Editors' Stuff

We watched and listened intently for seven hours yesterday as President Obama and a number of Senate and House lawmakers discussed Health Care Reform and the Health Care Reform bills generated by Congress.

What was apparent to us is that everyone in the room agreed that health care needs to be reformed. What also was apparent to us was that our lawmakers are at an impasse on how to deal with this most complex issue. At the continual urging of President Obama to deal with issues, many wanted to scrap a year’s worth of work and start over - our tax dollars being wasted again.

Why do some people in Congress continue to ignore the fact that health insurance companies made record profits in their last reporting quarter while covering less people? Where is the Accountability when CEO’s of these companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, bonuses and stock options? Where is the Transparency so that all of us know what is happening with lawmakers and who is influencing them?

In the two weeks prior to the Health Care Summit over 3,000 registered lobbyists were “working” Washington - that’s six lobbyists for every lawmaker. This gives us some insight as to the impasse and the ineffective process we continue to see from Washington in dealing with the major issues facing our country. As President Obama stated, the American people don’t much care about the process of Congress, they care about results!

It’s very interesting to see how Washington is dealing with the Health Care Reform issue today.

After the wonderful private insurance  folks have hit us with another round of double digit rate increases, it appears the folks in Congress are rising to reintroduce the Public Health Care Option.  A big thank you to the private insurance companies for getting Congress to address what the majority of the people in this country want!

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says it all below.

Sanders Signs Letter Supporting Public Option

BURLINGTON, Vt. February 17 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today added his signature to a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to bring a public health insurance option before the Senate for a vote.

“At a time when there is deep skepticism and mistrust of the private insurance industry, when just last month a major health insurer in California announced it would raise its premiums by a whopping 39 percent in one fell swoop, the American people have made it clear that they want the option to buy their insurance through a Medicare-type, government-run public insurance plan,” Sanders said.

“The public option is not just important for the individual consumer, it is an important mechanism to provide competition for the private, for-profit health insurance industry, to keep them honest, and to lower the overall cost of health care in our country,” Sanders added.  “I am very pleased to join with my Senate colleagues to urge passage of a public health insurance plan using the budget reconciliation process.”

Sanders is a member of the Senate health committee.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) spearheaded the effort to revive the public option.

“Although we strongly support the important reforms made by the Senate-passed health reform package, including a strong public option would improve both its substance and the public’s perception of it,” the letter stated. “The Senate has an obligation to reform our unworkable health insurance market — both to reduce costs and to give consumers more choices. A strong public option is the best way to deliver on both of these goals, and we urge its consideration under reconciliation rules.”

Contact: Michael Briggs (202) 224-5141

The announcement yesterday by Indiana, Democratic Senator Evan Bayh that he is not going to run for the Senate in November confirms our (and the majority of people in this country) that Congress is in a dysfunctional mode of operations - do we all know that!

We agree with Senator Bayh that Congress is not making much progress in addressing the major issues facing our country. However, when the going gets tough - the tough get going. They don’t walk away from a challenge. Also disturbing is that Senator Bayh made his announcement just four days before the deadline for candidates to register and gather the required signatures to run for his Senate seat in November

Is this another one of those back room political moves? It does not appear to us this is being done the right way.

OK folks - the snow storm is gone. Let’s hope this time off enabled Congress to clear their respective heads and get down to the business - not as usual, but in the best interest of the people of this country.

Quit playing games and do your jobs to address the issues of jobs, the economy, health care reform, and an energy policy for clean, renewable energy.

Take a look at this release from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders - tell me we don’t need health care reform!

It Never Ends: Health Insurance Profits Soar

WASHINGTON, February 12 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today blasted the country’s five largest health insurance companies that posted $12.2 billion in profits last year, 56 percent more than in 2008.

“In the midst of the worst recession in memory, with working families struggling to keep their heads above water, insurance companies are siphoning more and more profits out of American consumers,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate health committee.

“These horrendous rate increases will not only impact millions of individuals, but make our entire economy less competitive,” he added. “This outrage is more evidence, as if any were needed, that we cannot stop fighting to reform the health care system in the United States.”

Health Care for America Now conducted a study of public records and found that WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group, Cigna Corp., Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. covered 2.7 million fewer people than they did the year before.  Some of the insurers actually cut the proportion of premiums that went to medical care and put more into salaries and profits.

The companies’ 2009 profits soared while insurers raised premiums and denied coverage to millions of Americans.

WellPoint’s profit margin of 7.2 percent was the highest of the five big insurers.  Anthem Blue Cross, a California subsidiary of WellPoint, has come under fire for jacking up premiums by as much as 39 percent this year on some individual health policies.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius insisted that the company justify the rate increase in detail. “Look,” Sen. Sanders said, “insurance companies are ripping off the American people from coast to coast. It is absolutely appropriate for the secretary of Health and Human Services to call them out on that.”

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

Today the White House released the fiscal year 2011 Budget. The numbers call for a $3.8 Trillion dollar budget that projects an estimated $1.2 Trillion dollar deficit.

Some key areas getting financial attention are: Job Creation; Small Business tax credits; support of  our Educational system, the military and clean energy. We agree that addressing each of these will begin to put a fix on issues that have all too long been ignored. Not much being said about Health Care as it relates to this budget - we wonder why.

Now the real question - What will Congress do to, and with this budget?

President Obama gave a great State of the Union speech last night - he met our expectations.

It is time to turn speeches into actions. Action on all the major issues must begin today and start taking effect as soon as possible, not in 2011 or 2013 - today!

Thanks Barack. We are once again behind you and it’s time Congress get on board.

President Obama talks tonight about the State of the Union - our country.

All of us who feel the pain of an economic meltdown; lost jobs; either no health care or out of control health costs; an educational system being short changed by just about every State; a fractured energy policy that should be based upon clean, renewable energy generation to lessen foreign dependence and two wars that take our lives while continuing to drain our resources - we pretty much know the State of the Union these days.

President Obama, tonight we hope to hear you say your administration and the 535 people in Congress are going to start acting in the best interest of the people who sent you all to represent us and not special interest lobbyists.

Please, we do not need anymore 2,000 page bills that cover everything but the core issue. Give us legislation that is straight forward, deals only with the issue and requires a simple yes or no vote by Congress. Then and only then will we have real Transparency and Accountability of our elected representation.

Now is the time to deliver on the promise to change the ways Washington does business. Do this for our children and grand children - they will all thank us for being part of the solution rather than the problem.

Could this be the Audacity Of Hope that you wrote about?

The week started off with the Massachusetts Senate election where voters sent a message they are not happy with the ways of Washington. We have recently had three State elections (Virginia and New Jersey Governor races) where the voters have elected the challenger, not the incumbent.  This is sending a clear message We The People are not happy campers.

Next comes President Obama taking a strong position with the banks calling for Banking Reforms. We believe this action is needed. There must be accountability when large financial institutions make high risk financial moves with the money in retirement funds and the deposits of We The People that is being insured by government - in reality our tax dollars. The gamble they made and lost has put a scar on this Country that will not heal for some time.

Then we have the Supreme Court’s controversial decision, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, to view corporations in the same light as individuals in the context of financial support for candidates running for political offices. We have Congress scrambling to draft legislation in an attempt to water down the potential effects of increased campaign spending by corporations, lobbyists and special interests. Once again We the People are being put in the position of not being represented the way our founding fathers envisioned.

Yesterday the Speaker of the House comes out and says the House does not have the votes to pass the Senate version of the Health Care Bill, which in our view does little to solve the Health care issue. Apparently, a lot of other folks in Congress agree with us as we now have Congressional gridlock with the Health Care Reform issue. We The People once again are the recipients of either not having access to quality health care, increasing costs, limiting coverages or all of the aforementioned.

We have got to find a way to get Washington to be responsible to the people of this country - we are running real low on confidence and thin with our patience!

Props to President Obama, his Administration, the Senate, the House and our Government Agencies for the manner in which they have all come together, mobilized and responded to assist with the relief effort for the people of Haiti that have been devastated by the earthquake.

In fact, props to the governments of other countries who have also responded. There is hope that we can all coexist in this world with a concern for humanity - the people. Too bad it takes such a catastrophic event to bring us all together.

Is it out of the realm of possibility to expect the folks in Washington to work together in dealing with all of our domestic issues in the same effective manner? Let’s be proactive Congress. Let’s not wait for an event to happen before you come together to do the right thing as you have done in response to the Haitian tragedy. Just maybe our unified response to the Haitian Earthquake was because it did not require a lobbyists’ influence to take action.

We don’t like to rant, but our patience is being tested with the way Washington is working - or should we say not working. The 535 folks in Congress are the ones who write and implement legislation by which we all have to abide.

We have real trouble understanding why our system and our process can’t be effective in dealing with the major issues that face and affect every one of us!  Issues such as the state of our economy, health care, our energy strategy (or lack thereof), our educational system, and military conflicts all appear to be more intense instead of being resolved. Where is the disconnect? Why is Congress so polarized? Why is Congress so divided - even within their own parties? Why is Congress so paralyzed?

Is it the lobbyists’ huge sums of money allocated to influence Congress that creates the divide? Is it that reelection takes huge sums of money - get the connection - and is of the highest priority? Is it that our government is so large it can no longer be effective? Is it that we are not putting tax dollars to work in the most important places? Is it that the Senate and House worry more about politics than doing the right thing?

We don’t have the answers to these questions - just maybe it’s a combination of all of the above.

Two observations:

 1. Why is it that some of the most effective people in Congress do right for the people when they no longer have another term in Congress?

2. Why are incumbents up for reelection squirming because polls are telling them they just might be booted out, regardless of party affiliation?

Some one, some how We The People must demand the dysfunctional government process we are experiencing stop. How much time and money are we willing to waste while issues intensify? What will it take for the folks in Congress to stop being politicians and start working together to solve our issues?