Why I Am Pro-Life
By THOMAS L.
FRIEDMAN
New York
Times Published: October 27, 2012
You don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and want to
shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, which ensures clean air and
clean water, prevents childhood asthma, preserves biodiversity and combats
climate change that could disrupt every life on the planet. You don’t get to
call yourself “pro-life” and oppose programs like Head Start that provide basic
education, health and nutrition for the most disadvantaged children. You can
call yourself a “pro-conception-to-birth, indifferent-to-life conservative.” I
will never refer to someone who pickets Planned Parenthood but lobbies against
common-sense gun laws as “pro-life.”
Mitch McConnell and John Boehner’s strategy worked
Washington
Post Posted by Ezra Klein on October 30, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Klein
points out that some folks are endorsing Romney on the grounds that Obama
doesn’t stand a chance of getting any cooperation whatsoever from
Congress. Needless to say this would be tantamount to rewarding
Republicans for flagrant obstructionism and putting their shot term
political interests above the needs of the country. Democrats could play
that game too, in the event Romney wins, but this is, not the type of behavior
that any voter would want to reward I would think .
Medicaid on the Ballot
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York
Times Published: October 28, 2012
If
he [Romney] wins, Medicaid — which now covers more than 50 million Americans
………will face savage cuts. Estimates suggest that a Romney victory would deny
health insurance to about 45 million people who would have coverage if he
lost………..So this election is, to an important degree, really about Medicaid.
And this, in turn, means that you need to know something more about the
program.
o the great majority of Medicaid beneficiaries are in working
families.
o Medicaid has been more successful at controlling costs than any other
major part of the nation’s health care system. According to the best available
estimates, the average cost of health care for adult Medicaid recipients is
about 20 percent less than it would be if they had private insurance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/opinion/krugman-medicaid-on-the-ballot.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
The Working Poor: Invisible in America - Paperback by David K. Shipler
Paints
a grim picture of the lives of the working poor and the huge obstacles that stand
in the way of their ability to improve their economic status. They rely
on Medicaid and food stamps, but, as the book makes clear with detailed
descriptions of their daily routines, they work long hours, often holding two
or more jobs at once. They hardly fit Romney’s contemptuous
description:
“47
percent of the people ……..are dependent upon government, who believe that
they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for
them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing,
to you name it.”
