National Political Updates

On March 12, Fox News contributor Dana Perino falsely claimed that people would "not see benefits for four to five years after" the health care reform bill passes. In fact, numerous benefits contained in the Senate bill would become available in the first year after the bill is enacted.

Perino falsely claims benefits will take years to begin

Perino: People would "not see benefits for four to five years after" bill is enacted. On the March 12 edition of Fox News' On the Record, Fox News contributor Dana Perino said of the health care reform legislation, "people are going to be taxed for the next several years and not see benefits for four to five years after that."

Fact: Numerous benefits in Senate health care bill would "be available in the first year after enactment" of the bill

Senate Democrats note "Immediate Benefits" of health care bill. According to a document put forth by Senate Democrats summarizing the "Immediate Benefits" of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the bill includes numerous benefits that would "be available in the first year after enactment" of the bill. Indeed, Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein published the following list of benefits that the Senate bill would provide "before 2014":

1) Eliminating lifetime limits, and cap annual limits, on health-care benefits. In other words, if you get an aggressive cancer and your treatment costs an extraordinary amount, your insurer can't suddenly remind you that subparagraph 15 limited your yearly expenses to $30,000, and they're not responsible for anything above that.

2) No more rescissions.

3) Some interim help for people who have preexisting conditions, though the bill does not instantly ban discrimination on preexisting conditions.

4) Requiring insurers to cover preventive care and immunizations.

5) Allowing young adults to stay on their parent's insurance plan until age 26.

6) Developing uniform coverage documents so people can compare different insurance policies in an apples-to-apples fashion.

7) Forcing insurers to spend 80 percent of all premium dollars on medical care (75 percent in the individual market), thus capping the money that can go toward administration, profits, etc.

8) Creating an appeals process and consumer advocate for insurance customers.

9) Developing a temporary re-insurance program to help early retirees (folks over 55) afford coverage.

10) Creating an internet portal to help people shop for and compare coverage.

11) Miscellaneous administrative simplification stuff.

12) Banning discrimination based on salary (i.e., where a company that's not self-insured makes only some full-time workers eligible for coverage.

Obama's plan also provides immediate benefits. According to the House Committee on Education and Labor, Obama's health care plan also provides numerous benefits that will enact immediately after the bill's passage or within the first year, including protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, tax breaks for small businesses, and aid to seniors participating in Medicare Part D. From the House Committee on Education and Labor:

Access to Affordable Coverage for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions

• The President's proposal will provide $5 billion in immediate federal support for a new program to provide affordable coverage to uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions. This provision is effective 90 days after enactment, and coverage under this program will continue until new Exchanges are operational in 2014.

Access to Quality Care for Vulnerable Populations

• The President's proposal makes an immediate and substantial investment in Community Health Centers to provide the funding needed to expand access to health care in communities where it is needed most. This $11 billion investment begins in 2010 and extends for five years.

No Pre-existing Coverage Exclusions for Children

• The President's proposal eliminates pre-existing condition exclusions for all Americans beginning in 2014, when the Exchanges are operational. Recognizing the special vulnerability of children, the plan prohibits health insurers from excluding coverage of pre-existing conditions for children, effective six months after enactment and applying to all new plans.

Re-insurance for Retiree Health Benefit Plans

• The President's proposal will create immediate access to re-insurance for employer health plans providing coverage for early retirees, effective 90 days after enactment. This re-insurance will help protect coverage while reducing premiums for employers and retirees.

Closing the Coverage Gap in the Medicare (Part D) Drug Benefit

• The President's proposal begins to fill the "donut hole" by giving seniors a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the donut hole in 2010.

Small Business Tax Credits

• The President's proposal will offer tax credits to small businesses beginning in 2010 to make employee coverage more affordable.
• Tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums will be immediately available to firms that choose to offer coverage; later, when Exchanges are operational, tax credits will be up to 50 percent of premiums. The full credit will be available to firms with 10 or fewer employees with average annual wages of $25,000, while firms with up to 25 or fewer employees and average annual wages of up to $50,000 will also be eligible for the credit.

[...]

Patient Protections

• The President's proposal protects patients' choice of doctors by allowing plan members to pick any participating primary care provider, prohibiting insurers from requiring prior authorization before and woman sees an ob-gyn, and ensuring access to emergency care. This provision takes effect six months after enactment and applies to all new plans.

Extension of Dependent Coverage for Young Adults

• The President's proposal will require insurers to permit children to stay on family policies until age 26. This provision takes effect six months after enactment and applies to all plans for young adults who are not offered qualified coverage elsewhere.

Free Prevention Benefits

• The President's proposal will require coverage of prevention and wellness benefits and exempt these benefits from deductibles and other cost-sharing requirements in public and private insurance coverage. This provision takes effect six months after enactment and applies to all new plans and all plans in 2018.
• Beginning on January 1, 2011, Medicare beneficiaries will receive a free, annual wellness visit and will have all cost-sharing waived for prevention services.

No Lifetime Limits on Coverage

• The President's proposal will prohibit insurers from imposing lifetime limits on benefits. This provision takes effect six months after enactment and applies to all plans.

Restricted Annual Limits on Coverage

• The President's proposal will tightly restrict insurance companies' use of annual limits to ensure access to needed care, effective six months after enactment for all new health plans. These tight restrictions will be defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. When the Exchanges are operational, the use of annual limits will be banned for all plans in 2014.

Protection from Rescissions of Existing Coverage

• The President's proposal will stop insurers from rescinding insurance when claims are filed, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact. This provision takes effect six months after enactment and applies to all plans.

Prohibits Discrimination Based on Salary

• The President's proposal will prohibit group health plans from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that have the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees. This provision takes effect six months after enactment and applies to all group health plans in 2014.

Glenn Beck has repeatedly attacked the concept of social justice and churches that promote it, asserting that it is "code language for Marxism" and warning that "when you see those words, run." In fact, numerous churches and religious faiths, as well as prominent religious scholars, espouse social justice, including the Catholic Church, the Conservative and Reform movements of Judaism, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Social justice is a tenant of mainstream faiths and has been promoted by respected religious scholars

The Catechism of the Catholic Church deals specifically with "Social Justice." From the section of its website devoted to "Social Justice," detailing positions on topics such as "Judaism and Health Care Reform" and "Jewish Community Budget Priorities." ("We have long been involved with the annual budget process, advocating for policies and programs that assist the most vulnerable people in our nation.") And the Union for Reform Judaism's Commission on Social Action "seeks to apply the insights of Jewish tradition to such domestic and foreign issues as human rights, world peace, civil liberties, religious freedom, famine, poverty, intergroup relations, as well as other major societal concerns"; its website cites a statement by Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, that "the thread of social justice is so authentically and intricately woven into the many-colored fabric we call Judaism that if you seek to pull that thread out, the entire fabric unravels."

National Association of Evangelicals promotes call to "work toward social justice." In presenting its Charitable Choice 2000 program, the National Association of Evangelicals, a speech on the topic of social justice, King stated: "I think with all of these challenges being met and with all of the work, and determination going on, we will be able to go this additional distance and achieve the ideal, the goal of the new age, the age of social justice." He also said: "It is tragic how individuals will often use religion and the Bible or misuse religion and the Bible to crystallize a status quo and justify their prejudices." The U.S. government website about the federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service 10/5/09] 

Beck declares that phrases "lives in the real world," is "compassionate," and "understands social justice" are really "code language for Marxism." While discussing President Obama's remarks about what traits he would look for in a Supreme Court justice, Beck stated on his radio show:

BECK: They're now talking about making sure that they can correct -- progressive phrase -- "social justice." That does not come from the bench.

[...]

BECK: Barack Obama comes out and says he wants somebody who lives in the real world, somebody who is compassionate, and somebody that is -- that understands social justice. That's code language for Marxism. It's called, to quote Hillary Clinton, that very American, early 20th century progressivism, where they did a loophole and a couple of somersaults to deny that they were progressives, to show the difference was enlightenment. Progressive is enlightened. Marxism is at the barrel of a gun. That's the difference to these guys. Really? Yeah, you're telling me that you're not doing things through the barrel of a gun? You're gonna have to. They're going to have to. You don't need enlightenment. Justice is blind. [The Glenn Beck Program, 5/4/09]

Beck clarifies stance on social justice

Beck: Social justice in which "you empower yourself to go out and help the poor" is permissible. On his March 12 radio show, Beck reacted to criticism by the Sojourners' Wallis: 

BECK: So now, Jim Wallis comes out, and he has started to attack me personally because I have said on this program, "social justice" is code language -- code language -- for big government. I want you to understand. When it comes to your church, if your church is preaching social and economic justice, you better do some digging and find out exactly what that means. Because if that means big government, if that means yes, you need to support these big government programs, you don't have a church. What you have is an organ of the government. You have the Anglican Church over in England, which we left. You have the Church of England.

Separation of church and state. It's weird that I have to argue with someone like Jim Wallis the separation of church and state. Now, if your church is talking about social justice in the way that you empower yourself to go out and help the poor, well then that's exactly what Jesus or Allah or Buddha or whoever it is, would like you to do.

GRAY: Yeah, they're trying to make this an anti-poor thing. They're trying to make this that you're against the poor?

BECK: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

GRAY: I mean that's just ridiculous.

BECK: And so now, they're ramping up a boycott on Christians to boycott our show. Oh, really? Look out, here it comes again, gang. The smear. [The Glenn Beck Program, 3/12/10]

Beck: "There's a lot of people that will say 'social justice,' and some people don't mean Marxism, but others do." Also, on his March 12 radio show, Beck stated:

BECK: The other thing they do is they always change and confuse the language. Political correctness comes from the progressive movement. Change and confuse the language. Look at this case. Social justice. There's a lot of people that -- who say "social justice" and some people don't mean Marxism. But others do, and you need to know, which is it?

The people who brought us, you know, the language into the political religious sphere were looking for ways to bring progressivism into the church. It continues today. Where's black liberation theology come from? Black liberation theology -- Jeremiah Wright's theology -- comes from South America. The church had the power down there. The church was all-important. What the church said, people listened to. It wasn't the government, because the government was always corrupt. People had faith in the church, and they knew they could never have a communist revolution if it wasn't for the church. If the church wasn't into it, so what did they do? They came up with black liberation theology. It's Marxism. And they got it -- spooned it in -- to the Christians, piece by piece. Just little bit -- progress. Little by little spoon feed it to people until the church would decay and collapse on itself.

Why do people in Europe not go to church? Because it's one with the government. It always has been. You must protect your church and make sure that it is not an organ for the government. That doesn't mean that you don't fight and protest, and you know, your church when it comes to a moral issue like abortion, that you don't stand up and fight for it. But you don't become one with the government. Separation of church and state. Progressives have been waiting for this moment for a hundred years. [The Glenn Beck Program, 3/12/10]

A new community of American Judaism is embracing religious traditionalism and social liberalism.

Does greater access to data on foreign aid translate into more accountability? TAP talks with a group that advocates for increased transparency about what it could mean.

An education reformer discovers that tests, standards, and other silver bullets are no substitute for hard teaching.

The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine is a disgrace. It's time to end it, not mend it.

New York's latest food campaign would impose a tax on the syrup added to soda and sweetened drinks.

American foreign policy has never been independent of politics, but in recent years, politics has come first.

Why is Barack Obama having such a difficult time undoing Bush-era damage to the Department of Labor?

It's time for Obama to let go of his unimaginative strategy in the Middle East and take a more proactive approach.

How to let individuals out of the insurance mandate and improve the odds of health-care reform.

A love letter to mail carriers everywhere.

Conservative Democrats are not his invention.

We have a moral obligation to focus on international women's uplift, but we must also act locally.

Is promoting responsible fatherhood really the best way to lift families out of poverty?

TAP talks to a former police chief who thinks drugs should be legal about new efforts to ban a pot substitute.

Tumblr, a relatively new blogging platform, just might be the future of the social Internet.

The latest drama over the White House's chief of staff and its record on national security is much ado about nothing.

Penn just announced they would use admissions data about sexual orientation to recruit gay students. But does that really open the door for true diversity?

How a smearing of Justice Department lawyers as "terrorist sympathizers" traveled from the conservative media to the United States Senate.