What I'm Reading (1)

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.”

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-why-i-am-pro-life.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0

 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 .  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/10/30/mitch-mcconnell-and-john-boehners-strategy-worked/

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.”