Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and broadminded, the other intolerant and narrow-minded!
Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND BROADMINDED USA
PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, et al reside in the other America!
Jennifer Granholm electrified the Democratic National Convention crowd
Thursday with a bold, energetic, and above all loud speech that took direct aim at Republican nominee Mitt Romney. (Watch above.)
The former Michigan governor hardly seemed to need the microphone in front of her as she shouted her words to a fired-up audience.
"I'm Jennifer Granholm, from the great state of Michigan, where the trees are just the right height," she began, in a reference to one of Mitt Romney's more inexplicable comments from the campaign trail. (Granholm winked after the remark to drive home the point.)
Then she went after Romney's business record. "How did he make that fortune? And at whose expense? You know too often he made it at the expense of middle-class Americans. Year after year, it was profits before people." This, she said, contrasts with President Barack Obama, who "saved more than 1 million American jobs" with the auto rescue.
"But it wasn't just Michigan" that benefited she continued, gaining steam. "In Colorado, the auto rescue saved more than 9,000 jobs! In Virginia, more than 19,000 jobs!"
As the crowd broke into loud cheers, Granholm continued to yell out state job numbers until she arrived at Michigan ("211,000 good-paying, American jobs!") After a few more remarks, and with the crowd in a frenzy, Granholm stepped away from the podium and pumped her fist repeatedly, pro-athlete style. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/jennifer-granholm-speech-democratic-convention_n_1863181.html
So, in short, little Zoe Lihn will die if Romney is elected president. Stacy lihn's speech was poignant and Real, it was a glimpse behind the Republican “Rah Rah Shish Koom Bah” rhetoric of ending Obamacare to make sure insurance companies get to, once again, choose who will live and who will die. People like Stacy and Zoe are Real and live with Real heartache, Real suffering and Real sorrow. But to Romney, Ryan and his Teapublicans, these people are invisible; their right-wing plans never mention the hearts that beat inside human beings who become victims of a cruel system. Hey, Mr. Romney I hope you were able to see Little Zoe last night, perhaps if you did hear her story, you might realize she is Real and deserves so much more than what your cold, uncaring heart is willing to give her. thinkingblue
Stacey Lihn to address the convention Tuesday night.Her daughter Zoe was born with a heart defect, but can now get the care she needs.
At 6 months old, Zoe was halfway to her lifetime cap.
But because the Affordable Care Act prohibits health plans from setting a lifetime dollar limit on most benefits, Zoe can now live a life without limits.
Lihn and her husband have been taking their daughter to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for treatment.
She was diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
It's fatal without early intervention and requires three open-heart surgeries over several years.
Lindsey Graham: 'It's Really American' To Avoid Taxes Like Mitt Romney Does
WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney shouldn't be criticized for using off-shore tax havens because "it's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has come under fire for stashing assets overseas in places like Bermuda and Switzerland.
Graham argued that Congress is responsible for tax avoidance because it has crafted such convoluted rules and said he was fine with Romney's taking advantage of the loopholes.
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"It's a game we play," Graham said. "Every American tries to find the way to get the most deductions they can. I see nothing wrong with playing the game because we set it up to be a game."
Now, we who THINK, have to go around spreading the Truth to counteract their lies. I wish the good people of America would not be so easily fooled into becoming Teapublican stooges and vote against their own best interests. Please watch Al Sharpton on Political Nation to get the facts. I wish it was that easy, but I know they have been lulled into a trance to believe whatever comes from the lips of a lying Teapublican as the HOLY TRUTH. thinkingblue
PS: It really should be against the law to be so ignorantly uninformed, as to believe the misleading, unfactual lies that the dastardly spread around without conscience; these low information voters should be fined (TAXED) for believing such unabashed and blatantly false Teapublican mendacity.
1. By 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the Affordable Care Act will have extended coverage to 33 MILLION AMERICANS who would otherwise be uninsured.
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2. Families making less than 133 percent of the poverty line — that’s about $29,000 for a family of FOUR (4)— will be covered through Medicaid. Between 133 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line — $88,000 for a family of four – families will get tax credits on a sliding scale to help pay for private insurance.
3. For families making less than 400 percent of the poverty line, premiums are capped. So, between 150% and 200% of the poverty line, for instance, families won’t have to pay more than 6.3 percent of their income in premiums. Between 300 percent and 400 percent, they won’t have to pay more than 9.5 percent. This calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation will let you see the subsidies and the caps for different families at different income levels.
4. When the individual mandate is fully phased-in, those who can afford coverage — which is defined as insurance costing less than 8 percent of their annual income — but choose to forgo it will have to pay either $695 or 2.5 percent of the annual income, whichever is greater.
5. Small businesses that have fewer than 10 employees, average wages beneath $25,000, and that provide insurance for their workers will get a 50 percent tax credit on their contribution. The tax credit reaches up to small businesses with up to 50 employees and average wages of $50,000, though it gets smaller as the business get bigger and richer. The credit lasts for two years, though many think Congress will be pressured to extend it, which would raise the long-term cost of the legislation.
6. Insurance companies are not allowed to discriminated based on preexisting conditions. They are allowed to discriminate based “on age (limited to 3 to 1 ratio), premium rating area, family composition, and tobacco use (limited to 1.5. to 1 ratio).”
7. Starting in 2018, the law imposes a 35 percent tax on employer-provided health plans that exceed $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. The idea is a kind of roundabout second-best to capping the tax code’s (currently unlimited) deduction for employer-provided heath insurance. The policy idea is to give employers that much more reason to avoid expensive insurance policies and thus give insurers that much more reason to hold costs down.
8. The law requires insurers to spend between 80 and 85 percent of every premium dollar on medical care (as opposed to administration, advertising, etc). If insurers exceed this threshold, they have to rebate the excess to their customers. This policy is already in effect, and insurers are expected to rebate $1.1 billion this year.
9. The law is expected to spend a bit over $1 trillion in the next 10 years. The law’s spending cuts — many of which fall on Medicare — and tax increases are expected to either save or raise a bit more than that, which is why the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will slightly reduce the deficit. (There’s been some confusion on this point lately, but no, the CBO has not changed its mind about this.) As time goes on, the savings are projected to grow more quickly than the spending, and CBO expects that the law will cut the deficit by around a trillion dollars in its second decade. Here’s its graph, which covers the period between 2012 and 2021:
The ACA’s taxes and spending cuts make it a slight deficit reduce in its first decade. (CBO)
10. In recent years, health-care costs have slowed dramatically. Much of this is likely due to the recession. Some of it may just be chance. But there’s also evidence that the law has accelerated changes in the way the medical system delivers care, as providers prepare for the law’s efforts to move from fee-for-service to quality-based payments.
11. The law’s long-term success at controlling costs will likely hinge on its efforts to change the way health care is delivered, most of which have gotten very little attention. They include everything from encouraging Accountable Care Organizations to spreading medical homes to penalizing hospitals with high rates of preventable infections to creating an independent board able to quickly implement new reforms through the Medicare system. A partial list of these efforts can be found here.
Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and
free-thinking, the other intolerant and close-minded!
Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND FREE-THINKING USA
PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh et al reside in the intolerant America!
