GOP Mitt Romney Lies And Fake Facts

Lee A. Saunders

President, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once famously told an opponent in a debate: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." I was reminded of that last Thursday when former corporate raider Mitt Romney, who made millions out-sourcing American jobs to foreign countries, expressed his opinion on the Supreme Court's decision upholding Obamacare. In just one paragraph of his speech, Romney made six claims that bear no relation to the real world. He created "fake-facts" about health care reform and totally distorted the law's real impact.

 This is an old Karl Rove campaign tactic -- make things up -- on steroids. It needs to be exposed. 1. Romney said Obamacare "cuts Medicare, by approximately $500 billion." This claim is meant to scare seniors, but it is simply false. PolitiFact.com has this to say about this bogus claim: "The bill doesn't take money out of the current Medicare budget but, rather, attempts to slow the program's future growth, curtailing just over $500 billion in anticipated spending increases over the next 10 years."

 Those savings come from a variety of administrative changes and things like requiring Medicare Advantage plans to reduce their inflated costs. The law makes no cuts to guaranteed Medicare benefits. In fact, it increases Medicare benefits by improving the prescription drug benefit and by making cancer screenings and other preventive services available without a co-pay. 2. Romney said Obamacare "raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion." False.

In fact, families across the nation will save money as a result of the Obamacare reforms, such as state-based exchanges that come online in 2014. Families who purchase private health insurance through these exchanges will save up to $2,300 each year on their health care spending. Millions of Americans already see real savings as their out-of-pocket costs go down to zero for preventive care like flu shots or cancer screenings. 3. Romney says Obamacare "adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt." False. In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that Obamacare will reduce the national deficit by $210 billion over the next 10 years. 4. Romney says Obamacare will force up to 20 million Americans to "lose the insurance they currently have." False. Rather than losing insurance, millions of Americans will get insurance for the first time. CBO and the Joint Economic Committee estimate that the number of people without health insurance coverage will be reduced by 30 million to 33 million by 2016 if the states implement the law as intended. 5. Romney says Obamacare is "a job-killer." False.

It takes a lot of nerve for a politician who has endorsed the job-killing agenda of Paul Ryan and the House Republicans to try to label health care reform as a job-killer. In fact, one recent study suggests that the lower growth in health care costs through Obamacare will create 250,000 to 400,000 thousand new jobs in many industries annually throughout the next decade. 6. Romney says "Obamacare puts the federal government between you and your doctor." False.

Obamacare removes the insurance companies from their position between you and your doctor. Remember, under Obamacare, insurance companies can no longer end your health coverage if you become ill or deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And insurance companies will have to spend 80 percent of the money they take in on health care - not on administrative costs or CEO salaries - and refund the money to their customers if they don't meet the target. Before the end of the summer, 12.8 million Americans will receive rebates because their insurance company spent too much of their premium dollars on administrative costs or CEO bonuses.

What Mitt Romney is doing should be clear to everyone. His campaign has done some polling on what people don't like and they have decided to attribute all those things to Obamacare, even when they bear no relation to reality. These are "fake-facts" designed to make an honest debate impossible. They are an insult to the intelligence of the American people and should be repudiated by any American who recognizes the value of a true debate about real facts. It is clear that Romney and his allies have decided not to discuss Obamacare factually.

They know that if they told the truth about the law, the public would not support their efforts to overturn it. Instead, they are creating a totally false picture of the legislation - they are inventing their own "fake-facts" - and hope to deceive the American public into opposing the far-reaching reforms that Americans have fought so hard to win over the decades.

Pay attention as the campaign goes forward. When you hear Romney and other politicians say these things, tell your friends and coworkers that they are spreading lies. They are out of touch with reality. What they are doing is a disgrace. Don't let them get away with it.

Source Huffington Post

Higgs boson: scientists 99.999% sure 'God Particle' has been found

Scientists believe they have captured the elusive "God particle" that gives matter mass and holds the physical fabric of the universe together.

The historic announcement came in a progress report from the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.

Professor John Womersley, chief executive of the Science and technology Facilities Council, told reporters at a briefing in London: "They have discovered a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.

"Discovery is the important word. That is confirmed. It's a momentous day for science."

Scientists say it is a 5 sigma result which means they are 99.999% sure they have found a new particle.

Finding the Higgs plugs a gaping hole in the Standard Model, the theory that describes all the particles, forces and interactions that make up the universe.

If the particle was shown not to exist, it would have meant tearing up the Standard Model and going back to the drawing board.

The Cern laboratory appeared to have let slip its biggest breakthrough in a generation after appearing to announce the discovery of a new particle in an online video overnight.

In the short film accidentally published by the lab yesterday spokesman Joe Incandela is seen describing how physicists at the Large Hadron Collider had "observed a new particle".

Today scientists gathered in Geneva to announce the findings. Among the audience was Peter Higgs, the Edinburgh professor who first proposed the existence of the mysterious particle almost 50 years ago.

Rumours had been rife that scientists hunting the Higgs were to announce today's finding but the video appeared to confirm the finding of a particle matching its description hours before it was confirmed.

^{It was first theorised in the 1960s by Edinburgh-based physicist Peter Higgs, amongst others, and is credited for giving all other particles mass. But until now, it has proved impossible to pin down (AFP/Getty Images)}

Although their results are said to be strong enough to claim an official discovery, the scientists will avoid doing so because they remain unsure whether the particle they have found is indeed the Higgs.

Cern spokesman James Gillies said the video was one of several filmed to cover every eventuality and did not directly relate to today's announcement.

The Internet has been rife with rumours of a discovery ever since CERN, the European nuclear research facility, announced it would hold a press conference today with the leaders of its two gigantic experiments, ATLAS and CMS.

Sources have told the Telegraph that ATLAS will today announce a 5-sigma signal and CMS will announce a 4.9-sigma signal of a new particle with a mass of 126.5 GigaelectronVolts (GeV) and 125.2 GeV respectively - a result which falls slap bang in the middle of the tough-to-explore region where many physicists were adamant the Higgs was hiding.

The results being announced today definitively point to a new particle or particles which fit the description of a Higgs Boson, but further research will be needed to characterise it properly.

The Higgs boson is the final piece of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, a theoretical model which describes the fundamental particles and forces that control our Universe.

It was first theorised in the 1960s by Edinburgh-based physicist Peter Higgs, amongst others, and is credited for giving all other particles mass. But until now, it has proved impossible to pin down.

To do so, scientists use the LHC to smash together protons at almost the speed of light and scour the debris for traces of particles that sprang into existence for just a fraction of a second before disintegrating.

Sources have told the Telegraph that ATLAS will today announce a 5-sigma signal and CMS will announce a 4.9-sigma signal of a new particle with a mass which matches many physicists' idea of a Higgs Boson.

An ATLAS researcher said there was "no question" the two detectors are seeing the same thing, adding: "A lot of bets are going to be settled up [today]”.

“After so many years preparing and searching, it’s really amazing to see a clear signal emerge,” a CMS Higgs physicist added.

“This is the sort of thing that makes me cry,” said an ATLAS Higgs physicist. “It's the kind of crying that accompanies winning something or being overwhelmed with happiness. Human thought and ingenuity have continually created and discovered, but this outdoes them all."

Source

Republican Lies About Obamacare...

huffington post Linda Bergthold Health policy consultant The US Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Never mind that 41% of the public polled by Kaiser Family Foundation did not even know that the ruling had occurred. In upholding the law, the majority (5-4) of the Court declared that for the ~1% of the population that might object to enrolling in health insurance (i.e. individual mandate), the penalty for not buying insurance would be to pay a "tax" that would be managed by the IRS (without any real enforcement power by the way).

In addition, the Court ruled that states did not have to accept the federal money that would pay for 100% of the expansion of Medicaid programs to people who earned up to 133% of the federal poverty level ($14k a year for an individual). That means that if you are poor and live in a Red State that rejects the federal money, you may be out of luck in terms of finding insurance at a price you can afford.

 The lies and distortions of course began immediately, which is why I am writing this blog -- to set a few things straight. The public, as ignorant of the specifics of the Law as ever, can be forgiven for believing Republicans that this decision is "the biggest tax hike in history." But that is actually an outright lie. Not only does the "penalty/tax" affect very few people -- only those who have no insurance and reject buying it -- in terms of other tax increases, the entire Affordable Care Act increases taxes less than the Reagan tax increase of 1982. Yes, I acknowledge that there are tax increases in the ACA to pay for helping Americans buy health insurance affordably.

Those taxes fall mainly on health care providers like hospitals and device manufacturers, as well as wealthy Americans. Is this ruling then the biggest tax hike in history? You should laugh when you hear that. (Thanks to Ezra Klein of the Washington Post and Austin Frakt of the Incidental Economist for the chart below that you can tell your friends to look at if they don't believe you. And there is also an interesting comment section on Austin's page answering some questions about whether or not premiums are included as a tax. Read here. ) The second biggest lie and distortion is that the Republicans can and will repeal "Obamacare" on DAY ONE if they win the Presidency.

 First, the President has no authority to do that alone. Second, the Republicans would have to win the House and a 60 vote filibuster-proof member Senate, PLUS the Presidency to even consider repealing the ACA. Even the Minority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell admits repeal is unlikely. Despite the fact that the country is pretty evenly split about the ACA, people like the individual elements of the law and it would be tricky for Republicans to be associated with overturning some of the most popular parts of the law (see below and here).

What is clear is that over half of people polled in the days after this decision was delivered last Thursday want politicians and the country to MOVE ON. So what's next, now that the Law has been deemed to be constitutional? The implementation of the ACA is well underway. Some states like California are making great progress in setting up a health insurance exchange for the individuals and small businesses eligible to participate in 2014. Enrollment will start in little over a year.

In the meantime, the Law requires insurance companies to do the following -- eliminate lifetime maximums on what your insurance will pay for your care so you don't go bankrupt, keep you on your insurance if you get sick, cover children with pre-existing conditions, and allow your adult children to stay covered under your plan until they are 26 years old. Seniors will continue to get discounts on their drugs until the "doughnut hole" closes in 2020 and they will continue to enjoy preventive care without co-pays. Small businesses can take advantage of the "tax credit" in the law to help their employees get affordable insurance. People who do have insurance will get $1.3 BILLION in rebates from their insurance companies if those companies are not spending at least 80 to 85% of the insurance premium on medical care (not marketing).

 The list goes on. Object to Obamacare if you wish. Object to the individual mandate as well. But do not call the mandate the biggest tax hike ever because it is not. And do not go around bragging that if Republicans are elected they will repeal Obamacare. They will not. They will not, especially if the rest of us do our part and vote in November.