In the final hours of December 31, 2012, congress and the democrats agreed on a deal in the White House that averted the fiscal cliff in the US and saved the economy from slipping away into darkness. But for how long?

According to Forbes magazine, income tax rates up to $450,000 (for married couples) will be subject to older tax rates, but income above $450,000 will taxed at 39.6%. Tax-rates on long term capital gains and dividends will be hiked from 15 percent to 20 percent only for those taxpayers above; for everybody else it will be the same 15 percent.

Further, according to Forbes, the deal is composed of an extension of exemption on estate taxes at $500,000, but rates have been increased to 40 percent from 35 percent.

It seems rather uncomfortable to say that President Obama achieved victory on tax code debate since democrats were pushing top tax rates for income just above $250,000; nevertheless, tax revenues have been made somewhat stronger.

As reported in my last article, updating tax rates for the rich may strengthen the revenue part of the budget. Perhaps it is a good sign, but the deal barely mentions anything about chronic deficits.

Perhaps the most pivotal portion of budget is spending. Because spending and taxes are branches of the same tree, and there is a threat that the tree might lean to one side if the other branch grows too heavy.

According to the Heritage Foundation report, “Federal spending by the Number 2012,” federal entitlements are driving this spending growth, increased from less than half of the total federal outlays some 20 years back to nearly 62 percent in 2012.

Further report says that three major programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) eat up about 44 percent of the budget. Other programs such as anti-poverty program increased by 49 percent in the last 10 years, food stamps tripled since 2002, and housing assistance rose by 48 percent since 2002.

Debt Facts

The year 2012 marked $1.1 Trillion of deficits, the fourth consecutive year the deficit exceeded 1 trillion.

The 2012 Deficit. was estimated to be 7.3 percent of the GDP.

Over 2 decades, spending grew 71 percent.

In 2012, spending on entitlements was nearly 62 percent of total spending, while defense expenditure was 18.7 of the budget.

The US economy is drifting towards deeper deficits for two principle reasons: a dramatic shift in spending on the outset of recession, and a large chunk of financial resources diverted towards a host of social programs.

What’s happening in the US economy can be summed up as a fiscal fiasco. It is also economic uncertainty and political confusion over the fate of the tax code, massive spending and mountainous federal deficits, since this deal focused extensively on one side of the budget.

Ironically, what remains to be the most awful aspect of the deal is the extension of rapid spending cuts, generally known as sequester. The sequester problem should have been solved under this deal.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, ‘sequester’ is composed of mandatory spending cuts, hammering down $600 billion in defense and $600 billion in domestic programs, which have been extended to March 1, 2013.

Are we going to experience the same kind of frustration and confusion again in March as we did prior to this deal? Fiscal deficits are a jinx to growth and the whole of the economy because it forces us to cease off-spending.

But again a question arises whether welfare policies sometimes ask for more than what the economy can produce? Is this too much welfarism?

The article Fiscal Cliff Deal and Deficit Dilemma appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Washington, U.S.A. — The Concord Coalition has said that new projections by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) underscore the need for Washington to commit to long-term fiscal reforms while dealing with this year’s looming budget decisions. Concord said the new numbers should also provide a sobering picture for this year’s candidates for federal office one that should temper election-year impulses to offer voters unrealistic promises.

“Once again, CBO’s projections show that if politicians don’t deviate from current policies, the country will continue down an unsustainable path that threatens to weaken the country, jeopardize our standard of living and leave our children and future generations with unmanageable levels of government debt,” said Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s executive director. “These numbers should frame this year’s political debates, and candidates from both parties would do well to spend some time studying their implications.”

“We need to put the country on a better fiscal path,” he added, “and candidates must clearly explain to voters — with specifics, not empty rhetoric — how they plan to do that. It will require setting priorities and making changes throughout the federal budget, and voters deserve to hear credible plans for doing this.”

CBO’s Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook estimates that the federal deficit for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, will total $1.1 trillion. While that is down slightly from CBO’s March projection, it will be the fourth consecutive deficit of more than $1 trillion. In addition, federal debt held by the public would reach 73 percent of GDP, which CBO notes is the highest level since 1950 and is “about twice the share that it measured at the end of 2007, before the financial crisis and recession.”

The CBO prepared two sets of projections. The first — the CBO’s “baseline projections” — assumes that current laws will generally remain in effect. An alternative scenario, however, looks at what could happen if Congress changes certain laws to continue many current policies. This alternative scenario presents a far more troubling long-term picture. Using the new CBO numbers, The Concord Coalition today updated its own “Plausible Baseline,” which applies what Concord considers to be realistic assumptions about future policy decisions. These projections are close to the CBO’s alternative scenario.

The budget office notes that the outlook for budget deficits, federal debt and the economy are “especially uncertain now because substantial changes to tax and spending policies are scheduled to take effect in January 2013.” These changes have often been called the “fiscal cliff” because if Congress allows all of them to take effect at once, it could cause substantial short-term economic damage, perhaps triggering a recession.

Under Concord’s Plausible Baseline, deficits between 2013 and 2022 would be much higher, averaging over 5 percent of GDP rather than 1 percent. Debt held by the public would grow to 93 percent of GDP by 2022, the highest level since shortly after World War II. As the budget office points out, that is not a sustainable level of federal debt.

“The differences between the CBO baseline and either CBO’s alternative scenario or Concord’s Plausible Baseline are striking, and they highlight the importance of the policy decisions that elected officials must confront before the end of the year,” Bixby said.

“While it is important to support the economic recovery, Washington should also be laying the groundwork for the big fiscal reforms that are necessary to put the federal budget on a more responsible track over the long term. It is possible to do both, but this will require more thoughtful policy-making and greater bipartisanship than we have seen in Washington recently.”

• Choices over tax policy, account for the bulk of the difference between the CBO baseline and the more plausible scenarios within the 10-year budget window. Extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, along with fixes to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and debt service costs would add $5.2 trillion to deficits over 10 years.
• In CBO’s baseline projections, mandatory spending will increase from 13.3 percent of GDP in 2013 to 14.4 percent in 2022. Nearly all of that increase would be due to the growth of just Social Security and Medicare — representing the effect of the baby boom generation entering retirement. CBO projects that by 2022 over half of the entire federal budget will be spent on just Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
• For Medicare specifically, baseline growth is not attributable to health care inflation but instead to demographics.
• The mandatory spending category of income security, now higher than normal because of the recession, would drop by over 60 percent over the budget window (from 2.1 percent of GDP to 1.3 percent).
• Interest payments under the Concord Plausible Baseline would more than double, growing from 1.4 percent of GDP this year to 3.6 percent in 2022, and would cost over $5 trillion during the 10-year period.
• If the caps included in the Budget Control Act are adhered to, CBO projects that discretionary spending would decrease from 8.3 percent of GDP in 2012 to 5.6 percent by 2022 — the lowest level in the last 50 years.

For more about our plausible baseline visit:

http://www.concordcoalition.org/concord-coalition-plausible-baseline

Image Courtesy of  Third Way

The article CBO Projections Show Candidates Face Difficult Decisions appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Washington D.C., U.S.A. — Survivors of Iran-backed bombings in Beirut in 1983, at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, and families who lost loved ones in these attacks praised the House and Senate for coming to agreement on an Iran sanctions bill, especially for including language that clarifies and strengthens current law governing collection of court awarded judgments against Iran for its role in the two terrorist events.

The survivors and families from across the United States said they are now closer to being able to hold Iran responsible for murdering 241 American service men in Beirut and 19 at the Khobar Towers and for maiming many others at both locations.

“This legislation is a major step in making sure that Iran understands that it will have to face responsibility for killing and injuring Americans. No legislation or legal judgment can repair the awful damage Iran did to all of our families, but at least we can all know that our country stands behind us in seeking justice forIran’s murderous rampages,” said Lynn Smith Derbyshire National Spokesperson for the Beirut Families and whose brother, Marine Captain Vincent Smith, was killed in the bombing.

The American victims of Iranian terrorism groups commended Congress for taking a strong stand in an array of sanctions areas. They said they were particularly grateful to the Senate Banking Committee, especially Senators Robert Menendez (D-NY) and Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL); the House Foreign Affairs Committee; especially the Chair, Representative Ileana Ross-Lehtinen (R-FL); the House Financial Services Committee and Chair, Spencer Bachus; the House Judiciary Committee and Chair, Lamar Smith(R-TX); and Representative Robert Turner (R-NY) as well as the tireless efforts of House and Senate staffers for their collective efforts in assuring that provisions that will make it easier to make Iran pay for its terrorism were included in the omnibus bill.

The groups urged expeditious passage of a final bill and expressed hopes that President Obama will sign it into law promptly.

Image Courtesy of    Official U.S. Air Force

The article Beirut and Khobar Bombing Victims Praise Iran Sanctions Bill appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Washington, U.S.A. — The Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) and others from the non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding community delivered a letter to Congress, urging leaders to avert sequestration by adopting a “balanced approach to deficit reduction that does not include further cuts to the NDD programs.”

Joining AAHC in this effort are nearly 3,000 national, state, and local organizations from all 50 states representing the biomedical research, health, education, and public safety communities, among others. Despite diverse interests, the organizations share a common purpose to protect from further cuts the core government functions that make up NDD spending.

NDD programs are provided by the government for the benefit of all Americans. They support economic growth, strengthen safety and security, and enrich the lives of every American in every state and community across the nation. In 2011, NDD spending represented less than one-fifth of the federal budget and 4.3 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Under strict discretionary caps in the bipartisan Budget Control Act (BCA), by 2021 NDD spending will decline to just 2.8 percent of GDP, the lowest level in at least 50 years. If sequestration is allowed to take effect, cuts to NDD programs will be even deeper.

“NDD programs are not a principal reason for our growing debt, and yet they are often the first place lawmakers look for cuts,” said Dr. Steven Wartman, President and CEO of AAHC. ”Our goal is to protect health and well-being by ensuring an adequate health workforce and vital biomedical research, all of which are also essential to a robust economy. It is our hope that in educating the public and policymakers about NDD and its small and shrinking share of the budget, we can convince Congress to avoid sequestration by adopting a balanced approach to deficit reduction that recognizes NDD has already largely done its part.”

Image Courtesy of   Ken Durden / Shutterstock.com

The article Groups Call for End to Sequestration in Congress appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Chicago and Springfield, U.S.A. — The Republican led U.S. House of Representatives wasted taxpayer dollars playing a partisan game on Wednesday, when they voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

It represented the 33rd time Congress has attempted to repeal the Act, even though the measure is destined for certain defeat in the U.S. Senate. Keith Kelleher, President of SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana, uniting 91,000 health care and child care workers, issued the following statement in response:

At a time when Congress should put its full attention on the country’s economic recovery, the U.S. House Republicans squandered a day at the office Wednesday when they voted for a politically motivated and legislatively futile repeal of President Obama’s landmark health care reform.

While average Americans need Congress to focus intensely on policies that will create jobs, make college education more affordable, reduce the federal deficit and generally improve our economic fortunes, the House Republicans chose to spend the day on a blatant political stunt. The attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act is considered dead on arrival in the Senate, so Wednesday’s vote was an exercise in empty symbolism, wasting time, energy and public dollars that should have been marshaled to accelerate our economic revitalization.

In response to today’s vote we will be informing our union members of all of Illinois’ Congressional members who voted to deny Illinois citizens quality, affordable health care. In the wake of last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, the time has come for opponents of the bill to dispense with partisan gamesmanship and move on to the business at hand: putting more Americans to work.

Congress should let the Affordable Care Act continue to work for the people of Illinois.

According to the Campaign for Better Health Care, the law has already generated the following rewards in Illinois:

• More than 3.6 million residents became entitled to preventative medical services, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, without having to pay deductibles or co-pays.
• More than 100,000 uninsured young adults under the age of 26 became eligible for coverage under the parents’ health insurance.
• More than 150,000 seniors with Medicare received a $250 rebate to cover the cost of their prescription drugs once they hit the so-called donut hole.

For all of these reasons, members of Congress who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act must explain to Illinois voters why they chose to deny health security to their constituents and why they oppose providing quality and affordable health care for all Americans.

Image Courtesy of  Jose Gil / Shutterstock.com

The article Health Workers Criticize House Republicans For Repeal Vote appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Washington, U.S.A. - A week after President Obama announced his support for ending marriage discrimination against same-sex couples, Freedom to Marry and Service members Legal Defense Network (SLDN) announced  Freedom to Serve, Freedom to Marry, a new national campaign that will highlight the stories of military families harmed by the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The campaign launched with the release of an online video illustrating the real injury inflicted on gay and lesbian military families who, because of the federal government’s refusal to respect their marriages legally, are denied the support and protections that all other military families receive.

“Last week the President described how the stories of service members and their families made a difference in his decision to support the freedom to marry.  In deed, the faces and stories of military families impacted by the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act illustrate the unjust ways this law treats our nation’s most courageous patriots.

It’s unconscionable that we would ask American citizens to put their lives on the line for us in war zones while treating them and their families as second-class citizens at home.  All service members and their families provide the same service, take the same risks, and make the same sacrifices.  When it comes to recognition, support, and benefits, they must all be treated equally.  There cannot be two classes of service members,” said Army Veteran and SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis.

Because of the ‘gay exception’ created by DOMA, America’s legally married gay and lesbian couples are denied 1,100+ federal responsibilities and protections including Social Security survivors benefits, equal treatment under U.S. immigration laws, and the opportunity to take leave to care for a spouse.

“Many people assume that, with the repeal of ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” gay men and lesbians serving our country are now being treated fairly and equally, but that’s not the case.  We ended the ban on open military service for gay and lesbian Americans, but there is still a federal ban on treating married service members as what they are: married,” said Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry.

“The so-called Defense of Marriage Act’s ’gay exception’ keeps the government in the business of discriminating against families, such as those of service members, and burdening employers, such as the military, who are prevented from treating their employees fairly and equally.”

The Freedom to Serve, Freedom to Marry campaign will include video and other multimedia content spotlighting the harms of DOMA on military families, including the denial of health insurance, survivor benefits, and access to military bases and housing for service members’ spouses.  Additionally, the campaign will invite the public to sign an online petition calling on Congress to “end this discriminatory and unequal treatment of our service members and veterans by repealing DOMA.”

In October 2011, SLDN filed landmark litigation on behalf of eight married gay and lesbian service members and veterans challenging DOMA and three other federal statutes that may be interpreted to prevent the military from providing the same protections and support to all families.

Freedom to Marry’s federal program works to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and make the case for marriage to government officials, opinion-leaders, and political operatives’ in Washington, DC. Freedom to Marry is a leader of the Respect for Marriage Coalition, a diverse group of nearly 70 organizations working together to repeal DOMA, and regularly hosts salons to engage Democratic, Republican, and independent opinion-leaders and operatives in conversations about why marriage matters to same-sex couples.

Since the introduction of the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’, the bill that would repeal DOMA, the number of cosponsors has increased from 18 to 32 in the Senate, including every Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and from 108 to 144 in the House of Representatives.

The article Military Families Harmed by “Defense of Marriage Act” appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Washington, U.S.A - The Conservative electoral wave of 2010 is alive and well and headed toward the Senate. Groups representing all aspects of the movement declare that the 2012 Conservative takeover that began in Indiana when Richard Mourdock ousted 36 year-incumbent Richard Lugar, must continue in Nebraska this Tuesday.

Diverse conservative groups, Eagle Forum, Gun Owners of America, FRCAction and FreedomWorks are uniting behind State Treasurer Don Stenberg because of his proven record, having delivered on his promises to conservatives each of the four times he has been elected to statewide office.  The groups issued the following statements:

FRCAction PAC

“Don Stenberg is a known quantity, and he is known as a warrior for marriage and the unborn, having defended Nebraska’s partial birth abortion bill all the way to the Supreme Court. He is also a warrior on the fiscal front, as he fought to keep costs under control as Nebraska’s Attorney General and Treasurer.”

FreedomWorks

Stenberg has a record of standing strong against interventionist economic policies, such as cap-and-trade and ObamaCare. A critic of excessive government spending before it was fashionable; Stenberg decried Republican big-spending initiatives such as Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, and corporate bailouts.  We know we can count on him to take a stand for our economic freedom, even if it means standing against his own party.

Gun Owners of America

Gun Owners of America stands with Don Stenberg who is strong on all the issues, especially appointees and nominees that shape policy for generations.  He is the polar opposite of Jon Bruning, who wrote a letter supporting the nomination of Attorney General Eric Holder, and continues, unapologetically to stand by his support for Eric Holder despite many calls to renounce it.

Even in the face of Congressman Darrell Issa’s impending Contempt of Congress charges Bruning still wants to go along to get along.  This is exactly what is wrong with our party and Establishment candidates like Dick Lugar, who recently was defeated by another staunch conservative.

Eagle Forum

“With the possibility of two to three vacancies on the Supreme Court and hundreds of other federal benches over the next four years, we must elect conservatives with the backbone to stand up against nominees who don’t share our values. Don Stenberg is the only candidate in this race that we know will take such a stand.”

Stenberg is also endorsed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Utah Senator Mike Lee, both of whom were elected in the 2010 conservative wave, as well as Senator Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservative Fund and the pro-business Club for Growth.

Image Courtesy of   Andrew Aliferis

The article Conservative Senate Revolution to Continue in Nebraska appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

It looks as if women’s rights are the hot button on the political landscape this year. There was fighting at the contraception mandate front, as well as over the efforts in Virginia and Ohio to force ultrasounds before an abortion, even in cases of rape or incest.

A measure in February attempted to cut off all financial aid to Planned Parenthood. Something that would seem to be more clear-cut than the previous legislations, The Violence Against Women Act, is up for renewal, and some provisions within the act are putting Republicans in an even greater quandary than they were before.

No politician wants to look like he or she is not against domestic violence. The title alone, as some Republican politicians are pointing out, can make the legislation politically risky to oppose, particularly in an election year. As Senator Roy Blunt put it, “Obviously, you want to be for the title. If Republicans can’t be for it, we need to have a very convincing alternative.”

There is no alternative as of yet, and so Republicans are forced to grapple with the current version. According to the New York Times, it would extend federal grants that are already in place to battered women’s shelters, as well as to local law enforcement. Same-sex couples are included in programs as well, as are transgender victims. So are immigrants without status, that have been victims of domestic violence, and more of them would be able to claim temporary visas. The act would also expand efforts to reach the Indian tribes in some rural areas.

According to Fox News, the measure would also give tribes the authority to prosecute persons who are not members of the tribe. The concern is that this move gives tribal courts too much authority over individuals who are not formally part of a tribe.

It is particularly the last provisions that make the legislation so hard to swallow for Republican politicians. They believe that the overall message is being diluted with these extra provisions. Furthermore, they see some groups as undeserving of this aid.

Republicans allege that the timing of the Act is part of a larger Democrat strategy to “rig legislation that the GOP can’t back,” according to the Huffington Post. This is particularly touchy in an election year in which Congress has a 9 percent approval rating.

Senate Democrats hope to bring up the bill before Easter break.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/

The article A Battle in The War Against Women appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

American Jewish World Service (AJWS), an international development and human rights organization, recently released its latest report, The Time is Now for Food Aid Reform: Five Reasons Why U.S. Policies are Ripe for Reform in the Next Farm Bill .

AJWS’s paper outlines the benefits of reforming current U.S. global food aid policies as Congress debates the farm bill. In the report, AJWS lays out five changes in the current political and economic climate conducive to far-reaching policy reforms.

“The push for food aid reform is more fortuitous now than it has been for decades,” said AJWS’s director of advocacy, Timi Gerson. “If Congress seizes the opportunity, they can make bold changes that will have lasting positive impact on both American taxpayers and the millions of hungry people around the world who depend on our aid.”

According to data from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. remains the world’s largest provider of international food assistance. Although food aid alone cannot close the world hunger gap, it plays a critical role in the lives of tens of millions of individuals and their families.

U.S. food aid programs, however, are not doing the greatest good for people in need. The current one-size-fits-all approach relies too heavily on the shipping of in-kind aid from the U.S. to areas in need, instead of employing a flexible approach that includes local and regional procurement as well as cash transfers or vouchers.

The system is inefficient, with over 50 percent of taxpayer money for food aid grains wasted on subsidies to U.S. agribusiness and shipping companies. And in some cases, in-kind aid inadvertently distorts markets, undercutting local farmers who are critical to long-term sustainable food systems.

AJWS’s policy paper strikes a hopeful tone regarding the possibility of a new approach to the food aid programs in the 2012 Farm Bill. Recent small, but significant policy precedents enacted in the 2008 Farm Bill and subsequent appropriations as well as new research on the benefits of local and regional procurement (LRP), lay the groundwork for bigger structural reforms.

Beyond food aid reform’s humanitarian impact, AJWS’s report points out its relevance to the current congressional focus on fiscal responsibility. Record high food prices and budgetary pressures both increase the need for greater food aid cost effectiveness. Shifting interests and alignments among traditional supporters of the food aid status quo in the agriculture industry and among food-aid-implementing NGOs may also lower resistance to reform.

The paper contends that conditions influencing the fate of U.S. food aid policy have changed, and recent developments have created a timely opening for a politically attractive set of structural policy reforms in the next farm bill. Despite the long-running resistance to changes in U.S. food aid programs, AJWS argues that because of these changes in the political and economic context, the U.S. food aid debate is positioned at a potential turning point and the time is ripe for reform.

To read the policy paper online, please visit: http://bit.ly/z4NbiH.

American Jewish World Service
Inspired by Judaism’s commitment to justice, American Jewish World Service (AJWS) works to realize human rights and end poverty in the developing world. www.ajws.org

Image Courtesy of   Boris Diakovsky / Shutterstock.com

The article AJWS Calls Congress For New Food Aid Approach and Farm Bill Reform appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Dr. Gary A. Puckrein, President and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum, on March 1 released the following statement of concern regarding the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB):

“In our increasingly diverse society, it is important that we have an honest and open discussion about the investment required to enable an American healthcare research, delivery and financing system that will support the provision of the highest quality care to all Americans. Unfortunately IPAB, a cost-containment mechanism that is a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will stymie that essential national conversation.

“The 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will develop specific proposals to contain the growth rate of Medicare spending if it is projected to exceed targets also established by the law. These proposals are transmitted to Congress in the form of legislative proposals that must be enacted or substituted on a legislatively mandated basis. Once it is in place, IPAB can be discontinued only by a joint resolution that must be introduced in January 2017.

Since IPAB is not a government agency, and is not promulgating regulations, it is subject neither to open meetings or public comment requirements. There are no options for appealing the IPAB recommendations. The provisions for judicial review appear to be limited to the recommendations issued by IPAB based upon deliberations that are not open to the public. Judicial or administrative review of the Secretary’s implementation of those recommendations is prohibited.

“The clear intent of the law is to insulate IPAB and its decisions from the full range of traditional democratic checks and balances. This is unwise and unwarranted. Instead of this draconian measure, we must pursue an integrated and practical approach to improving our nation’s healthcare system that will assure that the improved health status of the consumer of those services is the primary measure of success.

“The National Minority Quality Forum urges Congress to abolish the Independent Payment Advisory Board and to engage in the constructive deliberations that are necessary to protect the health of the people they were elected to serve.”

About the National Minority Quality Forum

The National Minority Quality Forum (The Forum) is a Washington, DC-based not-for-profit, non-partisan, independent research and education organization dedicated to improving the quality of health care that is available for and provided to all populations.

The Forum develops user-friendly, web-based disease indices that provide a unique two-dimensional view of the prevalence and impact of diseases by ZIP code, including diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease and HIV/AIDS. Visit the website at www.nmqf.org. Look for National Minority Forum on Facebook , and follow on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/NMQF).

The article National Minority Quality Forum Calls for IPAB Abolition appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing will explore how Indian tribes could be impacted by the recent U.S. Department of Justice opinion that permits states to allow all forms of online betting that do not involve sports.

After numerous hearings over the past months on the opportunity to regulate Internet gambling, Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, issued the following statement that calls on Congress to adopt federal legislation that regulates the industry in order to best protect consumers.

“There is no question that the recent Justice Department opinion has increased pressure on Congress to move on legislation to regulate Internet gambling activity. If the main objective of regulation is to protect consumers, this can be best achieved through federal legislation that sets the strict standard for licensing operators, requires the most innovative safeguards be put in place and stringently monitors all gambling and financial activity.

Alternatively, states being left to develop a patchwork of regulatory structures will not encourage national collaboration to monitor the many operators expected to offer services and ensure the utilization of state-of-the-art technologies to protect consumers and combat fraud and money laundering. Moreover, the time to move is now, as numerous states are starting to move quickly to create Internet gambling programs.

“The federal regulation of Internet gambling should respect the rights of Indian sovereignty, reinforce states’ rights and utilize the enforcement expertise of existing regulatory bodies – all objectives proposed in pending legislation to regulate the industry. Indian tribes should be able to apply for a license and become an Internet gambling operator or set any restrictions they wish on the activity within their respective geographic borders.

“Hearings are valuable for providing information, but the facts haven’t changed since Congress first started to explore the need to regulate Internet gambling – without regulation consumers are left unprotected and all of the economic benefits that could be gained for controlling the activity will continue to be lost to offshore operators.

“Congress should immediately consider pending bills introduced by Reps. Campbell and Barton which provide a path to requiring licensed operators to put in place practical and enforceable standards to control Internet gambling activity, protect consumers and respect Indian sovereignty.

The upside for the Campbell bill is wider protections and opportunities for economic benefits through more jobs and government revenue.”

The article US Senate Commitee: How Online Betting May Impact Indian Tribes? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The Alzheimer’s Association commends the Obama Administration for dedicating new resources in the fight against Alzheimer’s in a uniquely challenging fiscal year in advance of the first ever National Alzheimer’s Plan.

“This infusion of funds is important and the Alzheimer’s Association appreciates this step by the Administration,” said Harry Johns, President and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association. “We are committed to working with the Administration, Congress and the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services to ensure the development and implementation of an effective National Alzheimer’s Plan.

In order to meet the expectations of all Americans affected by this epidemic, the plan must address the critical need for care and support as well as accelerate research toward prevention, treatment and ultimately a cure.”

After the passage and enactment of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act with full bipartisan support last January, Americans affected by Alzheimer’s made impassioned demands for decisive action on Alzheimer’s during the Alzheimer’s Association’s nationwide public input campaign.

The more than 40,000 individuals who participated in the process live on the frontlines with Alzheimer’s disease. The struggles they face reflect the experiences of the estimated 5.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s and their 15 million unpaid caregivers. They are eagerly waiting to see if the federal government’s commitment to solving this crisis is proportionate to the magnitude of this disease.

Within just 38 years, as many as 16 million Americans will have the disease and it is projected to cost the country more than $1 trillion annually.

The Association will continue to support the process underway to develop the first National Alzheimer’s Plan led by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  All of these efforts will help to ensure the nation is at last equipped to overcome Alzheimer’s – the public health crisis of this century – and meet the goal set forth by the Administration to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025.

One of the Alzheimer’s Association’s recent contributions to this process has been to convene a taskforce of leading Alzheimer’s scientists to determine the scope of work and scale of investment need to achieve this goal. Results of this assessment are expected to be released later this month.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/actionalz

The article Alzheimer’s Association Commends the Obama Administration appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

In the current political environment the job market continues to be one of the more important topics.  And, for the first time in months, Americans are indicating that the job market in their region of the country may be improving, albeit slightly.

In January 2012 14% of U.S. adults said that the job market in their region of the country is good, which is up from 9% who said so in October 2011, 11% who said so in September and 12% who said so two months earlier in July 2011.  The number of Americans who call the job market in their region bad has also dropped this month, to 65%, down from 67% who said so in October 2011.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,016 adults surveyed online between January 16 and 23, 2012 by Harris Interactive .Although these numbers are still low overall, with almost two thirds calling the job market in their region bad (65%) and one in five saying it’s neither good nor bad (21%), a minor increase is important, and may be reflective of real change.

Looking across the country it appears that the job markets in the East and South are the best, as 15% and 16% in those regions respectively say that the market there is good, while the Midwest and West may be struggling more—over two thirds in the Midwest (67%) and West (71%) call the job market in their region bad.

Further evidence that the national job market may be improving is the response seen when Americans were asked how they think the job market in their region will change over the next 6 months.  For the first time since March 2011 more people say that the job market in their region will be better—27% say so now, compared to 22% in July.  While this number shows an increase, it’s still lower than the three in ten who expected the job market to improve when asked during the first half of 2011 (30%-32% said so between January and May 2011).

Looking by political party there are stark differences in attitudes regarding the future of the job market—Democrats show significantly more optimism than do either Independents or Republicans.

Fully two in five Democrats expect that the job market will improve over the next 6 months (41%) compared to 24% of Independents and only 14% of Republicans who say the same.  Republicans and Independents are most likely to say that they think the job market will stay the same (56% and 55%).

This optimism about the job market may be related to perceived blame for the state of the economy.  When asked how much each of the following groups are to blame for their financial situation, a large majority of Republicans (84%) and over half of Independents (55%) say they blame the President.  This compares to fewer than one third of Democrats who say the same (30%).  When asked about other groups’ blame for the current financial situation some of the results include:

• Large majorities of Americans say they blame Congress (81%) and Wall Street (70%) for their financial situation;
• Two thirds say they blame large corporations (66%), fewer say they blame state government (62%) or the President (56%) and less than half say they blame local government (48%).

Similarly to how partisan differences may account for how much someone blames the President for their financial situation, Democrats are also significantly less likely than both Republicans and Independents to give President Obama negative ratings on his handling of the economy.

Overall one quarter of Americans say President Obama’s handling of the economy is excellent or very good (25%) while three quarters say it is only fair or poor (75%).  These numbers are unchanged since December 2011 despite the other improvements seen in perceptions of the job market.

The article Slight Improvement in American Local Job Markets appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A coalition of labor, law enforcement, local government, AAA, safety groups, and families of truck crash victims joined U.S. Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) and U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) on February 1 at a press conference to strongly oppose a House transportation bill that would undo decades of truck safety laws including overturning the 1991 federal ban on triple tractor trailers. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is scheduled to vote on the measure on February 2.

“Three quarters of Americans say they oppose bigger and heavier trucks on our highways and polls conducted over the past 15 years show similar results,” said Joan Claybrook, Chair Emeritus, Public Citizen and Chair, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways. “Unfortunately, Congressional leaders are tone deaf to public concerns when special trucking interests come around.

They ignore the truth that a state option will produce more profits for the trucking industry and more obituaries for innocent families and truck drivers.  The American public will pay with their lives and their wallets for the trucking industry follies.”

In 2010, overall traffic fatalities declined, but truck crash fatalities increased by nearly 9 percent to 3,675. While large trucks make up only 3 percent of all registered vehicles, they represent 11 percent of annual motor vehicle crashes. In fatal crashes involving a large truck and a passenger vehicle, 97 percent of the deaths occur to the car occupants.

“We ask our leaders in Congress to step up and take some action to spare other families from losing a loved one in a preventable crash,” said Jane Mathis, from St. Augustine, FL, whose son and daughter-in-law were killed in a truck crash as they drove home from their honeymoon. “It is unacceptable and unconscionable that the House Committee is actually proposing a bill that will add to the death and injury toll by putting even heavier, longer and deadlier trucks on our roads.”

Overweight trucks accelerate the destruction of roads and bridges.  According to government studies, one third of America’s roads and bridges are in poor or mediocre condition and more than one fourth of our nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Increasing truck weights and expanding the reach of large triple trailer trucks will only make America’s roads more deadly and create an unfunded mandate of infrastructure repair and maintenance needs paid by taxpayers.  The American public will pay with their lives and their wallets if Congress allows bigger, overweight trucks on roads and highways.

“The National Troopers Coalition and all law enforcement are united in opposition to bigger trucks,” said Trooper Tom Brackin, Vice President, Delaware State Troopers Association.  ”We oppose the provisions in the House transportation bill that would allow longer trucks, triple trailer trucks and heavier trucks.

For my fellow law enforcement officers and me, it’s a matter of saving lives.  In addition to the many fatalities and injuries suffered by the public in truck crashes we know that the number one cause of death and injury to troopers and other police officers is traffic accidents, many involving big trucks.”

Truck size and weight provisions in the House bill are being characterized as modest “states’ rights” changes that merely give states the option to allow longer or heavier trucks.  In truth, these provisions amount to radical changes in the law and a dangerous give-away to the trucking industry.

The radical House legislation would:

• Eliminate all restrictions on LCVs within the 23 states that currently allow them on select routes;
• Force every state to allow longer double and single-trailer trucks on the entire 200,000-mile National Network;
• Allow 97,000-pound, six-axle singles on Interstates as a “state option”;
• Allow 126,000 pound trucks on 25 mile interstate segments by permit; and
• Force every state to allow 88,000 pound auto haulers.

“Every time Congress has allowed bigger, heavier trucks, the number of trucks on our highways has increased.  The recent pilot program that allowed overweight trucks in Maine and Vermont resulted in more trucks and more deaths and injuries.  The trucking industry was dead wrong about the pilot program in these two states.

I urge Congress to stop pandering to the trucking industry’s misstatements, misleading claims, and misguided notion that their profits should trump public safety,” said Jennifer Tierney, from Kernersville, NC, whose father was killed when he crashed into a truck blocking the roadway.

Ed Slattery, from Cockeysville, MD, whose wife was killed and two sons critically injured in a triple trailer truck crash said, “What happened to my family is clear and compelling evidence of why triple trailer trucks should not be permitted on more roads. I urge Congress to put the safety of our families first and not cave to the political pressures of the trucking industry.”

The article Unsafe House Bill Will Allow Overweight Trucks on Highways appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Pointing to a study he delivered at a recent (Congressional Health Care Caucus), Phil Lebherz, Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Health Coverage Education (FHCE), has called upon Congress and the Obama administration to make 2012 a watershed year for adopting a “Point-of-Care” approach with Medicaid’s administrative program in an effort to save as much as $56 billion in administrative costs.

The costs being targeted are derived from complicated and duplicative steps that keep government administrative costs high and prevent qualified Medicaid recipients from seeking needed care.  Delayed treatment often results in higher overall costs, as patients are treated in hospital emergency rooms with higher incidence of requiring surgery and expensive intensive care services.

“If we continue to run government’s biggest program – Medicaid utilizing the program with 1980s technology, we will be out of money before we reach 2014,” said Lebherz.

In his testimony before the Congressional forum, Lebherz laid out the reasoning behind changing Medicaid from a complicated enrollment system to a “point-of-care” program by describing the current holes. The proposed (Point-of-Care Eligibility) system would target a large segment of the population who are eligible for Medicaid, yet are not enrolled, and access their care in hospitals’ Emergency Rooms. With these patients, the hospital is often left with unpaid bills that should be turned into Medicaid or another liable public entity.

The solution of moving to a Point-of-Care concept was created following (Onsite Study) conducted at four Emergency Rooms in San Diego, California in 2011. Over a period of a year, Sharp Healthcare asked 20,000 uninsured patients FHCE’s Eligibility Quiz, and 80.2% were found eligible for free or low-cost public health coverage.

A previous analysis of Medicaid numbers, detailed in this 2011 (Health Affairs article), demonstrates that a “point-of-care” system could solve the uninsured problem for an estimated 17 million Americans and trim billions of dollars from the government budget.

The article Congress Urged to Adopt “Point of Care” Medicaid Enrollment appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Consumers can expect to pay even more for food at the grocery store and in restaurants if Congress adopts new legislation that over-regulates food production. The proposed legislation, HB 3798, was introduced on January 23, and would add to the 6 percent jump in grocery prices that consumers have suffered in the past year.

The proposed new legislation on egg production adopts the same concept as European government mandates that have already hurt consumers there by cutting egg production and driving up costs. At the same time, there has been no sign of higher food quality, improved animal welfare or other social benefits.

Dubbed the “Food Price Hike Bill,” the legislation is sponsored by Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, along with several cosponsors. Keep Food Affordable (KFA), a coalition of agricultural and nutrition organizations, does not question the sponsor’s intention of ensuring that egg-laying chickens are given good care but is concerned that the real outcome will harm American families’ ability to purchase safe, nutritious food at affordable prices.

The proposed legislation would begin by over-regulating farmers who provide whole eggs to grocers, restaurant owners, bakers and others. It sets the stage for similar over-regulation of family farmers who provide meat, poultry, milk and dairy products for consumers. While animal rights activists say such over-regulation will benefit animals, the real outcome will be to harm American consumers who are still struggling with high unemployment and a tough economy.

Inevitably, the federal government would need to increase spending or divert current spending from food safety or other useful programs to enforce these counterproductive regulations. That would be a further blow to consumers.

Eggs are one of the least-expensive types of protein: A dozen eggs can feed a family of four for less than $1 per person. Eggs are also a key component of many prepared foods, from cookies to casseroles. Even a small spike in food prices will hurt every American, especially the 13 million who are wrestling with unemployment and millions more who face food insecurity.

The federal mandates in the “Food Price Hike Bill” would cost American egg farmers as much as $10 billion more, and those higher costs would drive up consumer prices. Similar mandates in European countries have forced egg farmers to increase their operating costs or go out of business. As a result, some countries are seeing 20 percent lower egg production. Across Europe, egg prices shot up nearly 8 percent in 2010-2011. American consumers do not need higher prices.

Family farmers recognize their ethical obligation to care for animals using standards developed by veterinarians and other experts. At the same time, they provide safe, wholesome and affordable food for consumers. The proposed federal mandate in HB 3798 is not just unnecessary, it is anti-consumer.

Consumers deserve affordable, high-quality food, and American farmers have invested millions of dollars to fund animal health and welfare research. Piling prescriptive, inflexible production mandates on family farmers will only add to those challenges. KFA urges members of Congress to consider the serious impact this bill will have on farming and the American consumer.

The article Consumers May Face Higher Food Costs, Thanks to Congress appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The long-awaited No Labels Anthem is now featured in the iTunes Music Store and available for purchase for 99 cents. Written by Grammy award-winning platinum artist Akon and performed by Grammy-nominated platinum artist Deborah Cox, the song’s proceeds will help fund No Labels, a citizens’ movement of Democrats, Republicans and Independents by empowering our leaders to work across the aisle.

Recently, No Labels launched its Make Congress Work! action plan, which features a dozen common sense proposals to combat the gridlock and hyper partisanship that make it virtually impossible to deal with America’s serious challenges.

“When I told Akon about No Labels, he was so inspired that he stayed up all night to write this song,” said No Labels co-founder Lisa Borders. “The No Labels Anthem speaks to our fellow citizens of every persuasion who are not being served by a partisan, dysfunctional Congress. We want our leaders to work together – like the words and melody of this iconic song – to do what’s best for the ‘indivisible’ United States of America.”

“The No Labels mission moved me to get involved and perform this song,” said Cox, who has 11 number-one Billboard dance singles. “To citizens like me, Congress is like an orchestra where every member is trying to play their instrument louder than the next. That makes for bad music and its made for bad government. Our leaders need to put aside their differences and work together for the good of the country.”

The No Labels Anthem debuts on the day of the president’s State of the Union address, where over 196 members of Congress will be sitting with members of the opposite party. No Labels has made bipartisan seating at the State of the Union and all joint meetings of Congress one of the 12 proposals in its Make Congress Work! action plan.

Miguel Campos / Shutterstock.com

The article No Labels Anthem: Music for the Movement Debuts appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A global executives’ organization, meeting in San Francisco to host leaders of healthcare, biotech and pharmaceutical companies as well as bankers and other investors, called on President Obama and the leaders of Congress to join an effort by others in business, education, government and philanthropy to “work across disciplines to overcome obstacles” to solving the nation’s healthcare crisis.

The proclamation was presented by George Bickerstaff, Executive Chairman of The Global Leaders, a digital business community for 2 million CEOs and other business leaders, for the opening of The Global Leaders 2nd Annual Healthcare Forum, a program that brought together scientists, industry leaders and investors to seek ways to bridge the gap between healthcare innovation and financial resources.

The Global Leaders employs a problem-solving method called “Group Network Theory” that unlocks the power of groups in addressing challenges by bringing people together in small, high-powered teams to address a dilemma. Mr. Bickerstaff, Partner and Managing Director of M.M. Dillon LLC, and former CFO, Novartis Pharma AG, was first to sign the document and pledged full support of The Global Leaders.

The forum’s opening panel, moderated by Kathleen Sharp, contributor to The New York Times and author of Blood Feud, was to take a global view of healthcare and seek conclusions about world progress to date.  The picture is mixed, because, despite the enormous obstacles to providing affordable healthcare, on the horizon are potential breakthroughs; for example, new systems to help patients keep track of their own medical conditions.

Another panel was to feature former CEOs from four of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies: Jeff Kindler (Pfizer), Harry Kraemer (Baxter International), Robert G. Johnson, Jr., MD, PhD (Kosan Biosciences), and Myrtle Potter (Genentech, Inc.). The forum brought together leaders from around the world, who are associated with more than 25 countries, 60 industries and 750 companies, with collective financial power exceeding $1 trillion.

Details from the forum will be posted real-time on Twitter at @TGLeaders (#TGLHealth), and key findings and reports will subsequently be posted on www.TGLeaders.com.

The article Global Leaders Urge Solution to Nation’s Healthcare Crisis appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

It’s change that’s coming literally at the speed of light. In fact, there will be more change in the world of electric lighting in the next few years than there was in the past 100. Halogens, CFLs, LEDs.

This change has spawned public uncertainty and it affects everyone. Though Congress recently de-funded the January 1st ban on the 100-watt incandescent bulb, the federal law is still on the books. Retailers who sell the bulb will technically be violating the law. As the remaining incandescent bulbs are phased out in the very near future, some people are already hoarding them.

“Lighting technology is changing dramatically and it’s much more than just grabbing a light bulb from the hardware store shelf,” said Rodney Heller, Lead Lighting Designer at Energy Performance Lighting (EPL). Heller is a nationally recognized leader in the field of energy-efficient lighting and is based in the Madison area.

He has also produced a new, 30-minute television special entitled, ‘Electric Light: Dawn of a New Era.’ The program will premiere on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10 on Friday January 6, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. (CST). It will also air on Channel 36 on Saturday January 7th at 12:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. (CST).

Heller recommends four steps that will help businesses and consumers adjust to the future of electric lighting:

1. Don’t be afraid of change
2. Realize that there are many more choices than just the compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb. For example, halogen bulbs provide instant brightness and last 6 times longer than incandescents.
3. Select cool/blue colors for alertness and warm/yellow colors to relax
4. Don’t fret the higher cost of LEDs. The energy savings will quickly offset that cost and the price of LEDs will drop by the end of 2012.

“We’ve got many different bulb choices for selecting energy efficiency, wattage and light color,” said Heller. “We are only now beginning to understand how the color of light affects us physically and psychologically. Not only will you be able to save up to 75% on your lighting bill, you’ll be able to install lights and never have to replace them in your lifetime!”

The article Light-Bulb Ban Signals Big Switch appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

As the War on Cancer enters its fifth decade and the number of people being diagnosed with cancer continues to rise, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) called for more aggressive integration of advanced imaging technology and biomedical research to improve prevention, earlier detection and treatment of cancer.

“We have developed remarkable new tools for imaging and biomarker identification that can bring about enormous changes at this moment in time and drive rapid improvements in the entire continuum of care in cancer,” said Laurie Fenton-Ambrose, President and CEO of Lung Cancer Alliance.

“But imaging and biomedical research must be linked together,” she said.

In 1975, when Congress passed the National Cancer Act, dubbed the War on Cancer legislation, 400 new cases of cancer were being diagnosed each year for every 100,000 people in the population. According to the latest figures, in 2008 that number rose to 463 new cases for every 100,000 people.

Over 1.6 million people will be diagnosed with cancer this year.

While the rate and number of people being diagnosed with cancer overall continues to climb, some progress has been made in reducing the percentage of people who die from cancer, primarily because of screening and better treatments. However the decline is uneven.

The drop in lung cancer death rates among men reflects the drop in the number of men smoking and being diagnosed with lung cancer, but not a reduction in the lethality of lung cancer, which continues to kill three times as many men as prostate cancer.

For women, incidence or mortality rates are still twice as high as they were in 1975 and nearly twice as many women will die of lung cancer than breast cancer.

In addition the percentage of women with lung cancer who have never smoked is twice as high as men.

“The overall numbers are staggering,” said Fenton-Ambrose.

Of the 577,000 people who will die of some form of cancer this year, one in four women and three in ten men will die of lung cancer – more than the combined total of deaths from breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancers.

“However, this past year has also brought us the most significant advance we have ever seen for lung cancer – the validation of CT screening as a life-saving tool that can dramatically reduce lung cancer mortality among those at high risk,” she said.

According to several national and international studies, that reduction would be at least 20% and possibly as high as 50-60%, which translates to 35,000 to 95,000 lives saved a year.

Screening can also stimulate research into precancerous conditions, genetic mutations and biomarkers that will improve risk assessment, diagnosis and treatment for all types of lung cancer, including lung cancers not associated with smoking.

The article War on Cancer Nears 50 Years appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

While the payroll tax, physician payment fix (“doc fix”), and unemployment insurance extensions have received great attention in the media and on the Hill, few have focused on the fact that seniors with incomes below $15,000 per year are at risk of losing access to critical medical services if Congress does not approve the so-called “extenders package” this week.

The Qualified Individual (QI) program is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2011. QI is critical to many seniors whose incomes are between 120-135% of the federal poverty level (about $13,068 to $14,702 annually for 2011). Without an extension, states would have the right to terminate benefits on Jan. 1, 2012.

The QI program pays for Medicare Part B premiums that cover physician and other outpatient services. Without QI assistance, these Medicare beneficiaries, who are struggling under the economic downturn, would be forced to spend about 10% of their limited incomes each year just on Part B premiums ($99.90per month in 2012), or lose their Part B benefit altogether, leaving them with significant, unaffordable out-of-pocket costs every time they need to see a doctor.

Those who lose coverage will be more likely to need more expensive care at some point, such as in an emergency room, and other outpatient services. If they later decide to re-enroll, they would face the full premium plus a harsh add-on penalty.

Although about 1.5 million beneficiaries are eligible for QI protection, only about one-third actually receive it, largely due to lack of resources devoted to education, outreach, and enrollment efforts.

“Failure by Congress to extend the QI program before the New Year would be a devastating blow to 500,000 low-income older Americans,” said James Firman, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging (NCOA). “It appears that Congress is preparing to put a lump of coal in the stockings of poor seniors, greatly increasing the burden on those already suffering.”

Receipt of the QI benefit also automatically entitles individuals to the full Medicare Part D prescription drug low-income subsidy (LIS or Extra Help), which has an average value of about $4,000 in 2011. In total, the QI benefit represents an average savings of $5,199 per year for these low-income beneficiaries, who can ill-afford the rising costs of medical and drug expenses and need to use the money for other basic needs, such as housing and food. The savings are significantly more for those with high prescription drug use.

NCOA is working to find and enroll more eligible older adults into benefits like QI to help increase their economic security.

NCOA’s National Center for Benefits Outreach and Enrollment helps organizations enroll seniors and younger adults with disabilities with limited means into the benefits programs for which they are eligible. The Center is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Aging. Learn more at www.centerforbenefits.org.

The article Half a Million of Seniors in US at Risk of Losing Key Medicare Benefit appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Ending the federal budgeting process recently, Congress dealt a devastating blow to the fight against childhood lead poisoning. The Omnibus Appropriations Bill cut funding for the CDC’s Healthy Homes Lead Poisoning Prevention Program to $2 million—a 94% reduction from FY11.

Lead poisoning still remains a significant environmental public health threat that affects over 30 million homes and nearly a half-million children annually. Today, parents of lead poisoned children can rely on their state or local health departments for help. A nurse or trained professional will come to their house and find the source of lead poisoning.

The program may connect parents to resources to remove hazards and can compel rental property owners to fix hazards. The program also prevents the disease through policies, community education, and outreach. ”Congress gave our children a lump of lead this holiday season,” said Rebecca Morley, Executive Director of the National Center for Healthy Housing.

“Studies show that educating a child with lead poisoning costs an extra $38,000. If even half of the children with lead poisoning incur these costs, that’s a $10 billion price tag,” continued Morley. “The cost of eliminating this program is staggering.”

The decision will result in the near-elimination of the program and massive job loss at the state and local levels. The move follows an advisory committee’s recommendation to CDC to lower the threshold for when a child is considered to have enough lead in his or her blood that follow-up action is needed. This change in the “action level” will more than double the caseload of poisoned kids that need the health department’s help.

“The burden on the most vulnerable families just got heavier. Too many children with lead poisoning already go undiagnosed. Without this program, we will return to the era of children being hospitalized for lead. Why is Congress treating our children like canaries in a coal mine?” said Liz Colon, parent and organizer for the Childhood Lead Action Project in Rhode Island.

The impact of these proposed cuts will also fall directly on the backs of low-income families and communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by environmental health hazards. Nationally, African American children are three times more likely to suffer from lead poisoning.

In some locales, African American and Latino children are eight to nine times more likely to enter school with a history of lead poisoning. Children poisoned by lead are seven times more likely to drop out of school and six times more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system.

“Lead poisoning is preventable. We are taking a huge step back in protecting our children’s health, safety, and future by eliminating the resources communities need to prevent and address lead exposures,” said Nsedu Witherspoon, Executive Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network.

The article Congress Cuts Funding for Children Poisoned by Lead appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The Postal Service and two of its major unions have agreed to extend separate labor contract negotiations until January 20, 2012. Contracts with the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union expired at midnight Sunday, November 20, 2011.

The extension will allow the parties to continue to work on the important economic, health care, workplace, and other contractual issues being discussed. The NALC represents more than 195,000 employees who work as letter carriers delivering mail primarily in urban areas. The NPMHU represents more than 46,000 employees who work in mail processing plants and post offices.

Respectively, wages and benefits for NALC- and NPMHU-represented employees exceeded $15.7 billion and $3.5 billion last year. Should negotiations fail, a process begins which could result in a third party determining contract terms and work rules for more than 240,000 employees.

Unlike the private sector, when negotiations come to an impasse, postal employees are not permitted to strike as Congress has designated the Postal Service as an essential service to the nation. An arbitrator determines the final outcome and is not legally required to consider the Postal Service’s financial obligations when rendering a decision.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses, and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to fund its operations.

With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has an annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500.

Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

The article Postal Service, Two Unions Continue to Negotiate appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A study published Thursday December 15 by the American Journal of Public Health provides some of the strongest evidence yet that tobacco prevention and cessation programs not only reduce smoking and save lives, but also save money by reducing tobacco-related health care costs.

The study found that from 2000 to 2009, Washington state’s tobacco prevention and cessation program saved more than $5 for every $1 spent by reducing hospitalizations for heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer caused by tobacco use.  Over the 10-year period, the program prevented nearly 36,000 hospitalizations, saving $1.5 billion compared to $260 million spent on the program.  These are real savings in tobacco-related hospitalization costs from 2000 to 2009, not projected savings in future health care costs.

According to the study’s authors, the total savings are even greater when other tobacco-related health and productivity costs are included, in addition to the hospitalization costs. The study further found that Washington’s smoke-free workplace law and the state’s multiple cigarette tax increases also contributed to smoking declines and health care savings.

This study sends a powerful message to the nation’s elected officials that disease prevention initiatives, including programs that prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, are essential to improving health and reducing health care costs in the United States. It comes at a critical time as funding for such programs is under attack at both the federal and state levels.

The study shows why Congress should protect the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the health care reform law rather than slash funding by as much as 68 percent, as some lawmakers have proposed. The prevention fund is a vital source of support for tobacco prevention and cessation efforts, including state and community grants, telephone quitlines to help smokers quit, and media campaigns to discourage kids from smoking and encourage smokers to quit.

The new Washington study provides concrete evidence that investing in prevention can pay tremendous dividends by reducing the very diseases that cost the most to treat. Cutting the prevention fund would be a fiscally irresponsible step backward that would increase health care costs.

This study also underscores how penny-wise and pound-foolish the states have been in shortchanging tobacco prevention and cessation programs. In the current budget year (Fiscal Year 2012), the states will collect $25.6 billion in revenue from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it – $456.7 million – on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, according to a recent report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other public health organizations.

Despite the growing evidence that these programs save lives and save money, states have cut tobacco prevention funding by 36 percent over the past four years and now provide just 12 percent of the funding recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  It is incomprehensible given Washington’s success that the state has virtually eliminated funding for its tobacco prevention and cessation program this year.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people and costing the nation $193 billion a year in health care bills and lost productivity. The new Washington study confirms that tobacco prevention works to save lives and money.  It makes no sense for elected officials to shortchange programs that are proven to reduce health care costs and save money for taxpayers.

The article Tobacco Prevention Program Saved Over $5 For Every $1 Spent in Washington State appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

With a country in despair and a re-election around the corner, President Obama proposed the American Jobs act on Thursday 13th to a joint session in congress. The President’s reason for this speech seemed far from wanting to get re-elected, but instead focused on the millions of Americans that currently need jobs.

He stated that the proposed bill was “simple” and elaborated by emphasizing that its main goal was simply to get people working again. The main goal of this $477 billion dollar jobs plan is focused around small businesses that are struggling, moving away from big businesses that were able to bounce back successfully in the recession.

The bill will ultimately provide, “a tax break for companies that hire new workers, and it will cut payrolls in half for every working American and every small business.” The President also included his recent agreement, which was put in place to cut government spending by $1 trillion within the next 10 years, as well as reduce spending in congress.

Present Obama almost seemed desperate for some kind of agreement in congress to get this bill passes as soon as possible. Along with repeatedly saying “pass this bill now,” He added, “there should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation.”

He continued on to say, “Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been supported by both Democrats and Republicans — including many who sit here tonight. And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything.” He even discussed how Republicans have proposed the same payroll tax cut as seen in his American Jobs Act, to hopefully appeal to republicans in congress.

Mr. Obama hoped that it would be helpful to add examples of why congress should agree and pass this bill. He made references to previous bills that were similar and which both democrats and republicans agreed on. He also tried to tie the two parties together when he said that the bill came from ideas from both a Texas Republican as well as a Massachusetts Democrat.

Republicans responded that the essential proposal was nothing new and simply a scheme for re-election. Many didn’t even attend the President’s speech in attempts to “boycott” it. Senate minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, a republican from Kentucky said, “This isn’t a jobs plan. It is a re-election plan.”

On the other hand, Republican Speaker John Boehner showed an open mind and focused on the creation of jobs rather than the speech itself. He said, “I’m hopeful that after the president gives his speech that we’ll be able to sit down, in a bipartisan way, and fine common ground that will help improve our economy, and improve the job picture for the American people.”

The President is out to end the “political circus’ in congress, and unfortunately, American workers will see no change unless the President and congress find common ground.

The article Will Congress Get Onboard in the American Jobs Act? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Congressman Joe Walsh (the Eagles Joe Walsh must hate this guy) sort of apologized for calling President Barack Obama “idiotic.” This is the first time Walsh has said something offensive and he has only been in office for nine months.

On Friday, Walsh criticized the President for calling a joint session of Congress to lay out a jobs plan. “He is abusing his position,” Walsh said on MSNBC. “We reserve that for heads of state and visiting dignitaries, presidents in moments of crisis.”

“This is a political exercise. This is political theater.”

Earlier in the year, Walsh suggested that voters elected Obama because he was black in an interview with Slate. “Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic. And there’s nothing racist about this. It is what it is. If he had been a dynamic, white, state senator elected to Congress he wouldn’t have gotten in the game this fast.

This is what made him different. That, combined with the fact that your profession, not you, but your profession, was just absolutely compliant. They made up their minds early that they were in love with him.

They were in love with him because they thought he was a good liberal guy and they were in love with him because he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that.”

He has since tried to distance himself from those assertions, although not very far. “I think we elected this president because of who he was,” Walsh told MSNBC host Martin Bashir. “He was a historic figure. It made this country feel good to elect him.”

“We did not vet him,” Walsh continued. “Your profession did not vet him as much we should.” At an Illinois gathering earlier this week, Walsh called the president “idiotic” and said he “destroyed job creation systematically for three years.”

Walsh told Bashir that he apologized for the statement at a town hall meeting on Thursday, saying he meant to call Obama’s plan to present a jobs speech “idiotic,” rather than the president himself. “I did not mean to say that,” Walsh told Bashir. “That was over the line.”

Walsh has stated he will not be attending the President’s job speech in a public statement released last week. “The president needs to stop the speeches, get out of his office and away from all the White House academics and start talking to real people out there,” Walsh said in a statement issued Thursday.

“They’re the ones who are going to create the jobs, not White House paper-pushers and bureaucrats,” the statement read in part.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/

The article Congressman Joe Walsh Apologized for Obama Comments appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A new Associated Press/ GfK poll found that Congress really really sucks. Not surprising to plenty of us, but still it is nice to see the actual numbers. The survey, conducted Aug. 18-22, found that approval of Congress has dropped to its lowest level in AP-GfK polling – 12 percent. That’s down from 21 percent in June, before the whole debt ceiling fiasco.

The poll brought bad news to all members of Congress, but particularly the Republicans. The poll found that the tea party is losing support. Speaker of the House John Boehner is becoming more unpopular and more respondents are okay with the idea of raising taxes in addition to cutting spending, something the GOP has been fiercely fighting against.

“I guess I long for the day back in the `70s and `80s when we could disagree but we could get a compromise worked out,” said Republican Scott MacGregor, 45, a Windsor, Conn., police detective. “I don’t think there’s any compromise anymore.”

When respondents asked which party they trust more to handle fiscal issues, it was a statistical tie, 40 percent chose Republicans and 43 percent picked the Democrats. Nearly a third of independents said they trust neither party on the issue.

Republican Speaker Boehner’s favorability rating was only 29 percent, the lowest level of his tenure. Forty-seven percent of Republican respondents said they approve of Boehner; only a fifth of independents have a favorable opinion of him.

According to the poll, unfavorable views of the tea party climbed 10 percentage points since November.  Thirty-two percent have a deeply unfavorable view of the movement and just a quarter of respondents say they consider themselves supporters of the tea party – the lowest in AP-GfK polling and a dip of 8 percentage points since June.

More Democrats and Independents are leaning toward an increase in taxes. Half of Democrats polled said raising taxes should be the focus over cutting services, up 10 percentage points from March.

Independents showed a clear preference for cutting services over raising taxes in March, 64 percent to 28 percent. Now, only 42 percent of independents say focus on cutting services while 37 percent say increase taxes, according to the poll.

Overall, 57 percent of respondents believe both that that taxes will rise and government services will be cut in order to balance the federal budget.

The article AP Gfk Poll, Congress Sucks in the Eyes of the People appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

With the prospect of a debt default looming just over the horizon, the House of Representatives tonight passed compromise legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

The House voted in favor of the bill by a margin of 269-161 after a dramatic day of legislative wrangling on Capitol Hill. Although the compromise was announced last night, the leaders of both parties had to spend much of today trying to win over their respective caucuses.

The bill is essentially a modified version of John Boehner’s (R-OH) plan, which passed the House last week. It would immediately raise the debt ceiling by $400 billion, while allowing President Obama to order a $500 billion increase in the fall, unless both houses of Congress vote to block it. It also imposes spending cuts of $1 trillion by setting ten-year caps on the budgets of Cabinet agencies.

A further debt ceiling increase of up to $1.5 trillion will be granted if Congress can offset it through additional spending cuts. A special bipartisan committee of both houses will be responsible for proposing these cuts, but if the committee cannot agree or Congress does not enact their proposals, the White House will be empowered to order across-the-board cuts, including reductions in defense spending and farm subsidies. However, the debt ceiling increase could still go through if Congress approves a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and sends it to the states for ratification.

Neither side ended up truly winning the day. While Obama and the Democrats got their wish for a debt ceiling increase that will see them through the 2012 election, they will not be able to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to reduce the debt. And while the Republicans succeeded in wringing deep spending cuts from the Democrats, the agreed-upon cuts are not as deep as the ones the House passed last week. It is also far from certain that a balanced-budget amendment will actually go to the states since it is no longer required in order to raise the debt ceiling.

Like most compromises, this one was not to everyone’s liking. Presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced her intention to vote against the bill, claiming that it did not cut spending enough. “Someone has to say no, I will,” she said.

At the other end of the political spectrum, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), also lambasted the bill. “This deal weakens the Democratic Party as badly as it weakens the country. We have given much and received nothing in return,” he said.

The Senate will likely take up the bill tomorrow, where it is almost certain to pass, given the bipartisan show of support in the House and the fact that a debt default could be just around the corner if they balk.

The article House Passes Debt Ceiling Increase: No True Winner appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

As the nation anxiously awaits for a vote on a debt deal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tells CNN on Sunday that both parties are “very close” to reaching a compromise.

After Senate Republicans shot down Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill, negotiations continued between President Obama and McConnell.

The three trillion dollar deal would allow leaders to avoid a default, which would begin August 2, this Tuesday. In order for this to occur, Congress must raise the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

In addition to the $3 trillion cut in spending, this deal would extend the debt limit through 2012, a crucial time in Washington, as it would be an election year.

The cuts would come in two waves, the first including $1 trillion in reductions, and a second round of cuts would be determined by Thanksgiving 2011 according to CBS news.

Negotiations between Obama and McConnell would include the discussion of “trigger” cuts that would occur automatically if a congressional stalemate was to occur during the second round of cuts. In order for the democrats to support the plan, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer D-New York says, the trigger cuts would need to be equally difficult for both parties. The Democrats do not want to lose the ability to send middle class kids to college, and the Republicans believe the trigger should have revenues.

According to Fox News, an official has made it clear that one certainly is that neither extreme will be satisfied with the deal. Tea Party lawmakers might disagree with the new changes, and liberal groups are having issues with the possibility of entitlement cuts.

A few senators are stating that a vote is expected sometime on Monday. Another democratic senator has said that there will be no automatic cuts to Medicare beneficiaries.

A key player in these talks is House Speaker John Boehner who walked out of a meeting with President Obama a few days ago. While progress has been made since that time, the Obama administration is still negotiating on difficult, but crucial issues.

If unable to raise the debt ceiling, Congress would be responsible for rising interest rates, a declining dollar and many other problems for millions of Americans. Additionally, Obama has said that he cannot guarantee timely Social Security checks.

The United States Treasury has said recently that after Tuesday, without a lift in the ceiling, the nation would no longer have the cash to pay its bills.

Many Americans are also worried because of the quickly approaching deadline especially since bills have been shot down left and right in the past week. On Friday night the Senate voted against the House Republicans’ proposal, then voted against Reid’s counterproposal by ten votes.

However, the progress made this past weekend could save the country. Harry Reid admits to being “cautiously optimistic” even though the agreement has not been made yet.

Despite the positive attitude, many Americans are still frustrated with Washington’s lack of ability to come together at a time of desperate need.

Image by Gage Skidmore

The article Mitch McConnell on Debt Deal: Compromise “Very Close” appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) addressed the nation in a televised speech following the president’s remarks on the debt ceiling. Boehner accused Obama of creating a “crisis atmosphere.” He asked the president to sign the newly unveiled GOP plan that would temporary increase the debt ceiling.

“Obviously, I expect that bill can and will pass the Senate and be sent to the president for a signature,” Boehner said. “If the president signs it, the crisis atmosphere he has created will simply disappear.”

“You see, there’s no stalemate in Congress,” Boehner argued. “The House passed a bill to raise the debt limit with bipartisan support, and this week while the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we’re going to pass another bill, one developed in support of the Washington leadership of the U.S. Senate.”

John Boehner is referring to the “Cut, Cap and Balance” Act that would require deep cuts in Medicare and Social Security. The legislation is highly unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate and Obama has already stated that he would veto the proposal.

“The sad truth is the president wanted a blank check six months ago and wants a blank check today,” Boehner added. “That is just not going to happen.”

John Boehner said in his remarks that “the United States cannot default on its debt obligations,” agreeing with President Obama and Democrats’ insistence that the debt limit be raised. But he stated that the Democrats are unwilling to compromise by passing the House GOP legislation, saying “the president would not take yes for an answer.”

“Even when we thought we might be close on an agreement, the president’s demands changed,” Boehner said, a likely reference to Obama’s call for greater revenues as part of a “grand bargain” deal that would have reduced the deficit by up to $4 trillion. Boehner walked away from that effort Friday.

The new Republican plan that was released earlier on Monday would require immediate cuts in discretionary spending, touted as saving $1.2 trillion over a decade. In exchange, the debt ceiling would be raised by less than $1 trillion, a six month temporary plan. The GOP plan would also create a “Joint Committee of Congress” that would identify $1.6 to $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade.

Democrats call the House Republican plan a “non-starter” because it would require another debt limit fight before the end of next year. “Does anyone think it would be a good idea to do this all over again in six months?” Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said Monday.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/speakerboehner/

The article John Boehner Accuses Obama of Creating a “Crisis Atmosphere” appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.