Ambulance Called In: Health Care Reform In Serious Condition

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Senate Democrats are pushing to get a health care reform bill moving forward and closer to passage. Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) held a press conference Wednesday to discuss the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee’s efforts to improve the healthcare system. Dodd is leading the committee’s mark-up of the health reform bill and said over 200 amendments to the bill have been made in the past five days.

The Senators appeared in front of an ambulance that featured the words "Pass Health Care Reform." The ambulance from Families USA included a ticker of the number of families losing health care coverage.

“The present situation on health care is not just unacceptable, it’s unsustainable from an economic standpoint. You cannot have as much of our gross domestic product be consumed by health care costs [that are] mounting everyday in this nation and expect our economy to thrive and prosper in the years ahead. This is the issue that makes our economic recovery, in the long term, the most difficult,” said Dodd.

Murray said reform is not just for the uninsured since families with health care coverage are having to pay for those without. The current system is not working, according to Murray, who assured that Congress will “do what’s right for America.”

Dodd said he would like to have the bill out of the committee before the Senate’s July 4th recess, but noted that doing so may pose a challenge.

“I would love to complete all of it but realistically it may be impossible to get all of that done,” said Dodd. “I hope during the 4th of July break what we have done already could be melded with what the Finance Committee is dealing with so they don’t lose the opportunity of time over the following week.”

Reid: Time To Travel Down Main Street

By Suzia van Swol-University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
It is time to focus less on Wall Street and more on Main Street said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today. Reid hopes to accomplish his goal with housing legislation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which guarantees safe deposits and that transactions are fully insured.

Although banks have come down on proposed legislation, arguing that it will increase primary mortgage rates, the general consensus among four Democratic Senators today was that by reducing by foreclosures, banks will start lending and the economy will start moving again.

When dealing with credit cards, “disclosure doesn’t work anymore,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY). Credit card companies have become so good that more is needed to make customers aware of how much interest rates will actually cost them.

From Starbucks to Microsoft, people are experiencing job loss and it is time to be “focused on getting some confidence and stability back to families,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). She said that it is time to help Americans and deal with the foreclosure crisis.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) said that he is sick and tired of being asked to give billions to banks who have no sympathy for struggling families, and if they have no sympathy than “I don’t have any sympathy for them.”

Three Keys to Recovery

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

“The annual budget process is really the truest test of priorities that the President and Congress engage in,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), as she, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) met to define what those priorities are for the Senate Democrats. “We want to put the middle class first by cutting taxes and making key investments to bring this country out of this recession,” she said. The three then defined what those key investments are.

Murray spoke for education, “To revive the American economy and compete in this global economy, we have to expand educational opportunities for all Americans. Investing in education is one of the most certain ways to prepare a skilled and ready workforce.”


She introduced Jaim Foster, a second grade teacher from Alexandria, Va., who described teachers facing cutbacks and uncertain employment, as well as increased responsibilities as school nurses also were cut.

Sanders said, “For decades, politicians have been giving speeches about the need for energy independence.” We send hundreds of billions of dollars a year” out of the U.S., often to more or less unfriendly countries. “Finally the American people have said ‘enough is enough, we have got to do something real,’” he said. “The time is now to break our dependence on fossil fuel, and that is what we are going to do.”

He said the expert consensus is that we must address climate change, and that we are already seeing its effects. The budget will create “millions of good paying American jobs as we move to new kinds of energy,” he said, citing geothermal, wind, solar, and biomass.

He introduced James Walker, President, American Wind Energy Association, who said the industry went from $700 million in 2004 to $17 Billion in 2008, creating over 85,000 jobs. When it reaches its projected potential of 20 percent of our total energy needs, it will be the equivalent of removing 140 million cars, and will have created over 500,000 jobs, he said.

Merkley took healthcare. “I think everyone understands how broken healthcare is,” he said, citing 50 million uninsured, many more who are under-insured, and families whose top concern is "whether or not
they can maintain health insurance". “The stress is continuous,” he said.

Merkley said that “every single year, double digit increases” in premiums cause more small businesses to stop offering health insurance. He said even larger businesses are now advocating for change.


Sanders finished with, “Ask Sen. (Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)) if he still supports the repeal of the estate tax, which would give one trillion dollars to the wealthiest three tenths of one percent. That’s OK, but when you fund energy, when you fund healthcare, when you fund education, when you put Americans to work to improve the quality of life for our families, somehow that’s a terrible idea.”

President’s Budget is All That and a Bag of Chips

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,(D- Nev.), Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D- N.Y) Sen. Patty Murray, (D-Wash.), and Sen. Dick Durbin, (D- Ill.), presented a favorable Senate Majority response to President Obama’s budget proposal. ($3.5 trillion, according to the Christian Science Monitor)
Reid feels the president’s budget is “in keeping with the message he delivered on Tuesday night, a message of hope, a message that directs his priorities: education, healthcare, and energy. “
“I salute the president on, I think, an excellent budget,” Schumer said.
Murray said, “He’s following up his words by putting into this budget investments that will make our economy stronger, reducing our dependence on oil, investing in healthcare policy, and investing in education.”
“Even more important,” she added, “I appreciate his honesty about the underlying fundamentals of this bill.” She finds criticisms ironic coming from those who did not put the cost of the war into their budget. “We did not get budgets that were honest about the real costs we knew were going to be out there.” This one is, she finished.

But, what about cuts? “We inherited the deepest economic hole that we’ve had since the great depression,” Reid said, adding, “This budget will cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people. Anyone making less than $250,000 will pay no new taxes. We’re giving tax breaks to the people that need them the most, middle class Americans.”
It will cut the deficit in half over the first term, he promised. “We now have adopted the pay-as-you-go program that we had during the Clinton years, and during the Clinton years the deficit was reduced by $600 billion.” There will be $2 trillion in cuts over the next ten years.
Schumer added, “We will have a more active government but, at the same time, a more responsible government that eliminates waste. This budget is aimed at the middle class like a laser. The days are over when Republicans used to give 90 percent of the tax cuts to the very wealthy and say they’re giving tax cuts to everybody.”

Asked if he thought Congress was moving too slowly, Reid said: “In a very short period of time we’ve passed a huge land bill, we’ve passed the Lilly Ledbetter matter, we passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the economic recovery package,” and the pace is not slowing.
Schumer added that they are making “Making Work Pay” permanent, continuing tax cuts for families with children, and the job tax credit. “Something I feel very good about, the 2,500 dollar American Opportunity Tax Credit for college…he makes that permanent,” in the form of a tax deduction for tuition.
Schumer went on to say, “I’ve always seen a housing bill (pending reforms to limit foreclosures) as a matter of fairness, now it’s a matter of fairness and urgency.” Critics of this reform, he added, don’t realize how many homes have been lost, “and 99 percent of the time, the bank gets the house and the attendant responsibilities, and have to hope they can sell them to somebody. “We’re trying to give that family a fighting chance to stay in that home.”
Reid said that bankruptcy courts could renegotiate vacation homes, but not primary residences.

Threats of filibusters don't scare the Democrats

Democrats remain confident that the new economic recovery plan will have enough votes to succeed. Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) held a press conference today discussing the new plan.

Although the Republicans threaten to stall with filibusters, Senator Schumer said, "Has bipartisanship been a failure? Well so far its not working but it takes two to tango and the Republicans aren't dancing." The Republicans are trying to "lob off" parts of the bill said Sen. Schumer, but he stated that every time we lob off of the bill, we lob off jobs.

Schumer stated that the only people who oppose this bill are Republicans in the house and senate that are holding on to a doctrine that's "been tossed out by the voters and tossed out by experience." He further stated that he would rather pass a good bill with 65 votes, then a bad bill with 80 votes. "the key is the number of jobs created, not the votes" said Schumer

Schumer said that McCain's mortgage plan, which focuses on re-financing is "totally flawed". He says that, "Instead of re-financing mortgages and making the bank the gatekeeper, we should just give people the money in a direct way, which is what the Obama plan does.”

Senator Murray concluded with "a 4% mortgage does you absolutely no good if you don't feel confident that you have a job and an income."

by Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service