Wednesday, March 17, 2010

For the Common Good-- Pass the Health Care Reform Bill!

It appears that another group of teachers in the state are questioning Republican John Kasich's plan to eliminate the state income tax.

WYTV.com:

The president of the Northeast Ohio Education Association is not happy with John Kasich, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor.

Jeff Pegg feels public school budgets across the state would be cut by millions of dollars if Kasich were elected, since he wants to lower taxes.....

....He cited Youngstown in particular: "The Youngstown City Schools, their district operates off a $79.9 million budget. It would be cut to $54.7 million."

Those kinds of cuts would be horrible. Unfortunately, Kasich continues to refuse to talk about his planned cuts until later ---- after the election.


*** To those still opposed to health care reform, let me give you a piece of advice:

Listen to the nuns!!!!

The Boston Globe:

....A coalition of 59,000 nuns released a letter yesterday calling on Congress to approve the overhaul, defying the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes the measure. The Catholic Health Association, which represents 1,200 Catholic hospitals, has endorsed the package, as have Catholics United and Catholic groups promoting social justice.

That split mirrors a division among some antiabortion US representatives. In preparing to cast perhaps one of the most important votes on a domestic issue in their careers, they are wrestling with questions that strike at the core of their beliefs and that threaten to embolden voters in November....

....“Health care is a central theme in the teaching of Catholic social justice,’’ said Representative Richard E. Neal, a Springfield Democrat and Catholic with a moderately antiabortion voting record. “This chance will not avail itself for another decade, and the status quo is unacceptable.’’

Exactly! Pass the bill!

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*** TPM has the Republican take on the use of "deem and pass." Apparently, the Republicans have amnesia about their own use of the "deem and pass" in previous sessions.

Norman Ornstein has some information about David Dreier's use of "deem and pass" in his piece posted at blog.american.com:

....I can’t recall a level of feigned indignation nearly as great as what we are seeing now from congressional Republicans and their acolytes at the Wall Street Journal, and on blogs, talk radio, and cable news. It reached a ridiculous level of misinformation and disinformation over the use of reconciliation, and now threatens to top that level over the projected use of a self-executing rule by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from 2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of “deem and pass.” That strategy, then decried by the House Democrats who are now using it, and now being called unconstitutional by WSJ editorialists, was defended by House Republicans in court (and upheld). Dreier used it for a $40 billion deficit reduction package so that his fellow GOPers could avoid an embarrassing vote on immigration...

What goes around comes around.