more henry dems blog posting... I have to go to homework now!!!

Green jobs, health care, government

I want to respond the Henry Libertarian starting with the purpose of government since this is a fundamental difference between the conservative every man for themselves mentality and a more realistic economics and social governing of Democrats who want to protect citizens and empower our economy.

Henry Libertarian commented:

The Government is NOT here to take care of us.

The government is here to protect and empower. Come on now you are a Libertarian. Look back to your intellectual forefathers such as the Liberal John Locke.

Civil Government is a social contract to protect individuals and their basic liberties from the group. The group. The government is their to protect and empower them as individuals. Its also their to protect and empower the economy. Free-market advocates since Adam Smith have noted that markets require basic structures infrastructure--legal, regulatory, military. Individuals need some entity to protect them from market failures and violence. So your government isn't thier to take care of us is opposed by your own Libertarian ancestory... as well as any accurate conception of how markets work.

Barack Obama promises to "create five million new green jobs." The entire civilian workforce in the US is a little over 145 million people. So if Barack Obama’s adds five million new green jobs then one in every 33 jobs in the United States would be a new "green" job.

The basic response is... I'm not sure where the issue is. I'll outsource this to economist Dean Baker (from email)...

this includes all the derivative jobs that are associated with "green jobs." So if we have 500,000 construction workers employed retrofitting buildings, we might have another 500,000 employed transporting materials, producing the inputs in factories, or even producing raw materials. The same would be the case with fuel efficient cars or hybrids.

The 5 million figure is probably high even by this standard, but it is not ridiculous on its face, especially by political standards.

So Obama may be playing up the numbers... I dunno. Economist fight amoungst themselves on the derivative impacts of policies--since an economy is a collective effort with broad repurcussion outside the direct impacts of the targeted goal.

Henry Libertarian:

Why do "earmarks" always come up? They take up the money that could be spent on things like education and Healthcare.

I'm just going to quote myself on this one...

The Economist magazine pointed out that all earmarks add up to less than $20 billion a year. That for fiscal year 2008 is $64.56. Since that is a very small chunk of my tax dollars and its part of the push and pull of a federal system. I have faith in our processes of checks and balances... and faith that corruption can be founded and dealt with... the sky isn’t falling

This can’t possibly be top priority is it? If it is... we’ll jsut disagree. I put getting Bin Ladin, protecting our national security, protecting our troops, stegthening our economy, ending the health care crise, ending the transportation crisis, ending the education crisis–the Regan revolution sure has created a lot of crisises!

Yes schools are overcrowded. Why? We cannot build schools before the kids are there. Schools get built in responce to the need for them. What good does it do to create 10 new schools if the area does not have enough children to support that? The Federal Government DOES NOT have ANYTHING to do with how the Counties run the school system.

Yeah... part of the problem... Local government is more easily manipulated by feel good economic policies...

Schools are underfunded? Which school systems do not have books?

Couldn’t name them but from what I hear my nephew has had classes where he couldn’t take the book home for homework since there weren’t enough of them. I heard many of the same stories across the board. One of my goals as chairman is to get more substantial data on that one so it’s a fair challenge and I’m certain I can answer it with more than hear-say data–though I trust what these people are telling me, you can’t necessarily take it at face value...

Which school systems cannot provide learning materials for the children?

Teachers pay for large amounts of supplies out of their own pockets... is that really at question here?

Could we possibly give them more money? Sure, but maybe we should look at how the money that the County is being given is being spent first.

The chairmans race here in Henry was focused on economic challenges like bringing in new businesses, fixing the trasnportation issue, development and smart growth... I don’t think penny pinching is a serious solution... but feel free to peruse the henry county budget I’d be intrigued to what you find...

I can tell you this, my child has books at his school and an appropriate amount of educational resources and he attends public school. Teacher pay too low, as compared to what?

Ask his teacher how much out of pocket she has provided... also ask about grants from private sector–families, businesses

Current teacher pay levels do attract talented people to the profession. NEA estimated that the average classroom teacher salary for 2004-05 was $47,674.

Average... If Bill Gates walks into a bar the average jumps sky high... doesn't mean every school gets comparable pay rates... the inner city... and at risk enivronments have trouble with teacher retention. At large teacher retention is a problem because people get fed up with the problems and go back to private sector.


Once again I will repeat myself. Healthcare rises due to lawyers and insurance costs. Also, stop trying to cover illegal aliens. They do not have "rights" to our social benefit systems. In Texas, where the state comptroller estimates illegal immigrants cost hospitals $1.3 billion in 2006. Undocumented immigrants are driving up the number of people without health insurance.

We have an immigration problem... but the idea that this is the reason health care is so expensive is absurd. You got to look at the macro environment as a whole...

Here are the major contributing factors.... NCHC:

Why is the number of uninsured people increasing?

Millions of workers don’t have the opportunity to get health coverage. A third of firms in the U.S. did not offer coverage in 2006.4
Nearly two-fifths (38 percent) of all workers are employed in smaller businesses, where less than two-thirds of firms now offer health benefits to their employees.7 It is estimated that 266,000 companies dropped their health coverage between 2000-2005 and 90 percent of those firms have less than 25 employees.
Rapidly rising health insurance premiums are the main reason cited by all small firms for not offering coverage. Health insurance premiums are rising at extraordinary rates. The average annual increase in inflation has been 2.5 percent while health insurance premiums for small firms have escalated an average of 12 percent annually.4
Even if employees are offered coverage on the job, they can’t always afford their portion of the premium. Employee spending for health insurance coverage (employee’s share of family coverage) has increased 143 percent between 2000 and 2006.8
Losing a job, or quitting voluntarily, can mean losing affordable coverage - not only for the worker but also for their entire family. Only seven (7) percent of the unemployed can afford to pay for COBRA health insurance - the continuation of group coverage offered by their former employers. Premiums for this coverage average almost $700 a month for family coverage and $250 for individual coverage, a very high price given the average $1,100 monthly unemployment check.9
Coverage is unstable during life’s transitions. A person’s link to employer-sponsored coverage can also be cut by a change from full-time to part-time work, or self-employment, retirement or divorce.10

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 59% of the nation's illegal immigrants are uninsured, compared with 25% of legal immigrants and 14% of U.S. citizens.

Immigration reform--how ever it would end up looking like would help this issue... plus why else do they sneak over the boarder... the third world has an impact on our country... increase prosperity in Mexico and you won't see as many people coming here to pay for their own families health care, food, and well-being. Why do you think McCain (he was for it before he was against it) and Bush supported immigration reform. Its a huge problem that needs to be solved in a way that doesn't hurt our economy. Kick them all out mentality of conservatives would cost us economically...

Illegal immigrants represent about 15% of the nation's 47 million uninsured people.

Sorry.. that would be 47 million Americans. Your numbers are just wrong...

DeNavas-Walt, C.B. Proctor, and J. Smith. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006. U.S. Census Bureau., August 2007. http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf

Even Hillary Clinton's story about the woman who died because she didn't have health insurance turned out to be fake.

I don't know and don't care about that story... it was a narrative... campaigns are full of naratives. But thats why social scientific data is where the debate should be... the my brother know a guy who knows a guy who saw x is not a way to get an accurate representation of the world.

You consistently see Republicans use such tactics... escpecially locally. Moderate Repub's do have something substantial to say on policy data... even when I disagree with their priorities I at least applaud their policy efforts--conservatives on the other hand like magic, voodoo (GHW Bush), and other mythical beasts that fight the evil hobgoblins of the world.

There is no Constitutional Right to health care coverage.

Okay... it'd be absurd to think everything needs to be a constitutional right... that'd just be ineffiecient. As a proponent of markets... I don't want to create more needless gridlock in government... I like and want efficiency. But lets not forget "Life, Liberty, and pursuit of happiness." The markets failures infringe on all 3.

NCHC Facts about Health Care:

Studies estimate that the number of excess deaths among uninsured adults age 25-64 is in the range of 18,000 a year. This mortality figure is more than the number of deaths from diabetes (17,500) within the same age group.10

10Institute of Medicine. Insuring America’s Health - Principles and Recommendations. The National Academies Press, 2004.

back to Henry Libertarian...

Private industry works just fine when you leave it alone and stop all of the Liberal regulating.

How is that working out for us so far? I think turning towards mild regulation and market competion from a non-profit making institution that wants effieciencies since they don't have a profit motive to pay ceo's while denying coverage and making doctors increase their staff--and your doctors bills to pay for that staff--to get people the coverage they need. This can't possibly be a real argument on your part.

Plus John McCain doesn't want to remove protectionisms on Doctors and patents... these would lower the cost of people gonig to the doctor and lower the cost of medication. So thats an empty argument all the way around since he doesn't want to end protectionisms and regulation. Obama vs. McCain we are just debating policy priorities of who we want to protect... people... or share-holder values and CEO pay (at the cost of human lives, American bankruptcies, and harm to small businessnesses

Barack Obama is looking to rely mostly on the heavy hand of the government for regulating healthcare.

Modest smart regulations often make markets work better... not always mind you... but in things like health care its obvious. All you need to do is compare us with other nations--we rank 37th in the world according to the World Health Organization... and pay 2-3 times as much as other industrialized nations to get worse quality of care. You don't have much of a case for that one.

What did Bill Clinton do for healthcare reform? Hillary Care was presented to the Democratic-controlled Congress on November 20, 1993. U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D) qualified his agreement against the plan saying "there is no health care crisis" ... "there is an insurance crisis" but also indicated "anyone who thinks [the Clinton health care plan] can work in the real world as presently written isn't living in it." In August 1994, Democratic Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D) introduced a compromise proposal that would have delayed requirements of employers until 2002.

Yes and the reasons health care reform didn't work was--everybody together now--Republicans blocking the efforts.

You can't--well you can, but no one should take you seriously--complain about the impacts of Repubican obstruction. The other issue is the amount of lobbying on behalf of the health care industry... its quite a profitable business if you didn't know. Did I mention we pay 2-3 times as much as other countries... for WORSE care--oh yeah I think I did.

In Great Britain after many decades of shortages, misery and suffering followed until 1989, when some market-based health care competition was reintroduced to the British citizens.

I'm for market competition... the government, with its massive purchasing power, and its lack of a need to pay huge salaries to ceo's (not to mention spending money to keep from getting people care) would be a check on profit motive at the expense of care. I'm not for less market competition I'm for real market competition. No go on that one too...

In Canada, Chaoulli v. Quebec UPDATE (June 9, 2005): In a 4 to 3 decision, the Canadian Supreme Court struck down Quebec's law that prohibits private medical insurance.

Stawman... we're not trying to prohibit private medical insurance. Once again... conservative tactics 101... make up stuff that just isn't true...

The Cuban Government has implemented a two-tiered medical system (e.g. "medical apartheid") that caters to foreign tourists while denying native Cubans access to basic medical necessities (at least it is "free" to them).

If costs keep going up here unchecked by government participation you'll start seeing Americans start going abroad for care... plus once again strawman... you aren't accurately representing the Obama plan. Its market competion with private insurance to bring down the profit motive to a more effieicent and equitable level.

Australia's universal health care scheme is relatively new (introduced in 1983, which built on the 1974 Medibank program). As with all socialized health care systems, there is a mixture of public versus private care (approximately 30% of Australians also retain private health insurance). As a result, the private patients receive better care than their medicare counterparts.

Sure if you are willing to pay for better care... I don't have a problem with that!!!! But citizens... HUMANS deserve a basic level of care. To think otherwise leads you to moral quandaries that would make me appalled. But thats a personal decision for everyone to decide.

The impacts of Republican everyman for themselves... vs. creating an economy that protects and empowers citizens is the distinguishing factor in this debate. plus killing people and unnecessarily creating market inefficiencies in the richest nation in the world is a bit absurd and a very sad statement to the impacts of the conservative revolution on American citizens.




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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Henry Dems blog post...

I work my ass off debating conservatives... some times I think its pointless... I hope people learn something from it... (see main post for links)

This liberal lacks a retort? McCain, Obama, and the economy

I'm glad to see we are getting a more active blog. The more we debate... the more we discuss... the more we have dialouge. The less the right wing swift boat attacks and urban ledgends that Republicans have used time and time again will work.

The discussion is on McCain and his 8 houses... or however many.

Henry Libertarian commented:

That shows how "out of touch" and "privileged" Obama is, which Liberals like to ignore. Sure it is fun to point across the isle and snicker, but when you are guilt of the same thing suddenly you get defensive and don't see the humor anymore. If you want to call McCain rich then show me a politician at the federal levels that isn't. You obviously don't have a retort or you would have said something better. Obama wants to tax businesses that make goods and provide services which will make goods and services more expensive. With Obama's Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan, who do you think is going to pay for it?

First... "when you are guilty of the same thing? How so? The Rezko smear has been shown to be a complete fabrication for more see Factcheck.org which is a nonpartisan group that I highly recommend to those like myself who want to deal in policy and not whitewash the issues. Read the Rezko Reality to see that Henry Libertarian like many Republicans is misinformed on the issue.

If you want to call McCain rich then show me a politician at the federal levels that isn't.

That is known as a straw man in logic. I'm not arguing that Obama has note earned an impressive income. Or that middle class and working class americans are seldom representative of elected officials.

But here is the deal. Obama understand that Americans deserve to be empowered... he wants to help middle class Americans get a higher quality of life. John McCain wants to cut taxes on the rich... which has harmed our economic health over the past 30 years of supply side reganomics.

I mean there are reasons why European nations--and Canada too!--have more economic mobility than we do in America. These are all repurcussion of conservative economics--a less equitable outcome for hard working americans.

So saying I want to have it both ways because "Obama is rich too" is either a misunderstanding or clever rhetorical trick which won't work. I'll assume its a misunderstanding.

Obama wants to tax businesses that make goods and provide services which will make goods and services more expensive. With Obama's Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan, who do you think is going to pay for it?

First... lets go back to the core questions. Obama wants to bring back the strong economic growth that was seen before the conservative revolution of tax cuts at the cost of quality of life.

The impacts of the Bush tax cuts have been huge. And it has hurt our business competativeness around the globe. That is reason--as the book, "the politics of Bad Ideas" points out--that the World Economic Forum the deterioration of the US public finances has begun to damage US competitiveness. This is a business research institute in Switzerland. The US expereienced the most dramatic drop in rankings of ALL nations.

Also there is a myth that American businesses are being strangled by taxation at the expense of competativeness. I'll outsource to Economist Mark Thoma at U. Oregon "The Greek Menace" who brings together some stuff around the web... I'll quote the larger point--aside from conservatives once again manipluating with hyperbole rather than data...

Economist Dean Baker:

Washington Post Misleads Readers to Push for Lower Corporate Tax Rates

Today, the preferred policy is further reductions in corporate income taxes. To advance this agenda the Post tells readers that, "U.S. companies operating abroad already labor under a bigger tax burden than most foreign competitors."

That's not what the OECD says. Data from the OECD show that in the average member country corporate taxes are equal to about 3.5 percent of GDP. In the United States, corporate taxes have generally been between and 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent of GDP over the last two decades, according to the Congressional Budget Office (Table F-4).

Also here is the tax policy center on Obama's "business tax increases" that you claim will destroy our economy (pg 22)

Obama’s proposal to make permanent the Research and Development (R&D) credit and the renewable energy production credit would make it easier for firms to make investment decisions because they would no longer have to worry each time the credits approached their expiration. Both credits encourage particular behavior that Congress has deemed worthwhile and the change would likely increase both the amount of business investment in R&D and the development of more renewable energy sources. Most economists believe, however, that credits for selected investments in renewable energy are a less cost-effective way of reducing global warming and dependence on imported oil than approaches that raise the price of fossil fuels (including the cap-and-trade proposals advanced by both Obama and McCain) and allow private markets to select the least costly ways of reducing fossil fuel use.

The two sets of revenue-raisers that Obama has proposed would raise taxes on corporations and individuals engaging in particular activities and thus might cause them to change their behavior. To the extent that the provisions close loopholes in the current tax system, they could lead to more efficient use of resources, in terms of both how firms invest their funds and the use of financial strategies to exploit loopholes. The Obama campaign is probably overstating how much revenue additional loophole-closing proposals can raise, however, particularly with regard to proposals to reduce revenue lost from taxpayers who conceal offshore income and exploit international differences in tax rates to shift income to low-tax jurisdictions. There is little hard knowledge about how much revenue is lost to these transactions and administrative efforts to control them are ongoing.

These are equitable and smart chagnes in the tax code. Not perfect for my market theory wonkish Jim Nichols world... but politics is about compromise and consensus and this is a great step towards creating a more equitable economy that not only empowers middle class america but increases all our prosperity through economic revival and a move away from supply side economic nonsense.

Your concern about goods and services is moot since the incomes and savings of middle class and working class americans will rise... which will happen since ending the Bush economic fiasco will improve our longterm economic forcast. WHy do you think the Bush tax cuts created a recession recovery that faired so poorly compared to other post war recorvies?

With Obama's Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan, who do you think is going to pay for it?

Trillion dollar spending worries you? Obama would boost the debt by $3.5 trillion but at the same time increase spending and tax cuts that help middle class Americans. McCain would increase the debt by $5 trillion and all we get is more of the Bush economy stagnation and tax cuts for people who will just by bigger houses and nice boats.

Remeber a tax cut is government spending... like it or not.. So McCain is definately not your guy--why defend the worse of two evils by your own parameters.

I'll conclude with the Tax Policy Center again...(Intro)

The two candidates’ tax plans would have sharply different distributional effects. Senator McCain’s tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their after-tax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts and those tax cuts would be small as a share of after-tax income. In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income

This Liberal lacks a retort? Mama said wonk you out...

We understand economics... and we will bring policies that protect and empower Americans. The every man for themselves mentality Republicans promote not only hurts our citizens, our economic competativeness... but its just plain old bad economics and ways of treating our fellow man...



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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

blog post from the Henry Dems site...

I must be crazy... trying to run two blogs... that have political slants.. durning an election year. While you are chairman of one county, campaign manager in a state senate race, are in school, and work part-time...

Here is my most recent post on the Henry Dem's website. Please go sign up on the site to have new blog posts emailed directly to you.

from the comments page...

TO catch people up there has been a health debate going on in the comments page. I want to pull it to the front and hopefully entice others to comment as well. The more people dig into the numbers, and talk about their own opinions and feelings on these important issues... the more people will feel inspired to once again participate in the process.

Think about that for a second. By taking some time out of your day to think about and participate in dialogue you are helping empower someone else to want to join to political process. For too long people have been turned away from politics by attack ads and corruption. Well the only way to fight back and stop those things is through MORE participation not less.

Here was the thread so far... and then I’ll responded at bottom. Remember I represent Jim Nichols ideas... you should participate so that you can advocate for your ideas and views...

Henry Libertarian commented:
What we need is REAL change not tax and over spend Liberals. You only want to redistribute waelth not create any new income or jobs. Obama isn't the answer to ANYTHING except "Who is the worse choice for President in '08?"

On 08/21/08 04:37 PM

On 08/21/08 04:51 PM

On 08/22/08 08:26 AM

Henry Libertarian commented:
Clinton didn't "create" all of those jobs, he benefited from the .com boom and no one credits him with the .com bust either. Obama's plans will cost $200 billon a year. Ranking Democrats vowed in December to put a moratorium on earmarks; instead, a record number infect legislation pending in Congress, with 32,000 requests this year, compared with about 13,000 in 2006 . In 2007 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slipped in a $25 million provision for San Francisco's waterfront on a $15 billion federal water bill at the last minute. Cutting individual taxes increases spending wich creates more tax money. Fixing health care does not mean going the Hillary Clinton way of demanding that everyone buy health care or an employer does not have to hire you. Fixing health care starts with tort reform in keeping health provider costs down. I am not sure what school your child goes to but my child has books and supplies. The school is responsible for teaching your child not for buying them paper, pencils, pens, glue, etc. The Federal Government should not have ANYTHIG to do with local school systems. You say that you are not for too much government but you want them to control everything and provide it for you. Be responsible for yourself and stop looking for handouts.

Jim Nichols commented:
Also what do you mean by overspend? Our classroom sizes are far too big and lack basic things like supplies and books. Our health care crisis--we rank 37th in the world, and pay 2 to 3 times as much as other industrialized nations--is harming our global competitiveness and litterally killing americans... or at least making them file bankruptcy. Our transportation infrastructure is massively underfunded. Our mental health systems... underfunded. I'm not for too much government... but we aren't investing in our long-term economic sustainability.. and it shows. People pay the price of the Regan economic revolution of cut taxes worry not about the consequences...

Jim Nichols commented:

Well actually the Republican record on the economy and economic growth speak for themselves. George Bush is about to end his 8 years in office having created fewer jobs than Clinton averaged each year of his term. Ever since Regan we've run deficits except during the Clinton years... data speaks louder than words!

My response:

"Clinton didn't "create" all of those jobs, he benefitted from the .com boom and no one credits him with the .com bust either. "

My claim wasn’t to imply Clinton "created" those jobs as if by magic. That not how an economy works. But my claim was intended to point out that every time they open their mouths Bush/McCain/and Company like to say that their economic policies will create jobs... or that they are pro-growth. The question should at least be asked of them... why do you think so?



The paternalistic: "Father says so" [or Bush... or McCain...] is not an economic argument.

And just a question because it seems to be begged...So the Republicans think you have to wait for a dot-com, or real-estate bubble... to create economic growth? Keynes would smile at that one.

Obama's plans will cost $200 billion a year.

true... for those of you who don’t know $200 billion is–if memory serves me–how much Obama’s health care plan costs. For context 200 billion is $645.58 per-capita. 645.58 in my tax dollars going to get millions of people who lack health insurance–such as myself–the ability to get needed medical care and not harm our economy since early treatment rather than last minute care is by far cheaper–more efficient to use an economists term.

And just to give you an idea of how much conservatives end up sounding like they are on mars when talking policy. I spend between 800-1400 dollars a month on health care treatment since I lack health insurance. Its condescending to hardworking Americans who get up each day and try to pay the rules to be told "tough cookies"

Its time for democrats to tell Republicans to cut the crap when it comes to pubic policy.


He then moves onto ear marks...

Ranking Democrats vowed in December to put a moratorium on earmarks; instead, a record number infect legislation pending in Congress, with 32,000 requests this year, compared with about 13,000 in 2006 . In 2007 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slipped in a $25 million provision for San Francisco's waterfront on a $15 billion federal water bill at the last minute

First a question why do "earmarks" always come up when talking to a conservative? The Economist magazine pointed out that all earmarks add up to less than $20 billion a year. That for fiscal year 2008 is $64.56. Since that is a very small chunk of my tax dollars and its part of the push and pull of a federal system. I have faith in our processes of checks and balances... and faith that corruption can be founded and dealt with... the sky isn’t falling.

$25 million for the San Fran waterfront.

For those that don’t know... for fiscal year 2008 that would be 8 cents of my tax dollars. 8 cents? 8 cents? Do we really need to deal with 8 cents? Millions without health care, Bin Ladin still on the loose, terrorist recrutiments UP after the Iraq war... and conservatives want to talk about 8 cents????

Since you brought it up I’ll answer it. San Francisco is a major tourist hub. It brings in tourists from all over the world–myself included. Ask an economist... Adam Smith... Joseph Stiglitz... anyone outside of the Heritage institute really and they will point out the importance of investment in vital infrastructure. Tourism brings a lot of money to the state of California and the United States as a whole. Next time I go to San Fran and enjoy a stroll through one of the tourist district I will feel pleased to know my 8 cents helped me have an enjoyable visit.

Cutting individual taxes increases spending which creates more tax money. ...

Yeah point blank not true... was never thought to be true in theory by a large chunk of economist... and since the Regan revolution has still not proven true in the real world.

You often hear this argument... "the tax cuts pay for themselves." Its either someone misinformed or trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Don’t let them do it. For more on this read "The Politics of Bad Ideas–the Great Tax Cut Delusion and the Decline of Good Government in America" by Bryan D. Jones and Walter Williams both of whom are at the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at University of Washington.

Then we move back to health care...

Fixing health care does not mean going the Hillary Clinton way of demanding that everyone buy health care or an employer does not have to hire you. Fixing health care starts with tort reform in keeping health provider costs down.

We rank 37th in the world for quality of health care. We rank 37th!!!

WE SPEND 2 to 3 times as much as other industrialized nations who already have universal coverage. We are creating huge profits for a small group of people, causing hard working Americans to go bankrupt from illnesses they have no control over, and we are killing people every day because they lack needed treatment. Our businesses put at a competitive disadvantage because they are paying the price....

The idea that tort reform and health care provider costs is going to fix the market failure we are currently dealing with is a bit of a stretch. Private insurance companies and the bureaucracy they bring into the health care system IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. Insurance companies pay people a lot of money to go through peoples files to try to keep people from getting insurance or certain treatments.

I am not sure what school your child goes to but my child has books and supplies. The school is responsible for teaching your child not for buying them paper, pencils, pens, glue, etc

Our schools are underfunded.... class sizes too large... teacher pay too low.

As someone who dropped out of high school... I can tell you how passionate I am on making sure that our kids stay competitive in a global economy.

If we don’t invest in our kids... and create and educated work force we will continue to fall far behind Japan, Europe and the other industrialized nations in the world As someone who wants to know my economy is going to be strong and stronger... over the long run I can tell you how passionate I am at making sure the needed investment in our infrastructure is spent NOW.

Instead of seeing a hand-out... see it as a hand-up which helps empower other people to rise up and helps protect your own economic security at the same time

You say that you are not for too much government but you want them to control everything and provide it for you. Be responsible for yourself and stop looking for handouts.

When did I say that??? I don’t know how to respond to that one since I never said I want them to control everything and provide it for you. Republicans always try this trick. If it isn't a trick then its a manipulation. I never said any such thing so I can't respond to the attack.

Be responsible for yourself and stop looking for handouts

That about as condescending as it gets... and you see it from conservatives all the time.

You don’t know me... but it doesn’t matter... you shouldn’t need to. The presumption should always be that people are trying to play by the rules and work hard. Plus I'm demanding better schools, better health care system, better foriegn policy. What do those things have to do with not being responsible for myself... what about that is look for a handout. I'm demanding Government actually do its job. It is there to protect and empower people. Plus personally I believe that which we do to the least of these is very telling about ourselves.

Every time someone tells me to stop whining and work hard I think of my grandfather who got up everyday before the sun to go work on his farm, would then go work at the factory for 8 to 10 hours, to come home and raise a family. He died with less than $200 to his name and never lived very far above the poverty line. You can call me every name in the book... but you I won’t let you call my grandfather lazy.

Imagine if Democrats finally told Republicans.. .cut the crap. The attacks, the personal a fronts, the swift boat ads... and urban legends speak to how little Republicans how when it comes to policy. But they win if Democrats don’t fight back. Knock on doors, make phone calls.... help bring our country back to the entrepreneurial machine it once was. Government is in the business of empowering its citizens. Its time to say no to another Republican who won’t do the job.




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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Henry County Democrats in the Press...

Richard comes out with the better quotes on this one... I wish the whole interview I gave was posted online or something... I had some better one-liners... sigh.

Published: Thursday, August 21, 2008
Henry Dems say 2008 is year of change

By Johnny Jackson

jjackson@henryherald.com

Local Democrats are optimistic about the upcoming November elections, saying increased interest in national politics will mean increased local political interest.

"I think that this is the year of the Democratic Party," said Richard Ray, a long-time member of the Henry County Democratic Committee, which underwent a sort of revival and reorganization in March.

Ray is also a super delegate for the Democratic Party. On Saturday, he will head to Denver, Colo., to represent the state of Georgia in the Democratic National Committee Convention, which will decide the party's next candidate for the presidency.

Ray said he believes a push for change in the national government will spur similar sentiments locally. "We don't have a lot of local candidates running in November under the Democratic banner," he said. "But those we have, we are hoping that they are going to do well in Henry County."

Energy policy and the economy are big concerns for Americans on the national level, he said. "The American people are seeing the middle class shrink, jobs go overseas ... people want better. People want change."

Issues are not much different, he said, on the local front. He said he believes that transportation, health care and education are the leading issues among Henry County residents.

"Certainly, the cost of gasoline is the No. 1 issue," he said. "Everybody is hurting with the cost of gasoline in terms of getting to and from work and getting their kids to and from school functions. And they want it fixed."

The Democratic Party presence is growing in Henry County as well. More than 5,600 ballots were cast in the July 15 Democratic Primary Election for U.S. Senate.

"Demographics are improving in favor of the Democratic Party," Ray said. "This election cycle, you are going to see more and more people qualifying for local elections as Democrats."

More local Democratic influence, he said, should encourage more debate on transportation issues, like the controversial Atlanta-to-Macon commuter rail idea. "The rail extension for Atlanta to Macon - I think the people are ready for that and the business community in Henry County is pushing for that," he added. "There's going to have to be something done, because the traffic is going to continue to increase."

Such controversial issues have fueled debate in Henry County for years. As gas prices have increased by more than a dollar per gallon over the past year, the debate is more heated now than ever.

"Democrats are really excited this year," said Jim Nichols, chairman of the Henry County Democratic Committee. "People have really been inspired to get back into politics. I think after eight years of Bush, people are starting to step up to the plate and say, 'enough is enough.'"

Several have joined the restructured Henry County Democratic Committee already, throwing their support behind Democratic candidate for Henry County Sheriff, Joe Mack Eckler. In November, Eckler will face Republican candidate, Maj. Keith McBrayer, of the Henry County Sheriff's Office.

"I think he's really going to run a fantastic campaign," Nichols said. "His goal is to bring change to the local level with gang issues and education."

He said he believes November will tell the story of what he believes is a political revival for Henry County's Democrats. "People are asking, 'How can I help bring back a government I can believe in?" he said. "People are ready for change, and the focus is on the issues, especially the transportation issue."

The Henry County Democratic Committee currently has about 25 core members and about 150 active volunteers. "We're growing, and we really have a core group that's active and energized," he added. "We have a revived party, locally in Henry."

The committee meets at the Henry County Government Annex on the fourth Tuesday of every month. The next meeting will be held Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m.

--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

This week... each one of you has a homework assignment...

I jokingly tell people I've quit as Chairman and as someone trying to be active in the Democratic Party about 20 times this year...

I'm sacrificing a lot... and in many ways and for many reasons I see it as futile. So many Democrats don't walk the walk and put their money and time where their mouth is.

Everybody has a job, everybody it tight on money, everybody wants to watch American Idol (okay... no I don't... I've never seen the thing.)

The National Party and State Party are in my opinion in a wreck and aren't doing the things they need to do to fix their sturctural problems.

Am I just sustaining something that will never do anything but people me into a life where I don't get to do what I do best which is thinking, reading, and writing...

I'd love to go back to throwing house parties on human rights issues that nobody goes to...

I'm tired of always watching my message... (yes people we need to raise taxes to the levels of other industrialized nations if not more...)

I came across something this morning..

John 21:18

I tell you the solemn truth, when you were young, you tied your clothes around you and went wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will tie you up and bring you where you do not want to go.”

I feel pretty tied up...

I don't get to spend the time with my fiance and friends that I want... I watch my GPA get get... I long to sit and just read... hell I crashed out about 7 pm and was just out... Deana had to clean up dinner and dragged me up to bed--I as always when woken up out of deep sleep just babble incomprehensably and stumble around...


I need to learn to laugh at the sacrfice...

"you don't know where I've been lou... you don't know where I've been" Tyler




--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

more to come...

So obviously the high-tech wi-fi all the time live blogging didn't happen. But it was interesting, fun, and highly enlightening to be at the board of elections on an enlection day...

got home about 11pm and worked until 12:32 on revisions that the fiance caught in my Sartre paper.

Its not 2:47 am and I'm going to work. Afterwards I'm coming home to sleep 2 or 3 hours. Then I have to make it to class--and have ANOTHER paper due by midnight!! Yeah I'm only taking two classes this fall semester... this politics stuff takes up a lot of time!!!
--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

first numbers coming in soon

satellite and absentee about to come in for Fairview and Stockbridge

7:23... I guess this is the way of the world... "shortly" is not time but a means of keeping us feeling like things are happening...


--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Live blogging from Board of Elections Henry County

I'm at the board of elections here in Henry County GA; the Democratic Party gets one observer along with all of the candidates.

They have a set up with 4 laptops.. So i'm on a laptop thought'd I'd be posting tomorrow.

Hope we get out early... I have to be at work at 3:30am!!! sigh...

--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

predictions...

AJC is reporting, and everyone I'm talking to locally on the ground, are saying turnout is low. Here are my predictions... this hurts Rand Knight and Vernon Jones in the US senate race (Rand Knights target voters are new voters and liberal voters who are not blue dogs... Vernon Jones has high name ID with low turnout populations...)

In Henry County I think this low turnout hurts Fred Auletta in the Chairman of County Commission race, and Steve Davis in district 109 House race (Fred's honest and realistic approach to transportation is in opposition to Republican activists who tend to be conservative and tend to stray from strong market based approaches to the economy and fixate on a theoretical view of how the economy should work. Trea Pipken is helped because the Republican establishment here in Henry oppose Steve Davis.

For what its worth those are my early predictions.
--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

election day blogging

Spoke with Henry County board of election--turnout is low. Get out to VOTE!!!

Also there has popped up an issue about Jim Powell candidate in primary race for Public Service COmmision that I have just found out about today.

The state party asked me to verify the issue going on with Jim Powell for Henry County. Appears notices were posted that Jim Powell was removed from ballot earlier this week by Sec of State--called Henry County Board of elections around 11 am today and they stated that the notice was posted but that the court order was received last night and the notices were pulled and that Jim Powell's name is on the ballot. Appears that some counties still had up the posted notice. Please pass on this info to any who might be able to follow up on this for you locally so that we know whats going on with this issue. Follow ups with your county board of elections would be important.

Out of courtesy I am passing on this message from Jim Powell. Hopefully the media will look into this to find out what and why this has occured.

Please share far and wide so that we find out what the story on this issue is

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jim Powell
Date: Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: go vote--it matters
To: Jim Nichols


Jim - please share far and wide. Thanks.

Friends

In a partisan political move Secretary of State Karen Handel
disqualified me as a candidate on Thursday, July 10th but failed to
notify me. I heard about it on Sunday night from the rumor mill and
called yesterday to confirm the rumor. My attorneys went to the
Fulton County Superior Court and a Judge issued a Stay. After the
election today, I will go back to the Superior Court and formally
appeal Handel's decision. In her decision to disqualify me, Secretary
Handel overturned a Judge's decision (June 24) that had already
determined that I am a resident. This partisan action has received
considerable play in the media and I just wanted to assure you that I
am committed as ever to being elected to the Public Service Commission
in November. In fact, Handel's decision has made me more determined
if that is possible.

So, the good news is that I am still a candidate and I expect to win
today. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Please remember to vote
for me today in the Democratic Primary. Your support is very
important to me.

To help clarify the events, my son put up a post on last night that
does a great job at articulating what happened yesterday. Please
check it out: http://www.infoaccelerator.net/blog/post.cfm/close-encounters-with-dirty-georgia-politics

Here is the link to the AJC article:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/stories/2008/07/14/psc_candidate.html

All 159 Election Boards have been ordered to remove all signs, posters
or notices regarding the disqualification. When you go and vote today
please look around to make sure this happened. Should you find any
such sign, poster or notice that addresses the disqualification, I
need to know about it ASAP.
--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Phones been ringing off the hook today

Tomorrows picnic www.henrydems.org looks to be a success already.

volunteers have made over 500 phone calls
in newspaper
8 candidates from US Senate to county sheriff will be attending!

Here is our recent local press release in Henry County....

Westmoreland says "No" to business innovation

Start-up businesses in the 3rd Congressional District would have a tougher time bringing their ideas to market, if Rep. Lynn Westmoreland had his way.
04/29/08



For Immediate Release: April 29, 2008

Contact: Jim Nichols
770-312-6736
Jim.Nichols@gmail.com

Westmoreland says "no" to business innovation

Local Congressman opposes small business investment

Start-up businesses in the 3rd Congressional District would have a tougher time bringing their ideas to market, if Rep. Lynn Westmoreland had his way. The Republican from Sharpsburg was one of only 43 House members to vote against H.R. 5819,reauthorizing the Small Business and Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer program. The programs provide assistance and funding for small businesses to help them with research and development. Over the five-year span of the reauthorization, the investment in small businesses would cost about $0.17 per capita.

"Independent business is the backbone of the American economy," said Jim Nichols, Chair of the Henry County Democratic Party. "We should be doing more to help small businesses grow into prosperous ventures, not less. Congressman Westmoreland's vote harms entrepreneurs and hinders bipartisanship."

H.R. 5819 passed the House with a overwhelming bipartisan majority of 368 votes.

"People in Henry County are tired of representation that puts politics before prosperity," Nichols said. "We're ready for a Congressman who is pro-economy, and committed to working across party lines, when necessary, for the good of our economy."

http://campaignwindow.com/HenryCountyDems/blog/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ViewBlog&BlogTopicID=3492

www.henrydems.org

Political pandering... or negative hyperbole?

My dad pointed out that the by-line(?) of our recent press release on McCain's gas-tax holiday for the Henry County Democratic party was a possibly antagonistic.

Jim Nichols, Chair of the Democratic Party in Henry County, responded today to John McCain's political pandering in a recent economic speech by the Republican nominee. In the speech, McCain called for a gas tax holiday.

For more on the issue you can go to a post I did on the Henry County Democrats site.

My dads comments were

The opening sentence of the Release referred to John McCain's "political pandering". Right off the bat that puts off those that may not yet have formed an opinion on McCain - whether they be Dems or Repubs. To me, use of that phrase - outside of your quote - immediately discounts the rest of the Release - it's clearly one-sided and shrill. Can I really glean anything useful from it? (that's my reaction).


I think it's more powerful for that phrase to be in your quote. Something like: "This is simply political pandering by John McCain" That's legit for you to say that - but not for the text of the release to say that. The text of the Release should set you up, in a neutral way - not do your work.


For what it's worth...

Part of me thinks he is probably right. I intended to point out that it is a questionable policy move, be a very astute political move. My point was that it won't help the market fundmentals. The goals should be to lower gas prices.

And while people like the idea of lowering their taxation for understandable reasons the impacts of lost revenue that would be going into fixing roads and other infrastucture needs seems like a higher social priority; espcially when most economists feel that since supply is fixed (oil producers claim they are churning out the product as quickly as they can) the only possible change in the price can come from demand going down.

The likelyhood of demand going down during the summer when people go on vacation and travel of lot seems a bit far-fetched. Are people going to walk their kids to summer camp?

So maybe I ought to start saying "putting votes before good policy," or "prioritizing votes before market fundamentals."? Nothing seems to roll off the tongue very well.

here is some stuff I found on political pandering...

definition of pander --

Pronunciation: \ˈpan-dər\
Function: intransitive verb Date: 1523
: to act as a pander; especially : to provide gratification for others' desires

Economist Russ Roberts speech on Political pandering


Economist Arnold Kling on the economics blog Econlog post in response to Roberts speech

What Roberts calls pandering, I call fear-mongering. I think that both parties do it. For those of us who believe in free markets, I believe that the Republican exaggerate not only their own commitment to free markets but also the extent to which Democrats threaten free markets.

I think that stem-cell research and Global Warming both are issues that are heavy on pandering and fear-mongering. The Bush Administration has not outlawed stem-cell research. It has only stopped Federal government funding for certain types of stem-cell research. On the other hand allowing embryonic stem-cell research would not mean the end of respect for human life.

On Global Warming, the main thing that believers do is get angry with skeptics. What sort of legislation are we seeing proposed? Anyone? Bueller?

On health care, the Left is excited about single-payer health care, and the Right fears single-payer health care. Again, where are the specific proposals for single-payer health care in terms of legislation or the platforms of leading Presidential candidates?

A reasonable theory of modern politics is that it is all melodrama. People take government less and less seriously, which makes politicians shout louder and louder to get our attention. Whenever a story breaks in the media, whether it be Terry Schiavo or the Virginia Tech killings, politicians rush to get in front of the camera to take advantage of it. That, I would suggest, is a sign of their desperation.

John McCain's Tax Pandering on economics by Kevin Drum

Now that's a shocking development, isn't it? A Republican presidential candidate prating endlessly about helping the regular guy and then offering up a tax plan that even Donald Trump would be embarrassed to ask for directly. The only thing missing was the usual sad song about some mythical Midwest striver who had to sell the family farm to pay his "death taxes."

But at least someone is noticing the two-face act this time around — though that's mostly because McCain is turning out to be unusually clumsy at this kind of stuff. In an odd way, this almost speaks well for him. The pandering he's doing is so plain and so odious that I suspect he's having a hard time making it sound like he really believes this stuff. George Bush never had that difficulty.

please feel free to comment... I'm not sure where I'm at on my Dad's point.

Its an Obama piece!

Obama showing in Henry spurs local Democrats

She didn't even ask me about the Presidential race! I didn't see that coming....

So yeah at the very least I'm involved door-to-door because Republicans lack leadership!

Things that make you go... "ehh?"

So I spoke with a reporter from the Henry Daily Herald today asking me questions about the Henry County Democratic Party. For those who don’t know we are in the process of reorganizing the party–our Chair stepped down for personal reasons and we are trying to use this opportunity to expand the party structure so that we can grow to meet the needs of the growing County.

It seemed to go over well. She was very nice and I hope I was able to help her in some way with her article. Its supposed to be out tomorrow. Since I’m a nobody in local politics I can’t have given her very much context. I mean gee what do you say? I’m a Neighborhood Leader for the DNC! Yeah... we knock on doors and throw house parties to get Democrats organized and motivated. I'm a blogger! Yeah we write posts that connect readers to articles by people who know what they are talking about... and point out those who don't!

In the back of my mind I’m waiting for a hit piece... or somehow my “uhh....’‘s And ‘ummm’’s to come out in some manner that is fodder for the tell-all among local conservatives. Heck, probably won’t even make the piece. But at least people are asking around about what Democrats are doing! For too long in this state Republicans have had strong holds in communities that are natural Democratic voters.

Maybe this is a sign of better things to come!