December 10, 2013

Lawmakers to announce budget deal

Source: NBC

Bipartisan congressional negotiators have scheduled a 6 p.m. news conference to unveil a long-awaited budget framework to fund the government past mid-January and stabilize the government's finances into the near future.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top lawmakers on budgetary issues in their respective chambers will announce a fiscal framework that would help eliminate the constant threat of a government shutdown under which lawmakers have worked for the better part of the last three years.

The announcement follows a day full of fine-tuning the details of the agreement, which was expected to cover the next two fiscal years and set a top-line budget number for each year. Ryan and Murray shuttled back and forth between meetings with each other and their respective parties' leadership throughout the day on Wednesday.

The framework under consideration by Murray and Ryan would reportedly set spending levels above the $967 billion cap established by the sequester, in part through offsetting cuts and reforms and in part by raising revenue, perhaps through airline fees or selling off part of the broadcast spectrum.

Though the tentative agreement falls far short of a "grand bargain" that solves overarching fiscal issues through a combination of new taxes and entitlement reforms, the agreement would offer some stability to government funding after several years of governing characterized by stopgap spending measures.

Read more: http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/10/21851499-lawmakers-to-announce-budget-deal?lite

December 10, 2013

Sen. Sanders Health Care for All

December 10, 2013

H.R.1200 - American Health Security Act of 2013

American Health Security Act of 2013 - Establishes the State-Based American Health Security Program to provide every U.S. resident who is a U.S. citizen, national, or lawful resident alien with health care services. Requires each participating state to establish a state health security program.

Eliminates benefits under: (1) titles XVIII (Medicare), XIX (Medicaid), and XXI (Children's Health Insurance) (CHIP, formerly known as SCHIP) of the Social Security Act; (2) the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; and (3) TRICARE.

Repeals requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) related to health insurance coverage, including requirements concerning state health insurance exchanges.

Requires each state health security program to prohibit the sale of health insurance in that state that duplicates benefits provided under the program.

Establishes the American Health Security Standards Board to: (1) develop policies, procedures, guidelines and requirements to carry out this Act; (2) establish uniform reporting requirements and quality performance standards; (3) provide for an American Health Security Advisory Council and an Advisory Committee on Health Professional Education; and (4) establish a national health security budget specifying the total federal and state expenditures to be made for covered health care services.

Establishes the American Health Security Quality Council to: (1) review and evaluate practice guidelines, standards of quality, performance measures, and medical review criteria; and (2) develop minimum competence criteria.

Establishes the Office of Primary Care and Prevention Research within the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Creates the American Health Security Trust Fund and appropriates to it specified tax liabilities and current health program receipts, including premium assistance credits under PPACA.

http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/1200

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr1200/text

December 10, 2013

Bernie Sanders: To Defeat Oligarchy, I Would Run for President

Senator Bernie Sanders, for the second time in as many weeks, is indicating serious contemplation for a presidential run in 2016 if none of the potential Democratic candidates show the proper urgency when it comes to addressing a key set of issues that he thinks now face the country and the world.

Stressing the overarching crisis of out-of-control income and wealth inequality coupled with the planetary emergencies of global warming and climate change, Sanders' message has been that unless these problems are put at the forefront of the domestic policy agenda he will feel compelled to run.

In an extended interview with Salon journalist Josh Eidelson published Wednesday, Sanders admitted he does not "wake up every morning with a huge desire to be president of the United States... I don’t."

However, he continued, "I do wake up believing [that] this country is facing more serious crises than we have faced since the Great Depression. And if you include the planetary crisis of global warming, the situation today may even be worse. And given that reality, what distresses me enormously is that there is very little discussion about these major crises, and even less discussion about ideas that can resolve these issues."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/27-4

December 10, 2013

Colin Powell Endorses Single-Payer Health Care

Source: US News

Some members of Congress want to take Obamacare a step further

At a prostate cancer survivors breakfast last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, marveled at the quality of single-payer health care systems abroad and suggested the U.S. follow suit.

Amid frustration with the rollout of President Barack Obama's health care plan, some members of Congress who agree with Powell are pushing for consideration of such a system.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced the American Health Security Act of 2013 on Monday, which would require states to create their own single-payer insurance systems. A House version was introduced in March by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.

In single-payer systems, the government pays for most non-elective medical care. Supporters say adopting that tax-financed model would improve care and dramatically reduce costs by eliminating overhead and insurance company profits. Opponents fear rationing and reduced personal choice.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, retained the private health insurance industry and forces Americans to buy private insurance policies or face a fine. Attempts to include a public health insurance option were blocked by Republicans and conservative Democrats who feared it would be a backdoor to a single-payer system.

Powell said, however, that he would welcome the adoption of a socialized insurance system.

Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/12/10/colin-powell-endorses-single-payer-health-care

December 10, 2013

Viet Rainbow, California LGBT Group, Barred From Marching In Vietnamese New Year Parade

Gay rights activists are stepping up pressure on the organizers of a Vietnamese new year parade in Orange County to allow them to march.

Since being excluded from the parade in 2013, Hieu Nguyen formed the group Viet Rainbow for gays and lesbians in the Vietnamese community and to challenge organizers to let them participate in the event that winds through the heart of Southern California's Little Saigon.

"This is not the Rosa Parks era," Nguyen said. "I'm not sitting at the back of the bus anymore."

Other groups including the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation are now also pressuring parade organizers, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday (http://lat.ms/1cwmkrz). But some leaders in Southern California's largest Vietnamese immigrant enclave say the community is not ready to welcome gay men and women.

"This issue is too new for the community," Hung P. Nguyen, a member of one of the Vietnamese community groups that co-sponsored the 2013 parade, told the newspaper.

The Westminster City Council will consider Wednesday whether to grant a permit to the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California for the event expected to draw thousands in February.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/vietnamese-lgbt-group-parade-_n_4414523.html

December 10, 2013

Secretary Kerry Delivers Remarks at the Saban Forum

December 10, 2013

Israel Again Deals Gay Couples, Families Legislative Setback

Gays in Israel suffered another setback Sunday when the country’s cabinet voted down two bills that would have expanded LGBT rights in the workplace and housing.

The defeat comes on the heels of a defeat for gay-headed families last week when Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, failed to pass a measure that would have granted gay parents the same tax breaks as their straight peers.

The bills that failed in a cabinet session Sunday would have outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation and given same-sex couples equal treatment in obtaining mortgages.

According to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper:

MK Dov Khenin of Hadash, who sponsored the bill that would have extended mortgage benefits already granted to straight couples, to gay ones wrote:

“Same-sex couples who live as a couple in every way but cannot officially be recognized as a married couple do not receive tax credits as a couple and are forced to take out a mortgage as singles,” said Khenin. “This situation is unacceptable, since this is a discount given by the state to make it easier for couples in Israel who want to live in their own home. Same-sex couples work, pay taxes in accordance with the law and fulfill their obligations to the state, but do not receive any discount.”

The question now remains about whether Israeli lawmakers will pass any laws that put same-sex couples and their families on a par with their straight counterparts. The past few weeks have shown only negative signs and raised doubts about prospects for LGBT equality in the Jewish state.

http://www.advocate.com/parenting/2013/12/09/israel-again-deals-gay-couples-families-legislative-setback

December 10, 2013

Gay divorce approved for second time in Israel's history

Court sidesteps issue of gay marriage since not clear Israeli law could recognize it.

Tel Aviv Family Court Judge Naftali Shilo handed down the second court decision in the country’s history approving the divorce of a homosexual couple, on Monday.

In December 2012, a three judge panel of Yehezkel Eliyahu, Amit Kama and Uzi Even, also of the Tel Aviv Family Court, handed down the first such decision.

Their decision set no binding precedent, and the issue had not been ruled on since.

“It is important because with no binding precedent, another decision in this spirit plus additional such decisions can start to create more of a clear trend,” said Professor Ruth Halperin- Kaddari, head of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women.

The names of the couples are under a gag order.

There was, however, a question that preceded the approval of a gay divorce: by doing so, one might acknowledge gay marriage. Shilo took a conservative legal route to arrive at his conclusion.

Halperin-Kaddari said that the court’s decision showed a somewhat greater “hesitation,” in that the court did not simultaneously recognize the couples’ gay marriage in order to approve their divorce.

Rather, the court said that it would sidestep the issue of gay marriage since it was not clear that Israeli law could recognize it, and that it was approving the divorce by merely ordering the Registrar to strike the couple’s married status from its list.

The court said that its main concern was that the law needed to provide a way for the couple to get divorced.

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Gay-divorce-approved-for-second-time-in-Israels-history-334510

December 10, 2013

OPCW chief urges Israel to join chemical arms treaty

Source: Jerusalem Post

Israel, Egypt and North Korea should renounce chemical weapons, especially after Syria joined the convention banning them and three other nations plan to do so, the chief of an international watchdog said on Tuesday.

Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said Angola, Myanmar and South Sudan were preparing to join the pact.

"Now since Syria has become a member country, I think [Israel] can reconsider," Uzumcu told Reuters in Oslo, where he accepted the 2013 Nobel award for the OPCW.

Israel, which has observer status at the OPCW, signed the convention in 1993, but has never ratified it.



Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/OPCW-chief-urges-Israel-to-join-chemical-arms-treaty-334562