The last Congress postponed planned cuts in Medicare doctor payments for another year, but they still didn't fix the problem permanently, meaning seniors, veterans, and disabled folk will, in a year's time, have their health care threatened, again. I suppose it's good news that Congress found the will to put off the cuts despite a "liberal" media telling everyone that unemployment insurance and Medicare and Social Security (and not, for example, undertaxed executive pay) cause the deficit. But a far more reactionary Congress takes office this week. And with even Mr. Obama sounding the clarion call for deficit reduction on the people's backs, the new Congress might find cover to do far worse. But none of this matters; only the people's will matters. So the Patients' Action Network helps you tell Congress to fix Medicare doctor payments once and for all.
Meanwhile, the New York Times tells us that "Public Union Employees Face Rising Public Anger." Forty paragraphs later, I found the following evidence to support that thesis: a) a teacher who clashed with New Jersey Governor Christie earlier this year has since received an indeterminate number of nasty e-mails and facebook postings; b) a Washington Township retiree doesn't want public employees to give up their pensions but adds "don't ask for no more"; c) an unnamed retired cop thinks Mr. Christie should go after "free-loading freeholders" rather than teachers, and d) an Atlantic City card dealer says teachers have to "take it in the ear, too." To think that right-wingers have worked so hard to stoke this "public anger" and that is all they get! If the Times had found three New Jersey residents who'd said some variation of "yeah, times are bad, but if you work hard you should get a secure retirement," would it have presented a different article? I note, also, that the article twice counters the ridiculous public-employees-make-way-more-than-private-employees meme -- but not until after letting some Manhattan Institute fool tell us that "(p)ublic unions have had no natural adversary" in state governments. Always, they "forget" the corporation!
UPDATE. The Times headline is now "Public Workers Face Outrage as Budget Crises Grow." Less inaccurate, but still not useful -- I don't think public workers face "outrage" from anywhere other than the far right. The original headline still shows up as the page's title on my browser (as of 10.55 am EST).
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