Wednesday Toon Roundup 3- The Uncontrolled spying monster

Wednesday Toon Roundup 2-ACA doomsayers

Wednesday Toon Roundup 1- Repubs

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A canceled health plan is a good thing

By Sally Kohn, Special to CNN


(CNN) -- Conservatives are expressing shock and outrage that the Obama administration knew that many people in the individual insurance market would not be able to keep their plans once the Affordable Care Act took effect. Such shock is not surprising; overblown outrage is the stock and trade of conservative politics these days.

But here's what conservatives won't tell you, lest it undermine their theatrics: Many insurance plans are shutting down because they don't meet the higher bar of quality benefits required under Obamacare, and of those people who lose access to their plans, many will pay less and all will have better and more comprehensive options.

Also, with a few exceptions, no one is really noting that this point isn't quite news. In 2010, the fact that certain insurance plans would not be grandfathered into Obamacare because of their inadequate coverage was widely covered by the press. It was a given, after all that, if standards for health insurance were going to be raised in America -- a good thing -- then some plans that don't meet the bar would no longer be available. One could blame this on the Affordable Care Act, or alternatively, one could blame this on insurance companies for providing such substandard care in the first place.

Here's what this boils down to:

Will some people lose their current insurance? Yes.

Will these same folks lose health insurance coverage? No.

They will all have access to better plans and in many cases pay less because of expanded options and tax credits.

more

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/29/opinion/kohn-affordable-care-act/index.html

‘The banality of the banality of evil’ - Banksy in NY

How to Cut the Poverty Rate in Half (It's Easy)

by MATT BRUENIG AND ELIZABETH STOKER

snip:
So we know generally how to bring folks out of poverty. We have a long list of successful programs that already do so. The question still before us is can we do more?

How hard would it be, for instance, to cut official poverty in half?

Using the dataset from the latest Census poverty report, I determined that if we cut a $2,920 check to every single American—adults, children, and retirees—we could cut official poverty in half. Economists consider this sort of across-the-board payment a “universal basic income.” You can think of it as Social Security for all, not just the elderly.

The upside of giving everybody about $3,000 is that it’s a very easy policy to run and a surefire way to cut poverty in half. But it's a large program: it would require about $907 billion in 2012, or 5.6 percent of the nation’s GDP. (In a real implementation, we might exclude the more than 45 million Americans receiving OASI Social Security benefits from a basic income, bringing the cost down substantially.)

Could we afford it? Sure. For starters, we could raises taxes, first on the rich, who would pay more in new taxes than they would receive in basic income, and then on lower-middle class and poor families, who would come out ahead. There is also plenty of room to cut tax expenditures on homeowners, personal retirement accounts, capital gains exclusions at death, and exclusions on annuity investment returns. This submerged welfare state for the affluent costs hundreds of billions of dollars each year. There is also the matter of the $700 billion military budget, which could take some trimming.

The point is: this could be done.

The rest

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/how-to-cut-the-poverty-rate-in-half-its-easy/280971/

27 GOP Senators 'Disapprove' Of Their Own Vote To Raise Debt Ceiling

SAHIL KAPUR – OCTOBER 29, 2013, 4:34 PM EDT3562
Twenty-seven Republican senators voted with Democrats on Oct. 16 to lift the debt ceiling and avert a catastrophic default. And each one of those 27 senators voted Tuesday to "disapprove" of their own votes.

The vote Tuesday was a symbolic "resolution to disapprove" of the debt limit hike. It was mandated by the deal thanks to a last-minute provision inserted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The motion failed 45-54 because all Democrats opposed it.

Even if it passed Congress, it wouldn't have stopped the debt limit hike because President Obama could veto the measure. The purpose was to give these senators the chance to say they disapprove of a deal they voted for.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/27-gop-senators-disapprove-of-their-own-vote-on-the-debt-ceiling

Worthless Senators voting on a worthless bill, wasting taxpayer money.

NYC top cop Kelly shouted down at Brown University

Source: WSJ/AP

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been shouted down by protesters during a talk at Brown University, and his planned lecture called "Proactive Policing in America's Biggest City" was canceled.

Dozens of students and social justice activists protested before Tuesday afternoon's lecture because of the department's stop-and-frisk policy and its surveillance of Muslims. Many protesters then went inside the hall and began shouting about stop and frisk and racism during the talk.

Brown officials asked the protesters to reserve their comments until a question-and-answer session with Kelly. When the shouts continued, the hall was cleared.

The department is fighting off lawsuits alleging it has engaged in racial profiling while fighting crime. Kelly and Mayor Mike Bloomberg have denied the accusations.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/AP0a057a2a89ec4de091d5a2c30ade1484.html

New Zealand Govt not upfront on Trans-Pacific Partnership, says Labour

The Labour Party says the Government has been too secretive about talks to set up a Pacific-wide free trade area.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is on the agenda at Labour's annual conference which begins on Friday.

Supporters of the partnership fear the party will end the bipartisan political approach to free trade by opposing any deal.

Labour's trade spokesperson Phil Goff is a strong advocate of free trade but says the party is concerned about the lack of transparency surrounding the TPP talks.

Mr Goff says National has not been inclusive or open about the position it is taking on key issues like Pharmac, the right of Parliament to regulate and intellectual property.

"We're not expecting the Government to disclose negotiating texts while they're being negotiated but we are expecting them to be upfront and open about the issues and about the stance that they are taking on our behalf."

more

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/226030/govt-not-upfront-on-tpp,-says-labour