Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
BIG QUESTION: Will The Middle Class Really Pay Less For Health Care? (USA Today)
President Obama’s restructuring of the nation’s health care system will make it easier for poor and sick Americans to get and keep insurance. What’s less clear is whether it will reduce health care costs for most Americans, as the White House says it will.
Medical costs are rising fast — up 5.7% last year, while the [...]
FDA Feeling The Heat To Fight Food Fraud (The Washington Post)
The expensive “sheep’s milk” cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow’s milk. And a jar of “Sturgeon caviar” was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish.
Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price.
And last year, a [...]
NOW THEY TELL US: Nonpartisan CBO Reports Deficit Will Be Much Worse Than Obama Says (MONEYNEWS.COM)
A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by [...]
States Are Striking Gold In New Cigarette Taxes (USA Today)
Cash-strapped states are hitting smokers hard in the pocketbook, raising cigarette taxes to help plug budget shortfalls.
So far this year, legislators have voted to raise cigarette taxes by $1 per pack in Utah and 75 cents a pack in New Mexico. At least a half dozen other states have been considering increases, including tobacco-growing South [...]
CONSUMER WATCHDOG: Obama Foreclosure Program Likely Headed For Failure (The Huffington Post)
The Obama administration’s signature foreclosure-prevention program is likely to be a failure and has not done enough to help struggling homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, according to a scathing new report by a government watchdog. And the program may even be pushing these homeowners further underwater.
The average homeowner [...]
AND WHILE YOU WERE BEING DISTRACTED BY HEALTH CARE: Mr. Geithner Warns Unemployment Will Stay High in 2010 (DailyFinance.com)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top economic officials in the Obama administration say that, while they expect some improvement this spring, 2010 will probably remain a rough year for Americans looking for work.
In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Geithner read a joint statement — which he prepared with Christina Romer, [...]
Avoid Going Bankrupt. 5 Pitfalls To Avoid (Investopedia.com)
The bankruptcy statistics in America are alarming. The past few decades have seen a dramatic rise in the number of people that are unable to pay off their debts, and Congress has recently addressed the issue with legislation that makes it harder to qualify for this status. Following is a list of the most common [...]
HEALTH-CARE DEBATE: GOP Says Not So Fast, Dems May Not Have The Votes (Fox News)
With House Democratic leaders confident they have the 216 votes needed to pass a historic vote Sunday on sweeping health care reform, Republicans were focused on the 20 Democrats who were still uncommitted late Saturday and could derail the legislation.
House Republican leader John Boehner said Sunday that Democrats have yet to lock in enough votes.The [...]
House Democratic Official: ‘We’ve Got The Votes’ On Health Care (CNN)
Democrats have the 216 votes needed to pass health care reform legislation in the House on Sunday, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus told CNN.
“This is a historic day and we are happy warriors,” Rep. John Larson, D-Connecticut, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added, “We’ve got the votes.”
However, two other House Democratic [...]
Final Health Care Bill and Obama Promises, Far Apart (AP & Yahoo! News)
It was a bold response to skyrocketing health insurance premiums. President Barack Obama would give federal authorities the power to block unreasonable rate hikes.
Yet when Democrats unveiled the final, incarnation of their health care bill this week, the proposal was nowhere to be found.
Ditto with several Republican ideas that Obama had said he wanted to [...]
