Fundraising Numbers

Paul Hackett posted better than expected 4th quarter fund raising numbers yesterday in the Ohio Senate race. Hackett raised $465,779 last quarter and is reporting that he has $229,783 on hand. Hackett has also rolled out a new blog. You can check it out here.

Alito's In

Well, we lost the battle over Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. He'll be the 110th Supreme Court Justice. It should be noted that he is not the swing vote on Roe v Wade. That distinction still belongs to Justice Anthony Kennedy, and I would expect that most challenges to aspects of Roe will settled 5-4 on the side of Roe.

While Alito's confirmation leaves us with no future wiggle room, and is a blow to women's rights, we still haven't lost the war.

Health Savings Accounts

George Bush is expected to promote Health Savings Accounts (HSA) in tonight's State of the Union address. An HSA is an account in which you pay your money, or have your employer pay a portion of your money into a tax deductible account that you use to pay for medical expenses. I thought I would take a little time here to discuss the major flaw in HSAs.

In March of 2004, the Treasury Department issued four rulings regarding HSAs. The most important of these rulings has to do with prescription drug coverage. From IRS.gov:

Under section 223, an eligible individual cannot be covered by a health plan that is not an HDHP [High Deductible Health Plan] unless that health plan provides coverage for permitted insurance or permitted coverage. A plan that provides benefits for prescription drugs is a health plan. Prescription drug benefits are not in the list of permitted insurance or permitted coverage. Consequently, an individual who is covered by both an HDHP and by a prescription drug plan is not an eligible individual for the purpose of contributing to an HSA unless the prescription drug coverage is also an HDHP (i.e., the prescription drug plan does not provide benefits unless the required minimum annual deductible under section 223(c)(2)(A) for an HDHP has been satisfied).

In layman's terms, what this means is to be eligible for tax exempt status under an HSA, you have to give up any prescription drug coverage in which you are now enrolled unless that coverage is also an HDHP, which would not make financial sense unless you have really, really expensive drug costs. In other words you will now be paying the first $1,000 of your drug costs out of pocket, or $2,000 for a family.

Typically, if you now have prescription drug coverage today, you get your prescription, go to the pharmacy and pay a co-pay, or perhaps a small deductible. Under HSAs, this all goes away. You pay full price for your medication. The question is, who sets the price of this medication? I don't know yet. If it is like Medicare Part D, the private insurer sets the price and from the prices I've seen while reviewing Medicare Part D, they set them higher than you can buy prescriptions on the open market.

To make a long story short, if Medicare Part D is the Springtime prescription drug plan, HSAs are the Autumn prescription drug plan.

Awards

The following Democratic Senators have received the George Costanza Medal Of Valor for stampeding women while running from a room in which smoke was smelled.

Daniel Akaka, HI; Max Baucus, MT; Jeff Bingaman, NM; Robert Byrd, WV; Maria Cantwell, WA; Thomas Carper, DE; Kend Conrad, ND; Byron Dorgan, ND; Daniel Inouye, HI; Tim Johnson, SD; Herb Kohl, WI; Mary Landrieu, LA; Joe Lieberman, CT; Blanche Lincoln, AR; Bill Nelson, FL; Ben Nelson, NE; Mark Pryor, AR; John Rockefeller, WV; Ken Salazar, CO.

A sad group, indeed.

Cloture Okayed

In the end, it wasn't even close with 72 senators voting for cloture, and only 25 voting to extend debate. Pretty weak effort all around by the Senate Dems.

Record Profits

As you have probably heard by now, Exxon Mobile posted the largest profit ever for an American company in 2005, raking in a massive $36.13 billion. They weren't alone the whole oil sector made a mint last year. From The New York Times:

The fourth-quarter performance capped a record year for oil companies driven by a surge in crude oil and gas prices. Crude oil prices rose 40 percent last year, driven by rapidly rising demand from economically rising countries like China and India and production problems in oil-producing countries like Nigeria and Iraq.

Total revenues for the quarter reached $99.66 billion from $83.37 in the year-ago period.

Now, one of the reasons for this increase is that oil is sold on the commodities market, and if you are selling the most precious commodity in the world, people will pay a premium for that, and oil is the most precious commodity right now. Think about it, you can live without gold, but try living without oil. It's a tad bit tougher.

That being said, it's time we installed a windfall profits tax on the oil companies. One with some teeth, no hiding profits in overseas shell companies. And the republicans in Congress should probably stop giving these guys massive subsidies as they did in last year's Energy Bill. From the Washington Post:

It also includes an estimated $85 billion worth of subsidies and tax breaks for most forms of energy -- including oil and gas, "clean coal," ethanol, electricity, and solar and wind power. The nuclear industry got subsidies for research, waste reprocessing, construction, operation and even decommission. The petroleum industry got new incentives to drill in the Gulf of Mexico -- as if $60-a-barrel oil wasn't enough of an incentive. The already-subsidized ethanol industry got a federal mandate that will nearly double its output by 2012 -- as well as new subsidies to develop ethanol from other sources.

While subsidies are necessary to promote alternative sources of energy, in fact they are a must for the continuation of the human race, it's tough too keep giving them to oil and gas companies who simply throw them on their current pile of profits.

Lincoln Chafee

If the Democrats have done one thing right during the Alito fight, we have finally managed to paint Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) into the corner we want him in going into an election year. Chafee will probably vote for cloture, but has announced that he will vote no on the nomination.

It's tough to play it both ways. For his no vote on Alito, he will take a beating from primary opponent Steve Laffey, who is one of those Club For Growth nut jobs. Chaffee should be able to defeat Laffey, but not without any bloodletting by him.

After the primary, the Democratic candidate, either current Secretary of State Matt Brown or Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse, can then attack Chaffee for trying to have it both ways on Alito, and allowing a decidedly anti-choice justice on the Supreme Court.

Petro Choses LT Governor Candidate

As expected after Bob Bennett was unable to force Bob Ney out of his re-election bid, Jim Petro will announce today that he has chosen Joy Padgett, who would not run against Ney, as his running mate in the Governor's race.

According to internal GOP polling, Petro is currently down by 10 points to Ken Blackwell in the primary race, and although I think most of the late undecided voter will break for Petro, I don't know if enough of them will actually show up at the polls to get Petro over the top. Blackwell's voters seem more motivated to vote at this point.

The bottom line is that if it is a large turnout by primary standards, Petro wins. A smaller than average turnout would give the election to Blackwell.

Enough

Some people don't seem to know when they are overreaching, but the religious right's new avenue of attack in the culture wars really goes very far over the line, and I can't imagine that mainstream America can buy into these wacky ideas. The religious right is pushing for state legislation to allow health care workers to refuse treatment based on their religious beliefs.

We've all heard about pharmacists denying women morning after pills or contraception, but this goes far, far beyond that. From the Washington Post:

At least nine states are considering "right of refusal" bills that are far broader. Some would protect virtually any worker involved in health care; others would extend protection to hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities. Some would protect only workers who refuse to provide certain health services, but many would be far more expansive.

At least five of the broad bills would allow insurance companies to opt out of covering services they find objectionable for religious reasons. A sixth state, Pennsylvania, is considering a bill designed for insurers.

"These represent a major expansion of this notion of right of refusal," said Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that studies reproductive health issues and is tracking the legislation. "You're seeing it broadening to many types of workers -- even into the world of social workers -- and for any service for which you have a moral or religious belief."

Basically, most of these laws simply give health care workers free reign to discriminate against whoever they want with no recourse for those who are refused treatment. This is decidedly un-American and a sad day for civil rights, and shame on the Washington Post for the title of this article "Health Workers' Choice Debated." I'm sorry, but patients rights trump health care workers rights everyday in my book.

I think every Democrat who is not considering filibustering Alito should read this article and ask themselves if they are comfortable with Samuel Alito sitting on the Supreme Court when some of these laws inevitably come before the court. It's a tough thought to stomach.

Just in case you don't think these people are nuts, check out this quote from the same article from David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. From WAPO:

"We are moving into a brave new world of cloning, cyborgs, sex selection, genetic testing of embryos," Stevens said. "The list of difficult ethical issues involving nurses, physicians, research scientists, pharmacists and other health care workers is just continuing to increase."

Cyborgs? Who said anything about cyborgs? But, if this is true, where can I get my Salma Hayek sex-bot?

Connecting The Dots

The one thing about Bill Frist's stock sale that never added up to me was the fact that he didn't dump his stock until June when the rest of the insiders dumped theirs in April. On Meet The Press today Frist connected the dots for me when he said that he initiated sale "weeks and weeks and weeks" before the sale. Well, weeks and weeks and weeks before June is what we call April when the others dumped. They simply didn't have to jump through the hoops Frist did.

After seeing Frist in what can't be called artfully dodge the question, I'm more convinced then ever that Frist broke the law on this stock sale.

Bob Woodruff

ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and camera man Doug Vogt were seriously injured by an IED while traveling with an Iraqi unit accompanied by the US 4th ID.

If Woodruff survives, and at this point it's unclear if he will, support for the war will take a serious beating. Disfigured familiar faces tend to turn off a great deal fence sitters from supporting what has turned out to be a fiasco.

Best wishes to both Bob and Doug.

Cracking the Top Ten

Bob Ney's re-election announcement shot Ohio's 18th Congressional district into the Fix's top ten seats most likely to change hands at number six. Chris Cillizza, who writes The Fix for the Washington Post, also sheds some light as to why Ney is seeking re-election. From The Fix:

Another motivating factor for Ney may be financial. Ney has little personal wealth and has accrued considerable legal costs in the past year or so, making a retirement from Congress untenable from a dollars and cents point of view at the moment, according to several GOP strategists. Ney has, however, set up a legal defense fund to defray the legal costs of the federal investigation.

Keep in mind that Ney's campaign money can legally be used to directly pay his legal fees. Ney has already used $135,881 in campaign dollars to pay Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins.

The legal defense fund was set up because it is not covered by campaign contribution limits by donors, although current House rules limit campaign committees to a contribution of $5,000 per year.

It's January And We're Already Out Of The Pennant Race

It looks like the Senate Dems lack the courage to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito. Even worse, it doesn't even look like they are going to be able to manipulate the cloture vote to put Lincoln Chafee on the hot seat.

One thing Senate Dems should take note of, we're not all Cubs fans. We don't come to the ballpark just because it's a cool thing to do. We want wins, and although we do realize that we can't always win, it doesn't mean you won't catch hell from us when you don't run out a ground ball, especially in the World Series of judicial appointments.

If you don't stop Alito, you're 0-2, and with Justice John Paul Stevens turning eighty six in April it's definitely the bottom of the ninth. Three strikes and we're all out.

Cloture

Frist just filed a motion for cloture with the vote to take place on Monday at 4:30 PM. If there is no filibuster, the confirmation vote will take place on Tuesday at 11:00AM.

The Alito Hearings

This is your chance Senate Democrats. It's now your time to stand up and be counted. The Alito hearings start tomorrow, and you had better be prepared to filibuster the nomination.
You already know about his radical views on Roe, executive power, and civil rights. In an editorial today, the New York Times sums it up pretty clearly. From the NYT:

A filibuster is a radical tool. It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court.

They're right, and yes, a filibuster will require courage, but courage is exactly what this country needs right now. There's no point in "keeping your powder dry" until the day that the radical right is using laser guns. We are already on a slippery slope to tyranny in this country with the recent revelations that President Bush has repeatedly broken the law and has stated that he will continue to do so.

It is your duty, indeed, your mandate given to you by the voters to perform your Constitutional function of providing checks and balance to the executive office, and in this situation the proper check is to filibuster. A vote for cloture, yet against the nomination should be considered a dereliction of this duty.

Strickland Picks Running Mate

In what I would consider a rather quixotic move, Ted Strickland has chosen Lee Fisher as his running mate in his bid for the Ohio governor's office. Fisher is a former Attorney General for Ohio who was defeated by Betty Montgomery.

I have to admit, this really came out of left field for me, and to be honest, I couldn't understand why Fisher would want the job, but then again, I had forgotten how young Fisher was when he was AG. He may see this as a potential stepping stone to the governor's office himself.

Ney Announces Re-election Bid

Bob Ney has announced that he will run for re-election in his Ohio 18 congressional district. This is great news for Democrats, especially if he can manage to put off indictments until after the primary where no credible opponent to Ney has stepped up.

Ney may be reading too much into the numerous recent press reports of his support within the district, because once the indictments drop, that support will fade fast. Most quotes I've seen from supporters indicate that if they find out that Ney broke the law, they think he should go to jail.

Bush Disses American Automakers

In a rather myopic view of the problems facing American automakers, President Bush said yesterday that Ford and GM should focus on building more appealing cars and signaled that he is against helping them through a buyout.

I'm not a fan of government buy outs either, but this is a situation really caused by a lack of universal health care in this country. GM, for example has a built in adder of $1,525 in each automobile that roll down its assembly line for health care. Pension adds another $675, and although GM didn't have the foresight to see that defined pension benefits might hurt them down the road, not many other American manufacturers did either.

These costs are covered by the governments of most of their foreign competitors.

Maybe Bush is hoping Wal-Mart will start selling those new Chinese autos that are going to hit the market soon.

The Suicide Belt Revolution?

In what are yet unofficial election results, Hamas has claimed to have won 76 seats in the 132 seat Palestinian parliament. This is much better than anyone had anticipated and better than exit polling had shown, although exit polling in past Palestinian elections has consistently shown lower results for Hamas than the results. The results could complicate the peace process. From the Washington Post:

If confirmed by election officials in a Thursday evening news conference, the Hamas victory would end the governing Fatah party's decade-long control of the Palestinian Authority. It would also severely complicate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' policy of pursuing negotiations with Israel under a U.S.-backed peace plan known as the roadmap, which conflicts with Hamas' platform in several key respects.

Hamas officials in Gaza City, where their victory was greatest, said the group has no plans to negotiate with Israel or recognize Israel's right to exist. Europe, Israel and the United States classify Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, as a terrorist organization.

I personally think that having Hamas inside the Palestinian government is a positive for the peace process, although with them having a ruling majority, the immediate future of the roadmap for peace is probably stalled. After some time, we can probably use their role inside the government to squeeze them into enforcing more discipline among their more radical elements to move the peace process forward.

The fact is, there are billions of dollars of investment in a Palestinian state waiting out there to be had if the peace process moves forward. Hamas now, as the ruling government, has both the inside track to gain access to these funds and the ability to enforce law and order, something Fatah never could do.

It should be interesting.

Ethics Panel

The mush anticipated ethics panel at the Washington Post has turned out to be a real snoozer, but if you need a nap, you can read it here. One thing that did come up is that blogs should have defined rules for posting comments, and I've never really laid out the rules for posting at this site.

It's pretty simple really, I only have two. Don't use the proper names of people who are not public figures and no spam. Outside that, do whatever you want, even if it is off topic.

Update: Why was Glenn Reynolds asked in four separate questions why he doesn't allow comments in a moderated chat? Surely there were other questions sent to moderator Liz Kelly.