Health Overhaul

This is a recent news article relating to the administration's attempt to overhaul the nations health care system. We want to hear from your thoughts on the debate at:

info@freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers from both parties are telling the White House they will go on vacation next month and leave behind — and incomplete — President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

White House officials sought a massive reworking of the nation's health care system before Congress left on August recess, but key lawmakers signaled on Sunday the administration would be disappointed. Work was set to continue Monday on the Senate's version, although officials acknowledge they are far from finished with a plan that could cost taxpayers trillions over the next decade and reshape how Americans receive care.

"Well, we don't expect it to be signed into law by the August recess," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "But we expect the House and Senate to have passed bills, yes."

The same bill? Unlikely.

The White House's strategy to leave the legislative back-and-forth to Congress has produced varying and sometimes contradictory versions of health care legislation — along with delays. As the Senate turns its attention to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, the focus on that side of the Capitol will turn away from Obama's top domestic priority.

The administration's Democratic partners in Congress hinted they would not deliver legislation before leaving town for an August recess.Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said Obama should be pleased with lawmakers' progress; Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said "there really is plenty of time."

The delay would be a blow to the White House and to Democrats' electoral prospects.

The House and Senate are working toward legislation that would deliver on Obama's popular goals from his presidential campaign, but they are hardly in unison. House Democrats have proposed raising taxes on wealthy Americans to pay for the plan. Democratic leaders, meanwhile, have tried to calm moderate and conservative lawmakers about a proposal that could guarantee tough re-election bids.

Republicans, seizing on an issue that affects all Americans and has shown a glimmer of hope for an out-of-power political party, have lambasted the proposals as rash and irresponsible. They also see the issue as a way to win House and Senate seats in the 2010 midterm elections.

"There is no chance that it's going to be done by August," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. "President Obama was right about one thing: He said if it's not done quickly, it won't be done at all. Why did he say that? Because the longer it hangs out there, the more the American people are skeptical, anxious and even in opposition to it."

Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, tried to calm fears Democrats would tax some employer-provided health care benefits as income. She said the details are far from finished.

"Well, the House has a version," she said, discounting any version as final. "There are a couple of different proposals being worked on in the Senate."

Schumer appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." Stabenow, Conrad and Sebelius spoke with CNN's "State of the Union." Kyl appeared on ABC's "This Week."

Warm Regards,

Mark A. Bowman

President
FreeSeniorCitizensSolutions.com
By Baby Boomers…For Baby Boomers
http://www.freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com/
mark@FreeSCS.com

Overlooking the largest group in history

I feel with all the other things going on in the world we are overlooking a huge impending group we need to reach out to. This huge group is our baby boomers with one hundred million strong.

This huge group of us needs to see how our aging at this time will affect everything in our country in the near future. I could fill a page with these effects; however it is ALL across the board. Thus I have started www.freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com and will make sure I stand up for the one largest group in our history. I believe we need a sub group to address this situation and I would love to continue my efforts. Please give me any and all of your feedback which will let me keep going on this tremendous undertaking.

Warm Regards,

Mark A. Bowman

President
FreeSeniorCitizensSolutions.com
By Baby Boomers…For Baby Boomers
http://www.freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com/

mark@freescs.com

And on the lighter side of things.....

No Cost-of-Living Raise?!?!?!? We want your feedback

NO COST-OF-LIVING RAISE? IS IT AN OUTRAGE?

Here is a sample of the outrage over word that, for the first time, there won't be a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), a raise, in Social Security benefits for the next two years - January 2010 and 2011 - because the cost of living isn't rising.

George Billy of Massapequa: "Are they kidding or what about zero inflation? Where are they getting their data from - Mars?"

James C. Nicholas, Diamond, Ohio: "Everything has gone up in the last year. What about gas increasing, insurance increasing until we are almost forced to cancel? Prescription drugs increasing? This makes me sick."

Charlie and Peg Firth, of Vero Beach, Fla.: "The cost of everything we need to buy has gone up, food, gas, electric, rent, home insurance. Congress spends billions on bailouts but the senior citizen who worked gets nothing."

The subject has been debated in Congress and among economists almost since 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed the law providing for an automatic COLA each year, based on the rate of inflation. That made Social Security the only defined benefit pension with inflation protection. Now, beneficiaries are questioning that protection. Let me explain what's happened.
The official measure of inflation comes from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And based on the CPI, the COLA has given Social Security beneficiaries yearly raises averaging 2.5 percent for the past 10 years, ranging from a low of 1.4 percent in 2002 to a record 5.8 percent last year, starting this past January, which was greeted with cheers.

Actually there are three different CPIs:

The CPI-U, for urban consumers, the CPI-W (which is the one that is used for all wage earners and clerical workers) and the CPI-E, which stands for "experimental." Many think it stands for "elder" because it's limited to people 62 and older and was designed to see if their costs of living differed from other wage earners.

The Consumer Expenditure Survey, from which the CPIs are compiled, monitors a vast array of prices for food, transportation, medical care, education, utilities and virtually every other service. Each category is weighted for each group; medical care is weighted heavily for older people; education costs for younger wage earners who likely have children in school.

According to Social Security, a COLA "is equal to the percentage increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of one year to the third quarter of the next." Last year, with the onset of the recession, when some prices went down, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that inflation, overall, was so minimal there would be no COLA this January or next (see ssa.gov/OACT/COLA).

But the "overall" inflation rates may be flawed, said Shawn McMahon, a researcher on the subject for the nonpartisan Wider Opportunities for Women. During this past quarter, he said, "Food, housing and medical costs have all increased by approximately 4 percent. Elders are correctly seeing continued increases in their most basic expenses. The costs elders face are also dependent on where they live, their housing status and their health."

Some elder organizations have lobbied for the bureau to use the CPI-E, which they believe is weighted toward the more typical spending among older people for health care and food. But over a 25-year-period, the bureau says, there was little difference between the CPI-E, which rose at 3.3 percent, and the increases of 3.1 percent and 3 percent, for the CPI-U and CPI-W, respectively.

But the tables from 1983 through 2007 show several years in which the CPI-E had the highest cost increases but none where it was the lowest. Moreover, there were more years when the costs of food, medicine and health care were considerably higher than other costs.
McMahon said the bureau "uses the same stores, the same goods, the same prices for all inflation measures. These may not represent elder consumption patterns as well as they should." But the bureau counters that the CPI-E sample, limited to people over 62, is too small to be accurate and should be used "with caution."

Senior advocates and lawmakers have suggested changing the bureau's methods; many federal poverty programs depend on the CPI. McMahon's group, advocates on women's economic issues, has created an "elder index," which, he says, monitors actual costs at local levels, along with the CPI data. Their aim is to get Congress to adopt a true "economic security index" for all families, including the elderly. See wowonline.org /ourprograms/fess. Meanwhile, with the prices of fuel and medicines rising again, the outrage among older consumers continues.


Warm Regards,

Mark A. Bowman

President
FreeSeniorCitizensSolutions.com
By Baby Boomers…For Baby Boomers
http://www.freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com/
mark@FreeSCS.com

I feel with all the other things going on in the world....

I feel with all the other things going on in the world we are overlooking a huge impending group we need to reach out to....

I feel with all the other things going on in the world we are overlooking a huge impending group we need to reach out to. This huge group is the baby boomers, one hundred million strong.

This massive group needs to see how our aging at this time will affect everything in our country in the near future. I could fill a page with these effects; however it is ALL across the board, from Social Security and Medicare to local housing and caregiving issues.

This is why I have just started http://www.freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com and will make sure I STAND UP for the largest group of people in the history of our world. I believe we need a sub group to address this situation and I would love to continue my efforts and discussions there.

Please give me any and all of your feedback which will enable me to continue this noble undertaking.

‘Yesterday's just a memory, tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be’-Bob Dylan

We want to hear your thoughts regarding our feelings. Please contact us with your feedback.


Warm Regards,

Mark A. Bowman

President
FreeSeniorCitizensSolutions.com
By Baby Boomers…For Baby Boomers
http://www.freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com/
mark@FreeSCS.com

The REAL meaning of the 4th of July

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Warm Regards,

Mark A. Bowman

President
FreeSeniorCitizensSolutions.com
By Baby Boomers…For Baby Boomers
http://www.freeseniorcitizenssolutions.com/
mark@FreeSCS.com