Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.
Great OWS Sign!
BREAKING NEWS FROM THE DOJ- SOUTH CAROLINA’S VOTER ID LAW HAS BEEN STRUCK DWON UNDER SECT. 5. This is HUGE news and means other voter i.d. laws may now be in big trouble. More here.
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Rob Zerban is challenging Rep. Paul Ryan in Wi. Zerban, a Democrat, has done something rare these days: A Democrat taking on another Democrat over Medicare. First Krugman lays into Sen. Wyden (D-Or) for his outrageous plan to destroy Medicare as we know it by forcing it to compete with other plans. Oh yea and those other competing private plans to bring down costs? Most states are dominated by a few insurance companies. So what competition even? The only “reform” Medicare needs is to be able to regulate drug costs and be expanded to cover more Americans. Period. Krugman:
Patients by and large don’t have the information to evaluate medical treatments; in any case, they mainly buy insurance rather than medical care directly; and insurers profit not by providing the most cost-effective care, but by trying to insure people who won’t need care.
And it’s not as if market competition hasn’t been given a try; in this country it has been tried over and over, by politicians who won’t take no for an answer.
Oh, and if someone starts talking about how the Affordable Care Act relies on private insurers, give me a break; the reason the ACA works the way it does is the raw power of the insurance industry, which forced advocates of universal coverage to settle for an inferior system. I still think that deal was worth doing, but there’s no reason to take Medicare, which does it right– or at least closer to right– and degrade it into a worse system.
So why would anyone who isn’t a right-wing ideologue propose that kind of degradation? Inquiring minds want to know.
So Krugman calls Wyden a “useful idiot.” Ouch. But worse, Zerban attacks Wyden on the very essentials:
Paul Ryan just announced he is taking a second swing at Medicare! His “new” plan is devastating to Medicare as we know it, but the big difference is that he found one Democrat to help him!
Here is what has been happening– Paul Ryan has introduced a new plan to start the privatization of Medicare. He convinced a “Democrat,” Ron Wyden, to join in this effort. Ron Wyden, like Paul Ryan, has raked in an alarming amount of lobbyist money from the health insurance industry.
Make no mistake– this is no bipartisan effort! Almost all Democrats, including President Obama, are strongly opposed to this plan.
Here is what the White House Communications Director had to say: [this scheme could] “cause the traditional Medicare program to “wither on the vine” because it would raise premiums, forcing many seniors to leave traditional Medicare and join private plans. It would shift costs from the government to seniors. At the end of the day, this plan would end Medicare as we know if for millions of seniors.” You can read the rest here.
It is clear what this plan is designed to do. Both Paul Ryan and Wyden admit that it will likely not save anyone any money! The only upside is a big giveaway to private insurance companies at the expense of our seniors. This is sham bipartisanship and the voters of Wisconsin are not fooled!
The EPA has done something historic, something environmentalists have been trying to get done for decades: new tough rules on mercury. Mercury toxins were deemed ok back the 1970s at plants in a grandfathered clause. But no more. Mercury will have to be cleaned up without exceptions:
It’s worth lifting our heads out of the news cycle and taking a moment to appreciate that history is being made. Finally controlling mercury and toxics will be an advance on par with getting lead out of gasoline. It will save tens of thousands of lives every year and prevent birth defects, learning disabilities, and respiratory diseases. It will make America a more decent, just, and humane place to live.
This new rule is like when we got lead out of gasoline:
The industry has three years to comply, and at that point we will have eliminated many of the sources of toxic air pollution from power plants in the US. You’re talking about preventing 11,000 preventable deaths, 4,700 heart attacks and 130,000 cases of childhood asthma every year. That’s something to be proud of.
Matt Damon, a former staunch liberal backer of Obama’s, sounds the alarm for a very different election ahead:
“I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,’” Damon tells the magazine. “You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”
Referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement, Damon continued: “If the Democrats think that they didn’t have a mandate — people are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off … Imagine if they had a leader.”
Recently Damon also said this great bit on paying higher taxes. Note the ending line there:
“The wealthy are paying less than they paid at any time else, certainly in my lifetime, and probably in the last century,” Damon told a reporter at the same event. “I don’t know what we were paying in the Roaring ’20s; it’s criminal that so little is asked of people who are getting so much. I don’t mind paying more. I really don’t mind paying more taxes. I’d rather pay for taxes than cut ‘Reading is Fundamental’ or Head Start or some of these programs that are really helping kids. This is the greatest country in the world; is it really that much worse if you pay 6% more in taxes? Give me a break. Look at what you get for it: you get to be American.”
Paying higher taxes to pay for better education, Pell grants and access to the American Dream. What a concept!
Taibbi at Rolling Stone thinks OWS is working at pressuring politicians. Case in point:
For those saying that Occupy Wall Street hasn’t had a concrete effect, take a look at this. It’s not much, but it’s a little something. The leaders of the House Financial Services Committee announced yesterday that they will be holding hearings on the SEC’s practice of concluding settlements with Wall Street defendants without forcing the accused to admit to wrongdoing.
This whole thing seems to be the creature of ranking Republican Spencer Bachus. From his site:
“The SEC’s practice of using ‘no-contest settlements’ has raised concerns about accountability and transparency, and I’m pleased the Committee will examine these concerns in a bipartisan manner,” said Chairman Bachus….
Rep. Bachus of all people is the one set to hold hearing on corrupt SEC practices. And:
Spencer Bachus to positioning himself as a champion of Wall Steeet reform is, of course, hilarious. Not only was he one of the leaders of the opposition to even the very mild Dodd-Frank reform, he went out of his way to stall changes to the rules governing derivative trades that would have prevented abuses like JP Morgan Chase’s rape of Jefferson County, Alabama. This was particularly egregious because Bachus, who was the House’s third-biggest recipient of Wall Street money and a heavy beneficiary of donations from Chase, happened to be Jefferson County’s congressman.
So this guy is no enemy of the banks. What yesterday’s move does show, however, is that politicians are listening to the specific complaints of OWS. A year ago, we would never have even seen hearings like this coming from the likes of Bachus and Barney Frank, who also supported them move. But now, everybody is trying to find a way to ride the wave. It’s too early to celebrate any of this, but it can’t be a bad thing.
On Right wing nut of the week- it is a follow up! Recall Governor Perry claimed retirement and is taking 8k a month in state pension on top of his six figure salary? Well a Texas Right wing foe, Debra Medina, has requested there be an investigation in possible laws broken. More:
Medina noted that federal rules require that a retirement “results in a termination of employment” and is not accompanied by any promises of re-hire.
She addressed her letter Wednesday to Victor Song, the chief of criminal investigations at the Internal Revenue Service, and to Ann Bishop, executive director of the Employees Retirement System of Texas.
“I ask both of you to conduct thorough reviews of Gov. Perry’s apparent retirement and its associated benefits, and to report your findings to the public as soon as possible,” Medina wrote.
One of these a grand jury will do justice here in Texas with this guy.
