Archive for December, 2009

A Happy New Year to All!

We would like to thank the folks in Washington that actually represented the People and not the lobbyists over the past year.

Our wish for the New Year and the next decade is that the 535 people in Washington craft legislation that is intended to be in the best interests of the people that elected them. The issues of getting our Economy back on track; an Energy Strategy that is meaningful to us now and future generations; a Health Care system that truly gives the people quality care while putting a stop to costs that are out of control; supporting an Educational System that will turn out the next generation (s) of world leaders in every field; and a peaceful decade that reduces or eliminates the pain and costs resultant of Wars that Nobody Wins.

Our New Years wish is that the House, Senate and Administration spend our money as if it were theirs and dedicate our money to expeditures of the aforementioned issues and not lobby driven special interests.

To all of the folks that have visited and contributed to www.transparencyandaccountbility.org, have a safe and Happy Holiday Season.

Our wish for the new year is that President Obama take a position with Congress and begin implementing the changes to the way Washington is doing things. We remember something about changing the way Washington does business as an election campaign promise.

And to Congress - burst the bubble around you and give the American people the representation they deserve - this is why we sent you to Washington.

Happy Holidays to all and our best wishes for 2010 actually bringing us a year of promise for everyone.

Yesterday we e-mailed our two Illinois Senators asking for their support for the amendment (see our posts yesterday) to H.R. 3590 (the Senate Health Care Reform bill) that Congress continues to debate.

Within 24 hours of our e-mail we received the following response from Senator Durbin- this exhibits once again that the folks in Washington are listening. The question remains - can they get a Health Care Reform bill done?

 Here is Senator Durbin’s response to our e-mail.

December 16, 2009 

 Thank you for writing to express your concerns about health care reform. I appreciate hearing from you.

 Millions of Americans face difficult choices between paying high premiums for health insurance coverage and meeting other basic needs of their families. Since 2000, health insurance premiums have gone up 73 percent. The high cost of insurance keeps dependable, quality health care coverage out of reach for many of Illinoisans. More than 46 million Americans are without health insurance today, including 8.5 million children, and millions of middle class families who do have coverage are one step away from losing it in this troubled economy.

 We need reforms that give middle-class families the assurance of stable and secure coverage, stable and affordable costs, and better quality care. The reforms we are considering in Congress would help achieve these goals. We will put an end to discrimination based on preexisting conditions. Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage, or dropping you, because of your medical history or because you get sick. There will be no annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you can receive if you need it, and no one will be charged more because of their gender.

To help keep costs manageable, insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses. Basic preventive care, which can reduce costs in the long run, will be provided without charge. We are also working on reforms that will reduce costs for families, businesses, and the government by paying providers for the quality of the care they provide rather than the quantity.

 If you like what you have today, you can keep it. But for the millions of Americans who have no security in today’s health care market, these are some of the key steps needed to fix what is broken while we protect what works. People who are uninsured or unsatisfied with their coverage will be able to choose a plan that better addresses their needs.

 I believe most Americans share my commitment to these goals of health care reform. I will keep your concerns in mind as I work for an approach that provides secure and stable coverage, affordable costs, and better quality care.

 Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to keep in touch.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Durbin

United States Senator

RJD/kg

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a link for us to sign a petition in support of an amendment to H.R. 3590 that he, Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Roland Burris are bringing to the Senate floor. This is a meaningful public Health Care Option we can support. We can all ask the other 532 members of Congress to support it as well.

Here is the link. If you believe as we do that this is the answer to the Health Care issue, please take the time to sign the petition.

http://sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8eaf-762a5b050809  

Below is a press release from the office of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders, with the support of Senator Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Senator Roland Burris (Illlinois) will be bringing an amendment for H.R. 3590 to the Senate floor. It is our hope the 532 other members of Congress take the time to read this amendment - we have.

This amendment to H.R. 3590 is the type of meaningful, necessary Health Care Reform Bill the American people need to deliver quality care and put a stop to the increases in health care costs that burdens citizens, businesses and our government. The links for the amendment appear at the bottom of the release.

Our message to you: Please read the amendment and determine for yourself it’s value. If you have believe as we do, that this amendment is a no B.S. bill that really addresses our health care issue, please contact your Senators and let them know you support the amendment to H.R. 3590.

Our thanks to Senators Sanders, Brown and Burris and their staff for getting to the cores of this issue.

Senate to Take up Single-Payer Health Plan

WASHINGTON, December 15 – The Senate on Wednesday will debate for the first time in American history a proposal to create a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care system.

“In my view, the single-payer approach is the only way we will ever have a cost-effective, comprehensive health care system in this country,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose amendment will come before the Senate.

The Sanders Amendment would provide health care and dental coverage for every American, save money, and improve health care results.

“One of the reasons our current health care system is so expensive, so wasteful, so bureaucratic, so inefficient is that it is heavily dominated by private health insurance companies whose only goal in life is to make as much money as they can,” Sanders said.

The 1,300 profit-making private insurance companies administer thousands of separate plans and waste about $400 billion a year on administrative costs, profiteering, high CEO compensation packages, and advertising. Health care providers spend another $210 billion on administrative costs, mostly to deal with insurance paperwork. 

As a result, the United States spends $7,129 per person on health care, almost double the amount spent by nearly any other industrialized country. Nevertheless, 46 million Americans lack health insurance, 100 million Americans cannot access dental care, and 60 million Americans do not have access to primary care.

Sanders acknowledged that his amendment would not pass. “As a result of the power of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, this amendment will not pass or even get very many votes.  Nonetheless, given the view of millions of us that a single-payer approach is the only way this country will ever provide comprehensive, cost-effective health care to all its citizens, this is an important step forward. 

“At the end of the day – not this year, not next year, but sometime in the future –  this country will come to understand that if we are going to provide comprehensive quality care to all of our people, the only way we will do that is through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system, and I am glad to be able to start that debate by offering this amendment.”

To read a summary of the amendment, click here.

To read the amendment, click here.

Contact: Michael Briggs cell (202) 557-1935

As Congress continues to debate Health Care Reform, the latest “OPTIONS” coming out of the10 person, behind closed doors, committee is lowering the Medicare age to 55 and offering a program similar to what each of our 535 people in Congress are able to obtain.

We look forward to seeing the details and amendments on these two proposals. Let’s just hope these two options are not the watered down versions that the House & the Senate have offered up thus far.

We hear so much about “socialized” medicine and concerns over “government run” health care. However, we need to look at the data recently released by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid. In 2007 (the most recent available data) 46.2% of all medical bills in the United States were paid for by the federal, state or local governments. That equates to a $1 Trillion dollar expenditure or $3,871.00 for every person in the United States.

So what’s all the fuss about government Health Care? As we see it, we’re pretty much there now.

We heard an excellent point made by Ed Schultz, the radio talk show host and an MSNBC TV show host yesterday. Ed’s comment was in regards to President Obama’s efforts with a Job Summit to accelerate the growth of employment in our country.

Many CEOs of large corporations participated in the Jobs Summit with President Obama. Ed raised a point that may be overlooked. Big Business in the United States is responsible to stock holders/investors and their desire to see quarter-to-quarter increases in sales and profitability - short term performance increases. These increases are what runs up the price of a stock and makes investors in the company money.

As we recently have seen, the employment cuts made by businesses has dramatically increased productivity - the result of fewer people producing more. Just about every quarterly financial report from Big Business exhibits better profitability on the bottom line (due to cost reductions) while few have exhibited top line (sales and revenue) growth.

As the economy improves, Big Business slowly improves (slowly because they are so big) and sales increase. While business improves with the productivity gains, companies have higher profits translating to higher stock prices - all good. However, what is the incentive for a big company and their executives (many of whom own large blocks of their company’s stock) to add jobs until the business dramatically improves? Adding jobs before business is booming will cost more, reduce profits for that quarter and put downward pressure the stock price. The addition of jobs in the “Short Term” (one of President Obama’s stated goals at the Job Summit) is a contradiction to what Big Business has to do to satisfy stockholders.

So where can President Obama and his administration get the most bang for the strained financial resources our government has for creating jobs in the “Short Term”? We want their efforts targeted at Small Business.

As the economy improves, the owners of Small Business will add jobs NOW to meet the increased demand for their products and services. They are not the big behemoth that needs business to be booming to start adding jobs. These are the folks that can add 3, 5 or 10 jobs quickly. They don’t need to concern themselves about what happens to their stock prices or how an analyst will view their performance this quarter versus last quarter - they just want their business to grow and get healthy.

An example of this is the “Green” Jobs we all wanted created in OUR country. Companies like General Electric and Siemens have been given enormous financial incentives from OUR government to fast track the renewable energy effort - we applaud the companies & OUR government for their efforts (see our Latest News, October 3o post: The Economy & Energy). Ed Schultz told us about a Small Business in Indiana (not China) that manufactures gears for wind turbines. They want to add jobs to meet increased demand. They can not get their financial package request through OUR government’s process like a GE or Siemens has been able to do.

President Obama - target the jobs efforts on streamlining the processes and incentives to quickly get resources to Small Business. The banks we bailed out are not doing it for Small Business, so it’s up to US to fast track Small Business so they can change the job picture in the “Short Term” and beyond!

Below is a release from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders subsequent to President Obama’s speech on Tuesday night.

Isn’t it time to get the bubble around Washington burst and get in touch with the American people?

Senator Sanders’ Statement on Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, December 1 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made the following statement after President Obama announced tonight that he will send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

“I agree with President Obama that it would be a setback for democracy and stability if the Taliban regained power, but I have serious concerns.

“First, why are American taxpayers and our brave soldiers bearing almost all the burden in what should be an international effort? Where are Europe, Russia, China and the rest of the world?  Second, why in the midst of a severe recession – with 17 percent of our people unemployed or under-employed and one out of four kids on food stamps – are we going to be spending $100 billion a year on Afghanistan when we have so many pressing needs at home?  Third, I worry about how we can forge a dependable partnership with an Afghan government that is ineffective and corrupt. 

“My nightmare is that we may get caught in a quagmire situation from which there will be no successful exit.”

Contact: Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist (202) 224-5141