the Progress Report : GOP response to the Health Care Ruling

SIX Health Care Questions the GOP Must Answer

By         ThinkProgress War Room

GOP in Disarray After Obamacare Ruling

Aside from launching a new false attack on the law (which also happens to be an attack on Mitt Romney) and promising to vote one more time on repealing the law, Republicans don’t quite know what to do. Some of them even openly admit that the GOP has no plan whatsoever.

They know that the Supreme Court-endorsed individual mandate is not popular, but they also know that many other provisions of the law are wildly popular — even among Republicans. This obstacle — how to replace Obamacare with something that will actually work and doesn’t look just like Obamacare — is one of the reasons they never managed to put forward a serious “replace”  following repeal.

Here’s six questions Republicans need to answer.

1. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled Obamacare constitutional, will you continue to obsess over repealing it or will you focus on working with Democrats to pass legislation to create jobs?
2. Will you force the 3.1 million young people who have health coverage as a result of Obamacare off of their parents’ insurance?
3. Will you tell cancer patients and others with pre-existing conditions that they are on their own, like Republican senate candidate Richard Mourdock and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) did?
4. Will you throw seniors back into the Medicare prescription drug donut hole, raising their prescription drugs costs by billions of dollars each year?
5. Will you let insurance companies go back to spending less than 80 percent of premiums on actual medical care instead of overheard, advertising and profits?
6. Since you are now saying the Obamacare individual mandate makes President Obama a tax raiser, doesn’t that mean Mitt Romney raised taxes on Massachusetts residents when he signed the Romneycare mandate into law?

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor: GOP health care plan is still the one that leaves 52 MILLION people uninsured and adds $8 BILLION to the deficit.

Five health care mandates the GOP supports.

Mississippi Tea Party leader calls for open rebellion after the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision.

Congress managed to pass both a transportation bill and legislation to prevent student loan rates from doubling.

Conservatives come up with a conspiracy theory to attack Chief Justice Roberts after he upheld Obamacare.

No, Chief Justice Roberts is not a liberal now — not even close.

Obamacare is actually a tax cut for millions of Americans.

The insane dissenting Obamacare opinion from conservatives on the Supreme Court.

Did Chief Justice Roberts switch his vote at the last minute?

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Media Matters for America : summary

Fox’s Losing Battle To Declare Health Care Reform Unconstitutional
The debate about the constitutionality of health care reform went from the fringes of legal and political opinion to the mainstream, culminating in the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law. During this time, Fox News was at the forefront, challenging the constitutionality of health care reform and the individual mandate. Media Matters takes a look back at Fox’s efforts. Read More

Conservative Media Falsely Claim Individual Mandate Is A “Massive New Tax” On All Americans
Right-wing media have responded to the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the health care mandate — the requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance or pay a fee — by claiming that President Obama has instituted the “biggest tax increase in the history of the world” and a “massive, regressive tax on all Americans.” In fact, the fee will only be applied to a small percentage of people who choose not to purchase health insurance. Read More

Right-Wing Media Vilify Roberts, Ignoring His Very Conservative Record As Chief Justice
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, right-wing media figures claimed Chief Justice Roberts‘ decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act shows that he’s liberal. But Roberts’ recognizing the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act doesn’t change his record as presiding over the most conservative and corporate-friendly court in recent history. Read More

Fox’s Special Report Ignores EPA News It Doesn’t Like
After hosting claims that the EPA acted “lawless[ly]” by regulating greenhouse gas emissions, Fox News’ flagship “straight news” program Special Report has ignored an important court ruling that undermines Fox’s narrative. Read More

Right-Wing Media Lament Supreme Court Decision That Protects And Extends Affordable Care To Millions
Right-wing media have reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding President Obama’s health care law by claiming it is “a dark day for freedom” and “the end of America as we know it.” But the decision allows the health care law to implement reforms that will protect and extend affordable insurance coverage to millions of Americans. Read More

Have You Benefited from the Health Care Law? …Judy Waxman, National Women’s Law Center

Join Our Story Blog                 Tell us how the health care law is helping you by sharing your story on our story blog today. Eighty-six million. That’s the number of people who have received at least one preventive health care service without having to pay a deductible or co-pay in the last year. That’s 54 million people with private insurance and over 32 million Medicare recipients who are already benefiting from the health care law. Who are these people? It’s a mother who didn’t have to pay a co-pay for her last mammogram, a child who received a flu shot without her parents having to pay a deductible, and millions of people like you who had pap smears, prenatal screenings, or diabetes counseling without having to open their wallets. Are you one of the millions of people who have benefited from the new health care law? We want to hear from you — join hundreds of others on our story blog and tell us your story. The story blog is an open forum where people can upload their photos and write about how the law is helping them. On the story blog we’ve heard from people with children under age 26 who, instead of falling among the uninsured, were able to stay on their parents’ health plan. We’ve heard from people on Medicare who are paying less for prescription medication, saving them from having to choose between buying medicine or groceries. We’ve heard from people who would have bumped up against their insurance company’s lifetime limit for coverage but now, thanks to the new health care law, are able to focus on their illness instead of worrying about medical bills. And, later this year, even more people will benefit from the health care law. That’s when millions of women will have access to birth control and other preventive care services without paying deductibles or co-pays for the first time. Join our story blog today and tell us how you are gaining from this critical law. Thank you for all you do to ensure women and their families get the health care they need. Sincerely, Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law Center    P.S. Your generous support allows us to keep the health care law strong and do other critical work on behalf of women and their families. Please consider making a contribution today.

Allow live TV Coverage of the “Health Care Case” on C-SPAN

Allow live TV Coverage of the “Health Care Case” on C-SPAN

• Target: The Honorable John Roberts – The Supreme Court
• Sponsored by: Care2.com

Dear Chief Justice Roberts:

“We the undersigned” respectfully request that The Supreme Court allow live TV coverage of the “Health Care Coverage Act Case” At this moment, The Affordable Health Care ACT is the law of the land. In the Summer of 2011 as the Affordable Health Care law started making significant and positive changes to American lives twenty-six States entered lawsuits with challenges to its merit and constitutionality yet, it has made its way through the lower courts into the hand of our highest courts.

Now, during a presidential election campaign year, you and your colleagues have agreed to hear the arguments concerning challenges to the health care law. The Affordable Health Care law could be one of the most important cases heard and decided on in our history by the Supreme Court. Again, because of the significant and positive changes the Affordable Health Care Act has already made on the lives for some Americans.

It is important to shine a light on the potential effect of the Supreme Court’s decision will have on approximately 30 Million more American lives, our economy and our future; it only makes sense that, “We the People” respectfully request that the case be given live televised coverage on C-SPAN.
 Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

If you feel the same, click on our take action button and sign the Petition

Thank you !!!

Ask Justice Roberts – the Surpreme Court: To Allow live TV Coverage of the “Affordable Health Care Case” on C-SPAN

Allow live TV Coverage of the “Health Care Case” on C-SPAN

•  Target: The Honorable John Roberts – The Supreme Court

• Sponsored by: Care2.com

Dear Chief Justice Roberts:

“We the undersigned” respectfully request that The Supreme Court allow live TV coverage of the ”Health Care Coverage Act Case”

At this moment, The Affordable Health Care ACT is the law of the land. In the Summer of 2011 as the Affordable Health Care law started making significant and positive changes to American lives twenty-six States entered lawsuits with challenges to its merit and constitutionality yet, it has made its way through the lower courts into the hand of our highest courts.

Now, during a presidential election campaign year, you and your colleagues have agreed to hear the arguments concerning challenges to the health care law. The Affordable Health Care law could be one of the most important cases heard and decided on in our history by the Supreme Court. Again, because of the significant and positive changes the Affordable Health Care Act has already made on the lives for some Americans.  It is important to shine a light on the potential effect of the Supreme Courts decision will have on approximately 30 Million more American lives, our economy and our future; it only makes sense that, “We the People” respectfully request that the case be given live televised coverage on CSPAN.

Please Sign the Petition below

// <![CDATA[
src="
// ]]>http://dingo.care2.com/petitions/widget/common/care2PetitionEmbedBar.js”></script><script type=”text/JavaScript”>window.Care2Widgets.add({rssPath:”http://www.thepetitionsite.com/xml/petitions/636/483/372/feed.swf“, adSize:”150×250″, publisherID:”359839060″, borderColor: “#000000″, buttonColor: “#94a513″, grabbed:”0″});

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Sincerely,
 We the People

Carmen

Be a Seed for Change

Ask the Honorable John Roberts – The Supreme Court to Allow live TV Coverage of the “Health Care Case” on C-SPAN

• 

  Image by seiuhealthcare775nw via Flickr

  Target: The Honorable John Roberts – The Supreme Court

 

Image by seiuhealthcare775nw via Flickr

Supreme Court: The Chamber’s Genie

Ever since Chief Justice Roberts joined the Supreme Court, corporate America has treated his Court as its personal genie, and Roberts has been eager to grant even many of their most outlandish wishes. As soon as Roberts and his fellow conservative Justice Alito joined the high Court, the Chamber of Commerce’s win rate before the justices spiked eight percentage points above its already very high levels under his conservative predecessor William Rehnquist. Nor is Roberts alone in his willingness to go the extra mile for wealthy corporations. A recent study found that every single justice is more likely to side with the Chamber than the just ice who held the seat 25 years ago. As one of the Chamber’s top Supreme Court litigators bragged, “except for the solicitor general representing the United States, no single entity has more influence on what cases the Supreme Court decides and how it decides them than the National Chamber Litigation Center.” This week, corporate America made three especially large wishes to the justices, and the Court’s conservatives once again appear eager to grant them.

ELECTIONS FOR SALE: The best way for big business to push its agenda is to ensure that elected officials throughout the country owe wealthy corporations their jobs — and the Supreme Court took a big step towards making this vision a reality with its infamous Citizens United decision. In the wake of Citizens United, the Chamber pledged to spend a massive $75 million to elect corporate-aligned conservatives, and the Chamber’s right-wing allies kicked in hundreds of millions of dollars more. Yet Citizens United is merely one part of a much larger campaign to cement big money’s control over American elections. On Monday, the justices moved on to the next stage of this effort. Public financing laws provide one of the strongest defenses against the corrupting influence of big money in politics, but public financing schemes only work if they allow candidates who opt into them to remain competitive. To defend against this problem, Arizona developed a two-tiered public financing system. Candidates receive additional funds if their opponent or corporate interest groups overwhelm them with attack ads, and thus candidates who are determined not to be tainted by the corrupting influence of major donors are n ot left defenseless . Yet, in a case called McComish v. Bennett, the Court’s five conservatives appear poised to strike this two-tiered system down. If they do so, it could be the death knell for public financing, since no candidate is safe from massive infusions of corporate money after Citizens United.

SLAMMING COURTHOUSE DOORS: Many of the Court’s most corporate-friendly decisions create complicated and arcane procedural barriers to Americans seeking justice. The Court’s discredited Ledbetter decision didn’t literally take away women’s right to equal work for equal pay. It just created a procedural rule that made it impossible for women to vindicate their rights if they didn’t learn that they were paid less than their male colleagues until a short time after the discrimination began. In Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the Supreme Court will decide whether to shut off another opportunity f or women in the workplace to seek relief — class actions. Class action lawsuits are brought by groups of plaintiffs who share a common injury with each other. These suits are essential to allow ordinary Americans, who often lack the resources to hire lawyers capable of taking on a major corporation on their own, to pool their resources in order to hire counsel that are capable of facing off against someone like Wal-Mart. There is substantial evidence that women who work for Wal-Mart stores shared the same experience of systematic pay and promotion discrimination and thus should be able to bring a class action. If the Supreme Court denies them this right — which it seems likely to do — many of them will be left powerless before Wal-Mart’s legal team.

IMMUNITY TO THE LAW: Procedural victories are all well and good, but there’s nothing corporate America loves more than actual immunity from the law. Past Supreme Court decisions gave sweeping legal immunity to medical device manufacturers and health insurers, and even gave the thumbs up to a biased system of corporate-owned courts that overwhelmingly rule against consumers and employees. In a case called PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing, the justices will now decide whether to give sweeping im munity to the makers of generic prescription drugs. If the Court sides with the drug makers in this case, two women could be left with no recourse after a prescription drug caused them to develop a horrific neurological disorder resulting in “grotesque involuntary movements of the mouth, tongue, lips, and extremities, involuntary chewing movements, and a general sense of agitation.” And thousands of other Americans could be left similarly defenseless against the powerful pharmaceutical industry.