Folklight Reflections

The Senate Health Care Bill is out and while there is no 'public option'... (except medicaid) the number that will cause many to wince is 13%... That’s the share of family income that the Baucus plan envisions middle-class American families having to pay in health insurance premiums before co-payments, deductibles and other cost sharing. Is it affordable for you?? NY Times story HERE : Bill PDF HERE Below is an obvious argument to keep politicians out of this process. Tucked inside is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers’ markets. The add-ons - characterized as part of a broad effort to improve the nation’s health “infrastructure’’ - appear in both the House and Senate versions of the bill. Critics argue the provision is an obvious effort to insert pork-barrel spending into a bill that has been widely portrayed to the public as dealing with expanding health coverage and cutting medical...

Exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is losing momentum in his attempt to regain credibility and position. In an interview with The Associated Press Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez clearly believes the nation’s interim government will outlast Zelaya. He said Zelaya will begin to be relevant as campaigning for elections begins and noted that even the candidate for Zelaya's own party does not support the ousted president any longer. "There will be a totally different context and once the campaigns begin, the obsession with Mr. Zelaya will start fading," Lopez said. "The people are united and are willing to weather the five months until the elections," Lopez said. He was optimistic that other nations would recognize election results as legitimate. "Of course it will be recognized. There is no sense in talking about it not being recognized" . Lopez held firm on refusing to permit Zelaya to return although Congress will debate the question of amnesty, p...