It's estimated that a million voters peppered Congress with letters, emails and phone calls. That helped President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi get the job done along with some hand holding and assurances on Federal funding of abortion (already clearly forbidden by previous measures). It's too bad that health care reform has been held hostage to anyone with a particular issue. This is big (as the Vice President said in so many words) and we need to continue to act boldly to assure that everyone gets good health care just because they are a citizen of the world's most advanced democracy with the biggest economy. There's something crazy about a society that provides gigantic payouts and great health care coverage to executives, movie stars and athletes, but denies the most basic human dignity to the working poor. And there's something crazy about denying coverage to immigrants who work in restaurants and other places with direct contact with the public. Don't we want them to be healthy?
Democrats need to prepare to work hard this November if we want to keep our majority and answer the dishonest characterizations of the legislation that the right keeps feeding our citizens. Interestingly capitalism was not destroyed by this law. The very next day after the vote the stock market rose on the good news for health care businesses.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Health Care by The Numbers
Here's the latest bulletin from The White House:
32,000,000 -- that's the number of Americans who will get health insurance under the President's plan.
That's also a little more than the entire populations of Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Arizona -- COMBINED.
For the past couple weeks, we've been using key numbers to help raise awareness about how we just can't wait any longer for health insurance reform. We used $1,115 to tell the story of how skyrocketing premiums are crippling America's workers. We used 8 to convey how widespread and severe discrimination for pre-existing conditions is across the health insurance industry. And we used numbers like 625 and 50/50 to clearly show that any one of us is at risk of losing insurance in our broken health care system.
Today -- in our last number of the series -- we're using 32,000,000 to represent not only all those who will get health care, but also all the numerous benefits America's families and small businesses will see from health insurance reform. From eliminating discrimination based on pre-existing conditions to controlling costs and lowering the national deficit to providing tax credits for middle class families and small businesses, health insurance reform will finally put America's families and small businesses in control over their own health care.
Watch our new 'Health Reform by the Numbers' wrap-up video and learn more about what you have to gain from reform: (go to White House.gov)
32,000,000 is the last number in ‘Health Reform by the Numbers,' our online campaign to raise awareness about why the time is now for health insurance reform. Help spread the word by sharing this message with your family, friends and online networks. Call Rep. Shuster and our Senators Casey and Specter.
32,000,000 -- that's the number of Americans who will get health insurance under the President's plan.
That's also a little more than the entire populations of Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Arizona -- COMBINED.
For the past couple weeks, we've been using key numbers to help raise awareness about how we just can't wait any longer for health insurance reform. We used $1,115 to tell the story of how skyrocketing premiums are crippling America's workers. We used 8 to convey how widespread and severe discrimination for pre-existing conditions is across the health insurance industry. And we used numbers like 625 and 50/50 to clearly show that any one of us is at risk of losing insurance in our broken health care system.
Today -- in our last number of the series -- we're using 32,000,000 to represent not only all those who will get health care, but also all the numerous benefits America's families and small businesses will see from health insurance reform. From eliminating discrimination based on pre-existing conditions to controlling costs and lowering the national deficit to providing tax credits for middle class families and small businesses, health insurance reform will finally put America's families and small businesses in control over their own health care.
Watch our new 'Health Reform by the Numbers' wrap-up video and learn more about what you have to gain from reform: (go to White House.gov)
32,000,000 is the last number in ‘Health Reform by the Numbers,' our online campaign to raise awareness about why the time is now for health insurance reform. Help spread the word by sharing this message with your family, friends and online networks. Call Rep. Shuster and our Senators Casey and Specter.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Global Warming is No Joke
Despite the nay sayers on the right wing radio shows, global warming is no joke. Former Vice President Al Gore has a wonderful oped piece in the NY Times (3/9/10). Here's an excerpt and you can click on the link below to read the entire clearly stated argument.
"Because ... (the) effects of global warming are distributed globally, they are difficult to identify and interpret in any particular location. For example, January was seen as unusually cold in much of the United States. Yet from a global perspective, it was the second-hottest January since surface temperatures were first measured 130 years ago.
Similarly, even though climate deniers have speciously argued for several years that there has been no warming in the last decade, scientists confirmed last month that the last 10 years were the hottest decade since modern records have been kept.
The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as fodder for ridicule by those who argue that global warming is a myth, yet scientists have long pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere — thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions, including the Northeastern United States. Just as it’s important not to miss the forest for the trees, neither should we miss the climate for the snowstorm.
Here is what scientists have found is happening to our climate: man-made global-warming pollution traps heat from the sun and increases atmospheric temperatures. These pollutants — especially carbon dioxide — have been increasing rapidly with the growth in the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and forests, and temperatures have increased over the same period. Almost all of the ice-covered regions of the Earth are melting — and seas are rising. Hurricanes are predicted to grow stronger and more destructive, though their number is expected to decrease. Droughts are getting longer and deeper in many mid-continent regions, even as the severity of flooding increases. The seasonal predictability of rainfall and temperatures is being disrupted, posing serious threats to agriculture. The rate of species extinction is accelerating to dangerous levels.
Though there have been impressive efforts by many business leaders, hundreds of millions of individuals and families throughout the world and many national, regional and local governments, our civilization is still failing miserably to slow the rate at which these emissions are increasing — much less reduce them."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28gore.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&en=55fe31f6c9836d96&ex=1283317200
"Because ... (the) effects of global warming are distributed globally, they are difficult to identify and interpret in any particular location. For example, January was seen as unusually cold in much of the United States. Yet from a global perspective, it was the second-hottest January since surface temperatures were first measured 130 years ago.
Similarly, even though climate deniers have speciously argued for several years that there has been no warming in the last decade, scientists confirmed last month that the last 10 years were the hottest decade since modern records have been kept.
The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as fodder for ridicule by those who argue that global warming is a myth, yet scientists have long pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere — thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions, including the Northeastern United States. Just as it’s important not to miss the forest for the trees, neither should we miss the climate for the snowstorm.
Here is what scientists have found is happening to our climate: man-made global-warming pollution traps heat from the sun and increases atmospheric temperatures. These pollutants — especially carbon dioxide — have been increasing rapidly with the growth in the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and forests, and temperatures have increased over the same period. Almost all of the ice-covered regions of the Earth are melting — and seas are rising. Hurricanes are predicted to grow stronger and more destructive, though their number is expected to decrease. Droughts are getting longer and deeper in many mid-continent regions, even as the severity of flooding increases. The seasonal predictability of rainfall and temperatures is being disrupted, posing serious threats to agriculture. The rate of species extinction is accelerating to dangerous levels.
Though there have been impressive efforts by many business leaders, hundreds of millions of individuals and families throughout the world and many national, regional and local governments, our civilization is still failing miserably to slow the rate at which these emissions are increasing — much less reduce them."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28gore.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&en=55fe31f6c9836d96&ex=1283317200
Saturday, March 6, 2010
President Obama Needs Our Help
Check out this video to hear the President's call to arms on behalf of health care reform
http://my.barackobama.com/PresidentsMessage2?email=ruthjcommunications@comcast.net
http://my.barackobama.com/PresidentsMessage2?email=ruthjcommunications@comcast.net
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