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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Exclusive: Gabrielle Giffords' Husband Mark Kelly Says She Feared She Would Be Shot

 You can read here about the interview or watch it in the following five short videos.  It was inspiring, loving, emotional and it teaches you about love, the kind of love that makes life worth living.

Giffords' Husband Tells Diane Sawyer Representative Job Is 'Risky' and Not Sure Wife Should Stay in Congress


For 20 crushing minutes, Mark Kelly thought that his wife Gabrielle Giffords had died.
On board a friend's private plane rushing him and his family to his wife's side, Kelly watched television reports erroneously declare that Giffords had lost her life in the shooting in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday, Jan. 8.
"The kids ... Claudia and Claire start crying. My mother, you know ... I think she almost screamed. And I just, you know, walked into the bathroom, and you know, broke down," Kelly, an astronaut, told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview. "To hear that she died is just, it's devastating for me."
For Kelly, it was the worst moment in a nightmarish day. Calling from the plane, Kelly learned the truth from people who were with Giffords at the hospital -- that his wife had not died, but she was fighting for her life.
"It was a terrible mistake," Kelly said about turning on the television. "As bad as it was that she had died, it's equally exciting that she hadn't."
Watch Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with Mark Kelly on a special edition of "20/20," "The Congresswoman and the Astronaut: An American Story of Love and Strength," at 10 p.m. ET.
In a remarkably personal interview, Kelly revealed that his wife had spoken about 10 times before the shooting of her fears of being shot during one of her town meetings, and Kelly isn't sure she should continue being a member of Congress after her recovery.
Kelly also talks of his wife's remarkable progress and his hope that she'll eventually make a complete recovery.
Kelly, who has been photographed beside his wife's bed holding her hand, said there is a habit of hers that has convinced him that she recognizes him.
"If I hold her hand, she'll play with my wedding ring. She'll move it up and down my finger. She'll take it off ... she'll put it on her own finger. She'll move it to her thumb. And then she can put it back on my finger," he said.
"The reason why I know that that means she recognizes me is because she's done that before. She'll do that if we're sitting in a restaurant. She'll do the same exact movements," he said.

Mark Kelly Fears Wife May Not Regain Old Sense of Humor

Kelly was struck by Giffords' progress again when "she stuck her hand up on the side of my face" and began giving him a neck massage.
"She spent 10 minutes rubbing my neck and I keep telling her, 'Gabby, you're in the ICU. You know, you don't need to be doing this,'" he said with a chuckle.
Kelly added, "I'm pretty sure she wouldn't do that to somebody else. And she's looking me in the eye."
Nevertheless, he is still unsure about the extent of her eventual recovery.
"At times I'm 100 percent confident that she's going to make a 100 percent recovery," he told Sawyer. "And, you know, at other times I don't know."
Later Kelly said, "She's got a great sense of humor. I've thought about whether that part of her will be the same." Today's emotions and even laughs are a world away from what was going through his mind a little more than a week ago when Kelly was in Houston and got a phone call from one of his wife's staffers telling him his "Gabby" had been shot. He had spoken to his wife just 30 minutes before.
"I picked up the phone and she says, 'I don't know how to tell you about this, but I just received a call ... and Gabby's been shot,'" Kelly told Sawyer. "I said, 'Well, that's, you know, that's not possible -- are you sure?'"
With no other information, Kelly ended the conversation and hung up his cell phone. He had to look at the phone's call history to make sure he hadn't imagined the news. He told his children -- Giffords' step-daughters -- and then called Giffords' parents and his own. Then, there was one thought in his head.
"[I] quickly had to figure out how I'm going to get there very, you know, very fast," Kelly said.

Kelly, Giffords Had Discussed Possibility of Shooting

By the time Kelly arrived in Tucson's University Hospital, the initial shock had worn off and another emotion had set in -- anger.
"I was really angry for two to three days. Very, very angry," Kelly said. "The first call I received after I arrived at the hospital was President Obama, and I expressed to him ... how angry I was."
"Whom did you blame?" Sawyer asked.
"Initially, I was upset because she'd, you know, received death threats before," Kelly said, adding that he felt it was "just part of what we've been dealing with for the last year."
He said they had talked "dozens of times" about how "risky" Giffords' job was.
"She says, you know, 'Someday I'm really worried that somebody's going to come up to me at one of these events with a gun,'" Kelly said.
Sawyer asked, "Do you still think the climate in this country had anything to do with it?"
"I don't. It certainly didn't cause this," Kelly said. "It didn't cause Jared Loughner to, you know, to plan this attack. ... I think you have somebody that's really, really disturbed, possibly schizophrenic."
Kelly told Sawyer he has no desire to meet Loughner, but when asked if he would ever be willing to meet with Loughner's parents, he said he was open to the idea.
I'd probably see them," he said. "I don't think it's their fault. It's not the parents' fault. I'd like to think I'm a person that's somewhat forgiving. And, I mean, they've got to be hurting in this situation as much as anybody.

Kelly: Political Climate Didn't Cause Shooting, But There's a Chance for Change

Still, Kelly believes that there's now a chance to change a political environment he thinks is filled with far too much vitriol. He has seen the anger firsthand, watching during Giffords' campaigns as his wife was called a terrorist, targeted by death threats, and had the front door of her office shot out after a contentious vote.
"Maybe we could use this as an opportunity to make things better," Kelly said. "Maybe it's time to just tone it down, try to get back to a better place, try to get to a place where we can just disagree, and get rid of the heated, angry rhetoric."
From the moment Kelly and Giffords met on a delegation to China, he knew her to be a hardworking, optimistic person with a true passion for her job. Then she was a young state senator, and he was an astronaut struggling through a divorce. As the two built a friendship, Giffords even offered her eventual husband dating advice before they realized that their future was with each other.
Giffords and Kelly knew their relationship would never be a conventional one. Their first date was to a state prison so Giffords could do research on death penalty legislation.
"She asked me if I wanted to come, so I decided to come back to Arizona to go do that with her," Kelly said. "That was our first date, visiting death row."
With Kelly's demanding NASA job, the couple was lucky to spend 10 days a month together, scheduling in time between his training calendar and her travels between Washington and Arizona. But their emotional bond was strong, sharing their lives through hour-long phone conversations every night they were apart.

Kelly Monitors Giffords' Progress

In the hospital, Kelly is closely monitoring his wife's recovery, tackling every detail with the same focus he brings to his job as a space shuttle commander. In the first days after the attack, he slept in the hospital and only recently has begun to stay in a hotel across the street.
Though the couple owns a condo just two miles away from the hospital, Kelly prefers to be as close as possible to his wife's bedside, where he tells her he loves her and reads out loud some of the thousands of supportive letters and emails that have flooded in since the attack.
So far, doctors say Giffords' recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. Last Saturday, she was removed from a ventilator, and on Monday her condition was upgraded to serious from critical condition. Doctors have inserted a tracheotomy tube in her throat to help her breathe and put a feeding tube in her stomach.
While his wife has yet to speak or hint at how much she understands, Kelly has witnessed Giffords following instructions, like a command to hold up two fingers.
"I can hold up a pen and I could say, 'Take the pen.' And she could take the pen," he said. "And then I could say, 'Give me back the pen,' and she'll give it back. It's really good progress."
Doctors have been unsure whether Giffords is actually able to see, but Kelly is confident that she's looking at him from her one unbandaged eye.
Kelly hopes his wife will make a complete recovery, and so far doctors have ruled nothing out. Always the commander, he's even set goals for her, telling her she'll be up and walking in two weeks. But Kelly knows his wife has a long road ahead, a recovery that will be measured in months and maybe longer.
When Giffords does begin to speak, Kelly knows they have plenty to talk about, like having to tell her about the six people who lost their lives in the attack, including 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green and one of her dedicated staffers, Gabe Zimmerman.
Then there's the question of his future and whether Kelly will be the commander of the final space shuttle mission on April 19, known as STS-134. This past weekend, his crew sent a supportive tweet, saying "Gabby is improving. Mark is strong ... STS134 will succeed."

Like the Town of Tombstone, Gabrielle Giffords Is Too Tough to Die

Kelly's mission is a significant honor, commanding the final flight of the space shuttle program. He hopes to be able to discuss the matter with his wife before he decides whether to return to space. NASA has sent a colleague to help him in Tucson, and a NASA psychologist has even been providing him counsel in the days since the attack.
"I'm hopeful that I will be able to rejoin my crew, finish getting ready for this mission and launch of April 19," he said. "I mean, my first priority is her. You know, she needs me to be by her side."
Giffords and Kelly will also have to decide whether she'll resume her work.
Sawyer asked, "Do you want her to go back into Congress after this?"
"That's a tough, tough decision. Probably not," Kelly said. "But I know that's probably not going to matter to her. I think she's such a devoted public servant that she's going to come out of this and be more resolved to fix things, to make things better for people."
Kelly has made sure to keep track of every gift, every message, every act of generosity from the people of Tucson, knowing that his wife will want to handwrite thank you letters.
"You know, she has Tombstone, Arizona in her district ... the town that's too tough to die," Kelly told Sawyer. "Gabrielle Giffords is too tough to let this beat her."

Part 5: NASA mission notwithstanding, Kelly says he'll stay by wife's bedside.

As Many Days 'As It Takes'

Part 4: Kelly said Giffords worried someone would threaten her with a gun.

Giffords' Stunning Prediction

Part 3: Despite her serious brain injury, Giffords can follow simple commands.

'She Squeezes Your Hand'

Part 2: Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords had a date at a state penitentiary.

A 'Romantic' Date on Death Row 

Part 1: Mark Kelly talks about wife Gabrielle Giffords' medical condition.

FULL SHOW: The Congresswoman and the Astronaut

Education Buzzword Explainer:

 What the Heck Is Social Capital?

| Wed Jan. 19, 2011 11:00 AM PST

Let's face it: Jargon happens. And in education circles, it happens a lot. Curious what an education buzzword actually means? Or how a seemingly unrelated business concept migrated into discussions about kids and schools? Let MoJo's education team research the hell out of it so you don't have to. We welcome buzzword suggestions in comments for our next primer: Help us to decide what lingo to research next.

This week's education buzzword: "SOCIAL CAPITAL."

What is social capital? It's not about money. At its core, social capital theory holds that "relationships matter" and that "social networks are a valuable asset." If human capital is about individual resources (i.e. the importance of skilled people), social capital is about social resources (i.e. the importance of skilled social networks). Some research also shows that increasing social capital (and trust among individuals) requires face-to-face encounters. In other words, it's not what you know...it's who you know and what they know, and possibly how often you see each other in person.
How does social capital relate to education? Simply put, schools with a lot of social capital often have an easier time getting what they need to educate students effectively, so even super teachers can't sustainably improve a school's academic outcomes without family, community, and state involvement. University of Pittsburgh professor, Carrie Leana explains:
"Why are some schools better than others?" A human capital answer would say that some schools are better because they have the best-trained teachers. A social capital answer would say there is something about the way those teachers are interacting that influences the school as a whole and results in a level of shared performance that you can't get from individuals alone.
Outside of school, social capital in the community can compensate for its absence in the family. In one case, researchers compared the drop out rates of high school sophomores. They found that kids who had one sibling, two parents, and a mother who expected them to attend college were much less likely to drop out than sophomores with four siblings, one parent, and a mother who didn't expect them to attend a university. (PDF) However, while studying social capital's relation to school drop out rates, sociologist James Coleman also found that a strong adult community could keep teens in school regardless of family situation. And even The World Bank recognizes that social capital alone can't substitute for financing education.
Where did the term "social capital" come from? The first known reference appeared inLyda Judson Hanifan's 1916 article "The Rural School Community Center," in which he wrote that "the individual is helpless socially, if left entirely to himself." In 1988, James Colemancontributed the first solid evidence of a relationship between a school's social capital and academic drop out rates.
How can a school increase its social capital? More face-to-face interaction with parents and local community members is probably a good start. "The schools can't do it by themselves," as a South Carolina neighborhood outreach leader told The Beaufort Gazette. "That's the reality."

Issa Cools to Global Warming Investigation


| Wed Jan. 19, 2011 11:35 AM PST

Is Darrell Issa planning to investigate climate science, or isn't he?
Last September, before Republicans had even won the House and posted Issa atop the chamber's main oversight committee, the California GOPer drafted a list of issues he believed should be investigated, and climate science made the cut. Issa specifically referred to a desire to investigate the so-called "ClimateGate" scandal and the scientific evidence underpinning climate regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Shortly after the election, Issa downplayed his interest in the subject, citing "limited resources and limited time." But the subject came up again in Ryan Lizza's lengthy treatment of Issa in this week's New Yorker. From the piece:
It’s easy to imagine, however, that some of Issa’s investigations could end up as acrimonious party struggles, if only because Republicans and Democrats now seem to deal with different sets of facts. Issa seems unconvinced about the science behind climate change, and the investigation that he seemed most passionate about when we spoke involved U.S. government funding for the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. This is the organization behind the so-called Climategate controversy, in which a batch of e-mails were published, showing, Issa claimed, that there had been fraud involving “the base numbers” underlying our understanding of climate change. However, three separate investigations have cleared the Climate Research Unit of manipulating research, and its work does not form the basis for our understanding of the issue.
Now Issa's spokesman is vehemently denying any interest in the matter. From Politico's Morning Energy today:
"As has already been stated numerous times, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has no plans to investigate 'Climate-Gate,'" Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella told POLITICO yesterday. "There is a substantial difference between a reporter editorializing and something actually being a legitimate priority to this Committee."
I'm curious as to what prompted the change. (Issa's office has not responded to a request for comment.) Is it simply less of a priority because there are plenty of other things on Issa's agenda for the next two years? Or did the Issa team realize that rehashing climate arguments wasn't going to be the political winner that they'd hoped?
UPDATE: Oversight Committee spokesman Frederick Hill responded to a question about whether climate is still on Rep. Issa's agenda this year, via email: "The issue, as explained in the September report, is still a relevant concern. [Bardella's]  comment simply reflects the fact that the committee has not announced a hearing or specific investigation on the issue."

China State Dinner Menu: Lobster, Steak, Apple Pie & Ice Cream For Hu Jintao


China State Dinner Menu
First Posted: 01/19/11 05:11 PM Updated: 01/19/11 06:26 PM
After bringing in prominent guest chefs for their first two state dinners, the Obamas are relying on in-house Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses this time around. They have created a "quintissentially American" state dinner menu for Chinese president Hu Jintao at the request of his delegation, Obama Foodorama reports.
Accordingly, the menu features American classics like poached maine lobster, dry-aged ribeye steak with onions, stuffed potatoes, apple pie with vanilla ice cream, and an all-American wine selection.
The full state dinner menu:
First
D'Anjou Pear with Farmstead Goat Cheese Fennel, Black Walnuts, and White Balsamic
Second
Poached Maine Lobster
Orange Glaze Carrots and Black Trumpet Mushrooms
Wine: DuMol Chardonnay "Russian River" 2008 (California)
Lemon Sorbet
Main
Dry Aged Rib Eye with Buttermilk Crisp Onions
Double Stuffed Potatoes and Creamed Spinach
Wine: Quilceda Creek Cabernet "Columbia Valley" 2005 (Washington State)
Dessert
Old Fashioned Apple Pie
with Vanilla Ice Cream
Wine: Poet's Leap Riesling "Botrytis" 2008 (Washington State)

Marcus Samuelsson was the guest chef for the Obamas' first White House state dinner, honoring Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, and Rick Bayless guest-cheffed their second state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderon. View Samuelsson's state dinner menu here andBayless's menu here, and go here for a look at state dinner menus of eras past, featuring foods like aspic, hot dogs and boiled mutton.

Controversial US Pastor Banned From UK Visit

11:42pm UK, Wednesday January 19, 2011
Carole Erskine, Sky News Online

Controversial US preacher Terry Jones has been barred from the UK after being invited to speak at an anti-Islamic demonstration next month.

But he has told Sky News he is "disappointed" by the ban.
Mr Jones said: "We would ask it be reconsidered and the ban lifted.
"I have done a countless number of interviews and in those I have stated and assured the media and British Government we have no intention of doing anything against British law.
"We feel this is against our human rights to travel and freedom of speech.
"We are not against Muslims, we are not against Islam. We welcome Muslims and have only spoken out against the radical element of Islam."
He added he was particularly looking forward to visiting the UK as his daughter and grandchildren live in England.
A Home Office spokesman said: "The Government opposes extremism in all its forms which is why we have excluded Pastor Terry Jones from the UK.
"Numerous comments made by Pastor Jones are evidence of his unacceptable behaviour.
"Coming to the UK is a privilege, not a right, and we are not willing to allow entry to those whose presence is not conducive to the public good.
"The use of exclusion powers is very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate."
Pastor Jones had accepted the invitation to speak to a group called England Is Ours next month.
The demonstrations were being held against the expansion of Islam and the construction of mosques in the UK.
A spokesman for England Is Ours said he hoped other members of Pastor Jones' outreach centre would be able to visit and speak to the group if the controversial preacher was unable to get the decision overturned.

Al Franken rips into FCC approval of Comcast-NBC merger


Categories: Al Franken

The Comcast-NBC Universal merger got an official green light today from the Federal Communications Commission, paving the way on a 4-1 vote for another major consolidation in the telecom industry.
It's a merger that Al Franken has battled from the get-go in the Senate, and he ripped into commissioners supporting the merger as corporate lackeys who've forgotten their responsibilities.
"The Commission is supposed to protect the public interest, not corporate interests," Franken said. "But what we see today is an effort by the FCC to appease the very companies it's charged with regulating. With approval of this merger, the FCC has given a single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the flow of information in America."
Statements from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, and the lone dissenter, Democratic Commissioner Michael J. Copps, make clear how differently the two sides view the issue of media consolidation. Genachowski first:
After a thorough review, we have adopted strong and fair merger conditions to ensure this transaction serves the public interest.
The conditions include carefully considered steps to ensure that competition drives innovation in the emerging online video marketplace.
Our approval is also structured to spur broadband adoption among underserved communities; to increase broadband access to schools and libraries; and to increase news coverage, children's television, and Spanish-language programming.
I commend the excellent work of the FCC staff; this was an endeavor that involved almost every Bureau and Office. I also want to thank Assistant Attorney General Varney and her staff for their close collaboration throughout this review.
Copps's dissent is far lengthier. Some highlights:
It reaches into virtually every corner of our media and digital landscapes and will affect every citizen in the land. It is new media as well as old; it is news and information as well as sports and entertainment; it is distribution as well as content. And it confers too much power in one company's hands.
The Comcast-NBCU joint venture opens the door to the cable-ization of the open Internet. The potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users, and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.
As for the future of America's news and journalism, I see nothing in this deal to address the fundamental damage that has been inflicted by years of outrageous consolidation and newsroom cuts. Investigative journalism is not even a shell of its former self. All of this means it's more difficult for citizens to hold the powerful accountable.

Inside the minds of the chinese Leaders


State Visit Working Lunch at the State Department

 
January 19, 2011 | 21:26 | Public Domain
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcome President Hu Jintao of China to the State Department for a lunch during President Hu’s state visit.

Presidents Obama, Hu Meet with Business Leaders

 
January 19, 2011 | 10:15 | Public Domain
President Obama and President Hu of China meet with American and Chinese business leaders at a roundtable meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

President Obama and President Hu Press Conference

 
January 19, 2011 | 1:07:50 | Public Domain
President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China hold a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House.

Angry Progressive Coalition to Protest Billionaire Gathering Hosted by Koch Brothers, Major Tea Party Funders


By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Posted on January 16, 2011, Printed on January 19, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/149546/
Increasingly, Democrats, liberals and progressives are coming to understand that the Koch brothers, a secretive right-wing billionaire family that pours limitless money into virtually every destructive anti-democratic initiative affecting tens of millions of Americans, are "Public Enemy Number One."

More and more, leaders and activists are shifting tactics and confronting the Kochs face-to-face, challenging their efforts to steal the American Dream and drown out the voices of ordinary Americans by buying our democracy, and trying to take control of civic and economic life. The Kochs' goal appears to be nothing short of transforming America into a radical right-wing, corporate, third-world-like country, crushing social safety nets, and letting the destructive "free market" reign supreme.

The Koch brothers are bringing their super-wealthy friends to the California desert to a private gathering to strategize how they will dominate American political life, and bring a hardcore right-wing government to power in the U.S. In response, on Sunday, January 30, thousands of activists and concerned people are expected to travel to Rancho Mirage, a wealthy enclave adjacent to Palm Springs, to say no to the Koch brothers' plan. People will be educated about the Kochs and their cabal of rich friends, and peacefully march to offer an alternative to the greed and right-wing agenda that aims to roll back consumer protections, including the environment, health care, credit cards, banks and more.

"We can't sit back while a few billionaires destroy the fragile fabric of democracy and the protections that are so necessary for the health of our society," says Jodie Evans ofCodePink, one of the organizations planning the protest. "It is time for the progressive community to gather together and say no more, and what better place than where the Koch brothers are plotting their next moves."

The Koch brothers protest signals a new stage among concerned Americans from many areas and organizations. An impressive tally of progressive leaders will speak at the gathering, including Van Jones, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, and California Nurses Association co-president DeAnn McKewan. Marchers will come from a wide range of organizations including the California Nurses, Common Cause and the Courage Campaign.

The Kochs control the second largest private company in America and are among the richest men in the world. Along with their wealthy allies, they funded the Tea Party to use as a hammer to drive American politics further to the right. Through their various organizations, and often secretly, the Kochs have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into efforts to deny climate change, undermine financial reform, unleash unlimited corporate money in elections via the Citizens United decision, destroy unions, and make it far more expensive for students to get loans. And recently in California, Koch Industries pumped $1 million into elections last fall to try to roll back the state's global warming law with Prop 23.
They have been major underwriters of the Tea Party and its efforts to disrupt congressional town hall meetings to give the insurance companies control over our health care. The Koch brothers used their wealth to finance scurrilous attack ads -- and recruit others to do the same -- in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of secret money on politics. Their goal is to undermine our democracy so they can increase their profits and control and corrode our standard of living. 

Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.

Obama and Hu Talk Climate


| Wed Jan. 19, 2011 1:25 PM PST
There are certainly a number of major issues on the agenda this week as Chinese President Hu Jintao meets with Barack Obama in Washington, from human rights to currency manipulation. The one that has gotten scant attention is climate policy, though the two superpowers remain the focal point of global negotiations on the subject. Climate issues got passing notice in Obama's remarks at their joint press conference today, as he noted that they are deepening the working relationship on energy:
We’re renewing our long-running cooperation in science and technology, which sparks advances in agriculture and industry. We’re moving ahead with our U.S.-China clean energy research center and joint ventures in wind power, smart grids and cleaner coal. I believe that as the two largest energy consumers and emitters of greenhouses gases, the United States and China have a responsibility to combat climate change by building on the progress at Copenhagen and Cancun, and showing the way to a clean energy future. And President Hu indicated that he agrees with me on this issue.
Obama added later in the remarks:
And finally, China’s rise is potentially good for the world. To the extent that China is functioning as a responsible actor on the world stage, to the extent that we have a partner in ensuring that weapons of mass destruction don't fall into the hands of terrorists or rogue states, to the extent that we have a partner in dealing with regional hotspots, to the extent that we have a partner in addressing issues like climate change or a pandemic, to the extent that we have a partner who is helping poorer countries in Asia or in Africa further develop so that they, too, can be part of the world economy—that is something that can help create stability and order and prosperity around the world. And that's the kind of partnership that we’d like to see.
Hu also noted their plans to work together on global challenges, listing climate change as one of them. I can imagine, though, that the conversation on this subject wasn't entirely as chummy as the remarks would imply, however. The US last month lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization about China's subsidies for clean energy, arguing that the country is unfairly stacking the deck in favor of their products.

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Remember the uninsured?

Posted at 4:32 PM ET, 01/19/2011


By Ezra Klein
bloodpressurecheck.JPG
In February 2007, Deamonte Driver died of an infected tooth. But he didn't really die of an infected tooth. He died because he didn't have consistent insurance. If he'd had an Aetna card, a dentist would've removed the tooth earlier, and the bacteria that filled the abscess would never have spread to his brain.
Deamonte Driver was 12. His insurance status wasn't his fault.
If all you knew about the Affordable Care Act was what you gleaned from watching the Republicans make their case against it, you probably would not know that the legislation means health-care coverage for more than 30 million Americans. Or, if you did know that, you'd be forgiven for not realizing it's relevant: It almost never gets mentioned (see this congressman's rundown of the bill's contents, for instance), and the repeal legislation the Republicans are pushing does nothing to replace the coverage the Affordable Care Act would give to those people.
The lack of concern for how more than 30 million Americans will get their health-care coverage makes for an ugly contrast with the intense concern that Rep. Andy Harris -- a proponent of repeal -- found when he heard that his congressional health-care coverage wouldn't begin until a month after he took the oath of office. "He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care," recalled one of the session's attendees. He knows his taxpayer-subsidized insurance is important. But what about Driver's?
We have a tendency to let the conversation over health-care reform become a bloodless, abstract discussion over cost curves and CBO models. We do that for two reasons: First, cost is important. Second, it's important to the people who have political power, which is, by and large, not the same group who doesn't have health-care insurance. Someone involved in the 2008 campaign once told me he'd seen numbers showing that 95 percent of Obama's voters were insured. The numbers for McCain were, presumably, similarly high, or even higher. These are the people the political system is responsive too.
But that doesn't make the plight of the uninsured any less wrenching. The Urban Institute estimated that 22,000 people died in 2006 because they didn't have health-care insurance. John Ayanian, a professor of medicine and health-care policy at Harvard Medical School, testifiedbefore Congress on this issue. “Uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than insured adults overall," he said, "and with serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer, their risk of premature death can be 40 to 50 percent higher.” And none of that takes into account the unnecessary suffering and physical damage that flourishes in the absence of effective medical care. Nor does it speak to the economic devastation that illness unleashes on uninsured families.
These numbers shouldn't surprise us: We pay a lot of money for health-care insurance. We've directed the government to spend even more money subsidizing that insurance for the elderly, the disabled, some of the poor and everyone who gets health-care coverage through their employer. We value this product so highly for a reason: Most of us would agree that being able to afford to see a doctor isn't a luxury. It's a necessity. Rep. Harris certainly feels that way.
The same goes for the uninsured. In fact, it's often more true for them, as many haven't received reliable care for some time and have multiple health problems that haven't been effectively treated. That's why, when a temporary free clinic set up shop in Los Angeles, 3,000 people lined up for treatment. It's why the famed RAND health insurance experiment found the people who benefited from insurance most clearly were the poor, as they were often plagued by easy-to-treat conditions like hypertension.
The Affordable Care Act covers the vast majority of the uninsured. It covers everyone who makes less than the poverty line, and almost everyone who makes less than 300 percent of the poverty line. It does all this while spending about 4 percent of what our health-care system currently spends in a year, and it offsets that spending -- and more -- to make sure the deficit doesn't bear the burden of society's compassion. Perhaps there's a better way to achieve those goals that can pass Congress. If so, I'm open to hearing about it. But to repeal the bill without another solution for the Deamonte Drivers of the world? And to do it while barely mentioning them? We're a better country than that. Or so I like to think.
Photo credit: By Xiaomei Chen/The Washington Post

GOP spending cuts would affect millions of people

WASHINGTON – Low-income students may get smaller grants and the newly disabled might have to wait longer for their benefits. And just about every politician is going to get an earful from the local PTA ifschool aid gets whacked.
Republicans are finding it's one thing to issue a blanket promise to cut spending, an entirely different matter when you actually take the scissors to $1 of every $6 spent by agencies like the IRS, the FBI, NASA and the National Park Service. Federal layoffs would be unavoidable, the White House warns.
That's the real-world impact of House Republicans' campaign promise to cut $100 billion from the budgets of domestic agencies. Next week, they plan to vote on a resolution setting appropriations for the rest of the year at 2008 pre-recession levels. before President Barack Obama took office.
The vote will be largely symbolic. The actual cuts would have to be made in appropriations bills that would have to clear a 60-vote hurdle in the Senate, where Republicans hold only 47 seats.
The $100 billion promise, contained in the GOP's "Pledge to America" campaign manifesto, is based on cuts from Obama's budget recommendations for 2011, but the actual savings in returning to Bush-era levels would be a little less since the government is operating at last year's slightly lower budget.
Still, compared with 2010 rates and assuming a full year of implementation, Republicans are promising to cut up to $84 billion from nine appropriations bills, cuts that would average 18 percent. Some Republicans, especially in the Senate, may join Democrats in balking when they see their size.
A return to 2008 levels would mean significant cuts for lots of programs favored by Republicans, including an 8 percent cut to NASA, a 16 percent cut for the FBI and a 13 percent cut in the operating budget of the national parks.
There are other political land mines.
Newly elected Republicans in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas are sure to feel major political pressure over big cuts looming for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, which provides home heating subsidies to the poor. Former Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., who retired last year, orchestrated a doubling of the program's budget — from $2.5 billion to $5 billion — since 2008.
Obey said it's going to mean "a lot of people who aren't able to pay their heating bills are going to have no way to heat their homes — or they're going to have to decide to eat less or see the doctor less."
Republicans in Texas, Florida and Alabama — where NASA facilities mean thousands of jobs — are sure to fight against cuts to the space agency, which could have to abandon the International Space Station, the White House warns.
Lawmakers in both parties from rural districts are likely to resist what could be an almost 20 percent cut to a program that subsidizes service by smaller airlines to isolated cities and towns like Scottsbluff, Neb., and Burlington, Iowa. Smaller subsidies or tighter rules would probably mean some communities would lose service.
As local school districts cope with budget squeezes, they won't be able to count on the same amount of help from the federal government. Special education grants to states could be cut by $1.4 billion, or 11 percent, forcing hometown school boards to cut services or make up the difference with local funds.
The Women, Infants and Children program, which provides food for low-income pregnant women, mothers and young children, has near-universal support. But without an exemption from the cuts, 1 million of them could lose benefits next year, according to calculations by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research and advocacy group.
"Cutting the big programs isn't that hard. It's the little stuff that everybody fights the hardest about, whether it's LIHEAP or WIC or all this other stuff," said Jim Dyer, a former top aide for the House Appropriations Committee. "You're looking at tremendously popular programs like state water grants, the national parks, cancer research, higher education, food safety — all of this stuff's got to be on the table."
Pell Grants for college students from low-income families could be cut by more than $1,000 from the current $5,550 maximum grants. A cutback in housing subsidies would mean that hundreds of thousands of people won't see their Section 8 vouchers renewed. And a $1 billion, 24 percent cut to the historically underfunded Indian Health Service would reduce critically needed health care in some of the most impoverished places in the country.
Republicans aren't saying that every account will be cut back to 2008 levels. The most popular programs might be cut less; others slashed even more.
The Pentagon, the Homeland Security Department and veterans' programs were exempted from the cuts when Republicans drew up the promise but are likely to get a good scrubbing anyway.
"There are no sacred cows," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky.
Cuts to some easy targets, like the National Endowment for the Arts — marked by Republicans when they took over Congress in 1995 — would save relatively little. Its current budget is $168 million; a return to 2008 levels would save just $13 million.
The White House says the promised GOP cuts would fall disproportionately on domestic agencies whose discretionary budgets are passed by Congress each year. They account for only about $1 in $7 spent by the government. Rising Medicare and Medicaid costs are the real drivers of the United States' long-term deficit woes.
"In terms of the bottom line, we totally agree that there needs to be discipline in discretionary spending, but we shouldn't for a moment believe that these levels of savings will in and of itself solve the fiscal challenge," said White House Budget Director Jacob Lew. "The problem is much bigger than the total of nondefense discretionary spending, much less a reduction of it."