-
FROM AP: The IRS and its tea party tempest
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Many of those covered by the expansion are workers. We seem them in restaurants, gas stations or tending to suburban lawns. They are playing by the rules but not living the American Dream.
This weekend Americans will pause and remember Martin Luther King, Jr., and the many social justice reforms he championed. We should celebrate how far America has advanced since the 1960s, while we take stock of the challenges still before us.
As our nation celebrates the legacy of Dr. King and the second inauguration of President Obama, NMAC stands ready to fight for the vision of equality and justice that both of these men embody.
My decision to stop breastfeeding wasn't devastating for me. It had been a pretty miserable experience from the beginning that, for me, took away from the joy of having a baby. But the decision to stop definitely came with plenty of guilt.
Efforts aimed at obesity prevention are well underway, but we are still a nation very uncomfortable with paying for services that could help treat the two-thirds of Americans who carry excess weight.
During the final weeks of the health care reform debate, insurers papered Washington with a flawed "study" warning that premiums would soar if lawmakers ignored their recommendations. And now insurers are once again disseminating a new study with similar predictions.
This winter and early spring, when lawmakers are making big decisions about our course as a nation, we must act on science and on our humanitarian and diplomatic interests. We have the plan to end AIDS. Now is the time to fund it.
It is time to rationalize both the financing and delivery of services to meet the needs of today's aging American population that will live longer and with more functional limitations, but who want to spend these years living to their fullest without being treated like patients.
It is ridiculous to measure benefit cuts against a baseline that assumes an extremely unlikely possibility will occur. What is more, Spandan's policy priorities were straight out of the austerity playbook. In effect, he said: "To avoid cutting benefits later, cut benefits now." How about just avoiding cuts altogether?
During the run-up to the recent election, President Obama's supporters constantly stressed the need to raise taxes on the one-percent to rescue us from the fiscal cliff. But a wedge issue that stirred more passion in that election was whether to sustain or repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.
Every American packing heat is a frightening vision of our future. It doesn't have to be, if only we stop and think.
From now on, health insurers will have to provide us with information in plain English, and in no more than four pages, about what their policies cover and how much we'll have to pay out of our own pockets when we get sick.
So a shootout in school between a bad guy with a gun and a good guy with a gun will result in fewer kids being shot? Please, show some good sense. Numerous studies have shown that more guns in circulation result in more shootings, deaths, and serious injuries.
We need to talk about gun safety. Really. For years now, the gun lobby, driven by the NRA, has had considerable success at thwarting the flow of information to doctors concerning gun-inflicted injury.
The outcome of the gun debate, as in the health care battle, will be determined by political will and the courage of individual members of Congress to stand up for what they believe to get results.
One in two Americans is coping with a chronic disease, and many require rehabilitation. That's why I'm suggesting this year your New Year's resolution be "prehabilitation," a term defined by Wikipedia as, "a form of strength training, aims to prevent injuries before the actual occurrence."
