Question of the Day - November 24, 2006
November 24th, 2006How should the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Bush tax-cuts resulting in $3 trillion of additional National Debt be paid for?
Low Food Security
November 23rd, 2006
Each day I receive an e-mail from the History Channel indicating significant events that happened on this date in history.This morning one of the dates used was November 21, 1980 and the historical event was 350 million people, worldwide, sat around their TV sets waiting to find out who killed J.R. Ewing on the TV series Dallas.
The comparison between what happened in this country 25-plus years ago, and what is happening now is astronomical.
When the historians go back in time and write about the significant events that happened on November 21, 2006, I doubt they will include anything about the Washington Post article Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Wont Call Them Hungry
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501621.html
The USDA report indicates 35 million Americans (12% of the population) were not able to put food on the table for at least part of 2005. Of the 35 million, eleven million stated there were periods when they were hungry.The following is from the USDA Report http://www.USDA.gov
How Many People Lived in Food-Insecure Households?In 2005, 35 million people lived in food-insecure households, including 12.4 million children.
Of these individuals, 7.6 million adults and 3.2 million children lived in households with very low food security.
Childrens food security is affected to some extent in most food-insecure households (see the ERS report, Food Assistance Research BriefImportance of Children Nutrition Programs to Agriculture).
However, children are usually protected from substantial reductions in food intake even in households with very low food security. In 2005, 606,000 children (0.8 percent of the Nations children) lived in households with very low food security among children.
How does the Superpower solve the hunger problem in the US?
We change the wording in the report. USDA will no longer use the word hungry to describe people without food, instead the term “very low food security” will be used to describe this group of Americans.
If we use the term “very low housing security” to describe the Katrina victims that still have no place to live, “very low medical security” to describe the estimated 100-million people unable to afford complete health insurance, and “very low food security” to describe the 35-million without sufficient food, that doesnt sound nearly as serious as saying Americans are homeless, without medical insurance and going hungry.
The health and well being of the citizens of this country should take precedence over any other expenditure.
Perhaps this is the way our country intends to fight off the draft - if you’re homeless, hungry, without health insurance and without a job that pays a sufficient amount to support your family, you are much more likely to volunteer for our “all volunteer Army” aren’t you?
Question of the Day - November 25, 2006
November 25th, 2006
US District Court Judge Edon Fallon, ruled on November 23, 2006, that all federal suits involving the arthritis painkiller Vioxx cannot be combined into a class action lawsuit.
Vioxx, manufactured by Merck & Co., was withdrawn in 2004 after clinical trials indicated people taking Vioxx had a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.
A class action lawsuit could conceivably cost Merck billions of dollars, while individual lawsuits will undoubtedly end up costing the pharmaceutical giant far less as the rate of loss on individual cases has been running 50/50.
When, it is a known fact that a prescription medication causes strokes and heart attacks in some patients taking the drug, should the public be allowed to sue in a class-action suit or should they be forced to file individual lawsuits against the drug manufacturer?
Connecting the Condi Dots
November 25th, 2006The Healthcare Battle
November 19th, 2006
By Richard W Walrath and Patricia L Johnson
“Where is the [political] party that says it’s going to do something about the 100 million people in this country who have no health insurance or are on Medicaid because they’re considered too poor to afford it? … That 100 million people represents one-third of the population of this country. What was it FDR said about one-third of the country being “ill-housed, ill-fed and ill-clothed?” *That’s where we are right now. - Walrath 11-13-2006“
How can that be? How can one-third of the people in this country be without health insurance?
Each year the Census Bureau prepares a report on the number of uninsured for the previous calendar year. The 2005 report released in August of 2006, indicates out of 293,834,000 there are only 46,577,000 people uninsured in this country, or 15.9% of the population. http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p60-231.pdf
15.9% of the population seems a relatively low figure, until you dig deeper.
The Census Bureau report breaks the number of insured into two sections; private coverage and government coverage.
Private coverage includes employees who have medical insurance plans through their employers, through their unions, or have purchased health insurance policies from private companies.
Government coverage includes people covered by Medicare, Medicaid, Military Health Care (Champus/Tricare, ChampVA, Department of Veterans Affairs and those in the military), SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) and individual state health plans.
Medicaid is a federal program that provides medical coverage to many groups of people who otherwise would not be able to afford medical treatment. Many factors, including age, pregnancy, disability, income and resources are involved in determining Medicaid eligibility and the rules for counting income and resources vary from state to state and from group to group. In addition, there are special rules for people in nursing homes and for disabled children living at home.
Health insurance is a type of insurance where the insured pays a premium for coverage, and the insurer pays the medical costs if the insured person becomes sick or injured. While Medicare recipients fall into this category due to premiums paid by some for Medicare Part A, and Part B, Medicaid recipients do not.
Therefore, if we take the 47 million [46,577,000] that we know are uninsured, and add the 38 million [38,134,000] that we know have Medicaid coverage we’re already up to 85 million without actual health insurance (84,711,000).
If we add to that the number of veterans who are treated at VA facilities and are not charged co-payments due to falling into a low-income category, and add ChampVa beneficiaries and other groups that do not pay actual premiums for medical coverage, we are well over the 100-million mark.
There is little doubt in the correlation between income and insurance coverage when you look at the following statistics. With each rise in family income, the number of uninsured people decreases.
| 2005 Family Income |
Total |
Uninsured |
Percent |
| Less than $25,000 |
70,478,000 |
18,836,000 |
26.7 |
| $25,000 to $49,999 |
72,963,000 |
13,933,000 |
19.1 |
| $50,000 to $74,999 |
55,258,000 |
6,856,000 |
12.4 |
| $75,000 or more |
95,136,000 |
6,952,000 |
7.3 |
| All |
293,834,000 |
46,577,000 |
15.9 |
Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau
*“ill-housed, ill-fed and ill-clothed” is from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, January 11, 1944 State of the Union Address to Congress as follows: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=16518
“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people – whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth – is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed, and insecure.”
Insecurity is running rampant in our country. People haven’t caught on yet, but along with almost no increase in wages in the last ten years, health insurance premiums have almost doubled. People have actually been taking cuts in pay in order to stay insured.
But, it’s even worse than that. With millions of jobs being exported during this period and an expanding number of immigrants who often work for below minimum wage, the squeeze on the middle class grows more critical each day.
Meanwhile, as always, the rich get richer and the poor get children and poorer
And Then Again…
November 22nd, 2006Think about a draft again — guess what? It does make sense. The chances of anybody not in service now going to Iraq are just about zero — about the same as being killed by a “tourist” attack. But if there’s a draft, your chances definitely just went up. I mean YOUR chances — not the guy’s across the street. If you’re too old to have to worry about this, your sons and grandsons do have to worry about a draft. Yes, we should all be doing more about the war. Joan and I have three grandsons, all draft-age, and none in service. Would we be more worried if there was a draft? You know it. - Walrath 11-22-2006
When Less is More
November 22nd, 2006It’s obvious that George Bush, the Repugnants and the damn Dems are all deathly afraid of having another Vietnam hung around their necks. The American people are against the draft, Republicans and Democrats are against the draft, but somehow, they all seem to agree that the thing to do is send in more troops.Where in the hell do they and John McCain think more troops are going to come from? Britain’s Tony Blair calls the war a disaster, then says he was misinterpreted — he meant to say it was a castrophe. Walrath 11-22-2006
Blind Man’s Bluff
November 21st, 2006There’s going to be a lot of bluffing going on when the 110th Congress shows up for work. Mitch McConnell, the new Minority Leader in Senate, threatens to stall legislation if Bush’s right-wing judge picks are blocked. Is McConnell blind? Someone should tell him his team lost. How much is that threat worth? Not as much, probably, as an on-going investigation and the threat of impeachment.The media won’t pick up on what’s really going on as witnessed by all the made-up hokum about how Nancy Pelosi lost big by not getting John Murtha into the number-two leadership postion in the House.
If the media wanted to do their homework, they would start making a list of all the things in the last six years that the Dems are going to start investigating. They’d be ready then when a big story breaks. Walrath 11-21-2006
Question of the Day - November 26, 2006
November 26th, 2006
On November 17, 2006, the DoD [1169-06] announced the following major units, consisting of approximately 20,000 service members, are scheduled to deploy to Iraq in early 2007 as part of scheduled rotation:
- 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, Fort Stewart, GA
- 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, KS
- 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, WA
- 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, GA
- 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC
- 173rd Airborne Brigade, Vicenza, Italy
Another 27,000 active duty and 10,000 reserve troops were also put on alert for deployment beginning in 2007.
The 1st Brigrade, 3rd Infantry Division is about to go back to Iraq for a third tour of duty http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15898612/
How many tours of duty do you think members of our military should be forced to serve, in a war zone?
Question of the Day - November 27, 2006
November 27th, 2006
Recently a TV crew interviewed several residents of a Chicago suburb. The residents were complaining about homes that had been purchased by the Salvation Army. When you think of a complaint, you generally think about people complaining about run-down conditions, etc.
Not this time – these residents were complaining about the money the Salvation Army spent on housing for their members.
The least expensive home cost $450,000.00 and the cost for the four homes combined totaled $1.9 million.
MSNBC has a new article “Federal fund gives millions to charity tax cheats” indicating some charities have been provided with an exemption from paying delinquent IRS taxes. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15832673/
U.S. Charities, due to their non-profit status, pay very little in income taxes. When taxes are due, shouldn’t they be required to pay just like anyone else? Do you feel US charities should be exempt from paying delinquent taxes owed to the IRS?