Mitch Mcconnell on The Huffington Post

Reid Slams Broder: A Retiree Who 'Writes A Column Once In A While'

2009-11-21T14:26:42Z

Speaking from the Senate floor on Saturday, Majority Leader Harry Reid had some harsh words for Washington Post columnist David Broder.

Reid was responding to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's citing of Broder's latest column to attack the Democratic health care reform bill.

"In tomorrow's Washington Post," McConnell began, "David Broder, their distinguished senior columnist, certainly not a political conservative, expresses his reservation as a citizen about the steps that we could be about to take."

Reid responded gravely: "Now, Madam President, to focus on a man who has been retired for many years and writes a column once in a while is not where we should be."

He added emphatically: "where we should be, is recognizing that America deserves a debate on health care reform."

Chris Frates writes for Politico that "Republicans quickly circulated past quotes where Reid had kinder words about the columnist, like in 2004 when Reid called the 'long-time syndicated columnist ... nonpartisan and fair.'"

Broder's argument in this latest column -- that the bill is fiscally irresponsible -- was so unfounded that even his Washington Post colleague Ezra Klein felt obliged to point out some of the things Broder had overlooked.

Watch the video below. Reid's comments start around 8:45.

GOP Needs Six Weeks To Debate Health Care Bill That All Republicans Will Oppose

2009-11-20T16:39:46Z

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) argued last Sunday that Republicans deserve at least six additional weeks to consider health care reform before letting the bill come to a vote. But on Friday, his top lieutenant said the entire GOP has already made up its mind on the legislation.

Appearing on Fox News Friday morning, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) insisted that "every single Republican will oppose" even debating health care reform because "they know it will only get worse."

"None of the things that they like about the bill will get better; and the things they object to would take 60 votes to change, and they know they're not going to get 60 votes to amend the bill to their liking," said Kyl, the minority whip in the Senate.

The opposition isn't unexpected. For some time it's been clear that Democrats would be getting either one (Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine) or no Republican Senate votes on health care legislation. But Kyl's prophecy of across-the-board opposition does seem to undercut that other GOP tactic. Why do Senate Republicans need six weeks to debate and consider the legislation if they're already determined to vote against it?

"We know it's been in Harry Reid's office for six weeks and the other 99 senators haven't seen it," McConnell told "Fox News Sunday" last week. "I think we ought to at least have as much time for the other 99 senators and all of the American people to take a look at this bill as Majority Leader Reid has had."

And why, for that matter, are Senate Republicans complaining about a limited three-day window to read the legislation if they have already come to a final verdict on its contents?

"We're now going to have about 72 hours to figure this out," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), during a speech on the Senate floor on Friday. "But I know this much -- when a bill costs $2 billion a page and when it includes language like that, it's something that we should spend some time on. And this bill's being rushed, and it shouldn't be rushed."

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Julie Menin: Lower Manhattan is the Proper Place to Try Khalid Sheikh Mohmammed

2009-11-15T22:51:46Z

My phone started ringing within minutes of Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Lower Manhattan, just blocks away from Ground Zero. I have represented the Lower Manhattan district for over four years as Chairperson of Community Board 1 and sit on several of the government boards that govern downtown Manhattan. People in the community called me upon hearing the news, some saying it is fitting that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be brought to justice in the community that he attacked, while others feared security risks of the impending trial. The announcement led to a torrential outpouring of emotion and viewpoints, which Republican officials were quick to pounce on and politicize.

Personally, and I stress I speak for myself here, I think it is imperative and absolutely appropriate that Mr. Mohammed be tried in the shadow of the World Trade Center site. In my view, it should indeed be a jury of New Yorkers, the community who was most adversely impacted by the horrific events of September 11th, who decide Mr. Mohammed's fate. The people outside of the court room are entitled to have the trial in their community, the place of the attack, just as Mr. Mohammed is entitled to a fair trial in the court room. Federal trials are open to the public and this will then be an opportunity for family members, the community and the public as a whole to try to get closure on a horrifying event. Some defense attorneys have suggested that Lower Manhattan will not afford him a fair trial, as the jury pool is tainted. But what community was not impacted by 9-11? What constitutes fairness will be a well run jury selection process and voire dire.

Another reason the trial should absolutely be held in federal court in Lower Manhattan is for the rule of law to be upheld. Holder's announcement brought an end to a dishonorable chapter in our nation's history when the Bush Administration in 2006 set up special military tribunals with their own standards of evidentiary rules that were significantly looser than those required in a criminal trial in federal court. Most disturbingly, no sooner did Holder make his announcement, then we quickly saw Republican officials jump to condemn the decision and to urge a return to the secret military tribunals.

"Classified information can be inadvertently leaked" intoned Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and then further ominously warned: "And our communities will be potential targets for attack." McConnell and others capitalized on the politics of fear to scare Americans into believing that we must accept these secret military tribunals as the only venue. Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman quickly took to the Fox news airwaves to deride Holder's decision. Don't McConnell, Cheney and Lieberman remember that it was a New York federal court who convicted Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing? Since the September 11th attacks, in fact, 195 terrorists have been tried and convicted in the federal justice system. Not one of these convicted individuals has ever escaped from the supermax federal prisons. Under Bush's much vaunted military tribunal system, only 3 cases have commenced with none of them resulting in a conviction.

Most disconcerting, however, is the absolute disregard for the rule of law that these special tribunals had. We would have had justice served years ago for the families of the 9/11 victims, for the community that was attacked, and for our nation as a whole, if the Bush Administration had handled Mr. Mohammed and other detainees in the proper way from the beginning. After years of delaying a proper trial, we now finally have the opportunity to bring closure to the horrific events of September 11th.

A final reason that it is imperative that the venue be in federal court is so we can have a full public airing of the methods of interrogation that were utilized. Mr. Mohammed was the subject of 183 instances of waterboarding, or simulated drowning. Why should that information about waterboarding and other methods of enhanced interrogation be locked away in a secret tribunal rather than see the light of the day that a public trial in federal court will afford. We once and for all need to shed light on the fact that a means of torture was used, and used repeatedly. We have to remember that the United States after World War II, in the Tokyo Trials, tried and convicted, and indeed hung, Japanese soldiers who had waterboarded American POW's. It is also instructive to look at our Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson who decried the use of torture in his Notes on the State of Virginia "What has been the effect of coercion?" he asked. "To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." In words that ring all the more truly today, Jefferson wrote to Thomas Paine: "I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."

New York City deserves this trial. Our community has lived with the impact of the September 11th attacks. We expect a fair trial, and one that actually happens unlike the secret military tribunals, and one which is open and public and upholds the rule of law, except of course for issues affecting national security where the federal government has proper procedures in place to handle classified information. We finally have the opportunity to have a full airing on the devastating September 11th attacks and I hope to be there in the trial room in my community to hear it too.

McConnell: GOP Will Delay Health Care At Least Six More Weeks

2009-11-15T10:44:58Z

If there was any doubt that Senate Republicans are eager to drag their heels when it comes to health care reform, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) removed it on Sunday.

The Kentucky Republican, during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," demanded that the Senate take, at the very least, six weeks to deliberate legislation once it is sent to the floor for amendments.

"There will be a lot of amendments over a lot of weeks. The Senate is not the House, you saw in the House there was three votes and it was over in one day," McConnell warned. "This will be on the floor for quite a long time."

Warning that health care reform "cuts Medicare rates, raises taxes and raises insurance premiums," McConnell also insisted that Majority Leader Harry Reid had kept the legislation secret from his colleagues.

"We know it's been in Harry Reid's office for six weeks and the other 99 senators haven't seen it," he said. "I think we ought to at least have as much time for other 99 senators and all of the American people to take a look at this bill as Majority Leader Reid has had."

The strategy for Republicans, McConnell outlined, would be to "delay the process so we fully understand what's in the bill." That means a reform debate that's gone on for roughly nine months could extend to a tenth; if Republicans throw up enough parliamentary hurdles, reform could be delayed into 2010.

"I think it ought to be on the floor as least as long as it was in Harry Reid's office," said McConnell.

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Mitch McConnell: Public Option "May Cost You Your Life" (AUDIO)

2009-10-29T17:38:25Z

If you've spent any time following the critics of health care reform, you'd know that there's been some perfectly rational concerns over matters like structural deficits. Of course, you'd also know that there's some pretty insane talk about how health care reform will just straight up kill you, with government star chambers meeting in judgment, dispensing fatal verdicts in the form of death panels. Via Think Progress comes the news that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has evaluated the public option along the same lines, saying that it "may cost you your life."

Naturally, Mitch McConnell has no explanation for how making the consumer choice to receive health care coverage through the public option -- when no other means are available -- will end in death. Though he should know something about fatal consumer choices! After all, the Kentucky Republican has, over the course of his political career, taken $419,025 from the tobacco industry, which makes products that kill a lot of people and create preexisting conditions that disqualify many from private insurance options. McConnell basically thinks that the public option feels like "European style" health care, which Europeans like, but in McConnell's estimation, is basically a terrible, ongoing holocaust.

MCCONNELL: Well, it doesn't make any difference frankly whether you opt-in or you opt-out, it's still a government plan. You know, Medicaid, the program for the poor now, states can opt-out of that, but none of them have. I think if you have any kind of government insurance program, you're going to be stuck with it and it will lead us in the direction of the European style, you know, sort of British-style, single payer, government run system. And those systems are known for delays, denial of care and, you know, if your particular malady doesn't fit the government regulation, you don't get the medication.

MILLER: Right.

MCCONNELL: And it may cost you your life. I mean, we don't want to go down that path.

LISTEN:

And yes, the person deployed to sagely assess the validity of McConnell's claims in this instance is Dennis Miller, a famous comedian who nearly destroyed Monday Night Football, with his thesaurus.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Linda Bergthold: The Surgeon General Is Confirmed!

2009-10-29T16:15:03Z

BREAKING NEWS! SURGEON GENERAL DR. REGINA BENJAMIN CONFIRMED BY SENATE ON VOICE VOTE THURSDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 29TH! YAY!

We had been asking for weeks now, why don't we have a Surgeon General? Rachel Maddow started up the quest again on her show on Monday night, October 26, and Dr. Nancy Snyderman of MSNBC continued it on her show Thursday October 29th. Apparently, some of the public attention turned the tide.

The answers to the delay have been varied, contradictory, and byzantine. Apparently it was not because of Dr. Regina Benjamin herself, say the Republicans. They think she's qualified and some have raved about her. And she is, indeed, an amazingly qualified family physician who practices in rural Alabama.

So what were the reasons? If I had a lifetime, I probably could not explain that exactly, but I"ll give it a try. (Harry Reid said it well in a post that Ezra Klein did today.)

Initially, the story was that Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming and seven Republican colleagues (McConnell, Kyl, Grassley, Cornyn, Alexander, Murkowski and Thune), had written a letter on September 24th stating that they would not support ANY of the nominees for health positions, including Dr. Benjamin, until certain issues were resolved with HHS and CMS. So the Republicans set up a procedural delay on the Surgeon General nomination that effectively kept the vote from coming to the floor of the Senate.

This was done despite the fact that Dr. Benjamin received a unanimous vote of approval from the Senate HELP committee -- from both Republicans and Democrats -- when she was vetted by them earlier in September. So what changed?

What changed was that Medicare had issued a "letter of warning" or whatever you want to call it, to health insurance companies including Humana, regarding communications they had been sending their Medicare beneficiaries about "possible" changes to the Medicare Advantage program. Medicare routinely regulates what health plans can tell members about their benefits. That is not new.

Dawn Teo in a prior Huffington Post piece, explained this kerfuffle in detail.

According to a source with inside knowledge of the way CMS regulates marketing guidelines, Medicare providers are only allowed to communicate with plan members about the benefits they have now, not about possible changes to benefits. They are also not allowed to use plan-related communications to lobby for policies or legislation.

This seemed to be the essence of the dispute that was holding up the Surgeon General's nomination and many others -- what can the government tell health plans about their communications with members? The action by HHS enraged Humana, headquartered in Kentucky and supporter of Senator Mitch McConnell and other Senators as well. After some back and forth in the last month to which I am not privy, HHS apparently backed off and has ended up only requiring that Medicare beneficiaries be allowed to "opt out" of receiving these communications.

Did that solve the problem? It did not and it has not. The Republican Senators who sent the letter then declared that the issue was bigger than this -- it was an issue of freedom of speech, constitutionality, etc. that all companies be allowed to communicate freely with their members about things that might happen as a result of legislation that hasn't happened yet.

Are you with me so far?

In conversations with staffers of Senators Enzi, McConnell and Reid in the past few days, I have learned that there has been a lot of finger pointing going on, the procedural issues are truly complicated, that there was NO "secret hold" on the nomination as had been charged -- it was pretty public by this week -- but the bottom line is that the Humana "thing" is still an issue, and therefore the Republicans will not lift their delaying tactics on the other nominees who are awaiting confirmation until the issue is resolved to their satisfaction.

That means that while Dr. Benjamin has been confirmed, some of the other nominees for HHS positions will remain in limbo while this fight plays out. When I asked the Republican staffers why they couldn't resolve this problem outside of the nomination process -- that is, figure out another way to do it other than holding nominees hostage, they had no specific answer.

On the MSNBC Nancy Snyderman show this past week, I had 2 minutes to try to explain this and the best I could do was to say it's "complicated". And complicated it is. But for the average person, it remains puzzling and irritating that at a time when we needed the voice of our nation's doctor, the Surgeon General, explaining flu vaccine, shortages, protection measures, etc., we did not have a Surgeon General to deliver that message until Friday the 30th of October.

When Senator Harry Reid asked the Senate for "unanimous consent" to proceed with Dr. Benjamin's confirmation vote on Thursday night the 29th, there was not a single objection from any of the 100 Senators. She was confirmed by a voice vote.

The other nominees are still waiting.

Linda Bergthold: Why Don't We Have a Surgeon General?

2009-10-27T12:31:42Z

We don't have a Surgeon General, but we have a potential flu pandemic facing us. The President nominated Dr. Regina Benjamin in early July to be the Surgeon General. The Senate HELP committee unanimously approved her earlier this month. Her nomination is being delayed by Republicans over actions taken by the Administration to hold Humana accountable for sending messages to seniors scaring them about health reform.

What's wrong with this picture? There is no real substantive reason to hold up Dr. Benjamin's nomination (if there were, the Republicans on the HELP committee would have voted no). She is a selfless physician, who has devoted her life to her patients in rural Alabama. However, due to a Senate rule, Senators can hold up a nomination or piece of legislation using a variety of different procedural tools. Senator Enzi of Wyoming's office denies it was he who put the hold on her nomination, but per Senate rules, the delay is not technically a "secret hold" but another procedural rule related to the time allotted for debate on the floor. Whatever it is called, it is a delay, and it is an attempt to hold the Surgeon General confirmation hostage until issues that the Republicans have with the Administration are resolved. They are not yet resolved, according to the Republicans.

In a Sept. 24 letter, we do know that Enzi and seven other Republican lawmakers indicated they would block the full Senate from voting on nominees for key health posts until the dispute was settled. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services gave ground, saying those companies could furnish information on pending legislation as long as customers can opt out of receiving it.

But "many questions remain," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the letter's lead signer, said in a Monday speech.

For Enzi, the review is needed to see how the administration's new policy is being implemented, [his spokesperson Michael] Mahaffey said Wednesday. Asked how long that review might take, he referred the question to McConnell's office, where a spokesman did not reply to e-mail and phone messages.

In the meantime, Enzi will continue to support the delay in voting on Benjamin and other candidates for health posts, Mahaffey said...

There is something terribly wrong when a political minority can hold up a nomination when it has the potential to affect a nation's health. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius and Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, are both overwhelmed with health reform and security issues in the U.S., and neither one is a physician .Rachel Maddow brought this issue up on her show on Monday, October 26, but there has been relatively little other media attention to this problem until this week.

You may well ask what the Surgeon General does. In addition to being in charge of more than 6000 public health workers and coordinating a variety of health programs among federal agencies, the position is primarily one of leadership. The Surgeon General could be providing the leadership that is needed to expedite vaccine production and help communicate to the American public about the threats of the H1N1 virus. But there is no one in that role.

We need to expose Senator Enzi and his colleagues for the game they are playing with America's health. You can contact Senator Enzi by calling one of his offices or that of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and ask that there be no further delays and that the confirmation of Dr. Benjamin and the other health care nominees be expedited.

Cross-posted at Daily Kos.

Jane Norton Campaign Finance Report Boasts Impressive List Of National Republicans

2009-10-21T17:47:18Z

Despite only being in the race for less than a month, Republican Senatorial Candidate and former Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton raised over half a million dollars in the third quarter this year. Congressional Quarterly reports on Norton's third quarter campaign finance report:

Republican senators who donated to Norton's campaign from their leadership PACs included Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona; John McCain of Arizona; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; Susan Collins of Maine; Christopher S. Bond of Missouri; Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas; Charles E. Grassley of Iowa; Robert F. Bennett of Utah; and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Well-known Colorado Republicans who reported giving to Norton's campaign last month include William L. Armstrong, a former U.S. House member and senator; Bob Beauprez, a former House member and losing candidate for governor in 2006; Lola Spradley, a former state House Speaker; and Philip F. Anschutz, a billionaire philanthropist with interests in entertainment, energy and communications companies.

Norton is the favorite to win the GOP's nomination for the Senate. She will face either incumbent Michael Bennet, whose former employer, Phillip Anschutz, donated to Norton, or former Speaker of the Colorado House Andrew Romanoff, who--in less than one month--raised over $200,000 dollars. Bennet raised over $1 Million in the third quarter

Peter Dreier: Humana: Profits Over People

2009-10-20T13:05:55Z

Whoever picked the name "Humana" for the health insurance giant had a great sense of humor. The word suggests a company engaged in humanitarian pursuits, or at least one with a priority on human beings. Had the marketing genius in charge of picking a name for the corporation been more honest, he would have called it "Profita," in recognition of its main concern.

Indeed, Humana isn't shy about revealing its profits-over-people philosophy.

"It is important to note if we have to choose between achieving our membership goals and achieving profitability goals, profits will win every time," CEO Michael McCallister said in 2003. The following year, he reiterated the company's priorities in an interview with the Associated Press: "We will not play the market share game and will continue to price our business for bottom line profitability."

Last year, Humana, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, raked in $29 billion in revenue and $833 million in profits. It ranked 98th on Fortune magazine's listing of the nation's largest corporations.

Last year, Humana paid McCallister $2.39 million. Over the past five years, his compensation totaled $56.9 million, according to Forbes magazine. He also owns more than $60 million in Humana stock options.

He commutes to his office at Humana's headquarters from his home, which backs up to the Lake Forest Country Club. It is valued at $995,640 by the county assessor, while Zillow estimates the home's value at $1.1 million. McCallister also has a vacation home, at 3 Northside Court in tony Park City, Utah, valued at $6.9 million by the county assessor. He is a member of the exclusive Talisker golf and ski club in Park City.

Humana's revenues have more than doubled since 2004, with almost all of the growth coming from the sale of privately administered Medicare Advantage plans. Humana is one of the country's largest Medicare providers, and its relationship with the federal program has allowed the company to become a major health insurance company with 11 million members. That includes 2.9 members of Tricare, the government-sponsored health plan for military families and dependents. Humana has 1.5 million Medicare Advantage members and 2.3 million members of its prescription drug plan. In terms of overall revenue, Medicare Advantage represents about two-thirds of Humana's business. In addition, Humana provides Medicaid benefits, supported by the joint federal-state program, to 300,000 people.

In other words, Humana relies heavily on the federal government for its revenues and profits. Not surprisingly, Humana cultivates its relationships with elected officials to guarantee that they don't turn off the government cash spigot. Over the past two and a half years, Humana employees and associates have contributed just over $699,000 to federal political campaigns. During that same period, the corporation has spent $3.4 million on lobbying, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Just in the second quarter (April through June) of this year alone, Humana spent $580,000 in lobbying expenditures.

Humana also plays the "revolving door" game, hiring government insiders to help peddle its influence to elected officials. Last year, it hired Jill Canino as its director of federal government relations. Before joining Humana, Canino was a legislative aide to Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and a staff member of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging.

But although Humana rakes in big bucks from government, it doesn't want to have to compete with an expanded version of Medicare. So it has devoted considerable corporate resources into opposing President Obama's plan for a public option that could give consumers more choices. In fact, Humana's special niche with Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drugs makes the company particularly concerned about federal health insurance reform.

"I will tell you that the public plan option, which is nothing but a Government run health plan, is a real lightning rod and could disrupt everything," McCallister said earlier this year, apparently unaware of the obvious irony that Humana is little more than a government health plan with Wall Street investors, "so it will be interesting to see how committed some folks are to such an idea."

To make sure that "some folks" -- namely, Humana's own elderly Medicare customers -- oppose a public option, Humana sent them mass mailing in September filled with propaganda calculated to frighten them. The letter was designed to look like it was about the seniors' Medicare Advantage and prescription drug benefit plans. To ensure that its customers read the letter, Humana sent it in an envelope claiming to contain "IMPORTANT INFORMATION about your Medicare Advantage plan" and urged recipients to "OPEN TODAY!" But the mailer contained no information about the recipients' Medicare plans.

Instead, the letter warned them that the health reform proposals proposed by President Obama and the Democratic Congress would cut Medicare benefits. The letter said: "Leading health reform proposals being considered in Washington, D.C., this summer include billions in Medicare Advantage funding cuts, as well as spending reductions to original Medicare and Medicaid...While these programs need to be made more efficient, if the proposed funding cut levels become law, millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable." Humana's letter also asked the recipients to contact their Congressmembers.

The letter triggered an explosive political battle. Soon after Humana sent the letter, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told private insurance companies not to lobby their customers on health care legislation. On Sept. 18, HHS informed Humana that it was "concerned that, among other things, this information is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, represents information to beneficiaries as official communications about the Medicare Advantage program, and is potentially contrary to federal regulations and guidance." The HHS letter added, "we are instructing you to end immediately all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your website."

Humana's biggest political ally, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, the right-wing Republican from Kentucky, Humana's home state, quickly called HHS's action a "federal gag order."

Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee that drafted the plan that so upset Humana, issued a statement, saying: "It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject -- particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform. The health care reform bill we released last week strengthens Medicare and does not cut benefits covered under the Medicare program -- and seniors need to know that."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also criticized Humana's scare tactics. She observed that "insurance companies earning taxpayer dollars were spending money to lobby against specific legislative initiatives -- using claims about Medicare cuts which have been widely discredited by independent news media."

Eventually, HHS compromised, issuing new guidelines allowing insurance companies can communicate with Medicare beneficiaries on pending legislation, provided they do not use federal money to do so and get permission from beneficiaries before sending them information about legislation or asking them to join grass-roots advocacy efforts.

The controversy over Humana's letter is only the latest of the company's public relations problems.

Among them was the testimony of Linda Peeno, a physician who was a nine-month contractor working as a medical reviewer for Humana in the 1990s. She later testified before Congress about her experience at Humana, portions of which were incorporated into Michael Moore's documentary film, Sicko. She was also interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! on June 21, 2007, where she recounted that while working at Humana, the insurer refused to pay for expensive treatments such as heart transplants for its customers, which lead to their deaths. Peeno said that ""just within a day or so [of the refusal of the heart transplant, I] saw a sculpture being installed in the rotunda [of Humana's headquarters] and was told at that time that it had cost about the same as the heart transplant that we had denied...By the way, I later found out that that sculpture cost $3.8 million, so it was equivalent to eight heart transplants."

Peeno told Goodman that when they went for her interview at Humana, "I was asked if I could be tough, because I was going to be telling doctors that they couldn't do things and that I would be expected to keep a 10% denial rate." She also said that while she worked at Humana, "we were told that the medical reviewer that had the highest denial rate was going to receive a bonus at Christmas."

In at least ten cases, Humana has been cited for violations of federal contracting laws, according to the Project on Government Oversight. These include the wrongful death of a Texas woman with chronic kidney disease, anti-trust violations, participating in a conspiracy to improperly deny, delay and/or reduce payments to physicians, and violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for failing to compensate its customer service and claim employees at its call centers in Cincinnati, Louisville, and Green Bay. In May 2007, the Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner ordered Humana to take corrective action (a $500,000 settlement) against the use of improper sales practices to enroll Medicare beneficiaries. Dozens of Humana agents lacked the proper licenses to sell insurance in Oklahoma and some agents enrolled Medicare beneficiaries in plans they did not understand or want.

Last year, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation ordered Humana to pay a $500,000 fine to resolve complaints that Humana enrolled Illinois citizens into more expensive and/or duplicative health plans. In 2005, Kansas City area physicians sued Humana and other health insurance companies for allegedly conspiring to suppress payments to physicians Under the settlement, Humana agreed to pay $2.8 million in cash, to be distributed among more than 2,200 physicians.

Health reform advocates have been focusing attention on Humana, one of the nation's largest insurance companies, for its efforts to thwart significant health reform. In late September, the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans protested at Humana's offices in West Palm Beach , Florida, angry about the misinformation the company sent out in its letter to customers. Last week, six people were arrested as part of a sit-in at the same location. The protesters sat in the lobby of Humana's Medicare Sales and Service office and refused to leave. The protest was sponsored by Floridians for Health Care.

Activists seeking health care reform have to resort to protests to get their voices heard. In contrast, the insurance companies have other ways to peddle their influence. Humana's board of directors has a web of corporate and political connections that supplements the company's large campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures.

For example, CEO McCallister serves on the boards of directors of the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the powerful insurance industry trade association, and of the Business Roundtable, the influential corporate lobby group. He was also a director of National City Corporation, a huge banking conglomerate that was recently purchased by PNC Financial Services.

David A. Jones, Jr., chair of Humana's board, is also chair and managing director of Chrysalis Ventures, LLC, a Louisville-based venture capital firm he founded in 1993. He serves on the advisory committee of the Brookings Center on Health Policy, on the board of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and on the Yale President's Council on International Activities. Jones, who received over $369,000 last year for serving on Humana's board, is the son of David A. Jones, Humana's founder.

Frank A. D'Amelio, another Humana director, is the chief financial officer of Pfizer, the giant drug company. He is also a member of the JPMorgan/Chase National Advisory Counsel. (Last year he was paid over $240,000 for serving on Humana's board, about half of it in Humana stock). Board member W. Roy Dunbar is CEO of NetworkSolutions. He was previously president of intercontinental operations for Eli Lilly, another huge pharmaceutical corporation. He also serves on the board of Electronic Data Systems Corporation. He received $228,071 last year for serving on Humana's board.

Kurt J. Hilzinger is a partner with Court Square Capital Partners, an independent private equity firm. Until his retirement in September 2007, he was president and chief operating officer of AmerisourceBergen, a huge drug distribution and packaging company. He earned over $256,000 for serving on Humana's board last year. W. Ann Reynolds served as president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Chancellor of the City University of New York, and Chancellor of the California State University system. She is now a director of Abbott Laboratories (a giant drug and medical device corporation), Invitrogen Corporation, Maytag Corporation and Owens Corning. Her service on corporate boards netted her over $825,000 last year, including $267,124 from Humana.

William J. McDonald, also a Humana director, is executive vice president of Capital One Financial Corporation, a giant financial services company based in Virginia. His commitment to healthy lifestsyles was evident in his previous executive jobs as chief marketing officer for Boston Chicken and for KFC, and, before that, his management positions at Pizza Hut and PepsiCo. To fatten his own wallet, McDonald received $215,000 last year for serving on Humana's board.

Humana board member William E. Mitchell is the chair of the board, and former CEO, of Arrow Electronics. Mitchell serves on the boards of Brown-Forman Corporation, Rogers Corporation, Eisenhower Fellowships, the Menlo School in Atherton, Calif., the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund's Leadership Committee. James J. O'Brien is CEO of Ashland Inc., a major chemical and transportation construction company based in Covington, Kentucky, and chairman of the board of trustees of Midway College in Kentucky. His Humana board compensation: $226,000.

Marissa T. Peterson, another Humana director, was formerly executive vice president for Sun Microsystems Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif. Peterson now serves on the boards of Supervalu, Inc., Ansell Limited, and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. Humana paid her over $424,000 -- $392,618 in stock -- for serving on its board last year.

David Jones Sr. founded the company, originally known as Extendicare, as a nursing home company in 1961. It eventually became the largest nursing home corporation in the country. Jones decided to abandon the nursing home industry and remake the company into a hospital chain. In 1972, the corporation began purchasing hospitals. Two years later, it changed its name to Humana. By the 1980s it was the world's largest hospital corporation. In the 1990s, Humana had another corporate makeover. It sold off its hospitals and and moved into the health insurance business. In 2006, following passage of the new Medicare modernization act, Humana launched a major PR campaign to market Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans to senior citizens. That year, too, Humana started RightSource, a national mail-order retail pharmacy business.

Peter Dreier is Professor of Politics, and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy program, at Occidental College in Los Angeles. This is one of a series of his articles about the battle for health care reform. These can be found on his website.

Democrats To Act On Stalled Bills, Despite GOP Obstruction

2009-10-19T08:55:55Z

While they await their health care overhauls, Congressional Democrats will this week try to make progress on other initiatives that have been moving at a glacial pace due to the inability of Senate Republicans and Democrats to come to agreement on how to deal with them.

Democrats complain that an extension of unemployment benefits, a major Pentagon policy measure, the remaining spending bills and a series of nominations are being slowed by Republicans who are interested in keeping Congress tied up in knots and denying Democrats victories.

The Rock Obama Returns: SNL Has Beefed-Up Prez Beat-Up Sens Baucus & McConnell (VIDEO)

2009-10-18T08:57:15Z

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made a special guest appearance on "Saturday Night Live" this week to reprise his role as "The Rock Obama." This was by far the most Obama-sympathetic opener of the season, as it detailed the problems he inherited when he took office and mocked the cast of characters lined up against health care reform.

In the past weeks SNL's writers have used their cold open to criticize the president for not fulfilling his campaign promises and mock his Nobel Prize win. But this sketch addressed the opposition the president faces to his agenda both from Republicans and more conservative members of his own party.

"Maybe I can explain the Republican position. It's not that we want health care to fail, we just want you to fail. Stopping health care reform seems like the best way to do that," said Will Forte playing Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. This made the president transform into his super hero self and rip off McConnell's arm.

WATCH:

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Ben Berkon: Republican Senator Olympia Snowe Controversially Decides to Deprive Country of Poor Health Care

2009-10-17T15:08:19Z

In political news, Republican Senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe, has publicly decided to sign the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill, controversially depriving the United States of its poor health care. While others praised Snowe for her vision and bravery to cross political lines, Republicans were outraged at Snowe's decision to help millions of uninsured Americans, calling her act "the highest form of progressive and logical treason America has ever seen."

"Her decision to help people is an abomination," said former vice-president Dick Cheney. "Doesn't she realize that the $900 billion the country will now be spending on health care will virtually ruin any chance of bombing completely innocent countries, building churches on every street corner, and funding the snacks for our weekly Bridge night? If Michael Steele doesn't get his Oreo cookies, he's an emotional mess. But she doesn't want nor have to deal with that [... and woman aren't even invited to our Bridge night]."

"I can't believe that bitch betrayed my trust," said Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. "All ten of us Republicans on the committee took a blood oath, promising that no matter how much health care this bill supplied struggling American citizens, that we wouldn't let it get in the way of our agenda - whatever that agenda may be. But she went against her word, and crossed over. Snowe is dead to me, dead."

Despite Snowe's decision, there are still many obstacles in the way before the bill can be passed. Some of these obstacles involve the inclusion of hundreds of proposed amendments, the idea of the "the public option," and lastly, convincing Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, that Snowe's vote still counts even though she is a woman.

(For more articles and segments of this kind, visit Something You Should Read.)

Frist: Snowe Not Enough, Five More GOPers Needed For Successful Reform

2009-10-15T11:45:18Z

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist caused a stir inside political circles two weeks ago when he said that he'd vote for Democratic-authored health care reform and urged his fellow Republicans to do the same.

Now that at least one Republican in the Senate has followed his advice and offered her support, however, Frist is saying that more GOP votes -- as many as five more -- are needed if the bill is to be successful.

In a short exchange with the Huffington Post on Thursday, the Tennessee Republican praised Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) for sending a "signal of bipartisanship" by voting for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform proposal.

"She is very smart and I think she recognized... the necessity of pulling people together," he said. "I just have tremendous respect for her."

But one Republican vote, Frist added, does not make for a bipartisan or even effective bill. And if Democrats want to ensure that reform is constructed and (more importantly) implemented successfully, they would have to find several more GOP votes.

"I do think these bills have to have more than one Republican or three Republicans or five Republicans or there is going to be a huge backlash afterwards. Because it is going to be a tough bill -- taxes are going to go up, premiums are going to go up, benefits are not going to increase," Frist said. "It is going to do some very good things in terms of insurance reform, but if the American people don't feel that they were a part of developing this bill we are going to be in big trouble."

Acknowledging that it was easier to offer advice from outside the constraints of public office, Frist nevertheless provided a recommendation to his successor as Majority Leader, Sen. Harry Reid: Include Republican leadership in the process of merging the two Senate health care bills in consideration.

"Absolutely," said Frist. "I'd bring [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell in. Ted Kennedy was with me throughout the prescription drug bill. He didn't end up voting for it but he was there and his ideas got incorporated in there. I would bring people to the table even if they are not going to vote for the bill."

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McConnell Aide Brags About Lack Of GOP Health Plan

2009-10-08T11:08:44Z

Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, says the intraparty rift is overblown. He and others point to past criticisms of Democrats' proposals made by many of the same Republicans, and that there is agreement within the party to pass some sort of health care bill.

"The Democrats like to complain that Republicans don't have an 'alternative' bill," Stewart says. "We don't have a thousand-page, trillion-dollar bill that raises taxes, slashes Medicare and raises premiums -- they're right as rain about that."

Chris Weigant: Republican Leaders Join In Honoring New Rotunda Statue Of Radical Socialist Woman

2009-10-07T16:39:13Z

There are sins of commission in the way we're taught American history as children -- such as the fable about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree (which never actually happened). Then there are the much more prevalent sins of omission -- which conveniently gloss over the parts of American history which we have to "protect the children" from learning about. The reason I preface this column with such an observation is because a woman -- whose name we all know -- was honored today by the unveiling of her statue in the United States Capitol's Rotunda. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was on hand for this ceremony, as was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But the astonishing thing (to me) was that Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner were also on hand, as well as the Republican governor of the very red state from whence this woman came. This state has honored the woman before, when it selected her to be their representation on their own state quarter. But the truly astonishing thing is that this woman not only helped found the A.C.L.U., but also was a radical and revolutionary Socialist, a fan of the Soviet Union and Lenin, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (the "I.W.W.", or the "Wobblies"), and an ardent foe and critic of capitalism. Not the type of woman usually honored by Republicans, you might think. But, in a glaring sin of omission committed by history teachers across this great land (and repeated by politicians even now), the only story we all know about her is of the daunting odds she overcame in her childhood. We're all familiar with this shared story, but it abruptly ends when she becomes an adult. All the parts about the raging Socialist she later became are conveniently swept under the rug.

Think I'm overstating that bit about being a "raging Socialist" or a "radical"? Judge for yourself. In her own words, from 1929, on the death of Lenin:

The Russian Revolution did not originate with Lenin. It had hovered for centuries in the dreams of Russian mystics and patriots, but when the body of Lenin was laid in simple state in the Kremlin, all Russia trembled and wept. The mouths of hungry enemies fed on new hopes, but the spirit of Lenin descended upon the weeping multitude as with cloven tongues of fire, and they spoke one to another and were not afraid. "Let us not follow him with cowering hearts," they said, "let us rather gird ourselves for the task he has left us. Where our dull eyes see only ruin, his clearer sight discovers the road by which we shall gain our liberty. Revolution he sees, yea, and even disintegration which symbolizes disorder is in truth the working of God's undeviating order; and the manner of our government shall be no less wonderful than the manner of our deliverance. If we are steadfast, the world will be quickened to courage by our deeds."

Men vanish from earth leaving behind them the furrows they have ploughed. I see the furrow Lenin left sown with the unshatterable seed of a new life for mankind, and cast deep below the rolling tides of storm and lightning, mighty crops for the ages to reap.

Earlier, when she first became publicly known as a Socialist (which caused a media frenzy at the time, since her childhood story was already famous), she wrote "How I Became A Socialist," for the New York Call.

Even notoriety may be turned to beneficent uses, and I rejoice if the disposition of the newspapers to record my activities results in bringing more often into their columns the word Socialism. In the future I hope to write about socialism, and to justify in some measure the great amount of publicity which has been accorded to me and my opinions.

. . .

I am no worshiper of cloth of any color, but I love the red flag and what it symbolizes to me and other Socialists. I have a red flag hanging in my study, and if I could I should gladly march with it past the office of the [New York] Times and let all the reporters and photographers make the most of the spectacle. According to the inclusive condemnation of the Times I have forfeited all right to respect and sympathy, and I am to be regarded with suspicion. Yet the editor of the Times wants me to write him an article! How can he trust me to write for him if I am a suspicious character? I hope you will enjoy as much as I do the bad ethics, bad logic, bad manners that a capitalist editor falls into when he tries to condemn the movement which is aimed at this plutocratic interests. We are not entitled to sympathy, yet some of us can write articles that will help his paper to make money. Probably our opinions have the same sort of value to him that he would find in the confession of a famo
"An industrialist?" I asked, surprised out of composure. "You don't mean an I.W.W. -- a syndicalist?"

"I became an I.W.W. because I found out that the Socialist party was too slow. It is sinking in the political bog. It is almost, if not quite, impossible for the party to keep its revolutionary character so long as it occupies a place under the government and seeks office under it. The government does not stand for interests the Socialist party is supposed to represent."

Socialism, however, is a step in the right direction, she conceded to her dissenting hearers.

"The true task is to unite and organize all workers on an economic basis, and it is the workers themselves who must secure freedom for themselves, who must grow strong." [she] continued. "Nothing can be gained by political action. That is why I became an I.W.W."

. . .

"What are you committed to -- education or revolution?"

"Revolution." She answered decisively. "We can't have education without revolution. We have tried peace education for 1,900 years and it has failed. Let us try revolution and see what it will do now.

"I am not for peace at all hazards. I regret this war, but I have
"An industrialist?" I asked, surprised out of composure. "You don't mean an I.W.W. -- a syndicalist?"

"I became an I.W.W. because I found out that the Socialist party was too slow. It is sinking in the political bog. It is almost, if not quite, impossible for the party to keep its revolutionary character so long as it occupies a place under the government and seeks office under it. The government does not stand for interests the Socialist party is supposed to represent."

Socialism, however, is a step in the right direction, she conceded to her dissenting hearers.

"The true task is to unite and organize all workers on an economic basis, and it is the workers themselves who must secure freedom for themselves, who must grow strong." [she] continued. "Nothing can be gained by political action. That is why I became an I.W.W."

. . .

"What are you committed to -- education or revolution?"

"Revolution." She answered decisively. "We can't have education without revolution. We have tried peace education for 1,900 years and it has failed. Let us try revolution and see what it will do now.

"I am not for peace at all hazards. I regret this war, but I have never regretted the blood of the thousands spilled during the French Revolution. And the workers are learning how to stand alone. They are learning a lesson they will apply to their own good out in the trenches. Generals testify to the splendid initiative the workers in the trenches take. if they can do that for their masters you can be sure they will do that for themselves when they have taken matters into their own hands."

. . .

"I don't give a damn about semi-radicals!"

Pretty strong stuff, even by today's standards. And extremely strong stuff back when she spoke. These articles, I should mention, are most easily found on the web at a site called "marxists.org".

And yet, this woman was honored today by having a statue unveiled -- to honor her home state of Alabama -- in the United States Capitol. Furthermore, her remains lie in the National Cathedral in Washington. Because all we remember about her is the story of overcoming handicaps in childhood. Not allegorical or metaphorical handicaps either, but real ones. Because the woman honored today was named Helen Keller.

I first became aware of (as Paul Harvey was wont to say) "the rest of the story" when reading a book by James W. Loewen, titled Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (with a title like that, how could I pass it up?). He uses Keller's story as the first example in the first chapter of the book to point out how boring American history is, when taught to classrooms full of children -- when the actual reality is much more human, much more inconsistent, and (hence) much more interesting.

Loewen writes:

The notion that opportunity might be unequal in America, that not everyone has "the power to rise in the world," is anathema to textbook authors, and to many teachers as well. Educators would much rather present Keller as a bland source of encouragement and inspiration to our young -- if she can do it, you can do it! So they leave out her adult life and make her entire existence over into a vague "up by the bootstraps" operation. In the process, they make this passionate fighter for the poor into something she never was in life: boring.

From Nancy Pelosi's remarks today:

"What a great day this is for America in the Capitol of the United States as we honor Helen Keller.

"Most people know about Helen Keller as a child -- full of curiosity and wonder at the world that was opened to her. Today we recognize her as that child, but also as the woman she became: civic-minded, politically active, and a standard bearer for the great causes of her age and of ours.

"As Helen Keller said: 'My sympathies are with all who struggle for justice.' In her lifetime, Helen Keller worked for opportunity for people with disabilities, for racial equality, and for the rights of women.

"In demonstrating that passion that she had, Helen Keller, in this statue in the Capitol, will always remind us that people must be respected for what they can do, rather than judged for what they cannot.

. . .

"Helen Keller's life is an example of determination and strength. Here, in this temple of our democracy, year after year, day after day, Helen Keller's statue will stand as a testament to her strength and to the American ideal of equality, which she promoted."

Well, I guess that's progress of a sort, even if what Keller was actually promoting was the Soviet ideal of equality. And you'll excuse me if I still find it amusing that Alabama (of all places) just honored a woman with a statue in the Capitol Rotunda who donated $100 to the N.A.A.C.P. (which, to put it mildly, was not exactly "honored" among white people in Alabama at the time). Even more irony is to be found in the color red, which is now used in "Red State America" proudly, but back then was a capitalized noun, meant to be used as a slur akin to "traitor." But even then, Helen Keller was a proud Red, a committed Socialist, and an unapologetic Wobbly.

And now she's not only buried in the National Cathedral, she's got her own statue in the Capitol. Her own words are the perfect ending to this story. These are from the articles excerpted above, the first talking about a newspaper, the Brooklyn Eagle.

Oh, ridiculous Brooklyn Eagle! What an ungallant bird it is! Socially blind and deaf, it defends an intolerable system, a system that is the cause of much of the physical blindness and deafness which we are trying to prevent. The Eagle is willing to help us prevent misery provided, always provided, that we do not attack the industrial tyranny which supports it and stops its ears and clouds its vision. The Eagle and I are at war. I hate the system which it represents, apologizes for and upholds. When it fights back, let it fight fair. Let it attack my ideas and oppose the aims and arguments of Socialism. It is not fair fighting or good argument to remind me and others that I cannot see or hear. I can read. I can read all the socialist books I have time for in English, German and French. If the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle should read some of them, he might be a wiser man and make a better newspaper. If I ever contribute to the Socialist movement the book that I sometimes dream of, I know what I shall name it: Industrial Blindness and Social Deafness.

"I feel like Joan of Arc at times. My whole becomes uplifted. I, too, hear the voices that say 'Come,' and I will follow, no matter what the cost, no matter what the trials I am placed under. Jail, poverty, calumny -- they matter not. Truly He has said, 'Woe unto you that permits the least of mine to suffer.'"

[Notes: I did not provide links in the article to the quoted passages, mostly because it would have let the cat out of the bag and I was too busy employing a cheap journalistic trick (thanks again, Paul Harvey). Now that we know who I'm talking about, I encourage you to read the articles themselves: "The Spirit Of Lenin" from 1929, "How I Became A Socialist" from 1912, and the interview "Why I Became An I.W.W." with Barbara Bindley in 1916. I found the texts of all these at the Helen Keller Reference Archive at marxists.org, which I point out not as an endorsement of the site, but rather in appreciation of their source material archive. I received no compensation of any type (not even a copy of the book) for my hearty endorsement of James W. Lowen's excellent book, which I do encourage everyone to read. You can see Alabama's quarter at the U.S. Mint site. Helen Keller's final resting place at the National Cathedral is marked with a metal plaque. Because it is shiny metal, it is hard to photograph. But what looks at first like glare from a flash (towards the bottom of the plaque) is actually the most finger-worn inscription in Braille I have ever seen.]

Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com

WSJ : Ensign's Senate Prospects Grow Cloudy

2009-10-03T14:26:24Z

Sen. John Ensign's future grew more unsettled Friday as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to offer his support or express confidence in the embattled Nevada Republican, following additional fallout from Mr. Ensign's affair with a staffer.

Steve Clemons: Giving Aaron Schock a Pass on Honduras and DeMint

2009-10-02T16:31:04Z

Congressman Aaron Schock is a highly reasonable, intelligent, balanced Republican member of Congress -- and though I have only met him twice, I was impressed with how he conducted his conversations and views in D.C. cocktail policy chatter -- particularly at an MSNBC party where Rachel Maddow was tending the bar.

Yesterday, Schock was on my mind as I listened intently to Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain lay out the parameters of what reasonable governance would look like from a responsible, conservative perch -- and was impressed with Sen. McCain's repeated statements that he wanted to help President Obama succeed -- and would differ from him in some areas -- but would be solidly with him on others.

Lindsey Graham said that "Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, is not a Muslim, and is a good man -- and those that are saying otherwise are just 'crazy'." Graham went on to say that he also meant no insult to Muslims in any way and that if Obama was a Muslim, he would still support him; he just wanted to make it clear that there is nothing sane about arguing that President Obama is not in line with his self-proclaimed faith of Christianity.

These two senators were speaking at the powerhouse conference titled "First Draft of History" sponsored by the Atlantic Monthly, Newseum, and Aspen Institute -- and hearing them made me think of Aaron Schock, who may be the Republican Party's best chance for reviving a kind of reasonable, pragmatic leadership among its youngest and most effective members. Schock is now the youngest member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

But I was disheartened to learn that he has agreed to go today with Senator Jim DeMint down to investigate the Honduras situation.

Wait, strike that.

Schock may be doing real investigating -- while Sen. DeMint is siding with others in a foreign government -- a coup-installed government -- against the government of the United States. He is working hard there as an elected U.S. government official to actively undermine American policy.

I suspect that Rep. Schock is going down to check out what is real and what is not in the mess of the Honduras coup and its aftermath -- but Jim DeMint is going down to "meddle" in the situation and to encourage the coup leaders to stand strong against the White House and the U.S. Department of State.

Sen. DeMint has behaved from the beginning as if he has a dog in the race down in Honduras, and it is not the one that the U.S. government feels comfortable supporting at the moment. None of Honduras' neighbors do either.

It is extremely rare that a chairman of a committee on which a U.S. Senator works would move to block a resource allocation that would allow that member to fly somewhere within the jurisdiction of that committee -- but Sen. John Kerry blocked DeMint's plans to go and commiserate with wealthy businessmen who had recently had visas revoked by the U.S. government and to encourage them to stand strong against the U.S. government.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell intervened and arranged a Department of Defense-secured plane to take the DeMint and several House members to Honduras -- thus reversing John Kerry's action.

I am currently looking into how exactly Sen. McConnell secured agreement from the Department of Defense, part of the Obama-controlled executive branch, to provide the plane.

Sen. John Kerry's rationale for rejecting Jim DeMint's request for resources for the Honduras trip was that DeMint has blocked consideration of two key Obama Latin America foreign policy appointments.

One of these, the current Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, is the president's pick to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil -- and the other is Georgetown Professor Arturo Valenzuela, who is slated to succeed Shannon as assistant secretary for the same region.

DeMint has argued quite transparently on his Senate website and from the floor of the Senate Chamber that he believes that the real democrats in Honduras or the ones that through out the ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who has snuck back into Honduras and is sleeping on a couch inside the Brazilian Embassy.

Many think that Zelaya over-reached in his role as president and tried to force the extension of his term and powers in extra-constitutional ways. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled against Zelaya's course -- but a military coup that expelled the president is also extra-legal, and received condemnation from the entire raft of Latin American neighbors and the United States.

One informed Latin America policy expert confided that despite all of this, the Obama team handled badly the Honduras coup, and should have had this issue resolved in a week. But this person confidentially stated that there is a lack of depth on the president's team -- crippled by the complicating factor that Assistant Secretary Shannon is keeping quiet during his confirmation purgatory -- and there is no successor in his role because of DeMint's block.

But the story is bigger than Obama appointees.

DeMint seems to be focused on undermining U.S. government policy by commiserating with foreign nationals abroad.

I respect Sen. DeMint's right to speak his mind and conscience from the floor of the Senate, on his blog, on Twitter, wherever he likes -- but there is something extremely wrong about a U.S. senator conspiring with government officials of another nation as well as wealthy supporters of a coup against the applied policies of the United States.

Jim DeMint made the decision to go to Honduras just as de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti began to issue signals that he was willing to work out an arrangement on the ousted president and to negotiate something with the United States and other regional stakeholders.

Aaron Schock should learn what he can but he needs to be careful of jumping on any bandwagons.

I'll never forget when former Sen. Fred Thompson was on a trip to Malaysia sponsored by a Senate-cleared non-profit foundation. Once there Thompson felt extremely uncomfortable with the tone of the meetings and the way the political views of the delegation were being co-opted by the hosts and by the Malaysian government and business officials Thompson and others were meeting.

Thompson bluntly said, "This doesn't feel right." And then he got up, picked up his materials, and flew immediately back to the United States.

Rep. Schock is someone independents, Republicans and open-minded Dems should want to get to know in future years -- so this post is meant to encourage him to keep his powder dry.

Agitating against U.S. government policy while abroad is not a career-booster in either political party.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note

GOP Opposition To Health Bill Goes Beyond Details, Right To The "Core"

2009-09-30T18:28:22Z

The Senate Republican leader made clear on Wednesday that his party, despite all its griping over the public health insurance option, abortion-funding or health care for illegal immigrants, is simply and flatly opposed to the "core" of the Democratic health care reform proposal.

Satisfying every Republican demand short of scrapping the entire project, said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), would still not capture GOP support.

"Senator Kyl and some of the others have talked about some of the things that are happening in committee," McConnell told reporters, referring to Senate Finance Committee Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona.

"But the core point is this: At the end of the day, if the government plan is either in the bill or out of the bill, whether they will be able to argue successfully or not whether tax funds are gonna be provided for abortion, whether or not they will be able to argue at the end that dollars for health care for illegals is in or out, what we do know is what the core of the bill is going to look like. We know that for sure," he said.

And the bottom line, said McConnell, is that Republicans don't like the bill at all.

"It's going to be a trillion dollar bill," said McConnell. President Obama has said he won't sign any bill that exceeds $900 billion over ten years, but what's a few billion?

"We know it's going to have half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts. We know it's going to raise taxes on individuals and business. So however these other issues are resolved, the core of the bill is a trillion dollar government attempt to take over one-sixth of the economy, which slashes Medicare by half a trillion dollars, and raises taxes on most Americans," he said.

The Finance Committee is currently debating a health care proposal crafted in part to win Republican support. On Tuesday, the committee rejected two amendments that would have established a public option for some patients who couldn't afford private insurance. Every Republican and five Democrats opposed the first amendment; two Democrats flipped to support the second, but it still fell short.

Republican have loudly complained that some of the subsidies to purchase insurance could end up paying for abortion services, which is not true. Republican have also expressed concerns that undocumented immigrants might be able to buy health insurance in exchanges that are set up as a result of reform.

Dawn Teo: Does Humana Have a Free Speech Right To Mislead The Elderly?

2009-09-23T17:59:11Z

Late last week, Medicare officials admonished Humana for using Medicare customer lists to engage in political advocacy and lobbying. Monday, Medicare officials sent a memorandum to all Medicare insurance companies explicitly prohibiting them from doing the same. This action by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) represents a major policy shift from one administration to another and could lead to a legal case with the potential to establish new legal principles within a contested area of First Amendment (free speech) law.

Political Or Commercial Speech?

Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the floor of the Senate to argue, "This is American -- citizens, either as individuals or grouped together in companies, have a fundamental right -- a fundamental right -- to talk about legislation they favor or oppose in this country. This is the core of the First Amendment’s protection of speech."

However, Constitutional scholars agree commercial speech is not the "core" of the First Amendment's protection. Courts consistently give political speech the greatest level of protection under the First Amendment and commercial speech the lowest protection. Courts also hold political speech to the lowest standards of accuracy and commercial speech to the highest standards of accuracy. After that, it gets complicated.

Stanford Law School Lecturer Chip Pitts notes, "The power of companies and the possibility of commercially oriented powerful communications unfairly distorting the public debate and obstructing the best (or better) policy outcomes has been the rationale underlying regulation in this area for more than a century."

For more than 100 years, explains Pitts, many have regarded concentrations of power (e.g., corporations, unions) with a high degree of suspicion, which harkens back to the question of corporate personhood. Some legal theorists and political scientists contend that powerful actors can disrupt the political process and crowd out discuss and debate in the marketplace of ideas.

Currently, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does not include political communications in its Medicare Marketing Guidelines [pdf]. This is perhaps due to the question of Constitutional limitations on the regulation of political speech: The government can regulate speech that is deemed commercial (e.g., communications in the pecuniary interest of an insurance company) but not speech that is deemed purely political in nature. Spokespersons at CMS were unable to answer this question.

Falsities or Debatable Points?

In his book, Corporate Social Reponsibility - A Legal Analysis, Pitts points to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that said, "there is no constitutional value in false statements of fact."

The question becomes, then, what is the truth? On one hand, Democrats claim health insurance reform would cut costs, not benefits, but Republicans claim that cost-saving measures in current health insurance reform proposals could result in benefit cuts. Insurance company mailers to Medicare Advantage customers are really repeating the same things members of Congress are sending to their constituents.

A number of Huffington Post readers have written in to let us know that they have been receiving letters and mailers from Republican members of Congress that say the same things that Medicare Advantage providers are sending to their Medicare customers (sometimes verbatim).

HuffPost reader Karen Coulter wrote in to say she received a three-page letter from Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) that says, "...seniors who are pleased with their current plan will lose their choice in selecting a plan which best fits their individual needs...."

Ed Adams of Port Saint Lucie, Florida sent us a copy of recently appointed Senator George LeMieux's (R-FL) weekly email update, which also claims that current health reform proposals would cut Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

But the Court has drawn a clear distinction between what a corporation can say and what an individual can say. An individual's right to deceptive speech is often protected while a corporation may be barred from the same deceptive speech.

To boil it down, whether or not the mailers sent by health insurance companies to Medicare customers are protected the First Amendment depends on two things: (1) whether the mailer is commercial or political, and if it is deemed commercial speech, (2) whether the mailer contains falsities or debatable points. These questions were posed to a number of experts, and the answer was always, "It depends." Experts do agree that, as a court case, this has the potential to establish significant changes in legal precedent.

Pitts, who is currently teaching a course in corporate social responsibility at Stanford, says, "Notwithstanding the law in this case, corporations especially if granted 'rights' and 'privileges' similar to those of individual citizens, have ethical duties of good citizenship that include communicating openly and truthfully, not actively interfering with regulation that’s truly in the public interest, and affirmatively trying to promote the authentic public interest of the societies of which they are part."

Protected Information or Customer Contacts?

CMS says that Humana and other insurance companies may have erred by misusing government-owned Medicare mailing lists. Under current regulations, Medicare beneficiaries' personal information, including contact information, is protected under the law and can only be used for very specific purposes: discussing current benefits/coverage. Anything outside of that scope is simply not allowed. Specifically, CMS prohibits lobbying.

The Humana mailer, like others, was sent in an envelope claiming to contain "IMPORTANT INFORMATION about your Medicare Advantage plan" and imparts urgency upon the recipients to "OPEN TODAY!"

Jonathan Blum, acting director of CMS' Center for Drug and Health Plan Choices said, "We are concerned about the recent mailings as they claim to convey legitimate Medicare program information about an individual's specific benefits or other plan information. We are concerned that, among other things, the information in the letter is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, who may believe that it represents official communication about the Medicare Advantage program." Blum went on to say, "We are concerned that the materials Humana sent to our beneficiaries may violate Medicare rules by appearing to contain Medicare Advantage and prescription drug benefit information, which must be submitted to CMS for review"

Organizing and lobbying (astroturfing) by Medicare Advantage providers is not new. During the Bush years, Medicare Advantage companies routinely organized their customers, evening flying them to Washington, DC to lobby Congress directly. In fact, Medicare watchdogs have been asking CMS to regulate provider-to-customer political communications for years.

Others are arguing that CMS is acting in a political capacity and not treating all political communications equally. Congressman Dave Camp sent a letter to CMS pointing out that "no such pressure has been applied to those supportive of the President’s Medicare cuts." Camp points specifically to AARP who , he says, has also communicated with its Medicare customers advocating for health insurance reform but "has apparently received no such scrutiny from the Administration. CMS’ selective use of its regulatory authority, 'threatens the integrity of the agency and of our democracy.'"

UPDATE: I just received this statement from AARP in regards to the questions posed by Humana supporters asking whether AARP (who was not admonished by CMS) could also be using Medicare customer lists (like the ones used by Humana) to send political communications, "The [contact] lists used for AARP's advocacy efforts are created for that purpose from our entire membership. HIPAA regulations prohibit access to customer lists from health insurers. Therefore, we do not and could not create mailing lists based on whether a member has purchased AARP-branded health insurance."

David Dayen: The Will Ferrell Video - Actually Not a Parody

2009-09-22T21:03:12Z

The video you've certainly seen today, with Hollywood celebrities coming out to defend those poor insurance companies, has gone viral. What's a little less-known is that prominent Republicans are basically engaging in a note-for-note remake of that video, leaping to the defense of that industry which has turned in record profits, raising premiums even during the Great Recession and saving money by denying Americans care.

Here's the story so far: yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation into Humana for sending its elderly customers a mailer warning that they would lose benefits under the new health insurance reform plan. Interestingly, Max Baucus, yes that Max Baucus, registered the complaint that triggered the investigation. The whole thing concerns Medicare Advantage payments:

Humana is one of the largest private carriers serving seniors under a program called Medicare Advantage. About one-fourth of the elderly and disabled people covered under Medicare participate in the Advantage program, which offers a choice of private plans that usually deliver added benefits.

Humana has about 1.4 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, and the program accounts for about half the company's revenue, Noland said.

Government experts say the private plans are being paid too much -- about 14 percent more than it costs to care for seniors in traditional Medicare. The Baucus plan -- and other proposals -- would reduce payments to the plans, and the health insurance industry is fighting back.

The Humana mailer focused squarely on the Medicare Advantage program.

Actually the Medicare Advantage plans cost the government about 14% more and deliver less than traditional Medicare, according to the Government Accountability Office. We are subsidizing private industry billions of dollars so they can perform the exact same task as Medicare, and with lower quality.

The mailer that Humana sent to beneficiaries, designed to look like official communication with customers and not naked lobbying documents, wasn't all; a website which generated automatic emails to members of Congress, claiming to be from customers (despite the fact that anyone could generate an email), is also being probed. And of course, this is not the only example of insurance companies filling their customers' heads with misinformation and turning them into citizen lobbyists.

Of course, the industry went into full-on whine mode as a response, with Republican leaders right behind them.

A spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's main lobbying group, issued a statement Tuesday criticizing what he described as the government's "gag order."

"Seniors have a right to know how the current reform proposals will affect the coverage they currently like and rely on," AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach said.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate's Republican leader, denounced the HHS order as an attempt to squelch free speech.

"We cannot allow government officials to target individuals or companies because they do not like what they have to say," McConnell said.

"Is this what we believe as a Senate -- that this body should debate a trillion-dollar health care bill that affects every American while using the powerful arm of government to shut down speech?" McConnell said.

McConnell noted that Humana, an insurer at the center of the controversy, is based in his home state. The company has been a large contributor to McConnell, donating $112,452 over his career, according to Eric Schultz, communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. (emphasis mine)

Shocking that Mitch McConnell would leap to the defense, Will Ferrell-style, of a health insurer based in his state which has feathered his nest to the tune of six figures, no?

There is a difference between free speech issues and what Humana and others are doing, namely violating federal law. Medicare Advantage providers are contracted employees of the federal government, and under the terms of Medicare Advantage, providers have strict limits on what they can communicate to beneficiaries. This lobbying effort would appear to violate those guidelines, and those customers receiving this letter could be excused for believing it to be an official document warning of loss of benefits if they failed to take action.

In short, Medicare Advantage is a wasteful corporate welfare program providing no benefit to individual subscribers and actually worse quality of care to seniors, at a cost of around $150 billion over 10 years to the taxpayer. The government has no imperative to keep such a scheme going, and they certainly shouldn't be paying providers to send misleading letters to their customers so they can keep the gravy train going.

But the real amusement here is watching Republicans like Mitch McConnell read from the Will Ferrell script and crying to "leave health insurance CEOs alone," as if they don't get enough help from the taxpayers to fund their lavish lifestyles.

Scott O'Malia: Obama Appoints Ex-Lobbyist For Enron-Like Company To Top Regulator Position

2009-09-17T09:24:12Z

During his confirmation hearing last year, Scott O'Malia, a Republican Senate aide nominated to be a commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, testified that while working for an energy firm years earlier, the "Enron debacle" had opened his eyes "to the very serious consequences of...inadequate oversight." O'Malia, who'd been nominated by President George W. Bush, added, "I learned firsthand the devastating impacts a flawed market design can have on consumers and markets." What he didn't tell senators was that he'd learned all this as a lobbyist for a company engaged in Enron-like misconduct that had pushed for deregulation of energy trading.

Reid Confident On Eve Of Health Bill's Debut

2009-09-15T16:51:12Z

A day before delivery of the Senate's long-awaited healthcare bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday struck a cautiously optimistic tone for its passage and began to offer the first details on how it will be debated.

Reid Threatens To Cancel October Break

2009-09-15T11:31:34Z

Congress has only been back in session for a week, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is already warning he may cancel the next break because of a lack of GOP cooperation.

Don McNay: Wall Street and Washington Dissing Main Street, One Year Later

2009-09-15T10:03:26Z

In the pool halls, the hustlers and the losers
I used to watch em through the glass
Down on Main Street.
-Bob Seger
We're at the one-year anniversary of when Wall Street collapsed and Washington politicians bailed them out.
All the events of the last year proved at least one point: Wall Street and Washington don’t understand what is happening on Main Street. The people in Washington are pushing the line that they saved us from "something even worse." Like what?
No one on Main Street is buying it. Watch a Main Street crowd boo when a politician
defends the bailouts. Wall Street firms are calculating their next big bonuses. In the meantime, people on Main Street are suffering. Unemployment is high and uncertainty is higher. All the “happy talk” from the elites of Washington and Wall Street is not going to make it go away.
People are not going to buy houses and cars until they feel secure about their jobs and their
futures. Unemployment remains near 10%, but the people in Washington decided to go on to other topics. If you get people back to work, the economy will fall into line.

It always does.
I get upset at the mantra that Ben Bernanke is some kind of savior. President Obama, like many Washington insiders, bought into this farce and into giving Ben another term of being
Federal Reserve Chair. Maybe Ben has learned from his mistakes and maybe we won’t get another depression/recession next time.
I was critical of Bernanke long before he was appointed. I wanted someone in that post with real life experience. Bernanke missed all the signs that a recession was coming. He followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, in assuming that Wall Street would regulate itself.
I liked to ask Ben and Alan, “How is that working for you?”
Actually, it worked out for Bernanke. He’s getting another four years. The rest of us will be paying for his mistakes long after he is gone.
All of the people in charge of the economy have one thing in common: they have never run a business. Geithner, Bernanke, Dr. Lawrence Summers (and even President Obama, for that matter) have never met a payroll or had a business loan that they were personally responsible to repay.
All spent a lot of time on Wall Street. I wish one of them had spent a few minutes on Main Street. On Main Street, you don’t get to use the taxpayers’ money as collateral. If you screw up, your own money is riding on the outcome. Like many people on Main Street, I was opposed to all the government bailouts. If my small business goes broke, we close the door and find another way to make a living. I want everyone to play by those rules.
I have a buddy who works in construction. He hasn't built a house since February. His family is struggling and he is behind on his bills. I don't see anyone on Wall Street weeping for him. Bailout recipient John Thain dropped a million dollars decorating his office at Merrill Lynch. Maybe he will hire my friend when he wants to install another $35,000 commode.
You can blame the economic crisis on bad decisions. But those decisions were influenced by Wall Street trying to legislate its way into easy profits.
I heard a lot of talk about campaign finance “reform” during the campaign. I have not heard a word since then. Washington does not want the easy money from Wall Street to stop. There’s even a Supreme Court case recently argued that could open even more the spigots of big money from corporations to politicians.
Robert Kaiser wrote a great book about Washington lobbyists called Too Damn Much Money. If you want to see how we wound up with "too big to fail" companies, read that book.
It was already hard to defeat an incumbent congressman or to change the regulatory process. The flow of Wall Street money makes it even harder.

We can't pass a law that will stop the flow of money. They tried it with public funding of presidential campaigns and it became a joke. President Obama opted out of the system and suffered no negative political ramifications.
I usually don't agree with my fellow Kentuckian, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, but we both are opposed to the concept of campaign finance limits and public financing.
I don’t want people to think that “reform” is being accomplished when it is not. People who want to get around the system will figure out how to do it. If candidates can't accept political action committee money, like-minded people will give individual checks. If candidates can't receive individual checks, contributors give to a political party. If corporation's can't give money directly to a candidate, they start a political action committee. No matter what the roadblock, someone finds a new solution. If Wall Street wants to give to a candidate, some smart lawyer is going to figure out how to make it happen.
Funneling money is the ultimate “too big to fail” business. I sound pessimistic, but I’m not. Bad economies eventually become good economies. The bailouts prolong the pain. It would have been better to take the hit on the economy all at once, rather than racking up trillions in deficits.
I can see signs that people on Main Street are paying closer attention to what is happening in Washington. It could be that getting money from Wall Street will cost politicians an election, instead of greasing the skids to victory. It’s like any fight. Main Street will get Washington’s attention the first time someone is knocked to the canvas.

People are still being distracted. I’ve seen more publicity about Michael Jackson, death panels, Taylor Swift and the guy who yelled at Obama than why businesses can’t get loans.
As we get nearer to the election season, it will be in Washington’s interest to find out what the people on Main Street are saying.
It will be in Main Street’s interest to make sure their voices are being heard.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is one of the world's leading authorities in helping injured people and lottery winners deal with complex financial issues.McNay is also an award winning, syndicated financial columnist. McNay founded McNay Settlement Group, a structured settlement and financial consulting firm, in 1983. The company's primary office is in Richmond, Kentucky. McNay has Master's Degrees from Vanderbilt and the American College and is in the Eastern Kentucky University Hall of Distinguished Alumni. McNay has written two books. Most recent is Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery You can write to Don at don@donmcnay.com or read his column at www.donmcnay.com. You can reach him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/donmcnay and on Twitter at twitter.com/Donmcnay. McNay is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table and has four professional designations in the financial services field.

Lobbyists Urge Lawmakers To Raise Country's Debt Level

2009-09-10T13:00:43Z

Some of the nation's most influential lobbies are urging the Senate to lift the nation's debt limit above $12.1 trillion, reports the Hill.

An association of six special-interest groups including The Business Roundtable, The Financial Services Roundtable and the National Association of Homeowners, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday, claiming it is necessary for the country to take on more debt.

The associations said in a letter on Thursday that it is "critical to ensuring global investors' confidence in the creditworthiness of the United States, that Congress approve the administration's request for a higher debt limit."

The House took action earlier this year to raise the country's debt limit to $13 trillion.

-- Jenna Staul