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Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts

Monday, April 28, 2014

Missing Ingredient on Minimum Wage: A Motivated G.O.P.

Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com


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WASHINGTON — Each of the three previous presidents — two Republicans, one Democrat — signed an increase in the federal minimum wage.
Given Mr. Obama’s emphasis on income inequality, and the popularity of an increase in opinion polls, you would think he would. But the story of recent increases underscores the indispensable ingredient he so far lacks: a Republican leader strongly motivated to make a deal over the party’s philosophical objections.
In 1989, it was a new Republican in the White House. President George Bush, while campaigning to succeed Ronald Reagan, had promised “a kinder, gentler America.” The Democrats then controlling both houses of Congress set out to take him up on it.
Mr. Bush drove a hard bargain on the minimum wage. He vetoed the first version Congress sent on grounds that it raised the wage by 30 cents an hour too much. But he eventually accepted a two-stage increase to $4.25 an hour on the condition that lawmakers include a lower “training wage” for teenagers.
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President Bill Clinton and the Republican former Senate leader Trent Lott in 2009, 13 years after they forged agreement on a minimum-wage increase.
In 1996, it was a new Republican Senate leader. Trent Lott took over after Bob Dole, then running for president against the incumbent Democrat, Bill Clinton, resigned his Senate seat.
Mr. Clinton, who had battled fiercely with the House speaker, Newt Gingrich, and Mr. Dole,...
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Monday, November 25, 2013

The Affordable Care Act, brought to you by ……… the Republicans!

Many might now welcome a Nixon ticket.
Today's post comes from guest author Jay Causey, from Causey Law Firm.

     Looking for information in the media that is supportive of the nation’s transition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka “Obamacare?”  At the moment Republican and right wing noise is drowning out much of the lower–decibel cheerleading by the Administration on why this is a good thing.
In 1974, Pres. Richard Nixon proposed what is essentially the 2010 healthcare act – all but the smallest employers would provide medical insurance to their employees or pay a penalty, expansion of Medicaid would insure the poor, and subsidies would be provided to low–income citizens and small employers.
     In a recent op-ed piece, former Secretary of Labor under President Clinton and leading economic expert, now at the University of California, Berkeley, Robert Reich summed up the history of the origin of “Obamacare,” pointing out the irony of the right wing’s fuss over it.
     In 1974, Pres. Richard Nixon proposed what is essentially the 2010 healthcare act – all but the smallest employers would provide medical insurance to their employees or pay a penalty, expansion of Medicaid would insure the poor, and subsidies would be provided to low–income citizens and small employers. While private insurers liked this plan, Democrats favored a system more like Social Security and Medicare, so there was no consensus.
     Fast-forward to 1989, and the right–leaning Heritage Foundation proposed a plan that would mandate all households obtaining adequate insurance. This plan worked its way into several bills introduced by Republicans in 1993, supported by Senators Hatch (R–Utah) and Grassley (R–Iowa), along with subsequent Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, all now vocal opponents of the ACA.
     When in 2004 Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made the original Nixon plan the law in his state, with the same mandate to buy private insurance, he said, “we got the idea of an individual mandate from Newt Gingrich, and he got it from the Heritage Foundation.”
     Health insurance companies, now retooling their policies around the individual mandate, are jubilant about the possibilities of long–term membership growth through the insurance exchanges. These giant corporations have traditionally supported conservative and Republican politics.
     So as Reich notes – – why are Republican spending so much energy trying to sabotage the ACA, and act they designed and about which a huge sector of their patrons are wildly enthusiastic? The answer: it is the singular achievement of the Obama Administration, the head of which is still considered by a large segment of the right to Illegitimately occupy the White House.
     Reich goes on to observe that had the Democrats prevailed on the idea of a system built on the Social Security and Medicare model – – cheaper, simpler, and more widely accepted by the citizenry – – Republicans would nevertheless be making the same noise.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Enter Jeb Bush: Gingrich on Work Comp Now an Issue

Ann Coulter at the 2004 Republican National Co...Image via Wikipedia
Ann Coulter at the 2004 Republican National Convention
The Republican presidential primary is now moving workers' compensation up on the issue ladder. Today, Ann Coulter, a conservative columnist on the Fox New Channel,  attacked Newt Gingrich  on his proposal to employ child janitors and opposition to a workers' compensation system and also attacked Jeb Bush on his pro-immigration policy.

Coulter, who is supporting Mitt Romney,  remarked that the candidates should stop "appealing to people's fear and emotions." She commented that the nomination of Jeb Bush would be an embarrassment to the Republican party and is pro-amnesty for illegal aliens policy was not conservative enough.

On the other hand, she failed to mention that Mitt Romney planned to cut benefits to the disabled. So the choices are pretty poor for injured workers. Whether the Republicans  directly or indirectly attack benefits for injured workers, it is quiet apparent that workers' compensation will be a prominent issue for the 2012 presidential campaign.


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Merit-Based Workers Compensation: The Romney-Gingrich Plan

The Republican presidential primary battle has inadequately defined the debate guidelines for the future of workers' compensation in the US. While both leading Republican candidates are throwing darts at each other on many points, the basic philosophy of both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich is to extinguish the so-called "entitlement society." They claim Barack Obama, "the food stamp president," has accelerated the problem. 


Of course, missing from the debate is that fact that the US has changed, in tandem, with the rest of the world. The nation's manufacturing sector left the auditorium, and with it went jobs and premiums for supporting a viable workers' compensation system. What it left was a legacy of industrial illness and disease that is fatally affecting the nation's medical delivery system and burdening the taxpayers of our nation.


If the political debate is to become credible, the medical treatment delivery system must be addressed rather than just throwing around meaningless political rhetoric. While the safety net is slowing deteriorating, there remains still an opportunity to re-design and advance a credible workers' compensation system. If the debate continues along the present path, the opportunity will be lost and the nation will loose.


See The Republican Myth Of Obama’s “Entitlement Society” By Robert Reich
"But they have cause and effect backwards. The reason for the rise in food stamps, unemployment insurance, and other safety-net programs is Americans got clobbered in 2008 with the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. They and their families have needed whatever helping hands they could get."
.....
For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses. 

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Corporate Empathy: A Race To The Bottom Of The Ladder

As the Republican Presidential primary race heats up, the candidates start to get tied, the debate becomes ever so more heated and raw, and the true colors of reality starts to show. Where the race will lead us and the movement to improve the nation's system of medical benefit delivery to injured workers' is really anyone's best guess. As of now the temperature of the debate and the emotion being generated portends poorly for the benefit of workers as the corporate mentality reflects no empathy for workers and the race to the bottom of the ladder continues.


For more read the NY Times Editorial today"The Corporate Candidates."
"Mr. Romney claims his background as a businessman provides him with an understanding of the economy and the ability to fix it. His opponents — particularly Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Rick Perry — say their political experience provides the same advantage. In truth, none have offered anything but tired or extremist economic prescriptions, providing little evidence that they can relate to those at the middle or bottom of the ladder."

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Gingrich Calls Present Workers' Compensation System Dangerous


Entitlement programs were a hot issue in the Iowa Caucuses, and the nation's workers' compensation system has become an ancillary target. In the final hours of the Iowa debate,  Newt Gingrich called the present workers' compensation system as "very dangerous." 

Whoever the winner of tonight's contest is on the Republican side, that person will ultimately carry forth the Republican agenda to review the nation's disability program including both workers' compensation and disability. 


Click here for the NY Times story on the results of the Iowa Caucuses

Monday, December 26, 2011

Mitt Romney Plans to Cut Benefits to Disabled

The Mitt Romney campaign, on the eve of the Iowa Caucuses, is now refining a campaign strategy, to reduce benefits for the disabled. He is beginning to take aim at any and all programs, regardless of funding, that provide assistance to those who are unable to work.

As state workers' compensation programs are,  both substantively and procedurally, entangled into a complex web of Federal subsidies and reimbursements, he too maybe taking aim at state workers' compensation systems.


Read: The Anti-Entitlement Strategy (NYTimes)
"Romney and his aides have designed his rhetoric to define pretty much all spending on entitlements, including provisions for the injured, unemployed, sick, disabled or elderly as benefits to the poor who, Romney implies, are undeserving. And it doesn’t matter whether the money to pay for these programs comes from employer and employee contributions and not just tax revenue — they are all under suspicion."

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Gingrich: Workers' Compensation is History

The NY Times reports today that presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich is taking the lead in the Iowa state Caucus poles. Over the past years, during his absence from Washington politics, Gingrich has been involved in lobbying for change in the nation's medical delivery system. 

His statement before the National Governor's Conference in 2010 reflects that he will definitely advocate for the abolishment of the patchwork of State workers' compensation laws:

"Replace litigation-focused workers compensation with a rehabilitation and capabilities focused program that maximizes the speed of helping people medically, and focuses on retraining and focusing on what they can do rather than on what they can't do."


Read more about his increase in popularity:
In Iowa, Gingrich Is Gaining Favor, New Poll Shows
"Newt Gingrich enters the final four weeks of campaigning before the Iowa caucuses with Republican voters in the state viewing him as more prepared to be president than Mitt Romney, more attuned to their concerns and just as capable of defeating President Obama, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll." read more.......

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Gingrich Calls for More Child Labor, Calls Laws "Stupid"

Newt Gingrich's poll numbers are soaring for the US Presidential nomination. He has announced that he will offer radical proposals including the elimination of child labor laws. For decades child labor laws and penalties have been integrated into state workers' compensation acts acting as a safety deterrent to accidents.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Gingrich Revival and The Future of Workers' Compensation

Newt Gingrich's sudden rise in popularity this week for the Republican nomination for the US presidency has yet again raised the concern as to whether the workers' compensation program will become extinct. Mr. Gingrich has long sought the withdrawal of any employer contributions to workers' compensation.


"We have to rethink and redesign the public policies we created for people with disabilities, for workers' compensation, and for long-term living. Policies and systems that made perfect sense in an industrial era make no sense in the information age. The paternalistic solutions of the twentieth century are actually roadblocks to hope and opportunity in the twenty-first century.
Century Contract with America By Newt Gingrich


Friday, May 13, 2011

Common Themes, The Green Mountain System & Newt Gingrich


Editors note: This is a re-post of yesterday's blog. Google had a systemwide issue and during their maintenance they did not restore this post.

Common themes of a single payer medical system are emerging. History can repeat itself. The announcement by NewtGingrich to run for the presidency in 2012, and the anticipated signing of the Vermont Single Payer medical care legislation, may set the stage for "the perfect storm" to gather impetus for a system that brings workers' compensation care into a unified system.

As the Vermont legislation goes to Governor Peter Shumlin for signing in a couple of weeks, the eyes of the nation will switch focus to the debate in Washington and the presidential race of 2012. Congress and the new administration will be required to focus on the issue of waivers that will be effective in 2014. 

Newt Gingrich had advocated in the past to move the cost occupational medical care onto the backs of employees. He would relieve employers from contributing to workers' compensation medical care and Medicare.

Workers' Compensation is a summary and remedial system that affords injured workers medical care to cure and relieve medical conditions that result from occupational exposures and accidents. In most instances employees find it necessary and prudent to retain the professional assistance of an attorney to assist them in obtaining medical treatment for work related accidents and occupational exposures.

For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.


Related articles

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Common Themes, The Green Mountain System & Newt Gingrich

Common themes of a single payer medical system are emerging. History can repeat itself. The announcement by Newt Gingrich to run for the presidency in 2012, and the anticipated signing of the Vermont Single Payer medical care legislation, may set the stage for "the perfect storm" to gather impetus for a system that brings workers' compensation care into a unified system.

As the Vermont legislation goes to Governor Peter Shumlin for signing in a couple of weeks, the eyes of the nation will switch focus to the debate in Washington and the presidential race of 2012. Congress and the new administration will be required to focus on the issue of waivers that will be effective in 2014. 

Newt Gingrich had advocated in the past to move the cost occupational medical care onto the backs of employees. He would relieve employers from contributing to workers' compensation medical care and Medicare.

Workers' Compensation is a summary and remedial system that affords injured workers medical care to cure and relieve medical conditions that result from occupational exposures and accidents. In most instances employees find it necessary and prudent to retain the professional assistance of an attorney to assist them in obtaining medical treatment for work related accidents and occupational exposures.

For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Related articles

Monday, November 15, 2010

Congress to Hear Experts on New State Workers' Compensation Limitations

A sub-committee of the Committee on Education and Labor, chaired by the Congressman George Miller, will be hearing testimony from national experts concerning the new limitations being imposed on State workers' compensation systems. The systemic problems to be examine include the delivery of medical benefits and the assessment of the nature of disability.

On Wednesday, November 17, the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee will examine state workers’ compensations systems. Workers’ compensation traditionally provides financial assistance and job training to workers injured on the job and aid to the surviving family of a worker killed on the job.

Not only are the state systems drawing the attention of the US Congress, but also the federal programs are becoming problematic. The United States Postal Service announced last week that workers' compensation costs are so high that the quasi-governmental agency may have to declare bankruptcy.

With the newly elected Republican majority in Congress, the water ahead may be rough for workers' compensation. The last time the Republican's held the majority in Congress, Newt Gingrich , the former Speaker, was entertaining dramatic changes in the program. Those appear to have been refreshed in recent comments about a year ago.

These systems have undergone numerous changes in the past decade as many states have begun strictly limiting workers’ compensation benefits – changes that may be stressing the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. Additionally, the American Medical Association’s (AMA) guide to assessing injured workers has undergone significant changes in its latest edition, which has made consequential changes to injured workers’ evaluation procedure.

Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing
2:00 PM, November 17, 2010
2175 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC

Additional witnesses TBA.

Witnesses:
Emily SpielerDeanNortheastern University School of LawBoston, MA
John BurtonProfessor Emeritus, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers UniversityProfessor Emeritus, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell UniversityPrinceton, NJ
Christopher GodfreyIowa Workers Compensation CommissionerDes Moines, IA
Dr. John NimlosOccupational Medicine ConsultantShoreline, WA