MONKEE ARMADA SENTINEL

    Previously in this blog
I’ve tried to highlight the achievements of one Barack
Obama. I have detailed his accomplishments in the Illinois State
Senate and the Us Senate. Now I would like to highlight his plan for
America and how this country would be better off,  under his bold
vision. It would be long and nearly impossible to read if I simply
repeated his plan as posted on his website.
But feel free to go over and read it all yourself in detail. I highly
recommend  you download each of his PDFs
and see for yourself the great stuff he’s got planned. The only way
its going to happen though is if we stop Hillary and Obama receives
the Democratic nomination. Edwards
dropped
out this morning so now it’s down to two.
Super
Tuesday is
next week and if you live in one of the ST states I hope you will be
voting and letting your voice be heard. Change is possible if you
have hope-the man says.

    What I can do is give those of you too lazy to read
for yourself a slight overview of the plan and highlight the major
talking points. There are some truly radical things included, like
fixing the  Drug Code¹
and ending the disparity between crack and powdered cocaine
sentencing, and reforming mandatory minimums. That’s mainly for us
colored folks though. There’s tons of stuff on equal rights and
increasing opportunities for women and minorities.  But lets start at
the beginning. This weeks hot topic-the economy. Now, I now most of
you don’t own your own hoe or have mortgages but there are bigger
things at stake than whether suburban dads can keep their credit
scores up. I’ve put together a quick run down of what could be, if
you have the courage to elect the only candidate ready for real
change. What we don’t need are more typical empty promises. Barack
has a practical plan, and not just hallow rhetoric like some other
candidate.

1. 
       On economy; Obama plans to cut income taxes by $1000,  for
       working families. Unlike the Bush tax cuts which  gave cuts only to
       individuals earning over $1 million a year. Obama will provide over
       150 million workers  (like you and me), the tax relief we need.
       Obama wants to create ahttp://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports/pay.pdf">http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports/pay.pdf">http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports/pay.pdf">
       “Making Work Pay”http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports/pay.pdf">*http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports/pay.pdf">
       tax credit. Similar to the $100 million Earned Income Tax Credit,
       he passed while in the Illinois Senate. The bill provided each
       individual taxpayer a credit  against the Illinois Tax Act in an
       amount equal to 5% of the federal income tax credit allowed.
       Increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit, will make sure that
       full-time workers earn a living wage that allows us to raise our
       families and pay for basic needs. Along side of that Obama plans to
       raise the minimum wage, and index it to inflation.  He stated
       November 10, during a speech in Des Moines,  Iowa that; “I’m
       in this race to take those tax breaks away from companies that are
       moving jobs overseas and put them in the pockets of hard working
       Americans who deserve it. And I won’t raise the minimum wage every
       en years-I will raise it to keep pace so that workers don’t fall
       behind. That is why I am in it. To protect the American worker. To
       fight for the American worker.” This applies to the rest
       of us, for those of us lower on the totem pole.  Barack also plans
       to ensure our freedom to unionize., fight attacks on workers rights
       to organize, and protect striking workers. Obama co-sponsored the
       Employee
       Free Choice Act,
       a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right
       to organize. Obama has fought the Bush Administrations National
       Labor Relations Board
       , and their efforts to strip workers of their right to organize.
       Obama also plans to expand the Family
       and Medical Leave Act.
       This will provide low-income families with a refundable tax
       credit to help with their child-care expenses, and encourage
       flexible work schedules. Strengthening the economy only begins with
       the worker it also extends to trade, technology, bankruptcy reform,
       credit cards and this weeks buzz topic home ownership. Obama plans
       to fight for fair trade not just free trade. He plans for a trade
       policy that opens up foreign markets to support American jobs. He
       will use trade agreements to spread positive labor and environmental
       standards around the world. He stands firm against bad agreements
       like the self">Central
       American Free Trade Agreementself">,
       that failed at these important standards. Obama believes that ²
       and it’s potential were oversold to the American public and he will
       work to fix NAFTA so that it works for American  workers.  Obama
       also wants to improve transition assistance by extending it to the
       service industries where I work. Creating flexible education
       accounts to help  workers retrain before they lose their jobs.
       Barack Obama also suports job creation, he plans to double federal
       funding for basic research. And make the research and development
       tax credit permanent, to help create high-paying, secure jobs. Obama
       plans to make long term investments in education, training, and
       workforce development. He wishes to invest in US. Manufacturing,
       create new job training programs for clean technologies, boost the
       renewable energy sector and create new jobs. Obama genuinely wants
       to restore strength to our ailing economy. The current hot topic in
       the media is housing crisis. Obama plans to create a universal
       mortgage credit. A 10% credit to provide tax relief to homeowners
       who do not itemize. This credit will provide an average of $500 to
       10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 a
       year. This is more than the band-aide currently being attempted. The
       current bill in debate calls for one-time tax rebates to go
       primarily to individuals making less than $75,000 and to married
       couples making less than $150,000.  It does not as Obama would have
       call for accountability in the sub-prime mortgage industry. He has
       introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to fight
       mortgage fraud, and protect consumers against abusive lending
       practices. His durbinin/">durbinin/">durbinin/">Stop
       Fraud Actdurbinin/">durbinin/">
       provided the first federal definition of mortgage fraud, increasing
       funding for federal and state law enforcement programs. He’s created
       new criminal penalties for mortgage professionals found guilty of
       fraud, and requires industry insiders to report any suspicious
       activity. Obama also plans to close the bankruptcy loopholes for
       mortgage companies, create funds to help homeowners avoid
       foreclosures, and mandate accurate loan disclosures.
      

2. On Health Care; Now I admit to me this
       is one of the most important topics. I haven’t been to a doctor
       since I was in prison, and much of that is due to the fact that I
       simply can not afford it. Health care comes at a price that most of
       us can not afford. Health insurance premiums have risen four times
       faster than wages in the past six years. Nearly 11 million of those
       with insurance , last year ended up spending a quarter of their
       salary on health care. The increasing co-pays and deductibles
       threaten acces to health care for any but the wealthy. Over half of
       all personal bankruptcies are caused by rising medical bills.
       There’s a lot of hype surrounding the issue, and as the two
       candidates slug it out over their respective plans. I’ve broken down
       the talking points of Senator Obama’s and stood them next to
       Hillary’s so you be the judge. First just how “universal”
       can we expect either of their health-care plans to be? Obama’s plan
       creates various mechanisms to make sure that both private and public
       insurance is more available. Clinton’s plan sort of does the same
       thing, but it also creates a “individual mandate”. She
       would require that every one buy health insurance. Obama also
       creates a mandate, but only for children. Under Obama’s plan we
       would remain free to buy insurance or not. The main argument here is
       that how would one enforce a insurance mandate. Would not having
       insurance be punishable by jail time? Or would you get a ticket for
       walking with out insurance (much like driving with out it)?  Obama’s
       resistance to the “individual mandate” makes perfect
       sense. Hillary has no outline for how she would even enforce  her
       mandate, which in itself make s me both nervous and suspicious as to
       how committed she actually is. There is a lot of debate as to
       whether the government can mandate that you have health-care.
       Forcing people to pay for health care will be hard enough. The most
       obvious and logical solution is to make health insurance a function
       of the government, as it is for the poor and elderly. There’s
       nothing odd about the government collecting insurance premiums in
       the form of taxes for Medicare or Medicaid. Yet this presents
       Republicans with the argument that “Big Government”
       will steal your wages if you don’t buy insurance! And they would be
       right, but what’s more important here is the question. Public health
       is an issue that effects us all. There’s nothing I hate more than
       being on the bus with people sneezing and coughing all around me, or
       riding the train touching poles that good knows what has been wiped
       on. Clinton and Obama both have plans that would steadily enlarge
       the role of government in health insurance. These are accommodations
       to the political reality. Senator Clinton advocates incremental
       reform. The best argument there is that it probably won’t work and
       that’s when the federal government would step in and take over. Her
       plan consist not of one big idea but several small ones, most of
       them familiar. Hillary purposes a competition between private plans
       and a public plan. Senator Obama would establish a National
       Health  Insurance Exchange that would create “rules
       and standards for participating insurance plans”. Meaning that
       anyone could buy private health insurance through the NHIE, and be
       guaranteed a certain price (on a sliding scale) with a certain bit
       of coverage. The participating insurers would not be permitted to
       exclude customers with pre-existing medical conditions. Oddly enough
       this is based partly on the Massachusetts health-care plan that was
       signed into law by former Governor
       Mitt Romney, himself on the presidential trail. The hazard,
       however, with regulatory services in general is that the more
       complex they are the more they are susceptible to pressure from
       lobbyist. The cost of Hillary’s plan is around $110 billion while
       Barack’s stands at $50 to$65 billion. Which is the biggest
       difference between the two. Both Senators plan to pay for their
       respective plans by allocating the funds from the Bush tax cuts that
       expire at the end of 2010. Obama would also invest $50 billion over
       five years to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records,
       a vital and necessary reform that would reduce medical errors and
       hopefully save lives. It would also save money by avoiding needless
       duplication. Such as blood test that are preformed more than once
       because of lost paper work. Obama and Hillary both cite a Rand
       Corporation study that predicts saving up to $77 billion a year. A
       similar proposal from the two would allow Medicare to negotiate
       prescription drug prices, producing savings as high as $30 billion
       annually. Implementing Obama’s plan though would cost employers only
       if they refused to provide health-care for their workers. It would
       require them to contribute a percentage of payroll to the new public
       health plan.  Obama would however limit the liability of small
       businesses for “catastrophic” care expenses. Obama care
       would be great for employers because  the public insurance part
       would take care of providing care to their employees. Obama also
       wants to invest in  prevention, support disease management programs,
       coordinate and integrate care, and require full transparency about
       quality and cost. The most important and least talked about part of
       Obama’s plan is the public insurance part, because it’s portable.
       You can remain in the plan even if you change jobs.

I’m going to have to save my third talking point
the Iraq situation! For another time I’m running long and have to get
to work. Pray I don’t get hit by a bus I still don’t have health
care!