Healthcare Safety Must Improve, Says Actor Quaid

By Justine Rellosa
Talk Radio News Service

During an address inside the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Monday, actor Dennis Quaid called for better quality and safety within the U.S. healthcare system, and presented a new manual created by the National Quality Forum (NQF).

“It is time to make a call to action to encourage policy makers to tie the NQF’s 'Safe Practices For Better Healthcare,' to healthcare reform, challenge hospital leaders to adopt them, and ask the public to demand them,” said Quaid.

Quaid, whose newborns nearly died after a nurse misread medication instructions and accidentally administered deadly doses of the blood thinner Heparin to them, urged a new era of medical safety.

“The great organizations and people who could help America push the envelope and make the zone of safe care bigger for all of us and our families will prove to be those that truly have the right stuff.”

According to the NQM, approximately 15 million instances of medical harm occur each year, resulting in estimated costs of between $17 billion and $29 billion per year.

Health Care Reform Will Lower Deficit, Says Orszag

By Justine Rellosa-Talk Radio News Service

Peter Orszag, the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, reiterated the Obama administration's claim Thursday that the health care refrom law will ultimately lower the U.S. deficit.

"The bill, according to the official scoring, leads not only to a deficit reduction over the first decade, but a growing deficit reduction into the second decade,” explained Orszag Thursday during remarks before The Economic Club in Washington, D.C.

Orszag noted that the recently signed health care legislation embodies every serious idea that’s been thus proposed regarding economic reform.

Greenspan Downplays Fed's Role In Subprime Mortgage Crisis

By Justine Rellosa-Talk Radio News Service

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan conceded Wednesday morning before a hearing with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) that he had made mistakes throughout his career, but denied that the Federal Reserve Board played a significant hand in the subprime mortgage crisis.

“Remember that the Federal Reserve Board is a rule making [agency], it is not an enforcement agency," said Greenspan, who served as chairman from 1987-2006. "We did not have the capacity to implement the types of enforcement that the FDIC, [Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice] has."

Greenspan explained that external factors played more of a role in the collapse of the housing market than the subprime mortgages themselves.

"Origination of subprime mortgages - as opposed to the rise in global demand for securitized mortgage interests - was not a significant cause of the financial crisis," said Greenspan.

Noted the 84 year old Greenspan, “I was right 70% of the time, but I was wrong 30% of the time. There are an awful lot of mistakes in 21 years.”

Greenspan declined to speculate on what he could have done differently.

"Figuring out what you should have done differently is a really futile activity because you can’t...in the real world, do it."

Experts Applaud New Direction In Nuclear Policy

By Justine Rellosa-Talk Radio News Service

A number of experts applauded the direction the Obama administration is taking in their nuclear policy during a conference call hosted by the Center for American Progress Tuesday.

“[The new guidelines] state that the U.S will not develop new nuclear warheads, and use only nuclear components based on previously tested designs,” said former British Defense Minister, Des Brown. “That’s extremely important for us here in the United Kingdom because we anticipate in the next parliament that we will have to make the decision about the future of our own nuclear warheads.”

The policies, contained in the administration's Congressionally mandated Nuclear Policy Review, outlines a significant change in the U.S government’s position on the use of nuclear weapons. The U.S. stance is now revised to emphasize the prevention of nuclear proliferation and terrorism. It also outlines the U.S agreement to withdraw from using weapons of mass destruction against any non-nuclear country that has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The release of the review comes just days before President Barack Obama is scheduled to sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague.

Associate Director of Russia and Eurasia at CAP, Samuel Charap, praised the move to stabilize relations with Russia.

“We’ve gone a long way in being able to discuss some issues that are crucial for the security of both the United States, Russia, and the rest of the world. They have sort of set the groundwork both for a broadening of the relationship between the U.S and Russia, and a deepening of the relationship on arms control and nuclear security issues,” said Charap.

In the political realm, START has bipartisan support from various former Repubican national security officials, according to Max Bergmann, a Policy Analyst of nuclear non-proliferation at CAP.

“[Former Secretaries of State] Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, George Schultz and Senator Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), have stated their support for the ratification," said Bergmann.

Education Department Wants U.S. Students Ranked Number One By 2020

By Justine Rellosa
Talk Radio News Service

A top official with the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) said Monday that it is imperative for the nation's school systems to improve.

“We have to get into the business of turning around those low-effective schools...You can’t just serve a few students, you have to be able to service thousands of students," said DOE Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton during a speech at the Close-Up Foundation, a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. that aims to help students from all over the world to become informed and engaged citizens.

Shelton discussed the “Investing in Innovation Fund” (i3), in which the Department of Education has allotted $650 million towards funding successful programs that can be replicated and sustained to benefit thousands of students through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“We want to be number one again by 2020,” said Shelton. “We need your ideas to complete that goal!”

According to Shelton, both the federal government as well as states share bipartisan agreement on the need for better schools, and agree on the idea of making sure every student in the country has access to higher education.