Congressional Climate Denial

Global temperatures have been warmer than average for 341 consecutive months.   97% of climate scientists agree the earth's temperature is warming and that human activities are the primary cause.  Even so, an  article in Think Progress finds that 57% of Republicans in congress have made a public statement either denying that climate change is happening or that humans have anything to do with it.


What's more,  the denial pays.  Think Progress figures show that climate deniers in the House receive an average of $241,000 in contributions from dirty energy companies while non-deniers get $69,000 from them.  That's better than a three-and-a-half-to-one spread.  The disparity is even more pronounced, over four-to-one in the Senate, where climate deniers average $699,000 from dirty energy contributions and non-deniers get $171,000. 

The Sierra Club Magazine produced a graphic to display the political landscape reported on in Think Progress.   I've included it below.

 

As you can see, the House of Representatives has 200 Democrats, and every last one of them accepts the findings of climate science.  Of the 233 Republicans in the House, 128 (55%) are known climate deniers.  The Senate is even worse.  The 52 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with them (Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine) are all climate realists.  But 30 of the 46 Senate Republicans (65%) are deniers.  And when it comes to the GOP congressional leadership, the opacity is nearly absolute.  Think Progress reports 90% of them are on the denial bandwagon.          

It's Personal, Not Politics

This week I saw the best argument I have seen on why the Affordable Care Act, ACA or Obamacare, is so desperately needed.  A fellow from Clovis, CA named Steve Spriggs wrote a piece that appeared in the Fresno Bee this week, telling of a ghastly injury that happened to his son in 2010, courtesy of a "16-year-old driver who ran a red light at 50 miles per hour."  Matthew was 22 at the time.  He now has two metal plates in his skull, a reconstructed right leg and five shattered disks in his spine that will have to be fused at some point in the future.  It has already cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars."  You can read the complete piece here.

Thanks to the ACA, Matt has been able to stay on his father's insurance until now.   The family would be bankrupt otherwise.  Matt will now be able to buy insurance on the exchange, and cannot be turned down for his pre-existing conditions.  Spriggs writes, "I am relieved that my son now has a way to avoid becoming a burden on society when I am gone." 

He next turns his fire against "petulant Republican congressmen" including his (and mine), Rep. Devin Nunes, calling them out as "reckless ideologues" who "are willing to bring down our government and crash the world's financial systems in order to keep millions of people uninsured."  They offer "no viable alternative" and "are trying to harm my family in a very direct and personal way."  Spriggs concludes with the thought, "This is not political to us.  This is personal.  This is my son's future."

I really urge you to read the fourteen-paragraph offering yourself, and decide whether you think the ACA is something that needs to be repealed, or whether it is a godsend for millions.  Go to the link: It's Personal, Not Politics, by Steve Spriggs.  

Hillary Clinton is Quietly Changing the World

Click on this link to see a recent Daily Kos article scratching the surface about the tremendous difference Hillary Clinton has made in the world over the past eighteen years since she went to China as first lady and raised a diplomatic stir when she spoke out for women, saying, "women's rights are human rights."  In it, actress Meryl Streep introduces Clinton and calls attention to the consistent advocacy she has done as a matter of course as first lady, senator and secretary of state.  The site also includes video segments from Streep and Clinton.  

Because of her efforts to call attention to courageous individuals who have stood against their governments, many of those individuals are alive who would not otherwise be, such as Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma.  Her efforts on behalf of education, voting rights, small business ownership, and protection against female sexual mutilation and rape have made a difference in many places around the world.  Studies again and again have demonstrated that societies that empower women are more prosperous, peaceful and free.

Often times, changing societal perspectives can be even more important than enacting policy, passing legislation or negotiating a treaty.  When attitudes evolve, the legal changes become possible.  Witness our own history about extending rights in the examples of slavery, women's suffrage, racial segregation and marriage equality.  The movement of minds was the necessary precursor to the progress made in every case.  That and her own personal conduct have been the foundations of Mrs. Clinton's contributions over these decades.  

American People Not Fooled by Shutdown

The comprehensive NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll released on Thursday makes one thing quite clear: the American people are smarter than congressional Republicans think they are.  More specifically, they squarely oppose the government shutdown, blame Republicans for it, and may well punish them at the polls next year as a result.  

Spurred on by extreme ideologues like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, and abetted by a GOP leadership under the baton of Speaker John Boehner who either knows better and was afraid to oppose the extremists or calculated the economy and credit of the United States was worth risking for a chance at political advantage, the House Republican caucus was talked into and threatened with primary opposition from Tea Party zealots to adopt a strategy of trying to force an end to the president's Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) by leveraging the specter of a government shutdown and even a default on the U.S debt if congressional Democrats and  President Obama refused to go along with changes gutting their signature legislative achievement.

Despite presidential  and Democratic congressional assurance that no such concessions in the face of threatened blackmail would be made, the strategy was employed.  The GOP gambled that disaffection with the health law and the pain a shutdown would inflict on the country would combine with what international economists foresee as the likely devastation of the world financial system if America welches on its financial obligations to force Obama's hand.

Instead, Americans have seen through this transparently reckless gamble in which they, the citizens, are being used as pawns.  The survey finds that by a 22-point margin, Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown.  That 53-31 figure is twice as great as the 11-point (44-33) blame discrepancy the poll found in late 1995 when Republicans last engineered a shutdown, that time in an attempt to force concessions out of Bill Clinton.  The public isn't buying GOP assurances that the strategy is not all that dangerous.  By an enormous 46-point margin (73-27), the people consider it a very serious matter.  That dwarfs the 16-point figure (57-41) by which voters in 1995 regarded the Gingrich-inspired shutdown of that day as serious.  What is more, 31 percent say the shutdown has affected them personally, compared to only 18 percent last time.  

As a result, since last month the Republican Party's favorability rating has dropped four points to 24%, the lowest ever recorded for a major American political party.  Their unfavorability figure of 53% means that their popularity with the American people is upside down by a whopping 29%.  By contrast, the Democratic Party is viewed favorably by 39% and unfavorably by 40%, a one-percent negative view to be sure, but 28 points better than their Republican counterparts.  If congressional elections were held today, respondents give Democrats an 8 percent edge, 47-39, up from a 3 percent margin (46-43) last month.  This would be enough to flip the majority in the House to Democratic control.

How has this affected the President?  Remarkably, Obama's favorability/unfavorability has gone up since before the crisis.  The survey measured a 5-percent deficit last month (45-50) which has turned into a 6-point endorsement (47-41) in October.  His Affordable Care Act has gotten more popular too, as the gap between those supporting it and opposing it has fallen from 13 points last month (31-44) to only 5 points now (38-43.)

We  must all hope, for the sake of the 800,000 people they have laid off, the millions whose needed services they have withheld, the thousands of businesses whose contracts they have interrupted and the potential damage they could do to interest rates and world financial markets, that the irresponsible ideologues driving the Republican train will come to their senses and bring an end to this sorry spectacle of political tantrum-throwing.  In the meantime, at least it appears they have exposed their  true nature to the American people, who have sat up, and with clear eyes, have taken notice.

Obamacare Comes Up in History Class

I had a fascinating and illustrative occurrence regarding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) issue in one of my community college History classes on Wednesday this week.  I have never seen this effect in a class before. 

The lesson was actually on the early Federalist period, that is the administrations of George Washington and John Adams.  The point was about Alexander Hamilton, one of the main movers of the Constitutional Convention and the first Secretary of the Treasury.  At the Convention he pushed for the establishment of a government with strong powers, and got most of what he wanted in that regard.  As Treasury Secretary he also pushed for decisive action, successfully advocating for a National Bank, among other things.  From nearly the beginning, his ideas and plans ran into opposition from another prominent cabinet member, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who held to the view that, "That government is best which governs least." 

I mentioned that the fundamental difference in perspective between the Hamiltonian Federalists and the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans is the same philosophical debate that has formed the basis of the American political divide from those early days until the present.  Students were quick to see that Hamilton's view corresponds in general more closely to the Democratic Party of today and Jefferson's to the Republicans.  It wasn't long before people began turning to the current U. S. government shutdown and the controversy at the heart of it, the dispute over Obamacare.

People had various comments to make, some in favor and some opposed.  It was good to see the students relating historical precedents to contemporary issues.  I was about to end the discussion; after all this was a History class and we needed to move on with more matters of the 1790's.  But a new hand up caught my eye.  It was Irene, a young woman who had never spoken up in class before.  Intrigued, I called on her.

Irene said she had gone to the federal website, Healthcare.gov, and coveredca.com, the California exchange, the previous night.  It was the first day the exchanges had opened, October 1.  She had this to share: "Our family of four has been paying almost $600 a month for health insurance.  I found a silver-level plan that looked very good for us.  With the tax credit, it will cost us $68 a month.  We'll be saving $500 a month.  This is wonderful!"     

You could have heard a pin drop.  Every hand went down as the class of 55 students went into dead silence.  There was nothing more to say.  We went back to Chapter 7 on the Washington and Adams administrations in office.  When class was dismissed, probably two dozen people headed immediately toward Irene to ask her how to find these sites.  Sometimes it's people who don't talk a lot who have some of the most  interesting things to say.    

Obamacare Exchanges Slated to Open Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 1 will be the day the new Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) health exchanges go into effect, as you can see at  Healthcare.gov.  People who do not have employer-provided health insurance, are not on Medicare, Medicaid or military medical care will be able to get  competitive coverage at reasonable rates.

Most purchasers of moderate means will get tax subsidies to help pay for their policies.  This will include individuals who make up to $45,960 and families of four who make up to $94,200.  A family of six will get help up to an income of $126,000.   After tax breaks, the costs will be bargains.  In Pennsylvania, for instance, a 27-year-old earning $25,000, choosing a mid-level silver plan which  covers about 70 percent of medical costs, would pay $145 a month after their tax break assistance. A family of four with two children under the age of 18 that earned $50,000 a year would pay $282 per month after tax breaks for the same silver plan. 

As President Obama has been saying in recent days, people will be able to get health insurance protection for about the same cost as their cell phone bills.  These bargains are possible due to the exchanges, which will allow people to compare the offerings of the various insurers in their states directly across the board from each other on the exchange web sites.  The provision that at least 80% of premium revenues must then be spent on health care by the providers, and the requirements of what must be provided in each level of the plans also helps make sure that services provided are adequate and readily comparable for all competitors at each level.  Upper-income Americans have had some taxes raised to help pay for the subsidies, as shown at this IRS site. 

The relative simplicity and economy of the coverage will provide an attractive option for folks looking to protect themselves against the medical vicissitudes of life.  Though the enrollment begins October 1, people will have until March 31 to secure their coverage or they will have to pay a fine.

As I write this the Republican effort in the House of Representatives to tie the overall U.S. budget to the repeal or postponement of the health care roll out is still underway.  There is no way the Democratic Senate or President Obama will go along with this, so the result of GOP stubbornness on this, if they persist, can only be a government shutdown.  The reason for their frantic eagerness to try to gut the law was revealed by Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who has been leading the fight to kill Obamacare.  He said, "Once they taste the sugar of subsidized health care we'll never get rid of it."  Indeed.  Once people can afford to take their kids to the doctor they won't want to give that up.  Yes, that certainly makes sense to me.  What doesn't is why anybody would think that's a bad thing.            

     

Liberal Principles

Here is my list of the principles we liberals believe in:

Ethics as the bedrock of our worldview, founded on truth, honesty and love for one another.

Peace with our neighbors and among all nations, beginning with peace within ourselves.

Equality of all people at all times.

Freedom to be, love, do, say and believe as we will, and from preventable wrong and harm.

Community of others whose well-being we foster, particularly those in greatest need.

Opportunity to pursue our dreams.

Meeting Human Needs with compassion, ingenuity and resolve.

Democracy as the foundation of any just political system.  

Empathy for our fellows as the wellspring of the causes we champion.   

Progress or faith in the improvement of the human condition if we work for it in good will.  

Science as a means to discover and employ fact and reason to better our world.

Justice under the law and as the framework for fairness in society.

Security of our persons, rights and dignity, individually and as a nation.

Practicality in the ways we pursue our goals and implement our policies.  

Diversity of people celebrated within the  

Unity of the human family.

Civil Rights enshrined and protected.

Service as the means to realize these principles in our society and world.

Love as the source of all the good we do and are.