Hello
A mishmash under the cut.
I guess the headline of this story could have been: I was against health care reform until my son got sick and now i'm for it.
"I did not support any sort of government sponsored healthcare reform... and as it turns out, I will be one of those who benefits the most from it".
Last year, a $1 million lifetime cap on health care expenses meant nothing more than fine print on an insurance policy to Jim Bucher.
"I never thought I'd hit that," Bucher said. "Who's going to spend a million dollars?"
That was before his 6-year-old son, Landon, was diagnosed with leukemia last July.
What followed were hospital stays that lasted weeks at a time, expensive chemotherapy drugs and a bone marrow transplant at Duke University Hospital.
Landon has now accrued about $700,000 in medical expenses, and there are still some hefty outstanding bills.
For Jim Bucher and his wife, Patty, health care reform can't get here fast enough. The act signed by President Barack Obama in March eliminates lifetime caps from health insurance policies.
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...."It's turned my life upside-down," said Bucher, a mortgage loan officer.
It's also given the Virginia Beach resident a new perspective on health care reform. Before, he didn't really think government should get involved. "The way it was presented, it seemed like a negative thing. I figured, 'I have insurance, so I don't need to worry about it.' "
Now he's finding out just how critical the new law will be to his family.
For one thing, the label of "pre-existing condition" that his son now carries cannot be used to deny him insurance coverage or charge him prohibitive rates. That provision starts Sept. 23 for children and in 2014 for adults.
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For the Buchers, the past 10 months have been an education on the expense of medicine and the complexity of insurance billing. An e-mail Bucher recently sent to friends and family telling them about their latest fundraiser read:
"Soon, with the recent Healthcare Reform, the 'cap' on insurance coverage will no longer be allowed - ironic, as I initially did not support any sort of government sponsored healthcare reform... and as it turns out, I will be one of those who benefits the most from it."
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$35M for Dartmouth health care delivery center
CONCORD, N.H.— Dartmouth College is getting $35 million to open a center it hopes will help the nation take the next big steps in health care reform: improving quality while lowering costs.
The historic health care overhaul legislation President Barack Obama signed in March will give millions of Americans access to health care, but "the real rocket science in health care right now is in the delivery," said Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim, who has been promoting the idea of a national institute on health care delivery since arriving at Dartmouth last July.
Now, he has a $35 million commitment from an anonymous donor to establish the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science, which will bring together experts in everything from medicine and management to sociology and systems engineering to figure out what is working in successful health care systems such as Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. They'll then teach practitioners, who can return home and make changes immediately, Kim said.
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No wonder no one heard about this poll. It's not good news.....
New Fox News poll: Obama at 53%
If the Congressional election were held today, 42 percent of voters would back the Republican candidate in their district, while 40 percent would support the Democrat, according to the latest Fox News poll.
Most Republicans (86 percent) back their party's candidate and most Democrats (80 percent) back theirs, and independents are divided. By 37-31 percent independent voters are somewhat more likely to back the Republican candidate, while 20 percent are undecided.
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(After 8 paragraphs of polling every Republican candidate on earth, lo and behold):
President Obama has a 53 percent favorable rating overall, and a 91 percent favorable among Democrats...
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Obama's terms for financial overhaul remain mostly intact
The Senate this week could hand President Obama his second major legislative victory of the year, both on administration priorities that seemed in doubt not long ago.
Passage of a 1,400-page bill to overhaul the nation's financial regulations would come just two months after Obama signed a landmark health-care overhaul. But in the case of financial regulation, much more so than with health care, the Senate bill largely reflects the administration's initial blueprint, despite the fervent efforts of lobbyists and lawmakers of all stripes to alter it.
Democratic leaders and administration officials have been careful not to boast about their success in keeping the legislation mostly intact, with some provisions growing even tougher during the Senate debate.
"I'm hesitant to talk about it being done, because it's not," Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who has shepherded the bill through the Senate, said in an interview from Connecticut over the weekend. But, he allowed, "we are on the cusp of doing something pretty significant."
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Republicans acknowledge that passage seems certain and that a handful of GOP members likely will join Democrats, which would surpass the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster...
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Swipe This: Small Businesses Smile About Card Fee Controls
Just yesterday, a customer at Elmore Store, a small convenience store in 850-resident Elmore, Vt., paid for a purchase with an American Express (AXP) card, then asked the clerk to void the transaction and use a different card instead. Although Elmore Store didn't make a penny on the first transaction, American Express still charged the store 81 cents for the voided swipe.
"This is the kind of racket that has to be stopped," says Kathy Miller, who owns the store along with her husband, Warren. So it's no wonder that Miller, along with many small-business owners, are elated at the news that these swipe fees could be reduced. "I think it's wow!" Miller says.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed an amendment that would allow the Federal Reserve to limit the fees that businesses pay for credit- and debit-card sales. The amendment is part of the financial reform legislation.
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Jon Meacham, Newsweek
What Happened to Obama’s Armageddon?
Here is a wild proposition, one that many who obsessively follow politics did not expect to entertain before Mem-orial Day. What if Barack Obama is not a tone-deaf big spender who misread the public on large-scale government reform such as health care, but is, instead, what he has always been: a smart, steady, and unobtrusively savvy politician whose long-term bets (his first being winning the presidency itself) are well--considered? Only a few months ago it was, as Republican House leader John Boehner put it, Armageddon on the Potomac, and Obama and the Democrats were to be the chief victims of the furies. I am mixing Christian and pagan imagery, but you get the point.
Gallup's daily tracking numbers put the president's job--approval rating at 52 percent, which ranks him ahead of both Reagan and Clinton at similar points in their first terms. The generic congressional ballot is now even, with 46 percent saying they will vote for a Democrat and 46 a Republican. Incumbents are falling from power, but the common denominator is their incumbency, not their party. Despite worries about the Greek crisis and the wildly fluctuating Dow Jones industrial average, Gallup finds that "economic confidence remains at its best level of the year in early May, matching April. Americans' expectations about the economy going forward also remain at their highest since the recession began, with 41 percent of Americans saying U.S. economic conditions are getting better."
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The president's stoic acceptance of the cycles of politics is less appreciated than it might be. I think this is because his once frequent talk of changing Washington helped create the impression that Obama was a goo-goo, a dreamer, when he is in fact more of a realist than a radical.
The young president we meet in the pages of my colleague Jonathan Alter's wonderful new book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, is a man of both ideas and action, a big thinker who intuitively understands the limits and the possibilities of politics. "Early on, Obama tried to lay out an operating principle for his administration," Alter writes. "It was, not surprisingly, a character trait rather than an ideological idea: 'That whole philosophy of persistence is one that I'm going to be emphasizing again and again as long as I'm in office. I'm a big believer in persistence".
Around Thanksgiving 2009, a low point for the president, Alter reports that Obama asked an old friend, "Who would really want this job for more than one term?" Then he added: "But I have to run now, otherwise it'll mean letting someone like Mitt Romney step in and get credit for the good stuff that happens after we've been through all this crap." Of course he will run. Alter quotes an Obama friend saying: "He knows he will have to spend a lot of his life after age 54 living with what he accomplished or failed to accomplish as president. It's unimaginable to him to have to live in his 50s, 60s, and 70s without having made the most of it."
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So it's pretty clear that Jonathan Alter's new book shaping up to be a must-read. This is some serious fascinating stuff (You should read it all):
Secrets From Inside the Obama War Room
The first of 10 "AFPAK" meetings came on Sept. 13, when the president gathered 16 advisers in the Situation Room in the basement of the White House. This was to be the most methodical national-security decision in a generation. Deputy national-security adviser Tom Donilon had commissioned research that backed up an astonishing historical truth: neither the Vietnam War nor the Iraq War featured any key meetings where all the issues and assumptions were discussed by policymakers. In both cases the United States was sucked into war inch by inch. The Obama administration was determined to change that. "For the past eight years, whatever the military asked for, they got," Obama explained later. "My job was to slow things down."
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Obama's approach in the meetings was the same as always. He was, according to one participant, "clear-eyed, hardheaded, and demanding." More than once the president felt obliged to remind those briefing him that it wasn't 2001 anymore.
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....The military, practiced in the ways of Washington, now ran PR circles around the neophytes in the Obama White House, leaking something to the Pentagon reporters nearly every day. The motive for all the leaks seemed clear to the White House: to box the president into the policy that McChrystal had recommended, at least another 80,000 troops and an open-ended commitment lasting 10 years or more.
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In the first week of October, Gates and Mullen were summoned to the Oval Office, where the president told them that he was "exceedingly unhappy" with the Pentagon's conduct. He said the leaks and positioning in advance of a decision were "disrespectful of the process" and "damaging to the men and women in uniform and to the country." In a cold fury Obama said he wanted to know "here and now" if the Pentagon would be on board with any presidential decision and could faithfully implement it.
"This was a cold and bracing meeting," said an official in the room. Lyndon Johnson had never talked to Gen. William Westmoreland that way, or George H.W. Bush to Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf. Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton had all been played by the Pentagon at various points but hadn't fought back as directly. Now Obama was sending an unmistakable message: don't toy with me. Just because he was young, new, a Democrat, and had never been in uniform didn't mean he was going to get backed into a corner.
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Nov. 11 Veterans Day meeting, the eighth on AfPak, would prove pivotal. "I don't want to be going to Walter Reed for another eight years," Obama told the group. That day the president gave preliminary approval to the plan presented to him by the military, which called for 40,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan over 21 months. But the timetable stuck in his craw. Already in a snappish mood, he found it appalling that in the world of modern military transport it would take nearly two years to get those boots on the ground. In the Gulf War in 1990-91, the military got half a million troops to the region in less than six months.
"I don't know how we can describe this as a surge," Obama said sharply. The president then turned to Petraeus. "Am I mistaken in remembering that the 30,000 troops in Iraq arrived in a six-month window in 2007?"
"No," Petraeus said, "you're not." The president was treading in a sensitive area. "Any time Iraq was mentioned it was like putting a hot rod under Petraeus. He would practically levitate," said one person in the room. Obama bore in: "So why is this surge taking place over 21 months if that one was done in six months?"
Petraeus replied that the Afghanistan surge was not modeled on Iraq. "Well, your presentation earlier was on Iraq," Obama reminded him.
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...As they walked along the portico toward the Oval Office, Biden asked if the new policy of beginning a significant withdrawal in 2011 was a direct presidential order that couldn't be countermanded by the military. Obama said yes. The president didn't need the reminder. Obama had already learned something about leaving no room for ambiguity with the military. He would often summarize his own meetings in a purposeful, clear style by saying, "Let me tell you where I am," before enumerating points ("One, two, three") and finishing with, "And that's my order." .
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Inside the Oval Office, Obama asked Petraeus, "David, tell me now. I want you to be honest with me. You can do this in 18 months?"
"Sir, I'm confident we can train and hand over to the ANA [Afghan National Army] in that time frame," Petraeus replied.
"Good. No problem," the president said. "If you can't do the things you say you can in 18 months, then no one is going to suggest we stay, right?"
"Yes, sir, in agreement," Petraeus said.
"Yes, sir," Mullen said.
The president was crisp but informal. "Bob, you have any problems?" he asked Gates, who said he was fine with it.
The president then encapsulated the new policy: in quickly, out quickly, focus on Al Qaeda, and build the Afghan Army. "I'm not asking you to change what you believe, but if you don't agree with me that we can execute this, say so now," he said. No one said anything.
"Tell me now," Obama repeated.
"Fully support, sir," Mullen said.
"Ditto," Petraeus said.
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When he spoke to McChrystal by teleconference, Obama couldn't have been clearer in his instructions. "Do not occupy what you cannot transfer," the president ordered. In a later call he said it again: "Do not occupy what you cannot transfer." He didn't want the United States moving into a section of the country unless it was to prepare for transferring security responsibilities to the Afghans. The troops should dig wells and pass out seeds and all the other development ideas they had talked about for months, but if he learned that U.S. soldiers had been camped in a town without any timetable for transfer of authority he wasn't going to be happy.
At the conclusion of an interview in his West Wing office, Biden was adamant. "In July of 2011 you're going to see a whole lot of people moving out. Bet on it," Biden said as he wheeled to leave the room, late for lunch with the president. He turned at the door and said once more, "Bet. On. It."
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GM posts its first quarterly profit in 3 years
DETROIT - General Motors Co. rode expense cuts from its bankruptcy and strong sales of redesigned models to its first quarterly net income in nearly three years, drawing the company closer to a stock offering that would repay at least part of its government aid.
The $865 million first-quarter profit is a dramatic reversal from the huge $6 billion loss in the same period last year. The last time the company made a quarterly profit was the second quarter of 2007, when it earned $891 million.
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President Obama signs the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act in the Oval Office. The act helps reinforce the Nations commitment to press freedom around the world by directing the State Department to compile a report listing countries where such freedoms are violated.
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"I want to point out this team has not lost a game since i was elected president...I'm just saying...".
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All by AP. Please don't hot-link.
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U.S. Capitol Police officer Sharon Barnett stands post, as President Obama pays tribute to peace officers who died in the line of duty last year during a memorial ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, May 15, 2010.
Greeting a family member of a fallen officer.
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Mariane Pearl and son Adam Daniel Pearl react after President Obama signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act, on May 17. The act, named in honor of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and killed by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in 2002, expands the examination of press freedom worldwide in the State Department's annual human rights report.
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The president with 2010 NCAA champion, University of Connecticut women's basketball team.
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US actor Hasan Faruq Ali, 12, portraying young Barack Obama ridies in a trishaw with an actress, who plays the role of president Obama's mother, during the shooting of the 'Obama Anak Menteng' or 'Obama the Menteng Kid' - An film being made in Jakarta, focusing on president Obama's childhood in the Indonesian capital. The movie will be released ahead of the president's scheduled visit to Indonesia in June.
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New from the brilliant Pete Souza's bakery. The entire 91 photos gallery, in huge size, is here.
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President Obama hugs country music artist Garth Brooks in a West Wing hallway at the White House, April 14, 2010. The President was presented with the 2007 Grammy Award for best spoken word album for his book "The Audacity of Hope.
President Obama waits backstage as he is introduced during a reception for Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
President Barack Obama greets a boy, whose first name is also Barack, following the President's remarks on health care at the University of Iowa Field House in Iowa City, Iowa, March 25, 2010
First Lady Michelle Obama exercises with students and Olympic athletes during a Let's Move event at the River Terrace Elementary School in Washington, D.C., April 21, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)
Bo paws First Lady Michelle Obama's leg, during a "Take Your Child To Work Day" event with children of White House staff, in the East Room of the White House, April 22, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
President Obama salutes an active duty service member following a naturalization ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House, April 23, 2010.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk with patrons at 12 Bones restaurant in Asheville, N.C., April 23, 2010
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have a chance encounter with other hikers while walking along a trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville, N.C., April 23, 2010.
President Obama arrives at the White House after a memorial service in Beckley, West Virginia, April 25, 2010, for the 29 miners killed in an explosion at Big Branch Mine
President Obama poses for a photo with a patron at Jerry's Family Restaurant, a diner in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, April 27, 2010
President Obama visits with patrons who were playing bridge in a backroom at Jerry's Family Restaurant in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, April 27, 2010
President Obama greets members of the audience following his remarks at the Oakley Lindsay Center in Quincy, Ill., April 28, 2010.
First Lady Michelle Obama gestures to Bo, the Obama family dog, on the South Lawn of the White House, April 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)
President Obama meets with Bono, in the Oval Office, April, 30, 2010
President Obama laughs with, from left, Senior Advisor David Axelrod, Associate Director of Speechwriting Jonathan Lovett, and Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau, while reading a draft of his remarks for the White House Correspondents Association dinner, in the Outer Oval Office, April 30, 2010.
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And this is how i'm going to finish every diary until November. 50,000 views on Youtube in three days: