Find out how Cooch took $55,000 from the disgraced "U.S. Navy Veterans Association," in apparent exchange for his promise to get the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs (which had "notified Thompson's group that it no longer qualified for an exemption from state registration requirements") off the group's back. Can we say "pay-to-play?" Find out more.
Former Senator and Willard "Mitt" Romney advisor Norm Coleman says, point blank, "We're not going to repeal Obamacare." Of course, that completely contradicts Willard that he'll "repeal Obamacare" (a ridiculous notion, since only Congress can "repeal" a piece of existing legislation, unless we turn into a dictatorship). Coleman adds that "Obamacare" doesn't work without the individual mandate, which is an interesting admission from the Teapublican side of the aisle.
Former 10th CD (Virginia) Democratic nominee and health care expert Judy Feder follows up with some interesting thoughts:
I think that the [Supreme] Court is going to find that the individual mandate is constitutional. In fact, only one appeal's court has gone the other way...If it does go away, I think that there are challenges, it's not the only way that the law can operate, there are other things, it's not as good...but I'm betting on it sticking...I'm really interested to hear Sen. Coleman say that they're not going to repeal, because they sure do say they're going to repeal. And I think you're right, they repeal at their peril. There are lots of [popular] things in this law...coverage of drug costs for seniors, coverage of children up to age 26...
Great points by Judy Feder, as she completely kicks Norm Coleman's hindquarters. Most importantly, though, is the first thing Coleman admitted, better known as a "gaffe" in the sense of accidentally speaking the truth when you're not supposed to, that the Republicans will not - repeat NOT - be repealing the Affordable Care Act anytime soon. All their claims to the contrary are just machismo, bluster, and pandering to the teahadists.
P.S. More video of the discussion is on the "flip."
What do Slovenia and the U.S. have in common? According to the results of a 2000 World Health Organization (WHO) ranking of the world's health systems, the U.S. ranks ahead of Slovenia by one place in the rankings. The U.S. ranks 37th while Slovenia ranks 38th. But if you think these rankings are bad for the U.S., just wait, they could get worse, at least in Virginia.
Under the pen of Gov. Bob McDonnell, funding for community health centers and free clinics would be cut in half, from $10 million to $5 million, for fiscal years 2013 and 2014. What's more, according to a Virginia Health and Human Resources report issued in late 2011, close to 298,000 low-income Virginians will stay in the uninsured category even after President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act takes effect.
For anyone who doesn't see this issue through a moral lens, let's look quickly at the economics of this issue. If a fraction of these 298,000 low-income Virginians end up requiring expensive health care, Virginia's taxpayers will have to pick up the tab while insurance premiums for the insured may increase as well. Thus, the problems of the medically uninsured have the strong potential to become a problem for the medically insured as well, economically speaking.
This morning, Bob McDonnell released his plan to supposedly shore up the Virginia Retirement System (VRS). In fact, McDonnell's proposals are more of the usual smoke, mirrors, accounting tricks, and utter evasion of responsibility that have characterized his entire governorship to this point (how he can be popular simply boggles the mind; at best, you could argue the guy's accomplished absolutely nothing).
In response to McDonnell's latest irresponsibility, Virginia Democrats are piling on. According to Sen. Donald McEachin's (D-Henrico) office:
{McDonnell's proposal} is yet another effort to impose more of a burden on local governments, which are already strapped and which are responsible for critical vital services like public education, public safety, and public health. Local governments cannot afford to absorb this. To use an overused expression, it is an 'unfunded mandate.'"
As Ben points out at NLS, "local governments {have} only two options to meet this massive unfunded state mandate- raising property taxes or slashing county spending on schools, police, fire, parks and other local needs." Meanwhile, Ben adds, the VRS is "a disaster from the General Assembly underfunding it," and now instead of actually raising the money to properly fund it, McDonnell and the Republian'ts are "passing the buck on to localities." Disgraceful.
For his part, Del. Scott Surovell (D-Mt. Vernon) weighs in with several points (and questions). First, "how is {McDonnell} gonna pay for this?" Second, "We're giving an extra $200M to Higher Ed, Jacking up VRS contributions, taking $110 [million] from General Fund to pay for roads, and now fully funding VRS?" Third, that inevitably means "Cut healthcare for kids & low-income seniors (Medicaid)." Fourth, Surovell notes that Republicans claimed "there wasn't a problem" with VRS at all. Hmmm. Surovell concludes:
George Allen's latest campaign ad, released yesterday, included three blatantly false statements, and Protect Your Care's statement in response does a great job in correcting them. The statement shares:
Wrong fact #1: The Affordable Care Act is "hurting Virginia's families and small businesses."
Correction #1:The ACA benefits small business and Virginia's families - According to a recent study by Virginia's Commonwealth Institute, the "ACA provides a number of provisions and coverage options that will benefit small businesses and could jump-start an increase in coverage opportunities for workers at businesses with fewer than 50 employees...two new health insurance marketplaces will be critical to making health insurance more affordable to businesses and providing workers and other consumers with new affordable and quality health insurance options."
The Facts:
Last year, more than 100,000 Virginian small businesses were for eligible for the premium tax credit under the ACA.1
More than 500,000 people will be gain health care coverage under the ACA and the state-implemented health benefits exchange.2
I think it's fair to say that most of us here already felt that Ken Cuccinelli was wasting time and taxpayer money in his lawsuit against the federal health care reform law passed in late 2010. Now, it appears the Supreme Court may agree.
The [U.S. Supreme Court] case is based on a lawsuit brought by Florida and 25 other states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses. But it does not include Virginia's case.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) was the nation's first attorney general to file a lawsuit challenging the 2010 law. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond tossed out his case, saying Virginia lacked standing to sue.
Cuccinelli spokesman Brian Gottstein declined to comment except to say the office is waiting for the Supreme Court to meet Nov. 22 to consider whether to grant Virginia's case a hearing.
How about another idea: instead of pursuing wild goose chases aimed at rewriting the U.S. Constitution in Ken Cuccinelli's image, witchhunts against scientists, and other wastes of Virginia taxpayers' money, why doesn't Ken Cuccinelli buckle down and do the job he was hired to do? That would include what Steve Shannon promised to do in his 2009 campaign ("increased restrictions on sex offenders use of Social Networking services[14] and several measures to deter drunk driving, and attempting to curb gang recruitment"). Even better, Kookinelli could be doing what Maryland AG Doug Gansler has done, prosecuting environmental crimes; or what former Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal did -- fought for clean air, against Big Tobacco, against abusive monopolies, against fraudulent business practices, etc. Sadly, Kookinelli would rather waste everyone's time and money, and also sadly, for another 2 years we have to put up with this crap. Still, it's nice to see Kookinelli's idiotic lawsuit not on the Supreme Court docket. Let's hope they file it where it belongs - in the garbage can.
P.S. The apparent Supreme Court "dis" of Ken Kookinelli comes just days after one of the top conservative judges in America demolished the idea that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. Whether you're a liberal, conservative, or whatever, who would you believe: "Judge Laurence Silberman, a man who has stood at the pinnacle of conservative judicial thinking for decades" or a self-promoter/clown who talks to toy elephants and thinks the overwhelming evidence collected by thousands of scientists over decades is all make believe? Tough one, I know.
How crazy is this comment (made at a debate at the Greenspring Retirement Community on October 4th in Springfield) by Teapublican State Senate candidate Miller Baker? Let us count the ways.
1. The Iraq War involved an invasion of another country on pretenses that turned out to be highly questionable at best. It has resulted in tens of thousands of U.S. coalition military casualties (both killed and wounded), and very well could end up costing America more money than World War II!
2. Health care reform, what Miller Baker falsely calls "Obamacare," was modeled closely after the Republican 1993 plan and also off of Mitt Romney's health care reform in Massachusetts. That includes the "individual mandate," which was/is a conservative idea to promote individual responsibility, and as an alternative to the employer mandate, which Republicans dislike(d).
3. The purpose of health care reform, unlike the Iraq War to which Miller Baker bizarrely compares it, is of course is to expand access to life-saving health care to tens of millions of Americans. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, for instance, "by 2019, the two pieces of legislation combined will reduce the number of nonelderly people who are uninsured by about 32 million." In addition, "About 95 percent of legal nonelderly residents will have insurance coverage in that year, compared with a projected share of 82 percent in the absence of that legislation and 83 percent currently."
4. Also, according to the CBO, "According to our latest comprehensive estimate of the legislation, the net effect of changes in direct spending and revenues is a reduction in budget deficits of $210 billion over the 2012-2021 period." That's right, the CBO says that what Miller Baker childishly calls "Obamacare" will reduce U.S. deficits by hundreds of billions of dollars, while repealing it - as he and his teahadist friends want to do - will conversely crank up the deficits by hundreds of billions of dollars. Brilliant!
In sum, Miller Baker is wildly wrong and/or utterly ignorant on the impacts of health care reform legislation. As for his comparison to the Iraq War, that is both completely off base and also wildly offensive, crazy and bizarre. If there were any doubt prior to this that Miller Baker was an off-the-right-wing-deep-end Tea Party extremist, there certainly isn't any now. Next Tuesday, 39th district voters need to reject this brand of lunacy: Vote George Barker, keep sanity and competence in the Virginia State Senate!
Virginians and local governments feeling the pain as McDonnell passes along state obligations while calling for even more cuts.
Just a day after Governor McDonnell's Education Department admitted that federal stimulus funds saved or created at least 7,715 Virginia teacher jobs threatened by state budget cuts, Pass The Buck Bob took to CNN to brag about the "billions of dollars" he has cut from education and health care.
In the video, McDonnell tells CNN host Erin Burnett "we've cut billions of dollars out of the budget the past couple years in education and health care." He continues by declaring "I think we're on the right track.
"Governor McDonnell's insistence that gutting education, public safety and health programs on which struggling Virginians depend begs the question: whose side is he on?" said ProgressVA Executive Director Anna Scholl. "McDonnell gives his biggest donors hefty tax breaks while he cuts billions of dollars from our schools and police and fire departments."
There are Republicans who genuinely believe in a weak government that steps aside to let other sectors of society take the lead. But Ken Cuccinelli is not one of them. His approach, demonstrated time and time again, is to use government as a weapon to harass and strip the rights of any people and institutions that do not share his point of view. The net effect is to increase the power of himself and future government officials at the expense of most everyone else in the state.
Whereas an attorney general would normally be expected to use his position to protect the citizens of his state from genuine threats to their rights and well being, I cannot think of a single occasion on which our attorney general has done so. To the contrary, most of his acts involve attacking any institution that seeks to protect Virginia citizens in any way that does not conform with Cuccinelli's rigid (and at times delusional) right-wing ideology. And in nearly every instance, he has done so on the thinnest of legal grounds, stretching any law he can find to justify his ideological assaults.
While conservatives and libertarians like to talk about a "Nanny State", our Ayatollah General presents us with something much worse -- the Bully State: government not as protector, but as a threat to anyone who does not support his agenda.
On New Year's Day, a range of elements of health insurance reform kicked in. The prescription drug "donut hole" for seniors begins to close, joining already in-effect provisions like a ban on discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions & the new right parents have of keeping their children on their family insurance plans until they're 26 years old. Another new provision clamps down on insurance company waste, fraud & profiteering (wonder why we don't hear Rep. Frank "Fraud Peacock" Wolf praising that?).
House Republicans are pledging to make stripping all those protections one of their top priorities:
"As part of our pledge, we said that we would bring up a vote to repeal healthcare early," Upton said. "That will happen before the president's State of the Union address. We have 242 Republicans. There will be a significant number of Democrats, I think, that will join us. You will remember when that vote passed in the House last March, it only passed by seven votes."
Conservatives have a long history of making their own reality & this is only the latest example.
Now that the two Chairs of the Deficit Commission have pre-empted the report of the whole Commission, and issued their own report, it is becoming clear that they could not get the agreement of the majority of the members. They issued their own early report so as to set the agenda, an agenda which includes using the worry about the deficit as an excuse to attack the middle class and provide the bond holders and Big Money of Wall Street everything they could possibly have dreamed of having, i.e., confiscating whatever wealth the middle class still has after the depredations of the last 20-30 years. Here is an interview with noted economist and author Dean Baker, which explains the Fed policy of "Quantitative Easing" (QE2) and the Deficit Commission and its "Shock Therapy." As I recall, the shock therapy is a long-standing tactic of Free Market Chicago boys in destroying the economies of Third World Countries, and turning them into modern financial colonies of Western corporations (See the book Shock Doctrine). Now hear how it all ties together:
Looks like the tea-folk need to find a new party to vote for!
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) recently told a group of high-dollar GOP donors that Senate Republicans would not move to fully repeal President Obama's health care law next year, according to multiple sources who attended the event.
The junior senator from Tennessee told the gathering of donors not to worry about the incoming class of "crazier Republicans" because the majority of Senate Republicans, especially minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), had no intention of repealing the president's health care bill. They instead planned to fix only the "bad parts" of the law, Corker reportedly told the group. Several attendees, including a very senior Republican official, appeared visibly shocked by Corker's comments.
I particularly love the line from Corker about "crazier Republicans." Can you be any more "off message" than this? Ha.
Yesterday, a federal judge in Michigan struck a blow for sanity and against Kookinelli-style "reasoning," ruling that the new health care law is constitutional, and "rejecting an argument that Congress lacked the power to create the legislation's 'individual mandate.'" That, of course, is the crux of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's own case against the health reform law, so it's worth looking at the Michigan judge's reasoning in a similar case. Here are a few key points from the 20-page ruling (bolding added by me for emphasis):
*"The Supreme Court has consistently rejected claims that individuals who choose not to engage in commerce thereby place themselves beyond the reach of the Commerce Clause... plaintiffs in this case are participants in the health care services market. They are not outside the market. While plaintiffs describe the Commerce Clause power as reaching economic activity, the government's characterization of the Commerce Clause reaching economic decisions is more accurate."
*"The health care market is unlike other markets. No one can guarantee his or her health, or ensure that he or she will never participate in the health care market. Indeed, the opposite is nearly always true. The question is how participants in the health care market pay for medical expenses - through insurance, or through an attempt to pay out of pocket with a backstop of uncompensated care funded by third parties. This phenomenon of costshifting is what makes the health care market unique. Far from "inactivity," by choosing to forgo insurance plaintiffs are making an economic decision to try to pay for health care services later, out of pocket, rather than now through the purchase of insurance, collectively shifting billions of dollars, $43 billion in 2008, onto other market participants. As this cost-shifting is exactly what the Health Care Reform Act was enacted to address, there is no need for metaphysical gymnastics of the sort proscribed by Lopez."
*"The minimum coverage provision, which addresses economic decisions regarding health care services that everyone eventually, and inevitably, will need, is a reasonable means of effectuating Congress's goal."
*" Congress intended to increase the number of insureds and decrease the cost of health insurance by requiring individuals to maintain minimum essential coverage or face a penalty for failing to do so. Because the "penalty" is incidental to these purposes, plaintiffs' challenge to the constitutionality of the penalty as an improperly apportioned direct tax is without merit."
In short, Ken Cuccinelli's lawsuit - and others like it around the country - is baseless, without merit, and whatever other legal synonyms you want to use for "crap." Unfortunately, "Cooch" appears hell bent on wasting Virginia tax dollars filing frivolous lawsuits and pursuing his witch hunt against science, instead of...oh, let's say, focusing his energies on internet predators, gangs, corporate polluters, stuff like that? What a concept.
Excellent answer by Rep. Tom Perriello (D-5th) on this question at the 5th CD debate the other day. Independent candidate Jeffrey Clark also gives a serious and articulate answer, although I completely disagree with him. As for Republican Robert Hurt's answer...oh wait, Robert Hurt wasn't there. Where was he? Perhaps he was hard at work developing legislation (possibly to protect his district from Bob McDonnell's cockamamie schemes) for the next Virginia General Assembly session, since that's where he's going to be working come 2011? :)
Cooch explains the reason why his case against the national health care reform law is moving forward. Here's the part that should make every Democrat angry:
...The court basically ruled on four different items...The first one was whether or not Virginia was injured, because if you don't have an injury you can't have a case; courts don't give opinions about what they might do, they resolve actual fights. And the court ruled, because . And Virginia's law said that no Virginian can be forced to health insurance against their will; Virginia has its own law; we have a Virginia Healthcare Freedom Act, passed on a bipartisan basis this year - and we have a Democrat Senate and a Republican House - so it had to be bipartisan to get throughthat became law before the president signed the federal health care bill...
That's right, Cooch's #1 reason for why his lawsuit is moving forward is because Virginia passed - on a "bipartisan" basis - Bob Marshall's Healthcare Freedom Act. Unfortunately, Cooch is right, it was bipartisan. Let's review.
First, the House of Delegates, where Sideshow Bob's lunacy passed by a 72-26 margin. True, Republicans control that chamber and Bob Marshall's crazy law was going to pass, no matter how Democrats voted. Still, it's lame that anyone calling himself or herself a "Democrat" voted for HB 10. First and foremost, I point my finger at Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, who rumor has it wants to run for governor in 2013. Sorry, but just on this vote alone - helping give Cooch the ammo he needed to push his lawsuit against what is arguably Barack Obama's #1 achievement as president - Armstrong should be disqualified from any serious consideration by Democratic voters. Seriously. Outta here. Bye bye!
Now, on to the Senate, a chamber controlled by Democrats, and where the vote was close (23-17). So how did Sideshow Bob's lunacy pass there? For that, we have five people who put a "D" after their names -- Chuck Colgan, Edd Houck, John C. Miller, Phil Puckett, Roscoe Reynolds -- to thank. Essentially, these are the Ben Nelsons and Blanche Lincolns of Virginia, super-conservative Democrats who might as well be Republicans when it comes to health care, energy, environment, and a bunch of "social issues." I mean, "big tent" is one thing, but giving Kookinelli "bipartisan" cover to go around trashing health care reform? Argh.
Remember the actor who lost his job because of a regrettable drunken call to Freedom Works? He's back with the best You Tube video I have seen in a while. While admonishing us to "never" do likewise, he manages to make all the best points against the astroturfs.
It has now been a little over a month since I signed health insurance reform into law. And while it will take some time to fully implement this law, reform is already delivering real benefits to millions of Americans. Already, we are seeing a health care system that holds insurance companies more accountable and gives consumers more control.
Much has been made recently of the many angers of the Tea Partyers, to wit: the swollen big federal government, taxes, the national deficit (both budget and trade), Second Amendment rights, states' rights, restoring the Real Constitution, President Obama's socialist/fascist agenda with special fury reserved for the Health Care reform bill, and so on. Now there is another anger-trigger: anyone who implies that the Tea Party members and its many angers are in any way racist, or even slightly prejudiced. No, no, you elitists, the Tea Party's anger is pure! "Give us our country back!" " Restore the Constitution our Forefathers' created!"
Closer examination reveals what is really going on under all the cacophony: almost all of these hot issues are in fact a stalking horse. A stalking horse, you will recall, originally meant a figure behind which a hunter stalked game, and came to mean something used to "mask a purpose," or to hide the true objective. That is, a pretend goal or project which conceals the real objective; the pretend object can even create so much excitement and hysteria that it can convince not just outsiders but the participants it is a serious matter---- yet it still is a mask.
From Tom Perriello's YouTube channel: "Rep. Perriello meets with students at Danville Community College to discuss the benefits of health care reform." Nice job, as always, by Tom!
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This morning, Bob McDonnell released his plan to supposedly shore up the Virginia Retirement System (VRS). In fact, McDonnell's proposals are more of the usual smoke, mirrors, accounting tricks, and utter evasion of responsibility that have characterized his entire governorship to this point (how he can be popular simply boggles the mind; at best, you could argue the guy's accomplished absolutely nothing).
I think it's fair to say that most of us here already felt that Ken Cuccinelli was wasting time and taxpayer money in his lawsuit against the federal health care reform law passed in late 2010. Now, it 
Cross-posted at 
Yesterday, a federal judge in Michigan 
Much has been made recently of the many angers of the Tea Partyers, to wit: the swollen big federal government, taxes, the national deficit (both budget and trade), Second Amendment rights, states' rights, restoring the Real Constitution, President Obama's socialist/fascist agenda with special fury reserved for the Health Care reform bill, and so on. Now there is another anger-trigger: anyone who implies that the Tea Party members and its many angers are in any way racist, or even slightly prejudiced. No, no, you elitists, the Tea Party's anger is pure! "Give us our country back!" " Restore the Constitution our Forefathers' created!"
