American Veterans Deserve Better Health Care

From Tea Party Patriots --

When it comes to health care for veterans who have fought around the world defending our freedoms, it is our duty to provide the best treatment and the best resources in a timely manner. Anything less than that is nothing short of failure. President Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs is failing our veterans with dozens dying before receiving necessary medical care.

In Arizona, the Phoenix Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System is under fire for covering up evidence that links the deaths of veterans to prolonged waits for necessary medical care. Florida Rep. Jeff Miller, who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, says his staff has proof the Phoenix VA system secretly keeps two sets of records in order to hide information about prolonged waits that veterans must endure for treatment.

“It appears as though there could be as many as 40 veterans whose deaths could be related to delays in care,” said Miller during a hearing on Wednesday. Rep. Miller’s revelations follow VA whistleblower reports that raised red flags about VA’s record-keeping practices, as well as veterans’ deaths and mismanagement.

One doctor who retired from the Phoenix VA Medical Center last year sent a letter to the Inspector General and the U.S. Attorney, among others, claiming the Phoenix system is afflicted with “gross mismanagement of VA resources and criminal misconduct” that resulted in “systemic patient safety issues and possible wrongful deaths.”

“Possible wrongful deaths.” Welcome to Obama’s VA.

There are several lessons to be drawn from the VA problems in Phoenix; the least of which being that the federal government isn’t optimized for administering health care. Bureaucracies don’t run like private markets do. In one, misconduct, fraud, and corruption are inherently discouraged by criminal prosecution, fines and prison. In the other, mismanagement, secrecy, and the concealment of failure is rarely deterred or detected. It’s not difficult to figure out which is which.

The current problems at VA demand reform and involve more than just medical care. Nearly 600,000 veterans await a decision on their disability claims. Worse yet, VA data suggests that the backlog of claims more than 125 days old has fallen because of suspect denials. In Obama’s VA, the number of appeals following a denial of benefits has soared to more than 274,000, leaving those veterans waiting more than 400 more days to have their disability claims reviewed.

VA health care is available only to a fraction of veterans and is not an entitlement; it is an earned benefit provided to those who were wounded or otherwise disabled during their time in uniform. They deserve better than what Obama is delivering.

Reason #7,392 to Vote No on Issue 7: Cuyahoga County Council Admits They Do Not Know How Sin Tax Money Will Be Spent!

Amazing!  

Confirming the elected officials on Cuyahoga County Council were derelict in duty regarding Issue 7 the Sin Tax extension - you will see below - even though they did not know how the funds for the Sin Tax extension would be spent - they voted to put it on the ballot anyway. 

From Cleveland Magazine --

If the “sin tax” for stadiums passes May 6, who decides how much will go to the city of Cleveland, and how much to Gateway?

Who’ll decide what gets replaced first — the Quicken Loans Arena roof or the ramps at Progressive Field or the seats at FirstEnergy Stadium? Can any of it go to pay off construction debt, or will it all go to repairs and new scoreboards?

We don’t know. No one does. The city and Cuyahoga County still have to negotiate how they’ll share the alcohol and cigarette tax money. The negotiations won’t be easy. And they don’t intend to hash it out until after voters approve the tax. 

“We do recognize that this is a gap in the legislation,” county councilman Dave Greenspan told me recently. “It is an issue we will need to deliberate on.” 

The “sin tax” on alcohol and cigarettes is a county tax. So if voters extend it, the Cuyahoga County Council gets to decide how it’s spent. But city, county and business leaders say the extension is meant for repairs at all three publicly-owned sports facilities. (You can see the Indians' and Cavs' wish lists and a report about the Browns' stadium here.)

The city owns the football stadium, while the public Gateway corporation owns the baseball stadium and basketball arena. How will the money be divided? 

“I think it will probably be even,” Mayor Frank Jackson said at the February press conference that kicked off the pro-sin tax campaign. Jackson wants the tax revenue, a projected $260 million over 20 years, to be split equally among baseball, football, and basketball. 

But at a January meeting, Greenspan and three other Cuyahoga County council members warned Jackson’s chief of staff, Ken Silliman, not to expect an even split. 

“A third, a third, a third is not something I am interested in,” Greenspan tells me. “I’m a big believer that the money follows the need. If in one year, Progressive Field has greater needs than the other two, that’s where money will go.” 

The city and county haven’t had to share stadium money like this before. The first stadium sin tax, from 1990 to 2005, was earmarked for Gateway, to build Progressive Field and the Q. When the tax was renewed for 2005 to 2015, the first $116 million was earmarked for building and repairing FirstEnergy Stadium. (The last year or so of the tax will go to the county.) 

But if the tax is extended to 2035, the city and county will have competing interests for the same pot of cash. The Jackson and FitzGerald administrations want to negotiate a cooperative agreement to figure out how to sort through those interests. 

It’ll be tough. The Browns’ lease is more complex and vague about what the public has to pay for than the Indians’ and Cavs’ leases. The football stadium is newer and is used less often, but it’s bigger, and it’s battered by lakeshore winds. Gateway already has a system for weighing Progressive Field’s repair needs versus the Q’s. But that doesn’t help any with the football stadium -- unless Gateway were to take it over too. 

The county will have the upper hand in negotiations with the city, because it levies the tax. But the cost of public stadium ownership is falling harder on the city right now. Cleveland is still paying off $13 million a year in construction debt on the football stadium, while the county is paying off $9 million a year in debt from the Q. 

Could any sin tax money go to those old debts? City councilmen Brian Cummins and Mike Polensek have asked that question, and Jackson has entertained the possibility. But it seems unlikely. The county council sounds unwilling to hand over a straight third of the tax money to the city, and the county seems entirely focused on future repairs, not past debt. 

Why wasn’t this all figured out before the tax went on the ballot? Greenspan asked that question at the January meeting. 

“Those discussions need to happen, in my opinion, before the vote in May,” he said then, “so that the voters understand the complexity and understand the fundamental decision-making process as to how these funds are going to be used.” 

He was ignored. Our elected officials would rather present a united front to get the tax passed, then argue about the messy details later.

And as we see - even though County Councilman Greenspan's concerns were ignored - all members of the County Council, including Greenspan - voted to put Issue 7 the Sin Tax extension on the ballot.

This is the same Cuyahoga County "take the money & run" attitude that has plagued this area for far too long!  So much for the County Reform as it looks more like the status quo of weak and spineless elected officials unwilling to stand up for the people in Cuyahoga County!

By Voting No on Issue 7 - you will simply be forcing the elected leaders of this area to do the job they were elected to do!

Issue 7: Vote No on the Sin Tax & Keep Cleveland Strong!

Vote No on the Sin Tax Issue 7

Issue 7 means twenty more years of taxes and broken promises.

20 MORE YEARS OF TAXES:

We built the stadiums but the owners got even MORE.

• Bed Tax- $42,208,096 between 2000-2010
• Car Rental Tax- $30,777,748 between 2000-2010
• Concessions- Receives all the profit from concessions sold at games
• Parking- $117,802,711 between 2000-2010
• Stadium Ads- Receives all profits from ads placed in the Stadiums.
• Naming Rights- Recently sold for $100 million.

TWENTY MORE YEARS OF BROKEN PROMISES:

They Promised More Jobs:

Stadium promoters promised 28,000 jobs would be created in the Gateway district. This never happened. It is estimated that only a third of those the jobs appeared. Does this Keep Cleveland Strong? NO!

They Promised a Stronger Community:

One out of every three Clevelanders now lives in poverty and more than one-quarter of Cuyahoga County mortgages are underwater. Yet Issue 7 would give millionaire franchise owners millions more!!

THERE IS ANOTHER WAY:

The downtown power brokers, politicians and billionaire franchise owners are trying to rush this tax through. We should slow down the process and explore other options.

• The New England Patriots relied on private funding to build their stadium, using public funding for only 17% of their costs.
• The Indianapolis Colts increased taxes in 6 counties outside Indianapolis  to help fund the Lucas Oil Stadium.
• The Denver Broncos enacted a multi-county sales tax to help fund the Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium, helping their home town taxpayers.

Those three teams evidently know more than just how to win football games!! (Don’t you wish the Browns did, too?)

Go to the Coalition Against Unfair Taxes to learn more by clicking here!

John Boehner's Tea Party Whopper!

With President Obama's, "if you like your health care plan - you can keep it," being the Lie of the Year for 2013, refusing to be outdone by his golfing buddy, Speaker Boehner immediately becomes the front runner for "Lie of the Year" for 2014 with his claim that he has attended "hundreds of Tea Party events."

From Breitbart --

Politicians may be known for stretching the truth, but Speaker John Boehner's claim he's attended “hundreds of Tea Party events” over the past four years apparently pulled it well past the point of breaking.

In reviewing press reports, Breitbart News was only able to identify three Tea Party events Boehner has attended, all of which occurred before he became speaker. Boehner's spokesman now says the Ohio Republican has merely “talked with hundreds of Tea Party supporters.” Several top Ohio Tea Party activists, meanwhile, said they didn't know of Boehner's attending any Tea Party events in his home state.

Boehner made the claim at a Thursday luncheon event at the Middletown, Ohio, Rotary Club, specifying that by attending so many events he's been able to identify patterns in who makes up the Tea Party.

“I've gone to hundreds of Tea Party events over the last four years. The makeup is pretty much the same. You've got some disaffected Republicans, disaffected Democrats. You always have a handful of anarchists. They are against everything. Eighty percent of the people at these events are the most ordinary Americans you've ever met – none of whom have ever been involved in politics. We in public service respect the fact that they brought energy to the political process,” Boehner said.

In 2009 and 2010, Boehner attended at least three Tea Party rallies.

The first was April 15, 2009 in Bakersfield, California, where he attended with House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy. The second was September 6, 2009, where he spoke against Obamacare, then under consideration in Congress, at a Cincinnati Tea Party Voices of America Freedom Rally. The third was April 13, 2010 at a Tea Party rally held in Orlando, Florida, organized by Tea Party activist Jason Hoyt and attended by an estimated 2,000 people.

Incidentally, all were more than four years ago, which was the length of time Boehner specified during which he had attended the events.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, told Breitbart News late Friday, “Rep. Boehner attended Tea Party rallies, including in Florida and California, from the very start of the movement, and he's talked with hundreds of Tea Party supporters in recent years as he has traveled in Ohio and around the country.”

Boehner keeps an extremely busy schedule as he travels the country fundraising for Republican candidates, during the course of which he has undoubtedly met many people who self-identify as being of the Tea Party.

However, back home in Ohio, prominent local Tea Party activists say he has largely been missing in action.

“Speaker Boehner is my Representative,” Ann Becker, an Ohio Tea Party activist, said Friday. “He has been to only one Tea Party event. It was in September of 2009. His staff has been to a few more events. But hundreds is an extreme overstatement. He also has met with Tea Party leaders in the district a few times.”

“I am unaware of Boehner attending 'hundreds of Tea Party events,'” Ralph King, co-coordinator of the Cleveland, Ohio, Tea Party Patriots, said. “I would say the closest Boehner would ever be to a Tea Party event is he would have been driving the British ship in the Boston Harbor!”

Marianne Gasiecki, founder of the Mansfield, Ohio, Tea Party told Breitbart News on Friday, “John Boehner has not been to any Tea Party rallies outside of his district that I know of.”

“If he does go to Tea Party rallies in his district," Gasieki said, "it's only during campaign season."

Boehner was a notable no-show at the massive rally attended by more than 20,000 Tea Party activists on the west lawn of the Capitol on March 20, 2010 called to oppose Obamacare one day before the final vote. Numerous Tea Party-friendly members of Congress, including Steve King (R-IA), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and Mike Pence (R-IN) spoke at the event.

Boehner also did not attend an August 27, 2013 Tea Party rally of 300 activists held in front of Speaker Boehner's Troy, Ohio, offices. The purpose of the rally was to urge Boehner to defund Obamacare.

At the luncheon Thursday, Boehner went on to explain how he has a fairly positive view of the Tea Party movement but not the organizations that claim its mantle in urging Congress to be more conservative.

According to Boehner, "[t]here's the Tea Party and then there are people who purport to represent the Tea Party."

"I don't have any issue with the Tea Party," Boehner said. "I have issues with organizations in Washington who raise money purporting to represent the Tea Party, those organizations who are against a budget deal the president and I cut that will save $2.4 trillion over 10 years. They probably don't know that total federal spending in each of the last two years has been reduced, the first time since 1950."

According to Boehner, Tea Party activists "probably don't realize that we protected 99 percent of the American people from an increase in their taxes. They were against that too, the same organizations. There are organizations in Washington that exist for the sheer purpose of raising money to line their own pockets."

"I made it pretty clear I'll stand with the Tea Party," Boehner concluded, "but I'm not standing with these three or four groups in Washington who are using the Tea Party for their own personal benefit."

Boehner also mocked Republicans who opposed his efforts to pass immigration reform legislation.

"Here's the attitude," he told the audience. Then, in a high pitched, theatrical voice, Boehner screeched out, "Ohhhh. Don't make me do this. Ohhhh. This is too hard."

 

Kansas : the ninth state to join the Health Care Compact

  

Can Ohio be #10?

From Jamie at HealthCareCompact.org:

With the stroke of Governor Brownback's pen earlier this week, Kansas became the ninth state to join the Health Care Compact! Kansas joins Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama in petitioning Congress to allow them to regulate health care at the state level. You can read more about the victory in this story by the Wichita Eagle.

In Kansas, big-government groups pulled out all the stops, spreading misinformation to claim that the Compact will harm Medicare and that the federal government can manage health care better than the states. (Healthcare.gov, anyone?) Fortunately, the people of Kansas saw through these lies, and Gov. Brownback made an especially salient point in his signing statement: "The Health Care Compact will allow states to restore and protect Medicare for generations to come. Obamacare is the most serious attack on Medicare and seniors since the program's inception. By cutting $700 [b]illion out of Medicare, President Obama and his allies made a policy statement that ideology is more important than protecting seniors."

In addition to Gov. Brownback, special appreciation is due to Rep. Brett Hildabrand and Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, who led the Compact through the Kansas House and Senate, respectively.

All told, nearly 70 million Americans live in states that have joined the Compact. And with bills moving in both Ohio and Louisiana, that number could reach 85 million by the end of the year. That's 85 million Americans who won't be further harmed by the ongoing travesty of Obamacare.

But before the Compact goes into effect, it must pass the U.S. House and Senate. As you may know, Congressman James Lankford of Oklahoma has filed the Compact (HJ Res 110) in the U.S. House, and has already recruited 11 of his colleagues to co-sponsor alongside him. U.S. Senators are beginning to take notice as well.

# # #

Senior Pastor at Old Stone Church & Former President of Downtown Cleveland Residents Association: "Vote No on Issue 7 - The Sin Tax"

The below is an opinion piece against Issue 7, the Sin Tax, by R. Mark Giuliano - the senior pastor of the Old Stone Church on Public Square and the former president of the Downtown Cleveland Residents Association...

From The Plain Dealer -- 

 

Great things are happening in Cleveland, there's no doubt about it. As a downtown resident, immediate past president of the Downtown Cleveland Residents Association, and senior pastor of the historic Old Stone Church on Public Square, I have seen, firsthand, the emerging strength of our city core over the last six years, and would be discouraged, to say the least, to see it stop or even slow now. But a new Cleveland needs a new way of doing business and that could very well start by ending the so called “sin tax.”

Do our stadiums bring added economic and social value to downtown Cleveland and the region as a whole? Yes; clearly! The Gateway District alone is booming with new restaurants, pubs and, most importantly, new residents who bring a demand for more housing and retail in downtown such as the new Heinen's 33,000-square-foot grocery store at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue. Do the stadiums belong to us and not the teams who play in them? Yes; we are all shareholders. As owners and landlords of these community assets, do we need to provide periodic maintenance and upgrades? Again, yes; if we want pro sports teams and the ability to host major concerts and events, of course we do. But is a sin tax the way to get the job done in the most equitable and helpful way? Probably not.

Growing cities look for smart ways of powering their cultural economic engines. Let our esteemed council people take the lead by exploring more just and contemporary ways of funding our important stadiums and the economic dividend they bring.

Besides, the research shows that sin taxes do not work the way some revenue-hungry benefactors claim they do. In their 2009 article, "Taxing Sin," for the market-oriented research group, the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, Richard Williams and Katelyn Christ debunk the myths surrounding sin taxes: Sin taxes don't discourage unhealthy behaviors such as drinking and smoking (the original argument for sin tax). And more often than not, monies raised are less likely to fund programs that help those with unhealthy behaviors (research, cessation programs, etc.) and more likely to fund stadiums and the arts. Moreover, sin taxes create a codependent relationship, where those funded need those taxed to continue in their unhealthy ways in order to keep the revenue stream flowing.

Of greatest concern to me, and anyone else who cares about what is just, is the fact that a sin tax is a tax where a targeted group of citizens bears the burden of the whole. And sin taxes usually fall, say Williams and Christ, "disproportionately on consumers at the lower end of the income distribution," those least likely, financially speaking, to be able to enjoy the benefits of our pro sporting and entertainment events. A sin tax, in other words, singles out and places an unjust burden on the few, often those with less means, to generate benefits for the many.

The sin tax is an easy but unimaginative and grossly unfair way of generating necessary funds to sustain Cleveland’s amenities. I'm all for taking care of our stadiums and our exceptional arts programs, but why not do it through a fairer and more sophisticated, multilayered approach which spreads out the tax burden of stadium ownership while nudging up rental fees. Or, at the very least, why not extend a small fractional sales tax levied on all citizens? After all, if we all benefit, and I think we do, then we should all contribute. Let’s love the sin and hate the tax!

R. Mark Giuliano is the senior pastor of the Old Stone Church on Public Square and the former president of the Downtown Cleveland Residents Association.

Vote No on Issue 7

Stop the Sin Tax!

Art credit: zazzle.com

From Appleseeds blog:

  

The Easter Lily. For many, the beautiful trumpet-shaped white flowers symbolize purity, virtue, innocence, hope and life—the spiritual essence of Easter.

History, mythology, literature, poetry and the world of art are rife with stories and images that speak of the beauty and majesty of the elegant white flowers. Often called the “white-robed apostles of hope,” lilies were found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ’s agony. Tradition has it that the beautiful white lilies sprung up where drops of Christ’s sweat fell to the ground in his final hours of sorrow and deep distress. Churches continue this tradition at Easter time by banking their altars and surrounding their crosses with masses of Easter Lilies, to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and hope of life everlasting.

More of the history of the Easter Lily is here.

Happy Easter from Cleveland Tea Party Patriots