Doctors, Senators Push For Cure To Health Care System

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Doctors from around the country visited the U.S. Capitol Thursday to promote health care reform and to present their diagnoses on the current health care system.

“We are too close to achieving health care reform to stop now,” said Dr. Jim King, a family physician. “Family physicians cannot understand why we would ever want to continue a health care system that reduces productivity, accelerates costs increases and promotes inefficiency. Why would this status quo be acceptable to anyone?”

King said health care in this country will deteriorate greatly if Congress doesn't produce a system that works for everybody.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) issued a diagnosis of his own, saying, “Our health care system is chronically ill. It cannot survive as it currently exists.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said both the doctors and the American public know that the nation needs reform. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) agreed, but noted that Congress can’t be expected to snap its fingers and have it done. Rather, real change will take time, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he believed the media had created a false deadline for getting legislation passed before the August recess. Reid said he wants the bill passed before the end of the year.

Reid added that his focus is working on coming up with enough votes in the Senate to override a filibuster.

“I’m pretty good at arithmetic. I know how to count to 60,” he quipped.

Durbin: Try Terrorists Through Federal Court, Not Military Commission

By Sam Wechsler - Talk Radio News Service

Suspected terrorists must be prosecuted through federal civilian courts and not military commissions, said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill) at a Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing Tuesday.

Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) argued that unforseen national security risks arise when terrorists are tried in federal civilian courts. He explained how during the prosecution of Ramsey Yusef, who was involved in plotting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a seemingly innocent piece of testimony concerning the delivery of a cell phone battery allowed at-large terrorists to discover that a means of communication had been compromised.

According to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the only reason that the security risk occurred during Yusef’s trial was because prosecutors failed to employ the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA). Durbin says the government prosectors bypassed the use of CIPA so as to not release the names of several unindicted co-conspirators. Durbin added that he believes the government has learned from its mistakes.

“To argue that American courts cannot prosecute terrorists? Look at the facts. We’ve not only done it in the past, we’re doing it now,” said Durbin. He explained that 145 terrorists were convicted and sentenced in federal courts from September 11, 2001 through the end of 2007. Jeh C. Johnson, General Counsel for the Department of Defense, said that only three terrorists have been convicted through military commissions since 9/11.

Durbin also made his case for closing down the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying that no prisoner has ever escaped from a federal super maximum security facility.

“If we don’t bring suspected terrorists to this country to be prosecuted and detained, it’s almost impossible to close Guantanamo,” he said.

Senate Democrats Put Family Focus On Health Care

By Courtney Ann Jackson - Talk Radio News Service

The health care debate has taken on many angles, but today the focus of Democratic leaders in the Senate was on uninsured families. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-N.V.) welcomed two families directly affected by health care issues to a press conference Thursday to represent the many families being affected everyday.

“Our opponents aren’t talking about the real families and the real problems these families have,” said Reid. “Reforming health care is not abstract because health care is not theoretical...It’s about people, real people.”

Reid was joined by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). The Senators noted that the families in attendance know the real costs of health care due to personal experiences. Reid repeated the phrase, “we’re talking about people,” multiple times in his opening statement.

Murray said she's asked constituents in her home state to share their personal stories about health care and why they feel health care reform is needed. So far, she said she's received over 5,000 e-mails in two weeks.

Murray highlighted the need to control the costs for family health insurance, noting that people with quality health insurance are paying more in premiums because the system as a whole does not cover everyone.

“Overcome the obstacles and get something done. We have to get something done,” said Schumer. “The system just isn’t working or it’s getting to the point that it won’t work in the next decade.”

Durbin said stories about ordinary Americans losing health insurance are not uncommon because 14,000 people lose health care everyday. He said that if nothing is done now, the problem won’t just go away, and that’s why health reform must happen this year.

The Senators said they will give the legislation more time so that Republicans who oppose the plan can review what Reid described as a “complex difficult issue." They said they would continue to work on the bill when they return from recess in the fall.

“I’ve had conversations with them [Republicans] and I’ll have future conversations to give them assurances that we’ll take everything they do and we’ll do what we can to make sure their issues aren’t buried,” said Reid.

Reid expressed confidence that all 60 Democrats in the Senate are prepared to vote for the legislation.

Transportation Industry Benefitting From Stimulus

By Sam Wechsler - Talk Radio News Service

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has been successful in providing and saving jobs in the transportation sector, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Wednesday. He also pointed out that we are only four months into a two year recovery plan, so most results aren't yet perceptible.

Durbin says the government has provided checks for $60.4 billion and has allocated $234 billion of the total $787 billion stimulus package. Ed Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, said that an historic $48 billion of the stimulus will be spent on transportation.

“I wish the recession would end tomorrow but we have to be patient...for those who say ‘accelerate payments,’ I have the same basic feeling myself. But I just know from human and government experience that haste does make waste. Let’s make sure these funds are well invested and well spent,” said Durbin.

Wytkind discussed the multiplier effect that occurs when the transportation industry spends money that simultaneously benefits other sectors of the economy, such as the steel and lumber industries.

Wytkind criticized former President George W. Bush’s administration for neglecting to use the transportation industry as a mode for job creation. “The fact is that Americans are hurting, our members are hurting, because of eight years of do-nothing economic policies. [President Obama and the new Congress] are wedded to turning around an economy that is reeling,” said Wytkind.

Durbin: Crack Cocaine Laws Are Unjust

By Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News

Two items that weigh 50 grams, an average chocolate bar and a relatively small amount of crack cocaine, and while the former may be sweet and delectable, being in possession of the latter will put one behind bars for a minimum of 10 years.

By contrast, 5000 grams of powdered cocaine would be needed to put an individual in jail for 10 years, a fact that demonstrates the incongruity of federal drug laws, according to Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

Currently the punishment ratio between powdered cocaine to crack cocaine is 100:1, meaning that one needs 100 times as much powdered cocaine as crack cocaine to achieve an equal sentence.

“The evidence does not justify a sentencing disparity between these two drugs,” said Durbin. “The sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine is both unjustified and unjust.”

The reason for this discrepancy between the two forms of the same drug can be attributed to the crack epidemic, which was perceived to be the greatest threat to American urban security. As a result, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which set the current federal penalty for crack and powder cocaine trafficking.

But such a law has caused an unintended consequence as now minorities, especially African Americas, have deep ceded distrust of the government because they feel that this law is intentionally racist.

“We (Americans) have to do something, and we have to do something now to address this phenomenon that is affecting our country and that is having a devastating affect on the African American community,” said Judge Reggie Walton of Washington D.C.

Durbin cited 2007 crime statistics, which revealed that 81 percent of all crack offenders were African Americans, while only 24 percent of all crack users were African Americans. Durbin felt that this disparity only exacerbated the feelings of distrust towards the judicial system.

“These racial disparities undermine trust in our criminal justice system and have a corrosive effect on the relationship between law enforcement and minority communities,” said Durbin.

Assistant Attorney General Larry Breuer spoke on behalf of the Obama Administration and stressed that this unfair disparity must be eliminated because it hurts the legitimacy of the justice system.

“Out laws and their enforcement must not only be fair, but they also must be perceived as fair,” said Breuer, who continued to say that “The perception of unfairness undermines governmental authority in the criminal process.”