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GOP New Orleans Congressman: Health Reform ‘At A Par With Slavery’ Because Of Nonexistent Abortion Coverage

By Lee Fang on Mar 22, 2010 at 8:30 pm

Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA)Rep. Joseph Cao, a Republican representing New Orleans in Congress, voted repeatedly last night to kill health reform. Cao briefly supported health reform last November, when an amendment was added to the bill which altered current law and vastly restricted even private sector dollars from abortion insurance coverage. Staunch pro-life supporters — from a group of 59,000 Catholic nuns, to the Catholic Health Association, to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) — supported the health reform bill passed last night and said it does not provide taxpayer funds to abortion services.

Regardless, Cao said he withdrew his support for health reform because of nonexistent abortion services. In an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picauyne, he further explained that the Senate bill contained abortion services “at a par with slavery.” Cao’s ugly comparison lacks substance and is insulting to his majority African American district. Statistics show that expanding health insurance coverage is “one of the most powerful tools for reducing the number of abortions” in industrialized countries. Furthermore, Cao is promoting a culture of death by trying to deny health reform to his New Orleans constituents:

– According to a report by the Center for American Progress, health reform makes a tremendous first step to eradicate the “medical apartheid” of health disparities faced by communities of color in America. The bill establishes demonstration programs to promote access to Medicare beneficiaries with limited English proficiency and provides incentives to encourage a range of needed health professionals to work in primary care settings, public health services, and in areas of workforce shortage.

– New Orleans is heavily uninsured. At about 24%, Cao’s district is 10% more uninsured than the national average. A Harvard study found that nearly 45,000 people die every year because of a lack of health insurance. Health reform will provide 31 million previously uninsured Americans with coverage, while ensuring those with coverage are never denied treatment because of their health status.

– Louisiana has a high level of infant mortalities, 9.8 per 1,000 live births. Health reform includes expanded prenatal care for low income women.

– Cao’s district has high rates of obesity and diabetes. Among many provisions aimed at decreasing chronic illness and promoting health lifestyles, health reform guarantees that all insurance companies offer free preventive care.

Despite promising to be an independent voice, Cao has now voted in lockstep against the stimulus, the President’s progressive budget, clean energy reform, financial reform, and health reform. Notably, shortly before the vote last night, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) hosted a $500-per-person fundraiser for him at the Capitol Hill Club.

Climate Progress

Study: “It is clear … that the precipitous decline in September sea ice extent in recent years is mainly due to the cumulative loss of multiyear ice.”

By Joe Romm on Mar 22, 2010 at 7:51 pm

Physicist: “If temperatures change just a few tenths of a degree then this oh-so-thin ice cap is doomed.”

Memo to media:  Ignore the misreporting on the Arctic that focuses on sea-ice extent or area.  The big Arctic news is the staggering decline in multiyear ice — ice volume. No study has yet been published undermining our understanding that human emissions are the primary cause of that long-term decline — a decline that shows no sign of reversal.

http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Arctic-Ice-Volume-.gif

The real news from the Arctic is the staggering decline in thicker, multi-year ice [red line] — as seen in the above figure from leading cryoscientists who authored the 2009 study, “Thinning and volume loss of the Arctic Ocean sea ice cover: 2003-2008″ (discussed here).  Studies that focus on trying to correlate sea ice extent (i.e. area) with variables that might reduce ice cover border on purely pointless right now because:

  1. Trends in multi-year ice — ice volume — are what matter most in terms of the long-term survivability of the Arctic ice in the summer (see New study supports finding that “the amount of [multi-year] sea ice in the northern hemisphere was the lowest on record in 2009″).
  2. It now appears that an unfortunate trick of Nature helped hide the ongoing decline of Arctic ice from satellite and other measurements — measurements that suggested two-dimensional recovery of sea ice extent in 2009.  See the study “Perennial pack ice in the southern Beaufort Sea was not as it appeared in the summer of 2009.”

Read more

Health

Doctors Take Charge Of Health Reform To Remake ‘The Fabric’ Of Their Profession

By Igor Volsky on Mar 22, 2010 at 7:42 pm

DFAThroughout the health care debate, the GOP relied on the doctors in their caucus to deliver the Republican talking points on reform. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John Barrasso (R-WY) became the party’s most prominent spokespeople against health care legislation, regularly referencing their medical credentials to pad their arguments. Coburn and Barrasso even hosted a twice-weekly internet doctors show to explain how reform would undermine patient care.

It’s unclear, however, how this strategy paid off. The rhetoric of Coburn, Barasso and Price was so extreme and contrasted so sharply with the tone of their professional organizations, it may have undermined the GOP effort. Consider, for instance, today’s appearance by Price on ABC’s Top Line:

PRICE: It will be destructive to the privately paying physicians. The doctors that you and I and virtually every American across this land sees for their routine challenges, for the specialty care that they receive, it will be destructive to the relationship to patients and the families of those doctors because the patient will not know any longer whether the doctor is doing what he or she believes is in the best interest of the patient or whether they’re doing what the government is telling them to do.

Listening to this, one wonders how long it took Price to memorize these arguments, because it’s hard to believe that he actually believes any of them. If you get the one bit of substance out of the way — the charge that the government will be making treatment decisions (which, as I’ve pointed out, is a gross interpretation of the provisions about comparative effectiveness) — his claims fall under the weight of their sensationalism. They’re also contradicted by almost every other group in the medical community.

The AMA, for instance, supports the bill for its expansion of coverage, new regulation of insurers and affordability measures. Doctors back the increase in payments to primary care providers under Medicaid, the loan forgiveness programs for primary care physicians who practice in undeserved areas and the increases in funding for the National Health Service Corp. They may be disappointed that the SGR fix isn’t part in the legislation or argue for stronger tort reform provisions, but they’re certainly not reading conspiracy theories about comparative effectiveness research or turning their backs to the significant access expansions.

This morning, Doctors for America — a group of over 16,000 physicians — held a march on Washington, calling on the Senate to finish the job and pass the reconciliation package. The event began with a kickoff and rally in Freedom Plaza and continued with a white coat and scrubs march to the White House. The doctors argued that the Senate bill, along with the reconciliation package, provided an important foundation to reforming the existing health care system and stressed the important role physicians can play in the process. “I think we are doing is we are re-making the fabric of our profession and we are doing it conversation by conversation, meeting by meeting, letter to the editor by letter to the editor,” Dr. Vivek Murthy, the groups’ founder, said. “I believe what we have done over these last few years, is usher in a new generation of practitioners…that is defined by spirit and vision.”

Indeed, we can only hope that future reforms will be informed by physicians who are doctors first and partisans second. Republican doctors have bombarded the health care debate, and it’s time for the “new generation of practitioners” to have their voices heard.

Update

Maggie Mahar points to Atul Gawande’s call to doctors in the New Yorker:

We as a nation—and in particular those of us in medicine—now have work to do to defend and deliver on this promise and to address the legitimate concerns about costs while making health care better for everyone. But that is the remarkable thing. We have finally been given the work to do.

Politics

Anti-Immigrant Leader’s Bodyguard Reportedly Assaulted Mimes Who Were Blowing ‘Hateful Whistles’ At DC Rally

By Andrea Nill Sanchez on Mar 22, 2010 at 7:00 pm

Yesterday, approximately 200,000 people gathered at the National Mall to show their support of comprehensive immigration reform. Roy Beck, director of the immigration restrictionist group, NumbersUSA, decided to add himself to the mix and report on the event via a live stream that was available on the group’s website. According to Anne Manetas of NumbersUSA, a group of female mimes threatened Beck and his bodyguards with “constant efforts at crushing physical intimidation” instigated by “blowing hateful whistles” and waving balloons. Watch NumbersUSA’s video of the hateful mimes:

However, that doesn’t explain why Beck’s bodyguard is the one who ended up being arrested and charged with assault yesterday. Lena Graber, one of the three mimes who pressed charges against Beck’s bodyguard, talked with Wonk Room this morning. Graber explains that she and four other mimes followed Beck and his crew around for four hours in an effort to prevent Beck from picking a fight with demonstrators. According to Graber, Beck’s bodyguard pulled out a pocket knife and started popping the mimes’ balloons. Graber cannot provide details on the assault charges filed by the other two mimes, but she did provide an account of what happened to her yesterday:

They were pretty aggressive and they would sort of elbow us out of the way and say “Don’t touch me” as they were doing so. One of the bodyguards had white makeup all over his elbow and he was all upset that the mimes had gotten makeup on him…but our makeup was on our faces and I wasn’t face-bunting anyone so I felt like that was more incriminating evidence than anything else.

We each started with about 15 balloons that were on ribbons and the taller bodyguard had a pocket knife and he would grab the balloons and pop them with the knife. And at one point when I still had a lot of balloons they were tied around my upper arm…and I felt this yank on my arm where they were tied around. And I turned and he was pulling on all of the ribbons…so that was the only time I talked, I said “OW, that hurts. That’s attached to my arm, stop that.” And he didn’t stop and so I screamed as loud as I could. [...]

Listen:

Graber also stated one of Beck’s cameramen remarked, “well, I guess I’ve never been followed around by five women all day — even better they’re not talking.” Another witness who did not want to be named confirmed Graber’s account and described the mimes’ behavior as “completely whimsical in nature — never threatening.” Both Graber and the witness confirmed that the “hateful whistles” were actually just small plastic whistles in the shape of a soccer ball.

Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change, one of the march’s organizers, tells Wonk Room:

“In pressing our case for immigration reform this year, one of our main efforts will be to be forcing our leaders to take sides – will they stand with hate mongers like Roy Beck or will they stand with hardworking Americans who want immigration reform. Our movement brought 200,000 people to Washington to press a message of hope and make our case peacefully and positively. The tea party brought a few hundred the day before to hurl racial epithets and slurs at Congress and the President. Roy Beck brought thugs — one of whom was arrested for assault — to a peaceful march. It’s time for our leaders to decide who they stand with.”

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, another restrictionist group, reports that Beck “filed assault charges with the Park Police against all the mimes and their SEIU handlers.” Aside from the alleged assault on behalf of Beck’s bodyguard, yesterday’s march was orderly and peaceful.

Cross-posted on the Wonk Room.

Security

Steele Agrees To Immigration Meeting After Grassroots Sit-In At RNC

By Andrea Nill Sanchez on Mar 22, 2010 at 6:40 pm

sitin copyToday, grassroots activists from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) staged a sit-in and rally at the Republican National Committee offices to demand a meeting with Chairman Michael Steele. Within 20 minutes, Steele agreed to schedule a meeting with the demonstrators on March 31st.

Meanwhile, on Fox News today, Steele implied that he’s been meeting with activists for the past seven to eight months — which seems hard to believe given the fact that FIRM advocates felt the need to stake out the offices of RNC headquarters in order to get the chairman to agree to a meeting. Nevertheless, Steele did indicate that he’s concerned about the way his party has presented itself on the immigration issue and affirmed that the GOP is a Party of assimilation and apple pie:

I have been having discussions with leadership and with activist groups around the country on the immigration issue now for about seven or eight months. I have been very concerned about how we are positioned rhetorically, as well as from a political and policy side to make sure that we are working with our leadership on the hill and activists on the ground.

We are the Party of assimilation. We are the Party that has always stood for welcoming people. We got away from that in 06 and 08 and paid a dear price for it as you know. We shouldn’t be in the business of alienating Americans, but welcoming them. And showing that this is the process that’s expected to come here. This is the door you come through, the paper you fill out. Have a piece of apple pie, sing the star-spangled banner and get to work.

Watch it:

Advocates are probably eager to meet with Steele on the more specific issue of finding another Republican co-sponsor for comprehensive immigration reform. Currently, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is the lone Republican working on an immigration reform bill with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Graham has repeatedly stated that will not allow the bill to be brought to the floor unless they can find another Republican co-sponsor. GOP volunteers haven’t exactly been forthcoming and FIRM is likely planning on lighting a fire under Steele. “The Republican Party must reject the obstructionist tactics that are alienating mainstream Americans and killing any hopes for a larger, more diverse party in the future,” states FIRM in its press release.

Though Steele is certainly seeking to soften the rhetoric of the Republican Party on immigration, it’s unclear if gentler words will lead to any action. Back in 2008, Steele affirmed that there would be no change in the Republican Party’s enforcement-only platform when it comes to immigration. According to Steele, at the time, “the GOP’s position on immigration is very much the position of many, many Hispanics who are in this country.” When polled, 87% of Latino voters said they would not vote for a congressional candidate who supported deportation policies.

Yglesias

Endgame

By Matthew Yglesias on Mar 22, 2010 at 6:14 pm

The lightbulb’s gone out:

— Anti-immigrant leader assaults mimes.

— White riot.

— The reconciliation sidecar contains crucial student loan reforms.

— Settlement construction undermines American credibility.

— Some interesting ideas from Judith Butler about war, grieving, and empathy.

— People are mostly treating it as a joke, but I think the hypothesis that financial markets would be less nutty if the field weren’t so male-dominated has a lot going for it.

I’m going to see Spoon tonight. Here’s “Written in Reverse”.

Security

David Cameron’s Euro-skepticism Could Spell Doom For The ‘Special Relationship’

By Max Bergmann on Mar 22, 2010 at 5:55 pm

cameron-euThe UK elections are quickly approaching and while for months the odds on favorite to win was conservative David Cameron, the polls are now tightening. However, should Cameron hold on and win, Britain’s place in Europe may be in the balance – and as a result so will the “special relationship” between the UK and the United States.

Cameron has marketed himself as a new type of Tory. He says he is socially progressive, concerned about the environment, and is a man of the people – think “compassionate conservative.” But when it comes to the European Union, Cameron has increasingly gone tea-party by aligning himself with the jingoistic views of Europe held by the UK’s far right. Last Fall, Cameron made the decision to pull the UK conservatives out of the mainstream conservative block in the European Parliament, choosing to align them with a rag-tag bunch of fringe right wing parties, some with deeply anti-semetic, anti-gay, and racist views. This move essentially condemns UK conservatives to irrelevancy in the European Parliament and Europe in general. What is troubling is that this was after all the entire point of Cameron’s decision, making it a thinly disguised effort to shore up his right flank politically by demonstrating his commitment to an anti-European agenda. But even if this is just electoral politics, David Gardner of the Financial Times warns:

The decision to withdraw from the EPP, moreover, was low on substance and high on opportunism. Mr Cameron needed to secure his right flank to assure he won the party leadership, so he tossed some red meat to the Tory backwoodsmen. They will be back for more.

A Cameron victory therefore will likely mean irrelevancy in Europe not just for the Tories but for the UK. Cameron’s decision to pull out of the conservative bloc, his efforts to block the Lisbon Treaty, and his calls for the UK to renegotiate its terms of membership in Europe, were all widely rebuked by European leaders. Should Cameron win and follow through on some of his promises it would essentially make the UK a fringe player in the 27-member European club.

The problem for the United States, however, is that Cameron’s anti-European stance would only serve to make Britain less relevant to the United States. The fact is that the UK is just not as relevant to the United States if it is on the sidelines of Europe.

British debates presenting UK relationships with the US and Europe, as competing alternatives offer a false and outdated choice. In case the UK hasn’t noticed, US policy toward Europe has shifted away from the divide and rule (old vs. new Europe) approach of the first Bush term. The US now wants Europe as a whole to do more globally, not less. As IHT’s Roger Cohen explained:

Euroskeptic Tory obsession could undermine British influence in Europe at a time when the Obama administration needs an effective E.U. partner.

This shift is also not isolated to Obama. The second term of the Bush administration placed more emphasis on rebuilding ties with European leaders like French President Nikolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Now, the UK-US relationship is still immensely important to the US – the UK has thousands of troops fighting alongside the US and Prime Minister Gordon Brown played a pivotal role in the global response to the international economic crisis – but there has been a noticeable shift in Washington’s attention toward the continent. Prior to the Iraq war, Tony Blair attempted to label Britain as a “pivotal power.” What he meant was that Britain played a crucial global role in its ability to act as interlocutor between the US and Europe. Yet the damage caused to UK-European relations in the wake of the Iraq war reduced the UK’s ability to play this role, which has also led to a subtle decline in the relative importance of the “special relationship” to Washington.

The UK press may clamor about the supposedly warm personal interaction between Obama and Cameron, but while personal rapport matters on some level, it certainly doesn’t compensate for growing international irrelevance. Without its place in Europe, Britain will still be an important and close ally for the U.S. But with its military forces increasingly depleted and looming cuts in defense spending due to stark budget deficits, a Euro-skeptic Britain certainly brings an underwhelming stack of chips to the special relationship.

Yglesias

Plebiscitary Democracy

By Matthew Yglesias on Mar 22, 2010 at 5:28 pm

As long as we’re talking about Napoleon, it’s worth emphasizing how odd it is that the right (and much of the center) has decided to adopt a strangely plebiscitary view of American democracy whereby if a narrow plurality of the public claims to believe that the bill is a bad idea it should be shot down. It’s true that this is grossly hypocritical but beyond that it’s really bizarre.

After all, suppose the federal government did operate along plebiscitary lines. Does anyone seriously doubt that Obama could have huddled with his advisors, drafted and released a plan last March, and won the plebiscite in April? Support for Obama’s plan wound up cratering specifically during the drawn-out legislative haggling. If we had a system that wasn’t all about haggling, this would have been a done deal long ago. The idea that the decision is supposed to be made by the hagglers is inherent to our haggling-intense legislative process.

Politics

Democratic Offices Vandalized In Days Surrounding Health Care Vote

By Amanda Terkel on Mar 22, 2010 at 5:24 pm

Rhetoric surrounding the health care debate has often been very violent, with Rep. Steve King (R-IA) just yesterday promising to “beat that other side to a pulp” and at least one Tea Party sign threatening gun violence if health care reform passes.

In recent days, several Democratic offices around the nation have also been vandalized. Although it’s unclear who the perpetrators are, all the incidents took place shortly before or after the House’s vote on health care yesterday:

– The glass front door of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ (D-AZ) Tuscon office was “smashed out” a “few hours after she voted in favor of health care reform.” Giffords’ spokesman C.J. Karamargin “said it was unclear if the glass had been shot out with a kind of pellet gun, if it had been kicked or smashed with an object. The door has been covered with plywood.”

– On the morning of March 19, someone threw a brick through the front window of Rep. Louise Slaughter’s (D-NY) Niagara Falls office. Monroe County Democratic Committee officials also said that a brick shattered the glass doors at their party’s headquarters in Rochester, NY on Saturday or Sunday.

In a more confusing incident, someone spray-painted the word “DORKS” on the window of the Knox County Democratic Headquarters in Mount Vernon, OH. ThinkProgress spoke to Jim Zak, Democratic Party chairman, who said that this morning, he received a call about the vandalism, which seems to have happened sometime after midnight last night. He said that he has “no idea who would have done it,” but noted that “things are running pretty high here in Knox County, as far as the health care reform bill was concerned.”

At the Code Red protest this weekend, Tea Party activists also spat on a lawmaker and shouted racist and homophobic slurs at others.

Vandalism

Update

Politics Extra reports, “Someone reportedly threw a fist-sized rock through the front window of the Hamilton County Democratic Party headquarters Sunday night after Congress passed the landmark health insurance overhaul. Caleb Faux, the party’s executive director, finds it hard to believe the incident wasn’t related to the legislation’s passing.”

Economy

Shelby Does Banks’ Bidding, Tries To Further Weaken Volcker Rule (UPDATED)

By Pat Garofalo on Mar 22, 2010 at 5:00 pm

The Senate Banking Committee is set to begin marking up Chairman Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) financial regulatory reform bill today, which means working through (or dismissing) 473 different amendments. Many of those are pointless GOP amendments meant to waste time — such as more than 50 changing the effective start date of the legislation — but others reflect the current Republican courtship of the banking industry.

For starters, many of them aim to mitigate Dodd’s attempts to rein in banks that are “too big to fail,” including preventing regulators from implementing higher capital standards on the very biggest financial institutions. And one in particular, proposed by the Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), would further weaken the already scaled-back “Volcker rule” in Dodd’s bill.

The Volcker rule — proposed by the Obama administration and named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker — would ban banks from engaging in trading for their own benefit (proprietary trading) with federally insured dollars. Dodd has already weakened the rule, taking the administration’s hard ban and allowing bank regulators more latitude in implementing it. But the banks want this watered down even further:

The current language in the draft says federal agencies “shall issue final regulations implementing” the Volcker rule…“We believe the regulators should have the discretion to deal with the situation on a company-by-company basis,” said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington-based trade group. “You can’t have a blanket prohibition on proven risk- management techniques.” When senators meet to debate changes, “our hope is that they change ‘must’ to ‘may,’” Talbott said.

And lo and behold, Shelby has amendments doing exactly that:


Amendment Number Sponsor Description
187 Shelby Amendment modifies Volker Rule language to provide greater discretion for
regulators
188 Shelby Amendment modifies source of strength language from a “shall” to a “may”, and includes a study

So Talbott, who represents the 100 largest financial firms in the country, asks and Shelby delivers! But as Volcker himself said, giving regulators too much leeway in implementing regulations leads to lax enforcement, when the banks lay their pressure on and complain that enforcement will cut into their bottom lines. “In my opinion, it’s very unlikely that the regulators and supervisors would evoke a strict prohibition until a crisis came and then it’s too late,” Volcker said. “Look, I’ve been a regulator for 20 years. So I know how they are.” Volcker advocated a strict legislative ban on proprietary trading with federally insured money that banks can’t escape.

But this is really par for the course for Republicans recently, as they have been hardly trying to hide their bank-friendly actions. Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told the banks to stand up to “punk staffers” writing new regulations, while Shelby himself added that bank profits always trump consumer protection.

Update

Republicans have decided to forego offering their amendments to Dodd’s bill in committee. Instead, the plan to simply oppose it and offer their amendments on the Senate floor.


Update

,Dodd’s bill passed the committee on a party-line vote of 13-10 and now moves to the floor.

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