When: Wednesday March 4, 2015 from 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Where: College of Lake County, C005, 19351 N. Washington St., Grayslake
What: College of Lake County Student Government Association is planning a Candidate’s Forum involving the candidates for CLC Board of Trustees. Members of the public are welcome.
After Mark Kirk took heat for his inflammatory remarks that Republicans “should build a number of coffins outside each Democratic office”if there was a terror attack during a potential DHS shutdown and that “all the dead Americans from [an attack] should be laid at the feet of the Democratic caucus,” it seems he has changed his tune after seeing some brutal poll numbers.
A new poll yesterday showed that voters in Illinois and several other key Senate battleground states were inclined to vote against Kirk and others who are driving the government towards a potential DHS shutdown. 47% of Illinois voters said they’d be less likely to vote for Kirk for tying DHS funding to immigration policy.
After seeing the polling, Kirk now “generally agrees with the Democratic position.”
Is he serious?
“After despicably remarking just yesterday that Republicans should build fake coffins in the event of a terrorist attack to score political points, Mark Kirk is clearly floundering as he attempts to change his tune on a clean DHS funding bill,” said Sadie Weiner, National Press Secretary at the DSCC. “Apparently it takes a day of bad headlines and some brutal poll numbers to convince Mark Kirk to stop being irresponsible, but the fact remains that Kirk has been along for the ride as the GOP majority has plowed ahead with absolutely no plan to fund DHS. Illinois families deserve better than a Senator like Mark Kirk who callously lobs political attacks in the face of a DHS shutdown then changes his tune the moment he fears for his reelection.”
By Mark Rosenberg
In 1948, a University of Chicago law student named Abner J. Mikva stopped at a Democratic committeeman’s office to volunteer to work for Adlai Stevenson and Paul Douglas. The response to his request to volunteer was, essentially, “We don’t want nobody that nobody sent.” Ab Mikva was not daunted, and that encounter was the beginning of a stellar political career.
After serving in the Illinois House of Representatives for 10 years, Ab Mikva served as U.S. Congressman in Hyde Park and then in our own Illinois 10th Congressional District. His career path changed when he was appointed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1979. He left the bench in 1994 to become White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton.
In 1997, along with his wife, Zoe, Judge Mikva started a civic engagement program for Chicago youth called the Mikva Challenge (See www.mikvachallenge.org). This organization works with 5,000 young people each year to involve them in the democratic process. These youngsters work as election judges, and they volunteer with campaigns and with local grassroots organizations that work to improve schools and communities. “Of all the accomplishments in my professional life, what I am most proud of is helping found the Mikva Challenge,” Mikva has said.
Among those mentored by Ab Mikva over the years was a young lawyer named Barack Obama.
In December 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Judge Mikva the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
To honor Judge Mikva’s example, Tenth Dems presents an annual award in his name. Past recipients of the Ab Mikva Leadership Award include such luminaries as Loretta Durbin, former State Senator Susan Garrett, State Senator Melinda Bush, State Senator Daniel Biss, and former 10th District Congressman Brad Schneider.
By Adrienne Kirshbaum
Beginning the seventh year of his presidency, Barack Obama still seems to have a lot of energy for his job, and many local Democrats were eager to hear what he would have to say in his State of the Union address. Tenth Dems arranged a Watch Party at Max & Benny’s on the evening of January 20 and welcomed all who wanted to come hear the President lay out his plans for 2015. Breaking bread together on an icy winter evening and then watching a speech like this with like-minded people provides a comfort level that is difficult to match.
Sometimes the fanfare that precedes these events is more exciting than the actual address, but this time Obama proved that he hasn’t lost his fighting spirit. Despite being blocked at almost every turn in his presidency, he has a clear view of what he wants for the nation and what he hopes to accomplish in the “final quarter” of his two terms in office. This State of the Union address was inspirational, and the Tenth Dems crowd at Max & Benny’s cheered and applauded often.
That the State of the Union is a choreographed event doesn’t make it any less impressive. The House Sergeant at Arms announces the President, who makes his way to the front, shaking hands and greeting colleagues on both sides of the aisle. The Vice President, who is President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House are seated behind the podium. It’s always fun to watch their reactions to the speech. Depending on their party affiliation, they may smile and clap enthusiastically or grimace and seem to fall asleep.
This year’s speech was President Obama at his best. He seemed relaxed and sure of himself as he announced that the shadow of crisis has passed and that the state of the union is “strong.” He began by telling the story of a young family that worked hard and endured through tough times, explaining that he had sought the presidency to work for people like these. He then said that we have experienced the fastest economic growth in over a decade but that American families still need government’s help to feel more secure in a world of constant change. In particular, the President called for child care for working parents, paid sick leave and maternity leave, free community college, jobs for our veterans, the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and climate change legislation. He pleaded with House and Senate members to come together and get things done and promised Republicans that he would listen to their ideas.
President Obama closed by evoking his 2004 speech about how “there are no red states and there are no blue states,” the speech that first brought him national attention. He said that he still believes that the cynics are wrong and that we are all one people.
By Mark Rosenberg, M.D.
While most of us have resolved in the New Year to lose weight, exercise more, and promote peace on earth, the Republican majority in the 114th Congress has resolved to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) for the 50th time. Not terribly surprising or even very original. What is original is what Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Chair of the Senate Policy Committee, said on Meet the Press recently—that Republicans were trying to build consensus around one plan to replace Obamacare. After five years of attempts to repeal without offering a constructive replacement, the Republicans may actually come up with an alternative? Given the success of the ACA in lowering the rate of uninsured to under 13 percent (according to Gallup, a more than four percent drop since enactment) and thereby providing needed affordable health care to millions, I do not recommend you hold your breath waiting for an alternative that would actually pass Congress.
What the Republican Congress does plan to pass this session includes the following changes to the Affordable Care Act:
1. With the support of a number of Democrats, repeal the medical devices tax that is expected to generate about $30 billion over the next 10 years.
2. Revise the ACA’s definition of full-time employment from 30 hours per week to 40 hours per week. This measure already has passed the House.
3. Abolish the Independent Payment Advisory Board, whose mission is to recommend savings in Medicare without affecting coverage or quality of care. This is the entity that opponents of the ACA wrongly labeled a “death panel.” Note that the Board’s recommendations are already subject to Congress’ overruling them by a supermajority vote.
4. Abolish the Patient Centered Outcomes Effectiveness Institute, which examines disease treatment regimens for results and recommends effective treatments to medical providers.
Since President Obama holds a veto pen, the only way these proposals could become law is if enough Democrats vote with Republicans to override the veto. This appears highly unlikely, except perhaps in the case of repeal of the medical devices tax.
However, there are two other significant threats to the ongoing viability of the Affordable Care Act: the pending lawsuit, King v. Burwell [Secretary of Health and Human Services], and the number of states with Republican governors and Republican control of the legislature. Relying on some unartfully drafted legislative language, plaintiffs in the Burwell case contend that unless a state actually operates a Marketplace website of its own, the ACA doesn’t allow the federal government to provide financial assistance to citizens of that state who purchase health insurance on that exchange. If the Supreme Court upholds the plaintiffs’ case in court, low- and middle-income citizens of any state that opted to use the Federal exchange would lose the tax credits that lower their premiums, as well as any cost sharing that lowers their deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. Bottom line: millions of citizens no longer would be able to afford health insurance.
The second threat relates to those earning less than 137 percent of the federally-defined poverty level. Under the Affordable Care Act, these people are newly eligible for Medicaid, a state-federal partnership program; however, in the very 2013 decision that found the ACA to be constitutional, the Supreme Court also said that the federal government could not force a state to offer Medicaid to the newly-eligible poor, even if there was no cost to the state. After the states that had chosen to adopt this federally-funded Medicaid expansion last year showed such good results in lowering the number of uninsured, more states had been expected to opt into this federally-financed Medicaid expansion, but the election of more Republican governors and Republican legislatures may reduce the number of states willing to allow low-income families to obtain health care through Medicaid.
From all reports, as was the case last year, ACA enrollments this year will exceed expectations. Yet it appears that 2015 could be a crucial year for the continued success of this landmark legislation. Watch this space as Congress, the Supreme Court, and the states act.
