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Comment rescue: on a post alluding to Thurmond Adams.
JOAN DEAVER:
What’s this I hear about the good senator “willing” his post to Joe Booth in 2010?
First the history lesson.
When Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House in 2003, they overcame Democratic opposition to add a deficit-financed prescription drug benefit to Medicare. The program will cost a half-trillion dollars over 10 years, or more by some estimates.
With no new taxes or spending offsets accompanying the Medicare drug program, the cost has been added to the federal debt.
24 Republicans who voted “for” blowing our deficit out of the water in 2003, , today voted no against the current version of Health Care Reform that actually lowers the deficit over the same time frame.
Six years ago, “it was standard practice not to pay for things,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Why? Because the Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and the Executive Branch.
In short, what Orrin Hatch just admitted in his unthinking old age moment, was that republicans spend with no concern of where the money comes from.
Democrats are the other hand are very concerned where the money comes from… The current health care bill rolled over today’s Republican hypocrisy by reducing the total deficit. Not since the Democratic president Bill Clinton have we had a year where we reduced the Federal deficit. Democrats are more worried about spending your money, than are Republicans…
America cannot afford Republicans: no matter how much of a nice guy they are… It’s like dating Britney Spears only to find she overspends all your money lavishly, then takes out loans on your house, and spends that too… Hopefully the sex was worth it.
When it comes to spending frugally, Democrats rule… Republicans drool……
His post on Mike Castle is illuminating. He takes two quotes about health care. One from when the Republicans controlled Congress, and one from today, when they are nothing but a floppy ass joke.
I supported the Medicare Prescription Drug bill because it was a historic opportunity, since the inception of the program in 1965, to add a pharmaceutical discount benefit to the program. While I realize the law is not perfect, it is certainly a step in the right direction, as the costs of prescription drug continuing to rise at alarming rates. This law is quite generous to low income beneficiaries and beneficiaries who have catastrophic prescription costs. Mike Castle circa 2004.
Now the second:
I voted no on HR 3200 because the first order of health care reform must be to lower costs for everyone– the cost of treatment, the cost of insurance and the cost of subsidies from the federal government. We shouldn’t seek to add new financial commitments to federal and state coffers without first determining which parts of the current system are working, and then making the tough choices to reform the parts that are not working. The sustainability of Medicare and Medicaid, two major government run health programs, are in jeopardy because their growth rate automatically increases based on population and inflation. This rate of increase over the past several decades has been so accelerated that their very existence is threatened if we continue do nothing. Mike Castle circa 2009.
X-Striker should be commended upon finding these quotes. But his well written synopsis should get an applause track all its own…
Shorter Mike Castle: I voted against the deficit-neutral Democratic Health Care Plan because the Republican Medicare Plan that I supported was bankrupting the federal government.
This man is running for Senate. This statement is fair game. This man is a Republican.
As the race for Senate heats up, the controversy will be over the quality of the man up for office. It has to be because otherwise there could be no contest…
However we must always remember, and never forget. Mike Castle is a Republican. He must answer to whatever the Republican party says….
We must also remember that Republican policy is what caused each and every one of our economic problems today… We must never forget that the golden years of the Clintons, caused by lowering of the national deficit, coupled with the increase of everybody’s income across the spectrum, was working magnificently.
We must always remember that the Republican Party took what was working better than anything ever did in our lifetimes, and broke it… We must remember that it was Republican policies that ballooned the deficit, and Democrats who fought to keep it from happening. Republican Party policies exported jobs overseas, while Democrats fought to keep it from happening. Republican Party policies stripped working men and women of their pocket change and transferred all their wealth to the top 1%…. The Democrats fought to keep it from happening. Republican’s caused the mortgage crises by stripping all oversight from financial markets… Democrats fought to keep it from happening..
People will say Mike Castle is a nice guy… Steve Newton has spoken such words himself.
I agree… But he is a nice guy for the party that destroyed America.. He our equivalent to the Rudolf Hess of the Wehrmacht. An ok gentlemen whose party went out of control and despite his attempt to influence them from their wayward course, his nation was destroyed around him….
We must always remember that this Senate race is between a winning party of ideas, and a losing party of ideas… No one would ever vote for a Nazi after the second world war. The same is true with Republicans today…
For some of us, coming up soon is the anniversary of a memory of getting up in the middle of the night, driving to UD’s campus, and watching the swearing in of our governor on a giant screen. Some of us then headed down to DC to then watch another inauguration.
Implicit in our dreams that night, was the subliminal hope that under competent leadership (on both accounts), learned men would use their brains to achieve results, … instead of promote their parties…
Both have achieved results that future historians will view as non political.
Today Gov. Jack Markell signed an executive order that will make it easier for small and mid-sized companies to bid on state contracts.
The order created a centralized, online publication listing all advertised and awarded state contracts. In addition to helping the economy by increasing opportunities and competition, this will also further increase government transparency.
This allows anyone to bid on a contract; not just those with hands in our government’s pocket… It is our hope that under this new order, that those companies whose sole purpose was to fleece out our money to line their own pockets, will now have to seek work in the black market… They will no longer be able to compete with better, smarter, and more businesslike operations.
Again: Delaware gets a return on its investment. Last year Delawareans beat back the party regulars first in the Democratic Party, and secondly against a non-existent Republican challenger, simply to put in someone in who could govern us with science, and not astrology or some other touchy-feel-y pseudo science.
This common sense application of reason could never be forthcoming from our legislative body. Too many lobbyists have control of those floors. Oh, perhaps some version of this arrangement, watered down to be toothless by Republican opportunists, might get dropped on the desk, but no one would ever expect anyone in legislature to commit political suicide by giving it anything more than vocal support…
But we have a governor who just acted. Da, Da! Here it is.
Now … transparency is in the acquisition of all contracts… Like magic… Quite remarkably it is there without anyone taking off their shirt, and baring their naked chest on a cold January morning, (fortunately it wasn’t that cold as one can see by investigating the pliability of the nipples in each photo).
Delaware finally has a leader who believes in science. Science is simply the application of reason, experimentation, analysis, to order to investigate and achieve a hypothetical result.
Previously it appeared all state government was done on the basis of how “certain” people would feel if we stepped on their toes… That may have been effective when no one needed state government. But today, we have solid proof of the fact that what we needed, we got….
One has to admire our governor Jack Markell for his choice of just holding on to the ball and running it in for a touchdown…
Some may call that play sneaky. They are just simply on the opposing side… Clamoring, searching, hoping some referee, any referee, will pay attention to their non justifiable claim….
Over my time here, one thing has become quite apparent.
God is too big for one religion… There are far too many similarities between religions for this not to be so… And yet, as human beings, we ignore the vast similarities our religions have with each other and choose instead to focus on the differences that exist between them.
The reason we do this, is because in our hectic lives we have chosen to institutionalize religion. We pay money to it’s keepers, and because of our action, those accounting for it get wealthy … Therefore, it stands to reason, that their self-survival must have, or simply need,… a method to keep that cash flow coming. If they cannot look to their own continued positive benefit to society in order to justify those incoming dollars, they must then invent and demonize some enemy to force those dollars’ arrival instead….
It works. It’s worked since the beginning of time…. But, despite all attempts of kings and politics to use force to impose their heavenly ideas upon others, the idea of a monotheistic God, which at its conception was accepted by only a handful of human beings, has evolved to be the major belief of mankind.
We call Him by different names. This big planet used to be full of small insular communities. Knowledge was not widespread. Each society had to use a different interpreter to define such vast, broad principals to us with our noses to the grindstone. Since each society was different, each interpretation had to be different as well.
But today, as we globe-trot and intertwine with others from a different perspective, it is obvious that when it comes to how we see ourselves in life, we all see ourselves about the same… We love our children, we follow in our families footsteps, we die and hope there is something beyond, and we all understand that doing good for others is more rewarding and helpful than doing what selfishly pleases us… We also all believe in some form of destiny.
Our fight with other religions, appears to be brought about by each individuals unwillingness to compromise, listen, or understand… The act of shutting down all communication and resorting to fighting instead, has huge economic benefits. For one, it keeps money flowing through those arms dealer’s fingers. Perhaps it’s time now that we accept the root of our problems and evolve away from continuing to do what we’ve always done, and instead start making such communications dealerships Verizon, Blackberry, and Comcast, .. rich instead….
Those individuals who immerse themselves and intermingle with other religions, come away not so quick to dismiss them… Once armed with the knowledge that others are not really that different from us after all, it seems to become rather hard to justify taking their life because they are not exactly like you. Mankind’s true enemies are not those outside our community who think different than we do. Oh, no. Mankind’s true enemies are those actually among us who stir up trouble, who refuse to seek to understand, who refuse to discuss all options, who refuse to compromise one iota, and who refuse to accept any other alternative other than the eradication of those they don’t agree with. The problems we have today are not with different religions. The accountability of all hostility, rests solely upon those who manipulate religions for non- religious ends….
So…. 2000 years ago a child was born. That birth had been forecast for a least a thousand years. At that time, the world was not a good place for good people… there was hope this child would change that… He did.
Today, we should jump that hope forward. There are more of us with outward reaching minds, than with inward reaching ones. It’s time to roll over them as if they don’t even matter.
Once again, the holiday season brings hope, that Mankind can again be poised to move forward in time.
A Giant Battle For A Little Wind
A little over two millennium ago, the roots of our western civilization stood on the brink of eradication. Only a small band of Greeks stood between the massive Persian army and the destruction of Athens, the foundation of democracy and defender of fine arts. Ironically had the outcome of the battle been different, perhaps it might be us placing IED’s along roads built and traveled by those descendant of that Persian stock.
But against such invincible odds, this small band of men chose to fight, and took the necessary action, even though outnumbered 10,000 to one, against the greatest army ever to land upon Grecian shores. Through strategic planning and personal courage, they stood fast against the onslaught and in doing so, changed the course of history..
Now we too stand at a crossroads of civilization, where our choices and bravery will lead to great consequences. The nemesis we face, however, is one we have brought upon ourselves.
Of the hottest years ever recorded in history, twenty one have occurred during the last twenty five. The ten hottest years on record, have occurred since 1993. Five of those hottest years have occurred since 2000. The year 2005 was the hottest on record. Last year 2006 was the hottest ever in America. This winter, the one we finished yesterday with the first day of spring, is the hottest winter ever recorded! This problem is not static; it grows worse with each day.
A decision is about to be made, regarding the future generation of Delaware’s electricity. This decision, though made by a few, will certainly affect many. Due to its timing, this is to be one of the first major decisions ever made by a state in real time regarding renewable energy. If chosen, Blue Water could be up and running in little over two years, not fifteen. This gives other states and other nations the distinct possibility of being influenced by our success, to such a degree that man’s ultimate footprint upon this planet, may have the distinction of being first decided in our small state.. One can hope, that instead of the PSC dooming us to continued carbon dependency, a choice will be made that will prove to all, that wisdom, open mindedness, and courage are not yet extinct among Delawareans and that this state of Delaware can indeed count on those traits to remain instrumental when it comes time to choosing what is best for our own future.
It will require great courage to vote for Blue Water’s wind proposal. For we will not know what problems may yet appear over the future’s horizon. As someone already mentioned, on these shores wind power is untested. But a cold eye cast towards gas or coal can quickly discern monstrous problems down those two roads should we choose to follow either of those options. Sometimes, as with cancer, the certainty of knowing what WILL happen if we continue doing what we have always done, can sometimes propel us down the road less traveled.
There will be great pressure upon you in the PSC to take the comfortable choice, and avoid the upcoming battle against the carbon interest should you dare to make the “right” choice. But in years ahead, the gravest of consequences are predicted to befall each of us, should you fail, fall short, and err in judgment. With gas and coal both expected to continue their steep price climb over the next twenty five years, any wrong choice made now, could burden this struggling small state to the point of economic exhaustion.
Only a fresh puff of wind can break this downward trend. Blue Water’s generation plan can give us, this army outside your tent awaiting your decision, the extra economic lift it needs to face down the multitude of obstacles arrayed before us.
Be known, that as you confer in your tent that is flapping in the stiff breeze, and ponder the subtle strategies arrayed upon the ground before you, that you have an loyal army of public opinion, over ninety percent, ready to take on any hardship, attack any risk, and march forward into any battle with you arm in arm, should you decide to lead us to renewable energy. We do it willingly, not for glory, not for honor, not for personal aggrandizement, but because we are truly in awe of the immense and profoundly global consequence that our small state’s actions may impart upon the future of all civilization.
Should Delaware fall short, fail to do its duty, and continue to compromise its future by the rapid exhumation of carbon fuels, we no doubt shall one day be viewed as harshly, as that poor fool who panicked and guided the Persians to a secret path through the mountains, thereby surrounding those brave souls, whose valiant effort against incredible odds of 10000 to one, managed to stall the onslaught and save Athens and the future of western civilization.
Now civilization looks to us.
When the CO2 ultimatum is laid before us, demanding that we too sign over our state’s future to those armies beholden to carbon kings, and threaten to blot out our sun with hundreds of thousands’ of tons of emissions volleyed in our direction, let us hope that we too, fully mindful that we guard our own Thermopylae through which all these monstrous armies of carbon interests must pass, stand shoulder to shoulder, and reply ” “In that case, we shall fight in the shade……………”
This is kind of embarrassing for me.. I even quoted this quote in another story and completely missed the irony of Mitch McConnell’s remarks.. Yeah, I’ll admit. I missed this.
Republicans get away with issuing the following two press releases within a single 24 hour span:
Sunday: “Cutting Medicare is not what Americans want.”
Monday: “Expanding Medicare a plan for financial ruin.”
Unfortunately we are so used to hearing slogans entering in one ear and exiting out the other that we fail at first to pick up these are exact contradicktites 
of each other…
But this is a dynamic that’s most prevalent when the Republicans discuss Medicare. It really flummoxes them. After all, they despise socialized medicine. They despise single-payer health insurance. They despise government-run health care. They voted against the formation of Medicare during the high water mark of LBJ’s Great Society. They ultimately would love to privatize (or drown in a bathtub) the whole thing and be done with it.
And they will stand up and say they are against government involvement in the health of individual Americans… while being on the dole themselves…
What they are absolutely clear about, is that they are unequivocally against giving average Americans even a tiniest break, that of the public option, when it comes to health care…….
We know that Senator Carper is not supportive of the public option….
I don’t know if he knows this or not.. but here is what our health care plan does without a public option attached.
The Reform plan forces insurance companies to cover everyone. That means a lot more money coming into their coffers… It also means more people asking for some type of re compensation… Currently those not receiving insurance because of their high risk factor do not play into insurance companies profits. If this legislation passes, they will…
That means insurance companies will have to deny coverage more often.. “sorry, I know you need this operation to live, but we just can’t afford to cover it right now…”
So you will have insurance. You will be allowed a preexisting condition. You will pay your premiums on time. and when you need it… you will be denied coverage…. It is the conservative’s death panels in boardroom suits….
There is no clause in either the Senate or House version of the bill that prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to protect their profits… And under our current system of private companies competing in the market place… there really is no legitimate way to say: you must cover everything….
In 2007 Cigna killed a girl because it refused to pay for a liver transplant. CIGNA noted that it had no financial stake in the decision to authorize the transplant because it merely administers the insurance plan of the parent’s employer and that plan would not bear the cost of such an operation.
Every American who is insured by his employer, is subject to the same treatment… If your employer opted out for certain procedures, then you have no coverage. And you have no way of finding out until you need medical attention..
There are not enough votes to close this loop hole that allows insurers to dodge paying for medical coverage, if and when it might impact their profits for that quarter… They can deny coverage, post a higher return, collect their bonus, and blame it on the employer who bought the plan to cover his employees…
To close the loophole there needs to be language that states an insurance provider cannot deny a medical claim for any reason. Such blatant language is simply in neither plan.
But, there is something better. Insurers who have to compete against the public option, will lose income if they refuse coverage, whereas the public entity covers it… Since someone else out there is providing that benefit, to keep any customers at all, private insures will feel economic pressure to copy that best practice.
Without the public option, people will be left to die.. If we expand the roles of insurance companies to cover absolutely everyone, then even more and more will be left to die… We mandate coverage; but do not protect those mandated.
So, mandates without a public option, and with no protections against denial of treatment, will be doubly cruel. Because people will be forced to buy into a program that won’t give them the health care they need. Such a system effectively would be telling them that their lives don’t matter, but their money does.
Health Care Reform, is not reform without the public option. Period.
* Wilmington
301 North Walnut Street
Suite 102L-1
Wilmington, DE 19801
Phone: (302) 573-6291
Fax: (302) 573-6434
* Dover
500 W. Loockerman St.
Suite 470
Dover, DE 19904
Phone: (302) 674-3308
Fax: (302) 674-5464
* Georgetown
12 The Circle
Georgetown, DE 19947
Phone: (302) 856-7690
Fax: (302) 856-3001
For questions, comments, or problems call him today…
Across the globe three trends can be seen as working….There are three requirements needed to fix Health Care….
Requirement 1
insurance must be bought by everybody; insurance cannot be allowed to make a profit on basic care.
Requirement 2
everybody is required to buy insurance; the government subsidizes the premiums for the poor.
Requirement 3
All doctors and hospitals must agree and then use a standard set of fixed prices….
Failed. The Republican leadership has failed…
They are fighting a healthcare plan that benefits all Americans except those directly receiving compensation from the excessive profits being made by insurance companies…
You can’t win by fighting everyone… Look locally at Copeland, Adams, McDowell, and DeLuca… They took on 94.9% of Delawareans over offshore wind and now (in same order as above), they are a joke, dead, silent, and flipped over to the winning side….
If there were such a thing as a smart republican (an oxymoron to be sure), they would be thinking on how to offer the Republican version of the public option.. NOT voting to kill that option outright… The public option is a necessity and all of America knows it. So it is inevitable that it will pass. Therefore voting against it, makes them losers. Not only losers with a big “L” but voting against the public option gives their opponents the ammunition needed to blow them out of political waters for the next thirty years… (thirty years being the living memory of most voters).. However, putting in a better plan than the ones being offered by the Democrats would set them as a positive force in the function of things… Even I would be interested in their version of a public option plan.
Sometimes a politician has to recognize the trend of the future… Like a giant wave off Hawaii, he needs to position himself on the crest and ride it into the beach… not stand firm and have it crash down on him, uniting his body parts with the jagged lava of the shoreline.
Republicans made a mistake. That is the result of their failure to lead….
They didn’t lead, and for that reason, they can’t be taken seriously… Using a local political analogy, one could say the national Republican party has been Copelandized…
