January 7, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The planned vote to repeal last year’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [pdf], if successful, would increase the federal budget deficit by $230 billion over the next ten years, would leave 32 million Americans with no access to affordable healthcare insurance, would strip small businesses of tax credits they get to help cover employee health costs, and would increase the cost per insuree across the nation. The Congressional Budget Office has released a study showing the negative impact repeal would have on the federal budget, the welfare of average Americans and the economy more broadly.
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March 21, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reported at 8:50 pm EDT today that “the Democrats are going to win”, explaining the House is on the verge of passing the Senate version of the legislation, with the possibility of “tweaking” the legislation after the fact, and predicting that “Pres. Obama may sign healthcare reform into law within 24 hours”. Republican strategists have now begun talking about a new “repeal and replace” strategy, which they will use throughout 2010 to try to convince the American people that they should be elected to undo the reforms.
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March 21, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
So that’s what this effort is all about. Toughest insurance reforms in history. A marketplace so people have choice and competition who right now don’t have it and are seeing their premiums go up 20, 30, 40, 50 percent. Reductions in the cost of health care for millions of American families, including those who have health insurance. The Business Roundtable did their own study and said that this would potentially save employers $3,000 per employee on their health care because of the measures in this legislation.
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December 20, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Democratic leadership has scheduled an historic vote on healthcare reform legislation for 1:01 am Monday morning. All 100 senators are expected to participate in the vote for cloture, which would end debate and clear the way for a straight up-or-down vote on passage of the comprehensive health insurance reform package, later this week. The bill has been the subject of intense negotiation, fierce criticism and major compromise, though all of the compromise was within the ideologically diverse 60-member Democratic caucus.
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December 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The last time a Patient’s Bill of Rights was within reach was roughly a decade ago, and it was supported by Democrats and Republicans alike, from Ted Kennedy to John McCain. It included the right to an appeals process so you could challenge an unfair decision by an insurance company before a third party. It included the right to choose your own doctor. It included the right to access information about what your health insurance plan means for you. And it called for a new level of transparency so that patients would know if their doctors had a conflict of interest when providing services.
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December 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
After nearly a full year of partisan wrangling and internecine disputes between liberal and conservative Democrats, the sponsors of healthcare reform have reportedly secured their 60th vote in the Senate, the vote needed to break a filibuster, end debate and bring the bill to a vote for passage. Once the public option for low-cost healthcare and an expansion of Medicare were stripped from the bill, Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) signed on; progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) then threatened to withhold support, but agreed to support the measure once $10 billion were set aside for community health clinics, and now, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), the last holdout, has reportedly voiced his support for the reforms.
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December 16, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a fiercely progressive independent and a strong leader in the Democratic caucus, today introduced an amendment to extend the Medicare program to all Americans, creating a universal, single-payer healthcare plan that would be able to pay for any bills across the entire privately-administered health services sector. The Republicans demanded that the amendment be read word by word, out loud, into the record.
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December 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Democrats in the United States Senate, in hopes of reaching a compromise on health reform legislation, are reported to be considering a plan that would scrap the so-called “public option” for low-cost, full-coverage health insurance, in favor of a non-profit plan that would be run by the private insurers themselves, but regulated through the Office of Personnel Management.
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November 21, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) has announced she will vote to support cloture, which will allow debate to move forward in the Senate on healthcare insurance reform legislation. Lincoln joins other conservative Democrats, Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana, and Ben Nelson, of Nebraska, in supporting her party leadership’s call for a vote to begin debate on the healthcare insurance reform legislation.
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November 8, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
At 10:59 pm Saturday evening, a 15-minute vote was called. Members of the House were then to vote yea or nay by electronic device. By 11:01 pm, the vote was 197 to 184 and moving quickly. The vote tally will not be final until the Speaker drops the gavel to close the vote. By 11:03 pm, 36 Democrats had voted against the measure, making the special Saturday vote a case of high legislative drama.
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October 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign demonstrated an unprecedented level of achievement for organizing new voters and winning donations from lower-income voters, then mobilizing millions of supporters to fan out across the country and disseminate the campaign’s message of positive change. Republican opponents of healthcare reform are engaged in a high-stakes political gamble, banking on the [...]
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September 28, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
The vehement opposition being engineered by the Republican party against the market-oriented “public option” is proof the party does not favor market diversification or consumer choice, but rather rigged games that give huge payouts to specific interests. The Republicans’ argument is that private insurers should not diversify the plans they offer or have to compete in a more dynamic and diverse marketplace.
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September 23, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
The President’s plan prohibits insurance companies from rescinding coverage that has already been purchased except in cases of fraud. In most states, insurance companies can cancel a policy if any medical condition was not listed on the application – even one not related to a current illness or one the patient didn’t even know about. A recent Congressional investigation found that over five years, three large insurance companies cancelled coverage for 20,000 people, saving them from paying $300 million in medical claims – $300 million that became either an obligation for the patient’s family or bad debt for doctors and hospitals.
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September 21, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Healthcare costs have doubled over the last ten years. The primary drivers of this unrestrained cost inflation are massive uninsurance and dysfunctional profit-making schemes for private health insurers. The ‘market’, so-called, is not really a market, because instead of lowering costs and increasing quality, it has driven costs up while reducing quality. This is what the currently proposed reforms seek to correct.
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September 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The most aggressive argument Republicans are now making about healthcare reform is that it would allegedly “gut Medicare and Medicaid”, two government-administered health insurance programs that provide treatment coverage for the elderly and the poor, respectively. The irony that emerges from the incoherent oppose everything Obama wants strategy being used by Republicans, shadowy front groups paid for by individuals linked to the insurance lobby, and conservative PACs, is that they are actually now arguing in favor of ‘socialized medicine’.
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September 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Senate finance committee’s version of healthcare reform, the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009, has finally been released, and while opposed by both the conservative base and Democratic progressives, is being praised for cost-effectiveness and for achieving important reform goals. The Congressional Budget Office says it would save $49 billion over 10 years and would not add to the federal deficit.
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September 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
And based on a brand-new report from the Treasury Department, we can expect that about half of all Americans under 65 will lose their health coverage at some point over the next ten years. If you’re under the age of 21 today, chances are more than half that you’ll find yourself uninsured at some point in that time. And more than one-third of Americans will go without coverage for longer than one year. I refuse to allow that future to happen. In the United States of America, no one should have to worry that they’ll go without health insurance – not for one year, not for one month, not for one day.
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September 13, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The scope and variety of lies being told about the nature of proposed healthcare reforms in the United States are threatening to undermine the possibility for meaningful reforms that would save literally tens of thousands of lives each year. Those lies need to be dispelled, or reform will be delayed and more lives lost.
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September 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Rep. Charles Boustany, an experienced cardiologist who says he wants health insurance reform and to cut costs across the system, and who delivered the Republican response to Pres. Obama’s address on Wednesday, again misrepresented the president’s position on healthcare reform, saying Obama has not focused any attention on the doctor-patient relationship.
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September 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama went to Capitol Hill last night to talk tough to Congress and speak truth to the American people. He framed his speech in terms of a call for responsible, cooperative action to solve the nation’s healthcare crisis, saying: “The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action… Now is the time to deliver on healthcare.” And he repeated: “Now is the time to deliver on healthcare.”
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September 10, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
But the problem that plagues the health care system is not just a problem for the uninsured. Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today. More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you’ll lose your health insurance too. More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won’t pay the full cost of care. It happens every day.
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September 9, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Perhaps the single most important tool Republicans have used to spur opposition to plans for healthcare reform —moreso even than their misuse of the word “socialism”— is their claim to seniors that Obama is planning to take your Medicare away. Currently proposed reforms have inefficiency cuts, designed to make Medicare more cost-effective, but not one part of the proposed reforms would reduce anyone’s benefits or access to care.
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September 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) has announced he will push ahead with major healthcare reform legislation next week, whether he has Republican support or not. The bill he will present to the Senate finance committee would assess fees from private insurers to help pay for extending care to the uninsured, but would not create a “public option” for buy-in health insurance. Baucus says a public option cannot win passage in the Senate.
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September 5, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
There is talk in Washington of replacing the ‘public option’ for health insurance, to be included on the health insurance exchange for affordable comprehensive coverage, with a ‘trigger option’. The concept would see the reforms go through without a government-backed low-cost public option for health insurance, but with the stipulation that if the private insurance firms fail to meet standards for affordable, high-quality comprehensive healthcare, in any given state or market, a public option would be implemented.
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September 4, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
In an interview with the McAlester News-Capital newspaper, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) —the senior senator from his state— strung together one lie after another, in an apparent effort to slander Pres. Obama and derail healthcare reform. There are no softer words for Inhofe’s incessant lies and fabrications. He has apparently pledged his time and energy to the hard labor of being an inveterate and unapologetic professional slanderer.
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September 2, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has told a town hall meeting that he doesn’t need to read legislation on healthcare reform or to know any details of what’s in it, he will oppose it out of hand. Astonishingly, the senator told the citizens gathered that “I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it. I’m going to oppose it anyways”. He didn’t say “let them die” about people in need of medical care who are uninsured, but the sentiment just might be there.
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August 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama and Sen. Orrin Hatch, two men whose views differ in countless ways, but who became, each in his time, close and trusted friends to Sen. Ted Kennedy, should meet privately, then with Congressional leaders, to hammer out workable reform to extend healthcare coverage to all Americans, and honor the life’s work of the late senator. After an initial agreement to commit firmly to weeding out obstructionists and working toward virtuous compromise, Hatch and Obama should gather together a panel of key senators to establish a commitment to passing reform that extends coverage to all Americans.
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August 20, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), popularly known as the “Lion of the Senate”, who has served 47 years in the upper house of the US Congress, is battling an aggressive brain cancer, and has been relegated to a long absence, even as the nation debates the issue that has most consumed his efforts as a legislator. Healthcare reform has been Ted Kennedy’s primordial concern throughout his time in the Senate, and it has never been closer, but at a time he is needed on Capitol Hill, he is sidelined by gravely ill health.
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August 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and a seasoned Capitol Hill negotiator, says it has become clear that the Republican party will oppose any version of healthcare reform, because they see it as a way to hurt Pres. Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress. Congressional leaders have signaled their willingness to sideline obstructionist Republicans and push ahead with major reforms.
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August 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Opponents of healthcare reform have taken the so-called “public option” as a rallying cry in order to use vocabulary painting all reform as “socialist” and in order to prevent reforms that would put profit-reliant insurers under pressure. Proponents of the public option, including Pres. Barack Obama have called on opponents to offer an alternative that would do something comparable to correct market distortions that rule out those unable to pay for expensive insurance.
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August 16, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
“I think Governor Palin knew exactly what she was doing”, says Republican strategist Ed Gillespie about Palin’s lie that the Obama administration plans to institute “death panels” to euthanize the elderly, infirm or “no longer productive”. Gillespie told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that he views it as disappointing whenever anyone “from either party” makes misleading, false or manipulated statements.
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August 14, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
On Tuesday, I was in New Hampshire talking about people denied insurance coverage because of preexisting conditions. Now today, we’re talking about folks like Katie who’ve had their insurance policies suddenly revoked, even though they were paying premiums, because of a medical condition. They got sick, and suddenly that’s when they get dropped. Tomorrow, in Colorado, we’ll be talking about the people who have insurance but are still stuck with huge bills because they’ve hit a cap on their benefits or they’re charged exorbitant out-of-pocket fees.
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August 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
One of the great complaints heard from groups opposing comprehensive health insurance reform, especially from quarters where the chief concern is to prevent a drop in private profit related to healthcare services, is that reform will strip away incentives to devote funding to medical research, in pathologies, treatments and technology. This is a point of philosophical dispute, but to make sure we enact reforms that will not curb research incentives, we should institute a new medical research tax credit.
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August 12, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Now, let me just start by setting the record straight on a few things I’ve been hearing out here — (laughter) — about reform. Under the reform we’re proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. You will not be waiting in any lines. This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health insurance decisions but you and your doctor. (Applause.) I don’t think government bureaucrats should be meddling, but I also don’t think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling. That’s the health care system I believe in. …
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August 12, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
It is a mystery to many people why certain political fringe elements are so violently enraged by the idea of extending healthcare coverage to all Americans. Some individuals have made racist and degrading remarks about Pres. Obama and his administration; some suggest that there is “evil” behind efforts to expand healthcare coverage to those who don’t have it; some say things like “then there’s the illegals, they shouldn’t even be here!” shouting in anger.
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August 11, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
The new Health Insurance Exchange creates a transparent and functional marketplace for individuals and small employers to comparison shop among private and public insurers. It works with state insurance departments to set and enforce insurance reforms and consumer protections, facilitates enrollment, and administers affordability credits to help low‐ and middle- income individuals and families purchase insurance. Over time, the Exchange will be opened to additional employers as another choice for covering their employees. States may opt to operate the Exchange in lieu of the national Exchange provided they follow the federal rules.
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August 11, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Pres. Obama held a major healthcare town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this afternoon. He used the forum to explain how closely the proposed reforms do actually address the demands of many critics across the country. He said reforms would be patient-centered, saying “I don’t think government bureaucrats should be meddling, but I also don’t think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling.”
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August 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama’s political opponents, mostly in the Republican party and in private interest groups opposed to major healthcare reform, have launched a multimillion-dollar all-media campaign to cast healthcare reform proposals as a socialist conspiracy, designed to undermine freedom, kill the sick and establish a totalitarian healthcare system. In fact, Obama’s framework for healthcare reform is carefully designed to reinforce market dynamics and lead to expanded choice and long-term resilience for the American healthcare sector.
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July 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama used his prime-time press conference last night to dive straight into the fray on healthcare reform, pledging commitment to bold action, demanding cost-cutting measures and promising to bring affordable coverage within reach of all Americans. He did not specify if he wanted an “individual mandate” that all Americans buy into one plan or another, and he did not promise that no insurer would be allowed to deny treatment under any circumstances.
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July 22, 2009 :: staff :: 7 Comments
The number of people officially recognized as having no healthcare insurance coverage in the United States has jumped from 46 million in 2007 to 52 million in 2009. The Center for American Progress reported in May that the rate of uninsurance was up substantially in all 50 states. The rate of increase, based on research from the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, means the rate at which uninsurance is increasing in the US is without precedent.
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July 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 7 Comments
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported last week that the healthcare plan currently being debated in Congress would likely cause federal expenses related to healthcare to increase. But it did not report that the plan would cause average per-patient costs to increase across the entire healthcare market, as opponents of healthcare reform are alleging. In fact, that philosophical point has not been disproven by any budgetary analysis to date.
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July 20, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
This is what the debate in Congress is all about: Whether we’ll keep talking and tinkering and letting this problem fester as more families and businesses go under, and more Americans lose their coverage. Or whether we’ll seize this opportunity – one we might not have again for generations – and finally pass health insurance reform this year, in 2009.
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July 17, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that calls into question whether plans now under debate in Congress would achieve the cost-effectiveness Pres. Obama seeks has 6 senators saying they want the reform process to “slow down”. They seek a “budget-neutral” plan, as called for by the president. Obama does not want to slow down the process, argues that the administration has already located savings to pay for reform over 10 years, and is opposed to conservative Democratic senators’ desire to tax healthcare benefits to raise revenues.
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July 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 5 Comments
The American Medical Association (AMA), long a leading opponent of major national healthcare reforms, has now backed the House of Representatives’ HR 3200, known as America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. The AMA president J. James Rohack, MD, affirmed the group’s support for the House measure, writing “This legislation includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform”.
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June 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The great debate about healthcare in America invokes some of the deepest passions from people across the ideological spectrum. On the one hand, there are people who are content to treat any commentary that does not assert that the US has the most advanced, successful, ideal healthcare in the world, as a kind of treason, and on the other, you have people who are all too aware of how much suffering is induced by the failure of the current insurance system to provide care to everyone who needs it.
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June 14, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
When it comes to the cost of health care, this much is clear: the status quo is unsustainable for families, businesses, and government. America spends nearly 50 percent more per person on health care than any other country. Health care premiums have doubled over the last decade, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs have skyrocketed, and many with preexisting conditions are denied coverage. More and more, Americans are being priced out of the care they need.
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April 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 5 Comments
We don’t have a good answer for how to solve healthcare in America. Let’s start there. Every interest group sees the problem differently, depending on immediate interests, learned perceptions, or advertised distortions. But the fact is, every interest group has some overlap with others, and there is a lot of common ground to be had, if we put ideology aside and try to focus on the problem itself.
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November 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Critics have sought to characterize President-elect Obama’s healthcare proposal as “socialized medicine”, despite its relying almost entirely on market dynamics and the private sector. Government spending is considered to be one area where Obama’s plan could be unacceptable to fiscal conservatives, though Obama’s fiscal policy is largely in line with conservative fiscal policy and aims to cover new spending with spending cuts elsewhere. New analysis suggests there is already money to cover his plan and to reach near universal coverage with a few workable adjustments in current legislation.
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October 6, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. John McCain’s campaign has begun to launch personal attacks on Sen. Obama, who appears to have solidified leads in most “battleground states”. Meanwhile, Sen. Obama has said McCain’s campaign is “out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time”, and has assailed McCain’s healthcare plan for raising taxes on working people. McCain’s plan would tax employer-provided healthcare benefits, offering individuals a tax credit for buying their own healthcare. Obama says McCain’s tax credit is insufficient to cover private healthcare costs and will leave people struggling.
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