Reagan’s Berlin legacy

The Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale is at it again. They love to publish letters to the editor that reflect a very biased slant in favor of Republicans. This one which appeared Sunday from a Jerry Ginsberg from Boca Raton, expresses the erroneous premise that Reagan was instrumental in the fall of the Soviet Union.

This person writes: “Those deniers of facts who now stridently proclaim that President Reagan just happened to get lucky while rushing to credit Mkhail Gorbachev with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union can be driven only by ignorance or malice. There is no third choice.”

I am going to quote Barney Frank on this one: Tell me Jerry, in what planet have you been spending most of your time in, or in what planet did you reside when the Berlin Wall fell? To accuse those of us who are not Reagan admirers of ignoring the facts and acting with malice is the disengenious part.

This person goes on: “No reasonable and intellectually honest person can really discount the cumulative effect of demonstrations of Reagan’s firmness and resolve”

Now this person assumes that if we don’t share this point of view we are not reasonable and we are dishonest. That really takes chutzpah to say. The ones who are being unreasonable are the Reagan lovers and they are confusing saber rattling and empty rhetoric for firmness and resolve.

I would like to ask this person: What if anything did Reagan do to actually precipitate the fall of the Soviet Union? Was it some secret CIA plot? Was it the infiltration of the Communist Party? Was it the organizing of street protests? What the @#$@#% did he actually do? The only thing I can think of is when he stood in front of the Berlin wall and uttered the now famous phrase:”Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”.

The Soviet Union fell under the stress of its own failures, not even Gorbachev, who played a significant role when he took away the powers of the Communist Party can claim to be the hero of that bloodless and silent revolution. Reagan? He did not even make a dent. And those are the real facts, not the ones some people chose to believe.

But that does not cause a whole totalitarian and repressive government to fall. You can say tear down this wall until you are blue in the face and nothing will happen as we Cubans have been doing for fifty years. That was nothing but empty rhetoric and one-liners that Reagan was very good at delivering. It was without substance and without resolve.

For that, are we now supposed to put Reagan on the pedestal of glorious and courageous leaders? Did he actually do anything other than leave this country with the biggest deficit in history up until that point? Did he not stop the Equal Rights Ammendment? Did he not break up labor unions? Did he not placed us on a path of division along religious lines by empowering the fucking Evangelicals? I could go on but let me just say this, the two worst legacies of his Presidency were: He made a lot of people believe, even to this day that “Government is the problem” and that “Trickle Down Economics” is a viable and good idea. Both of these are not just wrong, they are harmful because when you begin governing a country with the premise that government is the problem, you are already condemming yourself and your actions as invalid.

Trickle down is one very erroneous concept because we all know that if you give to the rich, they will just hoard it, it will not be passed down to the lower economic tiers of society…So, “Trickle Down is BS”

PHOTO SOURCE: http://europa.eu/abc/12lessons/images/content_berlin_wall.jpg

http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/Photos/Russia/BerlinWall.jpg

Oprah Winfrey announces an end of an era

Although I am not a fan of hers nor do I ever watch her show, I have to admit I have great admiration for her and her accomplishments. Screw those critics that do so only because she came out in support of Obama.

She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and was once the world's only black billionaires. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including being raped at the age of nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy.

She was able to turn her doomed future around and became one of the most admired and richest women in the world. To her critics I say: Show me your bank accounts you losers.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

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Transparency Legislation badly needed

Time and time again we find that some organization that sounds very appealing and legitimate is oftentimes funded by special interests that do not have the best interests of the American public in mind but are working for the benefit of some commercial enterprise that would benefit from either passing or rejecting a particular piece of legislation.

What seems to be unfortunate is that these special interest groups are allow to function lurking in the shadows of anonymity and not disclosing the origin of the funds that pay for these supposedly benign organization.

I am saying here that this should work well across the board whether it is a right wing or a left wing group. But the American public has a right to know who is trying to mislead them. I am not saying that they don’t have the right to say what they do, that would be an infringement on our free speech rights, but we can say anything we like in this country, only that if you are paid to say it, we as Americans also should have the right to know who pays for your free speech.

Very simple and clean cut, no question as to the validity of having more transparency and not one person or organization should be opposed to having honesty and clarity in the American legislative process. As Americans we have the right to express an opinion and say whatever we want, provided it is not yelling “fire” in a crowded theater if there isn’t a fire. But as Americans we also should have the right to know if you are getting compensation to say what you do and if so, who is paying for it.

PHOTO SOURCE: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons

We may have to wait another 10 years before we can tackle Health Care again.

America, you choose …I know this for a fact, if we don’t pass a significant piece of legislation that will at least make an attempt to fix the broken Health Care system now, it is going to take a long time to finally get it done. But the problem with that is that when insurance companies and pharmaceuticals win this round, they will be emboldened and will not just raise premiums and the cost of medicines, they will also drop millions of people considered to be risky to their profits and deny claims left and right.

Of course, the catastrophic effects will be a burden loaded on to the backs of the middle class and as millions of people are driven into bankruptcy, these people, their families and friends will be touched and hurt by the insurance company’s abuses.

The costs to Medicare and Medicaid will certainly shoot up to where these will be unmanageable, perhaps the very thing Republicans want, to end Medicare because it is a socialist program. But make no mistake about this outcome; our friends and families across the country will suffer and our economy will also will bear an unnecessary blow.

Perhaps Americans need to be hit across the head with a 2 X 4 before they stop listening to all the lies and exaggerations the Republicans have been feeding them. The special interest lobbies and their ads placed in the media are misleading at best. These are the causes for the diminishing popularity which at one point exceeded 80% in support of a Health Care reform legislation.

But have it your way America, you and only you will be responsible if this fails and you and you alone will bear the brunt of the terrible consequences. Even if we pass the legislation that has gotten this far along, it is a partial failure because it allows for states to opt out and for insurance companies to set up shop in a state that has less regulations. Also, as it stands,it looks like this legislation will only cover about 3 million Americans therefore not achieving what it is supposed to which is offer competition to insurance providers.

Another example of why “TRICKLE DOWN DOESN’T WORK”

We have seen the government give out trillions of dollars to financial institutions to bail them out and to make this money available for providing loans and get the economy going. This started in the last days of the Bush administration; of course, their main concern was that their friends and cronies would not suffer any financial losses while the rest of America, Main Street America was suffering the effects of a failed economy. What has happened instead is that they have used these funds to speculate, play games and benefit from their gamble at the expense of the American tax payer. In the meantime banks are making record profits and their executives have seen an increase in their salaries and the obscene bonuses they are getting.

So, give to the rich, you see how they have a way of hoarding it. TRICKLE DOWN JUST DOESN’T WORK, IT IS BULL SHIT

Here is the Health Care Bill for those of you who might be interested in reading it and once and for all debunk all the lies and the crap the Republicans have been spewing.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care and will create the transformation within the health care system necessary to contain costs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is fully paid for, will provide coverage to more than 94 percent of Americans while staying under the $900 billion limit that President Obama established, bending the health care cost curve, and reducing the deficit over the next ten years and beyond.

Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans

ü The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes immediate changes to the way health insurance companies do business to protect consumers from discriminatory practices and provide Americans with better preventive coverage and the information they need to make informed decisions about their health insurance.

ü Uninsured Americans with a pre-existing condition will have access to an immediate insurance program to help them avoid medical bankruptcy and retirees will have greater certainty due to reinsurance provisions to help maintain coverage.

ü New health insurance Exchanges will make coverage affordable and accessible for individuals and small businesses. Premium tax credits and cost-sharing assistance will help those who need assistance.

ü Insurance companies will be barred from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions, health status, and gender.

The Role of Public Programs

ü The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands eligibility for Medicaid to include all non-elderly Americans with income below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), with substantial assistance to States for the cost of covering these individuals.

Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Health Care

ü Congress is committed to protecting and strengthening the Medicare program for America’s seniors. Medicare is a sacred trust with seniors and people with disabilities, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will ensure that trust is preserved. The cost of inaction is unacceptable for seniors and the Medicare program that serves them; without action, the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund is expected to go broke in just over seven years. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will make Medicare a stronger, more sustainable program.

ü Medicare currently reimburses health care providers on the basis of the volume of care they provide rather than the value of care. For each test, scan or procedure conducted, Medicare provides a separate payment, rewarding those who do more, regardless of whether the test or treatment contributes to helping a patient recover. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act include a number of proposals to move away from the “a la carte” Medicare fee‐for‐service system toward paying for quality and value and reducing costs to America’s seniors.

Prevention of Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health

ü The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act promotes preventive health care and improves the public health to help Americans live healthy lives and help restrain the growth of health care costs over time. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will eliminate co-pays and deductibles for recommended preventive care, provide individuals with the information they need to make healthy decisions, improve education on disease prevention and public health, and invest in a national prevention and public health strategy.

Health Care Workforce

ü Currently, 65 million Americans live in communities where they cannot easily access a primary care provider, and an additional 16,500 practitioners are required to meet their needs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will address shortages in primary care and other areas of practice by making necessary investments in our nation’s health care workforce. Specifically, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will invest in the National Health Service Corps, scholarship and loan repayment programs to expand the health care workforce. The bill also includes incentives for primary care practitioners and for providers to serve underserved areas.

Transparency and Program Integrity

ü The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will provide consumers with information about physician ownership of hospitals and medical equipment as well as nursing home ownership and other characteristics. The bill also includes provisions that will crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and private insurance. Finally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will establish a private, non-profit entity to identify priorities for and provide for the conduct of comparative outcomes research.

Improving Access to Innovative Medical Therapies

ü The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will establish a regulatory pathway for FDA approval of biosimilar versions of previously licensed biological products. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will also expand the scope of the existing 340B drug discount program; so that patients at children’s hospitals, cancer hospitals, rural hospitals and in other underserved communities have access to medicines at lower cost.

Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS)

ü The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will make long-term supports and services more affordable for millions of Americans by providing a lifetime cash benefit that will help people with severe disabilities remain in their homes and communities. CLASS is a voluntary, self-funded, insurance program provided through the workplace. For those whose employers participate, affordable premiums will be paid through payroll deductions. Participation by workers is entirely voluntary. The Congressional Budget Office confirms that the program, which has been revised from earlier versions, is actuarially sound.

Revenue Provisions

ü The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is fully paid for and reduces the deficit in the next ten years and beyond. The revenue provisions in the bill focus on paying for reform within the health care system. This is accomplished by tightening current health tax incentives, collecting industry fees, and slightly increasing the Medicare Hospital Insurance tax for high income earners. The bill also includes a fee on insurance companies when they sell high cost health insurance plans, designed to generate smarter, more cost-effective health coverage choices. Changes to health care tax incentives include capping FSA contributions, conforming definitions of deductible medical expenses and changing penalties for HSA spending that is not devoted to health care. The industry fees reflect responsible contributions from industries who have long profited from health care and who will benefit from the expanded coverage of millions of additional Americans under health care reform. The bill also assesses a small excise tax on elective cosmetic surgery. Finally, the bill also contains a 0.5 percentage point increase in the Medicare Hospital Insurance tax for individuals who earn more than $200,000 and couples who earn over $250,000. This tax will not only help fund health care reform, but will also extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund. Together, these revenue provisions represent a balanced, responsible package of proposals that bend the health care cost curve by putting downward pressure on health spending