A People's Republic of the Heartland?

First the Iowa Supreme Court decided unanimously that same sex marriages are constitutional and now state officials will be holding hearings about making medical marijuana legal.  Who would have thought that Iowa would become a liberal paradise?

Even if marijuana has no discernable medical value, if it makes somebody who is terminally or chronically ill feel better than I think it should be legal for those people to use with a doctor's prescription.

A Small Crack in the Wall

Today, the Senate inflicted a defeat of the military-industrial complex when it voted 58-40 to strip funding for F-22 warplane.  According to the Washington Post, the F-22 is a plane that requires 30 hours of ground maintenance for every hour in the air and is "vulnerable to rain."  Both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, who are both Bush appointies, favored this move and so did Sen. John McCain(R-AZ). The major reason that 40 Senators voted for such a clusterf**ck is the military-industrial complex ensures that military projects are built in as many congressional districts as possible.

It is only a small victory but it is nice to see that some in Washington realize that defense dollars are real dollars that when spent on wasteful weapons programs it means that those dollars can't be used on more deserving projects.  Perhaps we can one day divert all the money we spend on killing foreigners on things like health care for all people.  I can dream can't I.

Backbencher of the Week

This week I finally get to recognize one of my favorite members of Congress because this week's Backbencher of the week is Rep. Dennis Kucinich(D-OH-10).  I initially voted for Kucinich in the 08 Iowa Caucus before switching to Obama in the 2nd round of voting.  My initial support for Kucinich was because he supported an immediate withdrawal from Iraq and was the only supporter of a single payer health care system.

Congress is in the midst of the big health reform debate.  Two House committees and a Senate committee passed a health reform bill.  One of those committees was the House Education and Labor Committee; which Kucinich belongs to.  During the mark-up of the bill, Kucinich proposed an amendment that would allow states to create their own single payer systems.  Kucinich's amendment passed 25-19-2.  If the amendment stays in the bill through all the stages the U.S. may be on the way to some form of a single payer.

For gaining a small but necessary victory for single payer health care Dennis Kucinich is this week's Backbencher of the Week.  Congratulations Rep. Kucinich.

DC's House of O God! O God! O God!

The Family is a fundamentalist Christian group that caters to Washington politicians.  They provide a house on C street in Washington D.C. where many conservative politicians reside.  Sen. John Ensign(R-NV) lives there and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford lived there when he was in Congress.  After today's news it is clear the the house on C Street was a rocking place to be.  

Health Reform Blogging

Last night I was talking to my friend Legs about the health reforms bills that Congress is working on.  I felt like I was having trouble explaining the bill and so I refreshed my memory today.  What follows is a summation of what I found out today.

Both the House and the Senate HELP committee have released their plans, and both are pretty similar.  The underlying goal is to keep the existing employer based health system for those who are in it but find a way to maker it more efficient.  The plan also wants to cover those people who care currently not covered by health insurance.  To that end both bills include an individual mandate which would make having health insurance mandatory.  The key then is too make that mandate affordable.

Both bills include a strong public plan which would compete alongside plan from private insurers in a health insurance exchange.  The exchange would be a place where individuals and businesses would use their large numbers as leverage to choose among competing health insurance plans.  In the House bill there are various types of plans that vary based on much the the ratio of cost sharing.  The insurance exchanges in both bills are nationally run, but states can opt opt out if they agree to certain conditions.  

In addition there are subsidies for people and families to buy  the insurance and cap on how much a person will be forced to pay out of pocket for insurance.  The subsidies are based on a sliding scale that goes up to 400% of the poverty line.   There is also an increase in Medicaid eligibility that increases coverage to include up to 133% of the poverty line and also sets the stage for a potential complete federal take over of Medicaid.

The real issue then is how to pay for this bill.  The Congressional Budget Office has scored the bills to be in the neighborhood of 1 trillion dollars over a 10 year period.  About half the bill will be paid for by making Medicare and Medicaid more efficient.  Both bills also include a marginal surtax on incomes above $350,000.  The President has proposed eliminating some tax deductions and raising the marginal tax tates to Clinton era level, and some in Congress are considering some type of value added tax(VAT). 

There is still some concerns about how the bill will control costs, which is way the Senate Finance Committee has not presented their bill yet.  The major concern for the Finance Committee is how to contain costs.  What the Finance Committee wants to do is cap the tax exemption for employer based health care but nothing is definite.

I did most of my research by looking at the House Education and Labor website and by reading Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein.

Backbencher of the Week

Blue Dog Democrats are Democrats who claim to be fiscally conservative.   In practice they often obstruct or water down more progressive legislation, and they often voted with the Bush Administration on issues regarding war funding and civil liberties.  In the past week week some members of the Blue Dog coalition tried to slow down progress over the health care reform legislation and objected to the public plan.  There are 52 members of the Blue Dog Coalition and together they are enough to derail the public plan. 

However, not all of the blue dogs are supporting their coalitions stances.  Rep. Loretta Sanchez(D-CA-47) came out Friday in support of a strong public plan.  Rep. Sanchez, unlike some of her other blue dogs, understands that the public plan is way to save money.  In fact, an early Congressional Budget Office report says that the public option will save $150 billion dollars over 10 years.

For understanding that the public option is the fiscally responsible option we are proud to name Rep. Loretta Sanchez as this week's Backbencher of the Week.

The Gospel According to Steve King

Rep Steve King(R-IA-5) voted against commemorating the fact that slave labor helped build the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.   Rep. King's reasoning is that God is more interested in getting a mention at the Capitol Visitors Center than in people dealing honestly with the impact of slavery on our history.

Rep. King's Bible must not include, among other things, this passage: "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  Even though you offer you burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well being of you fatted animals I will not look upon.  Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.  But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream(Amos 5:21-24).

I shudder to think what is in the Bible Steve King reads.