By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

The Consumers Union urged congress Wednesday to pass comprehensive health care reform this year in response to findings from a recent survey the Union conducted that revealed a high level of consumer dissatisfaction with the current health care model.

In a press conference on Capitol Hill, Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) welcomed Consumers Union president Jim Guest to speak on what he described as an urgent need for health care reform.

Guest said the magazine Consumer Report’s, published by CU, recently did a consumer survey and found sobering inadequacies in the current health care system.

“Early this week consumer reports released a poll… nearly 73 percent of respondents said they worry that an illness or accident would be financial devastating to them, an equal number said they worry if they got sick they will be denied care or their care would be rationed by health insurance companies… those are devastating numbers,” Guest said. “51 percent in the last year said they didn’t go to the doctor, didn’t get a follow up treatment or procedure, didn’t fill a prescription they couldn’t take care of their own health because they couldn’t pay for it.”

Guest said CU is serious about health care reform because it is in the best interest of the American public.

CU, a historically nonpartisan organization, announced last week that it would run a TV ad in Washington, D.C. for two weeks that urged consumers to put pressure on Congress to pass health care reform this year. According to CU, this is something the organization has never done for any other cause since its founding in 1936.

by Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressed concern Thursday that the recent decision by the Obama administration to scrap a long-range missile defense system in Eastern Europe could signal that the U.S. is willing to concede to Russian interests.

“There is very little doubt, that in most of the world, that this is viewed as an attempt to gain Russian concessions on the Iranian nuclear issue,” McCain said during a Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. “That’s the interpretation. It was Machiavelli that said ‘It’s not what you do, it’s what you appear to do.’”

During the hearing, McCain questioned the Defense Department’s motives for changing the 2007 long-range missile plan in Poland and the Czech Republic. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates originally created the Bush administration’s plan, and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said that she personally saw the deliberation Gates put into the Obama administration’s new short-range missile plan.

At the hearing, McCain said some of the newspaper accounts he’s read lead him to believe the international community doesn’t buy the Department of Defense’s arguments about the technological benefits of short-range missiles in Europe, noting that the time it will take to implement new technologies will be time the United States and European allies will be left with weakened military defenses.

McCain added that he’s curious about how new U.S. missile policies will affect Polish and Czech policies.

“I think it’s worth noting the Czech Republic currently have NATO forces deployed, as well as 100 personal deployed in Kandahar,” he said. “The Polish currently have 2, 000 troops in Afghanistan. I would be very interested in the future to see how firmly the Poles and the Czechs stand behind those commitments.”

McCain went on to argue that he agrees building and using defenses against short-range missiles are needed, but not because of the “belligerent threats the Iranian regime continues to pose to the United States and the rest of the world.”

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he believed the new short-range missile approach is positive because it “addresses more directly and effectively Iran’s missile threat, it maintains and expands our security commitment to Europe, including Poland and the Czech Republic, [and] it opens the door to working cooperatively with Russia on a missile defense system that could not only provide greater protection to Europe, but also make a strong statement to Iran, that Europe, including Russia will take unified action against Iran’s threat.”

Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) shared many of Sen. McCain’s views, with Lieberman asking why the U.S. cannot adopt a dual system with short and long-range missiles.

By Suzia van Swol-University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service
Since Pakistan harbors international terrorists and controls a nuclear arsenal, the country poses the greatest threat to the Middle East, according to two Democrat U.S. Senators recently returned from the region.

During the April Congressional break, Sen. Jack Reed (RI) traveled with Sen. Ted Kaufman (DE) to Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The pair were in the Middle East from April 13th through April 20th to meet with leaders and officials.

In every country visited, the pair found “deficiencies in the local police,” Reed said, which inhibits Middle Eastern governments as well as the U.S. governments’ ability to truly assist the individuals and the countries.

Reed said that General David Petraeus, Commander U.S. Central Command, who was appointed by George W. Bush, faces very difficult decisions in terms of allocating resources.

“We are going to look very hard at the budget and the policy defense department to ensure that we have enough of these assets which are the critical enablers between both countries,” said Reed.

Senator Kaufman said that we (U.S.A) are at a pivot point in the region with the withdrawal in Iraq, increased U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and growing instability in Pakistan. “This is not just a military problem,” said Kaufman, suggesting that local police and political figures in the Middle East need to play a role alongside military efforts.

Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) talks about the credit derivatives market and how it has continued to grow since its inception, not only in trading volume and total value outstanding contracts, but also in its potential risk. Reed says that this tremendous growth occurs in an environment of incidental regulation and an infrastructure that has not “kept pace” with trading volumes and product complexity. (0:46)

 

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The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing on “Reducing Risks and Improving Oversight in the Over-The-Counter (OTC) Credit Derivatives Market.” Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Ranking Member Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) oversaw the hearing. Both senators agreed that the OTC credit derivatives market poses many risks to different sectors of the U.S. economy, including the financial system. Reed said that regulators have been coordinating efforts since 2002 to reduce these risks, but have not made enough progress and have become “too complacent” in their efforts. (more…)