Daily Archives: October 24, 2021

Why Democrats Medicare and health care bill ideas are shrinking and drug prices may not – Vox.com

Posted: October 24, 2021 at 11:39 am

Democrats are finalizing their health care plans for this Congress and coalescing around one particular goal: filling the gaps in Obamacare.

Lawmakers appear likely to prioritize proposed fixes to the Affordable Care Act in the forthcoming budget reconciliation bill, but some of the partys other ideas for expanding health coverage may end up getting cut out of the legislation.

When Obamacare passed in 2010, it was supposed to achieve universal insurance coverage or something close to it by patching holes in the existing health care system.

But as it turned out, the 2010 law has holes of its own waiting to be fixed. The uninsured rate has dropped significantly since the ACA was enacted: Just about 10 percent of people in the US lack health care coverage today, compared to nearly 18 percent in 2009. But that still leaves 27.4 million people without insurance.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states could choose whether to expand their Medicaid programs, and 12 states never did leaving 2 million people with no health coverage, a disproportionate share of whom are people of color living in the South. Other uninsured Americans include people who are not eligible for government assistance (either because of their immigration status or because, until recently, they made too much money to qualify) and cant afford it on their own, as well as people who are eligible but have not, for whatever reason, signed up for benefits.

Democrats newest health care measure, part of their Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill, tries to close those gaps, though they will again fall short of reaching universal coverage.

Some Democrats also have other goals: Many progressives want to expand Medicare benefits to cover dental, hearing, and vision care. But Congress may still have to scale back the health care section of the reconciliation legislation if centrist Democrats continue to balk at a plan to cap prices for prescription drugs. If those plans must be cut to get the bill passed, Congress and the White House could end up having to decide which parts of their agenda to pass now and which ones to postpone.

Should it come to that, dealing with some of the ACAs unfinished business seems likely to be Democratic leaders top priority.

When Democrats set out to reform health care in 2010, they made a choice: Rather than fundamentally changing US health care by creating a single-payer system or an aggressive public option to compete with private insurers, Democrats tried to patch up the existing system through Medicaid and the individual commercial market.

The law gave government help to middle-class people who buy private coverage; it also intended to expand Medicaid to people whose incomes were at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

That design was dictated, in part, by concerns about cost. The Obama White House promised to craft a health care proposal that would pay for itself to meet demands from more conservative members of the Democratic Party. Expanding Medicaid was projected to be cheaper than subsidizing private coverage. Cutting off subsidies for private individual insurance at 400 percent of the federal poverty level today, that equals about $51,500 for one person and around $88,000 for a family of three brought the bills cost down too.

But these choices ultimately made coverage unaffordable for millions of middle-class Americans.

Pent-up demand for medical services drove insurers expenses higher than they had anticipated. Premiums increased significantly during the years after the laws marketplace opened, though they eventually stabilized.

People getting federal assistance were protected; their own costs were fixed, while the federal government picked up the cost of premium increases. But people with incomes too high to qualify faced the full brunt of rate hikes and many of them dropped their ACA-compliant coverage as a result. Enrollment among those ineligible for assistance dropped by more than 3 million from 2016 to 2018, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

This became one of the ACAs most obvious failures. In the American Rescue Plan (ARP), Democrats expanded the laws subsidies to people earning above 400 percent of the federal poverty, and an estimated 235,500 of those who became newly eligible have enrolled in coverage this year, according to federal data.

However, the ARP authorized the new subsidies for only two years. The new reconciliation bill would make them permanent.

The other problem with Obamacare was unexpected. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Medicaid expansion was too coercive and that states needed to be able to choose to opt out.

Although the expansion was still a really good deal for states the federal government covered 100 percent of the cost for the first three years, and 90 percent in perpetuity as of 2020 a dozen states are still holding out, seven years after the expansion first took effect. Those states are concentrated in the South; Texas and Florida account for more than half of the 2.2 million people in poverty who have been left uncovered because of their states opposition to the expansion.

Closing the expansion gap was also already a priority for Democrats in the ARP. In that bill, Congress offered an additional financial incentive for the holdout states: a temporary boost in their traditional Medicaid funding. But none of them have taken that deal in the six months since it passed.

So Democrats have concocted a new plan. They would initially cover people stuck in the Medicaid expansion gap through private insurance on the ACA markets, before eventually transferring them into a newly created federal program that would replicate the coverage they would have received through Medicaid.

It sounds clumsy, but thats because Democrats have been trying to walk another legal tightrope as theyve worked on a fix for the expansion gap. They dont want to create a situation where the states that refused the expansion are getting a better deal than the states that accepted it, opening themselves to another lawsuit.

The ACA improvements would drive the number of uninsured Americans down by several million 3.9 million, according to Congressional Budget Office projections another incremental step toward universal coverage.

But the fixes in the bill alone are not sufficient to get the US caught up to the rest of the developed world, where universal health care is assured. And neither would any of the other proposals Democrats are considering.

Many Democrats now view the ACA as a political winner, having run on the law in the last two elections. The proposed improvements to Obamacare probably enjoy the most widespread support among the partys majorities in Congress.

But as in 2010, Democrats may soon have to make important decisions about which policies to push through and which ones to cut out. They have thin majorities, again, and the more conservative wing is once more putting pressure on leadership to constrain the size of the legislation.

Recent comments from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, her allies, and center-left Democrats suggest that fixing the ACA would be the first priority.

Other plans to achieve universal coverage an aggressive public option or a single-payer Medicare-for-all are still divisive among Democrats, and they face stiff opposition from the insurance industry. The party isnt trying to pass them with the narrow majorities it currently has in Congress.

Progressive Democrats have other ideas about how to improve health care, short of Medicare-for-all. These include adding to and improving Medicare benefits and making more people eligible for that program, which they hope will eventually serve as a vessel for single-payer health care.

At first, it appeared Congress would try to do all of this at once. The first draft of the reconciliation bill included not only the ACA fixes but also the expansion of dental, hearing, and vision benefits for Medicares 62.7 million beneficiaries.

But Congress faces the same kind of fiscal limitations now as when it was trying to pass the ACA: Centrists want the bill to be paid for, though some are also leery of major tax increases. Congress traditionally funds health care spending through health care savings, and those constraints could dictate the policy again. (Whole proposals, like a major funding infusion for long-term care, may end up being scrapped because of centrist disinterest and their demand to lower the bills cost.)

Prescription drug savings are supposed to cover the cost of most of the bills health care provisions. But those reforms are running into trouble with some Democrats who sound receptive to the drug industrys arguments that the price controls Congress is contemplating would hamper medical innovation.

If Democrats are forced to scale back or scrap the prescription drug plan to assuage those concerns, theyll need to either find new savings to pay for their spending which may be hard, without making new industry enemies who would try to tank the bill or theyll likely start cutting some of their coverage proposals.

What would the priority be in the latter scenario? Democrats have already attempted to address these ACA issues in the American Rescue Plan. In comments last week, Democratic leaders again made the 2010 law sound like their top priority.

I feel very proprietary about the ACA, Pelosi said, according to NBC News. The No. 3 Democrat in the House, Rep. Jim Clyburn, said Medicaid expansion is his focus. A coalition of center-left Democrats is pushing House leadership to confine their health care agenda to these ACA remedies.

All of these health care proposals cost money. The ACA coverage provisions total about $550 billion in new spending, according to the Congressional Budget Office. New Medicare benefits would add as much as $350 billion over 10 years to the health sections projected cost. It may simply cost too much, in the eyes of center-left Democrats trying to trim the size of the package, to do all of it at once. Still, progressives are strongly backing the Medicare benefit expansion.

Finishing the Obamacare project may be the safest bet for the budget reconciliation legislation it has a real consensus within the party, and there are glaring problems that do need to be fixed.

But even if the Democrats patch up the ACA, theyll simply be postponing the larger debate to come. The American health care system still has serious problems, and those problems are, in some cases, only becoming more acute.

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Drug pricing talks heat up as Democrats work to win over skeptics – STAT – STAT

Posted: at 11:39 am

WASHINGTON As drug pricing talks in Congress heated up this week, Democrats negotiated in earnest to get skeptics of their drug pricing policies on board.

With crunch time approaching for talks on a major legislative package containing the cornerstone of President Bidens domestic agenda, drug pricing policy remained unresolved as lawmakers scramble to get consensus on a complicated, contentious issue.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) is involved with the negotiations, said sources following the talks.

One key point of contention is whether negotiations should extend to drugs that cannot yet have generic competition because of patent protections, according to three sources. Another issue is how aggressive limits on drug price hikes should be, two sources said.

Peters and four other House lawmakers had proposed a watered-down version of Medicare drug price negotiation that would apply only to drugs administered in physicians offices that have run the course of their patent protection. New drugs usually get 12 years of exclusive rights, but pharmaceutical companies often work to extend that time frame for particularly lucrative drugs.

Peters told reporters on Thursday that a lot of Senate offices have called him to inquire about his drug pricing bill, but he declined to name who. Peters has been a major recipient of cash from drug makers this year, particularly after he fired a warning shot in the spring opposing House Speaker Nancy Pelosis preferred drug pricing plan.

Peters office did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to comment.

Advocates and progressive lawmakers are sounding the alarm that watering down proposals to the level Peters is aiming for would make the Medicare drug price negotiation policy moot.

As they are steadily eviscerated, drug pricing provisions are being effectively excluded, rendered worthless for most Americans victimized by pharmaceutical price gouging, said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), chair of the House Ways & Means health subcommittee in a written statement.

Watering down drug pricing policy also slashes the federal savings that lawmakers could use to pay for other policy priorities. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said the chance that Medicare negotiation policy could be dropped entirely is very worrisome.

The question is, what can we salvage? Until the final deal is done Im gonna keep pushing to get as much as we can, Welch told STAT in a brief interview at the Capitol on Thursday.

Patients for Affordable Drugs, a consumer advocacy group advocating for aggressive drug pricing reform, decried Peters policy late Friday. A spokesperson said the scaled-back proposal would rob Medicare negotiation legislation of its impact and would leave patients exposed to high drug prices.

Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) was adamant on Thursday that Democratic leaders are still pursuing a policy that would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, even as lawmakers are working to scale down the package to win more support. The dynamics in the Senate remain thorny as well, with several pharma-friendly senators demanding concessions from the plans Democrats had originally hoped to advance.

A lot of people are saying, Ron, is anybody going to give up negotiation? No way, period, full stop. Lets have no confusion about it. We will not give up on negotiating, Wyden told reporters in the Capitol.

Nicholas Florko contributed reporting to this story.

Drug pricing talks heat up as Democrats work to win over skeptics - STAT - STAT

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Forced to downsize their agenda, Democrats make final push for priorities and spin scaled-back bill as ‘good first step’ – The Spokesman Review

Posted: at 11:39 am

WASHINGTON Standing in front of the Capitol on Thursday, between twin banners emblazoned with the words care cant wait, Sen. Patty Murray assured a crowd of parents, home health aides and other caregivers Democrats are about to extend a historic helping hand to make their lives better.

We are on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation investment in our kids and our families, the largest since the New Deal, Murray said. And we can do it all by just making the wealthiest individuals and the largest corporations pay their fair share.

Her party, the Washington Democrat told the crowd, is fighting to make sure a wide range of social programs and measures to combat climate change are included in the legislative package it intends to pass using a once-a-year tool that will let Democrats get around a Republican filibuster.

Those priorities, Murray said, include quality jobs, affordable child care, a national paid leave policy, higher wages for care workers, a pathway to citizenship for immigrants and making new monthly child tax credit payments permanent.

The reality is more complicated.

After laying out a 10-year, $3.5 trillion bill to transform the U.S. social safety net and combat climate change, paid for by raising taxes on large corporations and the wealthiest Americans, Democrats are in the awkward position of selling the nation on legislation roughly half that size.

Democrats have, in effect, taken the country on a shopping spree only to find themselves counting change at the checkout counter, figuring out what they have to put back after their credit card was declined.

In this overwrought metaphor, lawmakers like Murray along with the majority of her Democratic colleagues are the fun aunts and uncles who have piled the shopping cart high with longtime progressive priorities. The stingy parents are Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, centrist Democrats who balked at the bills original price tag and forced Biden to tell lawmakers on Tuesday they should settle for a total between $1.75 trillion and $1.9 trillion.

Such an investment would still be historic, as Murray told the crowd, both in its total value and its scope. But with half the money they had hoped for, Democrats are scrambling to find ways to cut costs without dismantling the agenda they campaigned on.

I myself mourn the fact that we dont have the $3.5 (trillion), but even half of that is bigger than anything weve done before, and it would be a good first step, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told the crowd before Murray spoke, repeating those last words slowly and deliberately: A good first step.

Despite what Murray told the crowd, even the $3.5 trillion proposal would not make the revamped child tax credit permanent. That credit, part of the pandemic relief bill Democrats passed in March over universal GOP opposition, has sent families monthly payments of $250 to $300 per child since July.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Democrat whose district stretches from the Seattle suburbs to the Canadian border, has been one of the leading advocates of making those payments a long-term piece of the U.S. social safety net. But even DelBene has only pushed for the program to be extended through 2025, when the previous version of the child tax credit was already set to expire.

Now, after lengthy meetings with Biden on Tuesday, Democrats are reportedly considering extending the child tax credit for just one or two years to cut costs. But DelBene said Wednesday she was still pushing for an extension through 2025.

I still think the right strategy is to focus on making sure we do things well, and a policy like the child tax credit which is already a proven policy, having an impact on families right away its so important for us to give long-term visibility, she said. So Im going to keep pushing for that.

The Internal Revenue Service estimates the new child tax credit reaches nearly 90% of American kids, and a Columbia University analysis found the first two months of payments lifted 3.5 million children out of poverty.

The tax credit is also one of the most costly components of the Democrats agenda, and Manchin has proposed cutting its cost by adding a work requirement and making it available only to families earning up to about $60,000 a year, Axios reported Sunday. That idea prompted pushback from DelBene and other proponents of the current credit, who warned that Manchins proposal would exclude many families, including those where grandparents care for children but dont work.

An analysis by the Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank, found that under Manchins proposed $60,000 income cap, 70% of children in Washington and 65% in Idaho would stop receiving the monthly payments.

DelBene, who met with Biden on Tuesday, said the next day the meeting was incredibly productive and she had strongly opposed restricting who is eligible for the child tax credit.

I think the president also understands how important it is to make sure the benefits are available broadly for middle-class families and low-income families, she said. That continues to be a push, and well continue to fight efforts to put further restrictions on the accessibility of the tax credit.

Democrats have also sought to include major immigration reform in the bill, but the Senate parliamentarian a nonpartisan legislative referee ruled in September that such a provision couldnt be passed through the process Democrats are using, known as budget reconciliation, which applies only to legislation that affects the federal budget.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., told Axios on Wednesday his party was still trying to find a way to give legal status to the more than 10 million unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. without a pathway to citizenship, but the parliamentarian could block that effort as well.

The problem with short-term funding, critics point out, is that while the Democrats legislation aims to raise revenue over a 10-year period, funding programs for only a few years with the goal of extending them later effectively hides their true cost.

These proposals dont actually shrink the package; they just shorten it, Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget a nonpartisan watchdog group said in a statement.

Relying on these gimmicks and games doesnt make sense. The most ardent supporters of these policies should reject a framework that puts their long-term fate in jeopardy to make room for lower priorities. And advocates of fiscal responsibility should reject it because it will create immense pressure for further borrowing.

Other provisions of the Democrats legislation, dubbed the Build Back Better Act, also appear likely to receive only short-term funding, and some may be jettisoned altogether. A proposal to make community college tuition free for two years, for instance, may be replaced by a narrower scholarship program.

Republicans universally oppose the Democrats legislation, which would partially roll back some of the tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy they passed in 2017, using the same budget reconciliation process to bypass a Democratic veto. It remains unclear if Democrats being forced to curtail their spending aspirations will take any wind out of GOP sails, as Republicans have so far focused their criticism on the total cost of the Democratic proposals.

Democrats say they aim to agree on a framework for their legislation on Friday and could pass the bill by the end of October. With the GOP united in opposition, nearly all House Democrats and all 50 of their Senate counterparts including Manchin and Sinema would need to vote for the bill.

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Forced to downsize their agenda, Democrats make final push for priorities and spin scaled-back bill as 'good first step' - The Spokesman Review

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These are the 7 Best Kindness Activities for Kids that will Help You Reinforce the Golden Rule with Your Children – FM100.3

Posted: at 11:38 am

Work with your kids to make positive impacts. Here are 7 fun and interactive kindness activities for kids to help encourage the Golden Rule By Eric Openshaw on October 18, 2021

Photo: Adobe Stock

This article about kindness activities for kids is sponsored by The Golden Rule Project.

How much do you practice the Golden Rule in your everyday life? With politics, social media, and the current state of the world, you might have forgotten to practice the Golden Rule as much as you should. The Golden Rule, or treating others the way you would like to be treated, is a fundamental principle that can really help your happiness and happiness in the lives of the people around you. Especially your kids. Thats why you should start working with your kids early to make positive impacts on the people around them. Here are 7 fun and interactive kindness activities for kids to help boost the Golden Rule in your kids lives.

Teamwork is essential to being able to practice the Golden Rule. Being able to practice those skills in games that are entertaining is a real bonus! Unicefs Kid Power released a great list of team-building games that includes everything from tag with a twist to freeze dance.

Volunteering at places like The Humane Society of Utah or Best Friends Animal Society are great places to start. Volunteering at an animal shelter can show kids how to be empathetic and it can boost their kindness. After all, who can be mad when the animals you are helping out are soooo cute!

Getting out and being active is great for you and your familys health and well-being. but being able to help contribute to a great cause will help you and your kids feel good all around. Make sure to discuss what kinds of charitable causes are important to you and your family and check out current and future fun runs in Utah here.

The ability to make and keep friends can be beneficial for your childs entire life. So start them off with a few new classics and old favorites from the list that PBS Kids put together. This list has books for all different ages and youre bound to find something that will speak to you and your children!

The Golden Rule Project is helping people remember and practice the Golden Rule. All of us need to be reminded how important it is to treat others the way we want to be treated. By practicing acts of kindness and compassion, and being more empathic to those around us, we activate our hearts, elevate our lives, and strengthen our communities.

This year to support October National Bullying Prevention Month, The Golden Rule Project partnered with R. Harold Burton Foundation, Spy Hop Productions,Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Salt Lake, and Phillips Gallery, to launch the project Build A PSA. Its a multi-media initiative where kids can share their opinions on how to disarm bullying using their interpretation of the Golden Rule.

You can learn more about the Golden Rule Project and find out how you can volunteer with them at goldenruleproject.org.

Donating old clothing and toys is a great way to teach your kids empathy for the people in your community. Plus, it boosts their money and possession management skills early on. Helping others and contributing to something outside of themselves will teach kids how to become respectable adults. Overall, it can help give them a bigger sense of purpose.

This is the easiest activity out of all of them on this list. Setting a good example for your children in your day-to-day life is so important in encouraging your kids to be kind. Just telling them to be kind wont have the same impact. You can be an incredible role model for your children. And your children will learn from your good example.

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These are the 7 Best Kindness Activities for Kids that will Help You Reinforce the Golden Rule with Your Children - FM100.3

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PAPER PULPIT: Eleven words of love that have changed the world – Gadsden Times

Posted: at 11:38 am

Peter Gregerson| Special to The Times

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (II Peter 3:9)

So it is God's desire that everyone should be saved. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:17) Again, Jesus said about His first coming: "I did not come to judge the world but to save the world." (John 12:47)

God did not send his son to fail. He will accomplish His mission to "save the world" whatever the term "the world" means to God. In scripture, "all" and "the world" mean, at the very least, many will be saved. (John 12:32, I Timothy 2:4)

Jesus unlocks history and gives us insight as to the time required for the Kingdom of God to accomplish its life-saving work. (Luke 13:18-21)

Jesus asked, "What is the Kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches." And again He said, "To what shall I liken the Kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all harvested."

Jesus indicated a long time period when he describes a tiny mustard seed slowly growing into a great tree, the Bible symbol of a populous, world-dominating nation which provided security for national groups (birds) in its branches. Compare with Egypt or Babylon as great world powers. (Daniel 4:10, 22; Ezekiel 31:2-6)

The second parable also tells why it takes so long. A woman inserted a tiny bit of yeast into a large glob of bread dough. This is a very slow process, but it changes the very character of the bread, from hard to soft. The key: "till it was all leavened." A slow process.

But is that true? Has the Kingdom of God very slowly changed the world of mankind? Many great historians testify that Christianity has changed the world.

Listen to H.G. Wells: "Jesus is easily the most dominant figure in history. A historian without any theological bias whatever should find that he cannot portray the progress of humanity honestly without giving a foremost place to a penniless teacher from Nazareth."

And what was the main idea from Jesus which is slowly changing the conscience of mankind? It is love of God and love of others.

This way of loving God and of loving and treating others was taught by Jesus to be "the greatest of all the commandments" given by God; "no commandment is greater," and it's the way to eternal life. (Matthew 22:36-39; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-28)

Jesus put this love into 11 unforgettable words: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Those 11 words of love have changed the world like yeast spreading in bread dough.

Look at the historical record of slavery and oppression of all kinds, economic and racial. Look at the world of women and girls. The world of babies, of workers, of the poor and the sick, of the mentally challenged or mentally ill, of the hungry and on and on. Yes, the glob of mankind is being slowly leavened by the yeast: the Kingdom of God.

Stop and imagine this world without Christianity!

Will you assist Jesus in his kingdom work? You will find a life of purpose, meaning and of personal happiness for yourself as we try -- with God's help -- to live by Christ's Golden Rule of Love.

And, He will return soon. Expect him!

Peter Gregerson is a lifelong student of the Bible and is a retired local businessman.

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PAPER PULPIT: Eleven words of love that have changed the world - Gadsden Times

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Can You Ask Your Co-Worker If They Are Vaccinated? – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 11:38 am

Halfpoint / iStock.com

As companies roll out a return to the office, many of us will be working in close quarters with colleagues once again. Depending on applicable mandates, it may not be a given that your co-workers will all be vaccinated and if this is the case, can you ask if they are?

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A recent LinkedIn survey found that many professionals will ask their colleagues about their vaccination status 28% say theyll ask everyone they work closely with and 24% say theyll ask when they feel its necessary. That percentage is even greater among those with children at home under the age of 18 33% of parents say theyll ask everyone they work with.

But is this question OK to ask? Or does it cross a professional boundary?

Yes or No? Do You Always Have To Pitch In for an Event or Gift at Work?

According to etiquette expert Joy Weaver, you should use your best judgment before asking a co-worker about their vaccination status.

While there are no etiquette rules on this very touchy topic, we must stick to the golden rule as we should in all difficult situations, and ask ourselves, How would I want to be treated?' she said. After all, half of the population wants to know if their co-worker has received the vaccine, while the other half does not care to know even if they have been vaccinated themselves.

If you do decide to ask a co-worker about their vaccination status, be sure to approach the subject in a way that seems objective and free of any judgment.

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Instead of individually asking co-workers if they are vaccinated, consider talking to an HR professional at your company about your concerns.

My advice is to take any concerns you may have to your human resources department and let them handle questions regarding your co-workers vaccination status, Weaver said. They should be prepared and well equipped at this point to answer ongoing questions from a legal standpoint that is not based on their opinion or yours.

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Can the EU fiscal rules jump on the green bandwagon? | View – Euronews

Posted: at 11:38 am

The economy of the European Union is emerging from the worst recession since World War II and growth forecasts have been revised upwards for 2021 and 2022. As the economy recovers, the strategy for withdrawing the massive fiscal support injected during the pandemic will be crucial to ensure sustainable public finances.

For this reason, the European Commission has now kicked off the review of the blocs rules, which have so far compelled member states to keep their public deficit under 3% and debt under 60% of GDP. Should they stay the same?

One important aspect of the consultation concerns the investment needs. The Commission is already warning that substantial investments in digital and green infrastructure, as well as regulatory and tax measures, will be needed to meet the blocs medium- and long-term objectives.

Just the goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% before the end of the decade will demand 520 billion annually in extra contributions compared to the numbers seen in the previous decade , with 390 billion for the transport and energy sectors alone, Brussels says.

A significant portion of this fresh expenditure will have to be financed by the public sector, with the public-private sector ratio estimated to be 1 for every 4 in private capital. Given that some of the investments required are public goods, government spending must be increased by around 100 billion per year. This means a great effort waiting to be bankrolled.

The main political challenge for European finance ministries in the coming years will be to decrease deficits while simultaneously increasing green investment. In the midst of the euro crisis, budget consolidation in the EU took place very quickly, prompting a new recession in 2012. Most countries chose to embrace austerity policies and cut down public expenses. This scenario must be avoided in the post-Covid years.

However, a general relaxation of fiscal rules like Madrid, Rome and Paris are pushing for would not provide direct incentives to boost green investment and it would instead risk excessive deficits in good times. It is therefore not a suitable approach to pursue a far-reaching reform of the current rules. But, on the other hand, if member states agree to exempt their green projects from the deficit requirements, they would create incentives to keep money flowing into environmental action over the coming decade, even during the consolidation phase.

This is why I believe the EU should put in place a green fiscal pact based on a green golden rule that would exclude net public contributions in climate protection from deficit and debt calculations under the new fiscal rules. Without the possibility of deficit financing, the EU will not achieve its goal of carbon neutrality. Due to political and economic constraints, budget consolidation would come at the expense of investments.

Still, I do advise against a general relaxation of fiscal rules: debt sustainability concerns need to be taken seriously and global warming in itself may reduce growth.

While the idea of exempting investments from deficits has been rejected in the past, there are now good reasons to justify deficit financing for environmental projects. The restructuring of the energy system and the transport infrastructure is a huge effort, which, in view of the political and economic constraints, simply cannot be financed from current budgets. The need for injecting money into the climate transition is so colossal that it inevitably acquires a macroeconomic dimension.

The key to a successful green golden rule lies in a clear system that determines and controls what is actual green investment and what is just greenwashing. This requires careful definitions and institutional oversight. By and large, setting a new green golden rule would be a useful addition to the existing EU fiscal framework.

Guntram Wolff is a German economist and current director of Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

This article is part of The Briefing, Euronews' weekly political newsletter. Click here to subscribe.

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James Garner: Being a Good Husband and Father Meant Everything to Him, Says Daughter of Late Actor – Closer Weekly

Posted: at 11:38 am

On his day off in London, James Garner tried to take his young daughter sightseeing. Greta Gigi Garner recalls arriving at the famed Tower of London with her father, who was in England filming a movie. We got out of the car, and we got mobbed, Gigi tells Closer. I think thats when it dawned on me that there was something different about my dad.

The witty, beloved actor starred in some 50 films, was nominated for an Oscar and brought TV underdog heroes Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford to life on the small screen but disliked the trappings of stardom. He and his wife, Lois, raised their family quietly, out of the spotlight, in Brentwood, Calif., when it was still considered a rural outpost of Los Angeles. I absolutely hate publicity, James once said. Id rather dig a ditch than do an interview.

The Oklahoma-born star admitted he got into show business on a whim. Though hed done some modeling in high school, James didnt truly consider acting until he knocked on the door of a talent agent hed met some time before while pumping gas. Cast in a nonspeaking role in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, which eventually landed on Broadway, he had a chance to study the plays leading man, Henry Fonda, up close. I swiped practically all my acting style from him, James said.

Henry would become a lifelong pal, but James, who confessed that he suffered from stage fright, didnt continue in live theater. Instead, he moved into films, including 1957s Sayonara with Marlon Brando, and, more important, television, where he brought poker player Bret Maverick to life from 1957 to 1960 and donned the tatty sport coat of Jim Rockford from 1974 to 1980. If you look at Maverick and Rockford, theyre pretty much the same guy, he wrote in his 2011 memoir The Garner Files. One is a gambler and the other a detective, but their attitudes are identical.

James met his future wife, Lois Clarke, in 1956 at an event for presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. It was love at first sight, said James, who proposed marriage two weeks later. They wed over his familys objections Lois was raised Jewish, James was Methodist and the actor adopted her daughter, Kimberly. Two years later, their daughter Gigi was born. I really hit the jackpot with my dad, she confides. He was the type of father that got down on the floor and played with you. He was very present. The greatest father in the world.

Being a good father and husband meant everything to James, whose own dad had been an alcoholic who married several times. One of James stepmothers, Red, seemed to take pleasure in belittling and beating James and his two brothers. People that had abusive childhoods like my dad often continue the cycle, notes Gigi, an artist and philanthropist. My dad stopped the cycle, and he tried to give us everything that he never had.

James found satisfaction at home with his family. He was a homebody. He was very happy being home with us, watching sports and hanging with the dogs, Gigi says. I think if he wasnt an actor, he probably would have been a sports announcer because he knew sports so well.

Yet James troubled upbringing left him prone to bouts of depression and anxiety. He was something when he got angry, but he would never take it out on anyone except himself, Maverick director Leslie H. Martinson once said. Hed turn around and very quietly haul off and slam his fist into the wall or a board. Typical of his generation of men, James tried not to bring his troubles home. He didnt walk around complaining, Gigi says. He handled things quietly.

But the grind of television gave James ulcers, and he suffered injuries doing his own stunts. During the 1971 TV season, when he starred on Nichols, he and Lois separated for a period. They reunited but separated again when the pressure and hoopla surrounding The Rockford Files became too much for him. The reason my wife and I are separated is that I was so physically and mentally exhausted from work that I said I had to take a sabbatical, James said. I needed a hiatusand my wife understood that.

The Rockford Files brought James his biggest TV success, but he paid a high price for all the punch-outs and high-speed car chases his private eye got into each week. James suffered back issues and endured several knee operations while starring on the show. He had to stop doing The Rockford Files just because he was so beat up. He physically couldnt do it anymore, says Gigi. He used to say, If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.'

James continued to work into his later years. A whole new generation fell in love with him in 2004s romance The Notebook. He also returned to television in comedies like 8 Simple Rules (2002).

In 2014, he died away at his Brentwood home at age 86 after a heart attack. My father was an all-around good guy and a big animal lover, says Gigi, who founded the James Garner Animal Rescue Fund (jgarf .org) in his honor. He was just a genuine person who lived by the Golden Rule. You just dont get people like that nowadays.

More here:

James Garner: Being a Good Husband and Father Meant Everything to Him, Says Daughter of Late Actor - Closer Weekly

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EU summit: Poland told to ‘respect the rules’ of the club in rule-of-law row – Sky News

Posted: at 11:38 am

The argument now distracting and dominating the European Union is an unequal battle with the potential for far-reaching consequences.

On one side is Poland, enthusiastically supported by Hungary, and determined to prove that one of the fundamental tenets of European solidarity isn't so fundamental after all.

On the other side is, well, just about everyone else. Some of them pressing for a conciliatory "let's not be too harsh" debate; others wanting to go in hard.

The cause of all this anger is one of those bits of domestic news that sounds dry but has explosive potential.

In short, the country's top court, acting on a request from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, declared that, in some areas, the national constitution took precedence over European law.

And that has set great, big alarm bells ringing. Because the golden rule of EU Club is that EU Club laws always come first. They must take primacy, to coin a phrase that has popped up a lot over the past few days.

"If you want to have the advantages of being in a club, then you need to respect the rules," Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said. "You can't be a member of a club and say 'the rules don't apply to me'."

The Polish Prime Minister does not agree, accusing the EU of "blackmail" because of suggestions that Poland could now face sanctions. He said his country was "ready for dialogue" but refused to distance himself from the controversial court ruling.

There is no mechanism for throwing Poland out of the EU (not that anybody would want to go anywhere near that far) and, realistically, Poland has no desire to leave, either. So instead, the question is whether the EU wants to levy a punishment.

That could mean withholding financial payments, for instance, or curtailing the country's rights as a member state.

It wouldn't be unprecedented - Poland is already facing daily fines of half a million Euros for continuing to extract lignite from a mine near the border with the Czech Republic in defiance of a court order. There is a suspicion that Mr Morawiecki is rather relishing his battle with Brussels.

But he is not alone. Viktor Orban, the populist prime minister of Hungary, has repeatedly infuriated the EU with his own policies. Here, he came to town ready to leap to Poland's defence.

"Poland - the best country in Europe - there's no need to have any sanctions," he said.

"We are not building fronts here, we are fighting for issues which are important for our own nations. So we make an alliance and fight together - this is the logic we are doing here. It's not like the cold war or something like that, creating blocs."

So, I asked Mr Orban, did he agree - did he think that Hungarian law held primacy over EU law?

He smiled. In fact, he almost laughed. "The fact is very clear that the primacy of EU law is not in the treaty at all. So the EU has primacy where it has competences. The question is about the competences.

"What's going on here is that - regularly - European Institutions circumvent the rights of the national parliament and government and modify the treaty without having any legitimate authority to do so. So the Polish are right."

He told me there was no schism between the east and west of Europe, but rather "between common sense and non-common sense". With a shrug, he declared that the idea of levying sanctions against Poland was "ridiculous".

So we are heading for a proper row. Is it worth it - the EU going into a political battle with one of its own members? It's a question I put to the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte.

"I think we have to be tough but I think the question is how do you get there," he told me. "My argument will be that the independence of the Polish judiciary is the key issue which we have to discuss and we have to settle.

"Poland has to take the necessary steps - that is non-negotiable. This has to do with the foundations of our democracy in this part of the world. So here we cannot negotiate."

Of course, the EU has plenty of form at creating a crisis, only to then come up with a way to solve it. But this doesn't feel stage-managed. It feels awkward and painful - the Germans, for instance, don't seem to want to interfere, but nor do they want to be seen as too passive.

But Poland has popped up repeatedly in recent missives from Brussels. Its border with Belarus has been the site for migrants being pushed towards Europe by President Lukashenko, only to be stopped in their tracks by the Polish police.

Its rules on LGBTQ+ rights have been widely criticised, as have the country's laws on equality.

And, just like Mr Orban, Poland's prime minister seems to see political capital in having a row with other EU leaders (especially ones from the west) while retaining the financial advantages of EU membership.

So this won't end with Poland leaving, or being dismissed from the club. But we may be heading for an almighty row, that leads to we don't know where.

ISSUES OF FAITH: Teaching our children through our actions – Peninsula Daily News

Posted: at 11:38 am

Jews regularly recite a prayer called the Vahavtah, which comes from Deuteronomy and Numbers. The word Vahavtah means and you shall love, and it entreats us to love God with all our heart and soul and with all our might. It goes on to teach us how we can embody these principles in our lives.

Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Teach them to your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house Thus you shall remember to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God.

This prayer shows us that we must follow these moral guidelines no matter where we are or what we are doing. And we must teach our children that this is how to live life in a caring and compassionate way.

Rabbi Sidney Greenberg in his book, Words to Live By, asks us to consider if a stranger saw us or our children in our everyday activities, would they be able to tell from our actions that we were living with morally upright choices? He encourages us to always act as if someone were watching over our shoulder.

In the last few months, we have seen distressing situations in which people have been treating others in callous, hurtful and threatening ways, not caring that they are doing so in full public view. It seems to have become acceptable to threaten violence against someone simply because of a disagreement in viewpoints. Teachers, election workers, politicians, journalists and even health care workers are all receiving threats of violence, even death, to themselves and their families.

When people are being assaulted and harassed, and the media reports it day after day, one cannot help but think of our children who are watching and the commandment in the Vavatah that you shall teach it to your children.

What lesson are people teaching when they follow parents who are walking their small children to school and scream in their faces that wearing masks is equal to rape? Seeing those terrified children in tears and parents trying to shield them from such vitriol was heartbreaking.

In another incident, older students waiting to enter their school were told by adults, Just go in. They cant do anything to you if you dont wear a mask.

The faces of those kids were filled with confusion as their parents told them to ignore the schools rules. What should they do? Listen to their parents or follow the rules of masking which will protect them? What a difficult burden to put on their young shoulders.

School board meetings have become so contentious over mask mandates that the National School Board Association has requested help from the federal government to deal with threats and actual violence erupting all across the country

Apparently, none of the people openly encouraging and perpetrating such harassment and violence seem to care that our children are watching. They arent concerned about what others might think of their behavior. Rabbi Greenbergs admonition that they should worry about how others might see their actions doesnt seem to register. Their lack of concern for our children is tragic.

We must begin to change the narrative in our culture so that disagreements are just that a back and forth of differing ideas and that compromise is not a weakness. Remember that our children learn more when they watch what we do than what we say. If adults preach compassion and kindness but then treat others in a disrespectful and cruel manner, that is the lesson the children will learn.

All faith traditions have a version of the Golden Rule at their foundation. Treating others as we wish to be treated and teaching our children the importance of that principle can do so much to heal our world. When we respond to others with love and respect rather than anger, we pave the way to reconciliation. Anger is destructive to our very souls.

The Talmud teaches, One who does not lose control of his temper is a beloved of God.

May we learn to recognize that everyone is imbued with a holy spark, created in the divine image and treat them accordingly.

Repairing our world begins with us. Our children are watching.

Kein yehi ratzon may it be Gods will.

_________

Issues of Faith is a rotating column by five religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Suzanne DeBey is a lay leader of the Port Angeles Jewish community. Her email is [emailprotected].

See more here:

ISSUES OF FAITH: Teaching our children through our actions - Peninsula Daily News

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Daily Archives: October 24, 2021

Why Democrats Medicare and health care bill ideas are shrinking and drug prices may not – Vox.com

Drug pricing talks heat up as Democrats work to win over skeptics – STAT – STAT

Forced to downsize their agenda, Democrats make final push for priorities and spin scaled-back bill as ‘good first step’ – The Spokesman Review

These are the 7 Best Kindness Activities for Kids that will Help You Reinforce the Golden Rule with Your Children – FM100.3

PAPER PULPIT: Eleven words of love that have changed the world – Gadsden Times

Can You Ask Your Co-Worker If They Are Vaccinated? – Yahoo Finance

Can the EU fiscal rules jump on the green bandwagon? | View – Euronews

James Garner: Being a Good Husband and Father Meant Everything to Him, Says Daughter of Late Actor – Closer Weekly

EU summit: Poland told to ‘respect the rules’ of the club in rule-of-law row – Sky News

ISSUES OF FAITH: Teaching our children through our actions – Peninsula Daily News

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