Medicaid

The Republican Party: The Party Against Life! Pro-Gun, Anti Medicaid, Pro Death Penalty!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party and conservatives love to say they are the Pro Life Party, as they oppose abortion rights for any reason, including rape, incest, and life of the mother (for the most so called “religious”).

But at the same time, they are against any gun regulations to prevent future Sandy Hook Massacres or the reality that 12,000 people a year are killed by lack of regulation of firearms. So many cases of children killing siblings because of reckless parents who leave loaded firearms around, or killing of partners by wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, abound.

Also, about half of the states have refused to expand Medicaid, and are therefore responsible for the death of people within their states who cannot gain health care.

And for those states which have the death penalty, and allow the idea that a mix of drugs used to execute prisoners, without awareness of what they are, and their effect on the victim, can lead to the botched execution in Oklahoma last night, is an atrocity only fit for the Middle East or Russia or China, not the United States.

These Republican and conservative and “religious” promoters of death should be condemned, and it is clear that the states have run amuck in regards to basic human rights, including the right to live, free from gun violence, with access to health care, and the abolition of the death penalty, as it has not led to lower crime rates, but simply as a method to kill more people of minority status. The vast number who face execution in states that have a record of racial discrimination over the long period of years is testimony enough to this truth!

The Worst Governor In Florida History: Rick Scott!

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Florida Governor Rick Scott may have gained less attention than other “Bully” Republican Governors elected in 2010, but he is, in many ways, the absolutely worst governor in America, and easily, the worst Governor Florida has ever had in modern history!

Florida has had some really outstanding Governors, including Leroy Collins (1955-1961); Reubin Askew (1971-1979); Bob Graham (1979-1987); Lawton Chiles (1991-1999); and Charlie Crist (2007-2011). Republican Governors Claude Kirk (1967-1971) and Bob Martinez (1987-1991) both lost re-election and were controversial. Jeb Bush (1999-2007) had his controversies, but did an excellent job dealing with eight hurricanes during his time in office.

Rick Scott came into office with the record of having paid a record fine for his Medicare corruption as the leader of the nation’s largest hospital chain, and should have gone to prison instead, for his misdeeds. He won the Governorship by only 50,000 votes, the smallest margin in Florida history.

Scott spent $73 million of his own money to get himself elected, despite a personality that was and is a turn off to most people who have any intelligence or compassion for others. It was an example of how backward Floridians were, that they would allow a convicted felon to become their Governor.

Scott has done massive damage on voting rights, privacy rights, public schools and higher education, environmental protection, and health care. His party controls three fourths of the seats in the legislature, and has taken Florida backwards at a time when it is about to become the third largest state in population.

Scott has made it harder for Florida citizens to vote; for those who are unemployed to gain unemployment compensation; for renters to avoid eviction; and made it easier for borrowers to be charged high interest rates on short term loans.

Scott has refused to accept Medicaid money for the poor, despite the fact that the federal government will pay all the costs for three years, and 90 percent after that. He fought ObamaCare tooth and nail, and still makes it difficult for citizens to apply for it.

Scott rejected federal money for high speed rail, while creating another state university, Florida Polytechnic University, which undermines the University of South Florida market for students. His administration spends less per public school student than when he took office, and promotes private charter schools over public schools. He has undermined respect for a liberal arts education, and teachers at all levels have been treated with disrespect by his education policies.

Scott has undermined the environment protections put into effect by his predecessors, and sees Florida as equivalent of a corporation that needs to be given freedom to abuse in every way possible, including health insurance rates, higher electric rates, and tax breaks for businesses that have not created the promised number of jobs.

Scott has demonstrated little concern for individual rights, wanting drug testing for state employees and welfare recipients; purging voter rolls, and restricting early voting. Luckily, there has been reaction against these ideas by courts, county elections supervisors, and the public.

The man has no compassion or empathy, and comes across as a cold, calculating individual, and it makes one wonder how Floridians could possibly consider him for a second term, but Scott is willing to spend whatever it takes to fool people, and to keep the vote numbers down by any means he can conjure up.

Scott gains less attention nationally than Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Perry of Texas, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and other “Bully” Governors, all of whom are considered Presidential possibilities, but IF Rick Scott is re-elected, do not be surprised if he tries to bring his corruption, mean spirit, callousness, and lack of empathy or compassion to a national campaign for President.

One might say, wait, there is already Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio as potential candidates for President from Florida! The answer is: So What? Scott has never let ego or ethics get in his way in the past, and do not be surprised he might mount a national campaign if he defeats former Governor Charlie Crist, who has switched parties, and faces a massive challenge to be elected Governor as a Democrat, in a state with such a large Republican dominance in the state legislature!

The problem is that, even if Crist were to win, he is likely to face a hardline legislature, where only his veto might sometimes be effective, as Florida politics now represents one of the most backward agendas of any state, despite the fact that the state has nearly 20 million citizens, including many elderly, poor, sick, and disabled!

This is NOT a state where anyone who has a choice to move would decide to remain. YES, the weather is great, but the future for the elderly, the poor, the sick and the disabled, and for children in general, is gloomy!

Maryland, anyone?

Kathleen Sebelius A True Hero In Promotion Of ObamaCare: History Will Treat Her Well!

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Former Kansas Governor and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has had, probably, the most difficult job of anyone working under President Obama, in trying to promote the Affordable Care Act.

She was vilified for the disastrous beginning of ObamaCare last October, but now, despite the rough start, 7.5 million Americans are covered, plus millions more on Medicaid. For this, she is a true hero!

Meanwhile, many Republican Governors have refused to expand Medicaid, and people are dying for lack of accessibility to health care. This is absolutely unconscionable, and one wonders how Rick Scott of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, and other despicable GOP Governors can sleep at night!

While treated roughly by Republicans, and elements of the national news media, Sebelius will, in the long run, be well remembered and honored in history, as she is the person most involved in bringing health care to millions, and in so doing, fulfilling the “American Dream.”

She is an honorable lady, who, hopefully, now leaving the cabinet after five years, will have another role to play in public serice!

Let every decent person salute Kathleen Sebelius for her dedication and commitment!

Paul Ryan Self Destructs Any Chance To Run For President!

Ronald 10 Comments

Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who this blogger spent a lot of time working to undermine his Vice Presidential candidacy in 2012, and got blasted for it by right wing websites and bloggers, has again shown further evidence of what a terrible choice Mitt Romney made in his Presidential race, in selecting Ryan to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency!

Ryan, who knows nothing about budgets, except that the poor, the elderly, the disabled, veterans, and the young should see cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and other social programs; and there should be no extension of unemployment compensation for desperately unemployed people; and there should be no rise in the minimum wage, now has gone off the “deep end” with his assertion that those who live in the “inner cities” have no sense of the importance of work, and have not worked for generations!

This is a direct and racist assault on African Americans in particular, but also on Hispanics and Latinos, who are a majority of the poor in the urban areas of our nation.

But Ryan acts as if it is only minorities who are poor, and are unemployed, and in some cases, have not worked in a long time. From this statement, one would think that whites are not poor, that they all work, that they all have a heritage of understanding the point of work, and nothing could be further from the truth!

It is a fact, and always has been, that the vast majority of the poor do not live in cities, and are not minorities, although one would think so from a stereotype!

The fact is that there are millions of whites who live in the rural and suburban areas of the nation, and many are them do not work, have no hope of work, and live in depressed conditions often worse than urban slums. Many of these people are living in “Red” states, where Republicans vote to hurt their own constituents, while making it seem as if only minorities do not work, or have no work ethic. They live in Appalachia, the Great Plains, the Rockies, in comparatively sparsely populated areas, as compared to the urban areas on the East and West Coasts.

More whites receive food stamps, and the level of poverty percentage wise is higher in such places as Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska.

It is the lack of education; the tendency to have large families which are also dysfunctional; the reality of drugs and alcohol; the refusal of these state governments to give a damn about their white poor, along with minority poor; and the tendency to turn poor whites against poor minorities so that the GOP can keep power in the House and in the state legislatures, which is destroying generation after generation of deprived people of all races!

Only when there is a REAL war on poverty, instead of exploiting the issue based upon race, as Paul Ryan has now done, will we ever be able to guarantee a good future for millions of whites, as well as African Americans and Latinos!

And Paul Ryan, your potential Presidential candidacy is dead in the water, and while you might run, you have forfeited any realistic chance to be President of the United States, but that was clear, anyway, in 2012!

Bobby Jindal For President: Give Us All A Break!

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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is working very hard to make a name for himself, as he plans to run for President.

There is a sad lot of candidates for President on the Republican side, but Jindal is among the worst of the worst!

He heads a state, Louisiana, which remains in the bottom ten of states in most statistics, and often almost at the bottom of the bottom!

His state is extremely poor, but Jindal, unlike John Kasich of Ohio and Jan Brewer of Arizona, will not allow Medicaid coverage for one out of four Louisianans, and continues to oppose ObamaCare with no alternative solution.

His state is the worst state per capita for people in prison, and the state prison system is mostly privatized, which makes it an industry designed to incarcerate as many inmates as possible for profit reasons.

His state, historically, is the most corrupt state politically, and now has a US Senator, David Vitter, who was involved in a prostitution scandal, but still was reelected, and now plans to run for Governor in 2015 to succeed Jindal.

Jindal has done nothing to better the lot of poor Louisianans, and every time he opens his mouth, he makes one wonder as to his intelligence, and his lack of empathy for those less fortunate is shocking!

If the GOP were to choose Bobby Jindal as their Presidential nominee in 2016, he would lose in a massive landslide!

John Kasich For Republican Presidential Nomination? Not To Be Overlooked!

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As the Republican Party seeks a potential Presidential nominee for 2016, one that is starting to come to mind is Ohio Governor John Kasich, elected in 2010.

Kasich is a very engaging person, who served 18 years in Congress, including heading the House Budget Committee in the mid 1990s, and working for gun regulations against the wishes of the National Rifle Association. Kasich has always shown an independent streak, and also was a substitute on Fox News Channel talk shows for Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, and briefly, had his own show, often making more sense than the typical right wing hosts on that cable channel.

Kasich has made mistakes as Governor, including the attempt to curb collective bargaining rights for labor, soundly defeated in a referendum; and rejecting funding for a high speed rail project; and his 2010 gubernatorial victory over Governor Ted Strickland was won by only 77,000 votes statewide. Like any politician, one can find weaknesses in his record and background, but he could give any Democratic Presidential nominee a good challenge, although the Democrat would still be heavily favored, ultimately, in the Electoral College.

Kasich had a business career in the first decade of the 21st century after leaving Congress, so he has had Congressional experience, business experience, and state government experience, and has decided, unlike most Republican governors, to allow expansion of Medicaid. He has also refused to align himself with the Tea Party Movement, which is in his favor.

Considering that Ohio is a true “swing ” state that could go either way in future Presidential elections, Kasich would have a good chance to perform better than many other potential GOP candidates, and considering that Ohio had six Republican Presidents from the 1870s to the 1920s, the “Buckeye” state cannot be ignored, so should Kasich win another term as Governor, he would have to be considered seriously for President, which he briefly sought in 1999 before dropping out.

Since personality and communication abilities really matter, Kasich should be in the front of the pack. Even if one does not agree with Kasich, it is hard not to like him personally, something one cannot say about many of the potential GOP Presidential candidates!

Three Significant Events In 24 Hours 41 Years Ago!

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Forty one years ago, on January 22-23, three significant events occurred, all of which had a massive effect on the history of the United States!

Lyndon B. Johnson, the architect of the “Great Society” domestic reform programs, the greatest since the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, died at age 64. Much of his Great Society remains part of our lives today, including:

Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
War On Poverty (some elements of the program)
Medicare and Medicaid
Federal Aid to Education
Environmental Laws
Consumer Protection Laws
National Public Radio and PBS

Additionally, just hours after his death, the Vietnam War came to an end by a peace agreement in Paris, ending the combat role of American troops after twelve years of war under John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. The war had divided us, and still has an impact on the veterans of that war today, but at least the US now has diplomatic relations and trade with Vietnam, something that seemed impossible to imagine four decades ago, after the loss of 58,000 Americans in that war, and over a million or more in Vietnam itself.

The third event that transformed us was the Supreme Court decision in Roe V. Wade, allowing women control of their reproductive lives and their bodies, in the first two trimesters of pregnancy, as well as promoting contraception to avoid pregnancy.

The so called “Pro Life” movement, really anti abortion, has worked very hard to limit the rights of women, trying to cut the period of allowance of an abortion to as low as six weeks in Arkansas and 12 weeks in North Dakota, as well as 20 weeks in many other states, but thankfully, federal district court and circuit court judges have prevented the enforcement of such illegal limits. But the battle for women’s rights goes on.

So January 22-23, 1973, was indeed a very big day, a moment in history of tremendous significance!

Ronald Reagan Myth Of “Welfare Queen” Being Revived By Republicans And Conservatives: Still A Massive Lie!

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Before he became President, Ronald Reagan kept perpetuating a massive lie, far more than Barack Obama and ObamaCare, despite claims that Obama is the most massive liar of any President!

NO, it is a tie between Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, with Reagan simply more charming and charismatic, so Nixon tends to be regarded as the greater liar because of Watergate!

But Reagan lied about Iran-Contra in 1986, claiming he had “no recollection”, and able to get away with it due to his charm, and the thought that, as an aging President, he would be given a pass, although some thought he should be impeached for that scandal, as well as others, making his administration one of the most scandal ridden Presidencies, right behind Nixon, Warren G. Harding, and Ulysses S. Grant.

But even before the scandals of his Presidency, Reagan developed in his mind, and came to believe, that there was a “Welfare Queen”, of course an African American in Chicago, who was collecting dozens of checks monthly, and scamming the “welfare” system.

This was a lie from day one, but it resonated, and was used by conservatives to condemn the poor, implying that they were all too lazy to work, and were just drinking and taking drugs and living off hard working whites.

The fact that most people on “welfare”, meaning food stamps and Medicaid and unemployment compensation are white, are single mothers with children, and many work, but make inadequate income working for minimum wage (such as at Walmart and McDonalds and such places like them), is ignored, and it has become an attack on the poor, as if they wish to be poor, and also provoke working class whites against minorities.

Meanwhile, as the move is on to cut food stamps and unemployment compensation, and in red states deny expansion of Medicaid, and also deny an increase in the minimum wage, the vast majority who are being harmed are white working class people who continue to vote Republican, not understanding that it is them who are being condemned by the term “Welfare Queen”.

The term “Welfare Queen” is a massive lie, and was a massive lie when Ronald Reagan used it to attain the Presidency! Reagan either knew it was a lie, or was too incompetent mentally to know that he was telling a lie that he had convinced himself was the truth. And this is a President to admire and emulate, as a great President, when he set out to harm those who were down and out for his own advancement? Give me a break!

Lowest Unemployment Rate In Five Years: A Big Plus For The Democrats In 2014 Midterm Elections!

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There has been steady growth of employment over the past four and a half years, and the new employment report shows that the unemployment rate, now 7 percent, is at its lowest in five years! Over 203,000 jobs were created, more than was expected. This is bound to help the Democrats in the 2014 midterm elections coming up next November.

This is great news, although there is much to do for those still unemployed, and for those with minimum wages in an economy where the remnants of the Great Recession still lurk.

It is essential that public works jobs be created to rebuild the infrastructure of this nation, and that the minimum wage be raised, so that it is worth at least what it was thirty years ago, now down by more than 30 percent in purchasing power.

But since almost one third of all minimum wage workers are parents, and there are so many single mothers with children who work at such places, and including Walmart and McDonalds and other such establishments, it is unconscionable to have these workers have to depend on food stamps and Medicaid, when their companies should be responsible for a living wage. Taxpayers are paying the price, when it would be better that consumers possibly pay more at these companies, but the workers know their employers care about them and their ability to survive!

And the argument that raising the minimum wage will cut jobs is pure bull, as that has not happened in the past!

And if consumers must pay a dollar more for fast food, or items at Walmart or McDonalds, so be it, as everyone, no matter what his or her station in life, is entitled to a living wage, and human dignity and respect!

Pope Francis Sets A Standard For Evangelical Right Wing Christians, But Will They Accept?

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Pope Francis has been an amazing leader of the Catholic Church, after only eight months of his tenure.

He has opened up the Catholic Church to more acceptance of women’s role in the Church, and stopped the constant hatred of gays and lesbians.

He has embraced the poor, the disabled, and even the disfigured, in loving ways that promotes the true message of Jesus Christ, compassion, tolerance, and love for those less fortunate.

What are the odds that evangelical right wing Christians, many of whom hate the Catholic Church itself, will follow that lead and stop trashing those who are not part of the powerful elites, and stop demeaning women, and end the poisonous hatred of gays and lesbians?

An example of such a group is the American Family Association, headed by Tony Perkins, but there are many other such hateful organizations, who claim they are following the teachings of Jesus Christ, but are far from doing so! Bryan Fischer is one of the most hateful, divisive leaders of these extremist groups, which are a mockery of Christianity.

What are the odds that they will recognize the sufferings of the poor and the sick, and will not work to undermine the food stamp program, unemployment compensation, and ObamaCare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security?

If one believes that these extremists are likely to become compassionate, tolerant, and open minded, as Pope Francis has demonstrated he is, then we are indeed in the land of delusion and fantasy!