NY Times offers examples of what we could buy if the Bush Era Tax Cuts for The Wealthy were allowed to expire

From the NY Times Blog By The Numbers
What Else Would $60 Billion Buy?

$60 Billion: The approximate amount that extending the Bush tax cuts on income above $250,000 a year — which Congress seems on the verge of doing — will cost a year, in inflation-adjusted terms. On average, the affluent households that benefit from these cuts will save $25,000 annually. What else might that $60 billion a year buy?

•As much deficit reduction as the elimination of earmarks, President Obama’s proposed federal pay freeze, a 10 percent cut in the federal work force and a 50 percent cut in foreign aid — combined.

•A tripling of federal funding for medical research.

•Universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, with relatively small class sizes.

•A much larger troop surge in Afghanistan, raising spending by 60 percent from current levels.

•A national infrastructure program to repair and upgrade roads, bridges, mass transit, water systems and levees.

•A 15 percent cut in corporate taxes.

•Twice as much money for clean-energy research as suggested by a recent bipartisan plan.

•Free college, including room and board, for about half of all full-time students, at both four- and two-year colleges.

•A $500 tax cut for all households.

President’s Suprise Afghanistan Visit; President and The Troops Cheer Each Other On

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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — In a rousing holiday-season visit, President Barack Obama on Friday told cheering U.S. troops in Afghanistan they’re succeeding in their vital mission fighting terrorism. But after he flew in secrecy for 13 hours to get here, foul weather kept him from nearby Kabul and a meeting to address frayed relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai

Obama’s surprise visit to the war zone, his second as president, came 10 days before he is to address the nation about a new review of U.S. strategy to defeat the Taliban and strengthen the Afghan government so American troops can begin leaving next year.

The trip also came at a particularly awkward moment in already strained U.S. relations with Afghanistan because of new and embarrassing leaked cables alleging widespread fraud and underscoring deep American concerns about Karzai.

There was no mention of that as the president spoke to more than 3,500 service members packed into a huge airplane hangar. After his remarks, he spent more than 10 minutes shaking hands, going around the hangar three times as they grabbed his hand and held cameras and cell phones high to take photos.

Obama stayed on this U.S. military base, the headquarters of the 101st Airborne Division, the entire time he was here, just under four hours. He huddled with U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. And he visited wounded soldiers at a base hospital, personally dispensing five Purple Hearts to wounded service members.

“Because of the progress we’re making, we look forward to a new phase next year, the beginning of the transition to Afghan responsibility,” Obama told the troops. He thanked them for their efforts, noting the difficulty in being away from home during the holidays, and they repeatedly cheered him in return.

He said the U.S. was continuing “to forge a partnership with the Afghan people for the long term.” And he said, “we will never let this country serve as a safe haven for terrorists who would attack the United States of America again. That will never happen.”

Read More Here

Pictures courtesy of White House Photographer Pete Souza

The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger VS. Big Oil. Brilliant!

Must see TV. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger calls out big oil, tea party financiers and the corporate money being thrown around his state in an attempt to thwart Proposition 23 in California.

From Climate Progress:

Texas oil companies have taken advantage of California’s quirky initiative system to place Proposition 23 on the ballot. This proposition has one purpose: to undo California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (also known as Assembly Bill 32, or “A.B. 32”), which stands as a landmark piece of bipartisan clean energy legislation and is a model for federal action. A.B. 32 has catalyzed billions of dollars in private sector investment in clean energy in the state—creating jobs, businesses, and new technologies that are leading the nation toward a cleaner energy future.

“Oil Companies Like Velero and Tesero and Frontier and Koch Industries are blatantly trying to manipulate the will of the people and the public good.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Watch the whole clip for more from the Govenator on these companies and their tactics. Millions of dollars tossed around like pocket change while Americans continue to struggle.

FEAR vs HOPE

President Obama took on the GOP and Senator John Boehner (R-OH) in Cleveland in his continued fight for the middle class today. Today the President reminded us exactly why we elected him to lead our country.

He spoke of the disaster and misguided proposal of the GOP to grant permanent, budget-busting tax cuts to the wealthiest Americansand elaborated on his own proposals.

Some notable portions:
I know that folks are worried about the future. I know there’s still a lot of hurt out here. And when times are tough, I know it can be tempting to give in to cynicism and fear and doubt and division -– and just settle our sights a little bit lower, settle for something a little bit less. But that’s not who we are, Ohio. Those are not the values that built this country.

We are here today because in the worst of times, the people who came before us brought out the best in America. Because our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents were willing to work and sacrifice for us. They were willing to take great risks, and face great hardship, and reach for a future that would give us the chance at a better life. They knew that this country is greater than the sum of its parts -– that America is not about the ambitions of any one individual, but the aspirations of an entire people, an entire nation.

That’s who we are. That is our legacy. And I’m convinced that if we’re willing to summon those values today, and if we’re willing to choose hope over fear, and choose the future over the past, and come together once more around the great project of national renewal, then we will restore our economy and rebuild our middle class and reclaim the American Dream for the next generation.

Near the end:
A few weeks ago, the Republican leader of the House came here to Cleveland and offered his party’s answer to our economic challenges. Now, it would be one thing if he had admitted his party’s mistakes during the eight years that they were in power, if they had gone off for a while and meditated, and come back and offered a credible new approach to solving our country’s problems.

But that’s not what happened. There were no new policies from Mr. Boehner. There were no new ideas. There was just the same philosophy that we had already tried during the decade that they were in power — the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: Cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations.

Instead of coming together like past generations did to build a better country for our children and grandchildren, their argument is that we should let insurance companies go back to denying care for folks who are sick, or let credit card companies go back to raising rates without any reason. Instead of setting our sights higher, they’re asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth and eroding competitiveness and a shrinking middle class.

Cleveland, that is not the America I know. That is not the America we believe in. A lot has changed since I came here in those final days of the last election, but what hasn’t is the choice facing this country. It’s still fear versus hope; the past versus the future. It’s still a choice between sliding backward and moving forward.

It doesn’t take a genius or financial wizard to understand that tax cuts for the top 2% in our country does nothing to help the rest of Americans. Just look back over the last 8 years since the Bush Tax cuts for the wealthy went into effect what it has done to our economy.

Anthony Weiner calls out the GOP on their unwillingness to help victims of 9/11

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) became furious at his GOP colleagues during a debate over a 9/11 victims compensation bill. The bill would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust. (July 30) GOP voted against more funding for these people.

When will members of Congress start voting on behalf of the Americans that voted them into office? Is the desire to keep your party in power so important you’re willing to stop progress? Is the money that intoxicating you’re willing to watch your country go down in flames?

Don’t the victims of 9/11 or the clean up workers deserve proper treatment?

Do the American voters deserve better that what you’re willing to give?

Are we no longer important?

Now is the time for Americans to show their importance. Without us not a one of these empty souls would have their cushy jobs with benefits paid for by the very Americans they continue to oppress.

In November we must show them that we want members of Congress working for us, not the big corporations, not their pocketbooks, not for big interest, not for partisan party sake.

Time to work for us! We put you in………….we can take you out.

Historic Health Care Reform Signed by The President

Patrick Kennedy left a note for his father the late Ted Kennedy

So What does this mean for Americans? Well for starters we know this much.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health insurance market reforms that will bring immediate benefits to millions of Americans, including those who currently have coverage. The following benefits will be available in the first year after enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Access to Affordable Coverage for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will provide $5 billion in immediate federal support for a new program to provide affordable coverage to uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Coverage under this program will continue until new Exchanges are operational.
Re-insurance for Retiree Health Benefit Plans. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will create immediate access to re-insurance for employer health plans providing coverage for early retirees. This re-insurance will help protect coverage while reducing premiums for employers and retirees.

Closing the Coverage Gap in the Medicare (Part D) Drug Benefit The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will reduce the size of the “donut hole” by raising the ceiling on the initial coverage period by $500 in 2010.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will also guarantee 50 percent price discounts on brand-name drugs and biologics purchased by low and middle-income beneficiaries in the coverage gap.

Small Business Tax Credits
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will offer tax credits to small businesses to make employee coverage more affordable.
Tax credits of up to 50 percent of premiums will be available to firms that choose to offer coverage.

Extension of Dependent Coverage for Young Adults
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will require insurers to permit children to stay on family policies until age 26.

Free Prevention Benefits
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will require coverage of prevention and wellness benefits and exempt these benefits from deductibles and other cost-sharing requirements in public and private insurance coverage.

No Arbitrary Limits on Coverage
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will prohibit insurers from imposing lifetime limits on benefits and will restrict the use of annual limits.

Protection from Rescissions of Existing Coverage
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will stop insurers from rescinding insurance when claims are filed, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact.

Prohibits Discrimination Based on Salary
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will prohibit group health plans from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that have the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees.

Ensuring Value for Premium Payments
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will establish standards for insurance overhead to ensure that premiums are spent on health benefits. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will also require public disclosure of overhead and benefit spending and require premium rebates for insurers that exceed established standards for overhead expenses.

Public Access to Comparable Information on Insurance Options
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will enable creation of a new website to provide information on and facilitate informed consumer choice of insurance options.
Health Insurance Consumer Information. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will provide assistance to States in establishing offices of health insurance consumer assistance or health insurance ombudsman programs to assist individuals with the filing of complaints and appeals, enrollment in a health plan, and, eventually, to assist consumers with resolving problems with tax credit eligibility.

Clear Summaries, Without the Fine Print
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will require insurance companies to outline coverage options using a simple and standard format that enables consumers to make an apples-to-apples comparison when they are choosing their health insurance plan.

Appeals Process
Under The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, all health plans will implement an effective appeals process for appeals of coverage determinations and claims.

Administrative Simplification
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, all health plans will adopt uniform descriptions of plan benefits and appeals procedures and will use uniform forms and claims processing processes to reduce costs.

To see more of what this bill does………….

The White House offers an interactive guide to the bill and how it will affect you ‘Putting Americans in Control of Their Health Care’.

The New York Times also has a great interactive guideline ‘How the Health Care Overhaul Could Affect You’

Who Is The President Fighting For? Us – That’s Who!

Click the First Picture To View in A Separate Slide show

To View More or To Add Yours Visit The I’m Here For Project

President Obama breaks 44-year-old record for Congressional support.

While you won’t hear this reported by the mainstream media, it turns out President Obama has yet again broken another record in the first year of his historic Presidency.

Not since 1953 has another sitting President accomplished what President Obama has now done. The last and only other sitting President to also set this record was none other than Lydon Johnson.

What record might that be?

According to a study completed by Congressional Quarterly, a sister publication to Congress.org:

President Obama set a new record last year for getting Congress to vote his way, according to an annual study by Congressional Quarterly.

In his first year in office, Obama won 96.7 percent of the votes on which he had clearly staked a position.

That was a bit less than 4 percentage points higher than the previous record, set by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

Congressional Quarterly, a sister publication to Congress.org, has compiled statistics on presidential support since 1953. Editors select the votes based on clear statements by the president or authorized spokesmen before the vote.

In all, Congress took 151 votes in which Obama had taken a position ahead of time.

His wins included votes for creating a massive economic stimulus package, bailing out the auto industry, letting the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco and confirming Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

But they also included key moves toward overhauling the health care system, regulating financial services and reducing greenhouse gases which have not yet passed both chambers of Congress.

That unfinished work will be taken up in the second session, which begins Tuesday. Obama’s ultimate success will depend on how well his second year in office goes.

“If this Congress passes both health care reform and climate change legislation on top of the economic stuff, it will go down as a historic achievement,” says Rich Fleisher, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York City. “But unless they continue to manage the agenda in a way that is very, very careful, that could all fall apart.”

In the House, Obama won 68 votes and lost four.

Among the losses: a vote to disapprove further spending on a bank bailout and a July vote to pass a food safety overhaul. Both were temporary setbacks since Congress eventually ended up supporting the president’s position.

In the Senate, Obama won 78 votes and lost one.

The Republican win there came on an amendment which would have barred spending money to transfer detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to the United States. In the end, the bill allowed the transfer under certain conditions.

To build this record, Obama relied heavily on Democratic majorities with only occasional support from the GOP. As in the health care overhaul, he also had to keep the entire Democratic caucus in the Senate in line.

“How you begin to understand his success is as a triumph of party government,” says Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Minnesota. “He’s got the large and unified majorities, and those are the enabling conditions for his record high support score.”

This is much different from President Johnson, who achieved the previous record by overcoming a divided Democratic caucus.

Agree or not, this is change you can not only believe in but find proof of. Given the time Obama will prove to be a President of great moral character determined to inspire Americans to get involved in government again. Whether he will be successful still remains, but he seems to have gotten off to a good start.