Follow Barack Obama prior and during his tenure as the 44th President of the United States. Read about my personal observations along with every day facts as they happen. This blog will only submit factual information about the first black President, now in his 2nd term of office.
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The Republican Party, Controlled by the Tea Party

Monday, December 23, 2013

The Republican party may think that they may have a deciding edge over the Democrats and think they now are ahead in many of the major polls, because they truly believe that they have something to run on - the failure of Obamacare. It truly looks as if the Republicans are putting all of their eggs in one basket. Maybe they have and maybe they may not have the edge.
 They are just crying over spilled milk, or a leak that they cannot control. It is true that it has been nothing less than a very bumpy road for Obamacare, but the numbers now show that people are signing up to the new healthcare plan in record numbers. Presently, there have been a minimum of one million people that have signed up to date. Obamacare is the law of the land, regardless of the desire by Republicans to discredit it even before it is implemented and practiced by the people. The question here is why are the Republicans continuing to pursue the reversal of Obamacare, even at the expense of tax payers. Like it or not, another faction of the Republican party  is known as the Tea Party. This party disagrees with the mainstream Republican party on many issues, and they in effect have been the number one destructive faction that is affecting the Republican party, even moreso than the Democratic party.
Evidence of the distructive nature of the Tea Party over the Republicans is witnessed in the recent shutdown of the Federal government, led by a Republican from the Tea party named Ted Cruz. The confirmed cost of the shutdown rose to $24 billion dollars. The Republican party still is not able to understand that being attached at the hip with the Tea Party, they do not have a chance in hell to win the next election. The Tea Party has become so destructive to Conservatives. They are so far to the right, that most of what they portray doesn't make sense, in the fact that what they push as their ajenda couldn't posibilly fly with the majority of mainstream voters of this country.
Evidence of the disgust of the mainstream Republican party is the response of the leader of the House, John Boehner. As members of the tea party recently voted against the recent approved budget by Congress to eliminate another government shutdown in January, the leader of the House openly voiced his disgust with the Tea party members who voted against the bill.
Actually, John Boehner did the right thing for a change, to openly protest Tea Party Senators like Ted Cruz. But he voted on a bill that did not support a primary need for many middle and lower class citizens, as approximately 1.3 million people are now scheduled to loose their unemployment benefits right after Christmas because the Senators did not include a vote to extend unemployment benifits in their bill just passed before taking a recess over the holidays. This failure affects people of ALL ages. It is interesting to note that the money waisted by the Republicans on the latest shutdown of the Federal Government over Obamacare would be what is needed to fun the 1.3 million people now scheduled to loose their unemployent benefits. Almost one half million of these people are just children, now to go hungry, as if they live in a deprived third world country. How disgusting is that.
Even knowing that over a million people were now about to go without benefits to live on, and could no longer afford to purchase the bare minimum necessities, including food, housing and clothing, the Congress chose to go on their holiday recess, which means that they all will now go home and enjoy their holiday cheer, both for Christmas and New Years, knowing that many people will have nothing to celebrate this holiday season, or to live on for that matter. As of December 28, 2013, people will now go hungry, and may even loose their housing, if they cannot afford to pay their rent on time. If nothing is accomplished right after the holiday break when Congress begins again in 2014, I fully expect to see a further drop in the polls for Republicans. People will become desperite, and in my opinion, violence will become prevelant if something is not done soon. Store robberies can and may occur out of the despiration of the people who need food. Needless to say that many of these unemployed may have guns, and gun violence may take a sharp upturn. It is sad that right before Christmas that this state of the nation exists, a country such as affuent as the United States, a country who should be the model for others throught the world.
Is this something that any party can run on? It may be fact that it took both Democrats and Republicans to pass a law such as the latest budget bill, but the fact is that the Democrats will now bring up unemployment insurance as soon as they return in January. This is guaranteed. The Republicans surely do not want the Washington talk to change from what they believe is the failure of Obamacare to extending unemployment insurance. But the fact is that people with no money to live on is actually a more important subject than Obamacare at the moment. The Republicans will not recognize that fact, because if they did, they would have introduced a measure in the latest bill passed to extend unemployment benefits.
Because the President and the Democrats will fully support a new bill to extend unemployment insurance for a minumum of three more months or so, the Republicans will not support it, for the mere fact that the Democratic President supports it. It is for this reason that this will be the number one subject matter for the Senators in January and the senators may take their good old time in resolving such a serious issue. The President already openly stated his disgust for Congress not supporting a bill to extend unemployment insurance/benefits before their recess. The Republicans have nothing to gain, but everything to loose, if they do not side with the Democrats here. But unfortunately for them, the controlling faction of their party, the Tea Party, the group of people that had so much influence over the mainstream Republican party about a month ago, who were directly responsible in shutting down the government with the fractured leadership of Ted Cruz, repeated blunders by the Republican party will continue into the new year, unless the mainstream Republican party can find a way to eliminate the tea party. Until then, the Democrats should enjoy another win for the White House in 2016, regardless of the popularity of the President, regardless of Bengahsi, and regardless of what happens with Obamacare or what happens because of it.
The Republican party has not much support from minorities, woman, the middle class, and the mainstream society who realize that the extremeist right wing party cannot hold ground on their own without the destructive nature of the tea party always getting into the way. They are just crying over spilled milk, or a leak that they cannot control. It is true that it has been nothing less than a very bumpy road for Obamacare, but the numbers now show that people are signing up to the new healthcare plan. Presently, there have been a minimum of one million people that have signed up to date. Obamacare is the law of the land, regardless of the desire by Republicans to discredit it even before it it is implemented and practiced by the people. The question here is why are the Republicans continuing to pursue the reversal of Obamacare, even at the expense of tax payer. Like it or not, the Republican party is not in control, but the Tea party now reigns supreme for the Conservative party. This party disagrees with the mainstream Republican party on many issues, and they in effect have been the number one destructive faction that is affecting the Republican party, even moreso than the Democratic party.
Evidence of the distructive nature of the Tea Party over the Republicans is the recent shutdown of the Federal government, led by a Republican from the Tea party named Ted Cruz. The confirmed cost of the shutdown rose to $24 million dollars. The Republican party still is not able to understand that being attached at the hip with the Tea Party, they do not have a chance in hell to win the next election. The Tea Party has become so destructive to Conservatives and the party they should be representing, the Republican party. They are so far to the right, that most of what they portray doesn't make sense, in the fact that what they push as their ajenda couldn't posibilly fly with the majority of mainstream voters of this country.
Evidence of the disgust of the mainstream Republican party is the response of the leader of the House, John Boehner. As members of the tea party recently voted against the recent approved budget by Congress to eliminate another government shutdown in January, the leader of the House openly voiced his disgust with the Tea party members who voted against the bill.
Actually, John Boehner did the right thing for a change, to openly protest Tea Party Senators like Ted Cruz. But he voted on a bill that did not support a primary need for many middle and lower class citizens, approximately 1.3 million people whom are now scheduled to loose their unemployment benefits right after Christmas because the Senators did not include a vote to extend unemployment benifits in their bill just passed before taking a recess over the holidays. This failure affects people of ALL ages.
Even knowing that over a million people were now about to go without benefits to live on, a figure that can double by summer, and could no longer afford to purchase the bare minimum necessities, including food, housing and clothing, the Congress chose to go on their holiday recess, which means that they all will now go home and enjoy their holiday cheer, both for Christmas and New Years, knowing that many people will have nothing to celebrate this holiday season. As of December 28, 2013, people will now go hungry, and may even loose their housing, if they cannot afford to pay their rent on time. If nothing is accomplished right after the holiday break when Congress begins again in 2014, I fully expect to see a further drop in the polls for Republicans. People will become desperite, and in my opinion, violence will become prevelant if something is not done soon. Store robberies can and may occur out of the despiration of the people who need food. Needless to say that many of these unemployed may have guns, and gun violence may take a sharp upturn. It is sad that right before Christmas that this state of the nation exists, a country such as affuent as the United States, a country who should be the model for others throught the world but forgets its own poor.
 I will repeat this statement now..... Is this something that any party can run on? It may be fact that it took both Democrats and Republicans to pass a law such as the latest budget bill, but the fact is that the Democrats will now bring up unemployment insurance as soon as they return in January. The Republicans surely do not want the Washington talk to change from what they believe is the failure of Obamacare to extending unemployment insurance. But the fact is that people with no money to live on is actually a more important subject than Obamacare at the moment. They may agree with the Democrats and happily pass a bill to extend unemployment insurance just to get the topic back on Obamacare. I have news for the Republicans if they were to do such a thing. The next order of business will be the minimum wage. They (the Republicans) just don't get it. Unless they get an agenda to run on, they are going to loose the White House once again.
Because the President and the Democrats will fully support a new bill to extend unemployment insurance for a minumum of three more months or so, the Republicans will not support it, for the mere fact that the Democratic President supports it. It is for this reason that this will be the number one subject matter for the Senators in January. The Presidet already openly stated his disgust for Congress not supporting a bill to extend unemployment insurance before their recess. The Republicans have nothing to gain, but everything to loose, if they do not side with the Democrats here. But unfortunately for them, the controlling faction of their party, the Tea Party, the group of people that had so much influence about a month ago, who were directly responsible in shutting down the government with the fractured leadership of Ted Cruz, repeated blunders by the Republican party will continue into the new year, unless the mainstream Republican party can find a way to eliminate the tea party. Until then, the Democrats should enjoy another win for the White House in 2016, regardless of the popularity of the President, regardless of Bengahsi, and regardless of what happens of Obamacare or what happens because of it.
The Republican party has not much support from minorities, woman, the middle class, and the mainstream society who realize that the extremeist right wing party cannot hold ground on their own without the destructive nature of the tea party always getting into the way. 2016 couldn't get here soon enough.

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Congress Chooses not to Protect 1.3 Million Americans

Sunday, December 15, 2013

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, supported a bill that would guarantee that there will be no government shutdown for the next two years. In a calculated effort on the recent bi-partisan budget bill that just passed, it seems that some Democrats, including the President, forgot about 1.3 million Americans that are now going to loose their unemployment insurance. This vote, supported by the Democrats and Republicans, plays right into the hands of the Republicans. They are now off of their political hook. Regardless of what was accomplished, what wasn't accomplished was the protection of 1.3 million Americans that will now loose their unemployment compensation right after Christmas. Why? Because there wasn't any resolution included in the present bill that was passed to protect the unemployed.
Does anyone seem to care? The front line GOP, the so called hard line conservatives, to include John Boehner, Paul Ryan and others voted positivly on a bill to replace the sequester. Does this mean that future bills will now be passed with a simple majority? There has to be a catch. Ted Cruz, along with 62 Republicans voted against the Ryan/Murray bill. It seems that the Democrats have taken the easy way out, or did they? Running down to the wire just before the holiday recess, the Democrats passed the bill that gives the Republicans ammunition to now say that they have done what their constituents wanted. Every Senator that voted for the bill seems to be thinking about themselves here. Another senator Rand Paul, who openly stated that the unemployed do not need another extension, seems perfectly happy to now go on his long Christmas/New Year holiday vacation, while others who have no job, and not enough money to put food on the table, must suffer through the holidays with no income. Rand Paul's excuse is that the unemployed do not need another extention on-top of the one that they already have.
What Rand Paul fails to realize is that most of the 1.3 million people without work legitamately cannot find a job. The facts are that out of every available job out there, three people looking for work apply for that one available job. So the people outnumber the available jobs by at least 3 to 1. It is mathmatically impossible for everyone without work to be able to find work. The other issue is the lack of training people must acquire to qualify for the new position.
Rand Paul, a senator who has aspirations to become President some day, is falling way short in his ability to support the middle and lower class people who need basic funds just to survive.
Rand Paul will again have a plate of turkey for Christmas, and so will John Boehner and Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz was against the bill, but for the wrong reasons, as his were stricktly selfish and he consistantly deposes anything that has any support for Obama's health care bill. Mr. Cruz is another man that is playing with aspirations to run for President in 2016, but if Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are the best that the Conservative party can come up with, then maybe the Republicans should turn the nomination over to Chris Christie. But with Chris Christie's reputation, he definitely is not the best candidate either. Mike Huckabee is tossing the idea to run for the White House at the moment, and is weighing his options. One of his options was to end his talk show, which is an indication that Huckabee may be seriously considering a run for the White House. I'm sure there will be others who will run for the White house.

The front line GOP, the so called hard line conservatives, to include John Boehner, Paul Ryan and others voted positivly on a bill to replace the suquester. Does this mean that bills will now be passed with a simple majority? There has to be a catch. Ted Cruz, along with 62 Republicans voted against the Ryan/Murray bill. It seems that the Democrats have taken the easy way out, or did they? Running down to the wire just before the holiday recess, the Democrats passed the bill that gives the Republicans ammunition to now say that they have done what their constituents wanted. Every Senator that voted for the bill seems to be thinking about themselves here. Senator Rand Paul, who openly stated that the unemployed do not need another extension, seems perfectly happy to now go on his long Christmas/New Year holiday vacation, while others who have no job, and not enough money to put food on the table, must suffer through the holidays with no income. Rand Paul's excuse is that the unemployed do not need another extention on-top of the one that they already have.
What Rand Paul fails to realize is that most of the 1.3 million people without work legitamately cannot find a job. The facts are that out of every available job out there, three people looking for work apply for that one available job. So the people outnumber the available jobs by at least 3 to 1. It is mathmatically impossible for everyone without work to be able to find work. The other issue is the lack of training people must acquire to qualify for a new job to qualify for the new position.
Rand Paul, a senator who has aspirations to become President some day, is falling way short in his ability to support the middle and lower class people who need basic funds just to survive.
Rand Paul will again have a plate of Turkey for Christmas, and so will John Boehner and Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz was against the bill, but for the wrong reasons, as his were stricktly selfish and he consistantly deposes anything that has any support for Obama's health care bill. Mr. Cruz is another man that is playing with aspirations to run for President in 2016, but if Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are the best that the Conservative party can come up with, then maybe the Republicans should turn the nomination over to Chris Christie. But with Chris Christie's reputation, he definitely is not the best candidate either. Mike Huckabee is tossing the idea to run for the White House at the moment, and is weighing his options. One of his options was to end his talk show, which is an indication that Huckabee may be seriously considering a run for the White House.
I'm sure there will be others who will run for the Whitehouse to become the 45th President of the United States, but with all things considered, it will take some coming together by the Republicans to get a viable nominee for President in the White House. If Hilary Clinton runs, she will be far ahead of everyone from both parties to actually be elected as next President.
If Clinton becomes President, what will the Republicans, or Conservatives or the tea party do now in their efforts to continuously obstruct the President?! The Republicans should recognize that they already dropped the ball again for the next major election in 2016, and they should consider getting a well qualified person ready for the 2020 elections.  Even with these facts, Mike Huckabee is tossing the idea to run for president, as he has ended his talk shows on TV and radio. This is a good indication that he has something up his sleeve.  If Hilary Clinton runs, she will be far ahead of everyone from both parties to actually be elected as next President.
If Clinton becomes President, what will the Republicans, or Conservatives or the tea party do now in their efforts to continuously obstruct the President?!
For me, it is a sad day to see the Democratic President of the United States, namely Barack Obama be used by a select few of Republcans, just so some issues can be resolved just before the holidays, at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

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Health Insurance Exchanges - What are they about? !!

The following information was reported on Democratichub.com. Learn what health exchanges are all about. With the neverending rumormill found on conservative talk show stations, is it true that a vast majority of people need to change their insurance from what they have now? How many people actually do not have health insurnace and do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid? Can you ever be denied health insurance with the new law changes? These are just some of the questions that are answered here in this article. 

With the endless Republican obstructionism and attempted roadblocks regarding the Affordable Care Act, many individuals in this country are in the dark about what the new Health Insurance Exchanges are exactly. What everyone first needs to know is that the vast majority of all Americans will have no change to their coverage at all because the vast majority of Americans, 154 million to be exact, already have health coverage through their employer. Regardless of what many on the right have claimed, the vast majority of companies have shown no desire to dump their employee's health coverage and these individuals will see little to no change in their health coverage.

The Health Insurance Exchanges are for the seven percent of citizens in this country that do not have health insurance and don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. The exchanges are run by the states, so your experience can vary wildly depending on what state you live in. Residents of states that have been actively setting up their exchanges will be at a far greater advantage than those residents of states whose state governments have been working feverishly to derail the law in any way they can. That does not mean that those of you in the latter of those two are entitled to any fewer benefits of the law, but you will have to be more proactive in your search for health care within the exchanges.

What everyone needs to know is that you will not be denied care for any reason from now on. Gone are the days of insurance companies being able to dictate who does and doesn't qualify for coverage. Insurance companies will also be limited in how much they can charge the disabled and sick. Because of this, the success of these marketplaces will be dependent on young and able bodied individuals signing up for coverage in the Health Insurance Exchanges.

There is still a lot of confusion out there about what individuals may qualify for, so here are a few links that will give you much more information.

What is the Health Insurance Marketplace?

Health Insurance Marketplace Main Page

Video Explaining How Obamacare Works For You

Phone Numbers and Other Contact Information

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Having Everything to be Thankful For

Saturday, November 30, 2013

How did your thanksgiving go? For my wife and I,  it was a holiday reunion with my younger son Christopher and his wife Jennifer. In a sense, I feel guilty for trying to start a little family feud with my daughter-in-law Jennifer. She was magnificent, not trying to take me on with her beliefs as a Republican. Actually, it all started at her home, and mostly it was light-hearted talk about Democrats verses Republicans. Having the opportunity to write this blog, I may sometimes get melodramatic at times, because I feel so passionate about my beliefs, and what is happening in the country today.
Then the talks continued at my home. My daughter-in-law and son Christopher were very gracious, making the Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings, then traveling over 50 miles with all the food in the later part of the evening to spend the holiday with me and my wife Virginia. My wife originally was at work, on a 12 hour shift, then expecting a long drive to my sons place, but she was surprised to see everyone at our house when she arrived from work. I was out in the driveway waiting, but until she walked into the house, she really didn't realize that we were going to eat our Thanksgiving Feast at our home. My older son Michael and his beautiful fiancée were spending their Thanksgiving night at her mom's home to celebrate, so unfortunately we did not get to see them.

All in all, I am thankful for what I have. Recently, my wife and I have had so much to be thankful for. We moved into our brand new home, filled it up with everything we need to be very comfortable. Our puppy Samantha seems to be happier, especially since she now has her own back yard.

The thanksgiving feast was magnificent, thanks to Jennifer. The turkey with all of the trimmings were great. The deserts were different, but cool. I'm not into too much sweets these days, but that grasshopper pie surely was very rich and sweet.
Sometimes, I really don't know what gets over me as I just had to jib a little more by bringing up politics at the table. The night went so fast, I really don't know what all was said, but what I can distinctly remember is that my daughter-in-law who is very passionate in her beliefs, elected to not challenge me when it came to politics. In a sense, she deflated my ego, and the night rolled on and turned out to be a fairly quiet night, with the four of us just happy that we were together. It was by far one of the better nights I've had with family in many years. Regretfully, I was sad not to have my older son with us for the holiday this year.
Even though my son Michael and his fiancée were not with us this year to celebrate, they are about to bring me an early Christmas gift this year. His fiancée is expecting to have her baby (my grandson) and I an anxious to finally become a grandfather. I really didn't think how much that would mean to me until I heard that my son Michael was going to become a father. This made all the trial and tribulations between us at least for me to now be irrelevant. I pray that our family becomes closer to one another than it has in the past.
There is still so much more for me to be thankful for. My young and beautiful Filipina wife Virginia finally landed a full-time job working at Baylor Hospital in Garland Texas. She begins her new job on Monday as a full-time employee. So yes, we have so much to be thankful for. Just one year ago, my wife and I were cramped up in a small apartment, wondering if we would ever be free, dreaming to live in a home of our own. Now it's thanksgiving, and less than one year later our dream has become a reality, and we are celebrating the holidays in our brand new home. Thanksgiving is already gone, and it's already time for Christmas. Our tree has been up and lit already for the last two weeks. Just two weeks ago, we were blessed again, as we welcomed our first company to stay with us in our new home. We had a wonderful time. It was super special. A couple of acquaintances of Virgina, Father Jerry Gomez, a Catholic Filipino priest from New Jersey and a wonderful lady by the name of Jennette Cruz from Toronto Canada came to stay with us for a very special occasion. In a sense, it was Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving, as Father Jerry blessed our new home, while celebrating the mass and sharing his blessing and happiness amongst the people who attended. It will be something that I will soon never forget. Father Jerry, a Filipino priest, is such a down-to-earth man, and somehow in my heart, I felt that I've known him forever. Janette, the sweet Filipina from Toronto Canada was also so gracious and both of them made it feel as if they were part of our family. They will be always welcome in our home. We experienced so many happy times during their visit. We celebrated with so much good food, and the initiation of my new barbecue grill in the back yard. It couldn't have been a better day in November, with temperatures running upwards to 85 degrees, and not a drop of rain from the sky.
So for me, I have so much to be thankful for. Of course the night didn't go on without me thinking about my mom, dad and sister who all have passed. If I could have done anything to have them here with me to celebrate, I would have done it in a heartbeat. But their destinies have been fulfilled and hopefully mine will continue to grow with my wife, my two sons and the people special in their lives around us.

Again, I wish everyone who read this article a very happy and wonderful Thanksgiving, and the best Christmas and the greatest New Year to come!

James
Editor of the 'Obama in the White House' blog




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A Patient Observance of the Iran Deal for the Meantime

Monday, November 25, 2013

As mentioned in my last article, I was pretty animate that personally I did not totally agree to the deal that was made with Iran, that would open up their nuclear program for the first time in more than a decade. This would open up the Iranian nuclear program to U.N. inspectors but only for the next six months. Is this enough time to get their nuclear program under control? I highly doubt it.  The main reason was to slow nuclear production down in Iran. It also specifically required that specific parts of their nuclear program would halt for 6 months in exchange for some relief from sanctions. The deal came about after five days of talks in Geneva between world powers over Tehran's nuclear program and Iran itself.  Again, this sounds good, but I feel that it is fairly dangerous. President Obama today made his case in a speech outlining the benefits of the deal with Iran. As a writer, interested in what is right, regardless of political stature, I am willing to accept this deal for the moment, even though I do not have any faith that something will come out of this. In the short run, these steps may have reverted war for the time being, as I feel that Iran has just been a time bomb and has been very closely scrutinized by the U.S. and other world powers.
The liberal media and the liberal newspapers, i.e. the Washington Post who has been fairly critical and openly against such tactics with Iran, is in favor of it for the time being and calls it "a worthy interim step" and "preferable to the military action" and "the prudent course is to give diplomacy its chance."
Ok, I get it. Regardless of who doesn't like this deal, i.e. Israel, it is now a reality, and just maybe the President may just have something here. Maybe these small steps may lead into deeper negotiations that will lead to a permanent withdrawal from nuclear weapons by Iran. For the moment, I can unequivicabally say that I believe that Iran would never have in its interests the idea to a total rid of nuclear weapons. I believe that if the United States feels that there is a chance of a total and complete stopage of actions by Iran in its nuclear program, just has to be a fantasy at this point. Again, it is just too early to tell, but if we must play child games at this time with Iran to satisfy this administration and other world powers, I guess that this would be better than an all out war. The one thing that President Obama would not like to have happen under his watch is to start a war with Iran. The President's credibility has been damaged as of late due to the Obamacare fiasco, so it would be best for him not to try and start a war with Iran, rather than to deal with the idea that everyone stands to benefit from the negotiations.

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Is the Agreement with Iran a Mistake?

The latest world news political in nature is the agreement that several nations, including the U.S., made with the country of Iran. Sactions are being eased and the U.S. is releasing at least 7 million dollars to Iran for the agreement.
One of the main talking points of the last general election was that of Iran, moving forward in its ability to enrich Uranium. Every nation has agreed up until now that Iran would have to stop all ability to enrich Uranium. The United States, along with several other countries now agree to allow just a slow decrease in processes but Israel, namely Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters. "It's not made the world a safer place. He is totally against the agreement, and for this matter, personally I agree with him.
Personally, I believe that this agreement is a mistake. Yes, it is a historic agreement, but what was President Obama thinking when he agreed with Teheran over their nuclear ambitions? Why would the United States even for one moment trust Iran to follow through with disarmament concerning nuclear weapons? The President's approval rating is now at an all-time low in his presidency, and polls show that the President cannot be trusted, and that he does not tell the truth. Yes, these are tough times for the President, and making such a bold move such as this, to be part of actually pardoning Iran in a sense, as the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei unleashed another volley last week in Tehran. Khamenei said Israeli officials "cannot be even called humans" and referred to Netanyahu as "the rabid dog of the region." What is the sense in straining relations with Israel over a country like Iran that has radial leaders such as this? Yes, they now have a new leader, but he has less power and influence in the country than Khamenei does. I was under the impression that the stiff sanctions were working, and if they were, why would any country ease up on them unless Iran truly gave up on ALL nuclear ambitions?
Since starting this blog during Obama's bid the the White House the first time, I have literally been in agreement to all of his policies and have agreed with him on just about everything. But for the first time, I am in total disagreement with the policy just instituted by several nations, including the United States with Iran.
I can only be hopeful that this agreement will lead towards further reduction of nuclear activity in Iran, although I believe that this agreement will surely prolong actual reduction, as Iran now will be under less pressure to do so. The only quick way would be to sanction them as much as possible until they finally realized that they have to stop their process of enriching Uranium. The United States in a sense have given Iran a license to do just that, to slow their process of eliminating Uranium enrichment.

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Why the 'Nuclear Option' was Voted On

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Why do you think the Democrats elected to vote on the nuclear option? The answer is simple. GOP obstructionism. Now you might say that it is not a secret now-a-days that the Republicans want to stop all Democratic legislation in its tracks, especially if it benefits Barack Obama. When they (Republicans) became familiar with all the downfalls of the ObamaCare website at HeathCare.gov, they couldn't be more happy. Instead of assisting the Democrats with the fix of the website, they constantly have opposed it, hoping day-by-day that it will just fail. But, let's get to the issue at hand, why the Democrats had to run with what is called the 'Nuclear Option'.
There have been Judicial and Executive branch filibusters since the sixties, but under the watch of Barack Obama, there have been at least 10 times more filibusters for judicial nominees for U.S. Circuit Courts than the last president George W. Bush. What is happening right now is apparently a new thing, as Republicans seem to have saved this obstruction for the current President Barack Obama. One of the reasons why the Republicans are doing this is because of their majority of Supreme Court Justices, and they will do everything in their power not to loose that control in the Supreme Court. But they learned just recently when ObamaCare rang up the latter to the Supreme Court that one of their very own Conservative judges named Roberts, voted for the ObamaCare bill to allow it to become law.
In a recent Texas abortion ruling for example, out of a total of 9 judges, 5 of them voted to close the clinics and 4 voted to keep them open, so now even if it is legal in the United States to have an abortion, it is not legal in the state of Texas. Can you guess which political affiliation the judges are? You would be right in saying that the 5 that supported closing the clinics were Republicans, and the 4 that voted to keep the clinics open were Democrats.
This past week, the Republicans tried another variance of their blocking nominations of Barack Obama to Federal Courts. But they are especially critical and do their best to make sure that President Obama gets none of his nominees to the 'Appeals' court in Washington D.C..  This court votes on the constitutionality of laws and rules by the Federal government. Presently, there are 3 vacancies in the 'Appeals' court, and one of them happens to be one of the seats that was vacated by Justice 'John Roberts' when he became a member of the Supreme Court. The Republicans again will do everything they can to make sure that President Obama does not put one of his nominees on this court. Recently, the Republicans now want the 3 vacancies not to exist, just so that President Obama cannot appoint any Democrats or people of his liking to that court. By doing this, the court will stay conservative and their problems would be solved.


One of the most fundamental things that presidents do is to nominate judges. Normally what happens, the President in power chooses people normally from his party for vacant seats in Federal courts. But for this president, the Republicans are doing everything they can so that this president is not allowed to put anyone on the bench.

The three blocked judicial nominees by the GOP were Patricia Millett, Nina Pillard, and Robert L. Wilkins by filibustering in the vote on these same nominees. When this happened, the Democrats finally had enough. The Democrats called for an appeal on a parliamentary ruling on the floor of the Senate by majority vote, as they overturned the parliamentary ruling so that politicians cannot block any U.S. judges anymore. They can be blocked on an up or down vote, a simple majority, and no filibuster vote needed, just that majority.

In short, the Republicans must have lost their minds about this. What I mean is that they never thought that the Democrats would ever pass a bill to do exactly just that. In matter of fact, they were challenged by the Republicans, saying that they would never do this. The Republicans mis-calculated. The Democrats previously told the Republicans that they would pull the trigger on this if this obstruction kept happening, and when they blocked the 3 nominations for the D.C. Court, that was the last straw and the Democrats reacted, in the dismay of the Republicans. Mitch McConnell(Republican) said that it would not happen. He said that the Democrats would never follow through on this.

As an example as to what sparked this, as of Nov. 20, 2013 here are the totals of Federal judges. There are exactly 390 Democratic and 390 Republican Federal judges on the bench as of November 1, 2013. President Obama was trying to add 3 more Democratic nominees to that list, but the Republicans said 'NO'. They have no objections of these judges as people, but it's just they do not want any appointed by Barack Obama and do not want the Democrats to gain a majority.   Presently, there are 93 vacancies on the Federal bench, and nominees, especially by this President are being blocked. The Democrats just had enough and needed to put the record straight. They were not joking when they would fix the problem of the GOP obstructionism. For their stubborn thinking, if they could have just given on on those 3 nominees to become Federal judges, the Democrats most likely would have never acted and passed the 'Nuclear Option'. But now that it is passed, the three nominees will surely become Federal judges, and the vacancies will now drop to 90, and the Republicans can no longer stop the Presidents nominations to the Federal Court. The GOP actions caused the law to be changed, and now the 90 seats that are vacant can be filled by Barack Obama. There is absolutely no reason why he should not fill them. This new law also applies to Executive branch nominations. An example, the Republicans filibusters a candidate for Secretary of Defense, and they did it in a time of war, but eventually the nominee was elected. They didn't care what could be affected by not having a Secretary of Defense, just that they did not want Barack Obama to be credited for the nomination. The vote to stop the filibuster in the U.S. Senate was huge, and the Republicans vow that the tide will turn someday when they gain power in the Senate and keep the House. When likely will that happen. I'm here to say that it will never happen in my life time, and I'm age 61. The next President, most likely to be a Democrat, will not change the laws, and in fact will continue to nominate Federal court appointees.
Maybe this is a wakeup call for the Republicans, but it just may be too late for them to do anything constructive to gain a majority in the Executive Branch to do anything concrete as far as 'Conservatism' in the U.S. Congress, especially if they loose the House, which is a very good possibility, considering how the members of the GOP continue to act against the will of the American People and work against Federal laws that are in force today.
Chock up another victory for the Democrats, and the Republicans will just have to watch democracy work as it is supposed to in Washington D.C. for a change, with no chance of obstructing anything with their negative votes.

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Senate Passes 'Nuclear Option'

Thursday, November 21, 2013

An option that the Senate took today which had the support of President Obama is the so called 'nuclear option'. The bill was passed today in the Senate with a vote of 52-48, which ended the ability of minority Republicans to continue using filibusters to block some of President Barack Obama's judicial and executive nominations. Of course the Republicans strongly objected to the measure. As soon as the law took effect, the Democrats in the Senate acted by ending a filibuster against one of Obama's nominees for a federal appeals court. The President initiated the move because the Congress has been using the filibuster on just about everything President Obama wants passed, in an attempt to show that he is not effective enough to pass the laws that he wants passed.
The President blames the Republicans for what he calls "an unprecedented matter of obstruction in Congress". The President in a speech sited that the Republicans deliberately try to obstruct everything, regardless of merits just because they do not like the outcome of the last Presidential election.
The "nuclear option" merely changes Senate rules which enables executive and judicial nominees to be confirmed with just 51 votes instead of 60.
You may ask why the President has taken such a bold move without the support of the Republicans. So far the Republicans in the Senate only confirmed a single nominee to the Court of Appeals in D.C. The
Republicans also have blocked at least three appointees but also held up an endless number of other nominations to other important posts. Because of the lack of bipartisanship, and the Republicans functioning as anti-Obama hard-noses, and until they gain the Senate majority, they will never be able to change that. But you can bet if the Republicans ever gain the majority in the U.S. Senate, they will do the same to the minority Democrats.
Is what the Senate done considered a good thing? In theory, it is a very good thing, as the filibuster rule is way overpowering. A simple majority vote on the issues in the Senate is all that should be needed to pass bills. But the downturn here is that the nominations must also go to the Republican controlled House, and there they most likely will fail, as the majority of Republicans most always will defeat any Obama bill. Still, when this happens, the heat will be turned up on the House, and the microscope of criticism will continue to shine on this branch of Congress, which is never a good thing.

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Options for Insurance besides Obamacare.gov

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

President Obama may be caught in more crossfire from the Republicans, as it has just been made known by CNN White House Producer Kevin Leptak that even if the fix of the website is successful by November 30th, there still would be approximately 20% of people that would need to enroll in Obamacare by other means.
Failsafe measures have been put in place to assist people with registering, even if the website does not work. The laws of the heath care bill are in many senses so complicated, that it is impossible to do every transaction on-line. Here are a few examples....

1) Persons having health or financial situations that are too complex for the website.

2) People unwilling to make such a transaction on-line via computer, i.e. people not willing to share credit card information over a computer

3) Those stymied by healthcare.gov technical problems.

So what would their options be if they couldn't use the Obamacare website? First, there are call centers and health care exchanges that will discuss personally one-on-one with you, your options along with costs that go with the options you choose. You can ask questions on-line and receive answers by email, or correspond with a representative directly via email or phone on a particular medical condition that you are not certain Obamacare would cover.
Low income applicants can also receive a subsidy to help cover the cost of their insurance plan under the Affordable Care Act. There are certain qualifications that must be met to receive the subsidies. Regardless, the idea here is for all to have insurance, and at the moment, issues are being worked out so that eventually everyone will be covered under a plan that they can afford. The burden of not having insurance coverage hopefully will be a thing of the past.

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John Boehner - A terminal disease in the House of Representatives

Saturday, November 16, 2013

John Boehner, the leader in the House of Representatives, continues to block bills from being voted on, especially if there are enough votes to pass the legislation and he or his conservative friends don't want it to pass.

The first example is the Employee Non-Discrimination Bill, Senate Bill 615, that passed in the Senate by a vote of 64 to 32 along with 10 Republican senators. But the fact is that it will never become law as long as John Boehner will not allow it to be voted on in the House. He says that is his decision, not that I agree with it, but it is up to one man, Mr. Boehner to allow a vote in the House, and he just refuses to go along with the status quo. If it were to come up for a vote in the house, it most certainly would pass. It is a very popular thing, as 73% of Americans favor a law protecting gay people against work place discrimination. Along with this, 89% of Democrats support it, along with 75% of Independents and even at 60% amongst John Boehner's Republicans, but guess what? He and Republicans in Congress will not let the bill come up to a vote.
The second example is on immigration reform. John Boehner claims that he will not allow a vote on this bill, that is certain to pass in the House if brought to a vote. Immigration reform is super popular. It passed in the U.S. Senate with 14 Republican senators voting for it with a vote of 68 in favor of immigration reform to 32 not in favor of it. It voted in favor in the Senate with a 2 to 1 margin, a huge majority voting for it. Overall, 87% of Americans support Immigration reform. It is a most non-controversial bill, but still John Boehner and his friends will not allow a vote to happen, because they know it will certainly pass. 86% of Democrats support it, 88% of Independents support it, and even a wide majority of Republicans at 86% support immigration reform, but guess what? It's not going to happen because John Boehner will not allow a vote in the House. Even a majority in Republican swing districts support it, at 76%. John Boehner is completely against public opinion on this issue, even against the public opinion of Republicans.
The third example, John Boehner and his Republican friends are also completely against public opinion of raising the minimum wage. Overall, 76% of the people claim that they support raising the minimum wage. The Democrats and Independents massively support it at 91% and 76% respectively. Even the Republicans support the idea of raising the minimum wage at 58%. But Republicans in Congress will not let the vote happen, lead by the good for nothing John Boehner.
The forth example, background checks for guns, 81% of all Americans support the checks. Democrats support support background checks at 83%, Independents at 80% and even the Republicans support it at 81%. Even NRA members at 74% support background checks along with Non-NRA members at 87%. But the Republicans in Congress say 'NO' They will never let such legislation to come to a vote, which only supports their own personal agenda, and not the will of the people or any group of people anywhere.
How can such a fumble in our voting system happen?
How about the Buffet rule, which states that billionaires should not pay lower tax rates than their secretaries? Democrats, Republicans and Independents support the Buffet rule, but the Republicans in the House do not support it, and will not allow any such bill come to a vote, knowing that billionaires would have to pay more taxes if the bill passed.
How long will the American people, the voters of this country continue to allow this to happen in Congress? Will 2016 be a year that the Democrats regain the majority in the House? If people do not forget what the do-nothing Congress has done, or what they haven done while in office, then maybe the Senators that will not go along with the will of the people will get overthrown and permanently out of office. Only time will tell, but the Republicans you can be sure will continue their antics of not support what the majority of people want in this country. Now, 2016 is just a little over 2 years away. I highly doubt that the Republicans are smart enough to turn around and do something right before then, so most likely there will be a strong vote for a line of Democrats during the Presidential election year.

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Obama and his Signature Bill under Attack by Republicans

President Obama's signature bill, the Affordable HealthCare Act known as Obamacare, has been under attack by the Republicans since its inception. But it's not just a change in healthcare that the Republicans do not like. It happens to be everything that President Obama represents. In all of my years of living, I don't remember witnessing such an outright hatred for a U.S. President by members of the oposite party.
Yes, it is true that Obamacare has run into a few glitches. Yes, it is true that President Obama may have stated that if you want to keep your insurance, that you can. We all know know that what he said originally was not true. He did not intentionally try to lie to the people, but many argue that he just had to know that many polices that people had were going to be cancelled for the mere fact that they did not meet the minimum standards of Obamacare. The President claims that he is not perfect, and now has publically stated that people who have already had their insurance cancelled can now keep their existing policy for another year. He also met with insurance carriers at the White House in an attempt to get everyone on the same page. A process to re-instate cancelled policies needed to be worked out.
We know that he is paying the price politically. What was not clear was the fact that you could only keep your insurance if the policy that you had, met the minimum standards of Obamacare. Many policies known as 'junk policies' do not provide benefits that are within reason as far as cost and protection, and will never be enough when the policy holder needs to benefit from his policy. 
On Thursday, the President has stated that people will now be able to keep their policies for the next year, even if they do not keep within the basic standards with Obamacare. People who have sub-standard policies can now keep them for a year. The immediate problem that some face is the fact that many of these policies have been cancelled by the insurance companies, because they know that they haven't provided the minimum coverages needed to keep their insurance policies in force. Now the challenge is to get these policies reinstated for another year, but the cost may change. Another requirement by the President is that the insurance companies that re-instate their so called 'junk policies' must show a comparison from their plan verses the Obamacare plan. This is an attempt to show the policy holder what is lacking in their present policy. But what most likely will happen is that the insurance company will no longer issue their 'junk policy' as originally given to the policy holder. Instead, they will up the ante by introducing more benefits, which will make their policies look better than before, but will be at a higher price.
No one said that it would be easy when Obamacare came into force, but many people, namely the representatives in Congress from the right, are doing everything in their power to make sure that Obamacare fails. The president will do everything in his power to keep his signature bill in force. There has been less than 120,000 people that have signed up within the 1st month of the Obamacare offering, but it surely will pick up speed within the next few months. The President has vowed that the website issues that plague Obamacare and has affected President Obama's credibility will be running allot smoother by the end of November.
Meanwhile, Democratic Senators in the House have sided with the Republicans to introduce a bill to modify Obamacare. This certainly will not make it past the President's desk, as a veto by President Obama will surely become reality. No doubt that the people in the House that hate President Obama will attempt to chance things in his bill that he would not approve of.
The fact is at the moment, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. The Republicans can do whatever they like as far as making amendments to the bill, but the final outcome of the modifications will have to be approved by the President himself, and the Republicans after almost 6 years of this Democratic president still do not know how to communicate with the White House in a way to get things done.
What is happening now to the President surely will help define his presidency. Obamacare must work, and the president knows it. Still with all the outright dissention of his bill, he has vowed to continue to make Obamacare work. His goal as it was from the beginning was to make sure that all people of the United States have health insurance. He may have been blinded at first, not knowing what opposition to his bill would be uncovered, but the president is now as determined as ever to see it through.
Republican opposition to President Obama and what he represents is not the only thing that the Republicans in Congress attack. They also reject bills that have an overall majority of approval from members of both parties in Congress and the American people but Republicans including the House leader John Boehner will not even let the bills come to a vote. My next article here will highlight some of the bills that the Congress should be voting on, but they are not because of some Republican member agendas that only exist because they benefit themselves personally. They are not concerned as to what the majority of Congress wants, nor what is right. Hopefully during the next election in
2016, besides another Democratic president will be the re-birth of a Democratically lead House of Representatives. If the Republicans continue to act as they have in Congress, the chances of another gavel change in the House is imminent. Witness to this recently has been the election of a few Democratic governors in a recent election.

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Prevention Services provided by The Affordable Care Act

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Some people think that The Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare is not a good health plan, when compared to other policies that are in existence today.

To help dispel that idea, I would like to include preventative services that are covered under the Affordable Care Act. After you read this list below, you will realize how complete the affordable act is as far as coverage. Actually the coverage is rated in three groups.

The three groups of coverage are as follows:

1) Covered Preventative Services for Adults
2) Covered Preventative Services for Women, Including Pregnant Women
3) Covered Preventative Services for Children

There are 15 Covered Preventitive Services for Adults.

1) Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm - This is a one time screening for men of specified ages who have ever smoked

2) Alcohol Misuse - screening and counseling

3) Aspirin - use for men and women of certain ages

4) Blood Pressure - screening for all adults

5) Cholestrol - screen for adults of certain ages or at higher risk

6) Colorectal Cancer - screening for adults over 50

7) Depression - screening for adults

8) Type 2 Diabetes - screening for adults with high blood pressure

9) Diet - counseling for adults at higher risk for chronic disease

10) HIV - screening for all adults at higher risk

11) Immunization - vaccines for adults -- doses, recommended ages, and recommended populations vary:

     a) Hepatitis A
     b) Hepatitis B
     c) Herpes Zoster
     d) Human Papillomavirus
     e) Influenza (Flu Shot)
     f) Measles, Mumps, Rubella
     g) Menigococcal
     h) Pneumococcal
     i) Tetanus, Dipheria, Pertussis
     j) Varicella

12) Obesity - screening and counseling for all adults

13) Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) - prevention counseling for adults at higher risk

14) Tobacco Use - screening for all adults and cessation interventions for tobacco users

15) Syphilis - screening for all adults at higher risk


There are 22 Covered Preventitive Services for Women, Including Pregnant Woman.

1) Anemia - screening on a routine basis for pregnant women

2) Bacteriuria - urinary tract or other infection screening for pregnant woman

3) BRCA - counseling about genetic testing for women at higher risk

4) Breast Cancer Mammography - screenings every 1 to 2 years for women over 40

5) Breast Canceer Chemoprevention - counseling for women at higher risk

6) Breastfeeding - comprehensive support and counseling from trained providers, as well as access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women

7) Cervical Cancer - screening for sexually acive women

8) Chlamydia Invection - screening for younger women and other women at higher risk

9) Contraception - Food and Drug Administration - approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling, not including abortifacient drugs

10) Domestic and interpersonal violence - screening and counseling for all women

11) Folic Acid - supplements for women who may become pregnant

12) Gestational diabetes - screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes

13) Gonorrhea - screening for all women at higher risk

14) Hepatitis B - screening for pregnant women at their first prenatal visit

15) Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) - screening and counseling for sexually active women

16) Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA Test - high risk HPV DNA testing every three years for women with normal cytology results who are 30 or older

17) Osteoporosis - screening for women over age 60 depending on risk factors

18) Rh Incompatibility - screening for all pregnant women and follow-up testing for women at higher risk

19) Tobacco Use - screening and interventions for all women, and expanded counseling for pregnant tobacco users

20) Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) - counseling for sexually active women

21) Syphilis - screening for all pregnant women or other women at increased risk

22) Well-woman visits - to obtain recommended preventative services


There are 26 covered preventative services for children. They are as follows:

1) Alcohol and Drug Use - assessments for adolescents

2) Autism - screening for children at 18 and 24 months

3) Behavioral - assessments for children of all ages up to 17 years of age

4) Blood Pressure - screening for children

5) Cervical Dysplasia - screening for sexually active females

6) Congenital Hypothyroidism - screening for newborns

7) Depression - screening for adolescents

8) Developmental - screening for children under age 3, and surveillance throughout childhood

9) Dyslipidemia - screening for children at higher risk of lipid disorders up through age of 17

10)Fluoride Chemoprevention - supplements for children without fluoride in their water source

11) Gonorrhea - preventative medication for the eyes of all newborns

12) Hearing - screening for all newborns

13) Height, Weight and Body Mass Index - measurements for children through ages 17

14) Hematocrit or Hemoglobin - screening for children

15) Hemoglobinopathies - or sickle cell screening for newborns

16) HIV - screening for adolescents at higher risk

17) Immunization - vaccines for children from birth to age 18 -- doses, recommended ages, and recommended populations vary

a) Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis
b) Haemophilus influenzae type b
c) Hepatitis A
d) Hepatitis B
e) Human Papillomavirus
f) Inactivated Poliovirus
g) Influenza (Flu Shot)
h) Measles, Mumps, Rubella
i) Meningococcal
j) Pneumococcal
k) Rotavirus
l) Varicella

18) Iron - supplements for children ages 6 to 12 months at risk for anemia

19) Lead - screening for children at risk of exposure

20) Medical History - for all children throughout development up through age 17

21) Obesity - screening and counseling

22) Oral Health - risk assessment for young children

23) Phenylketonuria (PKU) - screening for this genetic disorder in newborns

24)Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) - prevention counseling and screening for adolescents at higher risk

25) Tuberculin - testing for children at higher risk of tuberculosis up through age 17 years

26) Vision - screening for all children

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Junk Insurance Plans Dumped because of ObamaCare

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

If you listen to the Conservative media, you will now hear day in and day out that many people are now loosing their insurance coverages. At the same time you will read on the latest Gallup poll that as far as Obamacare approval is concerned, 41% now approve in August, but now in October, the number has jumped to 45%. It seems to be gaining in popularity. So what is the real story. Yes, many people have received notices by now that their insurance plan is being discontinued because of the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature bill.
Presently, there seems to be so much negativity in the media about health care right now. It seems that none of the media has a single good thing to say about it. Are they right? Is ObamaCare bad for the American people?  The answer is 'NO'. Obamacare is not bad for the American people. Of course, I'm just the writer and editor of this blog, and you don't have to believe me. But it doesn't take rocket science to do a little research. But what you see on TV day in and day out are reporters, mainly from the Conservative markets that are always negative about Obamacare because they can be viewed as "journalistically compromised". If they do, they will not be showing a very great deal of integrity if they say something positive about ObamaCare. Examples would be.... Fox News and CBS News. On "CBS This Morning" reported that at least 2 million Americans cannot renew their health insurance policy. Governor Cristie also makes a report on the CBS morning show that "people are not told the truth, remember that they were told that they would be able to keep their policies if they liked them." The conservative markets want ObamaCare to fail.
There is so much mis-information about ObamaCare these days, I think it's time to take a closer look, actually just highlighted points I'm about to make here can give you allot more information about the Affordable Care Act, dubbed by the Conservative markets as ObamaCare.

To start, at least 14 million people in this country buy insurance on the individual marketplace. What does that mean? It means that if you were one of the lucky ones to already have insurance on the individual marketplace, there will be NO CHANGES TO YOUR PLAN. Well, how about that? Or just maybe there will be changes..  You are actually what can be considered 'grandfathered in'. But what if you are one of those 14 million that purchased junk insurance, and now your insurance company makes changes to your plan, like changing your premium and your plan is no longer valid, then you would recieve as so many people have by now, a cancellation notice.
So what does that mean? It now means that you will be forced to be upgraded to insurance with "standards" under the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare is all about raising the standards in America. Now that doesn't really sound that bad, does it.

So let's start with junk insurance, or what is better called 'low quality insurance plans'....  In many cases if you were enrolled in such a plan, you may be better to have no insurance at all than to fork over hard earned money into a plan that is not good for anyone.

As an example of a junk insurance plan, let's take a look at  a 'Fixed Benefit Indemnity plan..

The cost may be $450 a month, which is allot for many families, but some people have no other choice. The plan can hang you out to dry financially.  

For $450 per month, you can get $100 apiece each for 5 doctors visits. How about a grand amount of $50 a year for tests and screenings and the kicker, where people think that they really have something is when they are told they will get at least $1,000 a day, for up to 30 days in the hospital. Such a great deal, isn't it.

Well think again. the average doctor's stay in the hospital on the average is over $1,700 a day, so the money you will collect under your junk insurance plan wouldn't even cover for 30 days in the hospital. That doesn't acount for the specialized tests and screenings, and multiple blood tests that are a regular thing that takes place multiple times a day, every day. How about doctor's visits in the hospital room. How about specialists that are needed in your particular case. How about extra things like special nursing care or daily physical therapy, even after you leave the hospital.

On a personal basis, I was admitted to the hospital last January for a blood clot in my right leg, which required an operation and special therapy in the hospital and afterwords for approximately 2 months at home by professionals after I left the hospital. The hospital stay alone cost over $90,000 for just a week's stay, and without insurance I would have had to pay that bill myself. I had to take a blood thinner called Warfarin. The drug requires regular weekly blood tests once a week because the drug is so dangerous. This test was done in an outpatient clinic in a hospital. Do you think that the junk insurance plan as stated above would cover such medical needs. Of course not. On what I call a minimum good plan, I would have had to pay at least 25% of that cost. Instead, I only paid less than $700, which was my total personal liability for the hospital stay and pay nothing for any of the outpatient services. Having insurance is a wonderful thing, and as you get older, you will discover that you will depend on it more and more. If you are one of the unlucky ones not to have it in the past, you now have the ability to have it now. Maybe not the same plan that I have, but to give you an idea what you can now have, especially if you have no insurance at the moment.

Now, with ObamaCare, here are the new standards that MUST be provided to consumers...  which are considered essential health benefits..

1) Ambulatory services are included with ObamaCare
2) You can be covered by Emergency Services even if you are not admitted to the hospital.
3) Hospitalization is covered under ObamaCare (Includes surgery)
4) Maternity and Newborn care is covered under ObamaCare
5) Mental health and substance abuse using disorder services are also covered under ObamaCare
6) Perscription drug costs are covered under ObamaCare
7) Rehabilitative services are covered under ObamaCare, including physical therapy under ObamaCare
8) Laboratory services must be covered under ObamaCare
9) Preventative wellness visits will be covered under ObamaCare
10)Pediatric services must be covered under ObamaCare

These are just the top ten highlighted items that will be addressed under the Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare.

To top the list just mentioned is that for all of this, there are 2 main benefits that all of the above mentioned fall under. First, there is NO LIFETIME LIMITS ON COVERAGE FOR THESE BENEFITS, and second, PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS ARE COVERED. No one can be turned away, regardless of your condition or when you became stricken.

Now is this better than the junk insurance plans that are already falling by the wayside? Should anyone care that junk insurance is falling by the wayside now that ObamaCare is here. Of course they shouldn't. The conservative markets claim at least 2 million people are loosing their health insurance. That most likely is a good thing, because they now have a chance to purchase insurance that would really work for them.  Isn't it a good thing that people now have the ability to receive good health care now, even if you have a pre-existing condition, and you don't have to worry about the limits to the coverage?

What you have just read here are the minimum standards that ObamaCare will now bring to the marketplace. Be happy to have the ability now to get rid of your junk insurance policy. It's about time that you had the quality health care that you deserve as a citizen of this country.







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Consequences of Republican Actions

Political fear is the reason for Republican actions, but the American people have to take the damage. Republican politicians feel that they must only rule according to their conservative ideas, not on what is truly right for the American people. This is what has become the core of almost every Republican decision in Congress today. Decisions are not made for the people by the Republicans. The decisions are made only for what they believe in, centered totally around their conservative ideas, not what is best for their own constituents. Shutting down the government for over two weeks lead by Senator Ted Cruz is very much proof of this, even though many of his fellow Senators say that they disapproved of his actions. The United States lost millions of dollars because of it, and for what end goal? The 'Sequester' is even more proof of the damages caused by Republican inaction. Because the Republicans in the House would not vote on a measure to stop the sequester, it automatically went into effect, and lots of money earmarked for several government funded programs were cut, including some military programs which hurt the security of the country. But Republicans just do not seem to care.
The goal of the shutdown was to defund ObamaCare, a law that is now considered the law of the land. But no, the Republicans have voted over 40 times to try and stop a law that they in a do-nothing Congress can not stop at this time. But what did they decide to do instead to further push the issue? The Republicans led by Senator Ted Cruz, implemented the government shutdown on the very first day of the opening of the Affordable Care website of Healthcare.gov. Some of the Republicans, lead by Ted Cruz, intentionally wanted to see no government oversight of the newly created website on its very first day in action. Of course now we know that the website has major issues, and does not run efficiently because of some technicalities, and the Republicans are taking every opportunity to put down the website and make another statement that implementation of the new healthcare plan needs to now be postponed. Of course, to date the President says that healthcare will be implemented as planned and will be done on the present schedule.

Another example of the political infection by Republicans are comments and now actions to follow by Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican in Congress that claims that he will vote against every single nomination by the President to delay any further nominations by the President. His reason... Benghazi. He says the fight against the Democrats and Hilary Clinton is not over, and that until justice is served, he will continue to fight against every single Democratic candidate for office until he is satisfied with the outcome of the Benghazi affair.
Talk about being radical, here goes another senator, just like Ted Cruz, who thinks he has answers on how to get things done, and it has to be his way, or the highway.
At the end, will he be successful? Most likely not, but not much that the republicans are doing these days are successful, except to make the American people suffer from their actions. The people will not have the needed representatives standing up for them in proper time. And yes, why would any Republican want to block the nominations? Of course the reason has to be that the Democratically elected President is nominating fellow Democrats to fill the bill. This is still another political move by select Republicans to block the success in government, as long as President Obama is in power. What will they do when Hilary Clinton becomes president in 2016? And in case you may not be aware of it, I am already predicting that she will run for President and will win the election. I am so certain of this, that I have waiting in the wings another website, or maybe two of them now parked, with the following URL's:

Clintoninthewhitehouse.com and Hilaryinthewhitehouse.com

Leading the way of inaction is the Republican controlled House of Representatives. They can't pass bills. The only thing they can do on a weekly basis is not vote on anything but surely remember to go on vacation. Is this a way to get re-elected? Mid-term elections are around the corner in 2014, and usually the party in office at the time stands to loose many of the mid-term elections, but this year, because of Republican issues, a party that is in so much disarray, the Democrats not only have a good chance to win the White house in 2016, but stand to win back the House in 2014. Only time will tell.  Again, thank you Republican party for helping the Democratic cause in 2016.

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Affordable Care Plan

Already, with just 3 weeks into the beginning of the signup period for the affordable care plan known as Obamacare, it is proven that more people stand to gain health insurance than ever before.

Examples to date are as follows....

1) In the state of Oregon, 60,000 people under the Medicaid expansion of Obamacare have signed up. This stands for over a 10% reduction of uninsured in the state of Oregon.

2) In the state of New York, over 150,000 people have signed up for a private insurance plan using the state's exchange website.

3) In the state of Kentucky, approximately 1000 people per day are signing up for insurance using the state insurance exchange. By the way, there are at least 640,000 people in the state of Kentucky without insurance.

4) In the state of Washington, at least 35,000 people have enrolled in Medicaid, and at least 5,000 of them have enrolled in private insurance plans, not including another 60,000 people who have completed applications.

This is just the tip of the iceberg that proves there is now increased access to insurance which also includes access to Medicaid. Unfortunately for some applicants using state exchanges, Medicaid is now either not available or some still may not qualify for it like other states provide in Democratically controlled states. Republican controlled states run by Republican governors are limited to what the Republicans will allow concerning Medicaid, and unfortunately the people of those states needing the benefits of Medicaid cannot benefit from it.

It is true that the new ObamaCare website at healthcare.gov has been plagued with issues, but it is with the persistence of the complaints by Republicans that will bring to light all the issues that need fixed, and everyone that would need to use this site to purchase insurance will stand to benefit just by all of the complaints posed by the Republicans. Scrutiny ironically made by the Republicans, by the party that oppose Obamacare, will be just the medicine that the new health exchange at healthcare.gov needs to truly be successful.


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Now EX GOP Executive Don Yelton with Racial Comments hurt the Repubican Party

Saturday, October 26, 2013

North Carolina GOP executive and activist Don Yelton resigned after being asked by the Buncombe County GOP to step down after racists remarks centered around the voter ID law.

 As he said, and I quote...  

"The law is going to kick the Democrats in the butt. If it hurts a bunch of college kids that are too lazy to get up off their bohonkas and go get a photo ID, then so be it. If it hurts a bunch of whites, so be it. If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, then so be it."

He has resigned his position as the executive GOP chairman for his county on Wednesday. Actually his comments came at an extremely bad time for the Republican party that is in so much disarray at the moment, as they stand to loose a fair amount of House chairs in the off election next year. There is a good chance that the Republican led House may turn over to the Democrats once again.

In a response to his racial comments, the Buncombe County Republican Party sent out the following statement:

"On behalf of the Buncombe County Republican Party we would like to express our sincerest regrets and disappointment in the comments made by Don Yelton on the Wednesday edition of Jon Stewarts "The Daily Show". Mr. Yeltons comments are offensive, uninformed, and unacceptable of any member within the Republican Party. In no way are his comments representative of the local or state Republican Party."

"Let me make it very clear, Mr. Yelton's comments do not reflect the belief or feelings of Buncombe republicans, nor do they mirror any core principle that our party is founded upon" said Chairman Mitchell. "This mentalilty will not be supported or propagated within our party"

As far as I can tell, the Republican party is now on damage control. Comments like this are exactly what the Republican party IS promoting with the passing of the voter ID laws in many of the Republican controlled states. The Republican party is doing everything they can do to keep minority voters and even women who tend to vote Democratic from voting in the mid-term election. Many states are fighting the new laws head on, and the outcome definitely does not look good for what is called the Republican party.
The Republicans truly realize that only low women and minority turnouts will be the ONLY way that they can be successful in winning the White House in 2016. But they are not looking far enough ahead. Just two years later in 2016, it will be time to elect a new President. Barack Obama will be ending his 2nd term as President and cannot run a 3rd time.

Even with trying to lessen the turnout of women and minorities, The Republicans cannot win the White House in 2016, because of guys like Don Yelton, and Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

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Effects of the Self-Imposed Government Shutdown

Saturday, October 19, 2013

It's over!! At least for the time being. Did it have to happen? Of course not.   The government shutdown was self-imposed, lead and run by a select minority of Republicans whose main goal was to shut down ObamaCare. Did the Republicans succeed in any of their goals? Again, the answer is no. The conservative party had no chance to succeed, they knew it, but elected to instead lead the country down the road to a possible default, a time when the U.S. Government could no longer pay its bills. How could that have affected the people, since the government shutdown didn't happen?
First, not all the details are in regarding what was effected because of the shutdown, but it is noteabally the first one in almost 20 years. What is known is that the overall impact of the shutdown did impact the economy, with a cost of at least $24 billion.
Did the government shutdown help the cause of the Republican party? If it did help, I would like someone to tell me how it did help? The Republican party continues not to pass bills because of two reasons. One is political, as they will not willfully pass ANY bills that are supported by the current Democratic President Barack Obama. Their lack of leadership by the House Speaker Boehner is proof of that. The speaker flaunts the worst record in Congressional history when it comes to getting things done in Washington. Even his own party doesn't support him on legislation that he wants to get passed. Second, if it raises taxes or costs the people any money, so they say, they will not support any bill that raises taxes or costs the people any money. But instead, just a few lawmakers, led by Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, elected to put the economy in a talespin in just a few short weeks with a cost of at least $24 billion. Mr. Cruz openly states that he is not the reason, even though many in his own caucus disagree on how he handled himself to contribute to the shutdown. Is this responsible legislative leadership? Of course not. The Republican party continues to be the do-nothing party of the U.S. Congress, led by a select poised few and run by a party that mainsteam Republicans want to run away from called the 'Tea Party'.
What are the known effects of the shutdown as we know it now? I will list just a few, as I'm sure that there is such a large fallout because of a shutdown that didn't need to happen and I personally don't have that much time to write the detailed article, although I will pass along what I become educated on regarding the effects of the shutdown over time.
Here's what is known now..
1) Spending at chain retail stores fell 0.7 percent last week.
2) Mortgage applications dropped 5%.
3) $152 million per day in travel spending - LOST.
4) $76 million in daily visitor spending at national parks in 12 states -LOST.
5) Furlowed government workers LOST pay, but will now get their pay back.
6) Large purchases not made by government and others during this shutdown for the     last few weeks could increase spending in the next couple of months. Maybe!!
7) An S&P (Standard and Poors) rating of the U.S. may now drop from AA+ to AA The effects to the economy if this were to happen will be catastrophic.

The politial leaders now say that they do not want to repeat this process in the future, nevertheless, they opened themselves up for another round of a possible government shutdown in less than 60 days if they do not pass another spending bill by January 15, 2014.
As President Barack Obama stated right after the shutdown was ended, he was very happy to see government workers go back to work after the 16-day shutdown. The President wants an end to the continued partisan rift that "inflicted unnecessary damage" on the economy.
Will the Republican party wake up and not be lead by guys like Senator Ted Cruz, a freshman Senator that has future polical ideas in mind, like a possible run for the White House. Personally if he were to run and become the Republican candidate for 2016, he would fall just as a predicessor Mitt Romney did in the 2008 elections.
Because of him and select others in his party, the Republican party is now in so much disarray that it is highly unlikely that they can recover from this to put together a credible campaign for any likely candidate for 2016 elections.
What does this all mean? It means that if Hilary Clinton decides that she wants to run for the next election, most likely she will be nominated by her party and have an extremely good chance to become the next president of the United States. Who is now qualified to run by the Republican party that hasn't already caused serious damage to the country? What can they posibilly run on?


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Senator Wendy Davis will Run for Texas Governor

Friday, October 4, 2013

The 2014 campaign for governor of Texas looks to be interesting, now that one specific Fort Worth born democrat by the name of Wendy Davis is now running to replace the outgoing Republican governor.
She started as a 19-year-old divorced mother, then TCU graduate, then to a lawyer, then to a guberntorial candidate from a State Senator. Thirty years ago, she graduated from Richland High School in Texas, and now returned to kick off her bid to become Texas' 48th governor.
Recently, she gained national fame and notoriety, as she filibustered in a speech that lasted throughtout the night. Her goal at the time, was to revent a comprehensive abortion bill from passing. Now, as she has higher goals to gain power within a Republican controlled state, she has an uphill battle since the last Democrat to hold the governor's seat was held by Ann Richards back in 1995.
So who may be running against her from the Republican side? The names known at this time are Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot and former Republican Party Chairman Tom Pauken. They are the two main GOP candidates. Of course, the Republicans say that she doesn't have a chance to win the state house. Many of the Republicans say that they are glad that she is in the race, as she is a one issue candidate and nothing more. Others are more fearful of her, noting her fast popularity when she filibusted. They also are aware of the fact that if she is successful in the bid for the State House, most likely the state can turn more 'blue' then they would like. President Obama himself said that someday soon, Texas will run from being a 'Red State' to a 'Blue State' very soon.
Another issue that is now facing the Republicans square in the face would be the fact that since they have been so unpopular on many state issues throughout the country. Now that the Republicans have become the main reason why the government is now in a shoutdown mode, there are more and more reasons why another Democratic President is most likely in 2016. On November 9th, Wendy's run will become official as she will then register for the election to become governor.  The primary election to determine the single Democatic and Republican candidates begins next year.

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ObamaCare, Government Shutdown and the Federal Debt Limit

It's been three days and counting, as the Democrats and the Republicans have come to a stalemate regarding a bill that had Obamacare and government funding packaged in one bill. Great idea HOUSE! The Republicans are demanding the demise of Obamacare, but so far have been unable to stop it. The bill that had absolutely no hope of passing in the Senate, led to a government shutdown, with what seems to be no end in sight. Just the absolutely essential parts of the Federal government are running at this time, and Federal employees are feeling the pinch.
President Obama vowed to veto the bill even if it passed the Senate and ended up on his desk. The one piece of legislation that he will be known for in history would go down to defeat with a single signing of his pen. Of course that will never happen. The Republicans continue to pass legislation in the House, now over 40 times to defeat Obamacare. Obamacare now is the law of the land. Last week, the 'exchanges' became active, allowing people who could not qualify for insurance or basicially had no means to acquire it to now have insurance coverage.
Granted, the program dubbed 'Obamacare' by the Republicans will have it's bumps in the road as does any new major program, and it is coming to light that many employers are afraid of the costs that they will have to endure to employ people and supply insurance to everyone. The law states that everyone needs to obtain insurance or pay a penalty under law.
After the filibuster speech by Republian Senator Ted Cruz, the Republicans were still not able to defeat Obamacare.
In a desperate attempt to get something done in Washington, it now appears that the Republicans are moving away from the Obamacare fight. Many Republican Senators now know that they cannot breakup Obamacare, and they are now fighting with hard right wing Republicans to do what is necessary to get the government open again. But now they suddenly have another problem on their hands, the need to raise the debt limit. The deadline to do this is just two weeks off, and if an agreement to raise the debt limit cannot be reached, then the government will go into default and will no longer be able to pay it's loans. The last time the Republicans held out in raising the debt limit, they costed the United States a ton of money, along with a decrease in credit rating, from AAAA to AAA. So what's next if a debt limit increase is not passed? Is it possible to go from AAA to AA? You can hardly imagine that the U.S. government didn't learn its lesson the last go around, but appearently they haven't. All they seem to want to do is pass temporary measures to fund the U.S. Government. This works for a short period of time, but then we must go through this all over again.
Just like President Obama is taking a hard line on Obamacare, he will now again take a hard line regarding the debt limit. He wants to pass a permanent measure to fund the government, not piece together temporary measures to please the Republicans. Before President Obama leaves his 2nd term of office as president, he will do everything he can to fight for his cause for the middle class, starting with Obamacare, ending two wars that a republican President by the name of George W. Bush got us into, along with a host of other bills that he will take credit for, becoming one of the more famous Democratic presidents in U.S. history, to the dislike of the Republican party along with the conservatives that try to disassociate themselves from their own party.

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Ted Cruz in front of Senate for 21 hours, Stopgap funding bill passed 100-0

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Did anyone believe that a government shutdown would occur because of Ted Cruz antics, as he held the Senate floor for more than 21 hours? Actually many believed that since the ObamaCare bill and the funding bill to avert a government shutdown in six days were tied together, there was a good chance that it could happen. But today, the U.S. Senate voted 100-0 to clear a key procedural hurdle toward passing a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown in six days. Senator Ted Cruz, with his filibuster-styled effort in an attempt to de-fund Obamacare ended after 21 hours, it was clear that even Ted Cruz knew that he couldn't stop a vote. Now, it looks as if a stop gap measure to keep the government funded through November 15th is in place. The facts are that the Republicans do not have enough votes in Congress to defeat Obamacare, and even if they did, President Obama would defeat their cause with a stroke of his pen. Obama will make sure that his bill takes effect on October 1st.2013.
As expected, other Republican Senators praised Cruz for his efforts, regardless of how futule they were going to be. Most Senators knew it.

After wasting 21 hours of other Senators time, Cruz voted to end the debate. This wasn't until after he talked "about the Revolutionary War, the battle against the Nazis, and reading tweets from supporters and even reciting Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham" according to an article posted today by Susan Davis and Catalina Camia on 'USA Today'.
Mr. Cruz is a potential 2016 presidential candidate, and was only elected as Senator for the State of Texas just last year. Actually after all the talking, Cruz's so called talkathon should not be considered a filibuster, because the Senate still got to vote on the measure.

Just this past March, he fellow republican Ron Paul of Kentucky protested the Obama administration's drones policy for 12 hours, 52 minutes. After all the talk, it resulted in not much of anything, except to bring attention to themselves. If you think that the Republican party would have rathered not see Ted Cruz in this rediculas waste of time, you would be correct. Many of his fellow Senators from his party were against him wasting other senators time when that fact is, there really is nothing that he or any other Senator can do at the moment.

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Cruz Set to Derail His Own Party

The path to try to derail ObamaCare is running at full steam. Lead by junior Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, he has been involved in his filibuster speech in front of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday and throughout the night. He has vowed to talk "until I am no longer able to stand". The questions here is what are his real motives for doing it? Does he have any kind of chance to stop ObamaCare? The answers are pretty simple. Cruz plans to emerge as the Republican front-runner for President of the United States. The problem with this is that his own party base - the Republicans do not fully support him, and in matter of fact, they believe that his actions are hurting the Republican party. As stated in the 'Star Telegram', " "But his own party's Senate leadership is not on board. More mainstream Republicans have basically label it a fool's errand because it has virtually no chance of success and could well lead to more bad press and political disfavor for the GOP, especially if a compromise to fund the government proves elusive." He surely will have lots of competition to run for president from the Republican ticket. He himself claims to be the top Conservative of his party, but the trouble here is that his party and the Conservative base have not been seeing eye to eye these days. The party is fractured, thanks to the ideals of the tea party, whom Sara Palin, one of Cruz's biggest mentors and Tea Party favorites appears to be one the his biggest fans.
So what are her ideas regarding the actions of Cruz? As she stated on a conservative website last week, "the Senate to put itself on Cruz Control." Oh my. The Republican ticket seems to be getting in real trouble here. First Cruz doesn't stand a chance to think that his filibuster speech in front of the U.S. Senate, regardless if he vows to speak until he is unable to talk, is doomed for failure. Obamacare is law, and will become implemented in part as soon as next Tuesday, October 1st, when the insurance exchanges go live. On that day, people without jobs, people who cannot afford or is not offered affordable insurance coverage by their employees will be able to qualify for insurance. But Senator Cruz is willing to take everything as far as coverage off the table for the poor and unemployed. In my opinion, for what he is doing will mean that he will have very limited support from the Republican party, who actually plans to put someone in to represent them for president in a few years, not someone who necessarily is the top-dog of the conservative movement. The splinter of the Republicans and Conservatives is a direct result of the interference by the tea party movement. So just keep up the good work, Mr. Ted Cruz, and thanks to your interference to your own Republican party, it will be now more doubtful than ever that a Republican can win the White House the next go around, thanks to your self-inflicted caos of the Republican and conservative movements.

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