EVENTS
The Walz campaign calendar lists a host of traditional DFL fall events: bean feeds, forums, spaghetti feeds. There's a doorknock this Saturday in Rochester beginning at 10 a.m. for those who might want to get out and campaign.
An additional event has been brought to our attention by the Dodge County DFL:
Wanted to let you know that there will be a Hog Roast fundraiser for Tim Walz on September 29th, 2006. The event is being hosted by Diane O'Brien Berge on her ranch in rural Dodge County (Vernon Township). There will be all sort of entertainment, music, a laser shoot and of course great food. Suggested donation is $20 (more if you can....less if you can't). The event begins at 5:30 p.m.
ACTBLUE UPDATE
As of 6 a.m. this morning, Tim Walz has received $9,672.20 in contributions by merit of being an ActBlue Netroots Candidate. Isn't it time you went to ActBlue and put him over $10,000?
MINNESOTA CENTRAL: GUTKNECHT HEALTH CARE PART II
Once more, Minnesota Central shows his chops by taking a close look at Gil Gutknecht's health care proposals. Wednesday's post looked at Medical Liability Reform and Medicare Part B.
Highlights--Malpractice Reform:
But what is the impact of the malpractice issue on the cost of total health care system ?
According to a Congressional Budget Office report “Malpractice costs amounted to an estimated $24 billion in 2002, but that figure represents less than 2 percent of overall health care spending. Thus, even a reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small.”
Medicare Plan B:
Whoa ! Yes, Congressman Gutknecht voted against this, but now is encouraging people to use it.
Here’s an analogy … the doctor warns you of obesity and then invites you to his patient appreciation event where he serves cake and cookies.
[snip]
. . .the law does not allow any price negotiations by the Federal government. Gutknecht['s] eline points out the price discrepancies between US and Foreign prices on a select group of drugs as a reason to allow importation. But couldn’t the same be accomplished by aggressive negotiations. The Veterans Administration has successfully done this. But there is legislation pending in Congress that would accomplish this – H.R. 376 which has 167 co-sponsors including Gutknecht. It was introduced on January 26, 2005 but is being held up by the Republican leadership. There is a discharge petition in process to force action – sadly, [neither] Gutknecht nor any other Minnesota Republican Congressman has signed it … but Democrats McCollum, Oberstar, and Sabo have. So why would you c-sponsor the bill, but not move it along ? Another example, illustrating that the Republicans are good talkers, but are operating a DoNothing Congress that advocates legislation they know we want, but stonewall[s] it from passage.
Go read it all.
THE CURSE OF THE WORKING CLASS
We go off to work and by the time we're free, MnPublius, North Star Politics and The Wege have had all the fun. Those people in the Cities have too much time on their hands. We have an email into the Walz campaign for more information.
How do you know the sun rises in the East?
I'd check that out but I'm too old to stay up that late.
Posted by: Mark Gisleson | September 07, 2006 at 01:30 PM