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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-08-14

  By Twitter feed

If O won't ask Congress to increase debt to create jobs then he should demand taxes on the rich, who are not spending, to create jobs. # OMG Moronic news "analysis" gives O exactly the wrong advice. The problem is jobs not deficits. http://t.co/aHpynoK # If the country's credit is so bad, why are people rushing into treasury bonds, driving down interest rates? # The stock market is down because investors are starting to recognize the increasing likelihood of a double dip recession. # If the stock market decline were due to S&P, interest rates would be heading up. Instead they are down. #dumbreporting # Hey, were more gays allowed to marry recently? My marriage has felt a little shaky and I was wondering if that perhaps was the cause. # Continue reading

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-08-07

  By Twitter feed

@AlexU_A "Proof" in the vernacular means "evidence," which you can't avoid by waxing epistemological. # @price_laborecon We're arguing about slutwalk. Sorry you don't have a pony. # John Stuart Mill called conservatives the "stupid party." It's still true. http://t.co/cffhsrQ # @AlexU_A The proof you are wrong is that rates of sexual violence vary enormously from one place and time to another. # @AlexU_A "It's natural" is the refuge of reactionaries. It's what justified conquest, rape, unregulated markets. # @AlexU_A And third, that SOME men are predators of women is not a natural but social / cultural thing. We can change it. # @AlexU_A And second, should the whole world should be like a ghetto for women? Because if you are right, it doesn't matter how they dress. # @AlexU_A First of all, middle class white kids do march through black neighborhoods with $ buying drugs. # Rick Perry got Cs… Continue reading

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-07-31

  By Twitter feed

@bettina27 At least. Beach boys and SF Giants. You can tell them apart by the different colored beards. # Thank you Harry Swengler, master plumber, who at our Hotel years ago taught me what I need to fix my toilet today! # Anyone know a good plumber in NW Philly? # Starting third day of intensive watering to keep our garden, especially the new plantings, alive. # Continue reading

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Some Personal News: I’m Leaving Penn ACTION

  By About me

Dear Friends, I’ll be leaving Penn ACTION at the end of the month. Last year, as the HCAN campaign was winding down, US Action asked me to become Executive Director at Penn ACTION with the hope of building a state wide grassroots political organization. We’ve done a lot of good work over the last year. But, as you all know, this is a difficult fundraising environment and we haven’t been able to raise enough, either in Washington or in Pennsylvania, to keep the project going at the level we had reached or to expand it further. So US Action decided to pull back on the project and Crystal Martzall, who did so much to make our work a success, and I will be leaving it. For the time being, Robin Stelly, who has done such great work in Bucks County will keep organizing there and will try to do as… Continue reading

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-07-24

  By Twitter feed

@BooMan23 No one who will really do the job could be confirmed. So O should have made the nomination that makes that point. # Continue reading

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Democrats threaten Medicaid, Too

  By Health Care, Published op-eds

Originally appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tuesday, July 05, 2011 After a public outcry stopped the Republican plan to radically transform Medicare, a new threat to our health care is coming, this time from a surprising direction. In the negotiations with Republicans about raising the debt ceiling, the Obama administration has proposed new rules for federal matching of state expenditures for Medicaid — we call it “medical assistance” in Pennsylvania — and CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. These rules are troubling. They would lead to substantial cuts in federal support programs that provide health care to low-income children and parents, people with disabilities and senior citizens, including the 62 percent of seniors in Pennsylvania whose nursing home care is paid for by medical assistance. States now receive different matching rates for different groups of people. The federal government pays 50 percent to 75 percent of the costs for people currently… Continue reading

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Bush era tax cuts fall short

  By Federal Taxes, Published op-eds, Social Justice

Originally appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot News, July 3, 2011 Ten years ago last month, President George W. Bush signed a bill cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion over 10 years. It was the first of several Bush tax cuts that ended up costing two and a half trillion dollars over a decade. Dan Gleiter, The Patriot-News Ten years later, what have we gotten for this tax cut? Where is the prosperity President Bush promised? Pennsylvania’s official unemployment rate in June 2001 was 4.8 percent. Today, the seasonally adjusted rate is 7.4 percent. Nationwide, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent. Today, it is hovering around 9 percent. At the end of last year, supporters of Bush’s policies pushed through an extension of the Bush tax cuts for another two years. Many lawmakers say they want to extend the tax cuts again into 2013 and beyond, which would almost double the federal… Continue reading

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The design behind the Republican voucher plans: Medicare and Education

  By Education, Health Care, Medicare, Published op-eds, Vouchers

Appeared in  the “Your View” op-ed column in the Allentown Morning Call on Friday, July 1, 2011 John Locke wrote that “a long train of abuses, prevarications, and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people” Two voucher proposals, the Ryan Medicare plan in Washington and the Piccola education voucher plan in Harrisburg, show us the real design of the Republican Party today— to help the very rich by harming working people. Both proposals claim to address real problems. Congressman Ryan’s plan is meant to deal with the long term costs of Medicare. State Senator Piccola’s plan supposedly helps low-income kids who attend failing schools. However, the proposals will not meet those goals. The Medicare plan does nothing to reduce the costs of senior health care. Indeed, it repeals the Affordable Care Act which would reduce those costs by $500 billion in the first ten… Continue reading

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Take Action to Stop the Corbett Cuts to Education Now

  By Penn ACTION, Take political action

The budget battle in Harrisburg is coming to a close.  It’s critically important that you make your voice heard this week to let your state legislators know that you want them to make basic and higher education a priority for Pennsylvania.  Can you take a few minutes now to send an email to your state Senator and then follow-up with a phone call? Don’t let Harrisburg politicians let giant gas and oil companies get away tax-free while our children pay the price with underfunded schools and we are forced to pay higher property taxes. We want: To continue the funding at the levels that have improved education in Pennsylvania over the last 2 years. To address the inequitable cuts – poorer districts should not be getting higher cuts. To use the legal amount (75%) of the revenue surplus and other available resources such as a drilling fee, to restore funding to… Continue reading

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Pennsylvanians thank Senator Casey for standing up for Medicare

  By Medicare, Penn ACTION

On Thursday, June 2nd, about 65 Philadelphians brought together by Penn ACTION, Action United, the Alliance for Retired Americans and SEIU gathered with residents of the Philadelphia Senior Center to personally thank Senator Casey for his vote against the Ryan budget bill that would change both change Medicare as we know it to a voucher system, which would double or possibly triple health insurance costs for seniors and cripple Medicaid. In the 24 hours leading up to the event, we received 100 letters from members of Penn ACTION thanking Senator Casey for supporting Medicare and Medicaid. These letters came from people who are on Medicare, people in their 50s looking forward to receiving Medicare, and even those in their 30s who are still a long way from receiving the benefits. The told many stories: about how Medicare helps people their healthcare bills so they can afford other goods; about how… Continue reading