The Republican Plan
Republicans claim that the health care plan that they have, I think it is H.R. 3400 or H.R. 4400, can save more money, cover more people, and reduce the deficit more than anything that the House and Senate have out. Is there any way the CBO can score this and can your team research the bills to see about their claims?
George Sandidge
Winnsboro, S.C.
FactCheck.org responds: The Congressional Budget Office hasn’t scored H.R. 3400, but it has analyzed the Republicans’ proposed “amendment in the nature of a substitute” for the House bill. CBO found that the proposed substitute would cost much less than the Democrats’ bill — a net cost of $8 billion over 10 years — and would reduce the ranks of the nonelderly uninsured by about 3 million, leaving 52 million uninsured by 2019. The bill passed by the House is projected to have a net cost of $891 billion and reduce the uninsured by 36 million. The CBO estimated that the GOP plan would reduce the deficit by a net $68 billion over 10 years, while the House-passed plan would reduce the deficit by more — a net $109 billion.
via FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Nov. 3-Nov. 9.
According to this unconstitutional math, $8 Bil to pay off 3 Mil non-seniors and reduce deficit by $68 Bil vs $891 Bil to pay off 36 Mil people and reduce deficit by $109 Bil.
Why am I paying for any of this shit?
How Al Sharpton Lost His Cred
It happened on November 4th. With his went Jesse Jackson’s and Reverend Wright’s. Juan Williams writes for the WSJ about what Obama’s victory means for racial politics:
The Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons and Rev. Jeremiah Wrights remain. But their influence and power fade to a form of nostalgia in a world of larger political agendas, such as a common American vision of setting the nation on a steady economic course and dealing with terrorists. The market has irrevocably shrunk for Sharpton-style tirades against “the man” and “the system.” The emphasis on racial threats and extortion-like demands — all aimed at maximizing white guilt as leverage for getting government and corporate money — has lost its moment. How does anyone waste time on racial fantasies like reparations for slavery when there is a black man who earned his way into the White House?
Make no mistake, there is still discrimination against people of color in America. And inside black America, there is still disproportionate poverty, school dropouts, criminal activity, incarceration and single motherhood. But with the example of Mr. Obama’s achievements, from Harvard Law to the state legislature, U.S. Senate and the White House, the focus of discussion now is how the child of even the most oppressed of racial minorities can maximize his or her strengths and overcome negative stereotypes through achievement.
The onus now falls on individuals to take advantage of opportunities. That begins with keeping families together and taking responsibility for the twisted “gangsta” culture that celebrates jail time instead of schooling. With Mr. Obama as the head of government, discussion of racial problems now comes in the form of pragmatic discourse for how to best give all Americans opportunty, for example, how to improve schools.
The change in black politics has been slowly coming with the growing black middle-class. It now accelerates with Mr. Obama’s victory. As King said at the end of the 1965 march for voting rights in Alabama — when he reached the state capitol in Montgomery — the result of black political participation is a “society that can live with its conscience.” There are no quick solutions, he added, but no matter how difficult or frustrating there will be success because “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.”
