Is Seeing Believing

2011-01-01T03:24:00.001-08:00

Social Security - SCROLL DOWN PAGE

New Rules

New Rules - 2

Good News - Below are the dozen 'Health Care Reform' provisions that kicked in 1.01.2011

Minimum Medical Loss Ratio for Insurers

Requires health plans to report the proportion of premium dollars spent on clinical services, quality, and other costs and provide rebates to consumers if the share of the premium spent on clinical services and quality is less than 85% for plans in the large group market and 80% for plans in the individual and small group markets.

Closing the Medicare Drug Coverage Gap

Requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide a 50% discount on brand-name prescriptions filled in the Medicare Part D coverage gap beginning in 2011 and begins phasing-in federal subsidies for generic prescriptions filled in the Medicare Part D coverage gap.

Medicare Payments for Primary Care

Provides a 10% Medicare bonus payment for primary care services; also, provides a 10% Medicare bonus payment to general surgeons practicing in health professional shortage areas.

Medicare Prevention Benefits

Eliminates cost-sharing for Medicare-covered preventive services that are recommended (rated A or B) by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and waives the Medicare deductible for colorectal cancer screening tests; authorizes Medicare coverage for a personalized prevention plan, including a comprehensive health risk assessment.

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation

Creates the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test new payment and delivery system models that reduce costs while maintaining or improving quality.

Medicare Premiums for Higher-Income Beneficiaries

Freezes the income threshold for income-related Medicare Part B premiums for 2011 through 2019 at 2010 levels resulting in more people paying income-related premiums, and reduces the Medicare Part D premium subsidy for those with incomes above $85,000/individual and $170,000/couple.

Medicare Advantage Payment Changes

Restructures payments to private Medicare Advantage plans by phasing-in payments set at increasingly smaller percentages of Medicare fee-for-service rates; freezes 2011 payments at 2010 levels; and prohibits Medicare Advantage plans from imposing higher cost-sharing requirements for some Medicare covered benefits than is required under the traditional fee-for-service program.

Medicaid Health Homes

Creates a new Medicaid state option to permit certain Medicaid enrollees to designate a provider as a health home and provides states taking up the option with 90% federal matching payments for two years for health home-related services.

Chronic Disease Prevention in Medicaid

Provides 3-year grants to states to develop programs to provide Medicaid enrollees with incentives to participate in comprehensive health lifestyle programs and meet certain health behavior targets

CLASS Program

Establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living assistance services and supports (CLASS program).

National Quality Strategy

Requires the Secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services to develop and update annually a national quality improvement strategy that includes priorities to improve the delivery of health care services, patient health outcomes, and population health.

    Implementation:
    Initial strategy due to Congress by January 1, 2011

    Changes to Tax-Free Savings Accounts

Excludes the costs for over-the-counter drugs not prescribed by a doctor from being reimbursed through a Health Reimbursement Account or health Flexible Spending Account and from being reimbursed on a tax-free basis through a Health Savings Account or Archer Medical Savings Account. Increases the tax on distributions from a health savings account or an Archer MSA that are not used for qualified medical expenses to 20% of the amount used.

There are another nine provisions starting in 2011 

All Provisions - Timeline Listed By Year

**

Bad News

Health Care Uninsured : 50 Million Americans

DADT Repeal Signed

2010-12-29T01:27:00.000-08:00

12.22.2010 ASC in four degrees Aquarius,
MC in twenty-six degrees Scorpio.

Click on Chart - Larger Image

2010-12-29T01:24:00.001-08:00

Not Politics - Break

2010-12-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

Geometry and Nature by Cristóbal Vila. Go to www.etereaestudios.com

Lego Antikythera Mechanism

Video: Lego Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism: http://bit.ly/fm4oFK is the oldest known scientific computer, built in Greece at around 100 BCE. Lost for 2000 years, it was recovered from a shipwreck in 1901. But not until a century later was its purpose understood: an astronomical clock that determines the positions of celestial bodies with extraordinary precision.   In 2010, we built a fully-functional replica out of Lego.   

Lightening Captured by X-Ray Camera - one-sixth speed of light

As a result of having a camera which can capture a lightning bolt traveling at one-sixth the speed of light, scientists have been able to discover that there's "a bright ball of x-rays at the head of the bolt, with almost no lingering radiation along the bolt's trail."

Break Over

FTC

Wiki - Consumer Protection

Consumer Protection - Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is searching for a permanent head for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren, a lightning rod for status quo bankers, might not be selected to lead the bureau, a centerpiece of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul bill that passed this summer.

President Barack Obama's choice could signal how he intends to deal with Republicans in Congress. The feelers to business groups serve as a reminder that any nominee would likely need support from at least seven Republicans in the Senate to win confirmation.

~~
Counseling Services - Home Foreclosure

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan held a teleconference to announce the award of close to $73 million in counseling grants. 

The grants fund counseling services to assist first-time homebuyers. But Donovan stressed they are also to help homeowners facing foreclosure. He said that homeowners who receive counseling are “twice as likely to receive [loan] modification and stay out of default” than those who do not.

Social Security

2010-12-19T20:56:00.001-08:00

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) plan Would Close deficit without forcing the middle class to pay the bill
 
Rep. Jan Schakowsky's Five Point Plan 

William Greider was among the first to warn us about the Catfood Commission, and now he's given an extraordinary interview about the corporate media's coverage of the Social Security debate, which he calls a "staggering scandal."
 
Social Security Debate - Part III

Whacking Old Folks
 
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=eef06808-869f-4ea3-b817-bb5f92b905c4

Despite all of the right-wing rhetoric, Social Security is not going bankrupt. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Social Security can pay every nickel owed to every eligible American for the next 29 years and after that about 80 percent of benefits.  ~ Senator Bernie Sanders 

There is no divide over Social Security. All people, across age, geography, sex, race, you name it, believe in the mission, purpose, and basic structure of Social Security. AARP conducted an extensive poll on the matter and the results were crystal clear:

In a national phone survey of 1,200 adults by the GfK Roper consulting firm (margin of error: plus or minus 3 percent), 90 percent of those ages 18 to 29 deemed Social Security important. In fact, almost half of them agreed with the statement that it is "one of the very most important government programs," an opinion held by nearly 80 percent of those over 65.

And nearly three-quarters of these youngest respondents strongly agreed that while they may not need the program when they retire, a time that probably seems infinitely far away, "I definitely want to know that it’s there, just in case I do." Sixty-two percent said they will rely on Social Security payments in some way. By a wide margin, they opposed cutting benefits to reduce the federal deficit.

Beyond that, the poll went on to show that a majority of Americans across demographic groups are willing to contribute more in Social Security taxes to take care of today's seniors. Even more astounding, the people are willing to pay more in taxes today so that Social Security will be there for themselves! 

The idea that the youth are against the elderly on the matter is largely a media-manufactured myth fed by wealthy conservatives looking to turn one group against another. They don't like the concept of Social Security because of their ideology. They don't like the non-profit nature of Social Security because of their selfishness. They don't like Social Security taxes because of their greed. 

They know their views are only held by a small, wealthy elite. So they seek to convince us all of something most of know is false. That is why they are always repeating the lie that "Social Security is going broke." What young person could possibly want to pay into a system that is going broke? This is why AARP and Gallup polls show 6 in 10 workers believe Social Security will not be there for them. Despite all the extensive evidence to the contrary.

Return  http://gop-astrology.blogspot.com/

2010-12-17T16:07:00.001-08:00

 Barbara Miner ~ Rethinking Schools
Not Waiting For Superman

Barbara Miner has followed the money.  She has identified the members and interests of the Billionaire Boys Club behind privatizing public schools.  And while this may be The American Way today, there is little truth and even less justice in what is happening to our schools.

Waiting For SuperFraud
By Michael T. Martin

Public schools have to fail. There is no alternative. So give up trying to argue otherwise with facts and logic.

The mockumentary 'Waiting For Superman' made this clear. Funded by millionaires, the movie told the story of some privatized schools in Harlem portrayed as saviors of children otherwise condemned to public schools.

The privatized schools are mostly funded by hedge fund millionaires on Wall Street. They spent two million dollars to promote the film nationally. Another major film titled "The Lottery" told a similar tale: children in Harlem desperate to escape public schools. Funded by more millionaires.

State Senator Bill Perkins, who represents the people of Harlem, tried to put profit restrictions on these privatized schools. So the millionaires spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to run an opponent against him in the November, 2010, election. The people of Harlem voted overwhelmingly to re-elect Perkins.

One of the supposed heroes in the mockumentary was Michele Rhee, the caustic head of Washington, D.C., schools. She subsequently was the focus of the November, 2010, mayor’s election in D.C., campaigning for the existing mayor who appointed her, promising to resign if he lost. The people of D.C. voted him and her out.

The little people in Harlem and D.C. who see the truth on the ground voted against the millionaires. But the big money people still rate Rhee as a hero and keep pouring money and propaganda into charter schools. Ever wonder why? Brooklyn city councilman Charles Barron laments the situation in New York City: "Our public schools need to be in the control of parents and the community, as opposed to businessmen who see the $23 billion budget as a means to giving no-bid contracts to their cronies."

In April, 1999, the Wall Street financiers at Merrill Lynch published a 193 page "In-depth Report" titled "The Book of Knowledge, Investing in the Growing Education and Training Industry." Early in the report they noted: "The K-12 market is the largest segment of the education industry with approximately $360 billion spent annually or over $6,500 per year per child. Despite the size, the K-12 market is the most problematic to invest in today. Entrenched bureaucracies and personal and political interests contribute to the challenges facing this sector."

Public schools HAVE to fail in order to crack open this egg and give these financiers access to the $360 billion they are after (estimates are that it is around $700 billion today). No matter what logic you use to explain the problems or successes of public education, it will be of no avail: public schools HAVE to fail. Whatever it takes. In a 2007 appellate court decision ruling that Merrill Lynch could not be sued by Enron stockholders for facilitating the fraud of Enron, the dissenting third member of the judicial panel wrote: "The majority immunizes a broad array of undeniably fraudulent conduct from civil liability."

Big money wants the public schools to fail and they are quite willing to engage in "undeniably fraudulent conduct" to ensure it. One prescient book titled "The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, And The Attack On America’s Public Schools" told the tale back in 1996 but logic and facts won’t stop big money.

Back about the time NCLB was promulgated, Ron Susskind, a New York Times reporter, related a conversation with a senior aide to President George W. Bush in the summer of 2002: "The aide said that guys like me were ‘in what we call the reality-based community,’ which he defined as people who ‘believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ‘That’s not the way the world really works anymore.’"

Big money is "the way the world really works anymore." Enough money to buy political influence. A lesson well taken from the experience of the tobacco industry in fighting the truth of lung cancer. A lesson perhaps best exemplified by the Tobacco Institute’s "Powell Memorandum" that exhorted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to establish a conspiracy to counter the environmentalism and consumerism of the public schools. The author of which was soon afterward appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The current leadership of the Republican Congress in the House and Senate both have long established economic ties to the tobacco industry. House speaker Boehner was criticized several years ago for handing out tobacco lobby checks on the floor of the House during a crucial vote on tobacco regulation. People whose self interest depends on addicting children to a poisonous product now claim to have the best interests of children in mind.

The overarching thrust of the mockumentary Waiting For Superman is that teachers’ unions are responsible for the faux failure of public schools. That teachers have their own self interest rather than that of children in mind. The teachers’ unions that have been major supporters of the Democratic Party since the Civil Rights era. So the Republican Party will stop at nothing to undermine public education.

After President Clinton was elected in the early 1990s, Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), asked H.W. Bush’s Secretary of Education Bill Bennett to support legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. "I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers, charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education."

Grover Norquist, a major political leader in the Republican conservative movement, was asked by writer Ben Adler of The New Republic "How evolution should be taught in public schools." Norquist responded "The real problem here is that you shouldn’t have government-run schools." Norquist is better known for his patriotic comment that he wants to shrink the federal government to where he can drown it in a bathtub. His words; somewhat evocative of drowning a child.

So there are powerful forces who will ensure that public schools fail. There is no sense arguing to the contrary, there is over $700 billion to believe otherwise. The same greed by the same people that left the U.S. economy in ruins, with millions of ordinary people unemployed and in bankruptcy, will ensure that the U.S. education system is soon in the same condition. Public education has to fail, because that is "the way the world really works anymore."

**

On September 26th 1960, Kennedy-Nixon Debate
Video: Opening Statement JFK
Whether the world will move toward freedom or slavery

**

2010-12-13T13:32:00.000-08:00

House of Representatives,

New Majority Chairman of Finance Committee - Rep. Bachus R-AL

"Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Bachus**

GOP/TEA Welcomes Plutocracy
GOP Agenda 2011: Push states to declare bankruptcy and smash unions
USA Of the Rich, By the Rich, and For the Rich

The following charts come from The Equality Trust, a foundation that measures the well-being of developed nations and works against the kind of destruction that has befallen the people of United States.   

Infant Mortality

There are now over 170 studies of income inequality in relation to various aspects of health. Life expectancy, infant mortality, low birth weight and self-rated health have repeatedly been shown to be worse in more unequal societies. These studies have been reviewed in the journal Social Science and Medicine. 

::
Child Well-Being

The UNICEF index measured six different aspects of child well-being. Material well-being included such things as living in a home with few books, or where no adult was employed. Health and safety included items like immunization rates and deaths from accidents. Educational well-being included scores on performance tests and the proportion of children going into further education. Peer and family relationships were measured by such things as whether or not children viewed their peers as kind, and the numbers of children living in single parent and step-parent families. Behaviors and risks included smoking and drinking, how many children had sex by age 15, etc. Subjective well-being included self-rated health and other measures of how children felt about themselves. 

2010-12-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

Michael MooreTweet

MMFlint Michael Moore
Not since my 1st film 20yrs ago has even 1 of my movies been shown on free TV in US. Only Western nation 2 not show my movies is my own.

Capitalism: A Love Story - Video
Trailer
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY - TRAILER

Elizabeth Warren
'Capitalism: A Love Story' - Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren

Dead Peasants
'Capitalism: A Love Story' - Wal-Mart 'Dead Peasants' Scene

Squatters
'Capitalism: A Love Story' - 'You Be Squatters in Your Own Home'

2010-12-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

My job is to do whatever I can to get this economy moving Video:

President Barack Obama on Tuesday said his willingness to extend tax cuts for the rich in exchange for a broader deal with Republicans was an unfortunate product of harsh political realities, but insisted his position hasn’t changed and promised he’ll seek to end them in two years.

"I'm as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years," Obama said at a White House press conference. "In the long-run we simply can’t afford them. And when they expire in two years, I will fight to end them, just as I suspect the Republicans will fight to end the middle class tax cuts."

"But in the meantime, I’m not here to play games with the American people or the health of our economy.

My job is to do whatever I can to get this economy moving," he added.

The deal brokered between the White House and Congressional Republicans involves a temporary two-year extension of tax cuts for all income-earners, a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits, and a reduction in the payroll tax. - Video for OFA participants

CNN brief explaination - Bush Tax Cuts

Tax Cuts Explained - White House Tax Facts

The American Opportunity Tax Credit, which gives students and families up to $2,500 in tax savings to help pay for college tuition and other expenses. The AOTC and other tuition benefits have helped more than 12.5 million students and their families pay for college, an increase in tax benefits for higher education of more than 90 percent from the year before.
The Earned Income Tax Credit, which helps moderate-income working families make ends meet. The Recovery Act increased the credit for families with three or more children, bringing the maximum amount to $5,657.
The Child Tax Credit, which helps low-and moderate-income families with children. More families are benefitting from the child tax credit under the Recovery Act, which reduced the minimum amount of earned income used to calculate the additional child tax credit to $3,000 from $12,550.
COBRA and Unemployment Benefits:For those who lost their jobs in the recession, to help them get back on their feet, the Recovery Act provided a 65 percent tax credit to help cover the cost of health care and made the first $2,400 in unemployment benefits tax-free, when normally 100 percent of those benefits are taxable.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Incentives: Taxpayers are eligible for up to $1,500 in tax credits for making some energy-efficiency improvements to their homes such as adding insulation and installing energy efficient windows.

2010-11-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

Nothing in this year's exit polling hurt more than this:

http://robertreich.org
Economic Story - by Robert Reich

The lousy economy in 2010 is due to insufficient demand the result of the nation’s almost unprecedented concentration of income at the top. That concentration of income in turn, is due to globalization and technological change.

The very rich don’t spend as much of their income as the middle. And since the housing bubble burst, the middle class hasn’t had the buying power to keep the economy going.

The GOP political rhetorical narrative: is that big government, bureaucrats, and the cultural, intellectual elites are to blame for the lousy economy.

It’s a dangerous story because it deflects attention from the real problem. And this makes it harder for America to focus on the real solution which is more widely shared prosperity.

Preview Film - Inside Job
The 2008 Economic Meltdown 2008 Was Avoidable

Bubble Machines and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The stunning rise, fall, and rescue of Wall Street in the bubble-and-bailout era was the coming-out party for the network of looters who sit at the nexus of American political and economic power. The grifter class—made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding—has been growing in power for a generation, transferring wealth upward through increasingly complex financial mechanisms and political maneuvers. The crisis was only one manifestation of how they’ve hijacked America’s political and economic life.

Congressman Alan Grayson
What Republicans Can Do With Their Tax Cuts

http://gop-astrology.blogspot.com
Return

**http://gop-pickup.blogspot.com ** pg. 1
**http://gop-pickups.blogspot.com/** pg. 2
** http://2012-gop.blogspot.com/ **
** http://after-citizensunited.blogspot.com/ **

GM Bailout Success Story

2010-11-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Video: GM Bailout Success Story

Excerpted Remarks by the President ~ on General Motors
11/18/2010

THE PRESIDENT:

Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. Today, one of the toughest tales of the recession took another big step towards becoming a success story.

General Motors relaunched itself as a public company, cutting the government’s stake in the company by nearly half. What’s more, American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM.

Thu Nov 18, 2010

Republicans are finding new and incredibly internationally destructive means of obstructing the nation's business.

A group of 10 incoming Republican senators sent a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calling on him to postpone a vote on a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia until they have been seated.

“Few matters will more directly impact our security than arms control agreements like New START that would dramatically reduce the U.S. nuclear deterrent in a strategic environment that is becoming ever more perilous,” the senators said.

Aside from the fact that nearly 75 percent of Americans want to see it ratified, if the treaty fails, not only would “we miss the opportunity to improve relations with the Russians, who have supported us on Iran and U.N. sanctions and increasingly in Afghanistan,” but the U.S. would also “lose all credibility on the problem of stopping nuclear proliferation.”

~~

GOP Give Up Your Healthcare First!
Video As of 1/03/2011 Speaker John Boehner - R
GOP John Andrew Boehner - House Speaker, Elect
DOB ~ 17 November 1949 Reading, OH

"Trust me I'm going to make sure this Healthcare Bill is never, ever, ever implemented."

"If we are successful this will become the number one issue of the 2012 presidential election." ~ John Boehner

If I were to cry for anything I would cry for the American people and the policies that they're about to face. ~ Speaker Nancy Pelosi - D 11/03/2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cantor
Eric Cantor - House Whip
DOB ~ 06 June 1963 Richmond, VA
Did Eric Cantor Commit A Felony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ryan_(politician)
Paul Ryan - Ranking Member Budget Committee
DOB ~ 1/29/1970 Janesville, WI

Emily's List Twitter

Video: Hearing on Veterans Affairs Sept 15, 2010
Congressman Bob Filner - D - CA

Take a look at the difference between the Clinton years and both the Reagan and George W. Bush years when it comes to economic performance. Under Clinton's policies, not only did every single income group do better than they did under either Reagan's or Bush's policies, the growth was more even.

The growth gap between the bottom quintile and the top 5% is particularly striking. Under Clinton, the bottom quintile grew almost as much as the top 5%. Under Reagan, it grew by barely more than a third as much. And under Bush, incomes dropped by eight times more for the bottom quintile than the top 5% on a percentage basis.

The thing that unites both Reagan and Bush, aside from their party? They were both supply-siders who cut taxes, especially on the top earners.

Clinton raised taxes particularly on top earners.