President Obama Announces $2 trillion in Health Care Savings

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Health care was the main focus today at the White House.  President Obama held a meeting with industry groups, pharmaceutical companies, health care workers (doctors and nurses) and people of all sides to work on an agreement on health care spending.  After the meeting Pres. Obama announced that there will be a total of $2 trillion in reduced cost.  This will amount to 1.5% in costs lowered each year over 10 years.  Though I have reservations about whether a commitment like this can last for 10 years without destructive politics being involved as administrations change, this is still a major step forward.  This will bring down the costs to businesses and individuals.  Pres. Obama made sure to remind us that, this reduction in cost and making sure everyone has a seat at the table is exactly what he promised he would do.  He also mentioned that the reduction in costs are compatible with an overall plan for comprehensive health care reform.  If you missed it, here’s the remarks Obama made today on health care reform,

You can read more about this and see the full list of attendants at the meeting over at the White House blog.  Or, to keep up with the latest on health care reform you can go to HealthReform.gov.

GOP Lacking More Women

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We already know the republicans are lacking representation of minorities.  The party just doesn’t represent America.  One segment of the population lacking is women.  Now I’m not saying the republicans should go out and pick women to run for office because they are women.  Right now the GOP needs qualified, sensible, moderate people if anything that they can find.  It does send the wrong message when the republican party isn’t more diverse.  This is most likely the explanation as to why the GOP hasn’t been good on women’s issues.  Not like having the equivalent of Sarah Palin would be helpful, but I’m sure more moderate women like Sen. Olympia Snowe would be.  The following excerpts are from Politico focusing on the numbers,

Women make up almost 51 percent of the U.S. population but less than 10 percent of the House and Senate GOP — a gender disconnect that could make the Republicans’ climb back to power even steeper than it would be otherwise.

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Out of 435 members of the House, just 17 are Republican women. Of 99 sitting senators, just four are Republican women.

Of course, there are fewer Republicans than Democrats of either gender in the two houses. But even on a percentage basis, Republicans suffer a gender gap. Twenty-two percent of House Democrats are women, but only 9.5 percent of House Republicans are. In the Senate, nearly 23 percent of the Democrats are women, but only 10 percent of the Republicans are.

The problem isn’t new; former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) remembers being struck that no Republican women were on stage while President George W. Bush signed a ban on partial-birth abortions in 2003. “I looked at the stage and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” said Musgrave, who was sitting in the audience.

But the imbalance seems to be getting worse. While the Republicans had Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on their presidential ticket in 2008, Democratic women far outnumbered Republican women as general-election candidates for the House in November. There were 96 Democratic women on the ballot — but only 37 Republican women.

In 2006, 70 percent of the women competing in major party primaries were Democrats, according to Laurel Elder, an associate political science professor and gender expert at Hartwick College in New York,. And, she says, only five Republican women have chaired congressional committees since 1995. Democratic women currently hold four chairmanships in the Senate and three more in the House — plus the speaker’s gavel, in the hands of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). In addition, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) chairs the Joint Economic Committee.

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According to the center’s analysis of exit-polling data, women backed Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden over Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin 56 percent to 43 percent. Male voters split their votes much more evenly, with 49 percent voting for Obama-Biden and 48 percent choosing McCain-Palin.

Snowe says there’s also a political dimension. As the Republican Party sheds moderates, it also sheds women.

“[We] as a party are saying we’re not supporting Republican moderates. That’s a terrible message to send,” said Snowe, who with her Maine counterpart Susan Collins represents 50 percent of the Republican women in the Senate. “It tells everyone else in America who might have an interest in running as a Republican moderate, they’re going to have to think twice. The messages coming out of the national party are critical. They’ve got to be embracive and inclusive of political diversity. They can’t on one hand say we’re going to build a majority and then say we only want people with certain characteristics, like white males from the South. That’s a concern to me.”

Without a more diverse party that represents America then the republicans have nothing to complain about and no demographic to scapegoat for their failure.  This makes the party look irrelevant in today’s age of increasing equality of demographics across the board.  Considering that from my experience with republican women, not all of them are as strict on women’s issues like the men are.  Women would bring some much needed help to the republican party as far as policy goes.  Granted, the democratic party isn’t 50% women, but c’mon, how can the GOP explain only 10% of women in their party.  Well, I guess one explanation is that they haven’t caught up with the times yet.

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Video: White House Correspondent’s Dinner

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If you haven’t seen it, the White House Correspondent’s Dinner was last night.  The main highlights was President Obama and comedian Wanda Sykes.  Below is just video of Wanda Sykes and President Obama’s speeches.  People roasted was, President Obama himself, the First Lady, Fox News, Michael Steele, Joe Biden, Rush Limbaugh, the press, Rahm Emanuel, Arlen Specter, Hillary Clinton and others.  All I have to say is that it was very funny.  More video will be posted when available.

Anti-Mustard Republicans Try To Paint Obama As Elitist

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Lets be clear that the republicans attacking Obama for only wanting mustard on his burger is another way to paint him as “different” or “elitist”.  We’ve seen this before.  During the campaign, Obama was a horrible bowler, he worked out regularly, he reads a lot, and he’s from Hawaii.  Oh and lets no forget they were calling Obama elitist for the way he pronounced “Pakistan”.  Guess the correct way was the Sarah Palin way.

So now republicans have nothing else better to do than attack Obama for wanting on his burger.  They need to give it up and think of something new.  This just makes them look ridiculous.  It’s like the dumbing down of a people right in front of our eyes.  Not good for American society and not good for the republican party.  Right now since the republican party doesn’t have a “leader” everything popular republicans do can be viewed as representing the whole republican party.  There is just so many other things in this country worth talking about.  This way of painting Obama as elitist is what made the GOP look irrelevant.  This is another instance showing that the republicans have nothing new to offer, and nor can they grow up!

Would Outing Gay Republicans Really Help The Gay Movement?

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I’m starting to think it won’t.  If you haven’t heard, there a new film by coming out tomorrow (Friday).  First, heres the trailer for the film, “Outrage”

So, what’s lacking in that trailer film? FACTS!  People are always claiming they’ve slept with so and so.  It’s one thing to “out” someone for being gay, but when there’s no visual proof, then it really only becomes a sideshow that last for 3-7 days.  I’ve kind of stayed away from this topic because I have a feeling that, yes, there are gay hypocritical republicans or conservative democrats in the Senate.  Yet, while on Raw Story’s website, I found an article saying that Charlie Crist will be outed. This got me to thinking, would outing republicans like Charlie Crist really help the gay movement.  Gay rumors have been swirling about Charlie Crist since the beginning of his career, this is nothing new.  Even though I have my suspicions about him, I’m completely aware of the fact that I could be wrong.  And also wrong that his marriage wasn’t just a failed attempt to get McCain to pick him as VP.

Obviously I haven’t seen the whole movie.  From reading about the movie, no article has mentioned proof of said sexual relationships.  All it is, is people going in front of the camera and saying they had sex with various politicians.  Now I’m not saying this couldn’t be possible, but again, with no facts then it’s always going to be the accuser that loses and the acussee that wins.  This is why the movie might not have such a great effect, or help out the gay cause.   If anything the movie is not needed.  First, republicans are still going to maintain their ignorance of gay issues because they feel it’s apart of their religion or something.  Second, democrats aren’t going to enter too far into this arena because democrats usually lose culture wars.  Granted this didn’t happen during the past campaign but if we weren’t in a recession and republicans didn’t screw up the country then the culture wars could have decided the race.  Third, America’s opinion of gay marriage is already changing for the better.  Polls are showing increased support of gay marriage and some even show a majority of Americans supporting gay marriage than opposing it.  Though President Obama may not support gay marriage, it is quite clear he is coming under pressure to support more gay causes that are more or less also civil rights issues.  This film is not needed and honestly it’s also scandalous.  Obviously both sides feel strong about this.  From what I know through friends, gays and lesbians don’t like to be “outed” when they aren’t ready.  At the same time I’m sure there’s gay hypocritical republicans, but with the increasing support for gay civil rights then I suspect people might not care as much if their Senator is gay.  This film amounts to nothing more then spreading rumors with little basis.  Honestly, I just don’t get the point without some sort of proof.  I want video and pictures, or at least records showing hotel visits or audio of said event.  If none of this is present in the film, then it’s basically a stalemate and this film becomes a FAIL!!

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Bill O’Reilly’s Idiotic Idea For A GOP Comeback

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It’s to start or continue culture war issues.  The same culture war issues that got the GOP in trouble in the first place.  Bill O’Reilly calls Bruce Springsteen un-American for his comments which in my opinion weren’t off the wall.  First, here’s what O’Reilly said, video from MediaMatters,

O’Reilly’s points about capitalism and America being “noble” are fine with me, in fact I agree. Yet, America isn’t perfect, we must look at and fix whats wrong. I don’t see why you can’t love America and at the same time point out whats wrong. In my opinion, not fixing the flaws or remembering America’s past is unpatriotic.

I will say right here that O’Reilly’s thoughts on how to bring the GOP back is definitely not a good idea.  We have seen countless times during the election where republicans were calling Obama and democrats, “un-American” and “unpatriotic”.  Did it work?  Obviously not based on Obama’s win and the margin by which he won and the states in which he surprisingly won in.  Not only that, but now if you’re going to get into whos un-American then the republicans need to prove they love America.  Some republicans in states like Georgia and Texas express they are wanting to secede the union.  Based on a new poll republicans in general are most willing to secede then democrats or independents.  So, I think this is not a road the GOP should be going down.  The GOP needs to be working to find solvable solutions and leave the culture issues aside for once.  We already know their stances on culture issues yet, we know little about the new ideas they have to solve America’s issues.