Howard Dean on 2012

[ProSense]

Dean: Obama Will Win In 2012, 'Going To Do Fine'

Former DNC Chair Howard Dean urged progressives on Sunday to have patience with President Barack Obama, predicting that the White House would pass comprehensive health care legislation and touting stimulus package successes.

The former Vermont Governor, a respected progressive voice himself, told Fox News Sunday that he thought Obama was "going to do fine" and would "get re-elected" in 2012.

"But I think we'll have a tough election in 2010 unless we can start dealing with the job situation," Dean added.

"He's not in big trouble with his own base," the former DNC Chair said. "I think we need to give him time. If we are successful -- and I do think there's a better chance than not that we'll pass a decent health care bill at the end of the day. It's just a frustrating time right now. I think he needs some time and he'll have that time and we'll pass a decent health care bill that really is going to start reform... Jobs are the biggest concern right now. I will say this -- the stimulus package, which has come under Republican attack, has been unbelievably successful in saving jobs. Hundreds of thousands of teachers and police officers would have been laid off by the states. Now we have a big problem coming up. That money is going to be spent halfway through the next fiscal year and states are really going to be on the hook. These huge drops in state revenue as we go through this recession. But I'm more optimistic in that I think small businesses will be helped enormously by health care reform, small businesses with payrolls less than half a million dollars don't have to buy health insurance anymore for their employees. That's a big step forward."

Dean's positive take on the Obama presidency was echoed to some extent by his co-panelist, Fox News host Mike Huckabee. While the former Arkansas Governor scoffed at the idea that the stimulus had been, in any way, a success, he did caution fellow Republicans not to buy into the narrative that the president was in some sort of political malaise.

"The Republican Party needs to unite if it's going to win in 2012, and anyone who thinks Barack Obama is an easy mark off, just remember Bill Clinton was just labeled politically dead and came back to win a resounding re-election in 1996," said Huckabee.

This is what Fox Noise and the Republican morons are counting on.

[grantcart]

1. Unfortunately Dean's voice doesn't carry much weight with the Bishops anymore

They will only be patient if Dennis tells them to.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

10. Explain the term Bishops

I've never heard us called that before, I assume you are talking about me because of the Dennis reference. But let me surprise you, I think Obama will be reelected as well. The stimulus money has only just started to be doled out, I am confident that the jobs numbers will turn around. I am unhappy with Obama on a lot of things but I do think he will be reelected if I had to say it right now.

[grantcart]

13. Bishops are the self appointed guardians of the elitist orthodoxy

They pronounce in certain and absolute terms what is an acceptable position for a progressive to have.


It has nothing to do with what a person thinks but the condescending way they try to promote their own position of authority.


It was not directed to you or anyone with any particular point of view but those that take it upon themselves to determine what is an acceptable position for others to have.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

15. Thanks I hadn't heard the word in reference to Kucinich supporters before n/t

[patrice]

28. a.k.a. Gatekeepers - and - They're Everywhere!

[grantcart]

36. just the ones who instruct the 'fallen' that they are betraying liberal orthodoxy.

[impik]

18. Yea, even Dean is doomed now

Well, what can you do. You can be just half pure, you know...

[Cha]

38. That doesn't matter..Dean is an

intelligent visionary who has his country's well being uppermost in his actions.

[Number23]

43. "Bishops." Love it.

[tekisui]

2. As long as unemployment is going down, Obama will coast to

re-election. It is all about the job numbers.

[davidwparker]

3. "would pass comprehensive health care legislation" - the first inaccuracy.

Dean is just being a cheerleader here.

[ProSense]

4. So you don't think health care will pass?

Really?

[davidwparker]

7. yes, the gift to the health care industry will pass. Reform, no.

[ProSense]

14. Nonsense.

You have no idea what the bill will look like. The fact is the House bill which some claims rewards the industry is dumb.

SUMMARY OF MANAGER’S AMENDMENT

Building on the legislation House Democrats introduced last week, the manager’s amendment provides for several changes to the bill, including the following:

• Establishes a process for the review and public disclosure of health insurance premium increases and justifications for those increases by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and states beginning in 2010. Permits the Commissioner of the Health Insurance Exchange, beginning in 2013, to take into consideration excessive and unjustified premium increases in making decisions regarding which insurance companies will be permitted into the exchange and how quickly to open the exchange to employers for the purchase of insurance for their employees. Provides a total of $1 billion in funding for states for this process over the period 2010 to 2014.
  
  
• Repeals the McCarran-Ferguson Act insurance antitrust exemption with respect to health insurance and medical malpractice insurance.
  
  
• Authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to investigate insurance companies that are registered as not-for-profit companies.
  
  
• Directs the HHS Secretary to work with states that have alternative programs to state high risk pools as a part of the new National High Risk Pool program for people who can’t get health insurance in today’s marketplace.
  
  
• Amends the National High-Risk Pool to make those early retirees whose premium increases are excessive eligible for the new program.
  
  
• Prohibits undocumented individuals from accessing financial assistance from the national high risk pool program with requirements for verification of citizenship or lawful presence.
  
  
• Requires that the Medicare fraud and abuse phone number be printed prominently on beneficiaries’ Explanation of Benefits forms.
  
  
• Imposes a 90-day waiting period for new durable medical equipment suppliers to be paid if the HHS Secretary believes there is a risk for fraud.
  
  
• Establishes a new public health program on mental health and substance abuse screening, intervention, referral, and recovery services.
  
  
• Provides for the development of quality indicators for Alzheimer’s care.
  
  
• Provides for diabetes screening collaboration and outreach through the Department of Health and Human Services in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  
  
• Codifies the Office of Minority Health within the Office of the HHS Secretary and establishes satellite minority health offices in various HHS agencies.
  
  
• Clarifies that states may reimburse nursing homes for costs incurred in conducting background checks on potential employees.
  
  
• Provides a special rule for the expansion of certain physician-owned hospitals that consistently treat the highest percentage of Medicaid patients in their communities.
  
  
• Changes the effective date for a payment change for skilled nursing facilities from January 1, 2010 to April 1, 2010.
  
  
• Imposes performance assessment and accountability measures on the Health Choices Administration, including requirements for improving customer service and streamlining redundant rules, regulations, and procedures.
  
  
• Permits a qualified health benefits plan to provide coverage through a qualified direct primary care medical home plan.
  
  
• Repeals the worldwide interest allocation rules.
  
  
• Closes down the loophole that allows unprocessed fuels (like black liquor) to claim the $1.01 producers credit.
  
  
• Makes clarifications to the interstate insurance compacts that require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop model guidelines for compacting states, ensures that the interstate insurance compacts do not override state laws governing rate review and fraud, and makes clear that the compacting states determine which of the compacting state’s laws serve as primary for the insurance company.
  
  
• Delays implementation of the provision that would eliminate the ability of employers to deduct Federal subsidies with respect to prescription drug benefits provided to retirees by two years.
  
  
• Clarifies that the business/consumer purchasing collaborative provided for in the early access health grants is a non-profit business collaborative.
  
  
• Requires HHS Secretary to conduct a study to determine the existence of duplicative HHS programs and establishes a process for the elimination of any such program.

Text of amendments: PDF

[patrice]

27. Oaky, I'm seeing some of my answers here:

div class="excerpt"]Text

[Aramchek]

6. nice avatar. let me know when he accomplishes anything

and I'll certainly let you know when Obama signs Healthcare Reform with a Public Option into law

[davidwparker]

8. Aramchek, let me know when the public option is signed into law. My

deductible is going up to $1250 in 2010. That's about 3x what it is now.

I would sign up for a government-run plan in a heartbeat.

Oh, is the "reform" still set for 2014 or something off in the distance?

[dflprincess]

45. My deductible is going to $1200 next year

(prescriptions won't even be covered until I hit that) and the total out of pocket will be $3700 on covered expenses. Hopefully, I won't spend enough to find out what isn't covered.

The House bill allows singles to have out of pockets of up to $5,000 of covered expenses, I think the deductible is between $1200 & $1500. (The out of pocket does not include premium costs which can equal 11% of your income). If your income is less that 4x the poverty level ($43,000 for a single) you will get some subsidy. Once your income is 1.5x the poverty level, you start paying more as your income rises until you hit the max income and pay the full cost yourself.

Basically, the House plan allows for the same crap insurance many of us have now. We'll be paying for "coverage" but still not be guaranteed that we can afford care.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

11. PUBLIC OPTION???

Are you serious? You call that a true public option? A public option that is only avaliable to 2% of the country isn't a public option. And more likely than not people like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu wont vote for any bill that contains it. I am not convinced there will even be a shitty Public Option in the final bill.

[ProSense]

16. Wrong

Any automatic enrollment program shall include adequate notice and the opportunity for an employee to opt out of any coverage the individual or employee were automatically enrolled in. Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede any State law which establishes, implements, or continues in effect any standard or requirement relating to employers in connection with payroll except to the extent that such standard or requirement prevents an employer from instituting the automatic enrollment program under this section.’’.

<...>

‘‘(2) if the employer plan’s share of the total allowed costs of benefits provided under the plan is less than 60 percent of such costs, that the employee may be eligible for a premium tax credit under section 36B of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and a cost sharing reduction under section 1402 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act if the employee purchases a qualified health plan through the Exchange; and

‘‘(3) if the employee purchases a qualified health plan through the Exchange, the employee will lose the employer contribution (if any) to any health benefits plan offered by the employer and that all or a portion of such contribution may be excludable from income for Federal income tax purposes.

PDF

You can read about the Wyden Amendment here

[spiritual_gunfighter]

23. Oh okay

The agreement between Wyden, Reid and Baucus would change that."The agreed to amendment will make it possible for these individuals to convert their tax-free employer health subsidies into vouchers that they can use to choose a health insurance plan in the new health insurance exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office estimates a previous version of this provision will expand coverage to more than a million Americans," according to a statement from Wyden's office.

So you are basically saying I am wrong because the Wyden amendment covers a million more people than previously? You think only a million more people under this amendment, is a victory? I guess if you are okay with small victories.

[ProSense]

25. People can opt out and

you ignore that the plan is incremental. The fact is that tossing around the 2 percent figure is inaccurate.

[patrice]

26. Where are the increments please?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

39. No it isn't it was what the House bill covered and now the Senate bill

with the Wyden amendment isn't much more, you are playing fast and loose with the facts.

[ProSense]

40. No, you need to read the bills. n/t

[patrice]

24. Just checking here:

Adequate notification & opt out are required for automatic enrollment.

No state payroll laws will be over-ridden, except those payroll laws which prevent automatic enrollment (about which employees will receive adequate notification and opt out anyway). {Sounds like this just implements the kind of coverage I used to receive from my husband's employer. I received notification each year; I could just check: continue with my status quo coverage; change my coverage to _____________ whatever they were offering; or end my coverage}


If the employer can't cover >60% of costs allowed in a plan;
And - IF - the employee purchases insurance from the Exchange:
Employees are eligible for a premium tax-credit;
And Cost-sharing Reduction (subsidy).


If the employee purchases HCIns from the Exchange:
The employer is not required to pay TO the employee the portion of the costs of HCIns that they previously offered to pay for the employee;
And none of the contribution previously offered by the employer will (may?) be counted as income for Federal income tax purposes.

..........................................................

All of that seems straight forward enough, but:

One un-predictable I see here that will affect the number of people going to the Exchanges is: Amongst those <$500K employers, how do they decide whether they can cover >60% or not? HC Insurance companies are offering them different kinds of deals; HCInsCo will go further or not so far, depending upon whether they want the business or not. <$500K employers will say "we can/can't cover >60% of this or that offer" depending upon how much they figure they can force HCInsCo down. At some point in there HCInsCos & <$500K employers, both, have hypothetically gone as far as they are capable of going.

I imagine there are all kinds of ways both sides of this equation can figure whether it can do business with the other; what kind of oversight is there for these deals?

How do we know HCInsCos have driven down costs as much as they can, in order to offer <$500K employers the best possible deals they can?

How do we know whether <$500K employers actually can or cannot cover >60% of whatever HCInsCos are offering?

It just kind of looks to me as though these employers CAN release more or less people to the Exchanges, depending upon internal factors that are not on the table.

[Cha]

37. Dean is an intelligent leader who knows what's

good for his country.

[azmouse]

5. I wish Dean was part of Obama's Cabinet.

[Cha]

35. But, since he's not..I'm seeing how great he is on

the outside. Sure, anyone in the admin could say what Dean says but this is coming from a distnguished leader who is not on the inside.

[AVID]

47. +1

[patrice]

9. Dear Dr. Dean, please tell President Obama that I have done my part for those jobs.

With the sole exception of my mortgage, my own personal economy is now a cash economy and I figure all of that credit I paid off could now be reinvested in LOCAL entrepreneurs.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

12. +1

[patrice]

20. The single thing that ALL of the different kinds of investment advice (for everyone except Wall Stre

et and the Banksters) have in common, all of the different strategies at our level begin with get rid of your debt.

As much as I wish my debt was as useful as debt higher up in the food chain, it ain't. It's the opposite of useful, as you get older is gets less and less useful. Funny how all of this parallels so exactly what is going on nationally. As long as I can stay employed, I'll be able to live without it, but I think there ought to be somekind of systemic debt for those who are not capable of doing what I just did.

[Major Hogwash]

17. No one can predict what will happen in 3 years - no one!!

So the fucking Democrats had better concentrate on next year!!

They're going to loose seats in both houses of Congress if they don't quit fucking around.

[ProSense]

19. These are the people who need to

focus. They cannot rely on Obama's coattails. The focus on 2012 is absurd.

[patrice]

30. I know it's considered a lost cause, but

Shouldn't Brownback's seat be on that list, since he's going to run for governor AND Dennis Moore will not be returning.

These are opportunities for "The Party" to take one for The People by running THE MOST PROGRESSIVE POPULIST CANDIDATES THEY CAN FIND.

They can only win, or, at worst, advance the voice and political relevance of the Working Class, not only in Kansas, but to some extent nationally too. I wish there were some saintly candidates who would step up and do this for the Democratic Party. It would do a lot help heal divisions within the party.

[patrice]

31. P.S. Not to mention the fact that such would be the most effective positions possible to go on the

offense against Family Member, Sam Brownback, and whatever covert right-wing nutcase the churches are going to try to put in Dennis' seat.

[patrice]

21. Too true.

Bitching about Obama is being used as bait to take Democrats down in 2010.

3rd party factions are pushing this and though I agree with some of their motives, I don't agree with their methods, because, ultimately, if ending suffering and oppression is their purpose, there is a STRONG possibility that the way they are going about it will increase suffering and oppression. Though there are REAL Lefties trying to push the Democratic Party to the left (MORE power to them!), I suspect altruism is not the major part of the 3rd party movement's majority. I think we're seening how covert Libertarians appeal at this particular point in time to both the right and the left. They'd be only to happy to see dog-eat-dog Capitalism win ascendancy for the foreseeable future. And THAT'S the exact track we are on right now.

[EndElectoral]

22. I kind of hoped Dean would run in 2012 rather than Mr. Centrist again

[Lord Helmet]

29. click your heels together and hope harder

[patrice]

32. clicking here!!!

:hi: Calling, Dr. Dean! :hi:

[patrice]

41. for VP

[Cha]

34. Give Dean credit for being more intelligent than that.

Dean wants what's best for his country.

[Cha]

33. Dean is a team player and has always had my respect.

His integrity taught me a lot about politics when I was a relative newb when he decided to go for it in the Pres arena.

When he lost the primary he totally continued in reality and got on board with Kerry.

Dean is all about love of country..not his own "narcissistic preening".

[Clio the Leo]

42. And fortunately, they get to work on the "jobs bill" tomorrow....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-jobs27-2009nov27,0,3049289.story

[Cha]

44. In October the LA Times reported 6,000 Education jobs saved

in L.A...250,000 nation wide.

<snip>

"Stimulus saved 6,000 education jobs in L.A., report says"

<more>
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/20/nation/na-education-jobs20

[ProgressOnTheMove]

46. I think 2010 will be Ok if we stay on it and in it and get people to the polls.