Bill was right: it’s a crazy system (part I of II)

By Nathaniel Smith, The Times of Chester County, 10/10/16

Bill Clinton was right about health insurance when he controversially said on October 3:

“…The people that are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies. Why? Because they’re not organized, they don’t have any bargaining power with insurance companies, and they’re getting whacked.

“So you’ve got this crazy system where all of the sudden 25 million more people have health care, and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world.”

Obviously, Bill the policy wonk was getting worked up, as you can see from the video of his remarks. And there’s a reason. He and Hillary have been trying to solve this country’s health insurance problem for 20+ years and meanwhile many Americans’ health is still jeopardized by lack of proper medical care and insurance. This is not a theoretical problem. Consequences for individuals range from illness and inconvenience up to loss of homes and death; consequences for society include the current scandal of maternal mortality in Texas and the possible spread of wide-spread preventable epidemics.

Pennsylvania’s recent experience shows why health should not depend on politics….

continue reading at The Times of Chester County

Sanders Vows To Kill TPP If Elected. Will Clinton?

by Dave Johnson, Campaign for America’s Future, 2/4/16

As the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “free-trade” agreement was signed in New Zealand by representatives of the 12 participating countries, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders strongly voiced his opposition and committed to doing what he can to kill the deal if he is elected president.

Rival Hillary Clinton has also stated opposition to the TPP, but will she also vow to kill it if elected?

Sanders Vows To Kill TPP

Saying that TPP follows in the footsteps of failed trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China, Sanders promised to “fundamentally rewrite our trade policies to benefit working families, not just the CEOs of large, multinational corporations.”

He said that supporters of these agreements have sold them as creating jobs, but over and over again, they have been proven dead wrong.

President Bill Clinton sold NAFTA in 1993, saying it would create a million American jobs over a five-year period. Instead, NAFTA led to the loss of close to 700,000 jobs….

keep reading at Campaign for America’s Future