Bad Deeds for 7-24-2012

Republican Rep Says, I Don’t Think Someone Who Is Diagnosed With A Brain Tumor Should Have Health Care Provided – On Monday evening, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) said that insurance companies should be allowed to discriminate against people with brain tumors during a House Rules Committee debate of the GOP’s bill repealing the Affordable Care Act. The law, which Republicans will vote to eliminate on Wednesday, includes a provision prohibiting insurance companies from turning away sick people.

But Dreier suggested that these individuals would be better off enrolling in state-based “high-risk insurance pools,” that could offer coverage to the individuals who are turned away from the individual health care market because they are too costly to cover:

DREIER: “And I believe my state of California has a structure in place to deal with pre-existing conditions. It’s a pooling process, which I think is one worthy of consideration, because while I don’t that think someone who is diagnosed with a massive tumor should the next day be able to have millions and millions and millions of dollars in health care provided, I do believe that there can be a structure to deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions.”

Romney’s Support for Eliminating U.S. Taxes on Foreign Incomes Would Create 800,000 Jobs Overseas at the Expense of American Workers – A new report estimates that Mitt Romney’s support for eliminating U.S. taxes on American companies’ foreign incomes would create 800,000 jobs in other countries, including 73,000 jobs in China. These jobs are likely to come at the expense of American workers.

This new report, published in Tax Notes, concludes that the reforms Mitt Romney supports ‘would significantly increase incentives for U.S. firms to move economic activity abroad.’ Economist Kimberly Clausing writes that, under current economic conditions, ‘those new, low-tax-country jobs could displace jobs at home.’ Romney’s plan to create jobs in other countries comes after independent economists have said that his economic plans could slow the economy and reduce the number of jobs in the United States. See the 3-page memo.

Mitt Romney Promises to Eliminate Bureau That Protects Consumers – Mitt Romney promises to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if elected. Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the 2008 financial crisis to protect all Americans from toxic mortgages and other bank ripoffs. Just this week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won a refund of $140 million for two million credit card customers of Capital One.

Conservative Hypocrisy Over Romney’s Tax Return – On his show, on Stewart marveled at how many Republicans have been pressuring Mitt Romney to release his tax returns, but as for the conservatives defending Romney and saying he doesn’t need to release his tax returns, he called them out for hypocrisy, considering how much scrutiny conservatives have wanted to apply to President Obama‘s past, especially at the height of Birthergate., He ripped conservatives for defending Romney keeping his tax returns secret by going down a whole list of “frivolous transparency demands” that conservatives wanted in order to completely vet Obama’s past., He showed clips of them wanting to see the president’s full college records, his time at the Harvard Law Review, everything he did in the Illinois State Senate, and even some nonsense about Michelle Obama allegedly using the word “whiteys” at some point., And there’s the doubt that was cast over Obama’s birth certificate, with people disputing its authenticity by narrowly focusing on little minutiae that might prove it to be fake or something.

Watch the video at the link above.

Romney’s Weak Bain Capital, Tax Return Defense – Jon Stewart tore apart every inch of Mitt Romney‘s arguments regarding his not releasing tax returns and the inconsistencies surrounding his time at Bain Capital. Looking at the holes in Romney’s arguments, Stewart skewered the presidential hopeful. Stewart began with Bain and outsourcing — noting Romney’s previous argument that he wasn’t running things at the firm when the outsourcing took place. Except then those SEC filings happened, showing Romney still held executive titles…but from which he “retired retroactively.” So, Stewart said, it’s basically Romney saying he held “the smoke screenish yet still legal title of CEO and Managing Director who was paid at least $100,000 a year to do what according to me, Mitt Romney, was nothing. That’s the kind of cap and spend business experience I hope to bring to the White House.”

And then there are the tax returns. Romney insists he abided by the law, but that’s not the issue Stewart said. “If you are so-called job creator in the country, even if the jobs you create are in India or China, you are legally entitled to wonderful things like offshore tax accounts” and slashed interest rates. And $77,000 in business deductions for dressage horse competition expenses. In other words, “to send your horse to the f**king prom.”, Here’s the bottom line, he said:, Nobody cares that Mitt Romney is rich. It’s Romney’s inability to understand the institutional advantage that he gains from the government’s tax code largesse, that’s a little offensive to people, especially considering Romney’s view on anyone else who looks to the government for things like, I don’t know, food and medicine.

Watch the video at the link above.

Texas Outsourcing Voter Disenfranchisement Efforts РAs with redistricting, the State of Texas contracted with Chicago-based law firm Bartlit Beck to take the lead in representing Texas in the Voter ID trial. The Texas Democratic Party submitted an Open Records Request to the Office of the Attorney General inquiring how much Texas taxpayers have spent on the Voter ID trial and specifically how much has been outsourced to Bartlit Beck. You can read it here. TDP spokeswoman Rebecca Acu̱a released the following statement:

“Apparently General Abbott thinks no one in the Attorney General’s office or in Texas for that matter is capable of leading the Republican voter suppression trial. Just like with the redistricting trial, Abbott is outsourcing official Texas business to a Chicago law-firm. It’s shameful enough that Abbott continues to taxpayer dollars to disenfranchise Texans. The fact that he’s sending this money out of state makes it worse.

Texans deserve to know how much of their money is being wasted and outsourced by the Attorney General Abbott on these disenfranchisement efforts.”

Background
· According to the Dallas Morning News, as of January 26, 2012 Texas taxpayers had spent almost $1.4 million in legal costs for the Texas redistricting battle. Of those $1.4 million, $395,000 went to a contract with Chicago-based law firm- Bartlit Beck.
· Leading up to his 2006 reelection campaign, Abbott cost Texas taxpayers $1.4 million on a wild goose chase that turned up no cases of voter impersonation.

In Texas, the Working Poor Stand at Center of Debate Over Health Care Law’s Medicaid Expansion – BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Jose Gallegos’ company eliminated employee health insurance to save money, so when his gut started hurting and his skin took on a yellow tinge, he resisted seeing a doctor. When he finally went to the emergency room, physicians diagnosed stomach cancer.

Gallegos made too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy his own insurance, so he scraped together what he could, and his wife, Andrea, took on three jobs. Just over a year later, at 41, he died, leaving behind four children.

Police Officer Kicks Handcuffed Woman in the Head – Caught on video Krawetz’s crime is a clear case of excessive and potentially deadly force. The woman was unable to break her fall as the kick slammed her head on to the curb, and then Krawetz did nothing to check whether she was all right.

While sitting handcuffed on the curb, the woman had kicked at the cop’s leg with her bare foot as he began going through her purse, but he was clearly in no danger, and other officers stood nearby.

Crimes such as Krawetz’s should never be taken so lightly. Tell RI to get tough on police brutality

Regards,

Jim