POLL: Californians Support Marriage Equality, Marijuana Legalization, Abortion Rights

A new PPIC poll documents California's liberal bonafides on a number of "hot button" issues such as marriage equality, marijuana legalization, health care reform and comprehensive immigration reform.

Majorities of Californians support legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage and preserving access to abortion—three social issues that have been contentious across the nation. A slim majority of adults (52%) say marijuana use should be legalized—a record high and the first time support has been above 50 percent. A larger majority of likely voters (60%) favor legalization. Democrats (64%), independents (60%), and men (57%) are more likely than Republicans (45%) and women (47%) to favor legalization. Majorities (61% adults, 68% likely voters) also say the U.S. government should not enforce federal marijuana laws in the states that allow marijuana use.

Support for same-sex marriage is also at a record high, with 61 percent of adults and 64 percent of likely voters in favor. Strong majorities of Democrats (76%) and independents (67%) favor allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry, while 53 percent of Republicans are opposed. Although support continues to be higher among young Californians, a majority of those age 55 and older (55%) are also in favor for the first time. Support has increased 15 points among mainline Protestants since May (55% to 70%).

Large majorities (70% adults, 79% likely voters) say the government should not interfere with a woman’s access to abortion. This view is held by majorities across parties, regions, and demographic groups. And 69 percent say the Supreme Court should leave access to abortion the way it is now (49%) or make it more accessible (20%), compared to 27 percent who would like the court to make it less accessible.

 This is not surprising, but it is useful to see in writing just how different from the rest of the United States, California is, despite having nearly 13% of the country's population.

Hat/tip to San Diego Union-Tribune

OPM: Federal Same-Sex DP Benefits Extend To Kids

Good news from the Obama Administration today! The Office of Personnel Management, basically the Human Resources Office for the entire nearly 2 million strong federal workforce, announced a federal regulation change today which would extend the popular aspect of the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as ObamaCare) that allows children under 26 years old to be added to their parents' health plans to include federal employees in same-sex domestic partnerships.

The proposed rule isn’t expected to have a significant economic impact because it only adds additional groups to the list of groups eligible for coverage under the federal health care system. 

As part of the proposed rule change, federal health program regulations would be amended so that if a federal employee doesn’t establish that insuring their partner’s child qualifies for favorable tax treatment under applicable tax laws, the employee can be taxed on the fair market value of the coverage. As part of the process for seeking comments, OPM is specifically seeking input on how the fair market value might be calculated for different plans, including, for example, a high deductible health plan with a health reimbursement arrangement. 

The proposed rule change means the children of same-sex partners of federal employees would have access to benefits unavailable to the same-sex partners themselves. The Obama administration has said it cannot extend major benefits — health and pension benefits — to the same-sex partners of federal employees because of the Defense of Marriage Act. Legislation that would extend those benefits, called the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act, was reported out of the Senate committee of jurisdiction in May, but hasn’t yet come to a floor vote.

This is excellent news! Congratulations to the Family Equality Council who had been working on this change for nearly a year to getting it announced and presumably enacted soon.

WATCH: Obama Reacts To Healthcare Ruling

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law!

The United States Supreme Court has apparently upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare or health care reform law! Chief Justice John Roberts voted with Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan to uphold the individual mandate under the taxing power of Congress. Justices Kennedy, Thomas and Alito joined Justice Scalia's relatively polite dissent.

SCOTUS Aiming To Be Factor In 2012 Elections

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced some decisions recently which indicate that they will be a major factor in the 2012 presidential election. They announced they would decide three politically fraught cases: the constitutionality of the health care reform law, the constitutionality of Texas's congressional redistricting map and the constitutionality of Arizona's wildly xenophobic immigration law SB-1070.

VERMONT: Democrats Enact Single-Payer Health Care!

Peter Shumlin is the Democratic Governor of Vermont

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, individual states have the opportunity to enact their own health care reform policies which suit each individual state. In Vermont, Democrats control the state legislature and the governorship for the first time in a long time. When Republicans gain legislative control they use their power for evil, in Minnesota (putting an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot), in Wisconsin and Michigan (to eviscerate unions and disempower working families), in Ohio and Florida (disenfranchise elderly and minority voters) and in South Carolina and Tennessee (legislatively bully LGBT citizens and deny them equal access to constitutional rights).

Democrats, however, use their power for good, like in Vermont where they are ensuring that all state citizens will have access to health care.

Amy Goodman of TruthDig reports:

Vermont hired Harvard economist William Hsiao to come up with three alternatives to the current system. The single-payer system, Hsiao wrote, “will produce savings of 24.3 percent of total health expenditure between 2015 and 2024.” An analysis by Don McCanne, M.D., of Physicians for a National Health Program pointed out that “these plans would cover everyone without any increase in spending since the single payer efficiencies would be enough to pay for those currently uninsured or underinsured. So this is the really good news—single payer works.”

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin explained to me his intention to sign the bill into law: “Here’s our challenge. Our premiums go up 10, 15, 20 percent a year. This is true in the rest of the country as well. They are killing small business. They’re killing middle class Americans, who have been kicked in the teeth over the last several years. What our plan will do is create a single pool, get the insurance company profits, the pharmaceutical company profits, the other folks that are mining the system to make a lot of money on the backs of our illnesses, and ensure that we’re using those dollars to make Vermonters healthy.”

Governor Peter Shumlin did indeed sign the bill into law. 1 state down, 49 to go. California also has a single-payer health care bill pending in the legislature. MadProfessah has endorsed this legislation.

HIV Treatment *IS* HIV Prevention

There's an interesting twist to the news that HIV+ people on anti-retroviral medication have surprisingly low chances of passing the virus on to their sexual partners in this weekend's New York Times column by Charles Blow.

Blow makes the point that the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) has been a victim of both state and federal budget cutting and points out the long-term fiscal irresponsibility of such actions.

According to data from the ADAP Advocacy Association: as of last week, the number of people on ADAP waiting lists had risen to 7,873; between April 2009 and April 2011, 14 states reduced the number and types of drugs they would pay for. A number of states have stiffened financial eligibility requirements, capped enrollment or removed some people already enrolled. Other states are considering doing so.


This is particularly problematic since the National ADAP Monitoring Project’s annual report, released in March, showed that those most dependent on the program are some of society’s most vulnerable. About a third of all people diagnosed with AIDS are enrolled in ADAPs, three-quarters of them had incomes of less than 200 percent of the national poverty level, 61 percent were uninsured, and 55 percent were black or Hispanic.


But as the recession put more patients in need, federal and state aid didn’t keep track. From 2007 to 2010, the number of people using ADAPs jumped by a third, but federal and state funds specifically appropriated for it grew by just 3 percent and 18 percent, respectively.


Not only is it morally reprehensible to restrict or deny life-saving drugs to those who need them (talk about death panels), it is a colossal miscalculation of public health policy, not to mention fiscally irresponsible.


The new findings should help change a paradigm that’s badly in need of changing. Treatment benefits the healthy as well as the sick. It not only prolongs and improves the lives of those who are H.I.V.-positive, but also is a prophylactic for those who aren’t. Everyone wins.


It’s time to expand ADAPs, not diminish them.

It's just amazing how we spend health care dollars in this country. It simply is not rational to be cutting funds for  prevention of any disease, especially when prevention is always cheaper than treatment. In the case of HIV, treatment can also improve prevention of future infections so it should be a no-brainer to increase, not decrease such expenditures. Unless you live in Mississippi, of course.

Happy Birthday, Health Care Reform!

Hat/tip to Ezra Klein for this flow chart depicting how people will get coverage under the Affordable Care Act starting in 2014. Today is the first anniversary since President Obama signed the measure into law.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Entire Health Care Law

Gee,  I wonder if the Republicans will be complaining about this form of judicial activism?

From The New York Times:

A second federal judge ruled on Monday that it was unconstitutional for Congress to enact a health care law that requires Americans to obtain commercial insurance, evening the score at two-to-two in the lower courts as conflicting opinions begin their path to the Supreme Court.

Like a Virginia judge in December, Judge Roger Vinson of Federal District Court in Pensacola, Fla., said he would allow the law to remain in effect while the Obama administration appeals his ruling, a process that could take two years. But unlike his Virginia counterpart, Judge Vinson ruled that the entire health care act should fall if the appellate courts join him in invalidating the insurance requirement.

“The act, like a defectively designed watch, needs to be redesigned and reconstructed by the watchmaker,” Judge Vinson wrote.

In a 78-page opinion, Judge Vinson held that the insurance requirement exceeds the regulatory powers granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Judge Vinson wrote that the provision could not be rescued by an associated clause in Article I that gives Congress broad authority to make laws “necessary and proper” to carrying out its designated responsibilities.

“If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain,” Judge Vinson wrote.

Insanely, the entire law can be struck down because Democratic staffers forgot to include a severability clause in the legislation in the last minute scramble to pass the legislation in Spring 2010. Those staffers should be fired! Oh wait, the voters already did that in November 2010!

It is unlikely that Judge Vinson's law will survive appellate review. Even if the individual mandate is ruled unconstitutional, there are many other ways to fund the other changes that the health care law mandates.

Happy ObamaCare Day!

Today is exactly 6 months to the day since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.

Despite Republican lies and distortions to the contrary, health care reform is not a Government take-over of health care, instead it is a number of common sense reforms bundled together, several of which go into effect today, namely:

• Requiring that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions.

• Making it illegal for insurance companies to drop coverage for people who get sick.

• Cracking down on unjustified premium hikes.

• Placing a cap on out-of-pocket health care costs. 

• Providing free preventive care

It should be noted repeatedly that not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for the final version of the measure, and when Republicans say they will repeal the law if they take over the Congress they are also lying. Obama still has the power to veto legislation, and if a bill was to pass which repealed parts of ObamaCare it would definitely not become law with his signature.

POLL: Support for AZ Immigration Law Hits 57%

A new CBS national poll indicates that support for the arguably racist Arizona immigration law has hit 57%.

Support for the measure increased five points since May. Since then, the Justice Department has filed suit against the law, claiming that it usurps federal authority to enforce immigration laws.

The measure in question, signed into law in April and slated to go into effect later this month, makes it a state crime for a person to be in the country illegally. It also requires local law enforcement to question a person about his or her immigration status during all "lawful stops" if there is "reasonable suspicion" that person may be in the country illegally.

Twenty-three percent of Americans think the law goes too far, according to the poll, conducted July 9 - 12. That's down five points from the 28 percent who said in May that the measure goes too far. Another 17 percent said it doesn't go far enough.

About half of Americans - 52 percent -- say states should be able to enact laws regarding illegal immigrants, while 42 percent think only the federal government should able to do so.

There is a sharp partisan divide on this question: most Democrats (58 percent) say laws covering illegal immigration should be the responsibility of the federal government only, while Republicans (64 percent) and independents (58 percent) think the states should be allowed to pass such laws.

Half of Americans think illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans don't want, while fewer - 42 percent -- say they take jobs away from Americans.

The CBS poll also indicates that public support for the health care reform legislation has dropped seven points since May 20th.

Interestingly, a poll of LGBT respondents show that they overwhelmingly oppose the Arizona law.

Congress Completes Work On Health Care Bill!

The United States Senate passed the bill 56-43 early today and the House of Representatives passed the bill 220-207 a few minutes ago.

Barack Obama has become the first President to get Congress to pass a health care reform bill. He was able to get his number one domestic policy agenda enacted without a single Republican vote.

The American people will have a chance to have their say on November 2, 2010.

Obama Signs Health Care Bill Into Law

This morning at around 11am EDT, President Barack Obama signed the health care reform bill (which passed the Senate 60-40 on December 24th and the House 219-212 on March 21st) into law. 7 minutes later a number of attorneys general filed a frivolous lawsuit to declare the individual mandate unconstitutional.

House Passes Senate HCR Bill 219-212!

The House of Representatives passed the Senate's health care reform bill by a vote of 219-212. It passed the second bill to amend that bill (before it has become law) by a vote of 220-211.

Deal Is Done! HCR Reform Will Pass

You can thank the election Scott Brown (R-MA) for making Democrats realize that they needed to pass the health care reform using reconciliation.

Breaking news! The New York Times is reporting that the "Stupak gang" of anti-choice Democratic congressmembers who claimed that the legislation changed the status quo of federal support for abortion has agreed to vote for health care reform, based on an executive order that President Obama will issue once the bill passes. The agreement guarantees that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has well more than 216 votes in the House of Representatives to pass the Senate bill as well as a separate bill fixing that bill, which will then be passed by the Senate on a majority vote using reconciliation.

The White House has released a statement on the Stupak deal, as well as the text of the pending executive order:

ENSURING ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ABORTION RESTRICTIONS IN THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (approved March __, 2010), I hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Policy.
Following the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("the Act"), it is necessary to establish an adequate enforcement mechanism to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), consistent with a longstanding Federal statutory restriction that is commonly known as the Hyde Amendment. The purpose of this Executive Order is to establish a comprehensive, government-wide set of policies and procedures to achieve this goal and to make certain that all relevant actors--Federal officials, state officials (including insurance regulators) and health care providers--are aware of their responsibilities, new and old.

The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly-created health insurance exchanges. Under the Act, longstanding Federal laws to protect conscience (such as the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. §300a-7, and the Weldon Amendment, Pub. L. No. 111-8, §508(d)(1) (2009)) remain intact and new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.

Numerous executive agencies have a role in ensuring that these restrictions are enforced, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Section 2. Strict Compliance with Prohibitions on Abortion Funding in Health Insurance Exchanges. The Act specifically prohibits the use of tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments to pay for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) in the health insurance exchanges that will be operational in 2014. The Act also imposes strict payment and accounting requirements to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services in exchange plans (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) and requires state health insurance commissioners to ensure that exchange plan funds are segregated by insurance companies in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, OMB funds management circulars, and accounting guidance provided by the Government Accountability Office.

I hereby direct the Director of OMB and the Secretary of HHS to develop, within 180 days of the date of this Executive Order, a model set of segregation guidelines for state health insurance commissioners to use when determining whether exchange plans are complying with the Act's segregation requirements, established in Section 1303 of the Act, for enrollees receiving Federal financial assistance. The guidelines shall also offer technical information that states should follow to conduct independent regular audits of insurance companies that participate in the health insurance exchanges. In developing these model guidelines, the Director of OMB and the Secretary of HHS shall consult with executive agencies and offices that have relevant expertise in accounting principles, including, but not limited to, the Department of the Treasury, and with the Government Accountability Office. Upon completion of those model guidelines, the Secretary of HHS should promptly initiate a rulemaking to issue regulations, which will have the force of law, to interpret the Act's segregation requirements, and shall provide guidance to state health insurance commissioners on how to comply with the model guidelines.

Section 3. Community Health Center Program.

The Act establishes a new Community Health Center (CHC) Fund within HHS, which provides additional Federal funds for the community health center program. Existing law prohibits these centers from using federal funds to provide abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), as a result of both the Hyde Amendment and longstanding regulations containing the Hyde language. Under the Act, the Hyde language shall apply to the authorization and appropriations of funds for Community Health Centers under section 10503 and all other relevant provisions. I hereby direct the Secretary of HHS to ensure that program administrators and recipients of Federal funds are aware of and comply with the limitations on abortion services imposed on CHCs by existing law. Such actions should include, but are not limited to, updating Grant Policy Statements that accompany CHC grants and issuing new interpretive rules.

Section 4. General Provisions.
(a) Nothing in this Executive Order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) authority granted by law or presidential directive to an agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This Executive Order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This Executive Order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.

THE WHITE HOUSE

As Daily Kos points out, what this executive order does is basically reiterate the Senate bill's language and does not change current or future federal law. What the egomaniacal Bart Stupak has done is basically force the President of the United States to "confirm that women's health isn't equal to everyone else's, that a legal, medical procedure to which we STILL have a right is further stigmatized, further politicized."

Congratulations to President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Another Reason We Need National Health Care...

Jaime Escalante, the famous mathematics teacher depicted by Edward James Olmos in the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver" is facing bankruptcy as he deals with expenses related to his treatment for cancer.

The Bolivian-born Escalante, now 80 years old, gained international renown for his work teaching advanced math to “un-teachable” students at Garfield H.S. in East L.A.

Vanessa Marquez, who also appeared in the 1988 film, said that so far $5,000 has been raised toward the $30,000 needed by the family. A fund for Escalante has been set up by “Stand and Deliver” cast members and The Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education in Pasadena, which publishes Escalante's educational materials.

Contributions can be sent to "Friends of Jaime," C/O FASE, 236 W. Mountain St., Suite 105, Pasadena, CA 91103. Call 626-793-5300 for information.

Is this really how we want our national health care system to be treating our national heroes?

Sarah Palin Gets Lie Of The Year Award For "Death Panels"

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has received the dubious distinction of being recognized by Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact for telling The Lie Of The Year.
To refresh your memory, here is the lie (posted to her Facebook page) Sarah Palin told:

Seniors and the disabled "will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care."
Sarah Palin, Friday, August 7th, 2009.

PolitiFact says:

Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest.

"Death panels."

The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn't made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page.

Her assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care — spread through newscasts, talk shows, blogs and town hall meetings. Opponents of health care legislation said it revealed the real goals of the Democratic proposals. Advocates for health reform said it showed the depths to which their opponents would sink. Still others scratched their heads and said, "Death panels? Really?"

Congratulations, Sarah!

Health Care Reform Debate in U.S. House Today

Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) said today on the House floor: "All Americans have health care."

Unbelievable. Do all Americans have Ferraris and mansions, too?

CA-10: Garamendi Elected To Congress

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi has won the special election to replace U.S. Rep Ellen Tauscher in California's congressional district. You may recall this district because this was the race in which Black, openly gay Iraq vet Anthony Woods was a candidate, although with much greater name recognition and money, Garamendi placed first in the primary on September 1, 2009.

Despite all the chatter about Republican gains in Tuesday's elections, the Democrats in Congress have two more votes in Congress after the election than they did before the election.

And that's two more votes for health care reform.

Support MadProfessah Advertiser ALAN GRAYSON's MONEY BOMB

Florida Congressman Alan Grayson scares the %$*^!! out of Republicans because he is an outspoken progressive who says out loud exactly what most of you are thinking.

Some choice quotes from Rep. Grayson:

"The Republican health care plan is this: 'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.'"



"I have trouble listening to what [Dick Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth when he's talking."

Because of this, Republicans have recruited a Latino Republican named Armando Gutierrez to run against Grayson and targeted him wth a website mycongressmanisnuts.com, which is a response to Grayson's congressmanwithguts.com.
Grayson says his re-election race in 2010 will probably cost $2 million dollars thanks to the national profile and the targeting that he will receive from the Republican National Committee.

Today Monday November 2nd Grayson is doing a money bomb where he is trying to raise four hundred thousand dollars online from progressives nationally. I am hoping that a significant number of MadProfessah readers will click on the Alan Grayson Money Bomb ad in the top right corner of this blog, and kick in $10 via Actblue. I'm hoping that we can raise $100 to support his moneybomb. Please click on the ad and donate now!