Guv Gibbons 10% reductions for Nevada bu

Guv Gibbons 10% reductions for Nevada budget – http://ow.ly/15Ert

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Kaiser Health News: Obama: No ‘Short Cut’ To Deal With Health Reform Issues

President Barack Obama surprised reporters by coming into the White House briefing Tuesday afternoon following a meeting with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders. He spoke about several issues, including the stalled health care overhaul efforts and his plans for a televised bipartisan meeting on health care later this month.

The Washington Post: "The president’s two-hour session with the congressional leaders was spirited, by many accounts, covering health care, job creation, trade and other matters." Obama said he told House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, that his core goals — lowering health-care costs for businesses and individuals and expanding coverage to the uninsured — remained non-negotiable. But Obama said he would consider GOP alternatives that accomplish the same results. He also said he would sign what he considered to be a less-than-perfect bill. "I am going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals," Obama told reporters. "What I will not do, what I don’t think makes sense and I don’t think the American people want to see, would be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues, another six months or eight months or nine months worth of hearings in every single committee in the House and the Senate in which there’s a lot of posturing" (Murray, 2/9).

Politico: "Obama said he’s also open to talking about Republican concerns, such as limiting medical malpractice lawsuits, but also made clear that if that’s not the majority of the reason costs are going up, that he expected Republicans to address the other causes as well. ‘There is no short cut in dealing with this issue. I know the American people get frustrated debating something like health care because you get so many competing claims,’ Obama said. ‘It’s a complicated, tough issue, but what is also true is that without some action by Congress, it’s very unlikely we see an improvement over the current trajectory’ of higher premiums and more uninsured Americans" (Gerstein, 2/9).

The Hill: "Obama rejected Tuesday the notion that an upcoming healthcare summit would be little more than ‘political theater.’" He expressed hope that a Feb. 25 televised, bi-partisan meeting with House and Senate leaders would result in "some substantive progress" regarding health reform. He also said "he and Democrats would be willing to give up some — but not all — of [their] desired parts of health reform if it were to help reach consensus. ‘I’m willing to move off some of the preferences of my party in order to meet them halfway,’ he said. ‘But there’s got to be some give on their side, too’" (O’Brien, 2/9).

Congress Daily: A top adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlined "a plan that would allow both chambers to make changes to the Senate healthcare overhaul before the overhaul becomes law." Pelosi’s aide described the plan this way, according to Congress Daily: "The trick in all of this is that the president would have to sign the Senate bill first, then the reconciliation bill second, and the reconciliation bill would trump the Senate bill,’" he told a meeting of the National Health Policy Conference hosted by AcademyHealth and Health Affairs. "Some have questioned whether rules would allow Congress to pass changes to a bill that is not yet law" (Edney, 2/9).

This is part of Kaiser Health News’ Daily Report – a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day’s news can be foundhereand you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Reporthere. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on ourhome page.

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COBRA Subsidy Law Extended, State Contin

COBRA Subsidy Law Extended, State Continuation Impacts http://ow.ly/15C2v

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COBRA Subsidey Law Extended, State Continuation Impacts

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on Feb. 17, 2009. On Dec. 19, 2009, he signed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 (DoDAA) into law, which extends and expands the COBRA premium subsidy that was created under ARRA. The extension means new compliance obligations for employers and carriers. Eligibility for the subsidy now runs through Feb. 28, 2010 and the duration of the subsidy can be up to 15 months. For state continuation, the length of the subsidy period depends on a particular state’s current continuation legislation.

Note: State continuation is available for employers with 2-19 lives that have policies issued in states with laws “comparable” to federal COBRA standards.

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Kaiser Health News Update for Tuesday

For Senior Care, Sometimes It Does Take A Village
In an article for Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post, Howard Gleckman writes about elder villages. "Nearly three years ago, Harry Rosenberg and his wife, Barbara Filner, met with nine of their neighbors about starting an aging-in-place "village" in the Burning Tree community of Bethesda, Maryland. The idea: If neighbors could help one another with basic services such as transportation and simple home maintenance and with friendly visits, people could stay in their homes longer as they aged" (Kaiser Health News).

Sebelius To GOP: ‘Don’t Get Wrong Impression’ About Obama Health Summit
Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz reports: "A day after President Barack Obama invited Republicans in Congress to a bipartisan health care summit, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said no one should get the wrong impression. "A lot of people ask if this is starting over (on a health overhaul), the answer is absolutely not," she said Monday in a talk at the AcademyHealth policy conference in Washington" (Kaiser Health News).

No High Hopes For Health Care Summit
Immediately after President Barack Obama announced a bipartisan health reform summit, Democrats and Republicans made clear they have almost no expectation the half-day meeting can break a bitter yearlong standoff (Politico).

Expectations Low For Obama’s Health Care Summit
President Obama’s plan to hold a televised health overhaul summit with Republicans and Democrats is still more than two weeks away, but reviews of the get-together are already in. And they’re not optimistic (NPR).

Obama Health Summit Sets Up A Showdown
President Obama’s call for a televised bipartisan meeting to discuss stalled healthcare legislation comes as his party unfolds a strategy to force Republicans to put policy ideas on the table that Democrats believe they can exploit in the fall elections (Los Angeles Times).

Top House Republicans Throw Cold Water On Health Care Summit
Leading House Republicans raised the prospect Monday night that they might refuse to participate in President Obama’s proposed health care summit if the White House chooses not to scrap the existing reform bills and start over (The Washington Post).

GOP Wary Of Pitfalls In Obama’s Health Care Summit
Even as Republicans publicly welcome President Barack Obama’s call for a bipartisan confab on health care, some privately worry that he might be laying a trap to portray their ideas as flimsy (The Associated Press).

Leverage Sought In Health Care
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) made their concerns clear in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel highly critical of the White House approach to health care. If the Democratic bills are the starting point for discussion, they wrote, then Republicans would "rightly be reluctant to participate" (The Wall Street Journal).

GOP Leaders: Don’t Use Current Bills For Summit Starting Point
House Republican leaders said Monday the healthcare summit should not use House and Senate bills as a starting point (The Hill).

On Health Bill, GOP’s Road Is A New Map
When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net (The New York Times).

GOP Cool To Obama’s Offer To Meet On Healthcare Reform
President Obama has invited Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to meet him on Feb. 25 for a televised discussion of healthcare reform alternatives. Will this be the spark needed to get the administration’s top domestic priority moving again? (The Christian Science Monitor).

Bills Stalled, Hospitals Fear Rising Unpaid Care
President Obama says he aims to keep trying. But what happens if the health care legislation cannot be revived, and tens of millions of uninsured Americans continue without coverage? (The New York Times).

Obama Official ‘Very Disturbed’ By Anthem Blue Cross Rate Hikes
California insurance regulators asked Anthem Blue Cross to delay controversial rate increases of as much as 39% for individual policies, hikes that have triggered widespread criticism from subscribers and brokers — and now from the federal government (Los Angeles Times).

Calif. Insurer’s Rate Increases Draw Attention Of Federal Government
President Obama’s secretary of health and human services fired off a sharply worded letter to a California insurer Monday, demanding to know why it is raising rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent (The Washington Post).

States Ready For Health Care Returns
President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats may be stymied in their drive for health care reform. But state lawmakers in at least three dozen states are pushing ahead with a series of measures aimed at pre-empting whatever might come out of Washington (Politico).

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Health Policy Hub: Health Care Surprise (but keep your eye on the prize)

Yesterday, in a surprise move to many (though apparently not to Majority Leader Reid or Speaker Pelosi, who immediately issued statements of support) President Obama invited Congressional leaders from both parties to a televised half-day health care reform summit on February 25. The summit appears to be a major effort by the administration to redirect the debate over reform. With the main health reform storyline focusing on the food fight between the House and Senate over who doesn’t trust whom and who needs to Go First, it’s no wonder Congressional leadership embraced the new direction. A summit several weeks in the future gives them more time to work through their differences free from the daily white smoke watch. The summit will also gives the administration an opportunity to highlight the many positive aspects of reform and to point out weaknesses and inconsistencies in Republican arguments. (For example, how can Republicans attack health reform for reducing Medicare spending when their own proposal includes a far more draconian cut?) We saw versions of this dialogue when Obama engaged in a give and take at the Congressional Republican retreat a few weeks back. Obama and Congressional Democrats can repudiate certain controversial provisions, such as the special Medicaid subsidy for Nebraska. The setting–live TV–directly answers the public’s concern about secret negotiations with a much more open and transparent discussion. As was true at the Republican Congressional retreat, there is very little chance of substantive changes in position from either side. Republicans believe they are winning the debate on health reform and so have little reason to shift gears as the election approaches. And even if the Republicans were willing and the administration were tempted to cut a deal, it seems likely that any significant shift to the right would cost the administration more in Democrats’ support than it could ever pick up from Republicans, especially in the House. The main downside risk is that the summit delays the timetable for enacting reform by several weeks, and possibly longer, if discussion continues beyond the initial meeting. Getting a fix-it bill through reconciliation is not a fast or simple procedure, and budget rules make it harder as time goes on. As the days of the Congressional session slip away and elections approach, a crowded Congressional calendar and an aversion to taking tough votes right before facing the voters will add to the difficulty of getting reform done. But with health reform failing to command majority support from the public, who lacks understanding of the bill and has concerns about the process, what’s there to lose? Eyes on the prize In the midst of all the political calculations and positioning, it is more important than ever to reassert how crucial covering the uninsured, slowing the growth of health care costs, improving the quality of care and ending abusive insurance industry practices is to our nation’s health and financial well-being. Ultimately, this is not about Democrats or Republicans. It’s not about achieving electoral advantage. It’s about finally tackling one of the toughest social problems that confronts our country–one whose resolution has eluded policymakers for too many years. It’s time to get reform done. –Michael Miller, director of strategic policy

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Kaiser Health News Update

· Sebelius Urges Anthem Blue Cross To Justify Rate Hike
In a letter, HHS Secretary Sebelius expressed concerns about the health insurance hike, planned to take effect March 1.

·

· The Obama Health Summit: More Reactions, Details Emerge
Monday brought a chilly reaction from some Republicans, and also specutlation about what will be at stake for all the summit’s participants.

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Weekly Market Commentary February 08, 2010

* This newsletter was prepared by PEAK and distributed by The Wealth Consulting Group.

The Markets

Volatility in the financial markets has risen noticeably in the past few weeks as investors remain on edge about a multitude of issues.

A mixed employment report for January, continued budget deficit issues in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, monetary tightening in China, and a growing sense that the worldwide economy might be running on government stimulus fumes instead of stable gas all contributed to worldwide jitters, according to the Associated Press. In the U.S., the S&P 500 index dropped for the fourth week in a row and it is now down 7.3% from its January 15 recovery high, according to data from Yahoo! Finance. Foreign stocks, commodities, and gold are also down for the year as shown in the chart below.

The increase in investor anxiety helped send the value of the U.S. dollar up, up, and away. Last week, the dollar reached an eight-month high against the euro and a seven-month high against a trade-weighted basked of six major currencies, according to MarketWatch. The good news about a stronger dollar is that it suggests investors still have faith in the U.S. as a “safe haven” in times of uncertainty.

The global economy is still recovering from the Great Recession and the path to future prosperity will likely be bumpy. With proper seat belts, though, we will do our best to make the trip as smooth as possible.

Data as of 2/5/10	1-Week	Y-T-D	1-Year	3-Year	5-Year	10-Year
Standard & Poor’s 500 (Domestic Stocks)	-0.7%	-4.4%	22.8%	-9.7%	-2.4%	-2.9%
DJ Global ex US (Foreign Stocks)	-3.4	-7.6	40.0	-8.9	1.9	0.0
10-year Treasury Note (Yield Only)	3.6	N/A	2.9	4.8	4.1	6.6
Gold (per ounce)	-1.9	-4.2	15.0	17.7	20.6	13.0
DJ-UBS Commodity Index	-1.9	-9.1	13.3	-8.5	-2.3	2.6
DJ Equity All REIT TR Index	-0.3	-5.5	51.4	-16.4	0.6	10.2

Notes: S&P 500, DJ Global ex US, Gold, DJ-UBS Commodity Index returns exclude reinvested dividends (gold does not pay a dividend) and the three-, five-, and 10-year returns are annualized; the DJ Equity All REIT TR Index does include reinvested dividends and the three-, five-, and 10-year returns are annualized; and the 10-year Treasury Note is simply the yield at the close of the day on each of the historical time periods.
Sources: Yahoo! Finance, Barron’s, djindexes.com, London Bullion Market Association.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. N/A means not applicable or not available.

CORPORATE AMERICA IS MAKING AN EARNINGS RECOVERY, but the revenue recovery is slow to develop. For 2009, The Wall Street Journal projects that the S&P 500 companies will show a sales drop of $1.1 trillion, or 13% from the prior year. In the fourth quarter of 2009, revenue is expected to total just over $2 trillion, which would be the same number as the first quarter of 2006. In other words, this Great Recession has set corporate America’s revenue back nearly four years.

Interestingly, while revenue is back down to levels from nearly four years ago, total U.S. employment in January 2010 was back down to where it was in April 2000 – that’s nearly a 10-year setback in employment – according to data from the Department of Labor. This indicates that on a comparative basis, corporations have cut employment more dramatically than the decline in revenue. With employment levels back to where they were in early 2000, you can see why corporations are showing solid earnings growth (up 47% so far in Q4 2009 from the year earlier quarter excluding financial companies, according to The Wall Street Journal) even though revenue growth is weak (projected to rise just 0.9% in Q4 2009 from the year earlier quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal). Corporate America is showing profit gains partly due to the leverage from keeping employment costs low.

The good news is that Corporate America cannot keep employee headcount low indefinitely if revenue starts to rise significantly. Eventually, companies have to hire to support revenue expansion. When this new revenue expansion/hiring cycle starts is anybody’s guess. But, when it does, that could be a positive sign for the financial markets.

Weekly Focus – Think About It

“Investors repeatedly jump ship on a good strategy just because it hasn’t worked so well lately, and, almost invariably, abandon it at precisely the wrong time.”
– David Dreman

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Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Sodas? 2 Sod

Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Sodas? 2 Sodas Per Week Raises Cancer Risk; Beverage Industry Says Study Is Flawed http://ow.ly/158kT

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From Small Business Trends: Musician Makes over $18k in 5 Days with Social Media

I’ve always loved jingles. I’ve always wanted one for my web site. I found one that I thought was perfect for Ancestry.com once. I sung it to myself every time I heard their name.

So I was inspired by a small business that started over the holidays. People like case studies about how small businesses succeed with social media. Here is an example of a business that was started with social media. It was started, get this: over this Christmas and New Year’s, by a musician in Sweden who has never had a business online.

His name is Love Harnell and he’s a musician

I found out about Love Jingles through an email (great blogger PR) and then I called and got an interview with Love Harnell. I’m not used to calling men other than my husband Love but he let me know the Swedish pronunciation which is more like Louve (as in the Paris art museum).

He writes and performs jingles for brands. He makes a video of his performance and then promotes it. His story has been on Mashable and Adrants. Yahoo! has signed up to celebrate their 15 year anniversary with a jingle. So has a 12-step program (it booked 14 days to tell their story in song).

The idea is decent but it’s the way he markets it that people talk about

If you’ve heard of the Million Dollar Homepage or IWearYourShirt.com, this is in the same style. Here’s how it works – each day of the year you sign up to have a custom-made jingle and every day the price goes up. So on January 1, 2010 it cost $1 and then on January 2 it is $2. I got in for $85. You can upgrade to have your logo added on the video and on the blog post.

Time to Market and Costs

Time to market: a few weeks.

Cost to start: good luck, connections and talent.

Advertising: his friend Nils at Pronto Communication emailed 10 bloggers (which is how I found out about it), told his clients and the word started to spread.

Potential revenue if he sells every single day at the minimum price: $67,000.

How LoveJingles Works

Everyone gets a live recording of their jingle on YouTube, and a blog post with their video (in other words, customers help create the content). Then it’s promoted on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Even though it’s less than a week old just type Lovejingles.com into Google to see how many references there are to the site already (over 5,000). This is the new advertising.

LoveJingles.com was started in an industry that has been bleeding – music. It’s a perfect example of making something worthy of talking about (all done word of mouth). It has viral built right into it (meaning it markets itself by the great stories from the various people who’ve purchased jingles).

What can your small business do in 2010 to leverage social media and get a lot of buzz? It’s more about your imagination than your budget. Love has definitely Crushed It. Let this case study inspire you to do the same.

From Small Business Trends

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Yes, Let’s Talk About Those Republican Ideas – Kaiser Health News

via Yes, Let’s Talk About Those Republican Ideas – Kaiser Health News.

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Kaiser Health News for Monday

The Antitrust Exemption For Health Insurers: Meaningful Or Not
Kaiser Health News staff writer Jenny Gold writes about legislation to repeal this exemption. "With comprehensive health care legislation foundering in Congress, the House is turning to a narrower piece of legislation that lawmakers hope has widespread, populist appeal: repealing the antitrust exemption for health and medical liability insurers. … But many antitrust experts say that ending the exemption — by repealing the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act — wouldn’t significantly increase competition or reduce premiums" (Kaiser Health News).

Obama Plans Bipartisan Summit On Health Care
President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse (The New York Times).

Obama Invites Republicans To Summit On Health Care
President Obama moved to jump-start the stalled health-care debate Sunday, inviting Republicans in Congress to participate in a bipartisan, half-day televised summit on the subject this month (The Washington Post).

Obama Calls For Health-Care Summit
President Barack Obama, seeking to give new momentum to his languishing health-care legislation, said he would sit down with Republican and Democratic lawmakers this month to exchange ideas on an issue that has deeply divided the parties (The Wall Street Journal).

White House Announces Televised Health Meeting
The Feb. 25 meeting is an attempt to reach across the aisle but not a signal that the president plans to start over, as Republicans have demanded, a White House official said (Politico).

Healthcare Lobby Looks To Jobs Bill As Vehicle For Medicare Fixes
Lobbyists for healthcare interests are eyeing the Senate jobs bill as a vehicle for several key priorities left behind when healthcare reform stalled (The Hill).

Clinton-Era Health Aides Push To Save Obama’s Plan
Shock and awe. That’s what survivors of the Clinton-era health care collapse are feeling as President Barack Obama’s overhaul legislation wobbles in Congress (The Associated Press).

Letter >From Washington: Heads In Sand Over Long-Term U.S. Budget Fixes
The numbers are stunning. Over the next 10 years, under President Barack Obama’s budget, the total deficit would be $8.5 trillion; by 2020, the interest payments on the debt would be almost as much as projected spending on all discretionary domestic programs and as much as Medicare outlays that year. The national debt would be approaching $20 trillion in 2020; nice symmetry, horrifying economics (The New York Times).

OSHA Dispute Magnifies Differences
As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the White House are trying to minimize their differences, a brewing battle at OSHA over a workplace-injury reporting rule illustrates how tough that could become, given the administration’s pro-labor leanings (Politco/Propublica).

California Cracks Down On Discount Health Plans
At a time when nearly 7 million Californians are uninsured, state regulators are trying to rein in discount health and dental plans that officials say frequently overstate benefits, offer little if any savings and promise access to doctors who aren’t part of the system (Los Angeles Times).

Kaiser Health News provides highlights of the weekend’s headlines and highlights of health policy news, including President Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Committee and Sunday’s week-ahead reports.

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DADT policy’s gotta go!

DADT policy’s gotta go!

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Blogstronomy: Why have Russian Cosmonaut

Blogstronomy: Why have Russian Cosmonauts never landed on the Moon? http://ow.ly/14HKT

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Nobel-Winning Physicist Says Time Can’t

Nobel-Winning Physicist Says Time Can’t Run Backward – time travel – io9 http://ow.ly/14HKd

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Why Does E=mc2? by Brian Cox and Jeff Fo

Why Does E=mc2? by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw : Uncertain Principles http://ow.ly/14HJy

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The Future of American Conservatism « Sl

The Future of American Conservatism « SlashPolitics http://ow.ly/14HJ2

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The Mahablog » Anarchists, Left and Righ

The Mahablog » Anarchists, Left and Right http://ow.ly/14HIH

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The Volokh Conspiracy » Should Libertari

The Volokh Conspiracy » Should Libertarians Learn to “Love Government”? http://ow.ly/14HI4

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The Volokh Conspiracy » Debating Ayn Ran

The Volokh Conspiracy » Debating Ayn Rand’s Philosophy http://ow.ly/14HHG

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