Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Democrats And Republicans ‘Poke Holes’ In Health Care Plan. Question Deal Obama And Baucus Did With Drug Makers
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) faced an early test of his leadership Wednesday after fellow Democrats challenged the $80 billion deal he struck with drug makers to help pay for health-care reform.
Nearing the end of a 13-hour opening day of work on Baucus’s bill to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, several committee members [...]
Who Leaked Gen. McChrystal’s Report? The White House Or The Pentagon
Bob Woodward’s Monday-morning exclusive on a 66-page report from Gen. Stanley McChrystal to President Barack Obama about Afghanistan policy was a rite of passage for the new administration: the first major national security leak and a sure sign that the celebrated Washington Post reporter has penetrated yet another administration.
White House officials greeted the leak with [...]
Don’t Cancel That Create Card! Closing Accounts Can Damage Your Credit Rating
Unless your idea of “streamlined” finances is having eight credit cards in your wallet (that’s about how many the average card-carrying U.S. citizen hauls around), you’ve probably considered canceling some of credit cards you don’t use often.
Before you dash off “Dear John” letters to your lenders, first make sure you’re not doing more harm than [...]
FACT CHECK: Coverage Requirement Enforced With Tax
Memo to President Barack Obama: It’s a tax.
Obama insisted this weekend on national television that requiring people to carry health insurance — and fining them if they don’t — isn’t the same thing as a tax increase. But the language of Democratic bills to revamp the nation’s health care system doesn’t quibble. Both the House [...]
TIME MAGAZINE SPECIAL REPORT: Why The Taliban Is Gaining Ground in Afghanistan
The Taliban today in Afghanistan is a markedly different movement from that of those warriors whose one-eyed leader, Mullah Omar, riding on a motorcycle, escaped capture from American forces in Kandahar in December 2001. Mullah Omar is still their leader, even though, as a senior Afghan intelligence official told TIME, he is thought to be [...]
Republicans Cry ‘Foul’ At Proposed Health Care Tax For Middle Class
Republicans are seizing on a proposed fee for people who don’t carry health insurance as evidence the White House is breaking a pledge not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans.
The health bill drafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) would fine families up to $3,800 annually if they don’t buy health insurance. [...]
OPINION/SALON – MICHAEL WINSHIP: Wall Street Buys Washington
If you ever needed proof that Washington is governed by the Golden Rule — the one that says, he who has the gold, rules — you only have to look at the wagon loads of cash being dumped by big business into crushing President Obama’s domestic agenda.
Good gosh, how the money rolls in. And I’m [...]
FIGHTING YOUR WAY OUT OF DEBT: How One Family Did It
Meet the Hildebrandts; their frugal ways lost debt, won an award
Five years ago, the Hildebrandt family of New Richmond, Wis., was juggling more than $100,000 in credit card and personal debt. Through frugality, determination and hard work, they are now — other than a mortgage — debt-free.
At the time, Russell and Kandy Hildebrandts’ credit card [...]
Clean Up Your Credit and Save $100,000
What if I told you there’s a potential $100,000 smackaroos in it for you for just sticking with me for another three minutes?
Here’s how: Clean up your credit score.
Seriously, I’m not going to harp on about how stellar credit means paying less interest on loans, qualifying for lower insurance premiums, and sailing through things like [...]
OPINION – LANNY DAVIS (The Hill): S. 334-the Healthy Americans Acts Is The Bipartisan Answer, Why Does POTUS Ignore it?
I don’t get it. Two weeks ago, I wrote a column offering advice to Democrats and the White House, saying that they could achieve a broad bipartisan consensus on health care by supporting S. 334, the Healthy Americans Act (HAA), introduced last year by liberal Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and conservative Republican Sen. [...]
