Americans are going without routine medical care because of the recession, but the economy isn't hurting big insurance CEOs: They're getting fat pay increases and raising health insurance premiums.
CEOs of the nation's health care companies made nearly $1 billion last year-enough to pay for every resident of Philadelphia, Dallas and Minneapolis combined to go to their doctor for an office visit, according to a report by Health Care for America Now (HCAN).
Insurance companies are also paying huge fees to lobbyists to convince regulators to soften the rules so that they can make even more money.
Since 2007, the insurance industry has spent at least $769 million to lobby policymakers and elected officials to influence health care legislation and regulation. Now its training its sights on the state regulators who are considering important rules setting minimum levels of insurance company spending on patient care. The new rules could rein in profits, CEO pay, lobbying costs and administrative expenses.
Even more infuriating, CEOs are pulling down huge paychecks because they're using company profits to manipulate share prices by repurchasing company stock on the open market. According to the report...
This technique drives up share prices and increases the value of personal holdings acquired through stock options granted by the companies. From 2003 to 2009, the seven largest for-profit health insurers spent an astonishing $57.6 billion of their capital, some of it borrowed, to buy back stock and propel share prices upward.
These profits could be used to create jobs and reduce premiums, and instead they're being used to enrich a small number of people at the top.
Go read the report, but let me caution you that it may raise your blood pressure. I hope you can afford to see a doctor if that happens.
Yet another casualty of the Republican Recession: Americans have reduced the use of routine medical care according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the cutbacks here are much deeper than in countries with universal health care systems.
From the NYT:
"Americans, who face higher out-of-pocket health care costs, have reduced their routine medical care" much more than people in Britain, Canada, France and Germany.
Individuals and families in all five countries lost income because of unemployment and lost wealth because of steep declines in stock prices. [...]
"Reductions in care were far greater in the United States than elsewhere," they said, in part because about 15 percent of Americans are uninsured, whereas the other countries have near-universal coverage.
More than one-quarter of Americans (26.5 percent) reported reducing their use of routine medical care since the start of the global economic crisis as compared to 5.3 percent in Canada, 7.6 percent in Britain, 10.3 percent in Germany and 12 percent in France. And reductions most often occurred "among young people, those with lower incomes and those who had lost large proportions of their wealth in the latest economic turmoil."
The study found that cutbacks generally correlated with the size of out-of-pocket costs: "The proportion of people reporting reductions in routine care was smaller in Britain and Canada, where the co-payments are lower, than in France and Germany, where somewhat larger co-payments are required."
With millions of Americans unemployed or living paycheck-to-paycheck, putting food on the table takes a backseat to routine medical care services like mammograms, colonoscopies and immunizations, and experts warn that we don't know how much of the forgone health care will result in serious illness.
Thanks to the Democrats and President Obama, several provisions of the new health care law could counter the trend described in the report:
By 2019, the law is expected to provide coverage for more than 30 million people who are uninsured. The law would subsidize coverage for people with incomes up to four times the poverty level ($88,200 a year for a family of four), and insurers will generally be forbidden to charge deductibles or co-payments for recommended preventive services.
This coverage should be available today to all people - not just the wealthy who don't have to worry about deductibles - but 2019 is better than the Republican alternative of doing nothing to help the least among us.
As predicted, the petition drive by Michigan teabaggers to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it by placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law failed, but we only found out on Tuesday how miserably it failed.
The teabaggers held a "press conference" yesterday on the Capitol steps, and organizer and Howell School Board member and founder of the anti-gay hate group "LOVE" Wendy Day said the group got only 145,000-170,000 signatures. That's well short of the more than 381,000 valid signatures required to place it on the ballot in November. That's less than half the required signatures. That illustrates how really weak the so-called "teabaggers" are, and it's all just a fringe group screaming hate at the top of their lungs.
Day's spin was a far cry from last March when she launched her doomed campaign at an illegal rally at the Howell Freshman Campus when she said "Go to one tea party; go to two. We can get plenty of signatures. The tea party express is coming through."
Those of us who live in Howell hope Day's embarrassing 15 minutes of fame are up, but I doubt that will happen. Even her fellow teabaggers know what a media hound she is.
As I said in the past, the petition drive was just an exercise to build a Republican mailing list of supporters, and some of Day's fellow teabaggers recognize that. We actually have no idea how many signatures were actually collected because no petitions were actually turned in to the Secretary of State. Fellow "tea party" organizer Joan Fabiano had this to say about it in an email published on a rightwing blog.
"All data collected is the property of Wendy Day, (State Rep.) Tom McMillian (sic) (R-Rochester Hills) and shared with the Republican Party and who knows who else Fair Taxers? No data is shared because the petitions were not turned in and made public."
McMillin and Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, both said in subscription only Gongwer that they would introduce legislation that would allow Michigan residents to opt out of the federal health care law, as the constitutional amendment on the petitions would have done.
I'm not sure what effect or weight a law will have. Kuipers, who is running for U.S. Congress in the seat vacated by "Twitter" Pete Hoekstra, introduced Senate Joint Resolution K last March to place the same constitutional amendment on the ballot that teabaggers were seeking. It failed to get the necessary two-third vote to pass.
McCotter wouldn't give district 11 a health care forum, so Congressman John Conyers, Jr., will:
Organizing for America in conjunction with the 11th district Congressional Democrats, District 11 Voters for Affordable Health Care and the Michigan Universal Healthcare Access Network, present a District 11 town hall meeting. "How the PPACA and Health Care Reform Benefit You."
When: 11:30am registration starts - May 15
Where: Northwest UAW Local 163, 450 S. Merriman in Westland
Keynote speaker: U.S.Congressman John Conyers, who will discuss the bill and what still needs to be done.
Expert Panel:
Natalie Mosher, 11th District Congressional Candidate - who will discuss what bill means to voters in local districts.
District 20 State Rep Marc Corriveau - who will answer questions on the state health committee initiatives.
Garrett Awra, State Director of Organizing for America - who will talk about President Obama's status on the health care bill.
John Freeman, Director of Michigan for Health Care Now, who will talk about the initiative of his organization and what they are hoping to accomplish.
Guest speaker: Kande Ngalamulume, Congressional Candidate for District 8
The event allows audience members to bring questions to the panel and find out what it means to them. Audience members will be able to submit questions for the Congressman and panel.
Walberg recently held a town hall meeting on health care where he told the audience he'd like to see the law repealed and hopes Congress will refuse to fund it. The Jackson Citizen Patriot covered the event and had this response:
Tim Walberg: nice, pleasant, passionate - and wrong.
At his town hall in Jackson on Tuesday, Walberg made several statements not backed up by the facts as researched by several entities.
You can click the link to read their fact-checking. Walberg plans on holding three more town halls on health care in the coming weeks so it's great to see the paper holding him accountable for his falsehoods. Kudos to them.
On April 22, 2010, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new analysis of President Obama's government health care plan, confirming our nation's health care costs will increase rather than decrease and violating a pledge the President made to the nation on September 10, 2009.
McCotter then went on to list many of CMS's negative conclusions without noting the positives, and he also neglected to provide analysis explaining the difference between the CBO's earlier estimate and this one. Fortunately, Ezra Klein provided the facts:
The Congressional Budget Office's estimates look at the deficit. CMS is looking at total national health expenditures. This often confuses people into thinking that there's conflict between the two sets of numbers when there isn't: CBO says that federal spending is going to go up to pay for the coverage expansion, but that savings and revenue will go up by even more, leading to a net reduction in the federal deficit.
CMS is looking only at the spending side. And here's what it finds: In 2019, implementation of the Affordable Care Act will reduce the ranks of the uninsured by 34 million people and increase nation health expenditures by 1 percent.
One percent.
And that 1 percent is actually 1 percent and falling: When the legislation is fully implemented in 2016, the spending increase will be 2 percent. But cost controls kick in over those years and bring it down to 1 percent. Assuming the trend holds, the second decade will see national health expenditures fall below what spending would've been if the bill hadn't passed.
Third Way, the centrist policy outfit, sent over its own analysis of the data. "The fact is that by 2019, national health spending per insured person will be $15,132 compared to $16,812 without the new law," they write. "That's 10 percent less spending per insured person than it would have been, according to the actuary's report."
That study suddenly doesn't look so bad. We'll be insuring 34 million people and spending less money than we would have been if nothing had been done. That sounds like a good deal to me.
When I read Eclectablog's post about ousted Congressman Walberg's town hall meetings focused on repealing the recently passed health care bill, I couldn't help but wonder if Walberg liked Sue Lowden's "chickens for checkups" idea too. After all, Walberg thinks it's perfectly acceptable for the uninsured to get their health care by walking into an emergency room. Yep, that's a cost effective way to provide health care to people - not. Even Mitch McConnell admits it's a bad idea:
It's not the most efficient way to provide it. As we know, the doctors in the hospitals are sworn to provide health care. We all agree it is not the most efficient way to provide health care to find somebody only in the emergency room and then pass those costs on to those who are paying for insurance.
Okay, so we all know Walberg's idea is lame, but what about this "chicken for checkups" idea? Could it work? Personally, I live in a condo and I doubt the association board would approve a chicken coop outside my door, but even assuming they agreed, would my doctor take a chicken in lieu of cash? Are there even enough chickens in the world to cover health care expenses? According to TPM, absolutely not. "There aren't enough chickens in the world -- let alone the United States -- to cover the costs of health care in this country alone."
They even crunched the numbers so we wouldn't have to:
Total U.S. health care costs in 2008: $2.3 trillion
US population: About 300 million
Average cost of health care per person: $7,681
Average weight of a chicken: 5.9 lbs
Market price per pound: 85 cents
Average spot price per chicken: $5.02
Average number of chickens per resident needed to cover health care costs: 1,530 chickens
Total number of chickens needed to cover United States health care costs: 459 billion chickens
Estimated worldwide chicken population: 16 billion chickens
Current worldwide chicken shortage to cover U.S. health care: 443 billion cluckers
Cluck, cluck. It looks like Lowden and Walberg are both peddling a bunch of chicken poop when it comes to health care reform.
There is no doubt that the petition drive to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and placeing a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law is a Republican effort to stop the President from getting a victory, and Howell School board member and head teabagger Wendy Day provided more evidence of that with an email to supporters.
Republican politicians from Mike Rogers and "Mad Thad" McCotter to Michigan Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial Candidate 'Manoogian' Mike Cox and Senate candidate Joe Hune have been appearing at teabag events courting the fringe that controls the Republican Party.
Because the petition language was not approved by the Michigan State Board of Canvassers before signatures were collected, this is clearly not a serious petition drive. To place the constitutional amendment before voters in November, they must collect the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters just to place it on the ballot.
Political pundits like Joe DiSano and Joe Munem said because the language has not been approved, the petition drive is little more than an exercise to build a mailing list of Republican supporters for the upcoming election. Day's email confirms that.
"The Republican Party has pledged to help us by working to collect 100,000 signatures," Day wrote in an email. "The GOP Fix-it Centers are willing to serve as drop off locations as well as places to pick up petitions."
Apparently, the investigation over the brick thrown through the window of the Michigan Republican campaign "fix it" office in Genoa Township near Howell is over.
CORRECTION:It was pointed out to me in the comments section that the brick allegedly thrown through the Republican campaign office and auctioned off was not the one in the possession of the Sheriff's Department and the chair of the Livingston County Republican Party. The sentence I misread said, "A highlight of the evening came when a symbolic brick of the type thrown through the Republican Party's local "Fix Michigan Center."
Howell radio station WHMI is reporting that at the Livingston County Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day dinner Wednesday night the actual brick thrown through the window was auctioned off at the fundraising dinner.
The incident occurred less than a week ago, and they got rid of the evidence?According to a report in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, the brick has the words "Long Live the USA" and "God Bless the USA" scrawled on it, according to Livingston County Sheriff's investigators."
WHMI reported the winning bid of $275 was made by Republican Livingston County Commissioner Dave Domas. The money will go toward items for American troops stationed in Afghanistan.
I'm a little surprised it was released. Perhaps it was never turned over to the Sheriff's Department, and it remained the property of the GOP broke it center. As I said before, the second ranking officer at the Livingston County Sheriff's Department, Mike Murphy, is also the chair of the Livingston County Republican Party.
Regardless of how the brick was obtained, there is a clear conflict of interest, and the investigation - if it's not over - should be turned over to the Michigan State Police.
It's ironic that the keynote speaker at the fund-raiser was U.S. Rep. Thad "Mad Thad" McCotter, R-Livonia, - known for his inflammatory and false rhetoric against Democrats. McCotter is one of the first people to push the death panel lie, and he has been active at "tea parties" where much of the hate against Democrats over the health insurance law has been ginned up and has led to violence and vandalism.
The kickoff of a petition drive Monday night to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law signed into law by President Obama last week was little more than a "tea party."
Howell School Board member and head teabagger Wendy Day led the event at the Howell Freshman Campus cafeteria, and it was little more than the typical rhetoric bashing Democrats and the president we have seen at the racist, Astroturf "tea parties." the only thing missing was the racist signs.
"Some people say Obama broke his oath of office to protect the Constitution," Day said. "This is a peaceful way for people to express their frustration."
Day is the treasurer of the ballot committee called "Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom."
Constitutional Amendments require the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters just to place it on the ballot. They have to turn those signatures into the Secretary of State no later than July 5.
"This petition has been legally vetted by the Goldwater Institute," Day said. "It has been preliminary approved by the (Michigan State) Board of Canvassers."
I doubt that statement is true, and the board has not approved the language. Every signature should be challenged on that basis alone.
I missed the first hour of the partisan campaign event because I had to work, and I was only able to catch the last 45 minutes. Day took questions from the approximately 150 people, but most of it was just the usual rhetoric and lies we have heard in the past. Day said the best place to get signatures was at Republican events, like a "tea party."
"Go to one tea party; go to two," she said." We can get plenty of signatures. The tea party express is coming through."
If you needed any more proof that this was a partisan Republican event, you just needed to see the Republican politicians in attendance. Most of them are running for office, and I lost respect for some I once had respect for, despite our political differences.
Like I said in past posts, this clearly violates the school district's policy on allowing district facilities to be used for partisan political events. I talked to HPS Assistant Superintendent Rick Terries - who authorized the event - is really skirting the policy. He said if the petition drive was successful, it would be a political meeting, but somehow getting there is not. In other words, launching the petition drive is not political, but it's only political if the petition drive is successful.
It makes no sense.
This masquerade has little chance of succeeding, but that does not mean we should not fight it. We have spent a year fighting to reform the broken system, so what's three more months.
Apparently, Livingston County is going to be "ground zero" or teabag central for the petition drive to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to try and deny thousands of Michigan residents access to life-saving health care.
A ballot group called "Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom" is planning a petition drive kickoff for 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 29 at the Howell Freshman Campus cafeteria - 1400 W. Grand River Ave. 48843- to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law signed into law by President Obama last week.
The group is led Howell Public School Board member and teabagger Wendy Day. An article in today's Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is little more than a promo for the event, and I'm sorry I suggested it to my former colleague. It's ironic that just a few feet away from where Day voted to strip health care from more than 30 Howell school bus drivers she wants to rally people to deny it to thousands of Michigan residents.
This partisan political rally clearly violates district policy about using district facilities and events for political purposes, and this is a partisan political rally. The reporter never got an answer from Assistant Superintendent Rick Terres on why this is not a political rally advocating for a position. There is no way it can be "considered an informational meeting, which isn't prohibited in the district's building-use policy, according to the article.
Where is the other side if it's an "informational meeting?"
"A prior district policy prohibited political campaigning in district buildings, though Day's event doesn't fall in that category, Terres said.
That policy was revised in 2008 to allow candidate forums for local, state and national political races. The change was made after a Daily Press & Argus candidate forum scheduled at a district building was canceled by district officials, Terres said."
Again, this is a political rally, and it is not in any way a political forum. Now, if a representative from both sides of the issue held a debate, then it would meet the criteria for a forum or informational meeting. Clearly, it doesn't. It's a partisan political rally, and I don't want my tax dollars as a homeowner in the HPS district to be used to try and kill something that is needed so much.
So, if you're not doing anything Monday evening, please attend to show your support for the 32 million people who will receive health care coverage under this bill. If you can't make it, call the person who made the decision to allow taxpayers funds to support a partisan position. Call Associate Superintendent Richard Terres at (517) 548-6357 to lodge a complaint.
Teabaggers led by Howell School Board member Wendy Day are launching a petition drive to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and violating Howell Public School policy in the process.
Subscription only MIRS is reporting Day and a ballot committee called "Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom" is planning a petition drive kickoff for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Howell Freshman Campus cafeteria to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law signed into law by President Obama last week.
It's ironic that the petition drive is taking place at the Freshman Campus, 1400 W. Grand River Ave. It also houses both the district's administrative offices and board office. District policy bars facilities and equipment from being used for political campaigns. That was illustrated in April 2007 when the district canceled a forum for school board candidates, and cited the district policy that states, "District facilities and equipment shall not be used or made available for political campaigns."
That was simply a nonpartisan forum so voters could hear from candidates, and this petition drive is extremely partisan.
Constitutional Amendments require the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters just to place it on the ballot. The Michigan State Board of Canvassers must first approve the ballot language before any signatures are collected. Once language is approved, the required signatures must be collected in six months and there can be no more than 90 days between the first and last signature. Any signatures collected before the board of canvassers are invalid, and that, to my knowledge has not happened.
However, the ballot committee, "Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom," was filed with the Michigan Secretary of State on March 22, and Day is listed as the treasurer.
MIRS reported "Day said the Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom is in the process of rallying liberty groups across the state to pass around petitions for this effort."
Apparently, Republicans in Michigan are not happy that 32 million Americans with no health care insurance will now have it, health insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny people coverage because of preexisting condition, the federal budget deficit will be cut by $138 billion over the next decade, seniors on Medicare will pay less for their prescription drugs and young adults will be able to remain on their families' insurance plans until age 26, and they are launching a petition drive to kill the historic health insurance reform bill passed on Sunday.
The Detroit News is reporting that rightwing and teabagger state Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, is helping launch a petition drive to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot designed to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law. McMillin did not have much luck with the last petition drive he was involved with the failed recall attempt in 2007, and this one will fail, too.
McMillin announced the petition drive outside William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak today. Ironically, hospital officials made it a point to say they do not support the petition effort and support health insurance reform. Constitutional Amendments require the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters just to place it on the ballot.
The health reform vote is coming in the House. Representative Gary Peters (MI-09) needs to keep listening to us, not the insurance companies.
In Peters' district, the House's improvements to the Senate health reform bill will [pdf]:
Improve coverage for 482,000 residents with health insurance.
Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 112,000 families and 20,100 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
Improve Medicare for 103,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
Extend coverage to 18,500 uninsured residents.
Guarantee that 7,400 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
Protect 1,900 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
Allow 44,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.
Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $80 million annually.
A vote for health reform is a vote to stand with these people. A vote against health reform is a vote for the status quo, where insurance companies make record profits by raising rates by double digits (22% in Michigan in the last few months) and dropping millions of customers from their rolls.
The House may vote on health reform as early as this weekend. When the vote comes, Representative Peters has a chance to show us that he's still on our side.
Even though the state budget is facing a shortfall and Michigan residents are hurting and need help, that didn't stop Senate Republicans from flagrantly playing election politics on the Senate floor today.
It would "Prohibit a Federal law or rule from compelling any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system," and it is clearly aimed at the current health insurance reform bill being reconciled in Washington, D.C. and playing to the Republican base that has taken an extreme right turn.
The amendment required a two-thirds majority to go before the voters, and it only got 24 of the 26 required votes. Every single Republican voted for it, and two Democrats crossed over to vote yes.
Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, called the Republicans out for playing politics with federal law, and she said it was unconscionable when we are facing major problems and the Senate has not yet addressed the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Individual Market Reform package of bills. "This joint resolution feeds into the fear-mongering that is paralyzing Congress and the Legislature here in Michigan," she said. "The irony of all this, as we hear the debate that says the state should be taking care of things themselves, we are not doing that."
The resolution was introduced by Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, who is running for U.S. Congress in the seat vacated by "Twitter" Pete Hoekstra, who is running for Governor. At least three other Republicans are considering a run for the seat, and because he has a tough primary, he is playing to the base with this ridiculous resolution.
Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming, recognized that.
"I also further believe that underlying this joint resolution was a lot of cynical politics, and I find it sad that we would use such a critical issue that affects nearly every one of the people we represent here to advance in an election year; cynical politics of fear" he said.
Obviously, the Supreme Court has spoken the state's rights issue long ago, and this could have some serious negative effects on the state.
"I think one of the further un-discussed ramifications of this may have been what it could cost the state of Michigan if we are making this statement and trying to contravene what is going on in Washington," Prusi said. "That's the potential withholding of Medicaid payments, SCHIP payments and other health care dollars that flow from Washington to the states."
I swear to god, this ad is running on the MI GOP web site right now. Don't they realize they are a joke? I have to admit one thing, it is funny, although I don't think they intended to make it funny. I was rolling on the floor laughing at the GOP.
In a conversation recently, a person I know responded to the issues in Canada and their Health Care, as "you get what you pay for". While this is a nice phrase that is used over and over again, it's hardly true and second misses the point.
The problem in Canada is not that Health Care sucks, or that the Government helping it's people is this big evil thing, the problem is lack of Doctors, partly because they know they can come to the United States and make more money, and second because NOW EVERYONE HAS EQUAL ACCESS. I would much rather be the issue that there are not enough Doctors to go around, than the issue being that people just can't afford Health Care.
Now back to the statement of "You Get What You Pay For". First I think such a statement about Health Care is crazy and absurd. The quality of care you receive should not be based on how much money you got, to say something like that you are implying that only the rich deserve to be well, and the poor can just die, which well seems to be the Republican plan if you ask me. Second part of the issue with such a statement, is we do not get what we pay for. The reality is Americans dish out so much of their paycheck already for Health Care, that often leaves them wondering what the hell is going on. I'm amused by Health Care ads in which the Health Care companies claims to have the best ratings of all the Health Care Companies, that's like claiming to be the biggest douche among all your douche friends, way to go, but your still a douche!
Health Care should not be based on how much money you got, or how much you are willing to spend, Health Care should be based on one single principal, do we or do we not believe that Health Care is a basic Human Right. When your playing with peoples lives, it's not about how much money you can make, it's about what is right and what is wrong.
My former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers stopped by the offices of the Livingston Press & Argus in Livingston County, Mich. this week to throw some poop on health care reform. Not only did he throw poop, he told several bald-faced lies including this one:
He said a government-appointed panel's conclusion that women need fewer mammograms at certain ages would be incorporated in the bills.
Rogers, himself a cancer survivor, said the government shouldn't dictate who has access to mammograms.
"I said, 'Oh, my gosh. They just sentenced to death 36,000 American women.'"
While Hoekstra runs around trying to profit from the attempted bombing over Detroit and score points with teabagger Republicans, it's important to put this incident into perspective. Via Blue Texan at FDL (see his chart below):
If you count the Ft. Hoot shooting as a terrorist attack, which even the likes of Pantload doesn't, 16 people have died in the United States as a result of terrorism in 2009. The other three deaths include the Little Rock military recruiting office shooting (1), the Holocaust Museum shooting (1), and Dr. George Tiller's assassination (1), the last two coming at the hands of right-wing extremists.
Clearly, lack of health insurance is more of a threat to Americans than a terrorist attack, yet Hoekstra voted NO on health care. He's clearly in no position to be shooting off his mouth and calling on the president to "lead in the fight to keep Americans safe" after that vote.
My former 