Life In Sherman Oaks

Efforts in the United States to control health care costs ($2.6 trillion in 2010) are largely divided by the debate over (a) stronger role for government regulation or (b) market-based models that encourage greater competition. We are a nation that believes in competition. We believe that through competition, the best product or service is created. That if many people are offering a service or product, the people who offer the [...]

Who is this Ayn Rand that Republicans like Paul Ryan (the author of the 2013 GOP budget) follow and what did she teach that some Republicans like so much? Sometimes we can understand what people believe when we know a little bit about their background. And that’s probably the case with Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. A city of starvation during World War [...]

Conservatives are telling Americans that health care in America is worse off since Medicare was passed. That Medicare actually caused the cost of health care to rise. That before Medicare, doctors and hospitals would take care of the poor for free and would again, were it not for Medicare. So let’s look at these claims, one by one. 1. In 1962, approximately 51% of all persons over the age of [...]

Some politicians, in the summer of 20010, told seniors that The Affordable Care Act would (a) slash Medicare by $500 billion and (b) implement death panels. Some politicians are continuing these claims during the Presidential campaign. Neither of these claims are correct. If you are conservative, you can be angry at me for saying that. But it is the truth and after all, isn’t the truth what is really important? [...]

The phrase “general Welfare” is the only phrase to appear twice in the United States Constitution. It first appears in the preamble to the Constitution and then later in Section 8. It’s important for seniors, in particular, to understand the background of the phrase, because it is Section 8 of the Constitution’s “general Welfare” clause that the Supreme Court found Social Security to be Constitutional. Exactly what does Section 8 [...]

Here are the 105 Republicans in Congress who support privatizing Social Security. Senate (21) Jeff Sessions (AL) Richard Shelby (AL) Jon Kyl (AZ) John McCain (AZ) Saxby Chambliss (GA) Chuck Grassley (IA) Richard Lugar (IN) Pat Roberts (KS) Sam Brownback (KS) Mitch McConnell (KY) Roger Wicker (MS) Thad Cochran (MS) Judd Gregg (NH) James Inhofe (OK) Tom Coburn (OK) Jim DeMint (SC) Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) Bob Bennett (UT) Orrin [...]

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What is the fairtax? The fair tax is a 23% federal tax on all items you purchase, with the exception of food up to the poverty level. This 23% tax would be on top of your state taxes; but there would no longer be any federal personal income taxes or corporate taxes, and fairtax proponents claim that “embedded taxes” would be removed from the price. The teaparty has been told [...]

THIS WAS A MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA TO THE GOP BACK IN JANUARY 2010. INSTEAD OF INCREASED CIVILITY, THE GOP HAS BECOME WORSE. THE NEXT TWO YEARS WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR SENIORS. Little is getting done in the country because of the lack of civility and the slash and burn politics of bipartisanship. Meanwhile, people are out of work and are dying for lack of medical care. President Obama says [...]

Below is a summary of consumer insurance reforms in the Health Care Reform Bill. Within 90 days of enactment Small Business Tax Credits: For small businesses, tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums. Access to the Federal High-Risk Pool for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions: $5 billion for people who can’t qualify for insurance to buy insurance from the government (it’s not free). Reinsurance for Retiree Health Benefit [...]

Congressman Nixon took advantage of the McCarthy “Communism” Scare.All the right wingers were calling FDR supporters, “Communists. In 1950 when “tricky Dick” first ran for the Senate, his opponent was three-term Congresswoman named Helen Gahagan Douglas. She was wealthy, well-educated and an outspoken New Dealer. She condemned the McCarthy’s red scare, his trumped up fear of internal Communism as “irrational” and opposed the very existence of the House Committee on [...]

If you think your vote for insurance commissioner doesn’t matter, think again. The Insurance Commissioner ensures that insurance companies comply with the law. In California, the law for health insurance companies requires that they spend 70% or more of their collected Premiums on actual Medical Care (YOU). Last year, as a reaction to the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act, Anthem Blue Cross in California came to the Insurance [...]

This excerpt comes from an article by Chris Edwards of the notoriously conservative CATO Intitute, written Aug. 14, 2006 called “TAX POLICY UNDER BUSH.” A good reminder. “Republicans also have their own policies of big spending to blame. Tax cutting has been made more difficult because Bush has been the most profligate president in decades. In his first five years, 2001 to 2006, federal spending increased 45 percent and deficits [...]

Thanks to the 29 families who have signed up for the block party!

Unemployment benefits are set by states; but the average benefit is about $309 a week. The GOP, which has been busy filibustering the extension of unemployment benefits, would have you believe that this $300 a week encourages folks not to work. WHAT?? Are they crazy? $309 a week? And then the GOP has another idea. They’re convinced that the unemployed are drug users; Orin Hatch suggested the unemployed be tested [...]

Image via Wikipedia Even though the federal tax credit is ending, Sacramento has now stepped in with its own $200 million state income tax credit program. It will aid not only first-time homebuyers but also anyone who buys a newly built home in the state. Some of the key facts about the program: • Maximum credit: $10,000 over three years • On existing homes: Close escrow by 12/31/10 • New [...]

Image via Wikipedia One common assumption about the subprime mortgage crisis is that it was caused by poor folks with bad credit. Amongst some groups, especially those putting all the blame on Barney Frank — is that this subprime mess and the resultant recession is all about minorities that just had to have a house they couldn’t afford — so some kindly banker did their best to give them the [...]