National Grandparents Day is this weekend. This year, the country can recognize America's senior generation by helping to protect earned retirement health care.
Last year, when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 was signed into law, the government left out protections for America's retirees and the health-care benefits they had earned.
Retirees like me traded decades of loyal service to our former employers for lower pay and less vacation time in exchange for guaranteed health-care benefits in retirement. These benefits were paid for over a lifetime of employment.
Congress must protect these benefits by passing the Earned Retiree Healthcare Benefits Protection Act of 2011 (H.R.1322) into law, and prevent our former employers from cutting the earned benefits for 14.3 million retired Americans like me.
The fight for this legislation on Capitol Hill is led by ProtectSeniors.Org. I urge fellow retirees and their families to take action, call their Congress member and get involved.
Do not sit on the sidelines, or we all lose out.
I'm not sure where to begin. I have been thinking about the repercussions of the Christie/Sweeney benefit and pension laws that were recently enacted. The increased health and pension benefit contributions, combined with cap law and the polarization of PERC will ensure for me, and tens of thousands more, a pay cut for the next 5 years. My disposable income in 2011 will be more than it will be in 2016. I know this makes many feel good. The greedy public worker finally gets what has been coming to him. It was a good call to arms by Christie to rally those who have suffered from the greed and selfishness from the Wall Street thieves. A common enemy in a depressed economy is a fabulous way to propagate an ideology to make others feel someone should suffer. So here we are.....tens of thousands will not see pay increases as the cost of living increases and the value of investments and real estate plummet.
To me the question is, what is the value of this law and union busting to the general economy? The issue of health insurance and its ever increasing costs is where the answers lie, the real ideological difference between left and right. Should the ability to see a doctor for a reasonable cost be a human right, or should it be a privilege for those fortunate enough to participate in a for profit health insurance scheme? The answer is obviously that Christie and Sweeney believe that perpetuating a privileged, for profit health care system is the America they would prefer to see. The cost of health insurance is where they decided to target, they could have chose a Massachusetts style reform, or expanding the SHBP by making public employers mandatorily participate and increasing the negotiating power of the state. The governor and legislature chose perpetuating the current broken, privileged, for profit system of delivering health care.
The economy is another ideological difference here. Any economist will tell you, and history will prove that government should spend during a recession, not curl into a ball and let things fall apart. Christie and Sweeney took this opportunity to pursue their ideological fantasies to screw public sector unions. Each public sector employee will now take a multi-thousand dollar pay cut, money that will not be spent on cars, home improvements, and flat screens. The lack of spending will reduce commission paid to sales people and sales tax paid to the state of NJ. Some may not be able to afford their homes any longer, adding more stock to available real estate, thus pushing real estate values lower and decreasing the value of real estate taxes. As day care, fuel, electricity, and food costs continue to rise this will further diminish purchasing power of the middle class. Increased cost of living combined with legislated pay cuts to the public sector will further decrease sales tax revenues.
The Christie/Sweeney pension and benefit reform may produce some short term relief for municipal budgets as the public sector is now required by law to take a pay cut. I question if taxes will really go down as government is subject to the same uncontrollable costs as every other citizen. Real, long lasting reform could have been accomplished by fixing real problems (like our broken health care system). The pension-benefit law will do more harm than good. It fulfills an ideological hatred for government and its employees. The damaging effects of this recession and its impact on those most vulnerable creates a real need for competent government. Shrinking government when those who need it most is insane. Perpetuating a broken system on the backs of the middle class is insane. Legislating a pay cut that will further damage a weak economy is insane. It may take decades to correct the Christie legacy, if we are lucky enough to make a correction.
Does anyone know what sort of pension and benefits Chris Christie will recieve after his term in office as governor? Also, any word with regard to any benefits from his other government jobs?
A lot of noise is being made about the mystery 3% deal that CWA walked away from, but what those who are crying about it aren't telling you is the bigger story.
As it turns out, the 3% was an invisible carrot.
The 3% plan offered was so undefined that the union was being asked to agree to nothing. The union would have been agreeing to a plan that had no details. They would have agreed to let Sweeney, the Christie administration and company "Fill in the blanks" for thousands of members' crucial health insurance.
The deal offered was a 3% cap on a completely undefined healthcare plan. There was no information given about co-pays, deductibles, in-network vs. out-of network coverage, eligibility, nothing.
There was no guarantee that the plan would not have been a bare bones, catastrophic plan with huge deductibles that would have amounted to no health insurance at all. All that would be decided after CWA took the deal. And who would decide the plan then?
A board of 5 union representatives and 5 administration representatives with a 13th deciding vote held by the state treasurer. The board would have created the plan, after the deal took place, but if there was a challenge by the union's side of the board and the board was split, the state treasurer (appointed by Chris Christie) would have decided what the plan would have been.
There was no guarantee that the treasurer and the governor would support anything more than catastrophic emergency coverage with huge deductibles.
The deal that CWA rejected was essentially nothing but a promise that something would be created. They had every reason to believe that it would not have been a viable plan for anyone.
AND the union was told they had 5 minutes to take or leave the deal!
Now we are hearing and reading dishonest and distorted stories of how CWA walked away from a lucrative deal, when in fact, the deal was far from lucrative and would have endangered lower income workers with crucial health care needs and created an even more unequal and unfair expense for workers.
Given the heat generated by Chris Sheltons remarks, very little attention has been given to his apology which I find remarkable given that some of those he directed his apology to are hard set on destroying the rights of the people Chris has dedicated his life to defending and fighting for the rights of.
Many of those crying out for Chris' firing or resignation are the same people defending Stephen Sweeney and Sheila Oliver and the attack on the public workers right to negotiate either through support or silence, so what is their real reason for keeping the vitriole alive? Labor is in a battle for their very rights and livlihoods and THIS is the top story for them?
We have to ignore the "Boy who cried" wolf distractions and focus on the wolves doing the real damage to public workers and all of labor. We have a hard enough fight on our hands without submitting to the detours and diversions of those who would see us weaker. Chris is a warrior for the cause and has been on the front lines of this battle for more years than most. His passion and his dedication are the exemplar of how we should all feel, even if a few his words at the rally were poorly chosen, his passion was true and he apologized. At this point we can't afford to lose a power and passion like Chris and feeding into the false fracas being generated by our enemies is self defeating and only weakens our movement.
I support Chris and I believe in his passion and I would hope that if you care about the future of labor and the middle class, you do too.
It's time to move on and press forward into the real fight.
One of the provisions in the health care bill bans public workers from receiving out-of-state medical care when there is a reasonable provider of the same care in New Jersey. In principle, such language sounds reasonable, but in real terms, it prevents New Jersey public workers from being able to consult the experts in New York City and Philadelphia when critical medical treatment is needed. New Jersey has some good hospitals, and Norcross would like them to get more business (hence the clause), but they aren't often the top hospitals.
Unfortunately, both my spouse and I have separately had life-threatening medical situations in which the best NJ hospital in the area gave incorrect medical diagnoses. Fortunately, we could consult with the hospitals in New York City and Philadelphia to get second opinions that proved to be correct. In my wife's case, the expert doctors indicated that she may have died if we had followed the advice of the NJ doctors.
I'm just one statistic, but in the debate over reining in health care costs (which I support), what is being lost is that some basic human rights are being lost. I can't help believing that with the current legislation, that Governor Christie, Senator Sweeney and Speaker Oliver would have killed my wife. I expect that of Christie, but I never thought in this battle over costs that the New Jersey Democrats would have curtailed a basic human right for people to find appropriate health care.
Time is running out, but I would ask any NJ legislators reading this blog to fight to eliminate this truly horrible policy (found in section 76 of Sweeney's bill).
A recent article innorthjersey.com regarding sweeney's healthcare reform bill seems to indicate that the transformation of Senator Stephen Sweeney from marginal Democrat to absolute Republican is complete and that the disease is contagious.
Thick as Thieves
The only thing missing in the article are the names of those Democrats Sweeney's office are claiming the support of. Could it be part of the deal? Do they fear the wrath and rage of the public workers enough to want to keep their names off of the bill until it is too late to stop the passage?
It seems very telling that the senator's office isn't mentioning names. Maybe
accountability for bad legislation isn't something they want to have? Maybe they
know that legislating healthcare and pension benefits is a bad idea and reeks of
Republican ideology and anti-labor spirit?
Their is a disease permeating the Democrats in New Jersey and it's called
DiNO-syphillis. A disease caught from ideologically laying with Republicans on
the anti-union / anti-labor agenda. The Typhoid Mary Prostitute of this recent
outbreak is, without a doubt, Stephen Sweeney and his pimp is George Norcross,
III.
But, just because the "Bosses" want it, don't count the Assembly out of riding in to save the day:
""The Assembly continues to be increasingly frustrated by the governor's failure to show leadership and do what's he's supposed to do - negotiate a contract that both protects taxpayers and worker rights." - Sheila Oliver
Few Assembly Democrats support Sweeney's pension overhaul plan, sources say
It's time to clean up the Democratic streets of New Jersey and start
demanding a return to the progressive ideals that made New Jersey the jewel of
the Northeast for so many years. Stop the disease by calling every legislator
and letting them know that if they don't stand with labor, they won't stand in
office long. Votes are power and voters have the final authority, not George
Norcross, III or Stephen Sweeney.
Senator Sweeney is the kind of democrat who is enabling our current healthcare system to perpetuate by passing the costs onto the middle class. Enabling a system that is broken, and instead of challenging republicans to over-hall and fix healthcare for everyone, is going to ramrod legislation that will make the middle class citizens take multi thousand dollar pay cuts. Pay cut's that will support our current market driven healthcare system to continue premium increases of 30% a year that ultimately cause more citizens to be left behind without coverage.
Senator Sweeney is the kind of democrat that supports legislation that will remove bargaining rights for tens of thousands of unionized employees. Instead of defending the bargaining rights that spawned the middle class, Sweeney will remove those rights and replace them with law.
I wish there was a way we could revoke the "D" after his name and replace it with a "R", because that is clearly the party he belongs to.
Take a look at the list, in ranked order. It's not a question of urban or rural, or simply a question of race. The single factor that explains the bottom third of counties is this:
Someone said that Sweeney was doing what is best for "The Members". Well now that Scott Walker has shown that spitting in the face of public workers is easy, Sweeney is in lock-step with Christie's goal of killing unions with a thousand little cuts.
Sweeney is handing Christie his first SIGIFICANT win AGAINST the unions members.
"Governor made it clear that he intends to strip health care out of the bargaining process - a direct assault on the same collective bargaining that the Governor has claimed to "love." The State made no proposal on health care today and instead admitted that the Governor intends to "legislate" healthcare, in contradiction to the law and years of precedent in which changes to public worker health care are only enacted by Trenton after they are agreed upon at the bargaining table. We were told that the State will not even respond to a health care proposal from CWA unless it "needs" to because the Legislature doesn't enact his healthcare plan."
It is depressing and shows that Christie has no intention of being either fair or compromise ANYTHING in negotiations.
FA07, So much for your Boy Sweeney being on the side of the PEOPLE!. His Trojan Horse is rolling into Trenton and the public sector workers are about to be attacked.
.....says it all! "Disgusting", "Idealogue", "Arrogant", "Jerry Springer Show". And that's before one even reads the accompanying article. OK. So the sides are definitely drawn if in a rather inelegant manner.
And let's skip to the last quote in the article from Mike DuHaime: "Some of them (the legislature) are going to want to work with the Governor," he said. "Some of them are just going to want to throw stones."
So does this quote mean that the Governor, himself, has no responsibility to work with the legislature? In fact, though I don't want to be accused of "throwing stones", I believe this Governor would like to make the legislature as irrelevant as possible. His vetoes of bills which some could say for completely illogical reasons (read medicaid funding which won't cost the state any money).
I am generally not a "conspiracy theorist", but the undermining of our press corps (read: "elitist" and unfunding NJN); the undermining of our Judiciary: (read: former Supreme Court Justice John Wallace and accolades to current Justice Rivera-Soto), the undermining of public employees, particularly our teachers (read: No I won't let the NJEA support our request for $400 million from the feds even if it's helpful); his sometimes "selective" rooting out of government waste and fraud (read: fill in the blanks yourself); refusal of cabinet members to appear before legislative committees (read: the Treasurer's not appearing at the Assembly Budget Committee); his administration's continually stonewalling legitimate OPRA requests (read: too many to list) - all leads me (and I hope others) to examine a troubling and developing pattern. How about giving tax money (through EDA) to a company to move from Seacaucus to Newark? (read: how does this help New Jersey's economy?)
Does this Governor really believe that, given his national press reviews and his "Jersey Style" gravitas, he can steer this State unilaterally without much regard for the other two branches of government? Do we in the Legislature have the intellectual ability and the guts to stand up and start calling attention to this troubling pattern?
I am anxious to hear from Blue Jersey readers on whether you think we are on to something here, or have I really fallen prey to "conspiracy theories"? If I'm right about looking at this as a pattern, how do we go about it?
Late yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to speak with Rep. Rush Holt about the then-upcoming vote in the House to repeal the Health Care bill passed and signed into law last year. In addition to thanking the Congressman on behalf of Blue Jersey, we discussed a few things about the vote to repeal, and also noted that it was a good day for New Jersey Democratic Congressmen - Rep. Pallone took a high profile role in denouncing the political theater that the House Republicans were performing and Rep. Andrews not only spoke out as well but also had a very entertaining discussion with a Republican Congressman on Tuesday night's Hardball.
Rep. Holt's floor speech from yesterday afternoon can be seen here, and below the fold is a flavor for what we discussed during a roughly 20 minute discussion (I tried to get exact quotes but since I couldn't type that fast, assume that below is roughly what was said but maybe not exact):
Senator Menendez sat down for a conversation with the National Director of Moms Rising to answer some questions bout some new rights for New Jersey moms and families under the new health insurance law. Check out the interview:But of course while the Senator touts the benefits of the new healthcare law on the federal level for moms and their families, women are fighting to get any health funding with this Governor here in New Jersey. Talk about heading in different directions.
Matt Rooney is the Blogger-in-Chief of SaveJersey.com and one of Christie's biggest cheerleaders. However, he has decided to use U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg's recovery from cancer to harp on about how HMOs are great and universal healthcare will result in massive deaths and dying.
I tried anyway, and posed a controversial question to my readers shortly after the original diagnosis back in February of this year: "Would an elderly American like Frank Lautenberg survive cancer for very long under an ObamaCare-dictated system?" This admittedly weighty question unleashed a proportionally seismic response from the various ideological quarters who track such things. For example, our friends at National Review Online embraced my post as presenting a "morbid but fair question," while many New Jersey liberals condemned me as a heartless jerk. It all comes with the Blogger-in-Chief territory, folks.
Thankfully Frank lived, and all we can be sure about today is that the perks associated with Senator Lautenberg's generous congressional healthcare plan -- all owing to the best attributes of the free market -- have afforded the geriatric Senator additional years of work, leisure, and time with family and friends. Frank never once had to grapple with the horrors of rationed care, prolonged waits for vital procedures, the use of less-than-current technologies necessitated by reduced investment in R&D, or the exorbitant base costs typically associated with socialized medicine. He got the best that the "Free World" had to offer and it literally saved his life.
First off, let me just state as an independent progressive, I think Obamacare is substandard. I am a supporter of the alternative HR 676 which provides Medicare for all for modest increases in taxes on the rich, rather than an over 2,000 page corporate giveaway. Why do I find it funny when conservatives believe that Obamacare is socialist. Funny, because several Republicans in Pennsylvania's state legislature, as well as several conservative voices within said state have come out in favour of single payer. And why wouldn't it be surprising, the single payer act has only 27 pages and also would drive down the costs of doing business
A recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 13.8 percent of New Jerseyans under the age of 65 had no health insurance for at least part of 2009. Of those that were insured, 72.4 percent had private insurance, while 14.9 percent were covered by a public health plan such as Medicaid or the military.
Their statistic notes that it's actually good news because NJ is among the highest in terms of citizens covered by health insurance:
Nationally, 17.5 percent of persons under the age of 65 lacked health insurance.
And all the people who are covered by insurance are absorbing the cost of those without it in their own coverage. Nope, no need to have that healthcare reform. Meanwhile, the Governor still won't say if he is going to join a lawsuit to repeal that new healthcare law.
Maybe if they stop spending time researching a lawsuit to placate the right wing base, they could get the new law implemented. It would be great if they focused on enforcing existing state law, rather than trying to overturn existing federal law.
There's been a pretty big uproar this week over the news that the CEO of Horizon received nearly $9 million in pay and compensation last year, while at the same time the non-profit insurer raised premiums. But in this Courier Post article, we see it's not just the CEO who did shall we say well last year:
According to a filing with the state's Banking and Insurance Department, Marino drew a salary of nearly $935,000 and bonuses of $7.8 million last year.
Pay and bonuses to the company's nine highest-paid executives last year totaled $24.3 million, up from $15.1 million the previous year.
And if that's not enough and you're looking for a disturbing commentary on the healthcare industry as a whole, check out this justification:
In a separate statement, company spokesman Daniel Emmer said Friday that a state study in 2008 found the company's executive compensation to be below market level for peer companies.
Nope, there's no need to reform the healthare system at all. They make millions of dollars apparently by denying people and raising the amount they need to pay for the coverage in the first place. And they have the nerve to defend then the obscene compensation by saying, well other people are making more. It's a hell of a racket. Senator Lautenberg is considering introducing legislation to impose oversight on the nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield companies across the country. State Senate Democrats have called for further hearings as well to look into the compensation packages.
Just like magic if you read many of the headlines, Governor Christie "just found money" to enable scrapping his plan to make seniors pay more for prescription drugs. I have a few deep thoughts regarding this latest development.
I can't help but wonder what the reaction would have been if Corzine was the Governor doing this. See a Democrat who changes from their original proposal is a Pandering Flip Flopper. But as we've seen with the coverage of this one, a Republican who does this is a Course Changer.
Oh and about that found money, it's actually savings from the dreaded healthcare plan that was recently passed. Senator Lautenberg reminded people about that:
"Today we see how President Obama's health care reform law is already working to deliver tangible benefits for New Jersey's seniors," stated Lautenberg. "Thanks to the health care reform law, New Jersey's seniors will be shielded from the budget ax that threatened to make their prescription drugs more expensive and less accessible. The new health care reform law will soon bring even more benefits to millions of New Jerseyans."
You know, the new awful healthcare law that the right wing wants Christie to join a lawsuit to repeal? The one that Christie hasn't said he won't join yet, but is willing to take the benefits of? Yeah, that one. Maybe someone in the media could ask him why he isn't ruling out joining suit to overturn the healthcare law at the same time he's taking the benefits of the law to score political points.
Politics I say? What else do you call "finding the money" right before you speak to a group of seniors and a day before you meet with the AARP. But Jay Webber will accuse of the Democrats of playing politics. Move along, no politics to see here.
Updated 3:51pm to include statements by Sen. Frank Lautenberg and NJDSC Chair John Wisniewski.
Following is text of Democratic leaders' response to Gov. Christie's budget fix announcement today that he would eliminate his proposed cuts to state pharmaceutical programs for seniors and the disabled.
(For another perspective on this, here's a diary by Bill Orr.) Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Cumberland/Salem)
The Governor may be applauded for listening to the voices of senior citizens from across New Jersey, but this in no way ends the very important debate the Senate will still take up tomorrow.
For someone who famously criticized Trenton for its Alice In Wonderland budgets, the Governor has apparently been staring into the same looking glass. While Democrats have identified a solid revenue source to protect our elderly and disabled, the Governor is cobbling together a mishmash of what-ifs and maybes from the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry.
Countless seniors are still facing property tax increases that threaten to drive them from their homes while the richest New Jerseyans are still going to get a massive income tax cut. Just like the Queen of Hearts, this budget still yells 'Off with their heads!' to too many.
The Governor may be trying to write a new chapter, but it still reads like the same old story.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex/Passaic)
It's about time Gov. Christie started coming around to our point of view on protecting senior citizens, and we welcome him to this discussion sparked by the Democratic Legislature.
The governor's plan still shoves at least a $1,295 property tax increase onto senior and disabled residents, and that's unacceptable.
We'll evaluate the governor's proposal, but our plan provides the means through true shared sacrifice to ensure senior citizens get the prescription drug help and property tax relief they need. We will move forward with it as planned to guarantee property tax and prescription drug help is on the way to our most vulnerable residents.
Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex)
I am pleased that Governor Christie reversed his course in response to mounting pressure from the Legislature to restore cuts to prescription drug programs for seniors. There is so much need as a result of these unprecedented economic times.
However, I seriously question the likelihood we will achieve the savings the Governor predicts will pay for this restoration.
The issue remains why half-a-percent, or 16,000 taxpayers, who earn over a million dollars shouldn't be made to sacrifice a little so that others don't have to sacrifice so much.
Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan (D-Union)
While I'm pleased to see the governor begin moving toward the Democratic plan to protect senior citizens, I see no reason for anyone to trust this new plan on face value. This is, after all, a governor who has so far only kept one campaign promise - protecting a tax cut for the rich.
The governor's latest plan still pushes a massive property tax increase onto seniors and is based on questionable assumptions.
Our plan guarantees property tax relief and health care assistance for senior citizens while ensuring everyone joins in the shared sacrifice. I look forward to its passage and hope the governor continues to move in our direction to provide senior citizens with reliable prescription drug and property tax relief.
Senator Frank Lautenberg
Today we see how President Obama's health care reform law is already working to deliver tangible benefits for New Jersey's seniors. Thanks to the health care reform law, New Jersey's seniors will be shielded from the budget ax that threatened to make their prescription drugs more expensive and less accessible. The new health care reform law will soon bring even more benefits to millions of New Jerseyans.
Under the new Health Care Reform law, people with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage by an insurer, and insurance companies will no longer be able to drop people's coverage when they get sick and need it most. In addition, the law will create a Health Insurance Exchange to provide people who don't receive coverage through their employment to choose among affordable health care plans. It will make health insurance policies more affordable and improve access to quality, affordable health care for children and vulnerable populations. The new health care reform law also strengthens Medicare by phasing out the prescription drug coverage "donut hole," and extending the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund. Starting June 15, 2010, seniors who reach the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap or "donut hole" will receive $250 payments to assist them with their drug costs.
NJDSC Chair John Wisniewski
I applaud Governor Christie for finally recognizing that his warped vision of shared sacrifice, when applied to our older residents, would have forced many of them to do without important medicine that enhance and preserve their quality of life. Today Chris Christie, bowing to pressure from Democrats, announced he was reversing course on huge cost increases for seniors in New Jersey's PAAD program. I hope instead of trying to act like a heroic convert, he thanks who is truly responsible for the 'found money'. Most of the funding cited by his office today comes as a result of the passage of the historic Health Care Reform passed by Democrats in Congress and signed by President Obama.
So while he refuses to stand up to his many Republican colleagues in the legislature pushing him to sue the federal government to stop health care reform, he has no problem taking credit for the benefits from the bill."
Hopefully Governor Christie will also come around on our plan to restore property tax rebates to hundreds of thousands of senior and disabled homeowners.
