health care

Theodore Roosevelt’s 154th Birthday: He Would Mourn What His Republican Party Has Become!

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Today is the 154th Anniversary of President Theodore Roosevelt’s birth.

TR is one of the most acclaimed Presidents, often listed as high as 4th all time, just below Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George Washington.

TR is certainly regarded as the second greatest Republican President of all time, behind only Lincoln, unless one chooses to believe the lunacy of conservative propagandist Glenn Beck, who constantly denounces TR, and would put Ronald Reagan higher than TR, and who also has reservations about Lincoln, because correspondence between Lincoln and Karl Marx has been uncovered, which makes some right wing nuts think Lincoln “might” have been a “Socialist”, or a “Communist”, or even the word “Progressive”, which is considered the same thing by Beck, Florida Congressman Allen West, and other right wing lunatics!

TR was a “Progressive” who promoted conservation and the environment; promoted the advance of labor rights; believed in regulation of big business; created the Food and Drug Administration to monitor safety of what Americans consume; and believed later in his life, when he ran as the Progressive Party nominee for President in 1912 that there was a need for health care and labor laws and other aspects of a social safety net. This made TR the forerunner of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama in advocating more government, more regulation, more social safety net, and concern about the environment.

None of the above is now believed by the Republican Party of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, who wish to repeal everything TR and his successors of both parties believed in!

So it is clear that TR, certainly not perfect but still exceptional in so many ways, would NOT be a Republican today!

But then Abraham Lincoln would not be a Republican today.

Neither would Dwight D. Eisenhower or even Richard Nixon or Gerald Ford, who were condemning the religious extremism of their party in their later years.

And right now, former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee, and former South Dakota Senator Larry Pressler have endorsed President Barack Obama.

And under the surface, not willing to speak up, but clearly uncomfortable with the GOP of 2012, are many other former Republican Governors, Senators, and Congressmen who feel that their party has been “hijacked” by an evil, selfish, greedy, nasty group of weirdos who wish to take away rights from women, labor, minorities, the disabled, the poor, and the middle class, and are refusing to come out openly and endorse Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

The party of Theodore Roosevelt and his “progressivism” and reform is long gone, and sadly, may never return!

History Of Major Social And Economic Change And Presidential Reelections

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When one examines American history, in times of major social and economic change, often very controversial, the American people have chosen every time to endorse those changes, no matter how divisive, by reelecting the President who brought about the reforms.

Witness Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, followed by a reelection victory in the midst of the Civil War in 1864.

Witness Woodrow Wilson, and the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, Clayton Anti Trust Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and several labor reforms, and being reelected in 1916.

Witness Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, and the passage of the National Labor Relations Act and Social Security Act, leading to reelection in 1936.

Witness Harry Truman vetoing the Taft Hartley Labor Act and promoting integration of the the military and Washington, DC, and then winning election in 1948.

Witness Lyndon B. Johnson promoting the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and then winning election to a full term the same year.

Witness Republican Richard Nixon, going along with Democrats, and signing into law the Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Occupational Safety And Health Administration, and Affirmative Action, and being reelected in 1972.

Now Barack Obama has accomplished major reform on health care, ObamaCare, something millions of Americans already benefit from, so to imagine the American people rejecting it this November, would defy American history, that when major change comes about, it becomes permanent!

Arlen Specter, A Senate Giant, Leaves Behind A Complicated Legacy As He Dies At Age 82

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Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who died today at age 82, was, without a doubt, a Senate giant, who leaves behind a complicated legacy.

Specter was a Democrat in Philadelphia, turned a Republican, and then, at the end of his career, a Democrat again!

Specter was a liberal Republican who became a moderate, but fought against the conservative trend in his party.

Specter was one of the most influential Jewish Senators in American history, ranking on the level of New York Senator Jacob Javits, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum, Michigan Senator Carl Levin, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Senator Barbara Boxer, Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, and New York Senator Charles Schumer. Only Javits was a Republican, other than Specter.

Specter was a giant figure on the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, involved in 14 Supreme Court nomination battles, including the stopping of Robert Bork, and the defense of Clarence Thomas, and the impeachment controversy surrounding President Bill Clinton.

Specter was a prickly, ornery individual, who did not suffer fools very well, whether Senate colleagues or constituents, and became a major critic of the mindless Tea Party Movement in the Republican Party after the election of President Barack Obama.

Specter lost his seat in the Senate after 30 years, when he backed President Obama on health care, and switched back to the Democratic Party, giving them, for a brief period, a 60 member filibuster proof majority in the US Senate.

Specter was seen as a man of principle, but also an opportunist, who gained many enemies all over the political spectrum.

Specter was a key figure in the Warren Commission investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy, being on the staff of the commission, and promoting the viewpoint of a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, which became the official viewpoint of the Warren Commission, a viewpoint he never backed away from, despite the many conspiracy theories.

Specter may have been a “loner” in many ways, but in the thirty years he was in the US Senate, he gained a lot of respect and stature as one of its giant figures, who could not be ignored, overlooked, or mistreated, as he would always fight back, including his two courageous battles with cancer in his last decade.

Arlen Specter is a person who historians will have to wrestle with to understand American politics and history in the 1980s, 1990s, and the early 21st century! His effect on so many areas and issues will be a goldmine for scholars in the future, trying to decipher the controversies and issues going back even to the 1960s!

May Arlen Specter rest in peace, knowing he had a great impact on his nation that will not be forgotten!

Theodore Roosevelt Became President On This Day In 1901: Transformation Of The American Presidency!

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On this day in 1901, the first year of the 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States upon the death of President William McKinley, who died of gunshot wounds suffered eight days earlier in Buffalo, New York, perpetrated by the assassin, Leon Czolgosz!

TR becoming President turned out to be transformational, as he became an advocate of an activist Presidency, and became a model for both Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents of the future!

TR helped to make America a world power, and would be shocked at the thought of many today who would advocate withdrawing from the world.

TR would be proud of President Barack Obama in his handling of the Middle East crisis that emerged this week with the death of Christopher Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya, and would be shocked at the reaction of his fellow Republican, Presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Also, TR would be proud of Barack Obama for accomplishing what he first brought up as an issue a century ago–national health care for all—and would be disappointed that his party has set out to repeal “ObamaCare”!

It is clear that TR, were he alive today, would be a Democrat, not a Republican, as TR’s Progressive beliefs have been repudiated by right wing conservatives, and TR would be furious at social conservatives trying to control the American people’s private lives, and promoting religion in government, rather than the tradition of the Founding Fathers, to have separation of church and state!

And TR, were he here now, would love to punch Glenn Beck and other right wing extremists who have attacked him because he was a Progressive, who believed that government was designed to make life better for the people, not for the corporations and the wealthy!

Yes, TR had his faults, as we all do, but he stands out as one of our greatest Presidents, who might never have ascended to that job, but for the evil deed of one man, who murdered William McKinley.

Just the same, Barack Obama will not let a small band of terrorists and thugs in Libya to upend our foreign policy, and he will show resolve and principle in dealing with the issue, just as TR always did in the Presidency!

Barack Obama is a worthy successor to the heritage of Theodore Roosevelt!

The Middle Class Reacting To Romney-Ryan, And Their Promotion Of The Oligarchy

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Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are being besieged by demonstrators at campaign events, who reject their attack on the middle class, and their promotion of the oligarchy, the top two percent, who already have more concentration of wealth than at any time in American history, including the Gilded Age and the 1920s.

It is clear that nearly 80 percent of the American people, based upon polls, do not want Medicare turned into a voucher system. It is also clear that women are not going to accept the limits on their rights that Republicans are promoting in Congress and in many Republican controlled state legislatures.

The growing feeling is that this Romney-Ryan team could be the most radical right wing combination we have seen in Republican Party history, with the exception of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and even he came out for an attack on social conservatism and the power of religion in the GOP, backing gay rights and abortion rights, in his older years.

It is not promising when Paul Ryan is revealed to have agreed with radio talk show host Glenn Beck that progressivism and liberalism was a “cancer”, in a radio interview in 2010.

In other words, what this author said over the weekend about the inflexibility and ideological extremism of Paul Ryan is not just theory, but based on evidence, not only in that radio interview, but in the dealings of the House Budget Committee majority under Paul Ryan’s leadership, adopting a budget with massive tax cuts for the wealthy, while cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Pell Grants, Food Stamps, and many other programs!

Notice that the popularity rating of the Congress, particularly of the House and its leadership, is at an all time low, hovering around 12 percent.

If Mitt Romney thought selection of Paul Ryan was going to invigorate his campaign, he was right in a certain sense. It has caused the beginning of the outrage of middle class Americans who are not going to allow the GOP team to destroy America as a land of opportunity, and the last great hope of mankind, and instead just promote the elite wealthy!

The Tea Party Movement had its opportunity to confront and challenge Barack Obama and his health care plan in 2009-2010, in a very vigorous and disruptive manner at political rallies and town halls.

Now, those who are opposed to the narrow mindedness of the Tea Party Movement are getting their opportunity to express their anger, as if we allow one side to be outspoken, the other side has the same opportunity. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press still exist, even for those who disagree with Glenn Beck and Paul Ryan! This is a democracy, not a dictatorship of the RIght!

The “Old Confederacy”, Republicans, Health Care, And HIV AIDS Infections

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The “Old Confederacy”, the states that broke away from the Union during the Civil War, remain the poorest part of the nation even in 2012, in all social and economic statistics.

Once held back by the Democratic Party before the era of civil rights, now it is the Republicans who dominate in these states, and are holding back progress through their propaganda on race and religion, and resentment of the federal government.

So it is the governors of these states that refuse to move ahead on health care coverage for their poorer citizens, of all races, rejecting Medicaid expansion and forming health care exchanges to enforce ObamaCare in 2014 and beyond. They have no concern about the welfare of their less fortunate men, women, and children, while always professing their ‘Christian values”!

In the midst of this hypocrisy, Dan Rather, former CBS News anchor and journalist, has revealed new evidence that HIV AIDs infections are spreading most rapidly in these states, much more than in New York City and San Francisco, the typical stereotype that it is only gays that have this disease, when it is actually spreading among uneducated white and minorities and in the heterosexual community at a far greater rate.

Does one think that these state governments and their representatives in Congress have any concern or interest in combating this epidemic?

The clear answer is NO, as long as race and religion can be manipulated for political power by the GOP!

Despite Health Care Ruling, Supreme Court Is Still Out Of Control, And Presidential Election Will Decide If It Regains Confidence Of The American People!

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The Supreme Court came through by the barest of margins on the issue of “ObamaCare” last week, but when one looks at the Court’s radical swing to the right in so many other ways, it is clear that the future reputation of the Court and the long term future of the nation requires the victory of Barack Obama for a second term as President.

By confirming their Citizens United decision again in a case involving Montana state law, and by actions against labor unions and their rights in another case, and in the solidity most of the time of the Republican appointees in rejecting past precedent and tradition, the Court has gained an image of being extremist and confrontational, and lost American public opinion and respect, which is dangerous for our democracy.

Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush effectively moved the Court away from the political center to the extreme right, and we are suffering the effects of this extremist rightward tilt.

We cannot afford to base the future on Anthony Kennedy SOMETIMES going with the liberal side of the Court, or Chief Justice John Roberts seemingly being concerned about the reputation of the Court. Neither is reliable to keep the Court in the political center, and protect the rights of the powerless.

The only answer is to insure that when the older members of the Supreme Court retire or die while in service on the Court, that we replace them with Justices who have a vision of the country more in line with the reality of the 21st century than the 19th century Gilded Age!

With Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy to be over 80 before the next Presidential term ends, the likelihood is that whoever is President in the next four years will have a transformative effect on the Supreme Court and constitutional law.

The thought of Mitt Romney making those choices is truly terrifying, and will make the Court a right wing extremist influence into the 2040s, totally unacceptable!

Barack Obama will be able to make the Court shift more into the mainstream, preserving the brilliant times of the Warren Court in the 1950s and 1960s, when America advanced constitutionally in so many ways!

A Century Of Struggle For Health Care: Theodore Roosevelt 1912 to Barack Obama 2012!

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Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, out of office and running on the third party movement, the Progressive Party, in 1912, first proposed some form of national health exactly a century ago as part of his New Nationalism platform!

His distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered it as part of his New Deal in the 1930s, but it was controversial enough to promote Social Security, which was called “Socialism”, and bitterly opposed by most Republicans, and used as a campaign issue by Republican Governor Alf Landon in the 1936 Presidential campaign.

Harry Truman actually was the first to promote a program as part of his Fair Deal programs in the 1940s, but the Southern Democrats and the American Medical Association bitterly opposed it as “Socialism”, and it died in committees in the US House of Representatives and US Senate.

John F. Kennedy proposed what became Medicare for the elderly as part of his New Frontier, but it was blocked again by the AMA and the Southern Democrats who headed Congressional committees in both houses of Congress in the early 1960s.

Lyndon B. Johnson overcame the AMA and Southern Democrats, and accomplished Medicare in 1965, and the Republicans campaigned against it, but failed to gain enough support to repeal it

Richard Nixon had devised plans for more health care legislation, but Watergate killed any movement in that direction in the 1970s.

Jimmy Carter also had developed a plan for expansion, but faced too much conservative opposition and other issues and crises, which drew attention away from the idea.

Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton proposed a major government program, but it went down to defeat in 1994, with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the conservative Heritage Foundation proposing a “mandate” instead, which would allow private health insurance companies to profit from health care reform, but nothing was done.

And Senator Ted Kennedy fought the good fight for decades, and was at least able to see progress before his death in 2009.

And when Hillary Clinton, and then Barack Obama, adopted the Heritage Foundation plan in 2008, far less than the original Clinton plan of the 1990s, suddenly the Republican Party and conservative ideologists bitterly opposed it, as they still do, and their hope is to repeal the program declared constitutional by the Supreme Court this past Thursday.

So it has taken a century, and we are the ONLY major nation in the world which allows millions of people to be uncovered for health care, and we have the opposition bitterly trying to destroy it, including Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who actually promoted the SAME idea successfully in Massachusetts in 2006, but now is out to destroy “ObamaCare”!

What a history, and hard to believe that it would take a century, and still be a controversy in 2012!.

One Dark Part Of The Supreme Court Decision On “Obamacare”: Commerce Clause Limited For First Time Since New Deal, Thrilling Libertarians!

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As one analyzes the Supreme Court decision on “ObamaCare” written by Chief Justice John Roberts, in the midst of the celebration, one has to pause and be concerned about Roberts’ assertion that the “commerce clause”, utilized regularly since the New Deal to permit expansion of federal power, was declared limited by a 5-4 vote of Roberts and all four Republican and conservative appointments on the Court—Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito–and vigorously opposed by the four Democratic and liberal appointments—Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Instead, Roberts said the law was constitutional based on the “mandate” being a tax.

LIbertarians are cheered by this aspect of the case, but it COULD effectively limit federal power, and restore states rights back to the pre 1930s view, which would indeed be tragic in so many ways!

So the battle over the future of government, and over what the Roberts majority opinion means for the long term, will be the subject of much discussion, debate, and cases over the coming years!

The Crux Of The Matter: Barack Obama’s Speech In Cleveland Sets The Standard!

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President Obama today gave a rousing speech in Cleveland, making clear that he was not willing to give Mitt Romney a massive tax cut, along with other millionaires and billionaires, and that much more important was to give basic security to the elderly, the sick, and those seeking work and suffering from the Great Recession for the past four and a half years!

In a nation in which the average family has suffered a drop in assets of 39 percent in the past few years, including on retirement savings, housing, jobs, and ability to provide college education to one’s children, Obama said the only way to grow the economy was the creation of a strong middle class, based on education, investment in infrastructure projects, and the utilization of technology to find new methods of economic expansion, including energy projects that plan for a world less dependent on oil and coal.

Instead of returning to deregulation and massive tax cuts for the rich, Obama said government can be good and productive and helpful in bringing back the American economy, and that if we are all to be only thinking about ourselves, that will not revive the American economy.

The election is a clear cut choice between two philosophies, and Obama declared that it was a crucial, turning point election that will determine the long term direction of the country.

If one uses common sense, and realizes that the way to move forward is to think of ourselves as “WE”, instead of “ME”, then Obama will win the election in November!