Congressman John Boccieri To Vote for Health Care Plan

WASHINGTON, DC – At a press conference today (March 19) in the U.S. Capitol, surrounded by constituents from the 16th Congressional District of Ohio, U.S. Congressman John Boccieri (D-Alliance) today announced his position on the health care reform bill.

"Today we're faced with a choice – a choice to pass an imperfect bill or do nothing – and there is a cost to both.

"This health care debate has been long, thoughtful, and emotional. We continue to bear witness to statistics manipulated, political philosophies challenged, and television commercials peddling their points of view.

"It is clear the 16th District of Ohio agrees on the need for health insurance reform and my vote must be about saving money for people in our district and reducing costs. But it is also about the important philosophical question of what side to take – the side of the American people or insurance companies who are already rationing our care.

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The Benefits of Health Care Reform In the 16th Congressional District of Ohio

The U.S. House of Representatives will soon vote on health care reform legislation. This legislation will make health care affordable for the middle class, provide security for seniors, and guarantee access to health insurance for the uninsured – while reducing the federal deficit by over $100 billion over the next decade. This analysis examines the benefits of the legislation in the 16th Congressional District of Ohio, which is represented by Rep. John A. Boccieri.

In Rep. Boccieri’s district, the health care reform bill will:

• Improve coverage for 414,000 residents with health insurance.


• Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 167,000 families and 13,200 small businesses to help them afford coverage.


• Improve Medicare for 111,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.


• Extend coverage to 38,500 uninsured residents.


• Guarantee that 9,800 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.


• Protect 1,700 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.


• Allow 49,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.


• Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $56 million annually.
  

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Teabaggers Mock & Scorn Man With Parkinson's

Everyone involved in politics has to be careful with how they react to certain events and the type of language they use, since there is a lot of emotion involved. But I don't think it is overstating it to say that certain members of the Tea Party movement are just downright mean, heartless people.

Outside of Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy's district office (OH-15) on March 16, teabaggers heckled, cursed at, and threw money at a man suffering from Parkinson's disease. See video below:



Simply put, if you are against health care reform, you are supporting health insurance industries and people like this.

P.S. - The health care bill that Congress is voting on will reduce the deficit by $130 billion in the first decade and $1.2 trillion in the second decade. It is arguably the biggest cost control bill ever. Aren't Teabaggers supposed to be about lowering the deficit?

Update: Parkinson's Victim Mocked by Teabaggers Speaks Out

Chamber of Commerce on Wrong Side of History — Again

The Chamber of Commerce is quickly becoming a testament to an organization that refuses to embrace the fact that the world is changing and that they need to change with it. First, they are one of just a few relevant organizations that still deny the role humans play in climate change. This has cost them such big name business partners such as Apple, Nike, Pacific Gas & Electric and Exelon.

Now as I'm watching television on a Sunday night, I'm hit with an incredibly misleading (and desperate) ad about health care, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. It also encourages me to call congressman John Boccieri and ask him to vote no on health care. Why would the Chamber of Commerce want to kill a bill that is going to help thousands of small businesses across the country by lessening the burden of health care that is crushing them? Well insurance money, of course:

Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats soured last summer, six of the nation's biggest health insurers began quietly pumping big money into third-party television ads aimed at killing or significantly modifying the major health reform bills moving through Congress.

That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint, according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The companies are all members of the powerful trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.

The funds were solicited by AHIP and funneled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help underwrite tens of millions of dollars of television ads by two business coalitions set up and subsidized by the chamber. Each insurer kicked in at least $1 million and some gave multimillion-dollar donations. [National Journal, 1/13/10]

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Charter review talks; Group considers changes to council elections

WOOSTER -- City Council elections could look drastically different if some ideas discussed Wednesday come to fruition.

The Charter Review Commission, which reviews the city's charter every 10 years and makes recommendations to the electorate of matters they feel need addressed, talked about several items about council's makeup, including if the position of council president should be eliminated from voter consideration.

Law Director Richard Benson explained council's president, who is elected separately from the other seven members of council, essentially is in office to preside over meetings and only gets to vote in the matter of a tie.

"Their chief job is to preside at meetings and to be there if the mayor dies," said Mike Sigg, director of administration.

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President Obama Is a Failure - Early April Fools Edition

It is remarkable how many people actually believe the notion that President Obama has some how been a failure. It is so laughable that in some ways it should be completely ignored. But since the mainstream media does nothing to set the record straight, we must trudge on.

In an article titled "Obama Gets High Scores on Leadership Report Card" by Paul Bedard of the U.S. News & World Report, Obama gets nearly a perfect 4.0 grade on his leadership skills:

That's according to presidential historian and author Fred Greenstein, professor of politics emeritus at Princeton University. The author of the new Inventing the Job of President has just updated his initial Obama report card and declared the president a "rare political leader."

"Indeed," adds Greenstein, "he may turn out to be the rare political leader who is marked by both a first-rate temperament and a first-rate mind."

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