Wayne County 2010 Jackson Day Banquet February 20
The Wayne County Democratic Party will hold their 155th consecutive Jackson Day celebration with a dinner at Memories Party & Conference Center, 2437-B Back Orrville Road, Wooster, on Saturday, Feb. 20.
Featured speakers are Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner; Congressman John Boccieri; Treasurer Kevin Boyce and more.
Possibly The Wisest Comment About Politics
You'll Hear This Year
The myth of bipartisanship:
After all, if the only things the party in power can accomplish are those that the minority power can agree with, then what is the point of having an election? No matter which side won a majority, "common ground" -- the things they all agree on -- would still be the same. Link
Democrats, take a moment to reflect on this. No truer words can be spoken about the political climate right now.
111th Congress Way More Successful Than Conventional Wisdom Suggests
The conventional wisdom on the current Congress seems pretty compelling. This is a Congress facing incredible challenges, and is struggling to rise to the occasion. But as the American Enterprise Institute's Norman Ornstein points out, this Congress is on "a path to become one of the most productive since the Great Society 89th Congress in 1965-66."
Now imagine the success of this Congress if they would pass health reform.
Why Would Democrats Move to The
Right For Re-Election?
There is a bad habit that some Democrats display during an election year — moving to the right. There are so many reasons not to do this, but the bottom line is that it doesn't work. It didn't work for Democrats in the 1990's when Bill Clinton was president, and it isn't going to work now. It is one of these myths that seems to have entered into the political consciousness. Similar to the myth that cutting taxes for the rich will lead to the wealth "trickling down" to everyone else.
Why wont it work in 2010? Because Democrats can't move far enough to the right to satisfy Republican voters, who are currently represented by extremist Republican members of Congress.
A recent poll conducted by Research 2000 for Daily Kos demonstrates that Republicans are borderline crazy. A sampling of 2,000 self-identified Republicans found such crazy results as these:
Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?
Yes 42
No 36
Not Sure 22
Half of Republicans think Obama was born in the US or think it's a matter open to debate.
Do you believe ACORN stole the 2008 election?
Yes 21
No 24
Not Sure 55
One in five Republicans think ACORN is so powerful as to magically make 10 million votes appear. Another 55 are open to the theory. In other words, just 24 percent of Republicans have an even passing relationship with reality.
Should contraceptive use be outlawed?
Yes 31
No 56
Not Sure 13
Just a bare majority oppose outlawing contraceptives.
Letters to the Editor
The following are two letters to the Editor of The Daily Record in response to what was inarguably biased and lazy editorial work by a so-called newspaper.
Balanced Reporting?
Even though I remain an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama, I concede that facts are facts. In its Friday, January 29, 2010 editorial, The Daily Record accurately stated that the Obama-Biden ticket carried neither Wayne County nor Holmes County in the 2008 general election. McCain-Palin received about 56 percent of the Wayne County vote, Obama-Biden about 41 percent. The results in Holmes County were even more disparate; McCain-Palin 69 percent to Obama-Biden’s 28 percent. The area is conservative and predominantly Republican. We know that.
So, it was not surprising that this week’s Daily Record poll question, “Does President Obama have the country headed in the right direction,” “Shows a growing disaffection with the President.” 80 percent of the 250 respondents expressed a negative opinion. Those are the facts.
But, The Daily Record then went beyond the facts. The uninformed, misguided and inaccurate comments of several respondents were faithfully highlighted. Those comments appeared to have been taken directly from the “Tea-Baggers’” talking points. What disturbed me most was the total absence of any balancing comments from the 20 percent of the respondents who answered positively. What happened to fair and balanced reporting? Yes, it was an editorial, but it was reporting poll results. The poll minority’s comments were omitted, as if there had been none. To add insult to injury, an anti-Obama, anti-Democrat editorial cartoon accompanied the editorial column.
Daily Record, you can do better. We expect better.
Don Clement
Wooster
Daily Record Editor:
Sorry I missed last week's poll question. "Does President Obama have the country headed in the right direction" . Who wrote "An unpopular president" as the poll result? (1/29/2010) What are the 250 other comments? Will you post them online? Are they as "venemous" (your word) as the ones you selected? I particularly take offense at the Communist = Democrats paragraph. Are you expecting venom back? Is this what sells newspapers and TV ads? Is journalism bankrupt too? Are these angry folks heading our country in the right direction? (Another poll question, perhaps?)
Next week's questions: What is the most pressing concern of the country? In my mind, the big looming "something else" is the kind of venemous comments you (and we) repeat that prevent us from working together to do the right thing when it comes to Jobs, Housing, Afghanistan, Health Care and other critical issues. We can't get the job done over the shouting. It's time that quiet, concerned, patriotic and courageous folk (and politicians) begin to question this posturing and courageously work to get the job done.
Peggy Guttieri
Wooster
Former McCain Advisor Says Stimulus Was 'Key'
to 4th Quarter Growth
In another rare moment of Republican honesty, former advisor to presidential-nominee John McCain Mark Zandi heralded the role the Recovery Act played in the 5.7% growth in the GDP during the fourth quarter of 2009.
I think stimulus was key to the 4th quarter. It was really critical to business fixed investment because there was a tax bonus depreciation in the stimulus that expired in December and juiced up fixed investment. And also, it was very critical to housing and residential investment because of the housing tax credit. And the decline in government spending would have been measurably greater without the money from the stimulus. So the stimulus was very, very important in the 4th quarter. Link
The Kasich/Taylor Record vs. Strickland/Brown Record
Examine the record
of Republican candidate for governor John Kasich vs. the record of current Democratic governor Ted Strickland.
David Plouffe Back to Help Democrats in 2010
David Plouffe, the chief campaign manager for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and probably the smartest political strategist in the business, has been hired by the White House to oversee the 2010 elections for the House and Senate. He has an Op-Ed in the Sunday Washington Post (1/24). Here is a sample of what he wrote:
No bed-wetting. This will be a tough election for our party and for many Republican incumbents as well. Instead of fearing what may happen, let's prove that we have more than just the brains to govern -- that we have the guts to govern. Let's fight like hell, not because we want to preserve our status, but because we sincerely believe too many everyday Americans will continue to lose if Republicans and special interests win. Link
Every Democrat Needs to Read This
Seriously, Democrats, both in office and the voters, need to wake up, and fast.
Sure, the Senate bill isn't perfect. Nothing ever is. But the political situation has changed and it's now the only game in town. It's beyond belief that we could get this close to a century-old goal of liberalism — we are, literally, just a hair's breadth from the finish line — and then allow the most significant social legislation of the past 40 years to slip from our grasp just because we're tired and pissed. All we need is one roll call vote in the House. That's how close we are to passing this genuinely historic bill. One vote. Then the next day we can start in on the next 20 years work of improving and finishing what we've begun.
We can't allow this to fail now. We can't let the Fox/Drudge/Rush axis win. So call your congressman. Go organize a rally. Write a letter to the editor. Lobby your union president. Do something. Do it now. Tell them: Pass the damn bill. Pass it now. Link
This Headline Sums Everything Up
Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate
The Village Voice
President Clinton summed up the way voters view political parties very well. Democrats better heed this advice:
People would rather be with someone who is strong and wrong than weak and right.
The sad thing is Democrats are right. They just aren't showing much strength right now.
Ted Strickland Names Yvette McGee Brown as Running Mate for 2010
Governor Ted Strickland announced January 19 that President of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy and former Franklin County Judge Yvette McGee Brown will be his next Lieutenant Governor.
I know that Yvette will make a wonderful Lieutenant Governor because she's spent her entire life fighting for Ohio families. She is the daughter of a single mother who worked two jobs to support her family. Yvette found remarkable opportunities here in Ohio. She's taken those remarkable opportunities and used them, not to further her own goals, but to make life better for average Ohioans, especially our children.
President Obama More Effective in Cutting Spending Than President Bush Was
This news come from all places the Washington Times, which has a conservative reputation:
President Obama notched substantial successes in spending cuts last year, winning 60 percent of his proposed cuts and managing to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years.
The administration says Congress accepted at least $6.9 billion of the $11.3 billion in discretionary spending cuts Mr. Obama proposed for the current fiscal year. An analysis by The Washington Times found that Mr. Obama was victorious in getting Congress to slash 24 programs and achieved some level of success in reducing nine other programs.
Among the president's victories are canceling the multibillion-dollar F-22 Raptor program, ending the LORAN-C radio-based ship navigation system and culling a series of low-dollar education grants. In each of those cases, Mr. Obama succeeded in eliminating programs that Mr. Bush repeatedly failed to end.
Why Republicans and Teabaggers Should Support Health Care Reform
Republicans, and in particular the Tea Party crowd, like to beat their chests about the deficit. Well, what single issue is largely responsible for our national debt, both now and the future? Health care costs. And what is the first step to getting our hands around this problem? Passing health care reform. Imagine how much more effective this bill could be if nearly one half of the political spectrum spent all its energy lying about the bill.
We've literally never had a deficit problem this large before. And it's not the fault of the stimulus or the bailout — both of which were short-term costs that account for about 3 or 4 percent of the long-term deficit — or even any particular policy. It's mainly health-care costs — in the private and public sectors — with an assist from demographic changes. But however you slice it, it's going to require some really tough decisions from a Congress that shows no capacity for making such tough decisions. Inaction isn't an option unless you're comfortable with crisis being the outcome. Link
Seriously. We Are Debating Whether We Need Health Care Reform?
After looking at this graph you still believe that the status quo in health care is sustainable or acceptable (which is what a vote against the health care bill is in essence), then clearly something is amiss.
Enlarge the image to clearly grasp the fact that the United States spends over $4,000 more per person ($7,290) on health care than the average of other industrial countries, while having a life expectancy that is below average (78 years).
Health Care Reform Could Boost Employment by 400,000 a Year this Decade
National health care reform now being considered in Congress will affect employer-provided health insurance premiums in several ways and will add between 250,000 and 400,000 jobs annually over the next decade. Link
So say David M. Cutler, an Economics at Harvard University; and Neeraj Sood, an Associate Professor at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics and School of Pharmacy at the University of Southern California. They examine two different studies, one that examines the current negative effect that rising health care costs has on employment, and another that looks at how the current health care bill slows the growth of health care costs and health insurance premiums.
President Obama More Effective Than LBJ?
President Obama set a new record last year (2009) for getting Congress to vote his way, clinching 96.7 percent of the votes on which he had clearly staked a position.
That was a bit less than 4 percentage points higher than the previous record, set by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, according to an annual study by Congressional Quarterly.
Yet if you listen to pundits on television and in Washington, you'd think the President's first year has been a disappointment.
Leading GOP Strategist Can't Name One Republican Accomplishment in Last 20 Years
A rare moment of honesty from a Republican on television.
What Obama & Democrats Did in 2009
If you make the mistake of getting your news from traditional media sources (in particular television), you would think President Obama and Democrats did very little in 2009. In truth, historians are likely to look back at the first year of Obama's presidency and say it was one of the most ambitious and successful in American history.
Think this is an exaggeration? Review this exhaustive list of accomplishments and I think you'll agree.
Benefits of the Affordable Health Care for America Act
In the 16th Congressional District of Ohio
The Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House has put together a fact sheet on the specific benefits Ohio District 16 will see from the Affordable Health Care for America Act passed on November 7.
In Congressman Boccieri’s district, the Affordable Health Care for America Act will:
- Improve employer-based coverage for 414,000 residents.
- Provide credits to help pay for coverage for up to 167,000 households.
- Improve Medicare for 111,000 beneficiaries, including closing the prescription drug donut hole for 10,200 seniors.
- Allow 15,100 small businesses to obtain affordable health care coverage and provide tax credits to help reduce health insurance costs for up to 13,200 small businesses.
- Provide coverage for 44,000 uninsured residents.
- Protect up to 1,700 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
- Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers by $102 million.
What Health Insurance Reform Would Mean For Ohio
As the reforms bills in Congress stand now, Ohio would see substantial improvements in their health insurance options. For example:
- 1.4 million residents who do not currently have insurance and 533,000 residents who have nongroup insurance could get affordable coverage through the health insurance exchange.
- 942,000 residents could qualify for premium tax credits to help them purchase health coverage.
- 1.8 million seniors would receive free preventive services.
- 325,000 seniors would have their brand-name drug costs in the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole” halved.
- 118,000 small businesses could be helped by a small business tax credit to make premiums more affordable.
› Learn more about what health insurance reform would mean for Ohio
Democratic Presidents Create Twice as Many Private Sector Jobs as Republican Presidents
Not that you needed any more evidence to mock Republicans for calling Democrats Socialists, but if you want a devastating FACT, try this one out.
Since 1959, the average private sector job growth under four-year Democratic administrations is 11.7%. Under Republican administrations, it's 5.4%. Link
“What Liberals Don't Understand: The Health Care Bill Is the Greatest Achievement of Our Time”
This is the title of an article by The New Republic's Senior Editor Jonathan Chait, describing the health care bill that just passed the Senate.
At some level, it is possible to understand the roots of liberal frustration. The machinery of Congress has ground away at the health care bill, as it does to almost any bill. But at a broader level, the liberal mood is insane. What has emerged from that machinery is not merely “better than nothing” or “a good start.” It is the most significant American legislative triumph in at least four decades. Why can so few people see that? Link
Health Reform Illustrated
By Igor Volsky at the Wonk Room:
Is Senate Health Care Bill Worth Passing? Yes
Putting aside for a moment that the Senate health bill is not the final bill (something the media and some on the Left seem to forget), is the current form of the legislation worth passing from a Democratic perspective? The answer is an absolute YES, and here are some reasons why.
Matt Yglesias of Think Progress and Ezra Klein of the Washington Post are two of the most intelligent Progressive bloggers, particularly when it comes to health care. Here are their thoughts on the Senate bill.
Yglesias
But to repeat—despite flaws, I think this is an excellent piece of legislation. Among other things, it represents a return, after fifteen years, of the idea that congress should be trying to pass major legislation that tackles major national problems. And even beyond that, it restores an even longer-lost tradition of congress trying to pass major legislation on specifically progressive priorities. Link
Yglesias also provides a more constructive strategy to Democrats who are not happy with the bill (versus slamming the President and other Democrats at a fever almost pitch equal to Teabaggers).
I’m sure there are other action-items people can think of. But I wanted to make clear that my point about Weber this morning wasn’t just that people should meekly accept compromises. It’s that you accept compromises and then keep on working to build more political power. You do it by contacting members. You do it by urging friends and colleagues to contact members. You do it by donating to and volunteering for good candidates. You do it by turning out and voting for the better candidate in the race even when that candidate is disappointing. You do it by urging viable candidates to mount risky primary challenges against incumbents who don’t reflect the real possibilities of their constituency. You do it by staying engaged, and working hard. Link
Klein
This is a good bill. Not a great bill, but a good bill. Imagine telling a Democrat in the days after the 2004 election that the 2006 election would end Republican control of Congress, the 2008 election would return a Democrat to the White House, and by the 2010 election, Democrats would have passed a bill extending health-care coverage to 94 percent of Americans, securing trillions of dollars in subsidies for low-income Americans (the bill's $900 billion cost is calculated over 10 years, but the subsidies continue indefinitely into the future), and imposing a raft of new regulations on private insurers. It is, without doubt or competition, the single largest social policy advance since the Great Society. Link
Al Giordano, who more than any other blogger, understands President Obama and is political strategy, sums up the choice that Democrats face:
And if this once in a lifetime chance to get the foot in the door with a health care law through Congress falters, it will likely be another 60 years before there will be another.
The unsubstantiated claims that this bill can be ripped up and the process can start anew ignore the lessons of the last six decades of US history. As Ted Kennedy understood, every issue has its moment and the iron has to be struck while it is hot. When “Hillarycare” crashed and burned in the 1990s, was there a second chance a year later? Nope. Not until now. If this bill gets killed, the game is over. That’s the fire that the bill killers are playing with.
Do it for the 30 million uninsured. Or if you don’t really care about poor and working folks (as seems evident to me reading the bill-killers’ “look at ME!” discourse) then at least go out and win this one - or get out of the way - for Teddy. Link
Part II: President Obama's Brilliant First Year
Jacob Weisberg, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Slate Group and a columnist for Newsweek magazine, responds to those critics who say Obama hasn't really done anything in his first year of office:
This conventional wisdom about Obama's first year isn't just premature—it's sure to be flipped on its head by the anniversary of his inauguration on Jan. 20. If, as seems increasingly likely, Obama wins passage of a health care reform a bill by that date, he will deliver his first State of the Union address having accomplished more than any other postwar American president at a comparable point in his presidency. This isn't an ideological point or one that depends on agreement with his policies. It's a neutral assessment of his emerging record—how many big, transformational things Obama is likely to have made happen in his first 12 months in office. Link
President Obama One of Most Productive Modern Presidents in First Year; Media Fails Again
We often hear Republicans throw around the "L" word when it comes to the mainstream media, but this has been a myth repeated so often by the Right that people just come to accept it. But the media is not Liberal. The only "L" word that would describe it appropriately is Lazy. If the media actually did its job, then it could be called Liberal, since the truth has always had a Liberal bias :)
The point is that while conservatives, with the help of the media, including Saturday Night Live, try to make it seem President Obama hasn't done much as President, there can't be anything farther from the truth. There have been at least 90 important accomplishments or actions taken by the Obama administration in just 10 months in office. The Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact.com, as of Nov. 25, has kept 55 campaign promises and has another 160 in the works, while only breaking seven promises.
Like Medicare & Social Security? These Programs Were Far From Perfect at the Start
Ezra Klein of the Washington Post makes the point that I think many, including Democrats, have missed during this health care debate. Barring the passage of really bad legislation, getting an imperfect bill passed is better than nothing at all. Because the next time around it will be harder, not easier, to make the bill more robust.
Failure does not breed success. Obama's defeat will not mean that more ambitious reforms have "a better chance of trying again." It will mean that less ambitious reformers have a better chance of trying next time.
Conversely, success does breed success. Medicare and Medicaid began as fairly limited programs. Medicaid was pretty much limited to extremely poor children and their caregivers. Medicare didn't cover prescription drugs, or individuals with disabilities, or home health services. Link
Paul Begala, former advisor to President Bill Clinton, expands on this point in evaluting the evolution of Social Security.
No self-respecting liberal today would support Franklin Roosevelt's original Social Security Act. It excluded agricultural workers -- a huge part of the economy in 1935, and one in which Latinos have traditionally worked. It excluded domestic workers, which included countless African Americans and immigrants. It did not cover the self-employed, or state and local government employees, or railroad employees, or federal employees or employees of nonprofits. It didn't even cover the clergy. FDR's Social Security Act did not have benefits for dependents or survivors. It did not have a cost-of-living increase. If you became disabled and couldn't work, you got nothing from Social Security.
If that version of Social Security were introduced today, progressives like me would call it cramped, parsimonious, mean-spirited and even racist. Perhaps it was all those things. But it was also a start. And for 74 years we have built on that start. We added more people to the winner's circle: farmworkers and domestic workers and government workers. We extended benefits to the children of working men and women who died. We granted benefits to the disabled. We mandated annual cost-of-living adjustments. And today Social Security is the bedrock of our progressive vision of the common good. Link
John Judis of The New Republic echoes what Begala says about Social Security, stating:
[I]t was a bare shell of what it became in the 1950s after amendment. Benefits were nugatory. And most important, coverage was denied to wide swaths of the workforce, including farm laborers.
[T]he bill that the House passed last Saturday is considerably more robust that the original Social Security bill. Link
And there is the take away from this debate. We are on the precipice of passing a health care bill that is a more progressive than either Medicare or Social Security in their initial stages.