The republican health care plan...

Everything they say or do, ALWAYS, makes me ill!

Superfund Gets the Super Shaft

snip...

The New York Times reports that Bush's 2003 budget proposes to slash the Superfund's primary source of income — a tax aimed at industrial polluters that once generated about $1 billion a year. The onus for paying now shifts to the taxpayers, who will cover $700 million, or more than 50 percent, of the fund's budget. The White House also advocates curtailing the roster of sites covered by the fund, down from the current 1,551. What's the logic behind the cutbacks? Bush staffers tell the Times that there aren't any manageable sites left to clean — only the "megasites" remain, and they're simply too tough to tackle, especially without adequate funding.

The Superfund was established in 1980 as a mechanism to force industry to pay for their toxic spills and general pollution, after years of growing public concern over toxic exposure. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG), a watchdog organization in Washington, D.C., estimates that one in four Americans lives within one mile of a Superfund site. Soon, that may not be the case — and not necessarily because things have been cleaned up, but simply because there just isn't enough money allocated to tackling our pollution problems.

The reported budget proposals don't come as a complete surprise; over the past few years, the burden of Superfund expenses slowly shifted away from corporations and over to taxpayers. Still, says Grant Cope, staff attorney at USPIRG, Bush's decision is a momentous shift that bodes ill for the future of Superfund.

"I think this marks a major shift in overall policy," Cope says. "Remember, the last three Presidents, including Bush senior and Reagan, were all in favor of renewing the corporate Superfund tax." Neither the first Bush nor Reagan administrations could ever be accused of being anti-business, but the current Bush administration wants to rewrite that policy to save corporations up to $1 billion per year in taxes. MORE...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,213010,00.html

"Let them eat, drink and breathe, toxic waste!"

The Failed Bush-Republican Environmental Record

President Bush and his Republican allies have done great damage to our environment and have failed to take the lead on confronting global warming. This Administration has sought to roll back environmental protections, spoiling our air and water and leaving our public lands vulnerable to ruin. The Administration’s ongoing failure of leadership on global warming has harmed efforts both here and around the world to curb the greenhouse gases that threaten our planet. The American people have rejected the Bush-Republican status quo and are looking for new leadership on these crucial issues. As the President marks his last Earth Day in office, the American people are looking to Congress and a new President to protect our environment and confront global warming.

Bush Administration tried to gut Clean Air Act, allow more mercury emissions:

Bush Administration Attempted to Gut the Clean Air Act with their ‘Clear Skies Initiative.’ Proposed in 2002, the President’s Clear Skies Initiative would have weakened many parts of the Clean Air Act and would have resulted in significantly fewer reductions of air pollutants than currently required. According to the Sierra Club, one of the main problems with Clear Skies is that it created a loophole exempting power plants from being held accountable to the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review (NSR) standards and from being required to install cleanup technology. NSR standards require new power plants and upgraded plants to comply with modern federal emissions limits. In addition, measure sought to delay the enforcement of public health standards for smog and soot until the end of 2015.

A Federal Court Blocked The Bush Administration From Implementing The Clear Skies Initiative. A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration from implementing Clear Skies, which would have eased clean air requirements for some 17,000 industrial facilities, including coal-fired power plants and oil refineries. The unanimous ruling by the three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was a major victory for a coalition of 15 states and a long list of environmental and public health organizations who filed suit to block the August 2003 rule. “The court could not have told the EPA more clearly that they must follow the Clean Air Act as it is written, not as they wish it were written,” said Janice Nolen at the American Lung Association. “ thousands of Americans will not have their lives cut short because of the pollution that would have blown through this huge loophole.” MORE...

http://democrats.senate.gov/journal/entry.cfm?id=296529

A mere band-aid.

Purple heart optional.

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1. Health insurance deregulation. The bill would deregulate the insurance market, dismantling state-level consumer protections and allowing insurance giants to sell their plans nationwide without fear of oversight. (Edit, 9:41AM: The problem here is that the GOP plan creates an unregulated national market, unlike the Democratic proposal for a national insurance exchange, which would create a national market, but with consumer protections.)

2. Subsidizing private health insurance. The bill would give private health insurance subsidies to lower-income individuals and families. This sounds good at first, but subsidies in the absence of other reforms will simply increase the cost of health insurance for everybody else, leading to another inflationary spiral in health care.

3. No comprehensive plan to pay for plan. In order to fund subsidies, the bill calls for a 1% annual cut in Federal discretionary spending each year for the next decade, yielding about $120 billion. Although this would result in major across-the-board cuts in federal spending, it still leaves nearly $600 billion unfunded. Republicans say they can find "efficiencies" in the health care system to cover that $600 billion shortfall, including malpractice reform, but fail to offer specifics, suggesting the legislation would dramatically increase the deficit.

In sum, the Republican health bill would be a disaster for ordinary Americans, but it's the health insurance industry's dream. It slashes consumer-protection regulations, it increases health care costs by subsidizing private insurance while simultaneously deregulating it, and it would create another explosion of federal debt. Read More...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/31/760092/-New-GOP-health-plan-creates-opening-for-WH,-Dems

Edit..."1.Health insurance deregulation"...now how did that GOP faith based deregulation bullshit scam work out for the banking outfits?