Daily Loaf

For those of you that think we are not on a road to rationing with a government run health care program then please explain this recent study on breast cancer screenings (done by a government task force) uh-huh. What, no Boob Czar yet? The government group recommends waiting longer to start getting mammograms and more time in between each one. Even some big name liberals are having a hairy about what this study suggests. And the American Cancer Society doesn’t agree either! Is it disturbing to anyone else that according to this article the task force did not include any oncologists or radiologists that examine mammogram or biopsy results? WTF?

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a proposal to raise Medicare payroll taxes on couples who make more than $250,000 a year.

The Nevada Democrat needs to find a way to find more money to pay for health care reform in the Senate bill, and he reportedley would rather do that than put a 40% tax on high-value insurance plans, which organized labor strongly opposes.

Reid also wants to find money to provide more extensive subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people.

Yesterday, Tampa area Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Florida AARP head Lori Parham spoke on a conference call about what the recently passed health care reform bill in the House will do for seniors.

The advocacy group for seniors has endorsed the House bill, though their support has cost them tens of thousands of members in 2009.

Castor said the new legislation would lower drug costs for seniors on Medicare by immediately getting rid of the so-called “donut hole.”

She also said that the legislation would bolster oversight when it comes to the ‘”egregious selling of Medicare Advantage Plans.” She said the bill would take on “unscrupulous” insurance salesmen who go into senior centers to sign up seniors for more expensive Medicare Advantage plans, and stressed that that aspect of the legislation would take effect immediately if it’s included in the final bill that’s signed by the president.

Lori Parham with AARP Florida said that there has been a lot of misinformation spread about what will happen to Medicare under Obamacare.  She said that there are more than 600,000 uninsured people in Florida between the ages of 50 and 64 who are “counting the days until Medicare kicks in.”

Both Parham and Castor reacted edgily to news that a conservative seniors group called The 60 Plus Association has announced that they intend to spend $1.5 million targeting 15 House Democrats who voted for health care reform, including Castor’s colleague, Ron Klein from South Florida.

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Florida U.S. Senator Bill Nelson said today that the Tampa Bay area has taken a big leap in attempting to get high-speed rail to the region, and he placed great hopes on the Florida Legislature conducting a special session on rail issues  next month to show Washington that it means business about a a $2.5 billion federal stimulus request for high speed rail.

Speaking at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, at an event hastily put together by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Florida’s senior Senator said that the state’s chances of acquiring the funding “improve enormously”  if it can successfully deal with the issues with SunRail and TriRail, which the legislature has contended with for the past couple of years, but has never reached a deal.

Nelson gave a shout-out to former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik and his ConnectUs organization that has been formed to try to bring a Tampa-to-Orlando high speed rail line to Florida (though he did mispronounce Turanchik’s name).

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As speculation continues on what led to Thursday’s crazed shooting spree by Nidal Hassan at Fort Hood yesterday, the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, General Eric Shinseki, is scheduled to speak today on the USF Tampa campus.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her underlings will be working furiously today to try to gather the 218 votes she needs to pass a health care reform bill that includes a public option tomorrow.

And the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce intends to honor Mayor Rick Baker tomorrow for all of the successes  that the Chamber believes have occurred under the Baker administration.  But there are activists who say the whole story needs to be told, and they plan on protesting the event tomorrow night.

We may not have an audio podcast up today.  But we’ll be back for certain on Monday a.m.

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Finding an emotional connection with our planet- Doing so allows us to look at what our needs are in life and what is of the highest and greatest importance to us and our environment.

Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll 2009: The race for Greenest Politician has Linda Saul-Sena in the lead- Who do you think should take the title of this year’s Greenest Politician in the Bay?

Clean energy and anti-offshore drilling rally in Ybor this Thursday- Thursday, August 27th, join Sierra Club, 1Sky Florida, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and other environmental groups for a real grassroots rally outside Big Oil’s staged gathering.
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Although we are finally seeing signs of improvement, the economic downturn here in the US is far from over. We are still dealing with massive unemployment, failing banks, and soon, rampant inflation from the trillion-dollar “stimulus” forced upon us by the federal government.

There’s also a Mexican drug war brewing on our borders, and the instability caused by the drug cartels could cause a greater influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. That’s a problem if we’re talking about universal health care. It’s also a problem if we’re talking about violent crime, and for that matter, national security.

The remedy for all these problems could literally grow out of the ground. It has always been said that marijuana has medicinal properties; perhaps it is time to let pot nurse our economy back to health.

This is a frightening subject for soccer moms and politicians everywhere, but facts are stubborn things. In an open letter to the President, Congress, and all state governments, more than 500 notable economists, including Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, argue that legalization of marijuana could not only save the government money, but generate revenue in the billions.

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“I’m not interested in taking it from the seniors and giving it to somebody else.”

That is Sarasota Congressman Vern Buchanan’s statement about health care coverage from his town hall meeting on Thursday night at Braden River High School in Bradenton. Of course, Vern doesn’t tell them that they are ALREADY paying for other people, through their taxes that reimburse hospitals for the uninsured at exorbitant rates. Better to let uninsured folks get reallll sick (expensive sick), after all, than have health coverage that provides preventive and well care at lower, more affordable costs.

Here’s video of the towner from PoHo correspondent Robin “Roblimo” Miller, after the jump. It gets testy when a pro-Obama speaker gets up at about 4:20 in:

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