Anyone else miss the Clinton/Obama debates?

I do lol

TYPICAL BARACK OBAMA VS. HILLARY CLINTON DEMOCRATIC DEBATE

QUESTION: What is your plan for the economy?

CLINTON:
My main agenda for my Presidency is to turn our economy around.
My $110 billion package includes $40 billion in tax rebates for working and middle-class families. These rebates should meet the principles that I have outlined: they should be temporary and fiscally responsible; they should be fast-acting; and they should be targeted to working and middle-class families who need help the most. In particular, the rebates should not be partially or completely denied to tens of millions of lower income taxpayers, as was the case with President Bush’s plan during the last economic contraction.

My package also includes a $30 billion Emergency Housing Crisis Fund to assist states and cities mitigate the effects of mounting foreclosures; a comprehensive plan to end the housing crisis with a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a 5 year freeze on interest rates on subprime mortgages; $25 billion in immediate energy assistance to tens of millions of families; $5 billion in accelerated energy efficiency and alternative energy investments to jumpstart green collar job growth; and $10 billion in extending and broadening unemployment insurance for those who are struggling to find work.

OBAMA:
Uh…eh….uh…you know, its for change by changing Washington and..uh…turn this economy around!

QUESTION: What is your plan for the American health care system?

CLINTON:
I unveiled the third part of my plan to ensure that all Americans have affordable, quality health insurance. Building on her proposals to rein in costs and to insist on value and quality, her American Health Choices Plan will secure, simplify and ensure choice in health coverage for all Americans. This Plan covers every American – finally addressing the needs of the 47 million uninsured and the tens of millions of workers with coverage who fear they could be one pink slip away from losing their health coverage – with no overall increase in health spending or taxes. For those with health insurance, the plan builds on the current system to give businesses and their employees greater choice of health plans – including keeping the one they have – while lowering cost and improving quality. Specifically, the American Health Choices Plan will:

The American Health Choices Plan gives Americans the choice to preserve their existing coverage, while offering new choices to those with insurance, to the 47 million people in the United States without insurance, and the tens of millions more at risk of losing coverage.

The Same Choice of Health Plan Options that Members of Congress Receive: Americans can keep their existing coverage or access the same menu of quality private insurance options that their Members of Congress receive through a new Health Choices Menu, established without any new bureaucracy as part of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP). In addition to the broad array of private options that Americans can choose from, they will be offered the choice of a public plan option similar to Medicare.

A Guarantee of Quality Coverage: The new array of choices offered in the Menu will provide benefits at least as good as the typical plan offered to Members of Congress, which includes mental health parity and usually dental coverage.

Americans who are satisfied with the coverage they have today can keep it, while benefiting from lower premiums and higher quality.

Reducing Costs: By removing hidden taxes, stressing prevention and a focus on efficiency and modernization, the plan will improve quality and lower costs.

Strengthening Security: The plan ensures that job loss or family illnesses will never lead to a loss of coverage or exorbitant costs.

End to Unfair Health Insurance Discrimination: By creating a level-playing field of insurance rules across states and markets, the plan ensures that no American is denied coverage, refused renewal, unfairly priced out of the market, or forced to pay excessive insurance company premiums.

Relying on consumers or the government alone to fix the system has unintended consequences, like scaled-back coverage or limited choices. This plan ensures that all who benefit from the system share in the responsibility to fix its shortcomings.

Insurance and Drug Companies: insurance companies will end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or expectations of illness and ensure high value for every premium dollar; while drug companies will offer fair prices and accurate information.

Individuals: will be required to get and keep insurance in a system where insurance is affordable and accessible.

Providers: will work collaboratively with patients and businesses to deliver high-quality, affordable care.

Employers: will help financing the system; large employers will be expected to provide health insurance or contribute to the cost of coverage: small businesses will receive a tax credit to continue or begin to offer coverage.

Government: will ensure that health insurance is always affordable and never a crushing burden on any family and will implement reforms to improve quality and lower cost.

my plan will:

Provide Tax Relief to Ensure Affordability: Working families will receive a refundable tax credit to help them afford high-quality health coverage.

Limit Premium Payments to a Percentage of Income: The refundable tax credit will be designed to prevent premiums from exceeding a percentage of family income, while maintaining consumer price consciousness in choosing health plans.

Create a New Small Business Tax Credit: To make it easier-not harder-for small businesses to create new jobs with health coverage, a new health care tax credit for small businesses will provide an incentive for job-based coverage.

Strengthen Medicaid and CHIP: The Plan will fix the holes in the safety net to ensure that the most vulnerable populations receive affordable, quality care.

Launch a Retiree Health Legacy Initiative: A new tax credit for qualifying private and public retiree health plans will offset a significant portion of catastrophic expenditures, so long as savings are dedicated to workers and competitiveness.

Most Savings Come Through Lowering Spending Due to Quality and Modernization: Over half the savings come from the public savings generated from Senator Clinton’s broader agenda to modernize the heath systems and reduce wasteful health spending.

A Net Tax Cut for American Taxpayers: The plan offers tens of millions of Americans a new tax credit to make premiums affordable-which more than offsets the increased revenues from the Plan’s provisions to limit the employer tax exclusion for health care and discontinue portions of the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000. Thus, the plan provides a net tax cut for American taxpayers.

Making the Employer Tax Exclusion for Health Care Fairer: The plan protects the current exclusion from taxes of employer-provided health premiums, but limits the exclusion for the high-end portion of very generous plans for those making over $250,000.

OBAMA: Ah….eh… its time for change! Time to change the….uh….um..health care system!

QUESTION: What is your plan for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

CLINTON:
“Our message to the president is clear. It is time to begin ending this war — not next year, not next month — but today.

“We have heard for years now that as the Iraqis stand up, our troops will stand down. Every year, we hear about how next year they may start coming home. Now we are hearing a new version of that yet again from the president as he has more troops in Iraq than ever and the Iraqi government is more fractured and ineffective than ever.

“Well, the right strategy before the surge and post-escalation is the same: start bringing home America’s troops now.”

If President Bush does not end the war, when I am president, I will. My three-step plan would bring our troops home, work to bring stability to the region, and replace military force with a new diplomatic initiative to engage countries around the world in securing Iraq’s future. I had been figh

I will bring our troops home inside my first 60 days in office as President of the United States of America.

OBAMA:
uh……look! we need to change Washington by bringing our troops home and change Washington…Thats the president America needs…uh…and I will be that president I think….

QUESTION: What is your plan for our Education?

CLINTON:
Forty-two percent of all new jobs this decade will require some post-secondary education. That’s a big jump from even six and a half years ago, when it was only about 29 percent.

Countries across the world, from Japan to South Korea, from Canada to Ireland, are educating their young people at higher rates than we are in America. That is news.

Our higher education system has historically been the envy of the world. We know that in other countries (inaudible) the future was determined at the age of 12 or 16. But they have changed, and they now value college much more, and the rates of young people going to college are actually higher than we have now in America. And China and India are not far behind.

When it comes to higher education, we should not be playing catch-up with the world, we should continue to be leading, because the skills and knowledge of our workforce will determine whether America can compete and win in the 21st century.

Americans work harder than anybody in the world. When you measure productivity, which is a term for determining how much output we get per hour, per worker, Americans are by far the hardest-working people.

But there is a mismatch between what Americans are being compensated for in terms of all

Question on understanding Medicare , Medigap , and Medicaid?

I was just put on disability (I am far from being a senior, though every webpage I turn to seems to be targeted at those over 65). I just received my Medicare Part A/B card. I also have a Medicaid card because my income is only around $700. Will I be charged the full amt. for Medicare since part of my income is SSI and resource based? Now I’m thinking about these A-L Medigap plans. Does Medicaid replace these, or do I still need to be thinking about Medigaps. What precisely at my income level with medicaid would I not be able to get covered and have the need for a Private company coverage for? I would like to say that I am perfectly happy with having all my doctors at the state hospital where any and all insurance and Medicaid is accepted and they also see indigent patients based on income. However only my psychiatrist is in a private practice, and I hope to be able to stay with him and he is enrolled in Medicare. I guess what I’m getting at with my situation does it sound like I need a Medigap policy, what will I be missing without it? Prescription drugs and Dental care are two things I can think of off the top of my head that I will need.

Will you call your Senator today to Vote Yes on the Sanders Amendment for Single Payer Healthcare?

Senate to Take up Bernie Sanders Single-Payer Health Plan Wednesday

WASHINGTON, December 15 – The Senate on Wednesday will debate for the first time in American history a proposal to create a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care system.

“In my view, the single-payer approach is the only way we will ever have a cost-effective, comprehensive health care system in this country,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose amendment will come before the Senate.

The Sanders Amendment would provide health care and dental coverage for every American, save money, and improve health care results.

“One of the reasons our current health care system is so expensive, so wasteful, so bureaucratic, so inefficient is that it is heavily dominated by private health insurance companies whose only goal in life is to make as much money as they can,” Sanders said.

The 1,300 profit-making private insurance companies administer thousands of separate plans and waste about $400 billion a year on administrative costs, profiteering, high CEO compensation packages, and advertising. Health care providers spend another $210 billion on administrative costs, mostly to deal with insurance paperwork.

As a result, the United States spends $7,129 per person on health care, almost double the amount spent by nearly any other industrialized country. Nevertheless, 46 million Americans lack health insurance, 100 million Americans cannot access dental care, and 60 million Americans do not have access to primary care.

Sanders acknowledged that his amendment would not pass. “As a result of the power of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, this amendment will not pass or even get very many votes. Nonetheless, given the view of millions of us that a single-payer approach is the only way this country will ever provide comprehensive, cost-effective health care to all its citizens, this is an important step forward.

“At the end of the day – not this year, not next year, but sometime in the future – this country will come to understand that if we are going to provide comprehensive quality care to all of our people, the only way we will do that is through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system, and I am glad to be able to start that debate by offering this amendment.”

To read a summary of the amendment, click here:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/15-9

Patriot…while your post is more intelligent than the dittohead sheep on this board…you really drank the Koolaid…with no public option there is no way to stop the Health Insurance Companies from continuing to raise rates…and with weak Employer Mandates but Strong Individual Mandates with Fines-Americans will be forced to pay more for less coverage or pay a penalty! This all benefits the Insurance Industry and Bid Pharma-big contributers to Obama’s “Hope and Change” Campaign. The majority of Democrats are in bed with Wall Street, the MIC and Private Healthcare Lobbyists.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/16-2

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/16-5

Personal Finance Questions help?

1. Paul’s statement balence is $2384.19. He finds that he has check numbers 381 and 385 outstanding in the amounts of $143.72 and $462.90. He also has an outstanding deposit of $361.86. He reconciles the statement. What should the adjusted amount be?

a. $2746.05 b. $2846.15 c. $2139.43 d. $2628.95 or e. none of the above

I said E, am I right?

2. You teach in school. You are married and have family coverage for medical, dental, vision, prescription and term life insurance. The annual premiums are : $2690 for medical; $268 for dental; $120 for vision; $194 prescription; and $270 for life insurance. The school pays 85% for medical and prescription, 80% for dental and vision and 90% life insurance. You get paid semi-monthly (24x?) from september through may. How much is deducted from each paycheck?

a. 35.67 b. 52.74 c. 47.11. d. 29.84 e. none of the above.

I said 52.74.

3. Using the social security tax rate of 6.2% on the first $62,700 and medicare tax rate of 1.45% of all income, Maria has a gross weekly income of 502.16$. Her earnings to date for this year are $20,086.40. How much is deducted from her paycheck this week for social security?

a. 31.12 b. 7.28. c. 13.31 d. 8.72. e. none of the above.

I said $13.31?

4. Tara deposited $4325.90 in a savings account that pays 5.5% interest compounded daily. How much money will be in the account at teh end of 120 days?

a. 4325.90 b. 4338.78 c. 8743.98 d. 4404.46 e. none of the above.

I ruled out C and A. Im thinking None of the above??

5. Tom earns $67,710 a year and is paid semi-monthly (24x?). How much is deducted each pay period for social security if the rate is 6.6%?

a. 37.28 b. 79.71. c. 116.99 d. 159.42 e. none of the above.

I Said E?

6. Wes earns $30,140 annually as a new staff attorney. He is single and the state tax rate is 3.5% of taxable income. What amount is witheld from his monthly pay for state income tax? (personal exemption single = $1400)

a. 20.96 b. 87.91 c. 83.83 d. 79 or e. none of the above.

I’ve ruled out D.

7. You are a traveling sales representitive for lawn-care inc. You have medical, dental, term life insurance and travel insurance coverange through the company. Medical costs 1580, dental costs 194, and travel costs 92 per year. The company pays 80% of medical, 70% of dental and 85% of travel. Termal life is paid entirely by the company. How much is deducted from your pay each month for coverage?

a.32.33 b. 27.44 c. 25.96 d. 37.77 e. not given

I KNOW IT IS NOT B

8. Mark has a gross weekly income of 412.96. His earnings to date this year total 19,822.08. How much is deducted from his paycheck this week for social security if the rate is 6.2%?

a. 33.60 b. 29.50 c. 25.75 d. 24.60 or e. answer not given.

I ruled out D.

9. You are a locksmith and earn 18.80 an hour for 40 hours a week with a time and a half being paid for hours worked past 40. The state tax rate is 4.5% of taxable income, medical insurance is 1560 a year, of which the company pays 75%. Term life insurance is 195$ a year of which you pay 50%. Social security and medicare are withheld. What is your net pay for one week in which you worked 44 hrs, if you federal income tax withholding is 127$?

a. 600.94 b. 625.54 c. 700 d. 725.54 e. none

Im pretty sure it’s B. 625.54?

10. Carol earns 1500 each semi-monthly pay period. Her medical insurance osts 4760 a year, of which her company pays 70% of the costs. How much is deducted from her semi-monthly paycheck for medical insurance?

a.47.60 b.14.28 c.38.80 d. 59.60 e. none of the above.

Im pretty sure it’s 59.50…so E, none of the above.

can someone PLEASE help me correct these? I really really need the help

If it was put to a vote to american people directly, would they choose the following single payor option ?

for healthcafe?

Every american becomes eligible to sign up for medicare if they choose to at any age. Medicare upgraded to include dental and vision coverage and all coverage becomes a flat 80% of anything you use it for medically related from doctors visits to surgery to hospital stay to routine dental and vision care to dental surgery or eye surgery, pharmaceuticals etc.. A $300 deductible would be applicable to all with some exceptions for those who cannot afford it. Adults could enroll for a monthly payment of $100 a month, and children under 21 could or up to 25 years old in school can enroll for $40 a month. To help pay for this, two taxes would be imposed 1) a national health care tax on all sales of 1% of all non food and clothing purchases with a cap of $100 on any single sales transaction and 2) a 1% national health care tax on anyone making over $50,000 per year up to $1 million income and 2% for any portion of anyone’s income that is over one million dollars.

Do you think the majority of americans (51% or greater) would say yes to this as an option availiable to americans for health care with the option still available for those who prefer to have private health care insurance still available if thats what they prefer?

THIS QUESTION IS NOT ASKING IF YOU WOULD ACCEPT THIS PLAN, BUT RATHER WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IF 51% OR GREATER OF THE AMERICAN CITIZENRY WOULD APPROVE OF IT.
just thought about an adjustment to help pay for it. Anyone making over $200,000 a year would pay $250 a month and their children $60 a month…..which is still a better deal than they can get in the private sector, and their annual deductible would be $1000.