Saturday, February 4, 2012
Presidential politics Romney: 'The Tin Man has a tin ear.'
Posted by Max Brantley on Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 7:04 AM
Charles Blow of the New York Times provides some facts and figures that further illustrate how out of touch Mitt Romney (and John Burris) is on the number of poor in America and what it takes to be "middle class."
Blow reminds readers that Romney's budget proposal would further "take a chainsaw" to the porous federal safety net while giving a tax windfall to wealthy people like Mitt Romney. 10 million people would lose food stamps, for example. His tax plan would cut taxes by 3 percent for those making below $30,000 a year, but cut them by 14.5 percent for millionaires. You can guess whose programs would bear the burden of the budget reduction this would require.
Don't think the poor are small in number.
According to the Census Bureau, the official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent.And that’s the income poor. It doesn’t even count the “asset poor.” A report issued this week by the Corporation for Enterprise Development found that 27 percent of U.S. households live in “asset poverty.” According to the report, “These families do not have the savings or other assets to cover basic expenses (equivalent to what could be purchased with a poverty level income) for three months if a layoff or other emergency leads to loss of income.”
More than 1 in 4 are struggling in poverty. Many of these, as working stiffs, don't qualify for that Beautyrest of a Medicaid safety net that Arkansas House Republican Leader John Burris, the unemployed, well-off legislator from Harrison, thinks provides so luxuriously for the slackers of Arkansas. Nor do they qualify for much of anything else. Except the focus of out-of-touch politicians who want to squeeze them harder so the rich can keep more money.
Speaking of...
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Details emerge on Arkansas "private option" for Medicaid expansion
May 23, 2013The House and Senate Public Health committees met today to hear updates on the “private option” plan for expanding healthcare coverage. /more/
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Diamonds in the manure of the Arkansas legislature
May 9, 2013Some legislators and legislation shone. /more/
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How the private option flipped the Medicaid expansion debate
May 2, 2013It took a group of clever and obstinate young Republican legislators who refused to go along with Medicaid expansion but weren't ready to close the door on other ideas. They helped force a crafty veteran Democratic governor who was eager to go forward with expansion to consider alternative approaches. Throw in tireless and creative state health officials who happened to have a cozy relationship with their federal It took a group of clever and obstinate young Republican legislators who refused to go along with Medicaid expansion but weren’t ready to close the door on other ideas. They helped force a crafty veteran Democratic governor who was eager to go forward with expansion to consider alternative approaches. Throw in tireless and creative state health officials who happened to have a cozy relationship with their federal counterparts. Probably some luck. And, among everyone involved, it took a slightly crazy, seemingly unjustified optimism that somehow a solution was possible. /more/
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Obamacare rules
April 18, 2013At press time, a Senate vote was still up in the air, but the thinking was that senators would join the House in its momentous approval Tuesday of Medicaid expansion by a 77-23 vote. /more/
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UPDATE: House committee endorses Medicaid expansion bill
April 9, 2013Republican Rep. John Burris is before the House Public Health Committee he chairs this morning to urge approval of the Medicaid expansion legislation. /more/
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Republican lawmakers weigh "private option" legislation
April 2, 2013After weeks of discussion following the "private option" announcement, the legislature finally has an actual bill to debate. /more/
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Republicans target existing Medicaid program
March 27, 2013One of the key appeals of the "private option" to Republican lawmakers is that it moves significant populations that now get coverage under Medicaid out of the public program and onto subsidized private insurance. /more/
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Expand-o-meter holding steady
March 15, 2013Today’s chances of passing expansion: 75%Last week’s chances: 75%See here for previous entries on the Expand-o-Meter /more/
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Sorry, "private option" still likely to cost a lot more than Medicaid expansion
March 14, 2013In a post yesterday, I attempted to offer the perspective of Rep. Burris and Sen. Sanders—two of the key Republican leaders on a potential deal for expansion of healthcare coverage—quoting each at length. /more/
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"Cuts" to existing Medicaid under "private option" are not cuts in service
March 9, 2013You may have heard talk about "cuts to the existing Medicaid program" as a cost-saving feature of the "private option." /more/
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