Veterans Day, Joint Committee at Impasse - Accountability Needed, NCPSSM Advocates With 3000+

Veterans Day

Thank a Vet today.  In particular, remember the aged and disabled veterans who rely on Medicare to pay for much, but not all, of their necessary health care costs.  Remember, too, that the Department of Veterans Affairs needs your support.

Stalemate

"With a Thanksgiving deadline less than two weeks away, Senate Republicans declared talks over the debt at an impasse and accused Democrats of walking away after the GOP for the first time offered to raise taxes above current levels to help restrain future borrowing."

The usual suspects are keeping the Joint Committee members from reaching an agreement:  >> Conservative Republicans continue to demand no new taxes and reduced spending for the aged, the disabled, those who are retired, low wage workers, unemployed, etc.  >>  Democrats can't seem to give enough.  This is a formula for failure -- even if agreement is reached.

Demand Accountability from Joint Committee

"The 12-member Super Committee is down to its final two weeks to produce a plan to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the federal budget.  According to recent reports, both Democratic and Republican proposals have contained sizable cuts from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- all programs that benefit the large majority of Americans in the 99% -- while offering little in the way of new revenues."

"The forces of the 1% are hard at work to convince us that these cuts are necessary to the fiscal health of the country, and that anything short of these rollbacks will result in economic doom and crippling levels of debt in the coming decades.  Their latest attempt to distract from the real issue at hand -- the enormous transfer of wealth to the top 1% that has taken place in the last forty years -- is to convince us that wealthy seniors are the ones taking from today's younger generations."

Clearly, the wealthy and privileged are not all older people.  Just look at how little Social Security pays and how much older people rely on it.

Tough Lessons From America's Health Reform History – The KHN Interview With Paul Starr

"Kaiser Health News Jordan Rau talks with Paul Starr about 'Remedy and Reaction,' his new book.  Starr, a health policy adviser during the Clinton administration, looks at America's ongoing and bitter struggle with reforming its health care system."

I read Dr. Starr's "Transformation of American Medicine" in grad school and it changed my view of medicine.  Looks like "Remedy and Reaction" will join it on my bookshelf.

From the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

Boston Rally is the Tip of the Iceberg

The Republican Reality-Free Zone

Surprise! GOP Super Committee Wants To Cut Taxes For Rich.  "A new Democratic memo rips apart a GOP Super Committee proposal -- offered by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) -- that would have reduced, and made permanent, Bush-era tax rates.  Many of the key details of the plan remain undisclosed, even to Democrats, but they’ve included a table laying out all of the lower rates the GOP has proposed, and deduced from what’s known that the changes would significantly reduce the progressiveness of the tax code."

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