« June 2009 | Main | August 2009 »

July 31, 2009

One Million Strong and Growing

In just three short months, more than 1 million people have joined OFA's campaign for health insurance reform. People have signed declarations of support of the President’s three principles, called their representatives in Congress, shared their personal health care stories, and talked to their friends, family and neighbors about the need to hold the insurance companies accountable and reform our system.

The DNC and OFA will continue to organize for health insurance reform in August to cut through the distortions, get out the facts, and bring the voices of real people into the debate.

OFA just released a video that compiles images from events around the country. Watch it below.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 30, 2009

Highlighting Recovery Act Success

Earlier this week we launched a new tv ad - "Broke It" - that exposes Republican lies and distortions about the success of the Recovery Act.

We’ve also held press conference calls in IN, KY, OH and VA (click for audio) - featuring State Representative Terri Austin (IN, 36th District), State Representative Darryl Owens (KY, 43rd District), State Representative Jim Glenn (KY, 13th District), Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-17) and Congressman Gerald Connolly (VA-11) - highlighting progress of the Recovery Act in each state.

Here's what Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan said: "For Congressman (John) Boehner to say that the stimulus and the recovery act are not working and are not helping anybody is absolutely ridiculous. Talk to the students who are getting this money and this financial aid, talk to the cops who are going to get hired in these communities, talk to these teachers that aren’t going to get laid off. Not just in Youngstown but across the state because of what the stimulus package has done."

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Barack Obama meeting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 29, 2009

What’s in Health Insurance Reform for You?

President Obama held a health reform town hall this afternoon at Broughton High School in Raleigh, N.C. We’ll post video and an excerpt of his remarks later today. In the meantime, the President is highlighting eight consumer protections we all stand to gain from health insurance reform.

Defenders of the status quo have launched a massive effort to distort Democrats’ plan to reform our system - use these eight simple points to counter their arguments.

Via the White House's website:

THE SECURITY YOU GET from health insurance reform

1- No Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.

2- No Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.

3- No Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.

4- No Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.

5- No Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.

6- No Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

7- Extended Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.

8- Guaranteed Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.

UPDATE: An excerpt from the President’s remarks in Raleigh is below.

“…But what a lot of chatter out there hasn't focused on is the fact that if you've got health insurance, then the reform we're proposing will also help you because it will provide you more stability and more security. Because the truth is we have a system today that works well for the insurance industry, but it doesn't always work well for you. So what we need, and what we will have when we pass these reforms, are health insurance consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and insurance companies are held accountable.

”Let me be specific. We will stop insurance companies from denying you coverage because of your medical history. I've told this story before -- I will never forget watching my own mother, as she fought cancer in her final days, worrying about whether her insurer would claim her illness was a preexisting condition so they could wiggle out of paying for her coverage. How many of you have worried about the same thing? (Applause.) A lot of people have gone through this. Many of you have been denied insurance or heard of someone who was denied insurance because they got -- had a preexisting condition. That will no longer be allowed with reform. (Applause.) We won't allow that. We won't allow that.

”With reform, insurance companies will have to abide by a yearly cap on how much you can be charged for your out-of-pocket expenses. No one in America should go broke because of an illness.

”We will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies, eye and foot exams for diabetics, so we can avoid chronic illnesses that cost not only lives, but money.

”No longer will insurance companies be allowed to drop or water down coverage for someone who's become seriously ill. That's not right, it's not fair. We will stop insurance companies from placing arbitrary caps on the coverage you can receive in a given year or in a lifetime.

”So my point is, whether or not you have health insurance right now, the reforms we seek will bring stability and security that you don't have today -- reforms that will become more urgent and more urgent with each passing year.

”So, in the end, the debate about reform boils down to a choice between two approaches. The first is projected to double your health care costs over the next decade, make millions more Americans uninsured, bankrupt state and federal governments, and allow insurance companies to run roughshod over consumers. That's one option. That's called the status quo. That's what we have right now.

”I want everybody to understand this. If we do nothing, I can almost guarantee you your premiums will double over the next 10 years because that's what they did over the last 10 years. It will go up three times faster than your wages, so a bigger and bigger chunk of your paycheck will be going into health insurance. It will eat into the possibility of you getting a raise on your job because your employer is going to be looking and saying, I can't afford to give you a raise because my health care costs just went up 10, 20, 30 percent. And Medicare, which seniors rely on, is going to become more and more vulnerable. On current projections, Medicare will be in the red in less than 10 years.”

Weight of the Nation

Food for thought: According to a new study released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), we spend $147 billion every year treating obesity related medical conditions. To put it in perspective – that’s double the amount it was just 10 years ago, and (according to the American Cancer Society) nearly twice the amount we spend to treat all cancers combined! Right now, two-thirds of US adults and 20 percent of children are overweight or obese, putting them at greater risk for chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.

At the CDC’s inaugural Weight of the Nation conference this week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the case that preventing and controlling obesity is central to health reform that provides better quality care at lower costs.

“If there was an epidemic of little kids getting cancer, it would be a national crisis,” Sebelius said in prepared remarks. “But because it's obesity and the damage doesn't come until later in life, we've been slow to act. I'm counting on people in this room to tell Americans that as our children's weight is growing, their lives are shrinking. We can't ignore this problem any longer.” She continued, “Reducing obesity - especially for children - would be one of the biggest steps we could take towards this better health future.”

Sebelius noted specific actions the federal government is taking to combat obesity: serving healthier food in schools, child care centers & senior centers, giving people access to healthy, affordable food options in rural and urban neighborhoods, requiring health insurance plans to cover preventative services (as part of health insurance reform) and dedicating $1 billion for prevention through the Recovery Act.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Obama at the G8. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 28, 2009

Senate Judiciary Committee Votes to Confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine issued a statement after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted - 13 to 6 - to move Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation process to the full Senate. The Senate is expected to debate the nomination next week. Sotomayor would be the Court’s first Hispanic justice and only it’s third woman.

Here’s an excerpt from Kaine’s statement:

“Throughout her hearings, Judge Sotomayor demonstrated why she is one of the most qualified candidates ever nominated to the Court. With experience as a prosecutor, a corporate litigator and a judge, she will bring more federal judicial experience than any justice in the 100 years. And her incredible life story is something all Americans can draw inspiration from. Every American should be proud today that the country is one step closer to having our first-ever Latina Supreme Court Justice.

“I want to congratulate Judge Sotomayor on this historic step and thank Chairman Leahy (D-VT) for his outstanding leadership. Despite the attempts of some Republicans to play politics with the Judge’s confirmation, the process remains on schedule so that Judge Sotomayor will be able to join her colleagues on the Court in early September.”

Chairman Kaine Addresses the National Council of La Raza's Annual Conference

The National Council of La Raza is the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the nation. NCLR held its annual conference in Chicago this year, and today, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine addressed an audience of approximately 1,600. Kaine talked about the Latino community’s growing influence and touched on a few key issues, including immigration and health insurance reform, during his lunchtime keynote address.

Kaine joined top Obama Administration officials– including Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan – at the conference. No national GOP official accepted an invitation to speak at the event.

President Obama Joins AARP for Tele-Town Health Reform Hall

President Obama joined AARP members this afternoon at a Health Reform Tele-Town Hall. The President took questions from the audience, and from a conference call with tens of thousands of AARP members. The AARP recently endorsed President Obama’s plan to close the so-called doughnut hole in Medicare Part D, by securing an agreement from pharmaceutical companies to reduce costs by $80 billion -- making prescription drugs more affordable for seniors. An excerpt from the President’s opening remarks is below, but you can watch the full town hall here.

“…But we all know that right now, we've got a problem that threatens Medicare and our entire health care system, and that is the spiraling cost of health care in America today. As costs balloon, so does Medicare's budget. And unless we act, within a decade -- within a decade -- the Medicare trust fund will be in the red.

"Now, I want to be clear: I don't want to do anything that will stop you from getting the care you need -- and I won't. But you know and I know that right now we spend a lot of money in our health care system that doesn't do a thing to improve people's health. And that has to stop. We've got to get a better bang for health care dollar.

"And that's why I want to start by taking a new approach that emphasizes prevention and wellness, so that instead of just spending billions of dollars on costly treatments when people get sick, we're spending some of those dollars on the care they need to stay well: things like mammograms and cancer screenings and immunizations -- common-sense measures that will save us billions of dollars in future medical costs.

"We're also working to computerize medical records, because right now, too many folks wind up taking the same tests over and over and over again because their providers can't access previous results. Or they have to relay their entire medical history -- every medication they've taken, every surgery they've gotten -- every time they see a new provider. Electronic medical records will help to put an end to all that.

"We also want to start rewarding doctors for quality, not just the quantity, of care that they provide. Instead of rewarding them for how many procedures they perform or how many tests they order, we'll bundle payments so providers aren't paid for every treatment they offer with a chronic -- to a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead are paid for how are they managing that disease overall. And we'll create incentives for physicians to team up and treat a patient better together, because we know that produces better outcomes.

"And we certainly won't cut corners to try to cut costs, because we know that doesn't work. And that's something that we hear from doctors all across the country. For example, we know that when we discharge people from the hospital a day early without any kind of coordinated follow-up care, too often they wind up right back in the hospital a few weeks later. If we had just provided the right care in the first place, we'd save a whole lot of money and a lot of human suffering, as well.

"Finally, we'll eliminate billions in unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies in the Medicare Advantage program --giveaways that boost insurance company profits but don't make you any healthier. And we'll work to close that doughnut hole in Medicare Part D that's costing so many folks so much money. Drug companies, as a consequence of our reform efforts, have already agreed to provide deeply discounted drugs, which will mean thousands of dollars in savings for the millions of seniors paying full price when they can least afford it."

July 25, 2009: Weekly Presidential Address

In this week's address the President talks about the challenges small business faces with health care in its current state. Small businesses lack the bargaining power that big business have and pay up to 18% more for the same benefits and those costs cut into profits. The President says this is unsustainable and unacceptable. Without reform we risk continued damage to the health of our families, the success of our businesses and the long term fiscal stability of our government. Watch;

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Barack Obama at the G-8. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 27, 2009

Hundreds in Milwaukee Call for Health Insurance Reform

Hundreds gathered in Milwaukee, WI yesterday to demonstrate their support for health insurance reform. The event, hosted by Organizing for America, was just one of the thousands of events that happened last week – from roundtables and barbeques, to press conferences and door-to-door canvasses – as the debate over reform in Congress continued.

Hundreds Rally for Health Reform

By Meg Jones, Journal Sentinel

Hundreds of people, including those who told personal stories of hardship, rallied Sunday in Milwaukee to support efforts to reform health care.

During a rally at American Serb Hall, one person told the crowd about a sister who died last month from lupus and was forced to leave the hospital against a doctor's recommendation because her insurance company wouldn't pay for additional days.

Another told of losing health insurance when the company her husband worked for closed and how she had difficulties getting coverage because she previously had suffered a heart attack.

"This is about figuring out how to pay for a right in this country, a right to life," Patricia McManus, president and CEO of Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin told the crowd.

Organizing for America, the group that grew out of President Barack Obama's campaign, sponsored the gathering.

Volunteers wearing red "I Am a Reformer" T-shirts handed out leaflets and encouraged people to write to their representatives.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) said 14,000 people are losing their jobs in the United States each day, which is boosting the numbers of uninsured people who no longer have access to health insurance or can't afford to pay premiums.

"My colleagues who are holding this up," Moore said of lawmakers who are deeply divided over health care reform, "they say you really don't get it. You really don't understand."

Insurance concerns

Moore said profits are the reason insurance companies are against a public insurance option that would pay a little more than Medicare rates to providers.

With a public insurance option, "We won't need to advertise Viagra every day," said Moore.

Jennifer MacGaffey, an internist at Aurora Advanced Healthcare, told the group that she has seen patients younger than 65 who don't qualify for Medicare.

Some did not seek help for ailments or refused to have their cholesterol or blood pressure checked because of concerns about paying high deductibles or worries that their health insurers would drop them because of pre-existing conditions.

However, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Reince Priebus said the proposed changes won't mean lower health care costs for Americans.

"Giving more power to the federal government is not the answer to finding affordable health care for families," Priebus said in a statement. "In fact, the public plan President Obama and congressional Democrats have proposed and are poised to rush through is the first step to a government takeover which will take decisions away from doctors and patients."

Because many Americans are not aware of the public insurance option, Robert Kraig, program director for Citizen Action of Wisconsin, advised the crowd to spread the word to their friends and families.

"The issue is the special interests who don't want to compete with a public health insurance option," said Kraig.

Health Reform and Small Businesses

The Council of Economic Advisers released a report last week that examines the challenges smaller firms face under our current health care system, and the likely impacts of health insurance reform on small businesses and their employees.

Small businesses are a significant source of job growth in the United States – in 2006, firms with fewer than 20 employees accounted for approximately 18 percent of private sector jobs, but nearly 25 percent of employment growth from 1992 to 2005. Unfortunately, small businesses suffer more from our broken health care system than their larger counterparts. A few facts:

– Small businesses can pay up to 18 percent more per worker than large firms for the same health insurance policy.

– Only 49 percent of firms with three to nine workers and 78 percent of firms with 10 to 24 workers offered any type of health insurance to their employees, compared to 99 percent of firms with more than 200 workers.

– From 2002 to 2008, the percentage of firms with three to nine employees that offer health insurance to their workers declined from 58 to 49 percent.

President Obama talked about the impact of reform on small businesses this week -- watch it below. We also did a post on the topic earlier this month.

Recovery Act Hypocrisy

Katrina vanden Heuval, editor and publisher of The Nation, had an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday. She makes many of the points we’ve been making for the past several weeks, taking the GOP (specifically Eric Cantor) to task for trash-talking the Recovery Act while in Washington but then taking credit for its results in his district. An excerpt is below, but click here to read the full piece.

Slamming stimulus package but happy to take its money, Virginia Republican Eric Cantor and his allies are anti-worker, and he's a hypocrite

Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor may be a GOP rising star, but he sure is a hypocrite.

How else to describe someone who is a leading critic of President Obama's Recovery Act and yet also joins his congressional colleagues to urge Virginia's Department of Transportation to apply for stimulus money for high-speed rail? If that isn't two-faced, what is?

He's also a demagogue: "Millions of jobs will be crushed by the administration's policies."

Say what? The stimulus may have been too small and overemphasized tax cuts, but it has helped states, including his own, with longer unemployment benefits, expanded food stamps, and subsidies for people who have lost jobs to extend their health insurance. It has also kept teachers in classrooms and cops on the streets, and gotten workers rehired.

Hours after Cantor recently delivered the GOP's weekly radio address blasting the stimulus, Vice President Biden announced that $ 1.5 million of the bill's money would go to the Richmond Police Department to retain officers. And $20 million is going to Chesterfield County - the suburbs of Richmond - to keep 275 teachers from being fired. Virginia's working men and women should remember that Cantor fought hard to cut a provision in the stimulus bill that was designed to help low-income workers…

Palin's Second Act: Same as the First

On Sunday, former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin formally resigned her post as Alaska’s governor with 18 months left in her term. Given Palin’s popularity among right wing conservatives, there’s been plenty of speculation about what her next move will be.

Washington Post reporter Dan Balz suggests in his piece this morning that Palin’s resignation “has freed her to begin another phase of her life,” but questions whether that action will “put additional limits on her ability to rise further.”

Food for thought from DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan: The fact Sarah Palin became a national punch line makes it's understandable that she'd want a do-over, but to think the perceptions of her as '”not ready for prime time” won't carry over after abruptly quitting is folly -- it only reinforces that perception. You can't bail on Alaska once the going gets tough and then ask the American people to take you seriously as a national leader.

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good Morning.

President Barack Obama drops by a Green Cabinet meeting. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 25, 2009

Weekend Open Thread

Hello Saturday.

President Barack Obama talks with members of Congress on Air Force One. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 24, 2009

Friday Open Thread

Happy Friday!

Photo by Pete Souza.

July 23, 2009

DNC Ad - The Cost of Doing Nothing

As the Republican Party continues to declare that they will stop at nothing to “kill” health insurance reform and “break” the President over the issue, the Democratic National Committee released a new television ad today explaining the risks of the Republican strategy of doing nothing to fix America’s broken health care system. The ad notes that if the “Party of NO” gets its way and health insurance reform is derailed, the cost of doing nothing will result in premiums continuing to rise faster than wages, insurance companies dictating care and denying coverage while their profits soar, rising co-pays and out of pocket expenses and more and more families choosing between paying the mortgage and paying for health care. The ad also notes that leading Republicans, from Rush Limbaugh and Jim DeMint to Lindsey Graham and Michael Steele, want to kill health insurance reform for political gain.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Barack Obama and Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett outside the Oval Office. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 22, 2009

LIVE: Primetime Press Conference with the President at 8PM EDT

President Obama is scheduled to hold a press conference at the White House tonight, starting at 8:00 PM Eastern. Earlier today the President sent out an email encouraging Americans to tune in, explaining that:

As you read this, we are closer than ever to passing comprehensive health insurance reform that benefits American families and small businesses. Despite all the back and forth in the news right now, it is important to understand just how far we've come in this challenging process.

That's why I'm holding a press conference tonight at 8pm ET, and writing to let everyone know where we are, what's ahead, and why health insurance reform is so important.

... I realize that the last few miles of any race are the hardest to run, but we can't stop now. There's no dispute about it: we cannot control our long-term fiscal health as a nation without health insurance reform. American families and small businesses understand that the health insurance status quo is taking away those things that they value most about health care. The stability and security that comes with knowing that you can get the treatment you need, when you need it. Without reform, we are consigning our children to a future of skyrocketing premiums and crushing deficits.

We have to seize this opportunity and pass health insurance reform this year.  

You can watch a live stream of the press conference below, starting at 8:00 PM Eastern. 

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Barack Obama meets with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 21, 2009

Washington Post Headline this Morning: "GOP Focuses Effort to Kill Health Bills"

The cat is out of the bag – there is a coordinated GOP effort underway in Washington to kill health care reform.

By now you’ve heard Jim DeMint’s “Waterloo” remarks.

Yesterday, Bill Kristol - a key strategist in the defeat of the Clinton health care reform effort in 1993 – wrote in the Weekly Standard, “…there will be a temptation for opponents to let up on their criticism, and to try to appear constructive, or at least responsible … My advice for what it’s worth: Resist the temptation. This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill.”

This morning, Huffington Post ran a story about an internal RNC memo that encourages Republicans to engage “in every activity” to slow down health care reform. And the GOP is sticking to the script – Dana Milbank at the Washington Post had a fun compare and contrast section in his piece this morning.

Michael Steele admitted earlier this week that during eight years of Republicans rule in Washington, the GOP lacked the political will to reform America's health care system – he said he didn't know if we had a "moral responsibility" to cover the uninsured. In an appearance on CNN this afternoon, Steele still wasn't able to provide any substantive ideas about health care reform – aside from Congressional Republican’s desire to stop it from happening.

UPDATED: Sometimes a cartoon says it all:

by Tom Toles, Washington Post

It Will Break Him?

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint (R) said on a conference call last week organized by right wing conservative groups that health care could be Obama’s Waterloo – he said it could break him politically. Listen to the full audio of the call here.

Republicans in Washington have decided to play politics with health care - they are doing everything they can to stop reform and maintain the status quo.

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine sent an email out last night asking people to declare their support for the President’s plan and take the GOP to task for politicizing health care reform. Have you signed a declaration of support?

Hello -

Special interests and opponents of health care reform in Washington have made their priority clear: attack President Obama at any cost.

On Friday, GOP Senator Jim DeMint told a special-interest attack group that if they're "able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." And just this morning, Republican Chairman Michael Steele backed up DeMint's statement 100%. At the same time, the Republican National Committee is running deceptive ads to scare Americans away from the reform we need.

Their plan is simple: oppose health care reform as a political ploy to weaken the President and defeat his entire agenda of change. But if we follow the Republican "Party of No" and do nothing, we'll not only ensure more of the same, but saddle our children and grandchildren with a growing burden of exploding costs and declining care that they may never overcome.

We can't let this kind of slash and burn politics succeed. We can fight back by collecting as many signatures as possible backing the President's principles for health care reform. A huge response will show Washington and the media that when Republicans try to "break" the President, Americans are ready to stand up for what's right.

Sign your name in support of the President's health care principles. Or if you've already signed, please forward this message to all your friends and neighbors.

The President has consistently argued that health care reform must: reduce costs, guarantee choice -- including the choice of a strong public insurance option -- and ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care. These principles are the key to keeping our country healthy -- and protecting our families, businesses, and economy from costs that are spiraling out of control. It's the change the American people voted for and so desperately need.

But special interests and Republican leaders are so concerned with scoring points that they seem to think health care reform is a political game. They are literally playing politics with our lives and livelihood, and it has to stop.

We know that they will not "break" President Obama or the movement that supports him. And if we work together, they will not stop us from enacting the real health care reform that Americans need and demand.

Stand with President Obama on health care:

http://www.democrats.org/declare

Please declare your support today.

Thanks,

Governor Tim Kaine
Chairman

P.S. -- Just this afternoon, President Obama, speaking at a children's hospital, responded to Senator DeMint's comment. Here are his inspiring words:

"Think about that. This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy. And we can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time, not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake."

Please sign your name in support of the President's health care principles.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

July 20, 2009

Sarah Palin's Flip-Flop on Cap-and-Trade

Since Sarah Palin announced that she’d be resigning her post as Alaska’s governor (16 month early) a couple of weeks ago, she’s made it clear that she plans to spend more time traveling around the lower 48 states. True to task, on Tuesday Palin had an oped in the Washington Post articulating her opposition to President Obama’s energy plan which includes a cap-and-trade program that would allow industrial sources to buy and sell pollution permits.

But it looks like she’s a little unclear on what her policy positions are. During the campaign, McCain-Palin campaign literature (check it out below) and the candidate herself (see the video) sang a totally different tune.

McCain-Palin said climate change was one of our biggest challenges:

THEN: “Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges confronting our country and our world today. We must act now to meet this challenge.”

NOW: She doesn’t even mention climate change her piece in the Post.

McCain-Palin proposed a market based cap-and-trade program to address climate change:

THEN: “They [McCain-Palin] have proposed a cap-and-trade system that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging the development of low-cost compliance options. A climate cap-and-trade mechanism would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit, similar to the successful acid rain trading program of the early 1990s. The key feature of this mechanism is that it allows the market to decide and encourage the lowest-cost compliance options.”

NOW: Palin wants to “…responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil” and drill in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

McCain-Palin said a market-based system would strengthen our economy:

THEN: ”John McCain and Sarah Palin will establish a market-based system to curb greenhouse gas emissions, mobilize innovative technologies, and strengthen the economy.”

NOW: Palin claims, cap-and-trade (which is part of President Obama’s plan) “…is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.”

Palin has been spending more time in the lower 48. Maybe she's been taking lessons from Mitt Romney?

Not This Time. Not Now.

During his remarks health care reform this afternoon at Children’s Hospital in Washington, DC President Obama singled out defenders of the status quo. He reiterated, once again, his commitment to passing health care reform this year.

“Now, there are some in this town who are content to perpetuate the status quo, are in fact fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests. There are others who recognize the problem, but believe -- or perhaps, hope -- that we can put off the hard work of insurance reform for another day, another year, another decade.

“Just the other day, one Republican senator said -- and I'm quoting him now – ‘If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.’ Think about that. This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses, and breaking America's economy.

“And we can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time. Not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake. There are too many families who will be crushed if insurance premiums continue to rise three times as fast as wages. There are too many businesses that will be forced to shed workers, scale back benefits, or drop coverage unless we get spiraling health care costs under control.”

Click here to read the President's full remarks.

Chairman Kaine Responds to Steele’s Commitment to Defending the Status Quo on Health Care

Chairman Kaine issued the following statement after RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s remarks at the National Press Club this morning. The DNC also hosted a conference call with Senator Ben Hardin (D-MD) to discuss how Republicans in Washington are playing politics with health care reform. You can listen to the full audio of the call here.

“This morning, Chairman Steele delivered a speech announcing a ‘new’ Republican campaign against the President’s efforts to reform America’s broken health care system. Republican opposition to health care reform, however, is anything but new. In his speech, Chairman Steele spoke at length about the potential risks to reforming our failed health care system. It's sad, but not surprising, that the Republican Party, which for so long has supported the very policies and vested interests that helped get us to this crisis point, are unable to recognize the that the real risk is to do nothing at all, as they propose.

“Over the last eight years, our health care system languished while Republicans ignored exploding costs, rising deficits, struggling small business owners, and the millions of hard-working Americans who lack access to health care. After eight years of Republican inaction and obstruction, we are faced with insurance premiums that are rising at a rate three times faster than wages. Now, one in five American workers are uninsured, up from one in seven a decade ago, due to rapid rise in private health insurance premiums. In 1993, 61 percent of small businesses provided health insurance. In 2008, only 38 percent of small businesses are able to provide health insurance, with 10 percent now considering dropping coverage next year. And the increase in health care costs continues to outpace our ability to pay for them.

“Despite the crisis that confronts American families, the GOP continues to argue for the status quo on behalf of the special interests. If we do nothing as the Republican ‘Party of NO’ would have us do, we not only will ensure more of the same, but guarantee a growing crisis that will put a burden on our children that they will never overcome.

“It was also stunning - and sad - to hear that Chairman Steele agreed with Senator DeMint's comments that stopping health care reform would ‘break’ the President politically. What's ‘broken’ is a health care system where costs continue to explode, working families can't afford their premiums, small business can't compete, and where the Republican Party is interested in ensuring that we do nothing about these problems purely for their own political gain.

“For too many years, Americans have suffered under a failed health care system that costs too much, provides too little, and doesn’t come anywhere close to delivering the first-class care that Americans deserve. As we’ve seen, the effects of our broken health care system do not discriminate, and accordingly all of us must work together to achieve a solution that creates systemic and lasting change. It’s time for Chairman Steele and the ‘Party of NO’ to stop attempting to run out the clock on health care reform and start offering real solutions.”

40th Anniversary of the Moon Walk

On July 16, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edward “Buzz” Aldrin embarked on a mission to the Moon. On July 20th, 1969 – 40 years ago today – two of those Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, became the first humans to ever walk set foot on the Moon’s surface.

President John F. Kennedy announced his commitment to an ambitious program to put a man on the Moon before a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961. Here’s an excerpt from that famous speech:

“…First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations--explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon--if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.”

Today, President Obama met with those three Apollo 11 astronauts to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon walk. Here’s an excerpt from his remarks:

“…I grew up in Hawaii, as many of you know, and I still recall sitting on my grandfather's shoulders when those capsules would land in the middle of the Pacific and they'd get brought back and we'd go out and we'd pretend like they could see us as we were waving at folks coming home. And I remember waving American flags and my grandfather telling me that the Apollo mission was an example of how Americans can do anything they put their minds to.

“I also know that, as a consequence of the extraordinary work of NASA generally, that you inspired an entire generation of scientists and engineers that ended up really sparking the innovation, the drive, the entrepreneurship, the creativity back here on Earth. And I think it's very important for us to constantly remember that NASA was not only about feeding our curiosity, that sense of wonder, but also had extraordinary practical applications. And one of the things that I've committed to doing as President is making sure that math and science are cool again, and that we once again keep the goal by 2020 of having the highest college graduation rates of any country on Earth, especially in the math and science fields.”

More “NO” from the GOP, Republicans Are Playing Politics with Health Care Reform

This morning in a speech at the National Press Club, RNC Chairman Michael Steele unveiled a new Republican campaign against reforming our health care system. Steele used his remarks to try to score political points and failed to recognize the urgent need for reform (perhaps unsurprising, considering how long the GOP has supported the very policies and vested interests that benefit from the status quo). Here’s an excerpt from the Huffington Post piece:

"In a speech that even he admitted was meant to be more about politics than policy, Steele issued a whole host of similar accusations, with the type of rhetorical flourishes for which he is well known. At the end of the address he was asked by the Huffington Post whether he agreed with Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) assessment that health care reform could be Obama's Waterloo -- a chance for the Republican Party to break the president politically. 'I think that's a good way to put it,' he responded."

The GOP is playing politics with health care -- instead of doing the work and making sure that all Americans have access to the care they need. And opponents of reform have upped the ante in recent weeks, spending $1.4 million a day to derail reform using the arguments we’ve all heard before to scare people into maintaining the status quo.

During the President's weekly radio address on Saturday (posted by Jonah below), he called on Congress to stand up to the special interests and turn the tide against the status quo. He also directly addressed some of the false claims by the opposition:

False Argument #1: Health reform will lead to record deficits.

The Truth: President Obama supports reform that will not add to our deficits over the next decade. Failure to reform our health care system affects the health and financial well-being of all Americans and the stability of the entire economy. The President’s proposal cuts hundreds of billions of dollars in unnecessary spending and giveaway to insurance companies and changes incentives so patients receive the best care, not the most expensive care.

False Argument #2: Reforming our health care system means you don’t get to choose your own doctor.

The Truth: President Obama supports health care reform that expands choices, not limits them. Simply put: if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like you insurance, you can keep your insurance.

False Argument #3: Health care reform is some plot for socialized medicine.

The Truth: President Obama does not think the government can or should run our health care system. However, he also doesn’t think insurance companies should have free reign to do whatever they want. Health care reform put an end to unscrupulous health insurance industry practices that bankrupt families and undermine American businesses. The President supports the creation of a health insurance exchange here people can compare and contrast plans and pick the one that’s right for them. This exchange should include a public health insurance option, which will increase competition and keep insurance companies honest, expanding consumers’ choices and keeping costs low.

Here’s an excerpt from the President’s weekly address:

"[This] is about every family unable to keep up with soaring out of pocket costs and premiums rising three times faster than wages. Every worker afraid of losing health insurance if they lose their job, or change jobs. Everyone who’s worried that they may not be able to get insurance or change insurance if someone in their family has a pre-existing condition.

“It’s about a woman in Colorado who told us that when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her insurance company – the one she’d paid over $700 a month to – refused to pay for her treatment. She had to use up her retirement funds to save her own life.

“It’s about a man from Maryland who sent us his story – a middle class college graduate whose health insurance expired when he changed jobs. During that time, he needed emergency surgery, and woke up $10,000 in debt – debt that has left him unable to save, buy a home, or make a career change.

“…It’s about every business forced to shut their doors, or shed jobs, or ship them overseas. It’s about state governments overwhelmed by Medicaid, federal budgets consumed by Medicare, and deficits piling higher year after year.

“This is the status quo. This is the system we have today. This is what the debate in Congress is all about: Whether we’ll keep talking and tinkering and letting this problem fester as more families and businesses go under, and more Americans lose their coverage. Or whether we’ll seize this opportunity – one we might not have again for generations – and finally pass health insurance reform this year, in 2009.”

Tell your members of Congress that you support reforming our health care system this year. Visit our action center to get involved.

July 18, 2009: Weekly Presidential Address

In this week's address the President discusses the all too familiar status quo of health care issues and our opportunity to "seize the moment" and pass true reform measures. The President reiterates his three principles of reducing costs, guaranteeing choice and ensuring quality for everyone. President Obama then calls on Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to give Americans the best health care at the lowest cost, that reins in insurance companies, strengthens businesses and gives families the choices the need.

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

July 18, 2009

Weekend Open Thread

Hello Saturday!

President Obama, personal aide Reggie Love and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 17, 2009

President Obama speaking at 3:15 ET

The President will be speaking at 3:15pm ET on Health Care. You can watch the speech live here;
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

Friday Open Thread

Happy Friday.

Photo by Pete Souza

July 16, 2009

Small Businesses and Health Care Reform

With health care bills now moving in both houses of Congress, the GOP is getting desperate. Quite predictably, opponents of reform are pulling out all the stops – spending nearly $10 million each week on lobbyists – in an attempt to stop progress and protect the status quo. Their latest is an all-out assault to scare small business owners. These attacks are outrageous and entirely untrue.

The fact is, our broken health care system is hitting small business harder than anyone else.

- Nearly one third of America’s uninsured – 13 million people – are employees of firms with less than
100 workers.

- Health insurance premiums for single workers rose 74 percent for small businesses from 2001 to 2008.

- More than one third of small businesses have reduced benefits in recent years and since the early 1990s, about a third of small businesses have dropped coverage for their employees altogether.

- Without reform,small businesses will pay nearly $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years in health care costs and lose 178,000 jobs by 2018.

High health care costs are making it impossible for many small businesses to provide insurance to their employees and turn a profit. National Small Business Association President Todd McCracken said, “Health care reform can not wait another year.” And health care reform topped the list of NSBA priorities when the membership recently voted on what issues they wanted Congress and the President to address.

Despite what the opposition would have people believe, President Obama’s plan to reform health care will make health insurance affordable for small businesses and their employees, helping the small business community by:

- Making tax credits available to for small business to provide health insurance. Tax credits will be based on their size, workers’ wages, and how much they contribute toward premiums. According to recent analysis by the Tax Policy Center, about 96% of small business would not be faced with a surcharge.

- Lowering administrative costs. Small businesses pay three times the administrative costs of large businesses for health insurance. Health reform will create a health insurance exchange that will significantly reduce administrative costs by reforming the health insurance market, enabling small businesses to easily and simply compare prices and health plans, and decide which option is right for their workers.

- Freeing up capital to invest in growth. Forty percent of small businesses say that health care costs have had a negative impact on other parts of their business. By lowering health care costs through more efficient care, more of our nation’s dollars can go towards investments in our economy, enabling businesses to thrive.

- Investing in preventative care. Chronic disease costs $1 trillion in lost productivity each year, and small businesses don’t have reserve of workers they can rely on when someone calls in sick. Health reform will require insurance plans to provide free preventive services and create a system that manages illness and disease instead of just treating it after people get sick. Healthy employees are productive employees -- increasing our economy’s output by up to $130 billion according to the Institute of Medicine.

- Sharing responsibility with big businesses. Reform would require larger businesses to provide insurance to their employees, or pay a fee to the government. Small businesses would be exempt from that requirement.

By some estimates, health care reform could save small businesses as much as $855 billion over then next 10 years and prevent the loss of 128,000 jobs.

No business owner wants to choose between cutting benefits, dropping coverage and laying off workers – they shouldn’t have to decide between being profitable or taking care of their employees. Bottom line: health care reform that lowers costs, guarantees choice (including the choice of a public option) and expands access to all Americans is good for small businesses.

UPDATE: This afternoon the DNC hosted a conference call about the importance of health care reform to small businesses with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-9), Congressman Frank Pallone (NJ-6), Kristine Reger, the wife of a small business owner in Wisconsin, and Joan Lomask, the owner of a small business in North Carolina. Here’s the audio from the call

Judy Chu wins California Congressional Race

This past Tuesday Judy Chu won her race for the 32nd Congressional District in California. Chu replaces the former Rep. Hilda Solis whom President Obama tapped to become the Secretary of Labor in his administration. Rep. Chu has previously served as school board member, city council member and State Assembly member. With her victory Rep. Chu becomes the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress. Congratulations Representative Chu.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Judge Sotomayor and members of the White House Counsel's Office. Photo by Johnny Simon.

July 15, 2009

Nurses Join President Obama’s Call for Reform, House Unveils Bill and Senate HELP Committee Passes Plan

This afternoon President Obama was joined by Becky Patton, President of the American Nurses Association, Chairman George Miller (D-CA), Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and others as he delivered remarks about health care reform in the Rose Garden. The President praised nurses for their work and urged the House and Senate to keep making progress and pass their versions of health care reform before the August recess.

Yesterday the three committees working on a health care in the house (Energy & Commerce, Education & Labor, and Ways & Means) released a full draft of their legislation, H.R. 3200 the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act”. Here’s a round up on the bill from the New York Times. The bill supports President Obama’s three principles for reform, includes a public option, and would cover 97 percent of Americans. The House pays for the bill by identifying $500 billion savings over 10 years and through a surcharge on the wealthiest Americans.

Then today, the Senate HELP Committee passed it’s version of reform (first released a couple of weeks ago) on party lines, 13 to 10. Like the House bill, HELP’s version of the legislation requires Americans to obtain health insurance and would help people who couldn’t afford it on their own. It also requires employers of a certain size to provide insurance to their employees, or pay a fee to the government. It stops insurance companies from denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition, establishes a health insurance exchange (where people can compare and contrast plans and pick the one that’s right for them) and includes a public option.

Here’s an excerpt from the President’s remarks from earlier today:

On nurses:

"…When both my daughters were born, the obstetrician was one of our best friends, but we saw her for about 10 minutes in each delivery. The rest of the time what we saw were nurses who did an incredible amount of work in not only taking care of Michelle but also caring for a nervous husband and then later for a couple of fat little babies.

“So I know how important nurses are, and the nation does too. Nurses aren't in health care to get rich. Last I checked, they're in it to care for all of us, from the time they bring a new life into this world to the moment they ease the pain of those who pass from it. If it weren't for nurses, many Americans in underserved and rural areas would have no access to health care at all.

And that's why it's safe to say that few understand why we have to pass reform as intimately as our nation's nurses. They see firsthand the heartbreaking costs of our health care crisis. They hear the same stories that I've heard across this country -- of treatment deferred or coverage denied by insurance companies; of insurance premiums and prescriptions that are so expensive they consume a family's entire budget; of Americans forced to use the emergency room for something as simple as a sore throat just because they can't afford to see a doctor."

On the House and Senate Bills:

"…Yesterday, the House introduced its health reform proposal. Today, thanks to the unyielding passion and inspiration of our friend Ted Kennedy, and to the bold leadership of Senator Chris Dodd, the Senate HELP Committee reached a major milestone by passing a similarly strong proposal for health reform. It's a plan that was debated for more than 50 hours and that, by the way, includes 160 Republican amendments -- a hopeful sign of bipartisan support for the final product, if people are serious about bipartisanship.

Both proposals will take what's best about our system today and make it the basis for our system tomorrow -- reducing costs, raising quality, and ensuring fair treatment of consumers by the insurance industry. Both include a health insurance exchange, a marketplace that will allow families and small businesses to compare prices, services, and the quality, so they can choose the plan that best suits their needs. And among the choices available would be a public health insurance option that would make health care more affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices, and keeping insurance companies honest. Both proposals will offer stability and security to Americans who have coverage today, and affordable options to those who don't."

On the momentum behind reform:

"…I just want to be clear: We are going to get this done. Becky and I were talking in the Oval Office. Becky just pointed out, we need to buck up people a little bit here. (Laughter.) And that's what nurses do all the time -- they buck up patients, sometimes they buck up some young resident who doesn't quite know what they're doing. (Laughter.) You look at Becky, you can tell she knows what she's doing. And what she's saying is it's time for us to buck up -- Congress, this administration, the entire federal government -- to be clear that we've got to get this done.

"Our nurses are on board. The American people are on board. It's now up to us. We can do what we've done for so long and defer tough decisions for another day -- or we can step up and meet our responsibilities. In other words, we can lead. We can look beyond the next news cycle and the next election to the next generation, and come together to build a system that works not just for these nurses, but for the patients they care for; for doctors and hospitals; for families and businesses -- and for our very future as a nation."

Cheyenne Reservation receives new Health Center and Stimulus Funds

The Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation is the latest community to see progress and development as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In one of our country's poorest counties the reservation is receiving a long needed new health center. The new facility will not only bring new construction jobs to the county but also will create long term job needs to staff the various health offices. The new center will serve 15,000 members of the community.

h/t to Pretty Bird Woman House

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Obama shakes hands with Judge Sonia Sotomayor after announcing her nomination. Photo by Chuck Kennedy.

July 14, 2009

Supreme Court Hearings Underway

Today is the second day of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing. Yesterday, each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee had the opportunity to deliver an opening statement up to 10 minutes in length. Here’s an excerpt from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s (RI) statement:

“…I believe that your diverse life experience, your broad professional background, your expertise as a judge at each level of the system, will bring you that judgment. As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. famously said, the life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience.

“If your wide experience brings life to a sense of the difficult circumstances faced by the less powerful among us: the woman shunted around the bank from voicemail to voicemail as she tries to avoid foreclosure for her family; the family struggling to get by in the neighborhood where the police only come with raid jackets on; the couple up late at the kitchen table after the kids are in bed sweating out how to make ends meet that month; the man who believes a little differently, or looks a little different, or thinks things should be different; if you have empathy for those people in this job, you are doing nothing wrong.

“…The courtroom can be the only sanctuary for the little guy when the forces of society are arrayed against him, when proper opinion and elected officialdom will lend him no ear. This is a correct, fitting, and intended function of the judiciary in our constitutional structure, and the empathy President Obama saw in you has a constitutionally proper place in that structure. If everyone on the Court always voted for the prosecution against the defendant, for the corporation against the plaintiffs, and for the government against the condemned, a vital spark of American democracy would be extinguished. A courtroom is supposed to be a place where the status quo can be disrupted, even upended, when the Constitution or laws may require; where the comfortable can sometimes be afflicted and the afflicted find some comfort, all under the stern shelter of the law. It is worth remembering that judges of the United States have shown great courage over the years, courage verging on heroism, in providing that sanctuary of careful attention, what James Bryce called "the cool dry atmosphere of judicial determination," amidst the inflamed passions or invested powers of the day.”

Following the senators’ statements, Judge Sotomayor delivered an opening statement of her own. It’s below, in its entirety. The hearing resumed this morning to begin the first round of questions. Each senator, starting with Chairman Patrick Leahy, continuing with Ranking Member Jeff Sessions and then alternating between Democrats and Republicans, has 30 minutes to query the Judge. The second round of questions (during which senators have 20 minutes each) is expected to begin sometime tomorrow.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Photo by Pete Souza.

July 13, 2009

Got a Motorcycle? Mainers Ride for Reform

The debate for health care reform is well underway in the halls of Congress – but it’s also raging outside the Beltway.

Last Saturday Maine motorcyclists rode from Bath to Camden to show their support for reform and raise funds for non-profit community medical clinics in Maine. Before the group of bikers shoved off, they joined State Senator Stan Gerzofsky, Organizing for America’s state director Julian Fedlerle, Will Towers (a corrections officer and the President of AFSCME Local 2968), and Greg Douglas (a carpenter from Harpswell who was recently featured in an AP story about health care) at a press conference where they called on Senators Collins and Snowe to support a plan that lowers costs, guarantees choice – including a public option, and ensures all Americans have access to quality, affordable care.

Here's a news segment from WCHS6 in Portland, ME and a few other news stories from events in Independence, MO, Indianapolis, IN and Atlantic City, NJ.

Meet the Wyoming Democratic Party's vice chairman, Mike Bell

Wyoming Vice-Chairman Mike Bell was born in Washington State but grew up in Minnesota. Mike caught the “political bug” when he was only eleven years old, when he called the Carter/Mondale campaign to see if he could volunteer at the Campaign headquarters. Since then, he has worked on a number of local, state and national campaigns – some in a paid capacity, and other campaigns as a volunteer. An accomplished author, Mike has written about PT209 – the boat John F. Kennedy was on in WWII. The book later was adopted into a documentary on the topic. Mike holds a BA in Political Science and holds two MA’s: one in History and one in Teaching. Mike, an avid Boston Red Sox fan is the proud father of a two year old son.

Visit the Wyoming Democratic Party's website

July 11, 2009: Weekly Presidential Address

In his weekly address the President talks about how the Recovery Act is providing a boost to make our economy stronger. The Recovery Act has provided help to struggling states with the deficits they face, extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs, and lead to new infrastructure jobs across the country. Through many reform initiatives the President talks about a new foundation we are building to bring our country out of this recession.

Show Your Support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine released a web video last night about Sonia Sotomayor’s historic nomination to the Supreme Court. In the video, Kaine talks about Sotomayor’s background and qualifications, calls on the Senate to give the Judge a reasonable, fair and gracious process, and invites people show their support for Sotomayor by visiting the online action center.

Watch the video in English below, and here’s a link to the video in Spanish.

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden escort Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the East Room of the White House. Photo by Chuck Kennedy.

July 11, 2009

Weekend Open Thread

Welcome to the weekend.

President Barack Obama and chef Bobby Flay grilling on the South Lawn. Photographer Samantha Appleton.

July 10, 2009

Friday Open Thread

Happy Friday to everyone.

Photo by Pete Souza

July 9, 2009

Grassroots Support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor

Confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court at set to begin in the Senate Judiciary Committee next Monday morning.

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine issued a statement today highlighting the broad grassroots support for Sotomayor’s nomination and announcing the release of a new web video, which features photos from across the country of people showing their support for Judge Sotomayor - often at iconic American landmarks. The DNC received thousands of photo submissions through our online Action Center. Chairman Kaine’s statement is below the video.

“Folks across the country are enthusiastically behind the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the next Supreme Court justice. People understand that Judge Sotomayor is exceptionally qualified – she would bring more judicial experience to the high court than anyone confirmed in the last 70 years. Her experience in the American judicial system, coupled with her inspiring life story and fierce intellect, make her uniquely qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine.

“Judge Sotomayor’s story is an American story of hard work and success. She will be the first Latina justice and the third female justice to serve on the Supreme Court. Americans are excited that, in confirming this highly qualified nominee, our country would make history and gain a justice with broad legal and judicial experience.”

Sotomayor’s record includes service as a big-city prosecutor. She was also a corporate litigator. Before President Clinton promoted her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, President George H.W. Bush appointed as a federal district court judge in New York. In that role, she issued an important injunction that effectively ended the major league baseball strike. In her time on the bench, Judge Sotomayor was widely admired for her intellect, grasp of legal doctrine, and commitment to the rule of law.

Taking the GOP to Task on the Recovery Act

The party’s over for GOP leaders who have either been dissing the Recovery Act in Washington and taking credit for Recovery Act projects in their districts, or pushing outrageous falsehoods that the largest stimulus in United States history has been no help at all. That's not how it works.

A few key facts: Every single House Republication voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In May, the Recovery Act increased personal, disposable income by $17 billion. Last week, the Department of Education announced it was releasing $2.7 billion in aid to support state education budgets months ahead of schedule. And right now, over 2,000 highway projects are already under way and over $20 billion in transportation construction funds have been put to work. There’s absolutely no denying that without the Recovery Act our economy would be in much worse shape. According to a recent analysis by respected economist Mark Zandi, by the end of next year, the Recovery Act “…leaves the unemployment rate almost 2 percentage points lower” than it would have been otherwise.

To point: Earlier this week, the DNC released a TV ad calling on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to stop playing partisan games and start offering real solutions. Then yesterday, the DNC held a press conference call to talk about Recovery Act projects and job creation in Ohio, and released a new web video which highlights John Boehner’s (OH) extreme hypocrisy and factual inaccuracy in his claim that none of the contracts for Ohio infrastructure projects resulting from Recovery Act had been okayed. As the video’s narrator puts it: “His own state’s newspaper found that Boehner was flat wrong.” In fact, in Boehner’s district alone nearly $15 million has been authorized or awarded to recovery projects that are putting more and more Ohioans back to work everyday. You can watch the ad below.

UPDATE: In an oped this week, Republican Whip Jon Kyl called for the cancellation of the economic recovery money and said the funds are not putting Americans to work. Taking Kyl to task, Arizona Democratic Party Executive Director Luis Heredia and DNC Press Secretary Hari Sevugan held a conference call this afternoon to highlight the importance of economic recovery funding for Arizona projects. The DNC also released a new web video, "Job Killing John."

Morning Open Thread

Good morning,

Photo by Pete Souza

July 8, 2009

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Obama being briefed by Heather Higginbottom, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Senior Advisor David Axelrod, and Cecelia Munoz, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 7, 2009

Health Care and Sausage

You know the old adage – making law is like making sausage. The process is a little messier and more complicated than it looks.

President Obama is committed to passing health care reform that lowers costs, protects choice and expands access to quality, affordable care -- and making it happen by the end of the year. The interim goal is to pass legislation in the House and Senate before Congress goes into recess on August 8th.

Five Congressional committees (three in the House – Energy & Commerce, Ways & Means, Education & Labor; and two in the Senate – HELP and Finance) have jurisdiction over health care legislation. Given all the moving pieces and how quickly things are moving it can be difficult to keep track of where the legislation is in each committee, and what it means for the overall process.

Here’s a quick primer on what our Democratic Congressional leaders are working to do before the August recess:

In the House

- The three House committees with jurisdiction have released a "tri-committee" version of their legislation. Mark-ups (debating, amending, rewriting the legislation) in each committee are expected to begin next Monday.

- The full House is expected to vote on its version of the bill before the August recess.

Key players: Energy & Commerce, Ways & Means, Education & Labor Committee members, Chairman of Energy & Commerce Henry Waxman (CA), Chairman of Ways & Means Charlie Rangel (NY), Chairman of Education & Labor George Miller (CA).

In the Senate

- The Senate HELP Committee released its version of the bill late last week. They are currently in “mark up”.

- The Senate Finance Committee is expected to release its version of their bill as early as this week, and start its own “mark up” process as early as next week.

- Its expected that the HELP and Finance Committees will combine their versions of the bill, and bring one bill to the floor for a full Senate vote before the August recess.

Key players: HELP and Finance Committee members, Chairman of HELP Ted Kennedy (MA), Senator Chris Dodd (CT), Chairman of Finance Max Baucus (MT).

Once the House and Senate have passed their versions of health care reform legislation, Congressional leaders will work to create a combined version of the bill -- if the schedule above holds, this is the step that will happen during August recess.

Have you told your Congressional leaders where you stand? Have you signed a declaration in support of President Obama’s three principles? Have you shared your personal health care story? We've talked about health care reform for more than 50 years, now it's within our reach. Do your part to make it happen.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Obama meeting with members of Congress about immigration reform. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 6, 2009

July 4, 2009: Weekly Presidential Address

In his weekly address President Obama talks about the spirit of the Independence Day holiday. The President talks about how America has overcome imposing obstacles in our history and how we must do so again today. The next great American chapter he states will come with health care reform, a clean energy economy and revitalizing our education system.

High Costs of Care

If you’ve listened to President Obama talk about health care reform in the past several weeks, you’ve probably heard him talk about how we should study communities around America that provide better coverage for less and replicate their success. He often talks about the high cost of health care in McAllen, TX, a town on the Mexican border that has one of the most expensive health care markets in the country.

The June 1 issue of The New Yorker magazine included an article about the soaring costs in McAllen. A few key passages are excepted below – here’s a link to this must read, The Cost Conundrum. The bottom line? More expensive care doesn’t necessarily lead to better health outcomes.

On costs:

”...The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn. The financial burden has damaged the global competitiveness of American businesses and bankrupted millions of families, even those with insurance. It’s also devouring our government.

On incentives:

“...One night, I went to dinner with six McAllen doctors. All were what you would call bread-and-butter physicians: busy, full-time, private-practice doctors who work from seven in the morning to seven at night and sometimes later, their waiting rooms teeming and their desks stacked with medical charts to review.

“Some were dubious when I told them that McAllen was the country’s most expensive place for health care. I gave them the spending data from Medicare. In 1992, in the McAllen market, the average cost per Medicare enrollee was $4,891, almost exactly the national average. But since then, year after year, McAllen’s health costs have grown faster than any other market in the country, ultimately soaring by more than ten thousand dollars per person.

‘Maybe the service is better here,” the cardiologist suggested. People can be seen faster and get their tests more readily, he said.

Others were skeptical.

‘I don’t think that explains the costs he’s talking about,” the general surgeon said.

‘It’s malpractice,” a family physician who had practiced here for thirty-three years said.

‘McAllen is legal hell,” the cardiologist agreed. Doctors order unnecessary tests just to protect themselves, he said. Everyone thought the lawyers here were worse than elsewhere.

“That explanation puzzled me. Several years ago, Texas passed a tough malpractice law that capped pain-and-suffering awards at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Didn’t lawsuits go down?

‘Practically to zero,” the cardiologist admitted.

‘Come on,” the general surgeon finally said. ‘We all know these arguments are bullshit. There is overutilization here, pure and simple.’ Doctors, he said, were racking up charges with extra tests, services, and procedures.

“The surgeon came to McAllen in the mid-nineties, and since then, he said, ‘the way to practice medicine has changed completely. Before, it was about how to do a good job. Now it is about ‘How much will you benefit?’ ”

Communities can provide better care with lower costs:

“…The Mayo Clinic is not an aberration. One of the lowest-cost markets in the country is Grand Junction, Colorado, a community of a hundred and twenty thousand that nonetheless has achieved some of Medicare’s highest quality-of-care scores. Michael Pramenko is a family physician and a local medical leader there. Unlike doctors at the Mayo Clinic, he told me, those in Grand Junction get piecework fees from insurers. But years ago the doctors agreed among themselves to a system that paid them a similar fee whether they saw Medicare, Medicaid, or private-insurance patients, so that there would be little incentive to cherry-pick patients. They also agreed, at the behest of the main health plan in town, an H.M.O., to meet regularly on small peer-review committees to go over their patient charts together. They focussed on rooting out problems like poor prevention practices, unnecessary back operations, and unusual hospital-complication rates. Problems went down. Quality went up. Then, in 2004, the doctors’ group and the local H.M.O. jointly created a regional information network—a community-wide electronic-record system that shared office notes, test results, and hospital data for patients across the area. Again, problems went down. Quality went up. And costs ended up lower than just about anywhere else in the United States.

“Grand Junction’s medical community was not following anyone else’s recipe. But, like Mayo, it created what Elliott Fisher, of Dartmouth, calls an accountable-care organization. The leading doctors and the hospital system adopted measures to blunt harmful financial incentives, and they took collective responsibility for improving the sum total of patient care.

“This approach has been adopted in other places, too: the Geisinger Health System, in Danville, Pennsylvania; the Marshfield Clinic, in Marshfield, Wisconsin; Intermountain Healthcare, in Salt Lake City; Kaiser Permanente, in Northern California. All of them function on similar principles. All are not-for-profit institutions. And all have produced enviably higher quality and lower costs than the average American town enjoys.”

HELP’s Plan Gets Thumbs Up

President Obama is abroad this week in Russia, Italy and Africa, but the health care debate continues in Congress.

Last week the Senate HELP committee released its latest version of the bill, which would cover 97 percent of Americans, share responsibility with employers and individuals, and create a strong public plan to compete with private insurers. And it aligns with President Obama’s three stated principles for reform: lowering costs, preserving choice and expanding access to quality, affordable care.

New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman wrote about the HELP plan in his column on Sunday:

"…But last week the budget office scored the full proposed legislation from the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). And the news — which got far less play in the media than the downbeat earlier analysis — was very, very good. Yes, we can reform health care.

"…Now, about those specifics: The HELP plan achieves near-universal coverage through a combination of regulation and subsidies. Insurance companies would be required to offer the same coverage to everyone, regardless of medical history; on the other side, everyone except the poor and near-poor would be obliged to buy insurance, with the aid of subsidies that would limit premiums as a share of income.

"Employers would also have to chip in, with all firms employing more than 25 people required to offer their workers insurance or pay a penalty. By the way, the absence of such an “employer mandate” was the big problem with the earlier, incomplete version of the plan.

"And those who prefer not to buy insurance from the private sector would be able to choose a public plan instead. This would, among other things, bring some real competition to the health insurance market, which is currently a collection of local monopolies and cartels.

"The budget office says that all this would cost $597 billion over the next decade. But that doesn’t include the cost of insuring the poor and near-poor, whom HELP suggests covering via an expansion of Medicaid (which is outside the committee’s jurisdiction). Add in the cost of this expansion, and we’re probably looking at between $1 trillion and $1.3 trillion.

"There are a number of ways to look at this number, but maybe the best is to point out that it’s less than 4 percent of the $33 trillion the U.S. government predicts we’ll spend on health care over the next decade. And that in turn means that much of the expense can be offset with straightforward cost-saving measures, like ending Medicare overpayments to private health insurers and reining in spending on medical procedures with no demonstrated health benefits.

"So fundamental health reform — reform that would eliminate the insecurity about health coverage that looms so large for many Americans — is now within reach…"

The AP just posted a good roundup of the different plans currently moving through Congress.

Leader No

Last Thursday the DNC released a new television ad calling on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) to stop playing partisan games and start offering real solutions to struggling families all across America. The ad asks viewers to call McConnell’s office and urge him to end the Republican strategy of “NO” and start providing the kind of leadership that Kentuckians, and all Americans, deserve.

A little background: Since President Obama took office, McConnell and the majority of Republicans have voted no for fair pay for women (the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act), no to extending health care to an additional 4 million children (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program), no to the President’s budget and its investments in health care, energy and schools, and no to creating jobs and extending tax cuts that benefit 95 percent of Americans.

The ad is currently running on cable stations in Lexington and Louisville, KY but you can watch it below:

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

July 4, 2009

Independence Day Open Thread

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pakgwei/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

July 3, 2009

Friday Open Thread

Happy Friday everyone!

President Obama meeting with Women Airforce Service Pilots. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 2, 2009

Senate HELP Committee Releases Health Reform Bill

"We must not settle for legislation that merely gestures at reform. We must deliver on the promise of true change." – Chairman Ted Kennedy and Senator Chris Dodd

President Obama and our Democratic leaders in Congress have been working to pass health care reform legislation before the end of the year. Today the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) took an important step towards that goal when it released its latest version of health care reform legislation. The bill follows President Obama’s principles for reform by lowering costs, protecting patient choice and expanding access to quality, affordable care, and includes a strong public option and a shared employee responsibility provision. According to analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the plan will cost significantly less than previously estimated and covers 97 percent of Americans. Here’s the AP story and a link to the text of the bill.

Chairman Ted Kennedy (MA) and Senator Chris Dodd (CT) sent a letter to their colleagues on the HELP committee late yesterday announcing the new CBO estimate, which scored the plan at $611.4 billion over 10 years, with the new coverage provisions scored at $597 billion – a significant reduction from earlier estimates (Ezra Klein of the Washington Post did a good round up of the CBO estimates). Here’s an excerpt from their letter:

“…For the 47 million Americans currently living without health insurance, a public option will represent an opportunity to access quality, affordable care. For those who have insurance but still struggle to get the care they and their families need, the healthy competition provided by our proposal will offer a wider variety of options while keeping costs down.

“And for the many Americans who have good coverage, nothing will change. They will still be able to keep their doctor, their hospital, and their insurance plan. What our proposal offers these families is stability – no longer will Americans with good health care have to worry about losing everything if they lose or change their job, or if someone in their family becomes sick or injured.

“Even in the face of scare tactics and false claims that a public option would destroy consumer choice or the insurance industry, a vigorous public option is what Americans want. According to two recent public polls, three out of four Americans support the establishment of a public option to compete with private insurance plans and offer families better choices when making health care decisions.

“Moreover, a strong public option isn’t just what Americans want – it’s what America needs. All of us understand the importance of the work we’re doing. The health of our economy and our families rely on it. But if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. The Senate must not, and the HELP Committee will not, shy away from this challenge. We must not settle for legislation that merely gestures at reform. We must deliver on the promise of true change.”

President Obama issued a statement praising the bill, saying:

“For decades, Washington has failed to act as health care costs continued to rise, crushing businesses, families and placing an unsustainable burden on governments. Today the Senate HELP committee has produced legislation that lowers costs, protects choice of doctors and plans and assures quality and affordable health care for Americans.”

The HELP Committee could vote as early as next week on their version of the bill, which will then be coupled with the Senate Finance Committee’s companion measure.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

President Obama meeting with David M. Simas, Aide to Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office for Health Reform. Photo by Pete Souza.

July 1, 2009

Guest Post: Chairman Tim Kaine on Attending President Obama's Health Care Town Hall in Virginia

Today I was honored to join President Obama at the health care town hall at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, VA. The room was packed with kids and parents, students and seniors.

The President answered questions from the audience, as well as from people who had submitted their queries via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. He made a strong case for reform, by reminding folks in the room of his three principles -- lowering costs, preserving patient choice and expanding access to quality, affordable care – and reiterated his commitment to a public option, a health insurance exchange and a fiscally responsible, deficit neutral plan. He said he wouldn’t accept the status quo and is dedicated to enacting health care reform this year.

Our broken health care system is something I’ve had to face every single day as the Governor of Virginia. We’ve been able to do some great things, but families and businesses in Virginia struggle with the high costs of care as much as anyone in this nation. Think about this: 1 in 7 Virginians doesn’t have health insurance; and since 2000, average family premiums have increased by 99 percent.

As powerful as those numbers are, I think the most powerful case for reform are real stories – stories of people who can’t afford insurance, are denied care because of a pre-existing condition, lose insurance coverage when they lose their job, or have been forced into bankruptcy to take care of a sick child or elderly parent. Over the past several weeks, we’ve collected hundreds of thousands of these stories. Have you read them? You can, here. Have you seen them? Here are five web videos we’ve released over the past couple of weeks: Kristine, Cesar, Cathy, Lisa and Russell.

Reforming our health care system will be hard; and, as the President has said so many times before, if it were easy we would’ve done it already. Sure, the details need to be worked out, and yes, we will have to work hard to get reform that lowers costs, preserves choice and expands access. But the Obama administration has already had success in lining up support from groups that have opposed reform in the past -- pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, insurance companies and doctors associations. If you consider that millions of people are calling for reform because they won’t accept our broken system for any longer, and if you remember that President Obama has demonstrated incredible leadership and commitment to this issue – you will believe, as I do, that we can pass health care reform this year.

Here's how to get involved and do your part to enact comprehensive reform.

Morning Open Thread

Good morning.