President Bush visited central Ohio today. The San Jose Mercury News said "Bush visits Ohio to boost state GOP." The only things that could improve this state would be to get the entire corrupt Republican Party out of leadership positions and a Democratic majority in the state legislature. The Republican culture of corruption pageant continues to grow in size with the addition of Jim Petro being investigated by the FBI.
The Durant Democrat has Brian Rothenberg's reply to the president's message:
...Brian Rothenberg, communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party, said Ohio was an odd place for Bush to push health savings accounts because the state recently has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs, which often have comprehensive medical insurance benefits.
"Try telling somebody who is underemployed, or working at Wendy's, that they should put money in a health savings account," he said. "That's not a partisan issue. That's a practical issue. ... Why he would come to a place that's bleeding jobs like Ohio and talk about health care is beyond me."
In pushing health savings accounts, Bush said people will become more responsible shoppers because they'll pay more of the initial costs of their health care. But there's a catch:
To qualify, a person also must buy a separate health insurance policy with a high deductible. Such policies require individuals to pay the first $1,050 in medical expenses a year; families have to pay the first $2,100. Some policies carry higher deductibles.
Bush wants to let consumers put enough money in their health savings accounts to cover all their health insurance costs, not just the deductibles, as provided by current law. This would allow them to set aside more money tax-free.
But Democrats argue that the accounts don't help those in need. They say it takes money to pay premiums on the high-deductible insurance policies, and that the working poor do not have extra money to set aside in the accounts....
Thanks, but no thanks.