Posts Tagged ‘Republican Party’
Image via tech.spreadit.org
In Line for Gifts: Were you standing in a line at the mall at 3AM this past Friday? Statistics show that despite an 8% decrease in the average Black-Friday purchase, sales were greater than last year’s.
In Line for Stamps: As a result of rough economic times, one in eight Americans relies on food stamps. Because of this, the stigma on federal aid is starting to go away.
In Line for the Ax?: Some people believe that the new GOP “Purity Test” will have some unintended consequences.
A New line of work: With the legalization of medicinal marijuana, many are turning towards its cultivation as a source of wealth in jobless markets. One Michigan 24-year-old has opened the first “School of Pot” to teach how to grow and administer this “new” medicine.
We at USDemocrazy often find ourselves dismayed by the partisan shouting in US politics today. The cartoon above has a curious take on it all… what’s your take?
If you’re like us here at USDemocrazy your head is probably swimming with news about the future of health care.
Obama’s giving a speech here, spending will increase there….there seems to be a zillion stories with tons of info.
And…if you are like us… you have been desperately searching for someone to summarize ALL this STUFF (minus any political fluff).
Our first search took us to Obama’s website. Too vague. Then we typed “Obama health care reform in a nutshell” into google. All we got was this cartoon by Mike Ramirez:
We like cartoons, but we wanted to learn more.
We do know Obama is keeping his options open. He is not saying much about his controversial health care bill. Meanwhile it is prudently being crafted behind closed doors.
Here’s Obama:
“We are still early in this process,” he said. “So you know, we have not drawn lines in the sand, other than that reform has to control costs and that it has to provide relief to people who don’t have health insurance or are under-insured.”
On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Mike Enzi, Republican’s ranking member on the health committee said of the pending legislation,
“This is the most comprehensive legislation that any of us will ever work on,” Enzi said Wednesday. “It will fundamentally impact one-sixth of the nation’s economy … affect the health care of every American. … It’s too important not to take the time to get it right.”
Not satisfied with this info, we decided to do our own research on this HUGE issue.
Here’s what we found out.
Obama appears to favor….
- Convincing doctors and hospitals to emphasize the quality of care they provide over the quantity of procedures they perform (and be paid accordingly).
- A public insurance plan similar to Medicare that would compete with private insurance companies.
- Having as many people insured as possible so that health care costs will be pooled within the largest possible population.
- All those who buy into the public plan would be offered the same rates regardless of their health risks.
- Mandating state health care plans to provide a certain minimum level of health benefits. This level being equal across the country.
- Increasing the availability of preventative measures and care for chronic conditions
- Modernizing the US health care system to lower administrative costs and increase effectiveness
- NOT borrowing/increasing the national deficit to pay for his health care plan
For more details and the best comprehensive analysis of the Obama plan we found thehealthcareblog.com.
This blog also tackles the difficult questions regarding HOW Obama plans to cut health care costs by instating a public plan with a trillion dollar price tag (YES, THAT IS TRILLION). I’m sure we’re all itching to find that out…
We also found several intelligent arguments presented against Obama’s cost-cutting plan and doubts with regards to Obama’s statements with which he used to back up his plan!
Hope you find our notes helpful. If you find something interesting that we haven’t mentioned yet please give us a tip off. We’ll leave you with this touching clip and a chance to decide for yourself on the health care solution America ought to adopt …
We here at USDemocrazy ponder politics quite a lot. (That’s why we get paid the big bucks — wait… we haven’t been paid in a while… Gotta go talk to someone about that.)
You know who DOES get paid? Senators… and right now things are really paying off for Democratic Senators.
Yesterday it was announced Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator Arlen Specter… is SWITCHING OVER TO THE DEMOCRATS!
That’s gotta make some people (namely, Republicans) unhappy, right? You betcha. (Michael Steele said Specter basically “flipped the bird” to Republican leadership…)
The best explanation for this monumental switch can be heard straight from the horse’s mouth (or do we call him a donkey now?), which you can see in the video above.
Now… this switcheroo is kind of a big deal.
Specter’s addition to the Democrats in the Senate would give them a filibuster-proof majority (it takes 60 votes… they currently have 59). This will allow the Democrats to straitjacket any Republican opposition and bulldoze through their (and President Obama’s) agenda.
This a body blow to an already reeling Republican opposition.
There’s so much news on this subject right now that we’re going to let those people who are WAY smarter than us do the talking. I mean, those journalists get paid too… So they better be doing a good job.
Here goes:
Salon explores “The Specter of a shrinking GOP”
The NYT gives us the deets (that’s hip-talk for details, we’ve been told).
Was this just a career-saving move? Some say yes.
The floor is now open for debate on what will be Specter’s contribution to the Dems.
Can he alter Obama’s financial agenda? Really?
What does this supermajority truly mean?
How’s the GOP taking this? Maybe better than we thought? (But maybe not.)
He was against party-switching before he was for it.
Finally, what does our good ol’ Vice Prez think? As a Democrat, he’s pretty happy. Here’s what he had to say:
I welcome my old friend to the Democratic Party. Senator Arlen Specter is a man of remarkable courage and integrity. I know he will remain a powerful and independent voice for Pennsylvania and the country.
Do you think party-switching should be allowed? How do you feel about Specter’s choice? We know we’re still caught up in the whirl of news stories, so we’d appreciate some opinions…
Everybody hurts… Especially British teachers.
The bearer of bad news: Geithner gives warning about the economy!
Reform needs Republicans… Will they join in?
We at USDemocrazy have always believed in the adage “The more the merrier”. But apparently more is not merry when it involves Rush Limbaugh and Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele.
Democrats, and even some Republicans, have painted Limbaugh as leader of the Republican Party. They cite Limbaugh’s recent hardline views of the current White House (like when he remarked that he hopes Obama fails).
Steele, who was recently elected Chairman of the RNC, seems to feel HE is the head honcho as he claims in the above video.
Looks like this party might not be big enough for the two of them (most of the space being taken up by Rush).
But don’t worry — the Grand Old Party is not about to become divided just yet! Steele quickly apologized to Grand Master Limbaugh.
Now Republican moderates are in a rage! They fear that Steele was not so steely when he backed down to hardliners in the GOP. They are wondering if this will be a trend in the years ahead.
For answers (or maybe more questions) on “What to do about Rush” check out this NY Times blog.
One thing is for sure… If Michael Steele wants to take the limelight from Rush Limbaugh, he is going to have some BIG (literally and figuratively) shoes to fill.
