ccdem.org - Coconino County Democrats

Moving America Forward

This election offers a choice. Democrats are fighting to repair a decade of damage and
grow an economy based on hard work and responsibility. Their “Made in America”
economic plan creates jobs here at home by investing in America’s small businesses,
America’s clean-energy industry, and America’s middle class.

Republicans have tried to block progress at every turn and take us back to the same
failed Bush economic policies that caused the crisis, created record deficits, and led to
the loss of 8 million jobs. Republicans want to lavish tax breaks on special interests and
give them free rein to write their own rules at our expense.

DEMOCRATS: MOVING US FORWARD
• Tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses.
• Fighting to help small-business owners create half a million jobs.
• Working to create 700,000 clean-energy jobs that can’t be outsourced and holding BP and big oil accountable.
• Fighting to protect and preserve Social Security and Medicare.
• Fought to protect consumers and end the reckless gambling on Wall Street that cost one in 10 Americans their jobs.
• Ending abusive insurance company practices and closing the prescription drug donut hole to protect seniors’ incomes.
• Making college affordable and accessible to all.

REPUBLICANS: TAKING US BACK
• Protecting tax breaks for CEOs who ship American jobs overseas.
• More Bush tax cuts for the rich and big corporations.
• Fighting to kill half a million small-business jobs and send more jobs overseas.
• Fighting to kill 700,000 clean-energy jobs and let BP off the hook, sticking taxpayers with the tab.
• Fighting to privatize Social Security and end Medicare as we know it.
• Fought to allow Wall Street to continue gambling with our homes, jobs, and economic security.
• Fighting to protect insurance company profits and keep seniors’ prescription drug prices high.
• Preparing to return to the “exact same agenda” as pursued by President Bush.
 

By the People Fund

$200 million.

That's what Republican-aligned special interests have pledged to spend on the 2010 election. Just to put that in context, that's nearly $40 million more than every interest group spent on the 2008 presidential election -- combined.

When our administration and this movement decided to take on the special interests, we knew we were making a choice. And the consequences are clear. These groups have fought us at every turn in our struggle for change, and now they're trying to drown out our voices -- and our accomplishments -- with their campaign cash this fall.

We're not going to sit back and let that happen. Today, Organizing for America is announcing the By the People Fund with the goal of getting 3 million citizen donations to fuel our grassroots campaign for the upcoming election.

Please donate $5 today and help us take back this election from the corporate interests.

With our By the People Fund, we're going to make a statement this fall -- strengthening our grassroots efforts on the ground, focusing on getting first-time voters from 2008 back to the polls this year, and holding the Republicans and their special-interest allies accountable.

We've all gone to the mat with these folks time and again -- ever since Barack and I took office. And, from the Recovery Act to historic health reform to Wall Street reform, you helped prove we could win those fights.

Now these groups have one goal in mind when it comes to November 2nd -- erasing the progress we've made together.

By spending an unprecedented amount of cash to support Republicans, they're doing their best to buy their way back into power. And, if they do, they've been clear that they will do everything they can to undo the historic achievements we've fought so hard to win.

It's no wonder that each and every Republican in the Senate on Tuesday voted to allow these special interests to have a greater say in our elections. Their vote will allow these groups to spend millions on campaign ads -- and not have to reveal who's actually behind them.

I've been in politics a long time. I'm used to seeing the good guys outspent by interest groups. But we've never been outnumbered -- and we've never been outhustled.

I'm asking you to make sure it stays that way. Will you chip in and help us grow our By the People Fund?

Please donate $5 or more today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/ByThePeople

Thank you,

Vice President Joe Biden

Arizonans get some relief in wake of Republicans’ massive health care cuts

ARIZONA HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Assistant House Democratic Leader Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix (District 15)

www.azhousedemocrats.com www.strongerarizona.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sarah Muench
July 14, 2010
(602) 926-5848
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Arizonans get some relief in wake of Republicans’ massive health care cuts
Preventive health treatments to be easier to access thanks to federal health care law

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – More Arizonans will be able to make routine doctor visits to head off potentially serious conditions thanks to the Obama Administration’s finalization of rules developed after the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

The federal departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury issued new regulations on Wednesday, requiring new private health plans to cover evidence-based preventive services and eliminate cost sharing requirements for such services.

The new rules will help Americans gain easier access to services such as blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol tests; many cancer screenings; routine vaccinations; pre-natal care; and regular wellness visits for infants and children.

“Arizonans this year were hit the hardest when Republicans and Gov. Jan Brewer kicked 400,000 kids, adults and seniors off of health care and voted to be the only state in the nation to eliminate health care for children,” said Assistant House Democratic Leader Kyrsten Sinema, a member of the White House Health Reform Task Force. "I am pleased with the new rules, which will allow women to get the mammograms they need to prevent breast cancer, kids to be immunized and our state to reduce costs all at the same time.”

After Brewer and Republicans made massive cuts to health care this year, Democrats restored health care for children, and the new health care law restored health care for Arizonans.

Preventable and treatable chronic diseases are the leading causes of death in the United States and the leading cost drivers in our health care system. According to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease and stroke, are the first- and third-leading causes of death for both men and women and account for more than one-third of all American deaths. The total cost of heart disease and stroke was estimated to be more than $448 billion in 2008.

“Primary care providers have the tools to help prevent disease, but we are all ultimately responsible for lowering the costs of health care in this nation,” Sinema said. “By kicking hundreds of kids, adults and seniors off of health care, Brewer and Republicans only keep pushing Arizona down the wrong track and drive up our deficit.”
Under the regulations issued Wednesday, new health plans beginning on or after September 23, 2010, must cover preventive services that have strong scientific evidence of their health benefits, and these plans may no longer charge a patient a copayment, coinsurance or deductible for these services when they are delivered by a network provider. Specifically, these recommendations include:

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Affordable Care Act

Talking Points: Implementing the Affordable Care Act

Three months ago this week, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. As a result of that law, families and small businesses across the country will be able to save money by purchasing health care more affordably; our national long-term structural deficit will be reduced; millions of uninsured Americans will finally be able to get the coverage and the care they need; and all Americans can count on more stability and greater control of their health care decisions as a result of new consumer protections.While the law will not be fully implemented for a few years, many of the benefits of reform are already coming to Americans. For example:

• Last month, four million small business owners across the country were notified about their potential eligibility this year for a health care tax cut worth tens of thousands of dollars that could help them to cover the cost of insurance for their employees.
• This month, tens of thousands of eligible seniors began receiving $250 rebate checks from the federal government to help them purchase prescription medications that fall within the Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage gap known as the donut hole. By the end of the year, it is estimated that 4 million seniors will receive such checks. And by 2020, the Affordable Care Act will close the donut hole entirely.
• Beginning this year, young adults without insurance of their own will be able to remain on their parents’ health insurance through age 26. Health insurance companies are required to make that change by September, but many have already done so, helping young Americans across the country to avoid a costly coverage gap.
• And this July 1st, uninsured Americans with a preexisting condition will gain the ability to enroll in a new, national insurance pool where they can purchase quality, affordable health care – perhaps for the first time in their life.

In addition, the President today announced that, under the Affordable Care Act, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury will be issuing new regulations that will end some of the worst practices of the insurance industry and put in place the strongest consumer protections in history. As a result, every American will finally be able to count on a real Patient’s Bill of Rights.

That Bill of Rights is long overdue, and it is a victory for every American. It is not intended to punish insurance companies, but will instead establish basic rules that will make the American health care system more consumer-friendly and cost-effective, finally enabling every American to rest easy in the knowledge that their health insurance will be there when they need it.

In particular, beginning this December, some of the insurance industry’s most abusive practices will be brought to a timely end. Specifically:

• Insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate against children with preexisting conditions or deny them coverage.
• Insurance will no longer be able to rescind an individual’s coverage when they get sick, even if they made an unintentional mistake on their insurance application.
• Insurance companies will no longer be able to cap lifetime coverage or establish restrictive annual limits.
• And the barriers that currently exist between the American people and their doctors will be torn down – Americans will be able to keep the primary care doctor or pediatrician they choose.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of President Obama and Democrats in Congress to ensure Americans have stability, security, and access to care, the Republican Party still opposes any change to the status quo. They want to repeal health insurance reform and return America to the broken system we had before.

The President refuses to let that happen. He won’t let America go back to a system that allowed insurance companies to discriminate against sick children; to strip away individuals’ coverage when they got sick; and to place lifetime limits on health care, preventing Americans from getting care when they needed it most. He will do everything in his power to protect Americans’ new, hard-won health care rights.

The Obama administration has launched a new healthcare website!

Newsletter and Website Events Guidelines

1. Priority will be given to Coconino County Democratic Party (CCDP) news. Newsletters are generally mailed on Mondays, but may be sent as early as Sunday evening or as late as Tuesday.
2. Items for the newsletter or events calendar should be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with reasonable advance notice, preferably by 5pm on the Friday prior to the event. Although we will attempt to post late notices, this may not always be possible. On rare occasions and for good cause, a separate mailing will be considered.
3. Events that are of a general interest will be added to our website in the events category. These include public meetings, town hall meetings and forums, events for elected officials that are open to the public, and events in which all Democratic candidates running for the same office have been given an opportunity to speak. These events will be posted once in their entirety in the newsletter, generally with a link to the event calendar. At the discretion of the CCDP, subsequent postings in the newsletter are likely to be links to the website.
4. All Democratic candidates have the same opportunity to have events posted on the CCDP calendar. Events for a specific candidate will be added to the website in the events category. These events will no longer be printed in their entirety in the newsletter unless the candidate is running unopposed, and then only at the discretion of the CCDP. They may, however, be listed in the newsletter with links to our website events calendar.
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