The Political Right's War on Healthcare for Citizens

Again, during this campaign we have seen and heard Republicons' vitriolic babble on what they're gonna do when they are in control....repeal health care is # 1 on their list(and 1.5 is the Lily Ledbetter act, 2 is defund schools...). They say this because it will be so much better under them (hmmm.....I remember Shrub, Bush I, King Ronnie..nope very much not better for women), but just for debate's sake, I'll decide not to say they're just lying...I mean they are the party that wants schools to get rid of teaching critical thinking skills...so instead of just laughing at their babble, how about tearing it apart with facts and logic, something the 'cons are very lacking:

So, first the evil ObamaCare...or its real name, the Affordable Care Act..Repeal that and women can get insurance easily, right? Wrong.

The ACA provides free screenings for many basic items for men women and children, although I will highlight women and children: mamograms(and breast cancer chemoprevention counseling is she's high risk) being one of the most important, birth control another.  But also, depression, diabetes 2, cholesterol, blood pressure screening are included for basic health concerns. All normal immunizations for children are covered(the ones that children need to go to school). Also, an annual free well-person visit.

Also included for women are screenings for gestational diabetes, HIV, HPV, Hepatitis B, STD(screening/counseling--obviously this is for both genders), Rh Incompatibility, tabacco use, Osteoporosis, folic acid supplements, anemia screening, cervical cancer, domestic/interpersonal violence screening and counseling and breastfeeding counseling

For children? Some of the screenings are: autism, blood pressure, depression, alcohol/drug use assessments for teens, behavioral assessments for all ages, developmental screening, dyslipidemia(if at risk of lipid disorders), hemoglobin screening, lead screening TB testing, vision screening, medical history, obesity screening/counseling. Also many tests for newborns such as: congenital hypothyroidism, hearing, hemoglobinopathies, PKU.

And why is care for children listed in my post about women? Because even if the child lives in a 2-parent household, mothers are the ones that take time off from work for children's health care issues, whether that issue is a doctor's visit, sitting around in a county health center(bring a book and stuff for child to do) or a child's illness. Yes, I know there's that one dad out of thousands that stays home with the kids or the 2 dads out of thousands that shares childcare equally with mom, but they are not in the majority. Not...even...close. It's gotten better, but women still make most of the decisions on many of these issues and spend more time on children's healthcare.

Just this July, people and companies started receiving rebate checks from the Insurance companies due to the Medical Loss Ratio section of the ACA. See, it is now law that Insurance companies must use at least 80%(85% for large companies) of the premium paid for health care. Up until this law, Insurance companies were using maybe 70% for health care, the other 30% was used for "administrative costs"...you know, marketing, those so-called seminars to Costa Rica? Or the bonuses/raises/outlandish salaries paid to the upper echelon of the corporate structure. For comparison, Medicare spends under 5% for Administration costs, Veterans Affairs is under 3% and both of these programs have a much higher patient approval rating than private insurance companies. The ACA also allows children to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26, giving the kids a bit of breathing room after college and parents some peace of mind about the "baby". From personal experience this has been great for my son who was laid off(he worked with the developmentally disabled in schools), but could still access my insurance for a root canal, glasses and allergies.

Did you know that some insurance companies considered pregnancy as a pre-existing condition? No, not that you are pregnant and looking for insurance...you had been pregnant in the past and may become pregnant again so we won't insure you. Under the ACA this practice is illegal. As of July, 2010 children must be covered and no pre-existing condition denials are legal. In 2014 all use of pre-existing crap is no more.

Also, because of that silly pregnancy stuff, women pay higher insurance rates than men in most states. Again, this is now illegal.

Since the takeover of the House of Representatives by the bats**t crazy teabaggers(who even hold their own Speaker hostage), the House has voted 33 times to repeal health care for Americans...oh, and not one vote on any other Jobs bill....

And how does the Romney/Ryan ticket want to handle this? Annihilate it! Those families don't deserve nuthin'!

The Romney/Ryan ticket, along with the Republicons, have promised to repeal the ACA right after he's declared president. And what does he want to do to replace? Well, that's the question, isn't it? "ObamaCare" was fashioned from a republican view--Bob Dole's plan, Heritage plan and oh, yeah, "RomneyCare"...so, this should be pretty embarrassing for the right wing. Of course that would be true if corporate media actually reported this instead of the screaming mimis of the right's doom and gloom...

His answers to this is "secret", just like all of his other plans...memories of Nixon and his "secret plan" to end the Viet Nam war(which actually ended when the Democratic Congress refused to fund it). Any time Romney mentions what he would do during an interview, one of his staff comes up behind him and says, "Well he really didn't mean what he said". Of course Mittiot is being interviewed on National TV and the other guy is reported on radio/newspaper--where many people, specially low information, do not garner information. Romney is not trying to protect citizens...he wants to make sure that the insurance companies can still live in the plutocratic/objectivist paradise of less taxes, less services to citizens and more obscene profits. Take away the ability of women to get free screenings for breast & cervical cancer. Take away the ability of women to receive birth control without having to pay high prescription rates(and please remember that women who use birth control consistently account for only 5% of the rate of unintended pregnancy--and birth control is much cheaper for insurance companies than pregnancies. And, again, many women and children not being able to use our medical system for less expensive preventative care rather than having no choice, but to live in fear of both medical and financial disaster--and costing all of us much much more.

And, Again, Mr. Romney,

WHERE ARE YOUR TAX RECORDS?!?!?!?

WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?!?!!?!

Darryl Issa channeling Joe McCarthy on Fast & Furious non issue

Car thief Darryl Issa(and the person of interest in the arson of his own building) has decided that even tho the attorney general has given congress over 7600 pages(wow...that's more than the health care bill that republicons couldn't read), that's not enough...anyway not enough to keep it in the news so the republicons can gain some ground on a Bush approved action that turned bad...like most of Bush's ideas.
Fast and Furious was a bad idea. It was a bad idea under Bush(called Gun Walking then) and it was a bad idea under Obama(even with a "hipper" name, still a bad idea). That being said, Issa keeps bringing it back into the news by throwing out little sparkly tidbits about how HIS committee(the House Oversight and Government Reform) is going to indict Holder for contempt.....and  6 weeks or so earlier....HIS committee is so horribly disgusted that this was allowed that he must issue a press release, since the media has dropped the story again.
So, what is the story of Fast and Furious? Well, first some history. The program has been around since at 2006, this being revealed in a briefing authored by Michael Mukasey to Pres. Bush discussing the failed attempts of their version which allowed illegally bought guns from the US into Mexico, then to track where the weapons found a home. This stupid idea began through ATF(Alcohol, Firearms & Tobacco), seems like someone watched robocop way too many times. Mukasey stressed the importance of having U.S. and Mexican officials to work together, instead of it being only a U.S. operation. This necessity was never initiated, and the guns were "lost" until one found its way in the murder of a border patrol officer...in 2009 and THAT become a big deal, not that it shouldn't, but since this clandestine affair began under the republicon regime, why won't Issa subpoena Mukasey? Nope...just Holder.
In fact, under Holder, these idiots that started this program have either lost their jobs or were outright fired(including a former ATF director, former us attorney), but Issa has decided to use this to embarrass Holder--Issa hasn't found any way to tie this to Holder, he has now unlawful subpoenas which since they ain't legal, Holder's basically said, don't have to...and THAT's the premise of Issa's witch hunt and a contempt charge. 
The right is now screaming for a "special prosecutor"...oh, yes, let's waste money for something that isn't needed, something that didn't work under Clinton(remember Starr???? What a joke) just so Issa and Cronyn(the one that set up the clandestine deal for Ensign's lover and husband) can keep up the false controversy.
But, there are a couple of other angles here...does the right feel they can now get back at the Democratic Party for bringing down Attorney General Gonzalez? Remember, the congress did get him to resign...of course he was illegally purging any attorneys that wouldn't assist in his office wide witch hunts, but facts are just liberal icky things.
Or is it due to AG Holder's recent demand to Gov. "convicted felon" Rick Scott to cease and desist his illegal voter purge? Rick Scott has said he will keep purging voters, even tho the Justice Department rendered a decision stating that it is against the law in...wait for it...Florida! Florida's law states that no voter purges can happen within 90 days of an election and Florida's real primary is August 11, with the general election being November 6. Oops.
So why do I compare this to McCarthy? Joe McCarthy was a drunk. And a drunk with power and felt his paranoia was the american way...and he had help. One of his biggest helpers was a B movie actor by the name of Ronald Reagan. So, Darrell Issa, an alleged 'roid rage user, is looking for bogeyman in the same way that McCarthy did...and, when history looks back, he will look even worse than Joe McCarthy...I just hope that we, the American people, can see and understand what's going on before we decide.

The Friday alert from the National Alliance of Retired Americans: 

Wall Street Journal Gives Lay of the Land on Senior Vote in 2012

  The battle for seniors in 2012 is being fought in large part over Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) House Republican budget, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. The article states that Democrats can regain support from older voters who switched to the GOP in 2008 and 2010 by shedding light on the Republicans’ plans to revamp Medicare (http://on.wsj.com/HM4ulJ).
  “That ‘revamping’ would be drastic, because it would give seniors a small voucher, or coupon, to purchase coverage in an expensive, unfair private insurance market,” said Edward F. Coyle Executive Director of the Alliance.
   According to the Journal, Mitt Romney, the most likely candidate to be the Republican nominee for President, is proving to be a formidable competitor in this battle. Romney has drawn large shares of older voters during the primaries, and recent polls show him ahead of President Obama among seniors in swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Over the last decade, voters over age 65 have increasingly turned to the GOP - a stark contrast to the Democratic-leaning “Greatest Generation” that preceded them. In 2008, Mr. Obama improved on his party's 2004 showing among every age group, except seniors. An analysis by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press concluded that those over-65 are now “more conservative on social issues, angrier about the direction of the country and more uneasy about the growth of diversity in the U.S. than younger generations.”
   “We need to draw attention to the GOP plan to end Medicare as we know it. Conservatives broadly support doing that, but moderates and independents are wary of it,” said Mr. Coyle.

Wisconsin Alliance Welcomes Secretary Sebelius to Milwaukee Senior Center

    About 250 seniors turned out in Milwaukee on Wednesday for a discussion with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius. The Secretary was at the Washington Park Senior Center to draw attention to the provisions in health care reform that benefit the 49 million people - including 650,000 in Wisconsin - who are covered by Medicare. Wisconsin Alliance President Leon Burzynski facilitated a panel discussion on the Affordable Care Act at the event. According to HHS, 59,345 people in Wisconsin received a 50% discount on prescription drugs when they hit the doughnut hole last year, with savings averaging $639 a person, and a total savings of $37.9 million statewide.

White House Derides Health Care Study

    White House officials expressed disdain for a new study released by policy analyst Charles Blahous, who was a special assistant for economic policy in the George W. Bush administration. Blahous claims that the 2010 health care law will add $340 billion to the deficit. Jeanette Lambrew, President Obama’s deputy assistant for health policy, asserts that the claim fits old patterns of mischaracterizations about the Affordable Care Act and that official estimates show the health care law will ultimately reduce the deficit (http://bit.ly/HDkhpt).
   On Tuesday, presidential press secretary Jay Carney referred to Blahous’ report as “obviously a partisan analysis.” Carney pointed to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget indicating that the Affordable Care Act would reduce the deficit over the first 10 years and dramatically over the next 10 years.

Rep. Allen West Says That Dozens of his Democratic Colleagues are Communists   

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) warned constituents at a Tuesday town hall event that he's “heard” that 80 of his Democratic colleagues in the House are members of the Communist Party, the Palm Beach Post reported. There are currently 190 House Democrats.
“As a Representative from a state with such a large senior population, Rep. West should instead be focusing on strengthening Medicare and Social Security,” said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “He has a zero lifetime voting record with the Alliance, and these ideological side shows are distracting him from what his constituents really need.”
A tea party favorite, Rep. West made news in 2011 by saying, “…I was the only black member of a white supremacist motorcycle gang.” (http://bit.ly/sU3KJg).

 Alliance Members Work to Save America’s Postal Service

    Alliance members turned out on Thursday to support the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which had put together events across the country in order to save America's Postal Service. NALC held the demonstrations outside of Senate offices in order to put pressure on each senator to oppose S. 1789, a Senate bill scheduled to be voted on as soon as next week. If S. 1789 were to become law, it would hurt retirees and the Postal Service by putting an end to six-day mail delivery in two years, while phasing out door-to-door mail delivery. Many retirees receive their needed prescriptions by mail, and these proposed changes would threaten their well-being. Alliance members also called their senators about the legislation on Thursday.