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DNC - Health Care
Stunning Admission by McCain Camp on Healthcare Plan
Tue, 10/28/2008 - 14:36John McCain's healthcare plan will "blow up" the employer-based system and healthcare experts are not so hot on that idea.
Experts, however, fear that eliminating the tax advantage of employer-based coverage would prompt younger, healthier workers to leave their office plans. If that happened, costs for the remaining workers could skyrocket. Companies may drop coverage altogether.
But the McCain campaign fought back that idea with an even stranger defense:
Younger, healthier workers likely wouldn't abandon their company-sponsored plans, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain's senior economic policy adviser.
"Why would they leave?" said Holtz-Eakin. "What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit."
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton on this stunning admission:
“This morning, the McCain campaign’s top economic policy advisor unleashed an October Surprise of straight talk when he finally admitted that the health insurance people currently get from their employer is ‘way better’ than the health care they would get if John McCain becomes President. Independent studies have shown that under John McCain’s health care plan, at least 20 million Americans will lose the insurance they rely on and be forced to buy health care coverage on the individual market that costs more than $12,000 with a tax credit of just $5,000. Senator McCain has been trying to cover this up for months, but his advisor’s brutal honesty today is certainly better late than never, and it should give every American pause about electing a candidate who has proposed such radical and dangerous changes to our health care system,” said Obama-Biden Spokesman Bill Burton.
Categories: Democratic Party News
Another Former Republican Senator for Obama
Tue, 10/28/2008 - 12:30In an op-ed entitled, "My Choice: Obama," printed in the Washington Post this morning, former Maryland Senator Charles Mathias (R) endorsed Senator Barack Obama.
I believe that Obama's inspirational leadership, contemplative nature and well-reasoned, forward-looking policies offer our troubled nation a real opportunity to face and overcome its many challenges at home and abroad.
On an array of domestic issues, including health care, education, tax policy, the environment and alternative energy sources, Obama promises a clean break from the recent past and tangible hope for a return to fiscal responsibility, economic security and true environmental stewardship, all of which are essential to restoring our greatness. Now, Obama must be aware of the hopes that he has raised through his discussion of these issues. Many people will rightly take his words as his commitment and will judge him accordingly.
On the international front, his thoughtful and responsible approach to extricating our troops from Iraq, reallocating our finite resources elsewhere in the war on terrorism, and reviving effective use of our diplomatic corps all warrant our support. To be successful in these endeavors, Obama must be an active student of history. In attempting to bring peace to the Middle East, for example, he should recognize that the United States has played a role in the region since Franklin Roosevelt went to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdul-Aziz. Obama must appreciate that he is not writing on an empty page and will need to be sensitive to that which has come before him.
Obama represents the better choice to successfully address the issues that dramatically affect the health and well-being of our nation today. The fact that he is also a black American adds special significance for me as someone who was witness to and participated in at least a part of the past century's discourse on civil rights.
Mathias served in the House of Representatives from 1961 until 1969 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served until 1987.
Categories: Democratic Party News
We Can't Afford John McCain
Fri, 10/17/2008 - 11:45Categories: Democratic Party News
''Taketh''
Wed, 10/08/2008 - 14:06Watch the latest ad after Senator Barack Obama handily won last night's second presidential debate.
Categories: Democratic Party News
$2 Trillion in Retirement Accounts Lost
Tue, 10/07/2008 - 18:20This afternoon, the Associated Press reported that retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion in the last 15 months.
Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday. [...]
As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the financial meltdown, the House Education and Labor Committee was hearing from retirement savings and budget analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States.
"Unlike Wall Street executives, America's families don't have a golden parachute to fall back on," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the panel chairman. "It's clear that their retirement security may be one of the greatest casualties of this financial crisis."
Yet, John McCain stlil wants to privatize Social Security.
And while Sarah Palin is in Florida promising that John McCain will "protect' entitlement programs, his economic advisers are telling the press that there will be massive cuts into Medicare and Medicaid. Perhaps she hadn't read in the newspapers her what her campaign wants to do just yet.
Categories: Democratic Party News
''The Subject''
Tue, 10/07/2008 - 15:18We know what kind of game John McCain is going to play tonight at the town hall debate in Tennessee. A top aide recently admitted to the New York Daily News that "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose."
But Americans are already losing -- their jobs, their homes and their life savings -- and John McCain doesn't want to talk about that. He would rather lose his integrity than lose an election, and will launch more dishonest attack ads about Senator Barack Obama.
In his convention speech last August, Senator Obama said, "this isn't about me. It's about you."
That's what this election is all about -- you -- and John McCain, who is out of ideas, out of touch and running out of time, is desperately trying to change the subject.
It will not work.
Categories: Democratic Party News
Howard Dean Releases Health Care Actuality
Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:09DNC Chairman Howard Dean released the following radio actuality on the choice voters face this election between four more years of broken Bush-McCain health care policies and the affordable health care plan that would be available to every American under the Obama-Biden plan:
"Hello, I'm Howard Dean; Dr. Howard Dean. For too long we've been talking about how to reform our health care system. Today, millions of Americans are struggling to pay for health care, and some 47 million Americans don't have any health care, including nearly 9 million children."Senator McCain's answer to the problem is more of President Bush's failed health care policies. Senator McCain is trying to tell Americans that he'll offer them a tax credit to pay for health care, but what he doesn't say is that he'll pay for this plan by actually taxing your health care benefits for the first time ever.
"Senator McCain also wants to do to our health care system what he helped do to our banking system with de-regulation and removing the protections that we rely on. The gamble he wants to take with his risky scheme could force 20 million people out of their current health care, and put the 156 million people who already have employer based health insurance at risk.
"Barack Obama's health care plan is based on commonsense ideas, it builds on the current employer-based system and uses existing providers, doctors and plans. That means that you get to make health care decisions with the doctor you choose.
"Under Senator Obama's plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except that your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year.
"If you don't like your health insurance, or you don't have any health any insurance, then you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.
"We need a president who will make health care more affordable and more accessible for all Americans, and Barack Obama will be that president."
For an audio version of the statement click HERE.
Categories: Democratic Party News
''Can't Explain''
Fri, 10/03/2008 - 11:17Last night at the vice presidential debate, Senator Joe Biden informed the American public on what John McCain plans to do with healthcare -- deregulate it like he deregulated the financial industry and then tax health benefits to pay for a $5,000 tax credit per family that will not even cover half of the healthcare costs of the average American family.
Watch the latest national television ad entitled, "Can't Explain."
Categories: Democratic Party News
Editorial Rips John McCain's Plan for Healthcare
Thu, 10/02/2008 - 12:19The latest Concord Monitor (NH) editorial ripped John McCain's 'plans' to "blow up" the current healthcare system that would leave far fewer Americans with insurance.
McCain would blow up the current system and ensure that fewer Americans are covered. He wants to eliminate the tax deduction employers get for providing health insurance. Instead, he would give tax credits to individuals and families to make it easier for them to purchase insurance on what he believes will be a new, bigger open market that will compete to lower health care costs. The credits would be $2,500 per individual and $5,000 per family.
There are more components to the McCain plan - portability of insurance from state to state, for example - but none would offset the enormous damage his on-your-own in a wide-open market approach would do.
McCain's "risky" plan would leave the average American family on the hook for thousands of dollars to cover their basic healthcare needs each year.
While the decades-old system of employer-sponsored health insurance has its shortcomings — many small businesses can’t afford to offer it — killing the tax exemption will lead to a stampede of large employers discontinuing their more affordable, group health plans. Those comprehensive plans cost more than $12,000 a year for the average family; with a tax credit of just $5,000, they’d be left to find $7,000 a year to buy comparable coverage. Put simply, the tax-credit scheme won’t work.
And since McCain likes to lie about taxes on the stump and in his attack ads, it is worth noting that McCain recently admitted that his healthcare plan would actually raise taxes on Americans to pay for it.
Categories: Democratic Party News
John McCain: A Risk We Cannot Afford to Take
Mon, 09/22/2008 - 12:30John McCain says he wants to deregulate the healthcare industry just like he and his allies like Phil Gramm did to the banking industry. Watch this latest advertisement from the Obama campaign:
Categories: Democratic Party News
Virginians Hit McCain on New Call to Let Health Insurance Industry Run Amok
Sun, 09/21/2008 - 12:16In light of this week's Wall Street upheaval, today Judy Feder, Democratic nominee for US Representative from Virginia's 10th Congressional District, Barbara Favola, Vice Chair of the Arlington County Board and a member of Virginia's State Health Board, and concerned Virginians held a press conference outside of John McCain's campaign headquarters in Arlington, VA to challenge McCain's new magazine article calling for the deregulation of the health insurance companies "just as we have done over the last decade in banking." McCain's article was just published in the September/October issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. In spite of the unprecedented crisis created by Bush-McCain deregulatory policies, McCain wants to put Americans' health care at risk with the same approach.
The text of McCain's call for deregulating health insurance companies follows:
"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation." - John McCain
Below are excerpts from the press conference:
Judy Feder, Democratic nominee for US Representative from Virginia's 10th Congressional District:
"We're here today, all of us, to repudiate Senator McCain's call to deregulate the health insurance companies. Senator McCain wrote in this month's issue of an insurance magazine that we should deregulate the insurance companies--and I quote--'as we have done over the last decade in banking.' In other words, John McCain wants to run the health care industry just like they've been running Wall Street--straight into the ground...After risking the American people's retirement and jeopardizing the economic security of our country, now they want Americans to suffer the same uncertainty about their health care...I'm here today, as someone who has spent my life trying to get everybody affordable health care and fix our broken system, and I'm here to say to John McCain: No way. It's a risk we can't afford."
Barbara Favola, Vice Chair of the Arlington County Board and a member of Virginia's State Health Board:
"The election before us is about choices. As we stand before John McCain's campaign headquarters and one of his homes, one of his many homes, John McCain's risky health care plan won't do a whole lot to help the people I just talked about...working families need someone who will stand up for them, someone who will tell the oil lobbyists, the insurance companies, and other special interest groups that the average American must come first. Can we trust John McCain to deliver that message? No. On the other hand Barack Obama understands the struggles of working class families. He understands that access to health care is a basic necessity of life and the pursuit of happiness and the American dream really don't happen until these basic necessities are taken care of. Barack Obama has a package that respects American families that tells them they are valued and helps them provide for their children and their future."
Categories: Democratic Party News
In His Own Words
Sat, 09/20/2008 - 13:59Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times, found a gem in the latest issue of Contingencies Magazine:
Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform: Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!
Consider this an open thread. Chat away...
Categories: Democratic Party News
In His Own Words: John McCain on Health Care
Sat, 09/20/2008 - 12:09In his own words, John McCain writes that his approach to health care would mirror what has happened in the banking industry over the last decade:
"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
--- John McCain in the current issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Categories: Democratic Party News
