Bad Deeds for 3/18/2010, But First …

We interrupt the Bad Deeds for these announcements:

 

The Top Ten Immediate Good Deeds You’ll Get When Health Care Reform Passes – As soon as health care reform passes, the American people will see immediate benefits. The legislation will:

· Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
· Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
· Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
· Lower seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;
· Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
· Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
· Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
· Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
· Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
· Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

 

Obama Health Overhaul Will Lower US Budget Deficit – According to the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO), President Barack Obama’s historic health overhaul legislation would remove 130 billion dollars from the US budget deficit through 2019, and will remove another 1.2 trillion from the deficit in its second ten years.

And now, on with the Bad Deeds:

 

WellPoint’s Giving for Uninsured Falls Far Short of Promise, Records Show – In 2007, just as Democrats took control of Congress, WellPoint pledged that its charitable foundation would spend $30 million over three years as part of a “comprehensive plan to help address the growing ranks of the uninsured.”

But according to tax filings, company promotional material and former executives familiar with the initiative, WellPoint never came close to fulfilling that pledge. A company spokeswoman disputed that Wednesday.

However, WellPoint’s public records indicate that from 2007 to 2009 the foundation gave less than $6.2 million in grants targeted specifically at helping uninsured Americans get access to coverage and care — barely one-fifth of what was promised and just 11% of the charity’s total giving over the last three years.

 

Fox News Host Interrupts President Obama 16 Times in Testy Interview – When President Obama agreed to be interviewed by Fox News, he surely didn’t expect to be soft-balled. But he probably didn’t foresee the interviewer interrupting him more than a dozen times, and having to repeatedly point that out.

Host Bret Baier insisted on discussing the parliamentary procedures Democrats are mulling in order to squeeze the health care bill through, and a visibly frustrated Obama kept urging him to focus the substantive issues.

“The reason that I think this conversation ends up being a little frustrating is because the focus, entirely, is on Washington process,” he said. “And yes, I have said that is an ugly process. It was ugly when Republicans were in charge, it is ugly when Democrats are in charge.”

Interrupted at 16 different points during the exchange, Obama demanded he be allowed to fully respond to the questions. “Bret, let me finish,” he repeated a number of times.
When Baier accused the president of dodging his questions, the president responded, “Well, I’m trying to answer your questions and you keep on interrupting.”

 

Boehner Cheers Up Bankers: ‘Don’t let punk staffers take advantage of you’ – The Senate Banking Committee is finally considering a bill to reform the financial system that collapsed nearly a year and a half ago. The bill would make the biggest changes to U.S. financial regulation since the 1930s, and the its fate will determine “the prosperity of the U.S. economy over the next 25 to 50 years,” according to The Wall Street Journal. But, House Minority Leader John Boehner is already cheering up bankers concerned about how the bill will affect them.

Even if the Senate approves the legislation, Boehner promised anxious bankers that reconciling it with the House’s own bill will push the process back at least another year. (With Boehner leading the obstructionism in the House. – JLV)

“Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves,” Boehner said.

Boehner was speaking to an “enthusiastic crowd of bankers” at the government relations summit for the American Bankers Association when he assuaged their fears of answering to the government for banking practices that critics say brought on an economic meltdown. (Who’s side is this guy on? Isn’t he supposed to be representing all the people in this country? – JLV)

 

Wachovia Bank Pays $160 Million to Stop Drugs Probe – Wachovia has agreed to pay US prosecutors 160 million dollars for its failure to stop drug money being laundered to Mexican affiliates, the DEA said Wednesday.

The embattled bank admitted it failed to stop an estimated 110 million dollars from being sent from the US to Mexico by wire transfer that was used to buy cocaine-transporting aircraft.

The Drug Enforcement Administration said Wachovia-run foreign exchange houses in Mexico — or casas de cambio (CDCs) — were involved in the illicit trades between 2004 and 2007.

At least four aircraft bought with the cash were later seized along with large quantities of cocaine, by unnamed foreign governments.

The DEA said the bank had agreed to pay the fine to “resolve charges that it willfully failed to establish an anti-money laundering program. In light of Wachovia’s willingness to acknowledge responsibility for its actions and omissions… the government has agreed to defer prosecution of the criminal charge in the information for 12 months,” the agency said.

 

FBI Thinking About Monitoring People with First Name “Jihad” 😉 – With the woman known as “Jihad Jane” making a court appearance today and a woman named “Jihad Jamie” surfacing in Colorado, the FBI is facing increasing pressure to start monitoring people whose first name is “Jihad.”

“I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before,” said FBI spokesman Ronald Cartdale. “When someone starts calling herself Jihad This-or-that, it really should set off some alarm bells.”
Mr. Cartdale said that the FBI was considering putting together a “Scary Name List” of people whose names might include coded messages that are hostile to the United States.

“For example, it’s recently been brought to our attention that there’s a gal in Wyoming named Brandi Wantstoblowupamerica,” he said.

Regards,

Jim