Showing posts with label Brent Budowsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brent Budowsky. Show all posts

Jul 5, 2013

Brent Talks--Health Care and President Hillary Clinton

Health care and Hillary.........


Brent--two things--first, call me Wesley Clarke, but I do not think health care should be associated with employment......no, I do not have an answer, other than health care should be the right of all citizens in a leading nation such as the US and not an election talking point--no one benefits from people not having health care. Well, how do we pay for it.....

second--health care could be provided in a much better and more cost effective way--yes, everything should definitely be connected in the cloud or whatever way works best for efficiency and cost. We should all be on the diabetes diet, or just a healthy diet and education in this way will cut cost in the long run. Bloomberg and Michelle Obama have some good ideas. Nurse practitioners can be used in walk-in clinics as opposed to the very expensive emergency room unfortunately being used at times for family practice. We can also give an incentive for reducing individual cost and following the healthy, less-expensive plan--public option and low cost pharmaceuticals are a great idea--a great idea and the people deserve it. 

The republican secret--they want health care for their kids, too. Yes, I have heard the guy say it on the conservative radio station here in San Diego. 

Also, school nurses and nurse practitioner clinics at schools are a good opportunity to address the health-care needs of all children, rich and poor, and a good chance for a lifetime of education on diet and exercise, etc.

We're not going back, President Obama made a positive change in the health care system for everyone and showed leadership. President Hillary Clinton will carry it further--Good job to President Obama and President Hillary Clinton.

Hillary girl forever---chloe louise


copied from The Hill...............

Hillary and healthcare

By Brent Budowsky 07/05/13 11:02 AM ET

As the chaos continues surrounding implementation of the new healthcare law, the 2014 election campaign begins and jockeying for the 2016 presidential campaign is underway, the two most intriguing political questions surrounding the healthcare law are these:

First, how will Democrats running for the House and Senate in 2014 discuss healthcare during the campaign?
Second, if Hillary Clinton runs for president in 2016, how will she discuss healthcare going into the presidential campaign?

Let me begin with my conclusion. Democrats should not be trapped into defending the healthcare status quo. They should champion and defend the most effective and popular aspects of the law, and champion more aggressively than ever the more progressive (and popular) reforms that should have been included in the reform law but were not.

When the healthcare law was being debated, I believed then, and believe now, that a single-payer system or a robust public option needed to be included to make any reform fully effective. And I believed then, and believe now, that an expansion of the use of generic drugs, or high-quality and low-cost imports of drugs from other nations such as Canada, were also needed to protect consumers and lower costs to government.

As usual in Washington these days, these bold progressive provisions were dropped even by a Democratic president and Democratic Congress with large Democratic majorities. This was a major political mistake, because the public option and similar reforms had strong majority public support, and it was a policy mistake, because it removed low-cost pro-consumer options that would have created alternatives that would have lowered the costs of both insurance and pharmaceuticals.

This is not brain surgery. If mandates forced companies with a certain numbers of employees to pay fines if they do not provide insurance, many companies would limit jobs to avoid the employee threshold that trigger the fines, and would cut hours to avoid the working-hour threshold that trigger the fines. The Obama administration retreat on these provisions was predictable, inevitable and wise.

With the absence of a single-payer system with a public option and lower-cost drug provision, it was also predictable, and inevitable, that insurance premiums and pharmaceutical costs, as well as pain for consumers and the profits of insurance and pharmaceutical companies, would all rise in unison.

I warned Democrats ahead of the 2010 campaign not to be trapped into defending the status quo and treating the healthcare law as a panacea. I offer the same warnings today. The GOP will try to blame Democrats for higher healthcare costs and rising insurance premiums. Democrats should renew the battle for lower costs and lower premiums by championing progressive alternatives.

Enter Clinton. Hillary Clinton has a been a leader in the battle for healthcare reform for a lifetime. As first lady when Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas and president, she was a true champion of powerful healthcare reform that would serve workers, women, children, the poor and the middle class.

Hillary Clinton as secretary of State could not participate in domestic political debates, but carried her interest and her commitment to better healthcare to the global arena. She has a golden and historic opportunity if she runs for president in 2016, and becomes the most sought-after campaigner for Democrats in 2014, to lead the charge for the healthcare reforms that are most needed by America and most favored by voters.

On healthcare the left was right and the right was wrong. Liberal Democrats were right and corporatist and conservative Democrats were wrong. The people want lower insurance premiums, lower drug costs, better care for women and children, better healthcare for American workers and — yes — lower healthcare costs for business that a public option and lower-cost pharmaceutical choices would create.

Should Democrats support the best aspects of the healthcare law? Absolutely, definitely and strongly.

Should Democrats support the status quo of the current law? Absolutely not. Democrats should run against the status quo. Democrats should run against rising premiums and high drug costs. Democrats should run against Republican war against women's healthcare programs. Democrats should use the current law as a platform to launch the next great era of healthcare reform.

Americans have always trusted the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton to protect the health of the nation.

Most Americans agree with the Democratic wing of the Democratic party on healthcare. Democrats should not retreat; they should advance. Democrats should not be afraid; they should be bold. Who better than Hillary Rodham Clinton to win an FDR-magnitude landslide in 2016 while championing the healthcare reforms initiated by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt?

Democrats have nothing to fear by letting the next great healthcare debate begin.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.

Nov 2, 2012

Hillary women will save Obama

Seriously--It makes my day to read this wonderful piece by Brent Budowsky from THE HILL.....



Hillary women will save Obama

By Brent Budowsky - 10/31/12 03:02 PM ET
President Obama will be reelected president by a narrow Electoral College margin for three reasons.

First, when autoworkers and auto companies faced a 1930s-style depression and Mitt Romney proposed a vulture bankruptcy that would have destroyed Ohio for a generation, Barack Obama was there for them, and next week I believe Ohio voters will be there for him. 

Second, words cannot fully express the power, clout and credibility of the passionate and determined support for President Obama by a man whom history will rank among the great presidents and a grateful nation now applauds as the prosperity president, who has gone by the name of the Comeback Kid, and called himself the man from a place called Hope, who barnstorms the nation on behalf of Barack to battle for a future that neither Bill nor Barack nor Hillary nor the men and women who support them will ever surrender.

And third, in the spirit that the last shall be first, the great X factor of this campaign, the secret advantage of Democrats next Tuesday, which is not today highlighted on RealClearPolitics, or discussed on Fox News, or bannered by Matt Drudge, or even acknowledged by the Obama White House, is that a giant rescue mission for the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party is being led beneath the radar of the commentariat class of American politics by …

The Hillary women!

I predict that the voter turnout among women who most admire Hillary Rodham Clinton is being underestimated in the turnout models of all major pollsters, and if I am right by even a small percent this will shake the foundation of a razor-thin election.

The Hillary women! By this I mean much more than Hillary Rodham Clinton herself, who has overcome in her life the most hostile slanders and defamations from her political opponents with dignity and grace and brilliance, who came within a fraction of becoming the first female president and may well shatter this iron ceiling four years and several days from today, who is a worldwide inspiration for women everywhere and a global champion of human rights for women and men and the poor and the hurting and the dispossessed and the hungry and the ill in nations everywhere.

When I use the phrase "the Hillary women" I mean more than the brilliant and powerful women from her inner circle, of whom there are many, and more than the many women she considers her friends, whether they are in the 1 percent or the 99 percent, of whom there are even more.

No. When I use the phrase "the Hillary women" I mean the female CEOs and construction workers, the female law professors and kindergarten teachers, the female basketball players and Rhodes scholars, the female waitresses and concert pianists, the housewives and female human-rights activists, the women who plow the fields and sweep the floors and serve in the Senate and compose the symphonies and are awarded Bronze Stars in the military and gold medals in the Olympics and proudly wear the badges of the Girl Scouts and the local police and, this is important, the men in their lives who love and respect and admire them and support their dreams coming true, as they return these sentiments to the men (and women) in their lives!

When I write about "the Hillary women" I mean women who believe they have a birthright as Americans to equal opportunity to advance and achieve, and equal rights to be paid based on their talents and ingenuity, and not their gender.

When I write about "the Hillary women," I mean older women who feel they have spent a lifetime earning the security and protection of Social Security and Medicare and do not want these things taken away by partisans or ideologues or extremists.

When I write about "the Hillary women," I mean younger women whose dream is not only that Hillary can become president, but that THEY can become president, or CEOs, or world-champion athletes, or homemakers, or whatever choices they exercise their right to make.

When I write about "the Hillary women" I mean women (and men) who dream of an America where no candidate and no party ever argues that any woman can ever be raped in any way that is called "legitimate,” and that no man who is ever a candidate for any office from any party can ever claim that our Lord and Savior wishes any woman to be pregnant after she was raped, and then try to force that view upon her using as their weapon the Supreme Court of the United States.

Yes indeed, I believe that these women will vote in larger numbers than the polling models now suggest. They have the power to decide by their turnout the future of the nation. If I am half-right, enough of them will exercise that power by voting to reelect President Obama because whatever his imperfections, on every matter described in this column, he has been there for them and they will be there for him, and others like him, until every barrier is broken and every ceiling is shattered and America becomes everything that America can be for all men and all women.



 Brent, really, that is one of the most beautifully written things I have read anywhere in a long time. 

Oh my gosh, so well, said--my thoughts exactly--and I will also include healthcare, which Romney was so ridiculous about in in the debate.  Right, I will wait until I have a heart attack and then go to the hospital and call that healthcare--and then try to claim we have the best health care in the world and why would I try to change that?

If I could write one-tenth of the way you write I would be so happy.  I am putting this on my blog right now. 

I do think Obama will win because I think many repubs will secretly vote for him because what person, repub or dem,  wants their kid removed from their plan, especially if they have a disease and no other care is available....





Also President Obama spoke against Rush Limbaugh...

Hillary girl forever.....Chloelouise