Since I didn't blog last week ... I wanted to give y'all a round-up of what happened that I found noteworthy in little blurbs:
The Sinning Senator once again has trouble telling the truth to the people of Louisiana, this time with respect to the safety standards on children's toys.
Senator Mary Landrieu appeared on MSNBC with Howard Dean, and morphed into a defender of the Senate's Health Care Bill:
Governor PBJ has been busy inviting supporters to join him for a duck hunt out in Cameron Parish during the first weekend of 2010. No news on whether former Vice President Dick "Buckshot" Cheney is scheduled to attend.
Ahhhh, dem Saints. To be honest, I'm fine with dem losing a game ... because a perfect season would lagniappe to what I really want to see - da Saints in Super Bowl XLIV!
Last week, Louisiana1976 highlighted an amendment put up by Senator Coburn of Oklahoma that will cut the $300 million that Senator Landrieu successfully inserted into the health care reform legislation prior to the vote to debate the bill in the Senate.
It all has to do with a tweaking of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, which determines how much money the federal government and the states have to put up for Medicaid coverage. The Louisiana FMAP has usually been around 67%, meaning that Louisiana usually puts up about 33% of the costs of Medicaid for a fiscal year. However, since the FMAP takes into account the average per capita income from five years to three years prior to the current fiscal year, that means for fiscal year 2011, it will take into account the per capita income of Louisiana between 2006-2008, the years that federal disaster assistance money flooded the state. Thus, the Louisiana FMAP drops from 67% to 63%, causing a $900 million hole in the state's budget this upcoming year.
Senator Landrieu fulfilled the #1 request of Governor PBJ by getting some funding to help close a $2.5 billion dollar hole in the state budget over the next five years.
While Governor PBJ has remained largely silent, the Sinning Senator has twittered his displeasure with "backroom deals" to get health care reform passed. Never mind that he's quite famous for some backroom dealings himself.
Ahhh, I digress.
Back to the FMAP funding issue ... according to The Town Talk, the Sinning Senator is:
"holding off judgment specifically on the Coburn amendment until it comes forward for an actual vote."
Hmmm ... what is there to decide, Sinning Senator? Either you'll vote nay to help out Louisiana, or you'll vote yea to appease your friend from Oklahoma, and you'll screw us all back home.
As Charlie Melancon said in a conference call on the Coburn amendment yesterday, and cut short in a tweet (tweet italicized):
"David Vitter needs to remember that he works for the people of Louisiana, not the Senator from Oklahoma. We're talking about $300 million to head off a state budget crisis and help families that need it most. It doesn't take a Harvard education to figure out that this is common sense and the right thing to do for Louisiana."
While most of us would expect that our Senators do the best thing for the people of this state, it doesn't always work that way with the Sinning Senator ... he looks out for himself before he looks out for the people of Louisiana.
And this is why: He must hate Louisiana and her people. Coburn, whose state obviously never has had a major disaster (judging from his behavior) introduced an amendment to the Senate healthcare bill stripping it of the $300 million Mary Landrieu had had added to help Louisiana make up for what would be a catastrophic Medicaid shortfall.
Talk about kicking somebody when they're down--Louisiana seriously needs this money.
The GOP noise machine is at full roar here in Louisiana over Senator Landrieu's vote to allow debate on the health care reform bill.
Let me put it out there ... the GOP doesn't want to see a health care reform bill signed by President Obama. They'd rather obstruct and derail any health care bill designed by the Democrats in Congress so they can run next fall on a "Do Nothing Congress." Let's take a look at what the GOP and their noise machine is saying:
And you know, no matter how folks try to spin it, Mary Landrieu accepted $100 million in exchange for her help. How is this any different than what Bill Jefferson got 13 years for doing?
Hmmm ... invoking the black boogeyman who got thrown in the pen. Yeah, that's an ad hominem attack, rather than looking at what the $100 million (actually, it's $300 million) goes to. For ol' Dollar Bill, that money went into his freezer. For Mary, it's going to plug the $500 million hole in the state budget caused by the flood of federal money that came into Louisiana thanks to Hurricane Katrina, artificially boosting our per capita income, which in turn increased the share that the state would have to pay under the Medicaid rules.
"We understand the money is needed in Louisiana but the overall bill is going to outweigh the benefits."
Yeah, the money is needed, and it was requested by one of the RNC's own - Governor PBJ, a Republican. Notice that he hasn't said one. dang. word. about this yet? And it's Tuesday, y'all.
The benefits of this bill ... oh, boy, are they legion (pdf alert):
On page 78 you'll learn that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ends discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.
On page 17, it makes preventive care completely free, with no cost-sharing. (This might be of particular interest to those who have chosen to seize on concerns about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations on mammograms to spread baseless myths and advance their own political agenda.)
Flipping back to page 16, you'll find that insurance companies are prohibited from dropping your coverage or watering it down when you get sick and need it most.
Also on page 16, you might notice that it puts an end to lifetime caps on coverage.
Page 18 is where the bill extends family coverage eligibility for young Americans through the age of 26.
On page 83 it requires insurance companies to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full - that means they can't refuse to renew your coverage just because you get sick.
Page 307 is home to tax credits for small businesses to help them afford insurance for their employees.
And folks looking to scare our senior citizens about what reform means for them might be interested to check out page 923 and learn that it provides a 50% discount on drugs for seniors in the so-called donut hole.
I think the benefits to Louisiana on this bill outweigh the costs of this bill - a $130 billion reduction in the federal deficit, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office - that the GOP is trying to scare y'all about.
I'll be the first to admit that I've been pretty tough on Senator Landrieu this past year when it comes to her position on health care reform.
That's why I want to take the time to thank her for her vote on allowing the Senate to debate H.R. 3590, thereby paving the way for a potential vote on health care reform.
So, thank you, Senator Landrieu. I appreciate your vote.
If y'all are so inclined, give a shout to the Senator today, and thank her for her vote on Saturday night. While the Tigers fell short, she delivered for those of us that don't have health insurance. Her office numbers are below:
Washington D.C.: (202) 224-5824 New Orleans: (504) 589-2427 Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395 Shreveport: (318) 676-3085 Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650
Senator Landrieu will vote to allow debate to proceed, thanks to the phone calls to her office from ordinary Louisianans like us, as well as a poll from Health Care For America Now that showed 82% of Louisianans want to see a debate on the health care bill take place on the Senate floor.
You can watch Senator Landrieu's speech announcing her vote to allow the debate to proceed below, while she's still saying that she's unsure of how she'll vote on the bill itself:
Please welcome Joseph Stern to the front page. You can learn more about him by clicking on the About The Daily Kingfish link underneath the Menu to the right.
The donation of $25,300 was made in August of 2008 to the US Treasury while Senator Landrieu was under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. Campaign lawyer Marc Elias defends the campaign calling the complaint "frivolous". No one from the campaign has said what the donation was indeed for, only that it wasn't a bribe or any other flavor of cover-up.
Here's hoping that this isn't going to be a problem for Senator Landrieu as Louisiana already has it's share of corrupt senators. But if it is the case that there's some sort of scandal in the works here, the people of Louisiana should hold the senator accountable for her actions.
UPDATE: Call her office ... the D.C. # is (202) 224-5824.
After months of hearing that Senator Landrieu is ... (emphasis added)
Senator Landrieu is committed to reforming the health care system and ensuring that all Americans are covered. She is currently reviewing all of the reform proposals, but does not believe that health care reform starts with a public option. Sen. Landrieu supports a predominantly private system that features a federal backup plan that serves as a safety net. This approach is part of the bipartisan Healthy Americans Act, which she has co-sponsored.
As the debate proceeds, Sen. Landrieu is open to compromise in a comprehensive legislative package, and is focused on appropriate consumer protection and patient-centered care.
Click on the picture above, or here to send a message to Senator Landrieu's office, and invite your friends to do the same via Facebook or email.
We know that the Senator is "concerned" about the federal deficit, so it is necessary to remind the Senator that the bill that she may keep from hitting the floor for a vote is one that will reduce the deficit by $130 billion, according to the Director of the conservative Congressional Budget Office.
In other words, if she votes to keep this bill from getting a vote, she's voting to increase the deficit.
MSNBC partnered with the National Association of Free Clinics to put on a health care clinic this past weekend in the New Orleans Convention Center:
The transcript is here. Some highlights of essay written by Countdown's Senior Producer Rich Stockwell:
Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not "welfare queens" as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me.
Ninety percent of the patients who came through Saturday's clinic had two or more diagnoses.
Eighty-two percent had a life-threatening condition such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or hypertension. They are victims of a system built with corporate profits at its center, which long ago forgot the moral imperative that should drive us to show compassion to our fellow men and women.
Health reform is not about Democrats or Republicans or who can score political points for the next election, it's about people. It's about fairness and justice in a system that knows none. I'd defy even the most hardened capitalist-loving-conservative to do what I did on Saturday and continue to pretend that the system in place right now is working.
How about it, Senator Landrieu? How do YOU respond to the question Mr. Stockwell ends his damning essay with:
"What does it say about us as a nation of people who can live in a country so rich and yet allow this to continue?"
Well? Let's call her and find out:
Washington D.C.: (202) 224-5824 New Orleans: (504) 589-2427 Baton Rouge: (225) 389-0395 Shreveport: (318) 676-3085 Lake Charles: (337) 436-6650
Nicolls State University has been awarded a Department of Energy contract to research clean energy as part of Louisiana's Clean Power and Energy Research Consortium.
With all the sugar cane fields in Louisiana, tons of sugarcane waste, a renewable resource, is generated annually. Currently, most of it is burned on location. The research at Nicolls State focuses primarily on generating ethanol from sugarcane waste.
Congressman Melancon released the following statement below:
"Through this important research, Nicholls State University and CPERC are creating a path to energy independence for Louisiana and our nation. Discovering new uses for sugarcane biomass may open up a profitable new market for our farmers and expand the field of renewable energy production in Louisiana."
It's good to see that there are some folks looking at diversifying Louisiana's economy by investing in clean energy research.
Of course, it's not being held at a time when most working people would be able to attend such an event, so the Senator's only gonna get older, white senior citizens who have been misled into thinking that their Medicare is going to be taken away by any health care reform enacted by Congress.
That is, unless, YOU decide that you're going to stand up for a strong public option, and let the Senator know that you EXPECT her to vote for such a bill.
The following letter, signed/approved by 24 Louisiana supporters of Senator Mary Landrieu, was hand delivered to her office in Lake Charles today. The letter calls on the senator to support healthcare reform legislation that includes the public option.
• • •
Dear Senator Landrieu:
We write you today as friends, long-time supporters, and concerned Louisiana citizens regarding an issue of great national significance that is critical to the future well being of our state.
In a few days you will be asked to decide whether healthcare coverage will be extended to millions of Americans who do not now enjoy those benefits. As your votes in support of SCHIP and your efforts to support community healthcare demonstrate, you know that people who do not to have access to adequate health care are destined to die younger, suffer many more illnesses and to watch helplessly as their love ones are denied the care that could save their lives or relieve their discomfort. The high cost of health insurance is the main barrier preventing working families and small business owners from gaining access to that care.
Small businesses and large corporations alike are abandoning employer-based health care because of cost. In Louisiana, where the percentage of employers offering healthcare benefits has historically been low, the problem is even worse. Even where coverage is offered, workers frequently cannot afford the premiums to cover their families. The situation will only be made worse by recent cuts in services voted by the Louisiana Legislature.
In spite of the dishonest campaigns being waged to prevent comprehensive national health care from becoming a reality, the overwhelming majority of Americans support it. Surprisingly, over sixty percent of American physicians are also in support of these ends.
We realize the pressure being exerted on you to vote against this program.
The same stale arguments are being made today against the public option that have been made against every progressive endeavor for the last seventy-five years. Social Security was supposed to be the pinnacle of governmental intrusion into our lives. Where would we be today without Social Security? Medicare was another “Socialist” program that was supposed to destroy medical care in our nation. Where would our seniors be without Medicare? The same could be said for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Acts. All of these programs were passed under Democratic presidents and all of them have changed our nation and our lives profoundly for the better.
The vast majority of your political base in Louisiana is composed of people who stand to benefit directly from enactment of a national coverage plan, specifically the public option.
We believe that the public option — where adults can buy into a Medicare-like program — is the best way to control costs by bringing competition to the health insurance system. In Louisiana, the two largest health insurance providers control 74 percent of the health insurance market. The market has failed us by pricing coverage beyond the reach of too many Louisiana citizens.
A national consensus has emerged that the current system must be changed and that only federal government has the scale and reach to change it. If these efforts are not successful, it may be many years before we have a president who is willing to take the challenge and pay the political price to achieve these admirable ends.
We do not consider this to be an issue of politics or party. This is an issue of the basic right of every American to be able to access quality healthcare without the risk of financial ruin. Access to healthcare should not be a privilege available only to those who can afford private health insurance.
As friends and long-time supporters we ask you to please not ignore the people who have repeatedly voted you into office. We have stood with you; now, we are asking you to stand with us in support of the public option.
Sincerely yours,
Mike Stagg, Lafayette Sally O. Donlon, Lafayette Dr. Mike Robichaux, Raceland Deborah Langhoff, New Orleans Stephen Handwerk, Lafayette Angelique LaCour, Covington Barbara St. Romain, MSW, LCSW, Lafayette John St. Julien, Lafayette Edna D. St. Julien, Lafayette Phillip Arleigh Lank, Lafayette Mark Lastrapes, New Orleans Michelle Vega, New Orleans Robert J. Guercio, Lafayette Anna K. Guercio, Lafayette Charles St. Romain, LCSW, Lafayette Rebecca Chaisson, Lake Charles Joanne Pettit, Mandeville Daryl Pettit, Mandeville Adrienne LaCour, Covington Karen E. Keller, MS, Lafayette State Representative Juan LaFonta, New Orleans Lauren Lastrapes, New Orleans Dr. Douglas de Mahy, Lafayette Marie de Mahy, Lafayette Andrea Loewy, Lafayette
Our "Democratic" Senator has signed onto a letter asking for more time to kill health insurance reform.
While the Senators are polite, and say they want more time to study the proposals, the fact is, they want the extra time so their wealthy benefactors - the health insurance industry - can scare Americans into believing that they are going to lose their health insurance under any legislation currently circulating in Congress. The fact is, any health insurance reform bill that does not include a public, national health insurance program will be a bill designed to pad the bottom line of the health insurance companies.
That's what happens when your Senator looks at her position as a job, and not a cause. Because if she treated being a Senator from Louisiana as a cause, she'd be more likely to fight to improve people's lives, the electoral consequences of her actions be damned. But no, because she looks at being Senator as a job, she worries about raising money for her re-election. Thus, she doesn't want to piss off the people who donated $1.6 million that much.
Be a leader, Senator. You come from the state that gave us Huey Long. Huey fought for us all ... regardless of socioeconomic position and race. You've done the same in areas that don't threaten your ability to raise campaign cash. Something tells me that if Huey were alive today, he'd be coming up with quotes like this about your campaign contributors:
"We swapped the tyrant 3,000 miles away for a handful of financial slaveowning overlords who make the tyrant of Great Britain seem mild."
And then he'd call you a coward for not standing up to them for US.
The American Medical Association (AMA) — GASP!!! — has endorsed the healthcare reform legislation proposed by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives according to the Associated Press:
The American Medical Association on Thursday endorsed a liberal health overhaul bill that includes a public insurance option, a bold step for a traditionally conservative group with a checkered past on health reforms.
In its strongest action yet signaling support for President Barack Obama's vow to reform health care, the nation's largest doctors' group sent letters to three House committees behind the bill. The letters, signed by AMA's executive vice president, Dr. Michael Maves, said the AMA appreciates and supports what is being called America's Affordable Health Choices Act.
This is an historic shift. The AMA opposed the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. It's conference of delegats gave President Obama a lukewarm reception when he addressed their convention earlier this summer.
"I don't represent the big oil companies, the big pharmaceuticals or the big insurance industry. They already have great representation in Washington. Its the rest of the people that need representation." - Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat, Minnesota
Last year, Senator Mary Landrieu campaigned hard on the slogan:
But, ever since the election, she's been fighting for the health insurance companies and her allies in the business sector, rather than the people who actually VOTED to send her back to Washington.
Granted, she's done a fantastic job fighting for our interests when it comes to rebuilding our state from the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, in addition to the destruction wreaked by the Federal Flood in the New Orleans region.
So she's making sure that we can continue to live in the state we all love. But how about making sure we can continue to LIVE, Senator?
The health care plan you're currently supporting will mandate that all Americans buy into private health insurance plan, and have government looking over us every time we interact with it. Not to mention that such a mandate will be a boon to the health insurance industry - more premiums they can stick in their pockets while denying individuals the care they need. On top of that, if the Wall Street Journal's opinion page - the paper for Wall Street - has anything good to say about that plan, then you can bet your bottom dollar, Senator, that it is NOT in the best interests of Louisianans, let alone the American people.
EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND (pdf alert) of your constituents, Senator, are currently living without health insurance, either because they are uninsurable due to being a survivor of a serious illness, or because they simply can't afford the premiums.
And yet you think some government regulations will squeeze enough savings out of the health insurance companies to lower the cost enough to ensure that all Louisianans will be able to afford to purchase a health care plan? We are talking about an industry that engages in despicable practices like rescission:
If you worked for a company that offered insurance, if you carried your family's insurance, next year your insurer would slap a million dollar surcharge on the company policy for carrying a leukemia patient. The company would get the bill and someone in accounting would question "what is this extra million dollars we are being billed?"
The insurance company would explain to them that the million is for you, and it is yearly, but is, ahem, "fixable." They will say "as long as she is on your insurance (wink, wink) this charge will be there. So what you have to ask yourself (more wink, wink) is whether this employee is worth a million dollar a year salary on top of what you are already paying her."
Social worker said she had seen small business owners go almost broke trying to cover this charge, and had even heard of one who defiantly did go broke, throwing all of the employees out of work. But more usually, she said, they just fire you.
"Wait, wait!" say you, "Isn't it illegal to fire someone for their health history? Suppose I'm all well and working?"
She looks at you with more pity, says yes, so of course they will have to find "cause" to fire you, which any employer can always do.
"But I am a very, very good employee!" you protest.
"Yes," she says, "but they can always find some cause." The real problem she goes on to explain, is that you will find a new job, that company's insurer will slap them with the surcharge, they will take their turn at firing you, until you've been through six or seven jobs in a year, fired "for cause" from all of them, which of course looks very, very bad to a prospective employer.
"So in a year or so of this, you will not just be uninsurable, you will also be unemployable."
She asks who your husband works for, since they'd probably try to do this to him too. You say he is a cop working for a municipality, which pleases her. "They have all sorts of layers of officials, elected and otherwise, to work their way through to get to the decision, then once they do they have to get past his union, so it will take much longer to get him fired." She also, though, offered sympathy for the fact that what with the police union and the municipality fighting out whatever "cause" they got him on in such a public profession, it was sure to end up in the local papers and disrupt all our lives - including the children's - when they did get that far.
You remind her you seem headed for divorce, and she says, well, okay then, just carry the COBRA to the limit and keep on working for small not-for-profits that don't offer insurance.
You ask her what you are supposed to do for health care and she says sooner or later the insurance companies would force you onto Medicaid - either by means of making you unemployable and broke, or by means of you being uninsured and going through any and all assets you have paying medical bills until you are broke and sick enough that you can't work, and end up on Medicaid.
It's high time for you get back on that saddle. Perhaps then you won't be afraid to face your constituents. After all, you've canceled two appearances - one at The Healing Center's grand opening and two weeks ago when you didn't participate in a scheduled Q&A at a Small Business Committee field hearing in New Orleans. On top of that, it is comical that your staff seems intent on making sure that no bad press emerged from that event by tailing known provocateurs, one of whom just happens to be a former intern in your New Orleans office.
