As Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean used a 50 state stragedy to give Democrats contol of the House by huge margins, the Senate by 9 and the White House. After such a performance you would think Dean would be a shoe in to continue to function in that position.
Enter newly elected President Barack Obama to appoint his old friend Tim Kaine as the new Chairman of the D.N.C. and it is all down hill from there. Tim oversaw the stragedy for a mid term election that reversed the House and left it in Republican control by a wide and embarrising margin. A loss of seats like nothing seen in modern times. Tim’s brillance would have delivered the Senate to the Republicans except for some really poor candidates being chosen by the GOP.
Now as Jim Webb announces his retirement after one term in the Senate enter President Obama again as he selects and pressures his old friend Tim Kaine to run for that Senate seat. I don’t want to rain on anybodies parade but Tim Kaine will most likely be a private citizen when the votes are counted for that Senate race.
Obama should let the state party recruit it own candidate and distance himself from the stigma of picking losers.
Here’s what Obama had to say about Dean. “We are in a strong position to rebuild a Democratic Party committed to these principles because of the outstanding work of its current chairman,” Mr. Obama said, adding. “Having steered the Democratic Party through two successful elections, Howard deserves enormous credit for helping usher in a new era in Washington.” Obama continued “He(Dean) launched a 50-state strategy that made Democrats competitive in places they had
not been in years, working with my chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to give Democrats a majority in the House for the first time in over a decade.”
Then Obama turned the reins of the D.N.C over to Kaine and the rest is history. All that Howad Dean had built for the Democratic Party blew away like dry leaves in a stiff wind under the control of Tim Kaine. If Kaine had a mule I could mistake him for Creigh Deeds.
As Democrats we will vote for Kaine because we have no where else to go.
After taking over the D.N.C. Kains first act was to dismiss the 183 DNC field organizers and terminate the 50 State Strategy. With Kaine’s new direction Democrats were suddenly losing elections.
For four years under Howard Dean the Democratic National Committee funded a 50 state strategy which paid for DNC
field organizers on the ground in every state. These organizers built local and county organizations which assisted candidates at every level. I have no idea what stragedy Kaine used but whatever it was it was a complete failure.
Tim Kaine, David Axelrod, and Rahm Emmanuel (Obama’s team of friends) killed the Dean stragedy and nothing has worked right since.
Now Tim will run for the open Senate seat.
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Unions Get More Selective With Their Money
It is no secret that Unions donate heavily to Democrats and it is also no secret Democrats do dam little for the money. Democrats are weak in the knee and lacking in spine and Unions are starting to redirect the money to local elections where the candidates have the courage to stand up for workers values. If and when the House and Senate Democrats develop the spine to stand up and fight for workers the money will return. Until the situation corrects itself there will be no more money thrown down a rat hole.
Democrats receive 90 percent or more from ActBlue, American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees, American Assn for Justice, Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, National Education Assn, Laborers Union, Teamsters Union, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers, Communications Workers of America, United Auto Workers, Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union, United Food & Commercial Workers Union, EMILY’s List, AFL-CIO, Sheet Metal Workers Union, Plumbers & Pipefitters Union, United Steelworkers, Ironworkers Union, American Postal Workers Union, Human Rights Campaign, Saban Capital Group, Transport Workers Union, National Cmte for an Effective Congress, Amalgamated Transit Union.
This oversight of Union Funds should have happened long ago when politicians first got lazy and worthless and started concentrating on their own re-elections and neglected the people’s needs.
Republicans receive 90 percent or more from Club for Growth, Associated Builders & Contractors, Amway/Alticor Inc, National Fedn of Independent Business. Republicans stand up for and fight the battles of the people they receive donations from.
A wake up call is being directed to Democrats, your free ride is over.
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The House Republican budget ends Medicare and doubles the costs to seniors.
Ryan’s Budget Attempts to End Medicare and Shift Costs to Seniors
Medicare as we know it would end for new beneficiaries in 2022 under the House Republican budget proposal. It would be replaced with a government voucher that would be paid directly to private insurance companies. This system would double costs to seniors. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, concluded that “most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system.”
Seniors would pay more for two reasons. First, the Ryan plan forces future beneficiaries out of the traditional Medicare plan into a more expensive private plan. In 2022 65-year-olds would be forced to pay twice as much for care than they would under Medicare: ,500 compared to ,150. The same holds true
for 65-year-olds in 2030. They would be forced to pay ,713 compared to ,138 under Medicare.
Second, the House Republican plan forces seniors to pay a larger share of their health costs over time since the value of the voucher in the House Republican budget plan increases at a slower rate than
medical costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Ryan proposal calls for 65-year-olds to contribute ,513 of the estimated ,513 total cost of their health care in 2022, including premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, or 61 percent. They are expected to pay ,713 of the ,460 in total costs in 2030, or 68 percent .
In other words, the House Republican budget proposal does not control health care costs. It just shifts them on to seniors.
Rep. Ryan claims that under his plan seniors will be enrolled in the same plan members of Congress and federal employees receive. This is not accurate. Federal employees receive a “consistent level” of contributions to health costs. Under Rep. Ryan’s plan the government voucher would not keep pace with increases in medical costs, meaning seniors would be forced to pay more of the cost.
According to the Office of Personnel Management: The Government’s share of premiums paid is set by law. Amendments to the FEHB law under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-33, approved August 5, 1997) authorized a new formula for calculating the Government contribution effective with the contract year that begins in January 1999. This formula is
known as the “Fair Share” formula because it will maintain a consistent level of Government contributions, as a percentage of total program costs, regardless of which health plan enrollees elect.
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) made this very same point in a letter to his colleagues: Health care vouchers for seniors will be calculated in advance, and not based on the actual cost of premium increases—meaning that every year as premiums go up, seniors will be stuck paying a greater portion of the bill. This is not the case for Members of Congress. When the plan takes effect in 2022,
the average senior would receive ,000 to buy insurance. Plans for Members of Congress cost ,012in 2010. What kind of health care plan will ,000 buy in 2022 for our sickest and oldest seniors, when 00 can’t buy a plan for a Member of Congress today?
Rep. Ryan repeatedly tries to distinguish his Medicare proposal, which he calls “premium support,” or government support indexed to pay a constant share of average health care costs, from a voucher plan, or government support tied to a price index. His proposal is a voucher to private insurance companies, plain
and simple, and he himself essentially concedes that point. And former and current proponents of “premium support” agree.
Alice Rivlin, the former Office of Management and Budget director under President Bill Clinton, worked with Rep. Ryan on a deficit reduction proposal and has supported “premium support” in the past. But Rivlin said she could not support the Medicare proposal because it eliminated the traditional Medicare choice and lowered the rate of growth of the Medicare voucher beyond what is “defensible.”
Henry Aaron, a health economist and co-founder of the “premium support” concept, challenges the arbitrary and draconian growth rate of Rep. Ryan’s proposed voucher and has moved away from the “premium support” concept for three reasons.
First, he finds little reason to believe there are adequate regulations and safeguards to ensure seniors make informed choices.
Second, he believes the gains from choosing among insurance have been exaggerated.
And third, the Affordable Care Act now authorizes Medicare to use its purchasing power to spur delivery reforms, which he believes is the right direction to go.
Conclusion
The House Republican budget plan is another conservative attempt to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher paid to private insurance companies. The plan forces future seniors into a more expensive private plan in 2022, doubling the cost to seniors. The Republican budget plan lowers federal Medicare costs by shifting more of the burden on to seniors. That burden becomes larger over time since the value of the voucher does not keep pace with the increase in health care costs.
While conservatives may celebrate the House Republican budget for pursuing their ideological agenda, the real consequences of this proposal will be most felt by our seniors.
Don’t let the Republicans kill Medicare.
For nearly 50 years, Medicare has been a cornerstone of our nation’s commitment to our seniors, and along with Social Security, an invaluable tool for keeping them from falling into poverty.
And now the Republican Party wants to kill it.
Led by Representative Paul Ryan (aka, “Privatizing Ryan”), the party is pushing to eliminate Medicare as we know it, and replace it with a ludicrous privatized system where seniors are given vouchers to try to buy coverage from private, for-profit insurance companies. The very same companies that have over and over again denied coverage to senior citizens.
Medicare as we know it would end for new beneficiaries in 2022 under the House Republican budget proposal. It would be replaced with a government voucher that would be paid directly to private insurance companies. This system would double costs to seniors. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, concluded that “most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system.”
Don’t let them kill Medicare. Don’t let them rip a gaping hole in the senior safety net. Write Congress today, and demand that your officials pledge to support Medicare — not destroy it.
Make no mistake about it — this plan would end Medicare as we know it. It would take a system where seniors are guaranteed coverage, and replace it with one where they would be at the mercy of for-profit companies.
The worst part? For many seniors, these vouchers wouldn’t be anywhere close to enough to purchase coverage. Many would simply go without out insurance, and have no way of paying for health care.
Ironically, the very same Republicans that spread lies about “death panels” are now the ones essentially advocating a system of de facto death panels. Instead of addressing the real causes of high health care costs, they are trying to deny care to those least able to afford it.
And shockingly, some Democrats are indicating they might get on board with this.
Don’t let them rip a gaping hole in the senior safety net. Write Congress today, and demand that your officials pledge to support Medicare — not kill it.
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Amherst County Virginia Democratic News
Do forty percent of Americans really hate their country, or are they just too self-absorbed, apathetic and/or obtuse to recognize the loathing Barack Obama displays for the United States of America? Forty seems to be the percentage of people, give or take a few, who still express their approval of this president and his policies, in spite of the disdain he shows both for them and their country.
