Terri Whitehouse April 21st, 2008

So says the New York Times:

The Bush administration violated federal law last year when it restricted states’ ability to provide health insurance to children of middle-income families, and its new policy is therefore unenforceable, lawyers from the Government Accountability Office said Friday.

And I think it’s pretty clear what is at the heart of the matter:

The letter told states what steps they needed to take to be sure the children’s health program would not displace or “crowd out” private coverage under group health plans. The White House cited the policy as a justification for rejecting a proposal by New York State to cover 70,000 additional youngsters.

Remember back when Sen. Mitch McConnell pretended to give a flip about middle income families? That dog don’t hunt. Aren’t you ready to DITCH MITCH?!?!

(h/t: Feministe)

• Children , Ditch Mitch , George W. Bush , Health Care , Middle Class , Mitch McConnell , Money-Grubbing , SCHIP
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Terri Whitehouse March 13th, 2008

Sen. Mitch McConnell, 2008:

I doubt that couples with children who make $63,000 a year think that they’re rich.

Why, it seems like only yesterday that Sen. Mitch McConnell and his BFF, Pres. George W. Bush were arguing that such families were rich!

Of course, we all know that when it comes to giving a flying you-know-what about the middle class, Sen. Mitch McConnell gets a big fat F. For all the huffing and puffing he does, for all the scraps he tosses our way every once in a while, ultimately, Sen. Mitch McConnell has failed this state.

Does anyone really believe we are better off with this man as our senator? I don’t know about ya’ll, but this gal has had just about enough. DITCH MITCH!

• Children , Ditch Mitch , Economy , Families , Health Care , Jobs , Kentucky , Middle Class , Mitch McConnell , Obstructionism , Pork Spending
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Terri Whitehouse December 2nd, 2007

A group of scientists sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid encouraging them to discontinue federal funding of abstinence-only sex education. Some highlights:

Withholding lifesaving information from young people is contrary to the standards of medical ethics and to many international human rights conventions...Governments have an obligation to provide accurate information to adolescents and adolescents have a right to expect health education provided in public schools to be scientifically accurate and complete.

The large-scale Mathematica evaluation of the Section 510 program, released in April 2007, found no measurable impact on increasing abstinence or delaying sexual initiation among participating youth or on other behaviors such as condom use…One of the few measurable impacts of the programs was a decrease in adolescent confidence regarding the ability of condoms to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

A spring 2005 longitudinal study by Bruckner and Bearman found that abstinence pledgers, when compared to non-pledgers, experienced similar rates of sexually transmitted infection. Pledgers did delay sexual intercourse for a limited period, but when they did start having sex, they were less likely to use condoms. They were also less likely to seek reproductive health care compared to non-pledgers.

Importantly, the emphasis on abstinence-only programs and policies appears to be undermining critical public health programs in the U.S. and abroad, including comprehensive sexuality education and HIV prevention programs.

We also note that a December 2004 Congressional report on federal abstinence programs from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform - Minority Staff found that 11 of the 13 most frequently used curricula contained false, misleading or distorted information about reproductive health - including inaccurate information about contraceptive effectiveness, purported health risks of abortion, and other scientific errors.

We would note that all of the mainstream organizations of health professionals that focus on the health of young people have strongly criticized federal support for current abstinence programs. These include the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine. We have also attached the weblinks to the policy statements from each of these groups.

The full letter, along with valuable links to sources, can be found at RH Reality Check.

And, while we’re on the subject of pound foolishness, WIC funding is in danger of being cut.

• Anti-Science Agenda , Children , Economy , Education policy , Families , General Knowledge , Government Inefficency , Health Care , Middle Class , Science , Sexuality
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Terri Whitehouse October 25th, 2007

Jim Abrams of the AP, via Yahoo, writes:

The House’s top Democratic tax writer on Thursday unveiled a $1 trillion plan to repeal the alternative minimum tax and lower the tax burden of most lower- and middle-income people.

The proposal would be paid for by requiring the wealthy and some corporations and investors to pay more.

I just can’t *wait* to see what tactics the GOP will use to block this legislation!

• Economy , Middle Class , National Debt
• Comments(4)

Joe Sonka October 11th, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

As we noted yesterday, Mitch McConnell’s approval ratings have taken a nose-dive over the past month, dropping to an all-time low of 45% in the SUSA poll released yesterday.

Delving into the cross-tabs of the poll, we find some very zesty nuggets that should give us a lot of confidence that Mitch is not a “lock”, as he suggested this week.

Yellow Dog finds that McConnell’s approval does not exceed 50% in ANY demographic besides Republican and conservative. Across gender, race, age, generation and geographical region, Mitch just isn’t that popular.

The most telling aspect of this new poll is that McConnell’s evaporation of support among moderates has accelerated. First, lets look at McConnell’s approvals and disapprovals among moderates at this time last year (from SUSA’s monthly tracking poll).

Not bad, especially considering that this was during the Republican clusterfuck of Fall 2006. But let’s take a look at how moderates feel about Mitch this year (please excuse the amateur graphics adjustment).

33% of moderates approve, 59% disapprove. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a FREE FALL.

And it makes perfect sense. Mitch has shown himself as being an out of touch extremist on a wealth of different issues.

He voted against the overwhelmingly popular and bipartisan SCHIP expansion, which would expand health care coverage to children of low income families all over the Commonwealth.

He was one of only 12 Republican Senators to vote against the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, which would have provided KY families struggling with skyrocketing tuition costs with the largest student aid investment since the GI Bill.

He has ignored and enabled Bush’s reckless Iraq policy for years. This year he has lead filibusters of every bipartisan piece of legislation passed to change course in Iraq. He has even twice filibustered Jim Webb’s popular amendment to restore proper troop rotations between tours.

McConnell has also aligned himself with the worst of the worst in right-wing extremism. Mitch claimed that Rush Limbaugh did nothing wrong when he called those in the military who favor withdrawal as “phony soldiers”. And as we have just learned, one of his staffers was spreading around dishonest smears of a 12-yr. old boy and his family, aligning himself with the wingnut troglodytes of the “conservative” blogosphere.

Moderate Kentuckians have caught on to the fact that Mitch McConnell is no “moderate” Republican. He is an extremist whose values and priorities don’t match up to his constituents. Families struggling to deal with the rising costs of health care and education see Mitch McConnell for what he is. Kentuckians who know the folly of sacrificing our lives, treasury, and reputation in the world in order to referee a religious civil war, can see Mitch McConnell for what he really is.

Mitch is a bought and paid for extremist who looks after his contributors, not his constituents.

To paraphrase a current KY election slogan: Mitch McConnell: Too conservative for Kentucky

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Health Care , Iraq War , Middle Class , Mitch McConnell , Opinion Polls , SCHIP
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Terri Whitehouse September 10th, 2007

In today’s New York Times, Pal Krugman sheds some light on the true impact of the Bush economy:

It’s true, as the Bushies never tire of reminding us, that the U.S. economy has added eight million jobs since that 2003 tax cut. That sounds impressive, unless you happen to know that a good part of that gain was simply a recovery from large job losses earlier in the administration’s tenure — and that the United States added no fewer than 21 million jobs after Bill Clinton raised taxes on the rich, a move that had conservative pundits predicting economic disaster.

What’s really remarkable, however, is that four years of economic growth have produced essentially no gains for ordinary American workers.

Wages, adjusted for inflation, have stagnated: the real hourly earnings of nonsupervisory workers, the most widely used measure of how typical workers are faring, were no higher in July 2007 than they were in July 2003.

Meanwhile, benefits have deteriorated: the percentage of Americans receiving health insurance through employers, which plunged along with employment during the early years of the Bush administration, continued to decline even as the economy finally began creating some jobs.

And one of the few seeming bright spots of the Bush-era economy, rising homeownership, is now revealed as the result of a bubble inflated in part by financial flim-flam, which deceived both borrowers and investors.

Now you know why 66 percent of Americans rate economic conditions in this country as only fair or poor, and why Americans disapprove of President Bush’s handling of the economy almost as strongly as they disapprove of the job he is doing in general.

Yet the overall economy has grown at a reasonable pace over the past four years. Where did the economic growth go? The answer is that it went to the same economic elite that received the lion’s share of those tax cuts.

Is anyone surprised at all by this? Here at DM-KY, we’ve highlighted several items which illustrate the hostility with which regular working Americans are treated by the GOP. McConnell and Co: we’re on to you and you should be very afraid.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , 2008 Presidential Campaign , Ditch Mitch , Economy , General Knowledge , George W. Bush , Middle Class , Mitch McConnell , Money-Grubbing , Opinion
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Terri Whitehouse August 21st, 2007

Those Republican family values ™ are at work again:

Many children who attempt to enroll in a popular children’s health insurance program will have to be uninsured for at least a year before they’ll be allowed to participate, the Bush administration has informed state health officials.

Better deny those kiddos health care, lest a single undeserving child be eligible, right? You can read more on the latest move by Bush to undermine working families and the legislature can be read at the New York Times. To see a side-by-side comparison of the approved House and Senate plans, go here.

• Family Values , George W. Bush , Health Care , Middle Class , SCHIP
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Terri Whitehouse August 2nd, 2007

Between hiring a stealthy campaign strategist for his 2008 reelection campaign, working to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and reluctantly voting for greater transparency in government, how on earth does Sen. Mitch McConnell find the time to draft some b.s. anti-family and anti-children legislation and find the nerve to call it the “Kids First Act”?

Being a literary sort of person, I should probably recognize this whole nonsense of cleverly naming legislation so that Americans will not be outraged at what the legislation really says and does as an ironic device. Fortunately, my low-brow aesthetic most always trumps my literary one, and from here on out I will refer to this practice (system, manner, or condition) as it occurs in politics, as “oppositism.” The noun “oppositicity” will describe the state or quality of being of an “oppositist” mindset. An “oppositist” shall henceforth refer to any politician who insults my intelligence by engaging in oppositism.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Anti-choice , Blogging , Campaign Finance Reform , Comedy , Conservatism , Coporate Greed , DitchMitchKY.com , Family Values , General Knowledge , Health Care , Humor , Iraq War , Kentucky , Kentucky GOP , Middle Class , Mitch McConnell , Money-Grubbing , Parody , Prescription Drugs , Senate Minority Leader , U.S. Senate , fundraising
• Comments(1)

Cliff Schecter August 1st, 2007

Have You ever had a boss who treats you like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell does non-corporate-approved legislation? Dick Cheney does the Constitution? Geoge W. Bush does multi-syllabic terms?

You know the type. It could be a CEO who spends hooks himself up with the $6,000 shower curtain while suppressing your wages or a self-loathing middle management sort who likes to read your emails and listen to your phone calls. Well, we cannot provide you with extraordinary rendition, but there’s at least something we at Working America can do to ease the pain.

Send you on an all-expenses paid vacation.

Yes, don’t adjust your trusty bifocals. You read that correctly. Due to popular demand, Working America, the 1.6 million member community affiliate of the AFL-CIO–who represent ordinary Americans without a union on the job or George W. Bush’s daddy’s “resources”–has launced its second annual “My Bad Boss Contest.” Enter the contest and win, and Working America will try and ease you pain by sending you to one of 500 locales throughout the world. And all we ask, for you to enter this contest, is something most of you have been telling your friends over dinner or a drink for years now.

A good story. About a bad boss.

We want to hear the worst one you’ve got, as we’re assuming you probably have more than one. That’s right, you tell us about the person who’s made your life a living hell, and if you’re the top vote-getter, we will send you away somewhere to enjoy a cool breeze on the beach or gaze at a historical treasure. Even George W. Bush can participate, as that Cheney guy seems like a pretty crappy boss to report to.

So what are you waiting for? Send in your stories so our panel of celebrity judges can review them, and let’s expose bad bosses for the truly bad guys they are.

Disclosure: I am lucky enough to be sponsored by Working America, who toils every day to improve the lives of hard-working Americans.

• Middle Class
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Terri Whitehouse May 8th, 2007

The Democratic Policy Committee has issued a report on the Bush administration’s impact on the middle class. It is truly a must-read, though I’m sure you won’t be at all shocked at its findings.

• Economy , General Knowledge , George W. Bush , Middle Class
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