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Bernie Sanders and Ambassador Friis Petersen of Denmark in Montpelier

(I wanted to let the Burton post “soak” a bit before putting this on the front page… – promoted by mataliandy)

The following is a pseudo liveblog from last night’s public meeting in Montpelier, featuring Bernie Sanders and Friis Petersen, the US Ambassador from Denmark, to discuss the difference in health care and education policy in our two countries.  

EVERYTHING below is paraphrased. I tried to capture the gist of what was said, but I can’t type as quickly as humans speak (especially Bernie). Any inaccuracies or misspellings are mine. Feel free to correct.

US Senator Bernie Sanders and Friis Petersen, Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States, Sunday, March 21, 2010

Introduction, Bernie Sanders:

I get a little bit tired of hearing some of my colleagues in Congress and people in the media dismiss the European model and Scandinavian model, because, you know, we’ve solved all social problems … [much laughter]

We were driving in from Burlington earlier and I asked the Ambassador how much vacation time the average Dane has. Some people here have 0 vacation in the us, and many, if they’re lucky, get 2 weeks after a few months and maybe 3 weeks or more if they hang onto the same job for a number of years.

It is 6 weeks for ALL workers in Denmark. [gasps in audience – literally]

Now is not the time for us to be arrogant. It’s time to open our eyes and ears.

One of the issues that bothers me – we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost every nation on earth. Not coincidentally, we also he have the most people in jail. An embarrassingly high percentage of our children are dropping out of high school. College costs are out of control at 40-, 50-, 100-thousand a year. We live in a country where people feel lucky to have a job that makes them work 50 – 60 hrs a week.

[In Denmark] They look at the world a little differently than we do. They are a country that invests in their children. Imagine what it would mean if you knew your kids could go to college. If you knew that your out of pocket for health care wouldn’t bankrupt you.

Recently Mitch McConnell, when talking about health care said “our goal is to make sure we don’t do what Europe did.”

[Introduces Ambassador Petersen – remarks and Q&A below the jump]

Ambassador Friis Petersen:

We Danes are very proud that we are one of the countries in the world with the longest unbroken diplomatic ties with the US.

We call it activist foreign policy – through cold war the policy was “don’t rock the boat” but since the end of the cold war, we have been very close in daring to do things with the US, when others won’t.

We cherish human rights, democracy, rule of law – we try to spearhead those kinds of policies.  We do not do just the hard parts (like military – such as in Afghanistan). That’s been a big priority for me – to be w/the administration on these issues. Another issue, energy and climate. We didn’t get to where we hoped in the Copenhagen accord, but we are happy with the help from Obama that moved the process forward.

How our welfare society is organized:

Dealing with health education, welfare, and social security. The things that you know: we have few natural resources (a little oil and gas in the North Sea, but nothing more, just our heads and hands), so we have to organize ourselves very cleverly to have a high standard of living.

The private sector and the public sector: when we try to look at our private sector, we’ve been able to grow some companies to be very large. We have one rich man in Denmark [laughter]…

We have Vestas wind turbine producer – the largest in the world, some of the largest most successful biofuel companies that create the enzymes that convert biomass (including switchgrass in 2010 and 2011). These successes were created by government policies. We have a lot of medical and pharma companies that combine their production w/corporate social responsibility. When it comes to the business environment, we are ranked as number 1 in the world. You can’t do enough to ensure that your companies are healthful, strong, and sustainable companies.

When it comes to education and health – we have decided to have a very public run, govt financed free for all system. If you want to study to become a doctor, lawyer, etc. in college, you do it because you are interested and because you have the grades – not because you want to make the money.  

People do what they have a strong interest in doing – not because they will make the most money at it. It’s not because we don’t want to have strong business, but because it gives us flexibility and freedom. Our freedom is maximized by offering education free for everyone if they have the desire to work to get the grades that will get them into the program.

When it comes to health, we have universal coverage. Who could not be part of universal coverage? Who would you exclude from health? How would you make the decision? So we had a competition in how to provide the BEST govt run health system.

US pays 19% of GDP to health care. We pay 9%. When it comes to those comparisons of health output – we do a little better, but have half the cost.

No Dane would know what malpractice litigation is – we simply don’t have that. No Dane would know what pre-existing conditions are – we don’t have that. It gives us an increased freedom – enables us to live freely without worrying about health care.

We are not magicians – we just let the private sector do what they do best: create global companies, but at the same time admitting that there are things done best by the public sector. Schools, health care, etc. By that division between private sector and public sector, we get the most freedom. Security that our society needs and wants.

We probably have some of the highest tax rates in the world (50% or more), but that social contract is an attractive contract. We like the services govt provides to us, so we really don’t have a discussion about cutting taxes. It’s not likely to be a factor in next elections. The issues we will see are things like: can our education become even better? We want smarter youngsters securing our long term viability in competition with other countries….

Bernie:

Q: Please explain average life of a Dane. Say I’m a young father. We have a baby. In this country, the mom gets 12 weeks off without pay, if she can afford it. In Denmark how much time do you get off?

A: We had 6 months paid leave when I got married, now it’s 1 year.

Q: Finding good quality child care is enormously difficult in this country.

A: We pay a very high price for child care. There is less expensive care, but my family pays $600/month. We have such a high price, because we want people to consider staying home with their young children, which is why we also provide paid leave.

(Q: to the audience, asking how much does it cost for child care around here? A woman from Montpelier said it’s $45/day which works out to $900/mo).

Q:I lived in Denmark many years ago and never saw anyone complain about health care. They complained about taxes, just because they have to complain about something, but said they would NEVER switch to our system.  Real Q: does Denmark provide free health care and education to immigrants?

A: Yes. It’s one of the biggest issues, politically. You have people who come in and live up to the social contract, but others who don’t. It’s a big political problem. They come and enjoy the benefits, but don’t want to partake of society. There has been some change in immigration policy – requiring that you do certain things to become fully integrated into the society to get access to many of the benefits.

We used to have little crime. We have 68 citizens in prison per 100,000, the US has 10 times as much. The cost of this in the US must is very high.

Q: What did it take to get the nation to accept this kind of social policy, this kind of allocation of $$ resources?

A: It’s a historical evolution from the emergence out of the second world war. We were in VERY bad shape – many would not understand how troubled it was all across Europe at the time. Out of that time came great a production revolution and associated affluence. Out of that grew a prominent role for government to have a dual-component society that would support companies while also providing the services that support society. We didn’t finance it – we accrued a huge debt until the 1980s, when we changed fiscal policy to reduce our debt through high taxes. We had the social policies in place first.

We also had a philosophy to build a strong, vibrant society that had public-private partnership. We have a slower GDP growth rate per year than the US. We want to increase it with more productivity w/more advanced technologies and better education to be more competitive.

Bernie: When we say “conservative” we mean “would privatize all social programs.”  When you say conservative, do you mean the same thing?

Petersen: Well, when people complained about issues (like waiting times of a few weeks for things like knee surgery) we liberalized the system to allow a private health care choice. Conservatives support a socialized system. Our health secretary came to see where US health system (which is the best and worst in the world) can provide ways for us to be better – looking for things like technologies we can adopt. (audience comment: don’t do what we do!)

Q: What is the general tax rate? Isn’t Denmark the country where people bike everyplace, saving resources and being healthier?

A: 35% of transit in Copenhagen is by bike. It’s healthy, but also practical and much smarter than sitting in queue’s being in smog, frustrated, wasting fuel. It’s easier.

Tax rates in the %0% range. We have energy taxes. $9 – 10/gal for gasoline. We’ve decoupled growth from energy consumption. We saved a lot of dollars and increased economic competitiveness that way. By incentivizing people to save energy, and increasing taxes on carbon based energy, we’ve given people incentive to use alternatives – growing those industries, making the success of companies like Vesta possible. We can then reduce income taxes by the amount gathered in carbon taxes. Waste costs extra.

Q: Tell us about your retirement system?

A: Universal people’s pension system for everyone. If you have a little wealth, you get a slight reduction. My Dad retired in 1991, and still enjoys it, and saves from his pension.

Q: How much in American dollars:

A: My Dad makes $1200/mo after taxes (but he doesn’t have to pay for health care, medications, etc.)

Q: Fixed budget for health care?

A: Yes. We keep our total expenditures at 9% by having a system in which the hospitals decide what they can afford in services for a given patient. If it was health suppliers or politics making the decisions, then, like here, the providers would try to provide the most possible care, while health insurers would try to deny the most.  It’s an unhealthy system.

An example of the difference: with my children, because their births were diagnosed as normal, they were born in the hospital without a doctor or midwife present in the room, though a doctor is on-call the whole time, just in case. In the US, you have multiple nurses, doctors, etc. in the room constantly, at an extraordinary cost, even for a normal birth. If you use the $$ for the things that don’t need the $$, like a normal healthy birth, then you are depriving yourself of the bang for the buck in the places where it’s really needed, like cancer treatment.

We know where the money is needed to get the best outcomes, so that’s where we use it.

You might think of it as a cruel system, where doctors decide things for you, but in our system everyone gets the same care as the Prime Minister. We don’t have people getting worse care just because they have less money.

We have highest income and wealth equality in the world. We could not live with inequality similar to other countries. We want equality as a political goal. It creates what is better than the private solutions.  We want the best result – that’s the best of democracy.

Q: I had the privilege of experiencing your system. I went to the hospital at midnight on a Sunday. It cost me $7, including the medicine. How do you ensure quality at every step?

A: Advocating transparency. Hospitals publish treatment records – how well does this hospital work? You have the free choice to go to the hospital with the best treatment. Our standards are high and uniform, so there’s little need to go one place vs the other. But we’ve added private hospitals and private insurance, you pay extra so you don’t have to wait 3 weeks.

The doctors who work in govt hospitals go to the private hospitals after they do their hours in the govt hospitals and make extra $$. We like that, we’re not socialists.

Q: People who want to start a business or are artists, don’t belong to a large pool, and can’t really get insurance. Our system stifles innovation.

A: How do you deal with health care for them? It’s free for everyone. There’s no employer needed to get health care. (Bernie: 25% of people stay on their jobs instead of starting new businesses, so they can get health care. One man joined military when quite old for HC benefits for his wife with cancer.).

Q: You were diplomatic about Copenhagen meeting. Q is for Bernie: I’m sure Denmark doesn’t have the problems we have, global warming will destroy us all, regardless of health care.

A: The dynamic is that I sit on both energy and env. The ranking member of env. committee (Inhofe) does not believe in global warming. Thinks it’s a hoax, not interested in moving forward. Sen Kerry working hard to get 60 votes, which means reaching out to some very, very conservative people. It means we won’t end up with something as strong as it needs to be.  We ARE beginning to make some progress in energy efficiency and sustainable energy. We got the most $$ in history of the US to go toward efficiency and sustainable technology.

A: Petersen: What do people in Denmark feel about this. We’ve had more people visit Greenland to witness global warming. I saw this last week, danish produced film, made in Greenland by danish film director “One Degree Matters” – global warming is real

Danes thend to believe in science.

Q: I worked in Copenhagedn in the 1970s. I was paid more than Danish artists because I was a foreigneer. Are there subsidies for the arts in Denmark now?

A: We attract special quality talent with subsidies. We grant subsidies to as many foreigners as possible to come participate – we benefit from the creativity of those people. We want to make sure we get the best of everything.

Q: Web sites where we can keep up with European and scandanavian countries re: health care over there?

A: It’s easier than before to be informed. If you search the Denmark dept of health, and the  embassy of denmark in DC, you will find links. Danish pharma companies are used to dealing with a very difficult market (misers) that gives them a competitive advantage. Research and innovation is happening from pooling interests – could be even more streamlined and focuses.

Q: Thanks for letting mothers stay with their young children.  I attented discussion w/Dr. Hsaio who discussed the complex system in Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.. Which is better?

A: I can’t immediately come up with studies (off the top of my head). If you compare the US v Denmark or many European systems, you use almost double the amount of GDP but only get the same health care outcomes (or worse). Life expectancy, infant mortality, deisease outcomes.

Bernie: No debate that ours is the most costly and inefficient system in the world. Exactly which system is the most efficient is not answered.

Q: Danes don’t know what malpractice is, how does the system handle injuries?

A: We don’t have malpractice litigation. We try to treat malpractice with great seriousness, by trying to prevent it via procedures – learn from it when it does happen, and try to provide some compensation to the patients.

Bernie: In this country, if you go into surgery and there’s a mistake, you have to pay 10s of thousands of dollars to be made whole. That’s not the case in Senmark.

Q: Our primary care physicians are least well compensated and specialists most well compensated, which drives students into specialties, leading to shortage of primary care physicians.

A: Doctor’s union negotiates with the finance ministry to deal with the compensation. It’s comparable to lawyer or other professional. it’s not US salaries.

Bernie: 10s of millions of people can’t get a doctor. So they walk into emergency room to get treated for a cold. In addition, since doctors emerge from school $100s of thousands if dollars in debt, they can’t afford to be primary care.  We are going to put 12.5 billion into community health centers. 7500 new centers in US, to get health care, dental care, low cost drugs, and increase 17k new doctors, dentists, and nurse practitioners in the next 5 years alone.

Q: Did Denmark ever suffer with public sector people mishandling public resources that makes people worry about large amounts being mishandled? Was there ever such a loss of trust in government? I don’t know if you have lobbyists…

A: Even though I am a public employee, I try to stay in touch with the reality of the economy for the private sector. The challenges in a tough competitive environment, I think what we do in Scandinavia can be done in other places. We don’t pretend that we can give the kind of standardized good health sector policies that we use in Denmark. There are income inequalities that make it harder. Second if you run a big bureaucracy, it’s difficult to make big bureaucracies be effective and productive and stay in tune to the current reality. Maybe at the state level is more comparable.

Bernie: there is a crisis in confidence. Does the average Dane feel better about govt than we do in the US? Yes. If we were 60 times bigger, we might have a harder time proving that we are running the system well.

Q: Mental health care in Denmark. Our system is absolutely broken. Psychiatric hospitals excluded from Medicare reimbursement. 1/2 people w/persistent illness never get care and end up in correctional system.

A: Not an expert on mental health care. But we tried to address the fact that modern life creates mental diseases, and it’s an area where we no longer make the distinction.

Q: Cynical that ins. cos, medical equipment manufacturers and other lobbyists have written our health care policy.

A: Our parliament is pretty independent. We have lobbyists, but our legislature is very independent of them.

Bernie follow-up Q: How does the campaign system work in Denmark?

A: There’s very little financing from private sources in our campaigns. Our parties collect a small membership fee ($100/yr). Companies pay little to the parties. The numbers of dollars spend on campaigns in the US are very, very impressive and staggering.

(Bernie: 5 billion in 10 years wad donated in US just to get deregulation in financial system.)

Q: What do you see for cost happening in Denmark with aging population?

A: We have the same problem as other countries in terms of demographics. Big block of retirees needing care, newer generations are smaller. We’ve done a number of things – make healthy lifestyle important. People smoking less and living healthier, which is counteracting the trend of cost increase from more elderly. We ask older people to stay in the workforce longer – also seeking shorter college programs to get people into the workforce earlier.

Q: Private sector relationship between capital and labor. In US it’s “hands off” invisible hand systen. But we continue to reduce the taxes on most wealthy while our capital flies out of the country seeking lower cost markets. Do you keep your capital in the country?

A: Biggest MS facility outside US is in Denmark. CEO said for MS to be the biggest possible, it would go Danish. Tax rate is something, but the overall assessment of the business environment is what matters to companies when they look at Denmark.

Bernie: Their wages are high, taxes are high (50%), and they have 60% unionization, and they’re one of the best environments for business.

Q: How do your companies become successful with high taxes, and high wages?

A: You have many high salary companies in the US, so it’s not that dependent where you locate your production. The salary isn’t what determines success. It’s the whole company, and its whole process and planning that matters. Advanced consumers and research are important.

Q; (for Bernie: Use reconciliation to force taxes of 95% on insurers, oil cos., etc.)

For the Ambassador: Have you ever seen obstruction in any democracy on the level that’s taken place in Washington in the last year?

A: Bernie: The democratic leadership has started to catch on. You’ll see movement toward reconsideration of the filibuster and hold mechanisms. House will pass its bill today. Next week it comes to Senate. Working hard to get second next budget that will continue the process using reconciliation.

Petersen: If you look at US political scene with very limited time span, you get a bleak assessment. I believe it should be judged on long term performance. The constitution is a state of the art constitution. If you look from longer perspective, it has accomplished more than anyone else, and I would therefore be positive about the US. But it seems to be t a crossroad because the world has changed. Globalization has affected us all. Next I will be ambassador to China and we all have to relate to this new flatter world where legislatures have to try to adjust to the project of the nation. We need to be attentive to broader solutions and cooperation. Your 1st 300 years you’ve done quote well.

Q: Energy policies. We have a leaking nuclear power plant, washing waste into the ground. In all likelihood it will close soon. People are trying to pass alt energy legislation. Farmers in the northern part of state want to start wind on their own farms, but there’s local opposition. Do you have local or govt opposition to such in your country? If so, how did you “stomp it out”?

A: We have no opposition on this. We get 24% of our electricity from wind, which has been a major part of our energy infrastructure for the last 30 years. We decoupled our energy from foreign countries and went from 99% dependence on foreign energy in 1970s to a net exporter today. Energy is our most strategic industry.

The US is very creative, it created the NIMBY phenomenon. You apparently want to discuss everything, but we’re practical people. We thought: if we can harvest the wind, we should harvest it.

We have no nuclear, but the Sweden put their nuclear plant as far from their own major cities as possible – right across from us.

\Bernie: We ignore their successes at our own preil.

Notes from Legislative Forum in Bradford, VT, March 4, 2010

The following are notes from the legislative forum that took place at Bradford Academy in Bradford, VT on March 4, 2010.

In the interests of time, not all questions were answered by all legislators. The legislators at the meeting serve on different committees in their relative legislative bodies, so each has different areas of expertise. In general, they answered based on their personal areas of expertise.

Note:  ALL NOTES ARE PARAPHRASED, because I can’t type as fast as people speak. Thus, any inaccuracies are my fault. (From the Orange County Democrats blog)

Moderator: Brian Emerson, Wells River

Legislators:

Chip Conquest, State Rep., Wells River

Phil Winters, State Rep., Williamstown

Susan Davis, State Rep., Washington

Matt Choate, Senator, St. Johnsbury

Sarah Copeland-Hanzas, State Rep., Bradford

Opening Question:

What do you see as biggest challenges in VT in your district in the near future?

Much More Below the Fold….

Answers:

Sarah: Everybody is probably feeling the same crunch: local towns and family budgets. We’re focused on how to pass a balanced budget in the face of $150 mil in shortfalls. Easy cuts and reductions/inefficiencies have already been done. So this year, we have some really tough decisions to make. Passing a balanced budget that helps VT be sustainable in the “out years” is our biggest responsibility. I work on health care and can talk later if folks want to talk about saving dollars in health care.

Matt: We’re all worried about the budget this year. We’ve not seen a recession of this size scope and length since the great depression. We’re concerned about employment and prolonged unemployment that we’ve seen. Ag and Health care:  Families are struggling to hold onto their farms; how do we get a handle on the cost of health care while maintaining our quality?

Susan: Deals with community grant funds, etc. Looking at the whole district: health care, jobs, retraining for jobs. Many may not have the skills for the next generation of jobs in VT. Biggest across the community: health care, affects household, town, school, and state budget.

Phil: We’re all singing the same song. We all realize that the budget is probably the number one issue. It was an issue last year, it’s an issue this year, and even if we address the shortfall, we;re still looking at $100 mil short fall next year.

Chip: Property taxes. This year the school districts managed to reduce their budgets by .2% and still property taxes went up in most places. How do we make that system function going forward? We need to provide the kind of education we want for our kids, but we also need to make sure the people who pay can afford to pay for it.

Question 2:

Tell me of something you feel good/positive about in your tenure in Montpelier.

Answers:

Chip: Feel positive about most of tenure so far. Really I’m pressed that everybody over there, even though we disagree about a lot of things, everyone is doing what they think is the right thing. I can’t think of one person who’s there for personal gain. After an intense floor debate, where rhetoric gets sharp, when you leave the floor, that gets left behind. That’s been a great revelation to me.

We passed a bill that will help the Ag agency set standards or get help in understanding livestock care standards. Sure everyone familiar w/the Bushway plant issues in the islands. We’ve had a great tradition of farming, raising, and slaughtering livestock, providing food for ourselves. There are groups that would like to see that come to an end. This new council has people from all across the spectrum to bring a lot of experience and perspectives to make recommendations for agency of agriculture to determine whether statutory changes are needed. In order to make sure we’re treating animals humanely with local vermont solutions rather than having them imposed from outside.

Phil: Things can get “kinda hot” on the floor, but of the 150 people in the house, I have no problem sitting down to have a cup of coffee after the debate. Important votes in my tenure: for some, it was voting against Act 60 way back when. But if i had to say one thing, I’d say that over the years I have tried to be business friendly. Some don’t like that, but i really believe that without jobs, what have we got? So we have to be business friendly. My goal for this year is to come out of this with a balanced budget.

Susan: I listened to the folks in my district when campaigning and introduced a single-payer health care bill in the leg. I’m from a 3rd party, which is interesting, because I get to present a different view sometimes. Like shifting cost from state to local communities. I feel positive that we are interested in supporting moving the property tax system to an income based on vs current system.

Matt: 2 items: I agree that in the Senate I have not experienced a hugely partisan debate, but it’s not at the level we think of when we think of the Washington presented by the media.

Last year introduced a bill that had local impact: maple sugaring on state forest lands. This gives authority to open certain parcels of state land for sugaring. This will have a $500k impact on local economies this year, and over the next few years, could be a several million dollar impact.

Despite showboating last year, we passed a balanced budget, while keeping services intact for the worst economic times we’ve seen. We didn’t leave any one out in the dark.

Sarah: Pharmaceutical marketing bill – prescription drug pricing board of legislators from various states. SHaring ways we can save money in pharma costs. It’s one of the fastest growing health care costs. ANd health care is one of the fasted costs in country.

Limit pharma marketing to doctors. We see the tv ads for celebrex, etc. We can’t touch that, since it’s marketed toward consumers. We can curb the marketing in doctor’s offices. This marketing is 30% or more on the cost of your drugs. They market the new drugs to try to get doctors to shift prescribing patterns. Pushing the doctors toward new one that costs 10 times as much, even if it may make no difference in your care. Doctors can do their research. They don’t need to be given a fancy trip or expensive lunch by pharma reps. We banned gifts to doctors and allow only legit trips to real conferences to be paid for by pharma reps

Audience Q&A Session

Q:

Why spend time on health when we have the federal govt. coming out with a new one that will change whatever you’re doing now, and you’ll have to start over. Wouldn’t that be a waste of time?

A: Matt: We have 2 offices that help us, they research and draft our bills. Joint fiscal office does money analysis. When fed health care was announced last fall, they did analysis on what that would mean for VT, it was presented as fairly damaging to VT, because we already have good coverage for uninsured. Our state would have been damaged, and this analysis has been avail since before we convened for the session. We think something will pass, but we don’t quite know what, but we’ve had analysis of every single change. What helps us is the pilot tests for states to implement different models, so states can find best practices. No one seems ready to run ahead with one model nationwide. So, with those pilots, we’re in a good position to head along the path we’ve been on. It’s not a waste of time. We’ve assumed something will pass with waivers and pilots allowed, or it won’t pass, then we can do what we’re doing under a different path.

Q:

I’ve seen lots of money wasted on pie in the sky schemes on what we do with waste in town leading to shut down of waste handling. Have you considered ways to reign in local district committees, letting state handle this.

A: Phil: We haven’t passed much at the state level, but have passed an e-waste bill. Guidelines are being set by the legislature and will require manufacturers to take your e-waste at certain depots to take this stuff off your hands.

Q:

Isn’t state policy to get to zero waste? If so, and there isn’t a market for recyclables in US, what can VT do to create a market or deal with recyclables?

A: Sarah
: None of us sits on the natural resources committee, and it would be good if we had someone with that experience. Local communities are focusing on composting, which takes much out, but if we are aiming for zero waste, then we do have to do something for the recycling stream. Nothing’s going to happen on that this year. While that sort of investment is the direction we should go, it’s not something we have money for right now.

Q:

Jobs and business friendly: creating jobs or giving a tax credit is not the answer at this point. I could hire 10 people, but they’d be sitting twiddling their thumbs. What is the state doing to help business get the customers through the door? 80% of business customers are other businesses. When is the state going to lower taxes to bring business into the state?

A: Susan: Institutions and corrections looks at dollars for binding and maintenance of assets. Building in Essex in negotiations with a solar company to bring business into the essex junction to create 400 jobs to make solar panels, hiring lad off folks from IBM and others. This means more dollars going into businesses. Every dollar paid to new employees brings customers through the doors, buying clothes and houses, etc.

A: Phil: I think over the past few years the state has done a lot to encourage businesses to expand, I do think the state has pretty much said the business will help them expand w/tax breaks, but not much thought re: where this production is going. Sales and other taxes in the state, if there’s any discussion to reduce those, I’m not aware of it.



A: Matt
: Sen, Illuzzi on economic dev committee, to readdress the estate tax. The current model is a negative impact on large farms and some large businesses.  Property taxes are looking at education spending. Much is being discussed in education committee right now. There have been many reports. If we address the costs of education, we can reduce the related taxes. General fund spending last year was 2006 level. In order to take advantage of ARRA funds, we had to maintain taxes at 3 years back. The stimulus money is going away, so we need to deal with how to cope with that loss.  There is a restructuring of state govt to reduce spending on just how we do business as a state. Will take effect this year. There are efforts afoot to get spending down.

A: Susan: Sales tax is a regressive tax. I am more interested in an income tax increase instead of huge fees on small businesses or a hike in sales tax. It hits the poor, and prevents people from coming through the door.

Q:

Let’s talk about Joint resolution 33 (tolls on VT highways)

A: Phil: on transportation committee, our interstates were built with federal money and there are federal issues with putting tolls on federally-financed highways. Those with toll booths were state highways built with state money.

Q: (followup):

if we do have tolls, can we have a sticker w/VT registration so voters won’t have to pay it?

Q:

People come out for the little savings on the sales tax holiday day. When P&C closed we went down & filled our cupboards…. (asking for lower sales tax or extend free-sales tax day)

A: Sarah: In the CT river valley, we’re in different position than the rest in VT, because people can just drive across the river to not pay sales tax. We in this part of the state tend to be the champions for keeping sales tax low, or exempting things (like clothes and shoes), but we’re outnumbered. But we certainly advocate for and push for sanity and pause and “be careful” with respect to sales tax.

A: Chip: We also have to remember that sales tax reduction has to be made up somewhere else. 25% of general fund comes from sales tax, and we’ll still have to find that money somewhere else.

A: Phil: Under present setup, we transfer 107 million sales tax to education fund, which lowers property taxes.

Q:

In Lyndon on Tues local reps gave picture of fiscal problems in the state: “We’re 150 mil in debt now, will be 225 mil next year and will extend past 2014, and with closure of VT Yankee, $49 mil in direct tax payments and energy efficiency funds will be lost as well.

3 options: combo tax increases and service cuts, overhaul govt with only service cuts, or lots of taxes increased, or possibly hope for big fed money inflow.



A: Sarah
: We started this yr w/150 mil hole. I don’t have projections for the out years. $38 mil this year is being filled through a bill we call the challenges for change. Asks areas of state govt to, instead of creating budgets based on last year, to throw away prior budget, ask core mission of dept, and what is absolutely needed to fulfill core mission – then eliminate the non-core elements. Through that process, which is very uncomfortable for those who have done the old process for years. If we can succeed in the areas we look at this year, we should be able to do the same in more depts and look more deeply next year. THe uncomfortable truth: we’ll pull back on services VTers rely on. Will make part of the state population more difficult. Even though it’s necessary, we need to be looking at living within our means. Need to be honest with what that means to real VTers.

A: Matt: Sarah hit the highlights. From my perspective, we have to live w/in our means. We’ve spent a fair amount of time discussing what’s best, and we are together on the fact that we’re over-stretched. Fiscal projections have assumptions built into them. There are COLA increases built in, and those don’t always materialize as expected. As far as the $150 mil, We’ve looked at $90 mil already. 2/3 of our budget = health care and education. The rest is being looked at as well. We are very much looking at living within our means without raising taxes.

A: Susan: I have not been in favor of challenges for change – after working for 31 yrs in state govt, there’s no short range or long range planning. We’re seeing the results of that lack of planning. While c for c is touted as cutting 38 mil, but I doubt we’ll actually see those savings. It’s an uncomfortable truth. I am not an economist. I know I have to pay my bills and balance my checkbook at home, but all research I’ve read I show no data that shows that raising taxes is actually detrimental when we’re in such hard times as this.

A: Phil: I can say I haven’t voted to raise a tax in 6 – 7 years. We look @ 150mil dollars, it’s a big figure, but keep in mind the total budget w/fed and state dollars, we’re talking $4,660,000 dollars. The $150 mil is not as big as you might think.

A: Chip: If we save $150 mil this year. I don’t think it’ll bee the 225 mil next year, but will instead be 100 mil. To make that true, we need to make sure that the cuts we make are ongoing ones, not short term ones. It gets to a point where you have to decide what the core, essential parts of state govt. is. If you get to that point and can’t cut any more, then you have to raise taxes to continue to support the essential core. We’re getting pretty close – into programs that some say we shouldn’t cut, but we will.

A: Susan: Challenges for change and efficiencies – we have commissioners and deputy commissioners, and highly-paid people who are supposed to plan and find efficiencies. They aren’t doing that planning. We can’t just make cuts without doing the planning. We’ll make cuts without knowing where we’re going.

Q:

Single-payer, nationally, saves costs. If we do this at state level what ware the pros and cons?

A: Matt: We have 7 bills in health and welfare. All have some variation on the theme. We have taken testimony: pro: simple admin structure, pone pot of money one payer (one entity). That payor makes all the payments. Payment is simplified. Nothing to do with cost is automatically in a single-payer bill. However cost controls can be included. Negatives: people go out of the state and come into the state for care. There must still be structure for out-of-state instances. (1% savings on one side, 30% savings on the other side) Probably both are right, and true number is somewhere in between.

If fed pilot or waiver comes in, that’s a model we could choose, but that’s not the direction we’ve gone in.

Q:

H382 – Jobs. None of these problems will go away until we get jobs in the state. Bill requires 56 hrs of paid sick time, whether business can afford it or not. I admin fed program to protect jobs if people can’t be at work. How will this help?

A: Chip: Wrote letter to chair of committee and said that while we should consider this in future, this is not the time. Asked for the bill to be withheld.

A: Sarah: The glory of our democracy is that anyone can any bill. Introduction doesn’t mean it will go anywhere. Chair of house general committee chair is very aware of the concerns. Instead of having more testimony on this bill, would like to have employees, employers, and health pros get together to propose something that will make sense.

Q: Comment re: H100, p 10, lines 10 – 14. Don’t require employers to contribute a fair share toward health care costs in VT (no question asked)

Q:

Number of bills to do something (usually reorg). how would you like to see it proceed?

A: Chip: Majority set a certain number of districts around the state, ranging from 9 to 16. There’s one that doesn’t mandate the districts, but provides incentives for districts to voluntarily join to make a larger district. Allows the districts to determine whether change would save money. Haven’t seen details on how these would save significant money. I don’t think that that’s the main part of the answer to how we’ll continue to afford education. We need to look at the hard questions: you can’t avoid the idea that we’ll have fewer teachers for the number of students.

Q:

Who is defining the core mission, and where is the info being captured? How uniformly is the vision shared across state gov?

A: Sarah: Each agency is asked to re-evaluate what  statutes require them to do. Might include agency saying we need these laws repealed because we cannot afford to regulate this or provide that. The folks at the agencies’ leaders are responsible for what the agency does. They need to work with legislature to determine what we should be doing. For example, agriculture dept. might come back & say “let agency of natural resources handle it all” and leg may or may not allow the merger. It’s not a simple blackboard drawing.



A: Susan
: Commissioners and deputies coming back & forth with legislature, in this same year we’re looking for those cuts, we have a request for millions of IT infrastructure improvements. I managed the state network infrastructure, but they’re requesting without a plan or cost benefit analysis. If we want to come back with ideas, we need mission statement, how it ties to jobs, how it ties to economic development, etc.

A: Chip: This crisis is forcing me to struggle with the basic question of what are the basic core functions of state government? I don’t have a pat answer at this point, and I think that’s true of most in the state house. I imagine you’re all thinking about it, too. With the money that’s coming in, what are the things you think we shouldn’t be doing? People often think about social services when wondering what we ought to be doing, but we used to have the “overseer of the poor” in local government. It has been important to really and truly take care of people in need.

A: Matt: If I go back to the state constitution, I ran against a strict constitutionalist. Absent is what is the purpose of state government. It lays out the structure, but allows flexible government, because what the people need changes over time. We inherited

Q:

We’ve heard lots about infrastructure for a long time. What is the state doing to handle that?

A: Susan: Request for money for expanding broadband. We created telecommunications authority to look at expanding broadband. We talked about need for help in getting to the last mile, so Mrs. O’malley can get broadband. Now with fed stimulus money as a possibility, we’re talking about middle mile. It’s tied to smart grid technology, we need the middle mile to work. But the last mile was the most expensive piece. Hopefully, with this year’s legislation, we won’t forget that we’ll need to reach out to the last mile.



Q:


School board member: Gov often indicates act 60 and 68 are broken and irreparable. That being said, I do not understand how so much energy and time is being spent on the hill trying to turn the educational system on its ear, putting us out of work, and does not address the funding through property tax. It was never designed to deal with what it’s doing right now. Why aren’t we using income tax? When are you going to start dealing with the clearly broken stuff? When are 60 and 68 going to be looked at?

A: Susan: One thing I’ve been looking at. There was a tri-partisan bill a few years ago to change the school funding. Need political will, the will of you folks to talk to the political side to get them to do it.

A: Sarah: Funding education through property tax worked well when wealth and land were closely tied. VT has changed a lot in the last 200 years. Our education system is doing really well. I have 3 kids in the pub school system. We’re doing well compared to other places w/quality of education. When the big =shakedown came, a lot of people have thrown a lot of rotten tomatoes at Act 6o over the years, but it was a compromise. VTers were calling for change to be made, and that was the change that was made, and it stopped there. The more income you have, the more you can afford to pay. 70% of Bradford pay school taxes based on income, and other percentages in other towns. It’s a confusing system, but it’s a hybrid that is based on both income and property. People are not proposing the alternatives, while happily throwing stones.

A: Chip: Happy to consider income tax as source. Number of reasons why that may not work so well: easier to hide income than to hide your property. But whichever way it’s done, we need to figure out how to slow the rate of cost growth. Switching revenue source may make some difference to some people,, but without addressing the cost growth, it still has to come from somewhere.

Act 60 & 68 not totally broken. Can have a system that’s completely fair or completely simple, but can’t have both. So we’ve moved toward totally fair, but that makes it confusing, so people don’t trust it.

A: Phil: I think it’s broken and could carry on for 10 minutes.

Closing Remarks:

Chip: I plan to continue to keep the people in my district in mind. i do appreciate so much where I live, and like it very much the way it is. I want to work to make sure people can continue to live there, and to have the good life that they have there.

Phil: I think the fact that the current problems we’re having indicates that we didn’t do a good job of managing our job when we had money. I know it’s hard to say no when you have a dollar in your pocket. As has been pointed out, major dollars are education and human services. When talking about human services, you are indeed affecting people. To those who would say we cannot get into the human services, I think we should look back and remember the years when we thought we’d be short on LIHEAP and we heard people say people will freeze to death in their homes. Even if we make substantial cuts, I’m not at all convinced that we’ll see people who need our help sitting on the street corner. So I’ll go back & start work on the budget.

Susan: Will look at ways to reduce recidivism. It’s costly to keep people in prison. We can[‘t keep putting people in prison when it costs less to keep them out. Closure of Chelsea court and courthouse – will try to keep eyes on that, and look at the costs being shifted onto our communities as a result of these state cuts. We may not have any better support structure at local level to make up for these cuts.

Matt: Bring perspective of worker, younger generation who goes out of state. I appreciate my roots and community. You’ll have the opportunity to vote on whether or not I did a good job in November. I will work on agriculture and healthcare. Will really try to make something that saves on health care. I think we’re very close.

Sarah: What do these cuts mean? We’ve talked in general terms and I want to say, a lot of these final 21 mil in cuts (and some already made) will impact people’s ability to live with dignity, live in their communities. Some cuts will create immediate increases. For example, home health cuts will push people into nursing homes, which costs much more than if they stayed home. When you cut developmental disability services, that makes it harder for parent to work. In 2 parent family, 1 will have to cut hours or stop working to stay with child. That has terrible impacts on these families. These are services the state has provided with fed funding, and this is the kind of cuts we’re looking at. You have to put a human face on those cuts in order to do that with a good conscience. “By the time we get done here, everyone is going to hate us.” and this is why. I hear frustration about taxes and school funding. This is the human face.

I will continue to hold meetings like this, make a rotating circuit between school and select boards, and will continue to write in JO.

I will continue to answer your questions in person. Grab me where you find me, ask a question. I will be happy to answer. I’m also happy to answer emails.

Sanders’ Keynote at VECAN Community Energy Conference Today

[Note: Senator Sanders had to attend via teleconference, due to the Health care vote today in the Senate]



The following is paraphrased. If there are any unclear bits, it’s probably because I couldn’t type as fast as Senator Sanders spoke. I also didn’t catch the first minute or so, so it starts at an awkward point… Items in square brackets [like this] are from me either filling in detail for clarity, or filling in chunks where I couldn’t keep close.

We’re in an unprecedented position. Worse than any time since the Great Depression – not only in terms of the health care system and wars, but an economy in very bad shape. Green house gasses (GHGs) and global warming add a global problem to the mix. As the most powerful country on earth, we have to be the leaders. For many years, the US was not present in the climate discussion and we had a President who barely acknowledged the issue. We must make substantial cuts in GHG emissions. I will fight to make strongest possible bill.

Last year, we spent 350 billion importing oil from S. Arabia, Venezuela, etc. If we invested a fraction of that into sustainable energy and efficiency, we could be the world leader. When you invest in efficiency, renewables, etc. you create millions of new, good paying jobs. When you do that, you reduce GHGs, you reduce dependence on fossil fuels, you create millions of jobs – it’s a win-win-win.  

We’re currently trying to shape national policy. If you have policy ideas speak w/Kelly Lucci (VT office) and Darrin Springer (DC).

2 things:

1) Shape national legislation as best we can. There is enormous opposition from oil, coal, and right wing politicians. The current Senate bill is better than the House bill, but nowhere near strong enough.

I’m also trying to make VT the model for what the rest of the country should look like in terms of GHG emissions and sustainability. We are generally regarded as leaders in US in terms of efficiency. We consume less electricity than we used to consume, which is tremendous.  Despite that, first, as a state, we all know that we can do better. And second, if the rest of the country caught up to VT in terms of efficiency, we are talking prevention of creation of over 300 new coal burning plants.

We are NOT doing as well in implementation of sustainable energy. We have a long way to go. You know the wind controversy. I think there’s great potential, not only in terms of farms, but in terms of small inexpensive turbines all over the state and throughout rural America. We can see a situation where people are producing 40% or more of their electricity from their own location. Solar – in VT we understand it, but others don’t. [Unstated, but implied: you don’t have to be in the desert southwest for solar to be viable.] We are better located than say, Germany for solar power [VT is closer to the equator]. NJ has been very aggressive in terms of solar. We’re trying to bring money into state for more.  Last year, we got funding from DOD (defense dept) to make the VT National Guard base the greenest base in America ($5 mil last year, expect another $5 mil this year). They’re looking at Solar, Geothermal, biomass and efficiency.

For state residents, we got a solar hot water grant for $500k for solar hw systems at large housing developments. Substantial money is coming into state via energy environmental block grants. We’re seeking money for green a jobs training program. We need to train workers to deal with wind and solar. Hope we will see a significant expansion in solar, wind in the state.  There’s an upcoming conference on geothermal in next couple of months. Biomass has huge potential. Middlebury College is heating their campus with biomass (Combined Heat and Electric). We’re seeing district heating projects.  There’s great potential out there.

In many ways, this is the great moral challenge of our moment. The way we will succeed is grassroots mobilization. If we can educate people & help make homes more efficient, expose people to the products that are out there, we can make a difference.

It’s not an accident that DOE is giving $69 mil to promote a smart grid in VT. It’s a direct result of the fact that VT is already moving forward aggressively on these technologies.

Our energy, transit, land use planning  – we are in the moment to make change. We (VT) are positioned to be a world leader in this realm.

Q& A Session:

Question:

Global warming is more important than health care & Afghanistan. How do we move it beyond politics as usual?

Answer:

The real need is to fundamentally change our national priorities. The only way we make things happen is through strong grassroots activism. If millions of people come together and demand government not represent the greedy & powerful lobbyists, we can make the transformation.

I could give a long speech about how every progressive initiative is being met with enormous opposition & huge sums of money. Politics is a 365 day a year effort. We’ve gotta keep pushing. White house needs grassroots support. The fate of the planet depends on reducing GHG emissions. We’ve gotta rally the public, knock on our neighbor’s doors.


Question:

Will you fight to keep nuclear energy out of the national bill?

Answer:

Very few members of the Senate are willing to raise that cry. When you talk about the energy bill & special interests’ power, you’re not just talking about coal and oil. All the right wing politicians say “we need a nuclear renaissance.” They’re talking construction of hundreds of new nuclear plants. It’s not just right wing republicans, but many democrats saying that as well.

I presented a chart at last meeting. When you talk about nuclear power, there are two issues.

I asked “will you please raise your hand if you know which state will accept all nuclear waste.” No one raised their hand. There is no state in the country that wants it. Yucca Mountain was supposed to take the waste from current plants, but not any more. The Senate leader is from Arizona. He doesn’t want the waste in his state.

But the waste is not going to be the major argument: it’s the cost.

We had a chart showing that if you want to generate new energy in America, the cheapest way to go is efficiency. Then wind, then solar, and all alt energy options: all of them are cheaper than nuclear.

We can produce 29% just from solar thermal in US SW. Forget pv, that’s just solar hot water concentrators [to make steam].

It’s not just the waste or the potential danger, it’s the cost that makes nuke a non-starter. Bad news: a lot of republicans and some dems are pushing nuke.

New leg to introduce 10 million rooftops.


Question:

How long do we have to wait for a revenue neutral carbon tax?

Answer:

The idea is out there, but cap & trade is more actively supported (it’s the train that’s moving), and current legislation includes cap & trade, not a carbon tax. Companies are pushing for foreign offsets, so they can get all their offsets in places where the labor is cheap. When Goldman Sachs looks at this, [speculation is a big incentive].

Opposition to having any climate/energy bill at all is fierce.

What you’re [conference attendees] doing is enormously important. If we can knock on every door, give out quality information, and tell people how to make their homes and town buildings more efficient, we can show the country and the world how to transform their energy use.

Question:

What can we do in VT, since our Senators and Rep are on board.

Answer: [Sanders had to go vote, this was answered by Kelley Lucci, state level energy and environment staff]

You are already in the process of addressing that. We’re impressed w/proliferation of the town energy committees around the state. We can be an international leader by our example, having more impact than we realize outside the borders of our state.

Ed Adrian Wants Leopold Sent Home, Calls for Investigation Re: Burlington Telecom

In the ongoing saga regarding Burlington Telecom being given $17 million by the City of Burlington, in contravention of the company’s Certificate of Public Good, Burlington City Councilor Ed Adrian today called on Mayor Kiss to place Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Jonathan Leopold on administrative leave.

Adrian lays out the case for leave with straightforward language:

The CAO’s own public admissions in respect to BT, clearly establish the following facts: 1) he deceived the Council (the corporate board for BT) by omission; 2) for a period of at least six (6) months; 3) that he purposefully and willfully violated BT’s certificate of public good; 4) by moving millions of dollars from the City’s cash pool. Again all of this was done without approval (i.e. a vote) by the Council. Please note that when I indicate that CAO Leopold acted illegally, I am not alleging that he has engaged in any criminal wrongdoing; however, it is entirely clear that he intentionally violated the CPG, thus breaking the law and thereby acting illegally.

Burlington Telecom has provided a great service to the city of Burlington. This fact is not being questioned – even if some of those involved in the situation may have a tendency to fight against any organization whose primary goal is providing public benefit without skimming off tons of corporate profit.

The question of the moment is: How should the city deal with it’s Chief Administrative Officer single-handedly appropriating millions of dollars to an entity without approval of the City Council (and the questions that arise from the City Council’s retroactive acquiescing to such action)?

(Full text of Adrian’s letter follows)

For those looking to read more, additional details can be found at 7-Days and Vermont Daily Briefing.

COUNCILOR ED ADRIAN

35 BROOKES AVENUE

BURLINGTON, VT 05401

(802) 233-2131

Mayor Bob Kiss

Room 34, City Hall

Burlington, Vermont 05401

RE: Administrative Leave for CAO Jonathan Leopold

Dear Bob:

Based on his public statements about the actions he has taken since bringing the

management of Burlington Telecom (BT) into the CAO’s office in November 2007, I am

respectfully asking you to initiate a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding

the management of BT and to place CAO Jonathan Leopold on unpaid administrative

leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

I do not take my responsibility in writing this letter lightly and I do so only after having

consulted with many attorneys and dozens of thoughtful members of the community. I

also understand that, because I am the messenger, you may see this letter as “political

maneuvering.” While partisan politics is not at all my motivation in writing this letter, the

process in and of itself makes this a political situation. I have consulted with Ken Schatz

and asked him what it would take to initiate proceedings against a department head.

Attorney Schatz has advised me that disciplinary proceedings with respect to department

heads are controlled by City Charter Section 129, which essentially provides that only the

City Council and/or the Mayor may initiate disciplinary proceedings against a department

head. Thus, unlike “at will” or union employees, disciplinary action against department

heads are “politicized” by the plain language of the City Charter which only allows

elected officials to take such action.

With that being said, I wish that this letter were coming from someone other than me. I

hope you understand that whatever I do and however I do it, it is because I think it is in

the best interests of my constituents and the City as a whole. It is thus after weeks of

careful thought and consideration that I am respectfully requesting that you place CAO

Jonathan Leopold on unpaid administrative leave pending a full investigation into the

circumstances surrounding the handling of Burlington Telecom.

The CAO’s own public admissions in respect to BT, clearly establish the following facts:

1) he deceived the Council (the corporate board for BT) by omission; 2) for a period of at

least six (6) months; 3) that he purposefully and willfully violated BT’s certificate of

public good; 4) by moving millions of dollars from the City’s cash pool. Again all of this

was done without approval (i.e. a vote) by the Council. Please note that when I indicate

that CAO Leopold acted illegally, I am not alleging that he has engaged in any criminal

wrongdoing; however, it is entirely clear that he intentionally violated the CPG, thus

breaking the law and thereby acting illegally.

The CAO’ s own statements conclusively establish that he misappropriated millions of

taxpayer dollars and mislead the Council and the public for an extended period of time

about this illegal diversion of city funds. If these admissions do not by themselves

demonstrate dereliction of the CAO’s official duties, meriting an imposed absence

pending the outcome of an investigation, than it is difficult to imagine what does.

Certainly your own precedent in suspending a City employee pending the investigation of

issues involving far less money and infinitely less jeopardy to taxpayers demands this

action at the very least.

Bob, we are at a crucial turning point in Burlington’s history. BT may still be a viable

venture for Burlington, but it has become clear to me over the last month that it has been

mismanaged and that the CAO is responsible for this mismanagement. Success can never

be claimed if it is founded on illegality. For the people of Burlington, the City, and BT I

would encourage you to move forward and support a leave of absence for the CAO and

an independent investigation that will determine the mistakes that were made and keep

BT from making similar errors in the future.

Please do not hesitate to give me a call at 233-2131 if you have any questions or

concerns. I hope that you, I, and the rest of the Council will be able to work together to

continue to move BT and the City forward. For now, I remain,

Very truly yours,

s Ed Adrian

Ward 1 City Councilor

Cc: City Councilors

Sad News from Burlington

We have learned from Seven Days that serious allegations have been made about the behavior of Senator Ed Flanagan at the Burlington YMCA.

There are reportedly two witnesses, and if what they’re saying is true this seems like it may be another aspect of the tragedies that have befallen Ed in recent years as a result of two serious motor vehicle accidents.

He’s done a lot as a progressive Democrat, and especially as Auditor of Accounts, where he truly revolutionized the position. Nevertheless, we’ve learned over the years that trying to cover up or paper over serious personal problems, which has been the reflexive response of the Right, does not serve the interests of the progressive movement or the people. Coming on the heels of the earlier Seven Days article, which we thought was insufficiently sourced, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that his political career may be irretrievably damaged.

We hope his friends are giving him all the support and guidance he needs at this time.

Make Public Health Care Happen

——-

Update: Tweet the following on Twitter, and get all your friends and family to tweet it, too:



@ChuckGrassley Public option = $256B in savings. Your plan = $32B in added cost. http://bit.ly/VDBH4.  Public Option, now.  #health_care


——-

More than 70% of Americans want a public health care option, but the health insurers and others who profit from the current “death by spreadsheet” system are fighting tooth and nail against us.

There are two paths for action, both of which are needed, to get the message across to our elected leadership in Washington.

Path One – Call People in Key States and ask them to Contact their Congressional Delegation

Those making deals with insurers and others to weaken health care need to hear from their constituents (aka: the people who can vote against them in the next election). They need to hear every single day, and the way to make that happen is to make sure their constituents know that these fine folks are planning to vote against the constituents’ wishes.

The Organizing for America Neighbor to Neighbor tool is the key tool for this path. You’ll need and Organizing for America account, if you don’t already have one, but it’s an easy sign-up.

Look for this button when you go there:

Click it, and on the page that appears, choose the state of one of the key legislators. Those states and legislators are listed in the table on this page.

Path Two – Call Key Representatives and Senators Directly

——-

Update: Tweet the following on Twitter, and get all your friends and family to tweet it, too:



@ChuckGrassley Public option = $256B in savings. Your plan = $32B in added cost. http://bit.ly/VDBH4.  Public Option, now.  #health_care


——-

This path is slightly less effective than when constituents call, BUT is still needed in order to let these particularly important folks know that we’re all watching and that campaign funds from us might just find its way to their opponents next time out, if they ignore us on this issue.

Over the fold is a complete repost from today’s DailyKos diary by slinkerwink on the subject. It provides a little background, contact info, and talking points.

We can sit by and despair over how “it’s never going to happen” or we can do our best to make it happen despite the odds. I’m for the latter option.

Get Busy!

slinkerwink’s diary:

Late last night, I wrote over at FireDogLake about a call to Rep. Woolsey’s office to ask her to stay in, help fight for health care reform for us all, and not to go on vacation. Well, guess what the answer was from her office? Here’s the report straight from one of our kossacks here:

Did it, called everyone and a email to the WH. cannot get thru on phone. line is continue to be busy. Lynn Woolsey’s office tried to tell me Congresswoman needs to go home and listen to her voters. I told her that they need to get this done before going on vacation. We are all voters and the voters have spoken.

Apparently Lynn Woolsey thinks it’s okay for Congress to delay the passage of health care reform by insisting that Members of Congress have the right to go on vacation to “listen” to their constituents. So, why is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus ready to go on vacation and allow this bill to be held hostage by the Blue Dogs? Please call her office at 202-225-5161, and report back with answers if you can.

You know what happens if they allow health care reform to be delayed until after the August recess? These Members go home, they get hit by hundreds of TV ads from the murder-by-spreadsheet industry, and they get phone calls from angry voters about “socialized health care.” Then they come back, scared to pass real health care reform, so they end up passing health care reform that may not include a public option or a national insurance exchange. The stakes are very high this week.

We have to keep up the phone calls from yesterday. We’ve got to let Members of Congress, the Democratic leadership, and the White House know that we don’t want them to go on vacation in August until they deal with health care reform FIRST. We can’t have them be scared by the Blue Dog Democrats and the lying Republicans into cutting back subsidies for Americans, getting rid of the national insurance exchange, and putting in state-based co-ops into the health care reform package.

Please keep up with the phone calls to the Democratic leadership, the three chairmen of the House committees, the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and the White House today!

We really can’t allow the Blue Dog Democrats to kill the public option, cut back subsidies for the middle-class, have state-based co-ops, and state-based insurance exchanges. That would cut down the effectiveness of this bill, and the Blue Dogs know it. Also, we’re not going to be calling the Blue Dog Democrats on the spreadsheet today. I’ve been told they just don’t listen to phone calls from “liberals.” Skip the ones that are highlighted in red for now today.

Here are the talking points below:

I’m calling to thank [Name of Member] for supporting the House health care plan, and for supporting the public option and the national insurance exchange. As an American who’s faced denials of claims and has been facing higher insurance premiums, the public option and the national insurance exchange is NECESSARY to hold down the costs of private insurance and give us the kind of care we need. Please DO NOT vote for any amendments during the mark-up process that would weaken the public option and the national insurance exchange! I’ve been hearing that the Blue Dog Democrats want to cut back subsidies for my family, that they want a fake state-based co-op plan, and have a trigger on the national insurance exchange by having it as state-based insurance exchanges at first. What they want is unacceptable for me and my family. Don’t give into their demands. I’m an American who needs the choice of the national insurance exchange and the public option.

CALL Speaker Nancy Pelosi at (202) 225-4965 and try her local office at (415) 556-4862 if you can’t get through.

CALL House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at (202) 225-3130

CALL House Majority Whip James Clyburn at (202) 226-3210

Can you please CALL these THREE chairmen in the House of Representatives, with your concerns about the Blue Dog Democrats trying to block health care reform and ask them NOT to listen to the Blue Dogs or give into their demandsl?

Ways and Means Committee Chair Charlie Rangel (202) 225-3625)

Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (202) 225-2927)

Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller (202) 225-3725)

And DON’T FORGET TO CALL THE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF THE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE with the talking points above.

Also, don’t forget to call the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and ask them to take a strong stand against the Blue Dogs’ actions by asking the House leadership not to give into their demands to weaken the health care reform bill, and especially the Medicare-like public option in the bill.

CALL Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the CPC, at 202-225-2435

CALL Rep. Lynn Woolsey, co-chair of the CPC, at 202-225-5161

And don’t forget to CRACK THE WHIP on the rest of the Congressional Progressive Caucus so they stand as a strong voting bloc in opposition to the Blue Dog Democrats!

Right now, we really need you to CALL the White House with the talking points and tell them that the Blue Dog Democrats must UPHOLD the majority view of Americans who need a strong, robust Medicare-like public option, and not to give into their demands to weaken the public option in health care reform!

CALL The White House at 202-456-1111 and E-MAIL THEM with the talking points above, and ask for Congress to stay and work on health care reform instead of going off on vacation!

Can you also please help nyceve, Jane Hamsher, me, and others in this fight for health reform by donating? We’re working so hard on this issue, day in and day out.

And donate to dotPAC as well? They’re running Facebook ads against the Blue Dogs about their opposition to health care reform. They’re doing a great service for us progressives in this fight.

Please RECOMMEND this diary so others can see the phone numbers and call today!

Also, let me know how the calls are going today! Please report back about your calls if you can.

Another One Bites the Dust – One Less Job in America

How does the old saying go? “When other people lose their jobs, it’s a recession; when you lose yours, it’s a depression.”  Things just got depressing in our household. Our sole breadwinner just joined the newly unemployed. His company has been seeking funding for months (a startup), but hasn’t secured what they need. In order to remain viable while continuing the funding search, they’ve had to cut pretty deeply.

Folks who’ve seen my comments and diaries over the years know that we had a long, nasty patch of dual-unemployment, large COBRA payments, and two kids to feed a few years ago. It left us in a deep debt hole, which we have largely failed to climb out of, but slow, halting, painful progress was being made.

Since every 401k penny was drained last time, and paying down high interest debt takes precedence over investing, we don’t have to worry about losing our 401K to COBRA this time out, so that won’t be quite as much of a drag… heh.

So we’re back to about 50 places behind the starting line. With no health insurance. And 2 growing kids. We have no mortgage (no house either), but we have significant credit card debt, and our only car’s not paid off.

I’ve been looking for a while now, and have noticed that one does not even get auto-replies when you send in resumes. Most companies aren’t quite tech-savvy enough to have their mail server set up to automatically respond with boiler-plate indicating your resume has been received, and others are so inundated with applicants, they couldn’t possibly reply.  I talked to one company a while back (to find out if they’d received my resume, because their submission form glitched), they’d received 4000 resumes within 2 days of posting the job on CraigsList. It took a while to find mine in the mass of responses.

Oddly, I’m feeling pretty calm about it. I mean, we’ve been through this. It sucks, but at least we have a place to stay … we just won’t have health coverage and we may lose the car. If it lasts more than a month or two, we’ll have to file bankruptcy, ‘cuz the credit card bills are more than we can afford on unemployment. Oh, and we had a flexible spending account, which we used to pay for our son’s braces, but since it’s only 1/2 way though the year, we haven’t actually contributed the whole amount into the account, so we’re going to have to pay back about half of it.

The evil lilac season this year has made my asthma return with a vengeance, and the new version of the inhaler that keeps me alive is EXPENSIVE, and hubby was recently diagnosed with high cholesterol, so he’s got his new meds.

OK, I probably won’t be so calm in a few days.

I sure wish we had a national health plan right about now.

Dear Congress, Hint, hint…

I don’t really have anything profound to say. We’ve been standing on the razor’s edge for quite a while, and now we’re in free-fall. I’m not quite sure what the landing is going to look like, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be pretty.

Job leads appreciated (electro-optics, web-dev management, tech writing).

Don’t Believe AP Spin: VT Democrats’ Civil Liberties Resolution

An AP stringer report is flooding news media across the country. The report claims that the Vermont Democratic State Committee has called Obama “soft” on prosecution of the previous Administration.

Oy.

Nothing like a little lazy journalism to spice up Mother’s Day news reporting.

What we did was ask the Administration to uphold certain legal standards, and to disentangle our country from the civil rights mess left behind by the Bush Administration. Unlike the simplified AP view of the story, we fully accept and understand that (a) the Administration has A LOT on its plate, and (b) they were essentially left a ticking civil-liberties time-bomb by their predecessor.

More, including the full resolution below the fold:

Our Civil Liberties subcommittee has listed laws that appear to have been broken by the previous Administration, and ask the current Administration to avoid certain tactics as cases work their way through the courts. The hope is that this resolution will provide guidance as the Administration feels their way through the dark morass of tangled legal conundrums left behind by the Bush Administration.

We are thrilled to have a smart, committed Democratic President, who is known to listen to well-reasoned arguments, and to take action based on his assessment of those arguments. President Obama has said, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, that he needs the grassroots to apply pressure to counter the pressure from the right, to make it easier for him to do his job. This is some of that counter-pressure.

We hope other State Committees will take up similar resolutions.

Resolution Concerning Civil Liberties

    Whereas recent disclosures of internal memoranda by officials in the Department of Justice, and reports of independent bodies, such as the International Red Cross and the Senate Intelligence Committee, are beginning to provide a view into the illegal actions of the previous administration;

     
    And Whereas the interests of the American people in ensuring that they have a full knowledge and understanding of the activities undertaken in their name, and in ensuring that the United States be restored to its position as a world leader in the furtherance and protection of human rights and civil liberties, can only be served if a full accounting of the activities of the previous administration is done;

Surveillance and Unreasonable Search and Seizure

    And Whereas the 4th amendment to the US Constitution states that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

     
    And Whereas certain agencies, officials and employees of the U.S. Government are alleged to have engaged in warrantless, unreasonable, and unjustifiable electronic surveillance, without any demonstration of probable cause, in contravention of the 4th amendment;

Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus

    And Whereas Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution states that “The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

     
    And Whereas US certain agencies, officials and employees of the U.S. Government are alleged to have suspended Habeas Corpus rights when there was neither a rebellion nor invasion;

Torture and Legal Prohibitions against Torture

    And Whereas the United States is a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment (CAT), ratified by the United States in 1992;

     
    And Whereas Congress enacted policy giving effect to the CAT;

     

    And Whereas certain agencies, officials and employees of the U.S. Government are alleged to have created policies promoting, approved of, and/or engaged in acts of torture, in contravention of the CAT, good intelligence practice, 8th Amendment Constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, and Article 6 which states in part, “This Constitution and the Laws of the United Sates which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the land; and the Judges of every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

     
    And Whereas the CAT prohibits the involuntary transport of individuals to countries where there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.

     
    And Whereas certain agencies, officials and employees of the U.S. Government are alleged to have created polices promoting, approved of, or engaged in the practice of Extraordinary Rendition, in which persons are captured and then knowingly and intentionally transported to countries where there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture;

Sovereign Immunity

    And Whereas the current US Presidential Administration and Justice Department have attempted to block or otherwise prevent investigations and prosecutions related to the above alleged illegal activities;

     
    And Whereas the previous Administration had adopted a policy and practice of asserting the defense of “sovereign immunity” not only as a defense to civil liability, but also as a means of shielding the administration against legitimate inquiry into the legality of its conduct;

     
    And Whereas the assertion of sovereign immunity by the previous Administration has extended far beyond any legitimate interpretation of the defense to shield government officials from liability for actions taken which could not, under any circumstances, have been founded in a good faith belief in the legality of those actions;

     
    And Whereas the current Administration has, in pending litigation, indicated its interest in perpetuating and expanding the illegitimate defense asserted by the previous Administration, implying that only if the Government chooses voluntarily to disclose any evidence gathered by illegal means can those who used illegal means to gather said evidence be sued for their illegal actions;

 

Now Therefore, the Vermont Democratic State Committee calls upon the current Administration and Justice Department to cease attempts to block investigations and prosecutions related to said activities, and to cease any and all claims to sovereign immunity for these activities.