Clint Eastwood's RNC Speech

In case you missed Clint Eastwood's speech last night at the Republican National Convention, here it is, from YouTube.

 

At the beginning, Clint asked the audience to "save a little for Mitt"; at the end, not surprisingly, he closed with his signature line, leading with "Go ahead" and allowing the audience to finish with "Make my day." 

 

What matters most, however, is what comes in the middle.

 

 

 

 

 

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Life Without a Daily Newspaper

I learned that the Syracuse Post-Standard, my hometown newspaper, was moving to three-days-a-week home delivery next January from my brother-in-law's Facebook page; he works at the Times-Union in Albany, and had posted his paper's story about my paper.

I grew up with the Syracuse newspapers. We now have only the morning Post-Standard, but used to have the afternoon Herald-Journal and the Sunday Herald-American.  Each of the papers had a slightly different voice, with different columnists and reporters, different comics and different crossword puzzles, different editorials. I think I had letters published in all three papers, over the years.

My Dad and I read the papers cover to cover when I was a teenager, always finding something interesting to talk about. After he retired, Dad used to leave messages for me when he found something interesting in the paper.  "Read Dick Case." "Did you see Poliquin?" "Haggart." "Sean, page 2." Sometimes he'd leave a longer message, directing me to something specific in an article, some nuance he wanted to make sure I didn't miss. Always the teacher, and me forever his student.

One of my fondest memories of my father features the Post-Standard in a starring role; it's a fond memory now, but much less so back in 1977, when I was a newly minted college dropout. 

I was the honor-society child of two teachers, a top graduate from a small school in a small town where my parents were prominent members of the community.  I'm sure at the time my dropping out and coming home, head hung low and tail between my legs, was more of an embarrassment to my Mom and Dad than it was to me.

I had been home for no more than two or three weeks, and had settled into a routine of dragging myself out of bed and heading downstairs for a cup of coffee around 9:30 or 10 in the morning. Naturally, my father had been up for hours by then, had read the paper, and was going about his day.

One morning when I came downstairs, he was sitting at the kitchen table with his cup of coffee and the newspaper.  The classified section was on the table, in front of my usual seat, opened to the employment ads.  He said good morning to me; I mumbled something back to him, poured my coffee, and started to head out of the kitchen.  I stopped when I heard him say "I know how many jobs there are for you in the paper today. Do you?"

The first day he did that, I stomped out of the kitchen angrily, bitterly, with a "who needs you" attitude.  The second day he did it, I muttered "no" and kept going, with considerably less stomp in my step. The third day, I picked up the classifieds on my way out of the kitchen when I saw them, folded, waiting for me.  And the next day, I got up an hour earlier, took the classifieds, and started looking for a job, before he had the chance to look for one for me.  Three weeks later, I found one.

Six months after that, I had saved enough money to move out, into an apartment I found in the Post-Standard. One of the first things I did was subscribe to the daily papers, allowing Dad and I to continue our conversations on the news of the day, something we enjoyed until he passed away in 2007.

It will be hard to get used to the four days a week without a paper landing on my porch. And I can't help thinking that my Dad's tough love would have been much less effective if he hadn't been able to put that newspaper in front of my empty chair, open to the right page, to drive home his message.

Thirty-seven lives, $583,270

Monday is the day my local newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes a financial section. Each week, along with tips from stock experts, budgeting advice, and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

This week, twenty-four people were listed with new judgments totaling $340,822 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

This week, thirteen people were listed having satisfied judgments totaling $242,448 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

Buerkle's Autoimmune Disease Bureaucrats

Recently my Congresswoman, Ann Marie Buerkle, introduced HR6218, the Mary Colella Autoimmune Disease Awareness Act of 2012.  The bill, named for her late sister, is to increase awareness and education about autoimmune disesases.  According to her press release, the bill will require

an assessment of national progress on autoimmune disease research, an update of the national strategic plan, and recommendations that can be used to develop a national curriculum on autoimmune disease.

Under the bill, there will be an Autoimmune Diseased Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee to formulate

recommendations for the coordination of government and private programs and activities relating to autoimmune diseases.

 Apparently this is not the first time that auotimmune diseases have caught the attention of someone in Congress.  It looks like Buerkle's bill amends another one which also set out a Coordinating Committee and similar responsibilities.  One of the differences is the make-up of the Committee.  Previously, the Committee was composed generically of

the directors or their designees of each of the national research institutes involved in research with respect to autoimmune diseases and representatives of all other Federal departments whose programs involve health functions or responsibilities relative to such diseases, including the CDC and FDA. 

Under Buerkle's version, the Committee is more specific:

The Assistant Secretary for Health, who shall serve as Chair; the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; the Commissioner of Food and Drugs; the Director of the NIH; the Director of the CDC, the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration; the Secretary of Education; the Secretary of Defense; the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; the Commissioner of Social Security; and such other Federal officials as the Secretary may designate or invite, as appropriate, to serve on the Coordinating Committee.

 What is the Committee supposed to do?  Well, we know it's charged with that 'national strategic plan'to coordinate public and private programs', which is to include, among other things

an assessment of the ability of health care providers to identify and diagnose autoimmune diseases properly; an assessment of the quality of post-graduate continuing education programs on autoimmune diseases, and recommendation on education and continuing education on autoimmune diseases for health care providers.

National assessments on the ability of health care providers? Recommending rules on required education for health care providers?  Sure feels like this is going to cause additional burdens, costs, and uncertainty on small businesses such as medical providers. 
 
And it may lead to additional federally mandated insurance benefits which then have to be implented, administered and adhered to by larger employers. That may not be the intent, but this is how it all starts.
 
From that perspective, this bill seems counter-productive to Buerkle's goals as a limited-government Republican - and one who believes we don't need bureaucrats involved in health care.

We, honorofics, and political mailings

Ever wonder why it is that political candidates speak of themselves in the plural?  We are proud to be a part of... We are staying in the race... We believe that... Our campaign will...   I wonder, is it because they truly believe they're not alone, that we're right there with them fighting the good fight? Or is it something they learn in Candidate School?
 
Why is it that reporters address Mitt Romney as Governor?  Since he's staked his candidacy on his business acumen,  and is pretty much ignoring his record as a former governor, don't you think it would be more respectful if everyone referred to him simply as Mr.? President Obama, Vice President Biden, Congressman Ryan, Mr. Romney.  Makes sense to me.
 
Am I the only one who gets annoyed with self-serving political mailings that include the statement "This mailing was prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense?" And another statement proclaiming that the "mailing is provided as a service" to district residents? 

We (and by we I mean all of us) know that these mailings are provided as a service to the person who's signature appears where the rest of us are required to put a stamp. In a recent example, Ann Marie Buerkle, my Congresswoman, has her name at least seven times on the mailing, but my name appears only once.  Regardless of the content, am I being served, or is she?

Twenty-eight lives, $1,197,440

Monday is the day my local newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes a financial section. Each week, along with tips from stock experts, budgeting advice, and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

This week, twenty-five people were listed with new judgments totaling $1,176,875 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

Two of the judgments were six figures, one over $188,000 and one very close to $400,000.

This week, three people were listed having satisfied judgments totaling $20,565to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

Hey John Sununu, Soledad O'Brien is Right!

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien went toe-to-toe with John Sununu on whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) cuts Medicare spending by some $700 billion, which is what former Olympic organizer Mitt Romney, his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and a host of surrogates are claiming.

 In her discussion with Sununu, O’Brien pushes back quite hard that the ACA reduces the growth in Medicare spending; it does not reduce Medicare benefits. You can watch the exchange here, courtesy of the folks at Upworthy.com, (including the part where Sununu tells her to put an Obama bumper sticker on her forehead) and where he mentions pages 13 and 14 of the Congressional Budget Office’s letter to House Speaker John Boehner. Sununu insists the CBO letter states there is a reduction in benefits.

Here’s what the report says about Medicare on pages 13 and 14:
Effects on Spending for Medicare, Medicaid and Other Programs
 Many of the other provisions that would be repealed by enacting HR 6079 affect spending for Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs.  The ACA made numerous changes to payment rates and payment rules in those programs, established a voluntary federal program for long-term care insurance through the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) provisions,  and made certain other change to federal health programs. In total , CBO estimates that repealing those provisions would increase net federal spending by $711 billion over the 2013- 2022 period. 

Spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013-2022 period. Federal spending for Medicaid and CHP by about $25 billion from repealing the non-coverage provisions of the ACA, and direct spending for other programs would decrease by about $30 billion, CBO estimates.

 Within Medicare, net increases in spending for the services covered by Part A (hospital insurance) and Part B (Medical insurance) would total $517 billion and $247 billion, respectively. Those increases would be partially offset by a $48 billion reduction in net spending on for Part D.  The provisions whose repeal would result in the largest increase in federal deficits include the following (all estimates are for the 2013-2022 period)

• Repeal of the reduction in the annual updates to Medicare’ payment rates for most services in the fee-for-service sector (other than physcians’ services) would increase Medicare outlays by $415 billion (that figure excludes interaction between those provisions and others – namely the effects of those changes on payments to Medicare Advantage plans and collections of Part B premiums) Of that amount, higher payments for hospital services account for $260 billion; for skilled nursing services, $39 billion; for hospice services, $17 billion, for home health services, $66 billion, and for all other services, $33 billion.
• Repeal of the new mechanism for setting payment rates in the Medicare Advantage program would increase Medicare outlays by $155 billion (before considering interactions with other provisions).
• Repeal of the reduction in Medicaid and Medicare payments to hospitals that serve a large number of low-income patients, known as disproportionate share hospitals (DSH) would increase federal spending by $56 billion.
• Repeal of other provisions pertaining to Medicare,  Medicaid, and CHIP (other than coverage-related provisions discussed earlier) would increase federal spending by $114 billion. That includes a $3 billion increase in spending from elimination the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Under current law the IPAB would be required, under certain circumstances, to recommend changes in the Medicare program to reduce that program’s spending; such changes would to in automatically.

I see lots of statements regarding reductions in payments or changes in payment methodologies, but I’m hard-pressed to find the smoking gun referencing the benefit reductions we keep hearing so much about. Maybe I missed that, the same way the Republicans are missing that if they repeal the ACA, the deficit will increase.  Which means they’ll have to cut something else to make up for it.  

Duck, middle class America. Duck.

Paul Ryan: The Bishops Decide

Do the Catholic bishops decide what's a violation of our constitutional rights?  "As a Catholic," Paul Ryan says yes, they do.

Here's the conversation, from NBC's Meet the Press back in February, when the topic of the Affordable Care Act and paid in full contraceptive coverage came up.  Moderator David Gregory cited the famously mocking quip from Nancy Pelosi

Imagine they're having a panel on women's health and they don't have any women on the panel. Duh.

and asked Ryan about how people were using the issue in the election:

Are you concerned as a Republican that Republicans are overdoing this issue and could actually hurt the party's chances in November?

Ryan responded that men and women are free to use contraception if they want, but that the real issue is making other people pay for it, when it might be against their religious beliefs. He then touched on the compromise that the Administration worked out with religious organizations - that the insurance company would absorb the cost of the contraceptive benefit, rather than the employer having to pay for it.  And here's where it got interesting:

This compromise is really a distinction without a difference, it's mandating that everybody pay for everyone else's free, you know, birth control and contraception. The question is, is can the government mandate that people violate their religious teaching, their conscience, their freedom of religion. Look, I can tell you as a Catholic the charities and the hospitals, they don't enforce doctrine, they don't interpret it. It's the bishops and they're very clear in saying this is a violation of our constitutional rights. So it's an issue of constitutional rights and of the government having the kind of power to trump them.

Uh, really?  The Catholic bishops determine our constitutional rights?  Not in my road map for America.

Sixteen lives, $390,771

Monday is the day my local newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes a financial section. Each week, along with tips from stock experts, budgeting advice, and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

This week, sixteen people were listed with new judgments totaling $390,771 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

Paul Ryan: Just Stop Subsiziding Wealthy People

Lordy, the experts are having a blast now that Mitt Romney has finally chosen a running mate, and particularly that it's Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, he of the Republican budget road map.  

I've seen stories ranging from the clandestine process of getting Ryan nailed down as the choice and having him mysteriously appear in Virginia yesterday, to the importance of their respective attire at the announcement (Mitt: tie, no jacket; Paul: jacket, no tie); there are even some discussions on the policies that may come out of the ticket, if you have the patience to wade through everything.

I appreciate that NBC's Meet the Press offered transcripts of their conversations with Paul Ryan in one easy link - very generous of them, and fun.   I went through a few of them and found an interesting Ryan theme that I hope gets some traction with his new BFF.

In October of last year, when we were still in the thick of the GOP's primary season, Pizza Magnate Herman Cain made this comment regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement:

Don't blame Wall Street.  Don't blame the big banks.  If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself.

When pressed by MTP moderator David Gregory if that was the Republican message, Ryan responded with the expected rhetoric about eliminating barriers to success, offering economic opportunity, and the like. Pretty standard stuff, but he added this gem:

...I have a better idea.  Instead of job-killing tax increases, why don't we just stop subsidizing wealthy people?  I mean, let's go after the crony capitalism, the corporate welfare in the tax code, in spending.  And why don't we income adjust our spending programs so that we don't subsidize wealthy people as much. 

He said the same thing on MTP in February:

It's just not good economic growth policy and we've already sort of proven that these temporary, sugar-high economics, these stimulus effects just don't work to grow the economy and they're a very poor substitute for lowering tax rates, for having predictable regulations, for getting rid of crony capitalism

And a second time: 

 --we already proposed closing loopholes so, for economic growth. There's a bipartisan consensus that the best way on tax policy for growth is to lower tax rates by closing loopholes and doing our entitlement reforms in a gradual way...

And, he said the same thing again on MTP in May:

And what we're saying about taxes is take the tax shelters and the loopholes away from, from the well connected and the well off so we can lower tax rates for everybody.

I gotta tell you, I sure hope Paul Ryan still believes that this is what we really need to do.

And I hope that Mitt, the man with the overseas accounts, and the undisclosed tax returns, and the IRA worth between $20 and $100 million, the man who knows that his private-sector donors are doing just fine, listens.

And guys, let's try this -- do the crony capitalism elimination first, to prove you can accomplish something, then go and tackle entitelement reform.

Mittenverse: The Poetry of Mitt Romney

Paul Ryan, Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan is a leader.
Paul Ryan works
in Washington but
his beliefs remain
...in Wisconsin.

He is a person
of great steadiness
whose integrity is
unquestioned
and whose word
is good.

He appeals to the
better angels of our nature.

He has never been content
to simply curse
the darkness;
he would rather
light candles.

Paul and I are beginning
on a journey
that will take us
to every corner
of America.

Thirty-seven lives, $749,026

Monday is the day my local newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes a financial section. Each week, along with tips from stock experts, budgeting advice, and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

This week, thirty people were listed with new judgments totaling $636,434 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

This week, five people were listed as having satisfied judgments totaling $96,213 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

This week, two people were listed in the bankruptcy section with a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider as the major unsecured creditor, totaling $16,379.

Out of Control Rhetoric

"I know in your mind, you can think of the times America was attacked.  One is Dec. 7, that's Pearl Harbor Day. The other is Sept. 11, and that's the day the terrorists attacked. I want you to remember Aug. 1, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates."  Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA).

Yep.  Coverage for women's preventative services goes into effect today. Under the new rules, benefits such as such as contraception, breastfeeding support and supplies, and gestational diabetes screening, among others, will now be covered without out of pocket costs (once the woman's plan renews).  There are some exemptions for religious employers, and a 'safe harbor' period for enforcement.

Kelly added these statements: 

“Our freedoms and way of life have been under attack before, from both internal and external threats. If we fail to defend our constitutional rights, we risk losing the freedoms that so many brave men and women have given their lives to defend throughout the course of our nation’s history.

 “We will not turn a blind eye to the HHS mandate’s attack on our religious freedom and we will work to stop this unconstitutional mandate from taking away our God-given and constitutionally protected rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Regardless of one's opinion on whether contraceptives are 'preventative services' in the same vein as the others covered under the new provisions, someone should remind the gentleman from Pennsylvania that the Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. 

And someone should tell him that taking the names of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 in vain, while constitutionally protected, is downright disgusting; hopefully his constituents will do that at their earliest opportunity.

Fifteen lives, $317,452

Monday is the day my local newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes a financial section. Each week, along with tips from stock experts, budgeting advice, and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

This week, nine people were listed with new judgments totaling $173,810 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

This week, five people were listed as having satisfied judgments totaling $132,679 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

This week, one person was listed in the bankruptcy section with a hospital, doctor, or other medical provider as the major unsecured creditor, totaling $10,963.