TheNextReport

In another telling sidebar to the battle over health care, the state of Florida has has been working to prevent information about the new Öbamacare" law from getting to the public by attempting to restrict the use of health care counselors, or "Navigators," from providing assistance to Floridians who need help understanding the Affordable Care Act. Healthcare.gov, the website that helps administer the free Navigator program defines it as: "An individual or organization that's trained and able to help consumers, small businesses, and their employees as they look for health coverage options through the Marketplace, including completing eligibility and enrollment forms. Republican Governor Rick Scott, a former health insurance executive,is behind the move to bar the practice, claiming that the help offered by the Navigators will compromise the privacy rights of health care consumers. With polls showing that after several years of debates and explanations 70% of t...

As we approached the 2012 election and the presidential candidates engaged in the theatrics of the debates, we entered an arena where substance doesn't matter. What truth there was was expressed in either meaningless platitudes or the frighteningly heartless calculations of budget cuts. In the midst of all the chatter about tax rates, the budget and the deficit, the fog began to clear and the vague outlines of a calculated plan appeared. It was a plan enclosed by a threat: to allow the dormant aristocracy of the United States to return to power. The threat that unless we cede the presidency to Mitt Romney and effectively allow the GOP to protect the wealthy, we will head right over the fiscal cliff into a national financial abyss. That attempt failed. Yet, the political perspective that presumably represents the middle class and the nation's poor was quickly put on the chopping block, offered as a bargaining chip as an artificially manufactured budget crisis threatened to der...

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, step right up. Right here inside the big top, it's all here! A 20 percent tax cut and more take-home pay. Step right up to see the unbelievable! The massive deficit disappears by lowering taxes, closing nameless loopholes, while increasing the defense budget - and yes, you heard it right - you get more take-home pay! Come one come all, see 2 million jobs created out of thin air! Come on in folks for the thrills and chills as the bearded lady and other gender miracles step out of their binders and throw their support to the GOP and its square-jawed, smirky-faced standard bearer. That's right ladies and gents, come in and see Mitt-Boy, the fantastic deformed philanthropist who speaks out of two sides of his mouth at the same time. Watch him as he spouts empty moral platitudes, cutting taxes for the rich and and medical care for the poor. And that's not all, folks! Try a taste of Mitt's Magic elixir and watch as half of an entire nation...

Democracy replaced by plutocracy. A simple plan--Congressional leadership decides on a non-cooperation policy, blocking legislation, denying the Executive the opportunity to govern; by the time of the next election the President is branded as a failure, bereft of leadership skills, unable to work with Congress to overcome gridlock. Sick of the logjam in Washington, with the fiscal cliff getting closer and closer, with disaster looming, they plug in the solution: appoint an imitation conservative candidate for president, a neo-robber baron disguised as a moderate who says he knows how to work with the political opposition. He will claim he knows how to fix things, that he knows how to finally get the country moving again, how he will reach across the aisle, unlike his predecessor; he will claim he represents 100 percent of the people, but behind closed doors the truth will emerge: he really has only the interests of the gentry at heart. What could be better! A well-heeled charlatan p...

Note to the President's debate team: Don’t let Romney get away with confronting the President with questions designed to put him on the defensive. The Presidential debate has taken on a visceral life of its own. In the midst of all the facts and figures, all the charges and counter-charges, there is a gut reality. An example of this was demonstrated during the second debate. President Obama criticized the former Massachusetts governor for investing in companies that had outsourced jobs to China. Romney was well-trained and ready with a response. He tried to corner Obama about the President’s own pension fund having investments in China: "Let me give you some advice,” Romney said, “look at your pension.” The President’s advisers should be well advised: don’t let your adversary appear to succeed in elevating his stature by issuing confrontational questions then waiting for a response. The President did come back with a humorous rejoinder: "You know, I don’t look at my ...

Obstructionism and Democracy: two antithetical principles that amount to a deadlocked government. The GOP strategy from the beginning of Barack Obama's term has been one of non-cooperation, blocking nearly every key piece of legislation backed by the White House, so they can now say that if Obama is re-elected it will mean the continuation of gridlock in Washington. The oligarchy rises and democracy is strangled. Some call it politics -- I call it treason.

Who would have thunk it. What had been hyped as the most important presidential debate since Kennedy and Nixon came and went. By all accounts it was a triumph for Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor grabbed the ball, ran the court and performed an athletic slam dunk before anyone had realized what had happened. A bewildered Jim Lehrer, appearing like a refugee from an Alzheimer clinic, had lost control from the beginning and it all worked to Romney's advantage. Mr. Obama, the wizened professor, was left standing in the classroom with nobody to lecture. Once again the political party that doesn't believe in evolution, that doubts the truth of climate change, that wants to evacuate the Department of Education has proven itself to be more politically adept than its rival. It was clear from the start. Twenty minutes of tax talk had put the massive television audience nearly to sleep -- so much so, that it hadn't noticed how Mr. Romney, the born again conservative, ...