President Obama Signs Reconciliation Act

Senate bill H R 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was passed on March 21, 2010 and signed into law on March 23, 2010.

Today, President Obama signed into law H R 4872, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which was passed by Congress on March 25, 2010.

From the White House:

"A Great Battle Pitting the Interests of the Banks and Financial Institutions Against the Interests of Students"

Today at Northern Virginia Community College, President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, the last step on health reform that provided fixes for some elements and which improved upon the core health reforms by increasing tax credits for the middle class, investing in community health centers, and strengthening efforts to fight waste and fraud. [...]

For a long time, our student loan system has worked for banks and financial institutions. Today, we’re finally making our student loan system work for students and our families. But we’re also doing something more.

From the moment I was sworn into office, I’ve spoken about the urgent need for us to lay a new foundation for our economy and for our future. And two pillars of that foundation are health care and education, and each has long suffered from problems that we chose to kick down the road.

With the bill I signed last week, we finally undertook meaningful reform of our health care system. With this bill, and other steps we’ve pursued over the last year, we are finally undertaking meaningful reform in our higher education system. So this week, we can rightly say the foundation on which America’s future will be built is stronger than it was one year ago.

President Obama Signs Historic Health Care and Education Legislation

This historic law:

• Invests more than $40 billion in Pell Grants to ensure that all eligible students receive an award and that these awards are increased in future years to help keep pace with the rising cost of college. These investments, coupled with the funding provided in the Recovery Act and the President’s first two budgets, will more than double the total amount of funding available for Pell Grants since President Obama took office.
• Ensures that Americans can afford their student loan payments by expanding the existing income-based student loan repayment program. New borrowers who assume loans after July 1, 2014, will be able to cap their student loan repayments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and, if they keep up with their payments over time, will have the balance forgiven after 20 years.

• Includes $2 billion over four years for community colleges to develop, improve, and provide education and career training programs.

Making Higher Education More Affordable

This legislation means $40 billion more dollars in the Pell Grant program to ensure that eligible students receive an award, and that awards increase to keep pace with rising tuition. And a $2 billion investment over four years for community colleges to develop, improve, and provide education and career training programs. Students will be able to choose to limit their student loan payments to 10% of their income, with any remaining balance forgiven after 20 years. And public service workers can have their loans forgiven after 10 years.

Because special interests have been benefiting from taxpayer subsidies for too long, we’re cutting out the middlemen by ending government subsidies currently given to banks and other financial institutions that make guaranteed federal student loans. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, ending these wasteful subsidies will free up nearly $68 billion for college affordability and deficit reduction over the next 11 years. So these investments are not only paid for, but they’ll reduce the deficit in the long run.

Because of the legislation enacted today, we’re finally undertaking meaningful reform to our education system and making college more affordable and accessible.

For more information on these federal student aid programs, please go to www.studentaid.ed.gov, or call 1-800-4FED-AID.

Remarks by the President and Dr. Jill Biden at Signing of Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act

Pennsylvania college wrong to single out fat students for mandatory course

Lincoln College, an historically African-American college in Pennsylvania, has announced that any student must past a BMI (body-mass index) test in order to graduate. If according to the BMI, the student is 'obese,' then the student must go through a fitness course before graduating, and if they fail to finish the fitness course then they don't get a diploma.

I don't even know where to begin pointing out how stupid this is.

First, it is insulting to people who are, after all, adults. A college is in the business of providing education. It's not up to them to be the fitness czar for their students. And frankly this could be humiliating for a lot of people.

Second, BMI is a single number which in fact does not measure very well what kind of shape a person is in. I guarantee you that the majority of players in the NFL have a BMI which would classify them as 'obese,' but they are not out of shape at all.

Third, the presumption here is that if a person is overweight then it is a fitness issue. But it may not be. It might be an issue involving metabolism, disease or genetics. There are a lot of reasons why people are overweight, and in some cases exercise might even make things worse (such as if the person has a disease which also puts stress on their heart.)

Fourth, if we do this then how far does this go? Will they require that smokers go through a smoking cessation course before they can graduate? If someone gets a parking violation on campus will they have to go to driving school? If someone studies a lot will they be required to attend a course on stress release? Will joggers have to take a course on proper podiatric care? Are they going to make students provide proof that they have gotten all their prescriptions filled? I mean, there are a lot of ways people can risk their health, and once you begin with this you may be opening a Pandora's box. Keep in mind too that this is a college that is making this requirement, not even a health agency (though I'd be against it if it were a health agency too.)

I understand that obesity is a problem, especially in the African-American community which this college serves but if the people in charge of the college want to do someting about it how about providing more physical education or nutrition courses and information that will be available to all students, but mandatory for none?

Economic Stimulus: That WAS The Whole Point

Lesson To Be Learned From the Stimulus Wrangling: The GOP Will Be Known By That Which They Destroy.

Clearly, it's hard for Republicans to change. All those GOP Congresspeople watched the election returns, and they also heard Barack Obama's inaugural speech. That's when he pointed out to them, "the ground has shifted." He explained that Americans "have chosen ... unity of purpose over conflict and discord [and] ... the time has come to set aside childish things." President Obama offered to "extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." (Well, that line ostensibly was directed at foreign leaders. But many fists are still clenched in Washington.)

What Does The ‘Gang Of Moderates’ Gain By Slashing Education Funding In The Stimulus?:

This compromise entails making devastating cuts to the proposed education funding in the bill, a significant portion of which is aimed at low-income, disadvantaged students. A draft of their proposed cuts includes:

- 50 percent of Title I funding, which goes to disadvantaged students ($6.5 billion)

- 50 percent of Head Start funding, which goes to low-income families ($1 billion)

- 50 percent of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding ($6.75 billion)

- 100 percent of state education stabilization funding ($24 billion)

Update: The Nelson and Collins gang is also proposing cuts in funding for Food Stamps, firefighter and police hiring, and child nutrition.

New ‘Gang of Moderates’ cuts target women and children again:

Eliminations:

Head Start, Education for the Disadvantaged, School improvement, Child Nutrition, Firefighters, Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, Prisons, COPS Hiring, Violence Against Women, NASA, NSF, Western Area Power Administration, CDC, Food Stamps

Senate Dems Compromise Away Best Parts of Recovery Plan:

In order to get the votes of two Republican (Maine's Susan Collins and Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter) and perhaps another (Mainer Olympia Snowe) that were needed to undermine the threat of a GOP filibuster, Reid surrendered $86 billion in proposed stimulus spending. In doing so, the Democrats agreed to cut not just fat but bone, and to warp the focus and intent of the legislation.

The Senate plan is dramatically more weighted than the House bill toward tax cuts (which account for more than 40 percent of the overall cost of the package). This is despite the fact that there is a growing consensus -- among even conservative economists and policy makers -- that tax cuts will do little or nothing to stimulate job creation in a country that lost almost 600,000 positions in January alone. [...]

The Senate's increased emphasis on tax cuts comes at the expense of the aggressive spending in key areas that might actually get a stalled economy moving.

Spending for school construction that would actually have put people to work -- while at the same time investing in the future -- has been slashed. (Almost $20 billion slated for school construction is gone.)

Money for Superfund cleanup, Head Start and Early Start child care, energy efficiency initiatives and historic preservation projects -- all of which create or maintain existing jobs -- has been cut.

Supplemental transportation funding has been hacked.

The House's proposal to help unemployed Americans maintain their health benefits has been chopped down.

Axed, as well, has been $90 million that was to have been allocated to plan for and manage a potential flu pandemic that economists and public health experts worry could shutter remaining businesses, bring the economy to a complete standstill and throw the country into a deep depression.

The bottom line is that, under the Senate plan:

* States will get less aid.

* Schools will get less help.

* Job creation programs will be less well funded.

* Preparations to combat potential public health disasters -- which could put the final nail in the economy's coffin -- will not be made.

In every sense, the Senate plan moves in the wrong direction.

At a time when smart economists are saying that a bigger, bolder stimulus plan is needed, Senate Democrats and a few moderate Republicans have agreed to a smaller, weaker initiative.

Senate centrists’ plan = 600,000 fewer jobs:

The Senate “centrists,” led by Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-NE), are cheering the fact that they’ve cut $86 billion in spending from the economy recovery package. “Spending for the states and education took the biggest hit, compared with the House bill. State fiscal stabilization funding was cut back $40 billion, school construction dropped $16 billion, and a proposed $3.5 billion line for higher education construction was zeroed out.”

Here's a list of what got cut by the Senate centrists.

The Nelson-Collins War On Green Jobs


Merrill Lynch Economist: Real Unemployment Rate is 13.9%:

When that amount of slack in employment is taken into account, Mr. Rosenberg found that the ‘real’ unemployment rate has actually climbed to 13.9%, an all-time high for the period he studied, and up from 13.5% in December and 11.2% a year ago.

Supporters Of $1.3 Trillion Bush Tax Cuts In 2001 Now Call $900 Billion Recovery Plan Billion ‘Too Much’:

Such objections are indeed ironic coming from some of the greatest advocates for President Bush’s $1.35 trillion tax cut package in 2001.

Unspinning the Right: the Rich Don't Really Bear Most of the Tax Burden:

Based on the cold facts of statistics and percentages, the poor are paying a greater share of their incomes.

Plunder and Blunder; How the 'Financial Experts' Keep Screwing You


John Cole: I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane.

Yup. It's literally impossible to be meaningfully and productively bipartisan with a party of crazies (Tom Coburn, Jim Inhofe, Jim DeMint, Jim Bunning--what's with all the crazy Jim's?), liars (Graham, Grassley, Thune, Chamblis), egomaniacs (McCain, Hatch, Kyl, Sessions) and idiots (pick 'em).

Lessons For Bloviating Bill

Send Bill O'Reilly Back to School

Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films:

It's back-to-school time! Parents are starting to shop for their children's school supplies: notebooks, pencils, crayons, and of course, Bill O'Reilly's book, "The O'Reilly Factor for Kids." Talk about one of these things being NOT like the others!

O'Reilly thinks he can teach our children proper behavior, and we can't think of a worse father figure than an angry, hate-filled shock jock notorious for telling guests to "Shut up!" We wondered what would happen if kids read O'Reilly's book and then saw the real O'Reilly for themselves. So we put together a video to illustrate O'Reilly's duplicity.

[ 2:43 ]

On Passage Of The 21st Century GI Bill

Sen. Jim Webb on White House's Embrace of his 21st Century GI Bill:

"For the past 17 months, I and my staff have been working every day to provide first-class educational benefits to those who have served since 9/11. I am delighted that after having opposed this legislation, the President has now pledged that he will not veto it when it comes before him as part of this year's supplemental appropriations package.

"The bill being sent to the President contains every provision in S. 22, which has received meticulous scrutiny and the full support of every major veterans' organization. It will pay for a veteran's tuition, books, and a monthly stipend, along the lines of the benefits given to those who returned from World War II. As such, it fulfills the pledge I made on my first day of office to provide today's veterans with the opportunity to move forward into an absolutely first-class future.

"I would like to again express my appreciation to the veterans' service organizations, many of whom communicated their support of this bill directly to a skeptical White House, and to the 58 Senate and 302 House cosponsors of this landmark legislation. This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.

"It has now been nearly seven years since 9/11 -- seven years since those who have been serving in our military began earning the right for a proper wartime GI Bill. I am looking forward to the President living up to his word, and signing this legislation at his earliest opportunity."

Sen. Jim Webb on the passage of 21st Century GI Bill:

“Today, the Senate took a final historic step toward a modern and fair educational benefit for the men and women who have served honorably since 9/11. This bill properly responds to the needs of those who answered the call of duty to our country—those who moved toward the sound of the guns—often at great sacrifice.

“Eighteen months ago, we began with the simple concept that those who have been serving since 9/11 should have the same opportunity for a first class educational future as those who served during World War II. Today, we have accomplished that goal.

McSame No Show:

As if trying to steal credit for Webb’s GI Bill wasn’t bad enough, McCain yesterday skipped the Senate vote on the legislation, which passed 92-6. The only other senator not present for the vote was Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who is battling a brain tumor. [snip]

McCain has not voted in the Senate since April 8 and has missed 367 votes (61.4 percent) during the current Congress.

McSame Flip Flop Pandering

McCain's Straight Talk & Support For the Military

BarbinMD, KOS:

...Throughout the course of this presidential campaign season, we’ve watched McCain pander for the evangelical vote, contradict himself on issues ranging from tax cuts to immigration, call himself the anti-lobbyist candidate while surrounding himself with lobbyists, vilify special interests despite his history of brokering deals for big-money contributors, denouncing 527 groups as he parrots their message, all while running as fast as he can from George Bush even as he embraces a stay the course X 100 Iraq policy.

The bottom line is, associating the words "straight talker" with John McCain is nothing short of laughable. Volumes could be written on the issues that he has flip flopped on, or the positions he has embraced in an effort to pander to a particular voting bloc, but today let’s focus on the John McCain whose devotion to the men and women of the military is unquestionable. [snip]

Time and again we are told that his support for the men and women serving in our military is unwavering and unquestionable, and that as someone who has sacrificed for his country, to question him somehow dishonors his own service. But as the saying goes, "facts are pesky things," so instead of relying on McCain's rhetoric, let's look at some of those facts:

• McCain has repeatedly voted against amendments in the Senate that would have...covered such important services as improving care at veterans’ hospitals, providing mental health services to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse problems. [2006 Senate Vote #7, 2/2/2006]
  
  
• In 2006, McCain voted against the Kerry amendment that would eliminate increased fees and co-payments for veterans in the TRICARE health care program by raising the discretionary spending limit by approximately $10 billion. The provisions would have been fully offset by eliminating creating corporate tax breaks. [2006 Senate Vote #67, 3/16/2006]
  
  
• McCain was one of only 13 Republicans to vote against an amendment that added over $400 million for inpatient and outpatient care for veterans. [2006 Senate Vote #98, 4/26/2006]
  
  
• McCain voted against increasing funding for veterans health care by $2.8 billion in 2006. [2005 Senate Vote #55, 3/16/2005]
  
  
• McCain joined his Republican Senate cohorts in opposing exempting all military personnel and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy cases. [2005 Senate Vote #13, 3/1/2005]
  
  
• McCain opposed an amendment that would reduce from 60 to 55 the age at which certain members of the National Guard and Army reserves could receive retirement benefits. [2004 Senate Vote #136, 6/23/2004]
  
  
• Senator McCain opposed $322 million in funding for "battlefield clearance and safety equipment for U.S. troops in Iraq." A reduction in Iraqi reconstruction funds would have funded the additional protection for troops in the battlefield. [2003 Senate Vote #376, 10/2/2003]
  
  
• McCain voted against an amendment that would increase spending on the veterans health care program TRICARE by $20.3 billion over 10 years to members of the National Guard and Reserves. The increase would be offset by a reduction in tax cuts. [2003 Senate Vote #81, 3/25/2003]
  
  

• McCain opposed an amendment that would have increased veterans spending by $13 billion from 1997-2002 to be offset by closing corporate tax preferences and reinstating expired taxes. [1996 Senate Vote #115, 5/16/1996]
  

The reality and the rhetoric of John McCain are at complete odds, yet the fact that McCain is a champion of the military is the unchallenged, conventional wisdom in the traditional media. Which brings us to McCain’s more recent opposition to Senator Jim Webb’s G.I. Bill of Rights (pdf), a bill that provides real educational benefits for veterans and that enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support. McCain’s objection? That providing the men and women who have risked their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq with the means to attend college when their service is complete might hurt retention rates in the military. All of this cuts right to the heart the problem with the media’s unwillingness to meaningfully challenge McCain on his issue...Iraq and his alleged support for the troops.

Air Force Association Endorses GI Bill

But McSame Still Does Not Support The Troops

Think Progress:

Air Force Association Endorses Webb’s GI Bill

...McCain’s record on veterans issues may have given the AFA pause. McCain has been a vocal opponent of the Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) 21st Century GI Bill. He offered his own watered-down version of the bill but shut out most veterans groups from the crafting of the legislation. Now the AFA and McCain have officially parted ways, with the AFA endorsing Webb’s bill, S.22:

Updating the bill to tie it to the current costs as proposed in S. 22 will help Airmen achieve a complete four-year education and thus a better quality of life after serving, while bolstering recruitment efforts throughout the military and helping lower post-military unemployment rates of veterans.

The AFA specifically urged providing “the full benefit to anyone who has served three years active duty,” a component of Webb’s bill McCain has rejected and the Pentagon has mocked.

McCain has claimed he has the support of “literally every veterans organization in America.” Yet the AFA is just one of many groups who object to McCain’s opposition to the GI Bill — a bill he found so unimportant he skipped the vote on it:

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

American Legion

Military Officers Association of America

Student Veterans of America

Veterans of Foreign Wars

This is only a partial list of the 15 veterans groups — not to mention the 30 governors — who have endorsed Webb’s bill.

Today's Lesson

New York teacher gives Democrats radio address

AP:

Democrats tapped a teacher from upstate New York to make the case that their party will do more for working Americans than Republicans will.

Jeff Alberici, an eighth-grade history teacher in Auburn, N.Y., was chosen to deliver the Democrats' Saturday radio address - an unusual choice for a weekly task usually performed by elected officials. [snip]

Alberici said he supports Democrats because they "understand what families like ours are going through, and they're trying to make things better."

Republicans, Alberici said, "haven't offered much of anything. In fact, Republicans are spending their time blocking Democrats from getting anything done at all," including several recent bills that Democrats contend would lower energy costs.

One bill that would have ended tax breaks for big oil companies and imposed a windfall tax on their profits was blocked by Senate Republicans. Days earlier, a bill aimed at curbing global warming was defeated.

"Republicans only want more of the same old ideas that got us into this mess in the first place," said Alberici. "More of the same isn't working for my family, and I bet it's not working for yours."

Senators Should Work For The People

As we keep Senator Ted Kennedy in our thoughts and prayers, and are grateful for the long history of all the good things he has done to better America and help its people, we hope that other Senators will follow with these ideals by also showing support for our troops:

Brandon Friedman, May 20, 2008:

We're launching an ad blitz today aimed at Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and John Cornyn (R-TX). If you've kept up with the news, you know that this has been a long time coming. We've listened to the debate go back and forth for months now, but the refusal of certain Senators to support the Webb-Hagel GI Bill can no longer be tolerated by veterans.

Senator John McCain, support the 21st Century GI Bill [:30]

Senator John Cornyn, support the 21st Century GI Bill [:30]

VoteVets.org:

This bill would update educational benefits for our troops to cover the cost of college – a benefit they’ve earned. Unfortunately, Senators John McCain and John Cornyn oppose this legislation, which could split the Senate.

Senators McCain and Cornyn, show respect and support the troops and sign on to The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (S.22 & H.R.2702).

Support the troops, and support the 21st Century GI Bill.

Evolution Case Withdrawn

School board gives up evolution sticker case

ATLANTA -- A suburban school board that put stickers in high school science books saying evolution is "a theory, not a fact" abandoned its legal battle to keep them Tuesday after four years.

The Cobb County board agreed in federal court never to use a similar sticker or to undermine the teaching of evolution in science classes.

In return, parents who sued over the stickers agreed to drop legal action.

The school board placed the stickers inside the front cover of biology books in 2002 after some other parents complained that evolution was being taught to the exclusion of other theories, including a literal reading of the biblical story of creation.

A federal judge ordered the stickers removed in 2005, saying they amount to an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

The school board appealed, but a federal appeals court sent the case back, saying it didn't have enough information.

"We faced the distraction and expense of starting all over with more legal actions and another trial," said board chairwoman Teresa Plenge.

"With this agreement, it is done and we now have a clean slate for the new year."

AP - Source: Detroit Free Press