V1 N10 Nye-gateway To Nevada's Rurals Newsletter

September 19, 2009

Vol 1 No 10

Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals Newsletter P o l i t i c a l

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Wasting millions of stimulus money on remote Montana-Canada border posts

Inside A m e r i c a ‟ s H e a l t h y F u t u r e A c t

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This is disgusting! Hasn’t been a very happy week considering the Baucus Plan for health care/ insurance reform.

Read this and then go hug your banker 2 Wendell Potter Slams Baucus Plan Insurers Have Given $4 Million to Committees

Giving Single-Payer a Second Look Judge Rejects Settlement Over Merrill Lynch Bonuses

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DHS to give these towns millions for border crossings, bragging in a joint press release that they pressured the agency.

This post is about Max Baucus (again) and Jon Just makes me furious. Tester, the two DemocDemocrat Sen. Byron 2 ratic Senators from MonDorgan, from the tana. neighboring state of North Senator Max Baucus (D-Mt) Dakota, sent out a news 3 Baucus and Tester plans to spend $31 million of release urging DHS Secstimulus money to en- retary Janet Napolitano to 3 hance two remote cross- suspend the stimulus proings on the b o r - gram. He said that spendder between the United ing the money on such 3 remote ports — including States and Canada. the nine in his state — Baucus is chairman of the 4 was ―just nuts.‖ Dorgan Senate Finance Commit- said the plan ―just defied tee; Tester is on the Sen- common sense.‖ 6 ate’s Homeland Security Committee. Both took Watch the video and read Senator Jon Tester (D-Mt) credit for convincing the more.

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As if the posting about the Montana-Canada waste of money wasn’t enough there is also this that came out this week. CREW has issued its 5th Annual Report on the 15 Most Corrupt Members of Congress.

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M o s t C o r r u p t C o n g r e s s

CREW is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials — regardless of party affilia-

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tion — who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach. CREW employs the law as a tool to force officials to act ethically and lawfully and to bring un-

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ethical conduct to public’s attention.

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8 Democrats and 7 Republicans on the list which includes Nevada’s Senator John Ensign. Read more.

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Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals

A m e r i c a ‟ s This is the Baucus Plan. Wendell Potter characterizes the plan, produced by the infamous ―Gang of Six" as a “gift to the health care insurance industry.” I’ve posted the entire plan here so you can read it all for yourselves. It is 223 pages long. It is scheduled for markup on September 22, 2009.

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It contains no public option. No Republican support (which isn’t surprising).

problem with the health care system is the forprofit health insurance industry and Wall Street.

I am intensely interested in whether President Obama will adopt the plan and sign it into law.

Look it over and judge for yourself. I recommend you also read what Wendell Porter says about it.

It will surely get ―marked up" a lot with amendments when the markup starts on September 22.

Montana needs to get rid of Baucus and Tester.

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Sen. Max Baucus (DMt)

Read more.

In my opinion the core

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Merchants want to negoti- chant an ―interchange‖ fee of 1 ate credit card fees they’re – 2% of the purchase. charged by banks. That cuts into the merchants When you go to your local profit margin of course and convenience store to buy a increases the bank’s profits. jug of wine or six-pack of Merchants don’t like it. They’re beer or even a loaf of bread fighting back. Banks increased and hand the clerk their income by $48 billion in your Bank of America Visa 2008. That isn’t chicken feed. Card or debit card to pay for it the bank charges the mer- The Government Accountability Office is doing a study of

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the fees, as required by a law signed by President Obama in May that bans many unfair credit card industry practices. Can you imagine a Republican Congress or the Bush Administration enacting and enforcing such a law? I didn’t think so. Read more.

W e n d e l l P o t t e r S l a m s B a u c u s B i l l : „ A n A b s o l u t e G i f t T o T h e I n s u r a n c e I n d u s t r y ‟ Wendell Potter — the insurance industry whistle blower and former communications director of health insurance giant Cigna — called the Baucus framework ―an absolute gift to the industry.‖ ―And if that is what we see in the legislation,

[America’s Health Insurance Plans chief] Karen Ignagni will surely get a huge bonus,‖ Potter said at a briefing for reporters. The bill establishes a new regulated health insurance exchange and compels every

American to purchase qualified health insurance coverage by 2013. Americans with employer-sponsored insurance can stay in their existing plans, while the uninsured would have to enroll in an expanded Medicaid program, a new plan in the Ex-

change or the nowregulated individual health insurance. The bill would cover 94% of Americans and cost $880 billion over 10 years. Read more.

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Vol 1 No 10

I n s u r e r s

H a v e G i v e n $ 4 C o m m i t t e e s

52 insurance companies or their subsidiaries have an assignment due today: they must disclose their financial records, including details on executive pay and entertainment expenditures, to House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) i n s u r e r s s u c h as AFLAC and Blue Cross/Blue Shield on alert, they might find

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some comfort in that collectively they enjoy a relatively strong financial bond with the current committee members. The members have collected $2.9 million from the employees and political action committees of the insurers that received letters from Waxman in August. Fifty-three percent of those donations has gone to Republicans.

S i n g l e - P a y e r

As President Obama prepares to address the nation about his vision for health care reform, we should not overlook the last, best truly transformative change to our health care system: Medicare. We have been staring so intently at the lessons of 1993 that we may have

forgotten the universal rule of successful lawmaking: ―keep it simple.‖ These words were spoken by Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) who is a sponsor of HR 676, the ―Medicare for All" plan. Medicare also provides us with a case study in the

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―Money is the mother’s milk of politics.‖ Here are the current members of the House Energy and Commerce to collect the most from the 52 insurers required to respond to Waxman’s request, including contributions to the lawmakers’ leadership PACs and candidate committees back to 1989. Read more.

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hypocrisy of our Republican friends who have built their party on a 44year record of undermining this popular program. And now their Chairman sees no irony in ripping ―government run‖ healthcare while publishing an op-ed opposing changes to Medicare.

L o o k If Medicare has been such a success, why not extend it? Yes, why not indeed. Read more.

Judge Rejects Settlement Over Merrill Lynch Bonuses The case involved $3.6 billion in bonuses that were paid by Merrill Lynch late last year, just as that firm was about to be merged with Bank of America. Neither company provided details of the bonuses to their shareholders, who voted on Dec. 5 to approve the merger. On January 22, 2009 John Thain resigned as CEO of Merrill Lynch after it was disclosed that he had rushed to pay out $3–4 billion dollars in fourth quarter bonuses to Merrill employees by the

end of 2008, just prior to Bank of America’s acquisition of the company became final. Thain allegedly did not disclose the bonus payouts to Bank of America negotiators.

sion over bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives just before the bank took over Merrill last year.

The judge focused much of his criticism on the fact that the fine in the case would be paid by the bank’s shareholders, who were the ones that were supA Federal District judge on posed to have been injured by Monday overturned a settle- the lack of disclosure. ment between the Bank of America and the Securities Read more. and Exchange Commis-

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Special Offer MoveOn: The Movie is being offered for your viewing free of charge by Val Von Holt. To see it free just leave a $10 deposit with me, view the movie for 30 days, return it to me in good condition, and the $10 deposit will be refunded to you. Contact me at 1290 Bruce Street, Pahrump, phone (775) 537-1262 or e-mail [email protected] to make arrangements. I will need to know your name, mail address, e-mail address and phone number. Born out of a single email, MoveOn.org has spread through the Net to become one of the most powerful progressive players in American politics. With no central office and a small staff working from their homes, MoveOn.org grew to an organization with over 5 million members. Director Alex Jordanov followed this movement for 6 years; a movement built on the strength of its membership and best understood through their individual stories.

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If you are aware of an upcoming meeting, event, or such matter and think readers should be aware of it please send me the information via e-mail to [email protected]. Be sure to inform me to the date, time, place, what it is about and who is putting it on.

September 2009 Republican Central Committee When: September 26 What: Fundraiser for Governor Jim Gibbons Where: Republican office, Highway 160 next to Saddle West Casino The Republican Central Committee is looking for volunteers to make and hold signs at the Fall Festival parade in Support of Governor Jim Gibbons. Call 513-8447 for more information.

I am unaware of any Nye County Democratic Central Committee events or other events except for regular monthly meeting on September 28 of the Central Committee. If Democrats are doing anything anywhere please let me know and I’ll happily post a notice in this section.

September (Continued) Nye County Democratic Central Committee

When: Monday, September 28 Time: 6:30 p.m. Where: Ruud Community Center, Pahrump Information: [email protected]