Flap Your Lips Friday
Posted by Michelle Moquin on March 26th, 2010
Now here’s an excellent article and something to flap your lips about.
In Health Bill, Obama Attacks Wealth Inequality
For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.
Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.
Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan.
Speaking to an ebullient audience of Democratic legislators and White House aides at the bill-signing ceremony on Tuesday, Mr. Obama claimed that health reform would “mark a new season in America.” He added, “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”
The bill is the most sweeping piece of federal legislation since Medicare was passed in 1965. It aims to smooth out one of the roughest edges in American society — the inability of many people to afford medical care after they lose a job or get sick. And it would do so in large measure by taxing the rich.
A big chunk of the money to pay for the bill comes from lifting payroll taxes on households making more than $250,000. On average, the annual tax bill for households making more than $1 million a year will rise by $46,000 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group. Another major piece of financing would cut Medicare subsidies for private insurers, ultimately affecting their executives and shareholders.
The benefits, meanwhile, flow mostly to households making less than four times the poverty level — $88,200 for a family of four people. Those without insurance in this group will become eligible to receive subsidies or to join Medicaid. (Many of the poor are already covered by Medicaid.) Insurance costs are also likely to drop for higher-income workers at small companies.
Finally, the bill will also reduce a different kind of inequality. In the broadest sense, insurance is meant to spread the costs of an individual’s misfortune — illness, death, fire, flood — across society. Since the late 1970s, though, the share of Americans with health insurance has shrunk. As a result, the gap between the economic well-being of the sick and the healthy has been growing, at virtually every level of the income distribution.
The health reform bill will reverse that trend. By 2019, 95 percent of people are projected to be covered, up from 85 percent today (and about 90 percent in the late 1970s). Even affluent families ineligible for subsidies will benefit if they lose their insurance, by being able to buy a plan that can no longer charge more for pre-existing conditions. In effect, healthy families will be picking up most of the bill — and their insurance will be somewhat more expensive than it otherwise would have been.
Much about health reform remains unknown. Maybe it will deliver Congress to the Republicans this fall, or maybe it will help the Democrats keep power. Maybe the bill’s attempts to hold down the recent growth of medical costs will prove a big success, or maybe the results will be modest and inadequate. But the ways in which the bill attacks the inequality of the Reagan era — whether you love them or hate them — will probably be around for a long time.
“Legislative majorities come and go,” David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, lamented on Sunday. “This health care bill is forever.”
Since Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign in 2007, he has had a complicated relationship with the Reagan legacy. He has been more willing than many other Democrats to praise President Reagan. “Reagan’s central insight — that the liberal welfare state had grown complacent and overly bureaucratic,” Mr. Obama wrote in his second book, “contained a good deal of truth.” Most notably, he praised Mr. Reagan as a president who “changed the trajectory of America.”
But Mr. Obama also argued that the Reagan administration had gone too far, and that if elected, he would try to put the country on a new trajectory. “The project of the next president,” he said in an interview during the campaign, “is figuring out how you create bottom-up economic growth, as opposed to the trickle-down economic growth.”
Since 1980, median real household income has risen less than 15 percent. The only period of strong middle-class income growth during this time came in the mid- and late 1990s, which by coincidence was also the one time when taxes on the affluent were rising.
For most of the last three decades, tax rates for the wealthy have been falling, while their pretax pay has been rising rapidly. Real incomes at the 99.99th percentile have jumped more than 300 percent since 1980. At the 99th percentile — about $300,000 today — real pay has roughly doubled.
The laissez-faire revolution that Mr. Reagan started did not cause these trends. But its policies — tax cuts, light regulation, a patchwork safety net — have contributed to them.
Health reform hardly solves all of the American economy’s problems. Economic growth over the last decade was slower than in any decade since World War II. The tax cuts of the last 30 years, the two current wars, the Great Recession, the stimulus program and the looming retirement of the baby boomers have created huge deficits. Educational gains have slowed, and the planet is getting hotter.
Above all, the central question that both the Reagan and Obama administrations have tried to answer — what is the proper balance between the market and the government? — remains unresolved. But the bill signed on Tuesday certainly shifts our place on that spectrum.
Before he became Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers told me a story about helping his daughter study for her Advanced Placement exam in American history. While doing so, Mr. Summers realized that the federal government had not passed major social legislation in decades. There was the frenzy of the New Deal, followed by the G.I. Bill, the Interstate Highway System, civil rights and Medicare — and then nothing worth its own section in the history books.
Now there is.
Readers: I take it no one had a sense of humor yesterday. Okay. Out of the belly and back into the head – What’s going on? Flap your lips; it’s Friday – Blog me.
Health Info: I’m confused. Good info on the prostate, but I thought you were going to tell us what to do during and right after a heart attack. What’s the deal?
Marie: And just how stupid some witnesses can be too.
Josie: Thanks for saying so, and for the article. I love reading about women doing amazing things, especially in a job that is usually regarded as a man’s biz, and the women excel.
Penny: I don’t get migraines thankfully but this is good info for those that do. Oh…and thank you. :)
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my ‘loyal’(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Peace out…
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the ‘Donate’ button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my ‘Donate’ page)
March 27th, 2010 at 8:18 am
RELIEF FROM IBS NATURALLY
Sometimes old-fashioned remedies work best, and for the millions of people with one very hard-to-treat condition — irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) — an old remedy beats everything modern science has dreamed up. If you or someone you know has IBS, please read on.
As many as one in five Americans suffer from IBS, a miserable disorder that can bring an endless progression of constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating and stomach cramps.
Where expensive new IBS drugs have been disappointing, it turns out that a classic stomachache remedy, peppermint oil, can often get the job done more effectively.
IN WITH THE OLD, OUT WITH THE NEW
At McMaster University in Ontario, Alexander C. Ford, MD, and his colleagues analyzed the results of many previously published studies on adults with IBS, including 12 comparing fiber with placebo, 22 comparing antispasmodics with placebo, and four comparing peppermint oil with placebo.
Peppermint oil was surprisingly effective, bringing relief to 74% of patients. This compares very favorably with antispasmodics, which helped only 61%, and fiber, which was beneficial to just 48%.
Peppermint oil may be most helpful in soothing the abdominal pain and cramping that are common IBS symptoms and, over time, it may also help ease diarrhea or constipation.
Scientists believe it works by blocking the movement of calcium into muscle cells in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby reducing muscle contractions, discomfort and bloating.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR IBS BETTER
Look for “enteric coated” peppermint oil capsules at your health food store, since taking peppermint oil straight can produce reflux symptoms, suggests Daily Health News contributing medical editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND.
Dr. Rubman often prescribes doses of 200 mg to 300 mg to be taken once, twice or three times daily — but not more often, as larger doses can be toxic. He says most patients find it helpful to take a dose just before eating a meal.
Several factors should be weighed in identifying the right treatment for an IBS patient, including whether symptoms are dominated by diarrhea or constipation or whether both occur about equally.
If your doctor seems quick to recommend newer pharmaceuticals, consider seeing a specialist in natural medicine to discuss the older remedies and over-the-counter medicines.
As Dr. Ford pointed out to me, even though peppermint oil helped the most people in his analysis, the other two treatments — fiber and antispasmodics (which lessen spasms in the GI tract) — were effective for many, and they are safe, inexpensive and readily available over the counter at most pharmacies.
Also, Dr. Rubman pointed out that there are many other useful botanical extracts that are antispasmodic as well, including valerian, skullcap, viburnum, juniper berry, hyoscamus niger, gentian and gelsemium.
“Their effects may vary from minor to profound, so it’s best to use these only under physician care,” he added.
Dr. Ford has also been exploring another “new old” remedy for IBS –probiotics — and results are promising. Bottom Line’s Daily Health News will keep you up to date.
Source(s):
Alexander C. Ford, MD, gastroenterology division, Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Andrew L. Rubman, ND, medical director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, Connecticut. http://www.SouthburyClinic.com.
March 27th, 2010 at 8:28 am
I couldn’t get on on, but this is worth the effort. I love this book.
++++++++++++++++++++++
A Special Summer: Book shares tales of a family’s times on Guam
BY ERIN THOMPSON • PACIFIC DAILY NEWS • MARCH 27, 2010
It begins with an activity familiar to many parents — picking up a handful of exhausted little girls from a morning dance practice.
But in “Gramma’s Little Girls,” a newly available book by local author Elizabeth Acfalle Mafnas, the setting is one that will have particular resonance with many Guam moms.
The young girls, named Miyah, Madison and Gabrielle, are shuttled from The Talent Box, in Maite, to an afternoon lunch in a Santa Rita home.
As the story unfolds, the girls’ summertime adventures take them to many more familiar island locations — everywhere from the Oka Pay-Less in Tamuning to Two Lovers’ Point, Cushing Zoo and Cetti Bay Overlook.
Broken into a series of short vignettes told from the perspective of the young girls, the book features photos and descriptions of Guam, while giving a very personal account of one family’s experience living on the island.
“I don’t know if there’s a book out there written by a local artist that reflects the backdrop of a family setting and what truly goes on in the household,” says Mafnas, who says she also wanted to showcase Guam’s unique sites through the book.
“I wanted that message to be loud and clear and to let everybody know that ‘Hey, Guam is a special place,’” she says.
Now Available
Published in 2008 and now available at island bookstores for the first time, the book came out of the experiences the family shared during the summer of 2006.
That summer, Mafnas, a mother of four, received news that her two daughters would be leaving the island to seek opportunities in the mainland. To document the time she spent with her family before their departure, she began recording her experiences in a journal, and later decided to transform those memories into the book.
“As you get older, you tend to forget details, significant things,” says Mafnas, who wanted to create something that she could pass on to her grandchildren — the stars of the book.
“I wanted them to have something tangible to look at later on, so they too can share it with their children.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is great reading guys.
Hafa adai
Anna
March 27th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Where are you Zen Lil?
We hope you are doing well.
Your Blog Class
March 27th, 2010 at 8:31 am
I am a court reporter. I thought you would like to hear just how stupid those lawyers you hire and put so much trust in are.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are supposedly things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters.
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And, Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
______________________________ ______________
March 27th, 2010 at 8:53 am
It seems the benefits from selecting Barack Obama as our President just keep on coming.
The President is about to give the American people the second largest profit in US history from the government sale of a stock, 8 billion dollars.
This with the return of all the money lent to Citi Bank means Obama is a politician who knows how to make money for the people,
I can’t wait to hear the republican spin. Those hypocrites will knock anything to stay in office.
Claire
March 27th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Hafa adai
Thanks President Obama for helping Guam provide better health care to its citizens.
___________________________
Health Care Reconciliation Bill Passed; Bill Improves Provisions For Territories
Last Updated on Friday, 26 March 2010 19:59
Written by News Release
Guam – Congress today passed H.R. 4872, the “Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act.”
H.R. 4872 passed the Senate by a vote of 56 yeas to 43 noes and in the House by a vote of 220 yeas to 207 noes. President Obama is expected to sign this measure into law.
H.R. 4872 makes a number of corrections to H.R. 3590, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” passed by the House and signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, March 23.
Two provisions of H.R. 4872 directly address the health care needs of Guam and the other territories.
The territories will now be able to opt into the new health insurance exchanges in 2014 or enhance their Medicaid programs.
Congress has specifically appropriated $1 billion to assist residents of the territories in purchasing health insurance on these exchanges.
If any territory elects to not participate in a health insurance exchange then those funds will be used for Medicaid.
H.R. 4872 also increases federal assistance for Medicaid on Guam. Guam currently receives approximately $13.7 million a year from the federal government.
This will nearly double to $24 million for fiscal year 2011. For fiscal year 2012, aid will nearly double again to $42 million.
Medicaid assistance will continue to rise for the rest of the decade, reaching approximately $58 million by 2019. Adjusting for inflation, this represents a tripling of federal Medicaid assistance to Guam.
Additionally, H.R. 4872 contains provisions that reform student loans and will contribute to lower costs to attend a community college or university.
These provisions represent a major investment for students to pursue higher education by increasing funding for Pell Grant Scholarships to $36 billion in the next ten years and by providing $750 million to the College Access and Challenge Grant Program which will improve access to college and boost graduation rates.
H.R. 4872 also makes it easier for borrowers to repay their federal student loans by lowering the cap on monthly payments from 15 % to 10% of discretionary income.
The bill also includes $2.55 billion specifically for minority serving institutions and $2 billion in competitive grants for community colleges for career training programs.
Students from Guam are eligible to participate in all of these programs.
“Today Congress fulfilled its promise to reform health care,” Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo said today. “The higher education provisions in this bill will increase assistance for college students to make college more affordable in these tough times.
This bill makes important changes in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that President Obama recently signed into law.
Theses changes specifically address the needs of the territories through increased federal funding of our Medicaid program and give us the option of establishing an exchange program.”
====================
May be it’s because he is an islander. But all I know is this President stands behind his promises.
Peter
March 27th, 2010 at 9:06 am
I am thanking you Michelle for your help for the people of Darfur.
The sham vote runs from April 11 to 18. We are already being threatened because we are here to monitor the elections.
March 26th, 2014 at 4:41 am
Very nice! eccdkcfegd