due in large part to the progressive Democrats across the nation that weren’t going to just bend over and take ‘whatever’.

Senate Majority Leader, Reid, also deserves some credit here for listening to the voices of concerned Democrats … and I am referring to real Democrats, not the Blue Dogs and their pack.

There was also a great letter to the editor in this morning RGJ that had a line something like this: “… social justice isn’t the same thing as ‘socialism’ “.

Senator Reid knows this. The more Populist among Democrats also know this.

If you don’t, then you’ve spent too much time listening to Rush Limbaugh or the rightwingers next door.

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Could the 'Blue Dog' coalition be disintegrating over the public option?

Man, I had to type that last part, public option, very carefully and read it twice, lest I look like a very unfortunate sign at one of the tea bagger events. Whew. I’m so damn tired of working and herding cats on a home remodel project that I could ….

Well, it’s nothing that a little gin and deep breathing won’t cure.

I wasn’t going to blog tonight, opting for my less public (whew! dodged the bullet again!) option of a full nights sleep, but I saw the article by Rep. Jane Harmon and Rep. Loretta Sanchez on Huffington Post and had to step up.

Ladies, you both just rock!

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Clif Notes: Why the Baucus bill bites

Hey, don’t just take my word for it that the Senate bill should be given a failing grade. Let’s take a look at the opinions of a few folks who think about this stuff for a living, as posted on The NewYorkTimes:     

Jacob S. Hacker is a professor of political science at Yale and the author of “The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream.”

To be successful, health care reform has to be constructed on three strong pillars: personal responsibility, shared responsibility and shared risk. Unfortunately, all three of these pillars are dangerously weak in Senator Baucus’s proposed legislation. In the Sisyphean search for a grand bipartisan deal that will not occur, Senator Baucus has produced a bad bill that will leave too many Americans without affordable quality coverage and do too little to ensure health security over the long term.

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Whip the House into passing a bill with the 'public option'

Don’t let the public option die. And, don’t fall for faux public options like ‘triggers’, ‘co-ops’ and similar ways of weaseling out of it.

A strong public option - a government backed and sponsored health insurance at a fair and reasonable price ( much like Medicare, but for everybody that wants it ) needs to be a part of any health care reform bill. Without it, it ain’t reform but a sham.

It comes down to this: will progressives stand up against a health care bill written by insurance industry lobbyists?   Or will they follow the lead of Rep. Grijalva, who slammed the insurance industry bill as “not legitimate,” and fight for what the President says we need to keep costs down?

We need just 40 members of the House to pledge that they will only accept a final bill that contains the public option. Will you help?

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Obama says it again, if you didn't get it the first time

There have always been those folks that resist the truth: men really did land on the moon, there really was a holocaust, Obama is a native born American … and no, the pope did not have John Lennon killed. Oh, and trial attorneys are not the only thing wrong with the health care system.

For every event there will be a cadre of loonies and an oversupply of fanciful interpretations of history. I think some people just have a need for fairy tale and drama. They lead boring lives without enough gumption or imagination to do anything constructive about it. Religion proves this.

But then there are those - and they may all belong to the cold, wet Tea Bag coalition - who are just going to be stupidly stubborn. They’re gonna resist all evidence to the contrary in a dogged determination to show everybody that they’re right!

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Here's your new assignment: Keep the 'Public Option' alive!

This is the next hurdle. The ‘public option’ is the part of health care reform that the insurance companies would most like to see killed. Folks, we can’t let that happen.

Without the public option, it’s a half measure. Reform will be just more of the same old, same old warmed over compromise that we’ve already seen doesn’t work.

Join those of us who want to fight to keep it in the final bill.

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Obama hits home run on health care reform!

We sat down at 5 p.m. with some degree of trepidation. Would he cave or would he stand tall?

It’s all expressed in this quote:

“We did not come here to fear the future, we came here to shape it.”

Point by eloquently made point, the President took on the naysayers and demagogues, the liars and the fear mongers. He tore them a ‘new one’ and beat them at their own game.

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