Death was not an impediment to receiving Medicaid benefits from New York’s Obamacare health insurance exchange, a new audit revealed.
Reported by NY Daily News 3 hours ago.
Dead got $3.2M in Medicaid from N.Y. Obamacare: audit
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Presidio Interactive Announces the Launch of HealthMatchup to Help Guide Consumers Through the 2016 Open Enrollment Period
Presidio Interactive, an online marketing company, today announced its move into the health insurance customer acquisition market with the launch of HealthMatchup.com, a consumer-focused website that aims to simplify the health insurance buying process.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (PRWEB) October 29, 2015
Presidio Interactive, an online marketing company, today announced its move into the health insurance customer acquisition market with the launch of HealthMatchup.com, a consumer-focused website that aims to simplify the health insurance buying process.
HealthMatchup.com offers an interactive experience designed to engage and educate consumers. By combining easy to understand resource pages and tools with a comprehensive online quoting solution, the site helps consumers understand their options before ultimately matching them with health insurance plans that fit their budget and lifestyle.
“You’d think that since everyone can get health coverage now, the buying process would be easy,” Derek Waterman, General Manager, Presidio Interactive said. “In reality, it can be pretty confusing, and that confusion is a real barrier for many health insurance shoppers. With HealthMatchup, we hope to break that barrier down.”
During last year’s Open Enrollment Period, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that nearly 1 in 4 people didn’t understand basic health insurance terminology, and 1 out of 2 were unable to correctly calculate what health care would cost given their chosen plan. In order to safeguard against high out-of-pocket costs, it’s essential that every consumer has this basic understanding of health plans.
“It’s evident that things need to be simplified,” Waterman said. “Whether a consumer chooses to have a 100% online experience or speak to an agent directly, plan options should be laid out in a way that’s clear and concise, so that anyone can readily understand what they’re signing up for. With our customized, consumer-first approach to the quoting process, not only do we make it easy to get coverage, we make it easy for people to get the coverage that will really fit their needs.” Using this fresh new approach, Presidio Interactive is primed to help guide people through the enrollment process, and with the 2016 Open Enrollment Period less than three days away, the timing couldn’t be better.
About Presidio Interactive
Presidio Interactive has a team with over 75 years of combined experience in the industry and a proven track record of success. Having already celebrated connecting over 25,000 people with health insurance during initial testing, Presidio Interactive expects to see massive growth throughout the Open Enrollment Period. Reported by PRWeb 1 hour ago.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (PRWEB) October 29, 2015
Presidio Interactive, an online marketing company, today announced its move into the health insurance customer acquisition market with the launch of HealthMatchup.com, a consumer-focused website that aims to simplify the health insurance buying process.
HealthMatchup.com offers an interactive experience designed to engage and educate consumers. By combining easy to understand resource pages and tools with a comprehensive online quoting solution, the site helps consumers understand their options before ultimately matching them with health insurance plans that fit their budget and lifestyle.
“You’d think that since everyone can get health coverage now, the buying process would be easy,” Derek Waterman, General Manager, Presidio Interactive said. “In reality, it can be pretty confusing, and that confusion is a real barrier for many health insurance shoppers. With HealthMatchup, we hope to break that barrier down.”
During last year’s Open Enrollment Period, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that nearly 1 in 4 people didn’t understand basic health insurance terminology, and 1 out of 2 were unable to correctly calculate what health care would cost given their chosen plan. In order to safeguard against high out-of-pocket costs, it’s essential that every consumer has this basic understanding of health plans.
“It’s evident that things need to be simplified,” Waterman said. “Whether a consumer chooses to have a 100% online experience or speak to an agent directly, plan options should be laid out in a way that’s clear and concise, so that anyone can readily understand what they’re signing up for. With our customized, consumer-first approach to the quoting process, not only do we make it easy to get coverage, we make it easy for people to get the coverage that will really fit their needs.” Using this fresh new approach, Presidio Interactive is primed to help guide people through the enrollment process, and with the 2016 Open Enrollment Period less than three days away, the timing couldn’t be better.
About Presidio Interactive
Presidio Interactive has a team with over 75 years of combined experience in the industry and a proven track record of success. Having already celebrated connecting over 25,000 people with health insurance during initial testing, Presidio Interactive expects to see massive growth throughout the Open Enrollment Period. Reported by PRWeb 1 hour ago.
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For the record
Healthcare Watch: In the Oct. 15 Business section, a healthcare column gave the wrong Web address for the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program, a free health insurance counseling program in California. The correct Web address is cahealthadvocates.org/HICAP/index.html
Reported by L.A. Times 20 minutes ago.
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Groups Want Federal Health Exchange to Register Voters, Too
People seeking health insurance through the online federal exchange will also be offered something they may not expect: a chance to register to vote.
Reported by NYTimes.com 12 minutes ago.
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The Rigging of the American Market
Much of the national debate about widening inequality focuses on whether and how much to tax the rich and redistribute their income downward.But this debate ignores the upward redistributions going on every day, from the rest of us to the rich. These redistributions are hidden inside the market.The only way to stop them is to prevent big corporations and Wall Street banks from rigging the market.For example, Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than do the citizens of any other developed nation.That's partly because it's perfectly legal in the U.S. (but not in most other nations) for the makers of branded drugs to pay the makers of generic drugs to delay introducing cheaper unbranded equivalents, after patents on the brands have expired.This costs you and me an estimated $3.5 billion a year -- a hidden upward redistribution of our incomes to Pfizer, Merck, and other big proprietary drug companies, their executives, and major shareholders.We also pay more for Internet service than do the inhabitants of any other developed nation.The average cable bill in the United States rose 5 percent in 2012 (the latest year available), nearly triple the rate of inflation.Why? Because 80 percent of us have no choice of Internet service provider, which allows them to charge us more.Internet service here costs 3 and-a-half times more than it does in France, for example, where the typical customer can choose between 7 providers.And U.S. cable companies are intent on keeping their monopoly.It's another hidden upward distribution - from us to Comcast, Verizon, or another giant cable company, its executives and major shareholders.Likewise, the interest we pay on home mortgages or college loans is higher than it would be if the big banks that now dominate the financial industry had to work harder to get our business.As recently as 2000, America's five largest banks held 25 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Now they hold 44 percent -- which gives them a lock on many such loans.If we can't repay, forget using bankruptcy. Donald Trump can go bankrupt four times and walk away from his debts, but the bankruptcy code doesn't allow homeowners or graduates to reorganize unmanageable debts.So beleaguered homeowners and graduates don't have any bargaining leverage with creditors -- exactly what the financial industry wants.The net result: another hidden upward redistribution -- this one, from us to the big banks, their executives, and major shareholders.Some of these upward redistributions seem to defy gravity. Why have average domestic airfares risen 2.5% over the past, and are now at their the highest level since the government began tracking them in 1995 -- while fuel prices, the largest single cost for the airlines, have plummeted?Because America went from nine major carriers ten years ago to just four now. Many airports are now served by one or two.This makes it easy for airlines to coordinate their fares and keep them high -- resulting in another upward redistribution.Why have food prices been rising faster than inflation, while crop prices are now at a six-year low?Because the giant corporations that process food have the power to raise prices. Four food companies control 82 percent of beef packing, 85 percent of soybean processing, 63 percent of pork packing, and 53 percent of chicken processing.Result: A redistribution from average consumers to Big Agriculture.Finally, why do you suppose health insurance is costing us more, and co-payments and deductibles are rising?One reason is big insurers are consolidating into giants with the power to raise prices. They say these combinations make their companies more efficient, but they really just give them power to charge more.Health insurers are hiking rates 20 to 40 percent next year, and their stock values are skyrocketing (the Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index recently hit its highest level in more than twenty years.)Add it up -- the extra money we're paying for pharmaceuticals, Internet communications, home mortgages, student loans, airline tickets, food, and health insurance -- and you get a hefty portion of the average family's budget.Democrats and Republicans spend endless time battling over how much to tax the rich and then redistribute the money downward.But if we didn't have so much upward redistribution inside the market, we wouldn't need as much downward redistribution through taxes and transfer payments.Yet as long as the big corporations, Wall Street banks, their top executives and wealthy shareholders have the political power to do so, they'll keep redistributing much of the nation's income upward to themselves.Which is why the rest of us must gain political power to stop the collusion, bust up the monopolies, and put an end to the rigging of the American market.
ROBERT B. REICH's new book, "Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few," will be out September 29. His film "Inequality for All" is now available on DVD and blu-ray, and on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 1 day ago.
ROBERT B. REICH's new book, "Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few," will be out September 29. His film "Inequality for All" is now available on DVD and blu-ray, and on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 1 day ago.
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Minorities get boost in health care access due to Obamacare
Only two years into the rollout of Obamacare, it’s still too soon to tell what lasting impact the health insurance marketplace will have.
Reported by NY Daily News 1 day ago.
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Health law's 3rd sign-up season faces challenges from prices
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government's insurance website is faster and easier to use, but as a third sign-up season gets underway, President Barack Obama's health care law is approaching limits. Costs are going up on the private, taxpayer-subsidized coverage sold through HealthCare.gov and state insurance exchanges, and many of the more than 10 million eligible uninsured Americans are skeptics. On the law's Medicaid expansion, the other big mechanism driving coverage, the limitations are clearer and perhaps more consequential. The 2012 Supreme Court decision that upheld the law's individual coverage requirement also gave states the choice to decline expanding Medicaid. [...] the private insurance alternative is closed to them, even as their states refuse to expand public coverage. Reading the signs, the Obama administration has set a modest sign-up target of about 10 million private insurance customers enrolled and paying their premiums by the end of 2016. Part of the challenge for the administration is that the market for individual health insurance policies is volatile. —Automatic reminders to enter Social Security numbers and immigration information, critical details that help the government verify eligibility and prevent cancellations months later.
Reported by SeattlePI.com 22 hours ago.
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The New Health Care: Why Consumers Often Err in Choosing Health Plans
Evaluating health insurance plans can be daunting and confusing, and most people don’t get much guidance, research shows.
Reported by NYTimes.com 18 hours ago.
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Harken Health Brings Remarkable Care to Chicago
CHICAGO, Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Focused on improving people's experience in health care, Harken Health is excited to launch in Chicago. A new kind of health care company that unites relationship-based primary care with competitively priced health insurance, Harken aims to not...
Reported by PR Newswire 18 hours ago.
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Harken Health Brings Remarkable Care to Atlanta
ATLANTA, Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Focused on improving people's experience in health care, Harken Health is excited to launch in Atlanta. A new kind of health care company that unites relationship-based primary care with competitively priced health insurance, Harken aims to not...
Reported by PR Newswire 18 hours ago.
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Albany law firm makes changes to health benefits to accommodate growth plans
One Albany law firm is now using the variety and ease of their health insurance platform as a recruiting tools for new employees. Tully Rinckey made the switch over to insurance broker Rose & Kiernan's private exchange on Sept. 1. Mathew Tully, a founding partner, said the firm wanted to prepare for future growth. The law firm plans to open two new offices in 2016. Tully said the response from employees has been so positive that it's become a recruiting tool as current employees spread the word. “We…
Reported by bizjournals 18 hours ago.
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hCentive Implements Arkansas' Health Insurance Marketplace for Small Businesses
RESTON, Va., Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- hCentive, the leader in public health insurance exchange solutions, has implemented Arkansas Small Business Health Options (SHOP), a state-based marketplace through which brokers and small businesses provide employees access to health...
Reported by PR Newswire 17 hours ago.
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Nearly half of ObamaCare co-ops have failed
Ten of the 23 health insurance co-ops created under Obamacare have gone out of business, and experts say more will follow.
Reported by FOXNews.com 16 hours ago.
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USAA Life Insurance Co. Expands Health Insurance Solutions
Members now can choose from Cigna and UnitedHealthcare coverage options
San Antonio, Texas (PRWEB) November 02, 2015
USAA Life Insurance Co. added Cigna and UnitedHealthcare to its health solutions suite for the 2016 open enrollment period running from Nov. 1, 2015, to Jan. 31, 2016. The new offerings provide members more choice and convenience for primary medical insurance coverage.
“Unexpected health care costs can be devastating to a family’s finances. It’s mission-critical for us to provide our members affordable, effective coverage options when they need it,” said Greg Galdau, AVP of USAA Health Solutions. “By expanding availability and adding Cigna and UnitedHealthcare to the mix, we can offer health solutions to meet the needs of more members and their families.”
USAA Health Solutions now reach more than 70 percent of its members across the country and offer options for major medical health coverage. These options available to members can help avoid the penalties mandated by the Affordable Healthcare Act for inadequate coverage.
The new coverage options are available now to members in the following states: Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kan., Ky., La., Mich., Miss., Mo., Neb., N.J., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Texas, Utah, Va., and Wis.
Members are encouraged to call 800-531-6592 to speak to a member service representative to review their 2016 health insurance options or visit usaa.com for additional information. Medicare, dental, vision, long term care, and accident health coverage also available to USAA members.
About USAA
The USAA family of companies provides insurance, banking, investments, retirement products and advice to 11.2 million current and former members of the U.S. military and their families. Known for its legendary commitment to its members, USAA is consistently recognized for outstanding service, employee well-being and financial strength. USAA membership is open to all who are serving our nation in the U.S. military or have received a discharge type of Honorable – and their eligible family members. Founded in 1922, USAA is headquartered in San Antonio. For more information about USAA, follow us on Facebook or Twitter (@USAA), or visit usaa.com.
### Reported by PRWeb 16 hours ago.
San Antonio, Texas (PRWEB) November 02, 2015
USAA Life Insurance Co. added Cigna and UnitedHealthcare to its health solutions suite for the 2016 open enrollment period running from Nov. 1, 2015, to Jan. 31, 2016. The new offerings provide members more choice and convenience for primary medical insurance coverage.
“Unexpected health care costs can be devastating to a family’s finances. It’s mission-critical for us to provide our members affordable, effective coverage options when they need it,” said Greg Galdau, AVP of USAA Health Solutions. “By expanding availability and adding Cigna and UnitedHealthcare to the mix, we can offer health solutions to meet the needs of more members and their families.”
USAA Health Solutions now reach more than 70 percent of its members across the country and offer options for major medical health coverage. These options available to members can help avoid the penalties mandated by the Affordable Healthcare Act for inadequate coverage.
The new coverage options are available now to members in the following states: Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kan., Ky., La., Mich., Miss., Mo., Neb., N.J., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Texas, Utah, Va., and Wis.
Members are encouraged to call 800-531-6592 to speak to a member service representative to review their 2016 health insurance options or visit usaa.com for additional information. Medicare, dental, vision, long term care, and accident health coverage also available to USAA members.
About USAA
The USAA family of companies provides insurance, banking, investments, retirement products and advice to 11.2 million current and former members of the U.S. military and their families. Known for its legendary commitment to its members, USAA is consistently recognized for outstanding service, employee well-being and financial strength. USAA membership is open to all who are serving our nation in the U.S. military or have received a discharge type of Honorable – and their eligible family members. Founded in 1922, USAA is headquartered in San Antonio. For more information about USAA, follow us on Facebook or Twitter (@USAA), or visit usaa.com.
### Reported by PRWeb 16 hours ago.
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It's that time. Are you covered?
Starting today, the Health Insurance Marketplace is open for business. This means something for all of us.Whether you changed jobs or haven't been covered in the past, if you need health insurance for 2016, you can visit HealthCare.gov right now, apply, and get covered.
Maybe you just want to shop around, consider your options, or update your current plan. Either way, now is the time to do it. Just make sure you create an account so that you can log back in, apply, and enroll, or just update your info before January 31, 2016.
Every American deserves quality, affordable health care. If you or a friend needs coverage, go to https://t.co/PJ7xIL6FjY and sign up now.
— President Obama (@POTUS) November 1, 2015Plans on the Marketplace change every year and, new, better and more affordable plans might be available in your area this time around.
And if you're already covered, then help spread the word to friends, family and loved ones -- let them know it's time to join the millions of Americans getting covered during the next three months.
Right now, too many Americans who stand to benefit most from coverage have no idea what "open enrollment" means, what kind of coverage they're eligible for, or what health care might mean for them.
We can help change that. Let them know it's time to #GetCovered.
Reported by The White House 9 hours ago.
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Pan-American Life Insurance Group and Mutual Trust Financial Group Complete Merger of their Mutual Holding Companies
NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pan-American Life Insurance Group today announced that Pan-American Life Mutual Holding Company (Pan-American Life) and Mutual Trust Holding Company (Mutual Trust) have completed the merger of the companies into one mutual holding company. The merger of the two mutual insurance holding companies positions the combined entity as a premier life, accident and health insurance provider in the Americas, with presence in the United States and 22 other jurisdictions throu
Reported by Business Wire 16 hours ago.
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Calling all small businesses: Stop big increases in health insurance premiums by making sure all workers have some form of coverage
Open enrollment for health insurance through the marketplaces has now started. Every citizen is required by law to have some form of health insurance with exceptions for certain low-income individuals.
If you have a policy through the marketplace, go shopping on HealthCare.gov to see if the policy you have still fits your healthcare and financial needs. If you need help locally, it's available for free. Find an organization with certified navigators by clicking here. You can also contact an independent insurance agent or broker who has been certified to help you find a policy on the marketplace at no additional costs.
While the Affordable Care Act has been tremendously successful in making health insurance more affordable primarily due to the financial assistance provided through the marketplaces, there are still about 10.5 million uninsured who meet the federal requirements to have coverage.
So why are these uninsured not obtaining health insurance through the marketplace like about 9 million have already done?
A large part of the answer lies in the statistics. The biggest numbers of these uninsured are between 19 and 34 with comparatively lower incomes.
Reaching these uninsured is now the major goal of the federal government. But this effort isn't only important for the Obama Administration, it is important to every small business owner because the healthcare costs of the uninsured are passed on to every employer and individual who has insurance in the form of higher premiums.
So I am challenging every small business owner to identify their workers who don't have insurance. Then take action.
1. Tell them about the significant federal penalty for not having insurance. That penalty, paid through the employee's federal tax return, will be a minimum of $325 for not having coverage in 2015 and goes up to a minimum of $695 for being uninsured in 2016.
2. Give them the instructions on contacting a healthcare navigator or insurance agent/broker who can help them find very affordable coverage, possibly as low as $20 a month, for very good health insurance. Better yet, have a navigator or insurance agent/broker come to your place of business to talk to the uninsured and any of your employees about coverage.
3. Voluntarily offer group health insurance through the marketplace. The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) offers the small employer and non-profits competitive plans and up to a 50% tax credit for qualifying small businesses and non-profits. Group health insurance plans are also available outside the marketplace but tax credits won't be available.
4. And if your uninsured employees say that they simply can't afford coverage through the marketplace even with the financial assistance, maybe you need to think about increasing their pay.
Small business owners, take responsibility for helping yourself better afford future health insurance by helping your uninsured workers get covered.
"UnConflicted" is the small business advocacy blog of Frank Knapp, Jr., President & CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. Visit our website to join, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow the issues affecting small businesses in SC: http://www.scsbc.org
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.
If you have a policy through the marketplace, go shopping on HealthCare.gov to see if the policy you have still fits your healthcare and financial needs. If you need help locally, it's available for free. Find an organization with certified navigators by clicking here. You can also contact an independent insurance agent or broker who has been certified to help you find a policy on the marketplace at no additional costs.
While the Affordable Care Act has been tremendously successful in making health insurance more affordable primarily due to the financial assistance provided through the marketplaces, there are still about 10.5 million uninsured who meet the federal requirements to have coverage.
So why are these uninsured not obtaining health insurance through the marketplace like about 9 million have already done?
A large part of the answer lies in the statistics. The biggest numbers of these uninsured are between 19 and 34 with comparatively lower incomes.
Reaching these uninsured is now the major goal of the federal government. But this effort isn't only important for the Obama Administration, it is important to every small business owner because the healthcare costs of the uninsured are passed on to every employer and individual who has insurance in the form of higher premiums.
So I am challenging every small business owner to identify their workers who don't have insurance. Then take action.
1. Tell them about the significant federal penalty for not having insurance. That penalty, paid through the employee's federal tax return, will be a minimum of $325 for not having coverage in 2015 and goes up to a minimum of $695 for being uninsured in 2016.
2. Give them the instructions on contacting a healthcare navigator or insurance agent/broker who can help them find very affordable coverage, possibly as low as $20 a month, for very good health insurance. Better yet, have a navigator or insurance agent/broker come to your place of business to talk to the uninsured and any of your employees about coverage.
3. Voluntarily offer group health insurance through the marketplace. The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) offers the small employer and non-profits competitive plans and up to a 50% tax credit for qualifying small businesses and non-profits. Group health insurance plans are also available outside the marketplace but tax credits won't be available.
4. And if your uninsured employees say that they simply can't afford coverage through the marketplace even with the financial assistance, maybe you need to think about increasing their pay.
Small business owners, take responsibility for helping yourself better afford future health insurance by helping your uninsured workers get covered.
"UnConflicted" is the small business advocacy blog of Frank Knapp, Jr., President & CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. Visit our website to join, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow the issues affecting small businesses in SC: http://www.scsbc.org
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.
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Tech Companies Have A Labor Problem, But Democrats Still Love Them
This story was originally published by InsideSources.
It is an industry known as an overwhelmingly white, male bastion — one that has been slow to hire African-Americans, Hispanics and women. It is also an industry that has pushed policies in Washington that some major labor leaders have warned will stifle job growth. And it is an industry that has been accused of labor practices that undercut workers.
In short, Silicon Valley, long celebrated as forward-thinking, is increasingly seen – particularly by bedrock Democratic constituencies – as turning back the clock on some issues.
Yet despite all this, the Democratic Party establishment in Washington, starting with President Obama’s administration, has established an unusually close relationship with the sector’s rich and powerful companies — one that has benefited the two sides immensely, both in financial and political terms.
The ties between top Democrats and the high-tech industry are unmistakable, with the industry pumping millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of Democrats, at the same time that a revolving door brings major industry players into key positions within the Obama administration — and vice versa.
Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America, sharply questioned whether some Democrats are losing their way ideologically as they attempt to foster a close relationship with an industry that has in ways undermined core Democratic constituencies like labor.
“Whether you’re talking about Obama or Hillary or people in Congress or if you look at all the White House people who went to work at tech companies, whether Uber or Amazon, this notion that some Democrats can get unlimited amounts of money from these companies and still proclaim that they support workers, people have had it with that,” he said.
For Democrats, the tech giants of Silicon Valley have become virtual ATMs of campaign cash. In the 2012 elections, Google, Facebook and other Internet companies and their executives tilted heavily toward the Democrats, giving them 73 percent of their donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Over the last two years, the tech industry has paid Hillary Clinton $3.2 million in speaking fees — she has appeared, among other places, at eBay, Qualcomm and Salesforce.com. And as her poll numbers were slipping, Clinton headed to Silicon Valley and San Francisco on Sept. 28 for a fundraising pick-me-up — one event cost $2,700 a ticket.
As for President Obama, he started courting Silicon Valley while still a senator and mined its deep pockets repeatedly in 2008 and 2012, with Google executives and employees giving $800,000 to his re-election campaign. And now Obama is again looking to Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists, this time to help finance his presidential library.
The ties between Silicon Valley and top Democrats go far beyond campaign donations.
More than a dozen former Obama administration officials and aides have flocked to tech industry jobs. The most prominent examples are former White House press secretary Jay Carney, who has become Amazon’s head of global corporate affairs, and David Plouffe, Obama’s former campaign manager and then a White House senior adviser, who has joined Uber as its senior vice president for strategy.
In turn, Obama has tapped a number of Google executives to serve in his administration, including Megan Smith, whom he appointed to be the nation’s technology czar. And earlier this year, the president even created a new position — chief data scientist and deputy chief technology officer for data policy* — *for D.J. Patil, Facebook’s former engineering director and a veteran of LinkedIn, eBay and Skype.
Many Democrats are not thrilled by this cozy relationship between their party and the tech industry. Some bedrock Democrats — most notably organized labor and some staunch liberals — are concerned that Obama and other Democratic Party leaders have come to rely so heavily on the largesse of this single industry. They say the Obama Administration has largely turned a blind eye to an industry that has been criticized as hostile to unions and unfriendly to workers on a number of fronts.
In fact, on the labor front, Silicon Valley has mostly managed to avoid the political pressure from Democrats that has, for example, been directed at the telecommunications industry, where companies tend to “create and maintain far more, and typically better-paying, jobs than the application and content sectors, particularly for people of color,” as the Communication Workers of America and the NAACP put it in a filing with the government. The best example of this was the organized and sharp protests that Verizon drew from top New York Democrats as the company engaged in contract negotiations with its unions.
The growing disenchantment with Silicon Valley among core Democratic constituencies reflects, in some respects, the growing pains of an industry that has gone from visionary upstart to an establishment player. Indeed, high-tech companies such as Google have come under attack for using their vast influence in Washington to slow their competitors and to limit scrutiny from authorities.
On the labor front, union leaders and some liberals have a long list of grievances against Silicon Valley (though tech companies have led the way on a number of workplace issues, including telecommuting, flexible hours and Facebook’s decision to require its contractors to pay their employees a minimum of $15 an hour).
Near the top of union leaders’ list of complaints is Silicon Valley’s effort to bring in tens of thousands of H-1B guest worker engineers from India and elsewhere — which critics say takes away good jobs from Americans and pushes down wages.
Labor and many liberals also have harsh words for Amazon because of its aggressive efforts to beat back unionization drives and because of the punishing work pace it all but requires from its warehouse workers and white-collar staffers.
Some unions and liberals also demonize Uber, asserting that it illegally characterizes its drivers not as employees, but as independent contractors who don’t qualify for minimum wage, overtime, workers’ compensation or many other protections.
Some liberals and feminists criticize Silicon Valley for being a laggard in hiring women and minorities at a time when the workforce is 70 percent male at Google, a situation that reflects the industry in general.
Apple has faced sharp criticism for relying heavily on Foxconn factories in China that abused their employees in various ways — using child labor and often requiring extraordinary amounts of overtime. More recently labor and human rights advocates have criticized the electronics industry for using Malaysian factories that have been found to use trafficked workers.
In Washington’s regulatory arena, Silicon Valley has also asserted its influence, sometimes to the detriment of labor. The industry, along with others, successfully pushed the Obama administration to regulate unionized Internet service providers (ISPs) like AT&T and Verizon under public utility rules that date back to the 1930s.
The rules, adopted by the Federal Communications Commission with the support of President Obama himself, are supposed to ensure “net neutrality,” or open access to the Internet by all sources. But some labor critics argue that these rules are unnecessary, run contrary to the light regulatory touch that allowed the Internet to grow and flourish and potentially discourage investment in the building of broadband networks by ISPs.
Indeed, Democratic allies like the Communications Workers of America warned against any such regulations that would impose new burdens and could lead Internet service providers to scale back broadband investments and thus eliminate jobs for its members.
Closer to home in Silicon Valley, a major concern is that the high-tech boom and masses of high-paid young tech workers have sent housing prices in San Francisco soaring and pushed out many longtime blue-collar residents.
“The middle class is disappearing,” said Russell Hancock, president of the Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an organization of business, government, academics and labor that analyzes pressing issues in the region. “A boom in the tech sector is not necessarily a tide that lifts all boats.”
His group found that the region’s high-skill workers have a median income of $118,700, compared with $27,000 for workers in low-skill jobs.
Rome Aloise, the top Teamsters union official in the San Francisco Bay Area, asserted that tech companies are not mindful enough of the soaring rents and other costs that are squeezing moderate-income people in the area. “It’s almost as if some tech executives are oblivious to the real world,” Aloise said.
He, too, is uneasy about the Democrats’ reliance on tech industry donations. “Democrats and Republicans are going to take money from wherever they can get it,” he said. “Money is something that controls most people. What worries me is the Democrats’ ideals and concerns for workers get overpowered by the kind of money they can get from these companies.”
Efforts to address these problems have been undertaken by groups like the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an association of 390 companies seeking to improve the region’s economy and quality of life. The group has created a $20 million housing trust to help thousands of teachers, police officers and firefighters afford housing in the region, some of it through mortgage subsidies, some by underwriting construction of moderate-income housing.
Steve Wright, senior vice president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, said his group has also pushed for high-density housing along rail lines and helped to engineer a sales tax increase to finance mass transit, including the extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system south to San Jose.
Still, the tensions between labor and high-tech companies have hardly abated. A recent flashpoint between the tech industry and labor has been the unionization fights involving the tech industry’s shuttle bus drivers — as well as Google Express’ delivery drivers.
Many shuttle bus drivers have complained that their income of around $45,000 a year made it hard to afford to live in one of the nation’s most expensive regions, forcing some to commute an hour between home and their Silicon Valley job. Moreover, most of the drivers work split shifts requiring them to begin around 6 a.m. and, after a midday break, end around 9 p.m.
Tommy Leyva, a shuttle bus driver who takes around 40 Apple employees to and from work each day, said that for the last three years, Compass, Apple’s transportation contractor, kept his pay frozen at $19.50 an hour — pay that made it hard for him to afford housing and caused him to drive charter busses on weekends. He said Compass refused to pay time-and-a-half for overtime even though he typically worked 47 hours a week. (The company said it’s an interstate carrier and thus exempt from many overtime rules.)
Leyva said he was at first upset with Apple because it didn’t intervene to stop what he said was Compass’s all-out effort to defeat a unionization drive. Notwithstanding Compass’s resistance, its drivers voted, 104 to 38, in February to join the Teamsters.
But now Leyva praises Apple for making money available so that Compass would provide a good union contract, which went into effect in August. His pay has jumped to $31.50 an hour, from $19.50. He no longer needs to work on weekends, he said, and he is confident he can now afford housing in the area. In addition, the new contract calls for 11 paid holidays — before there were none.
“This just went from a job to a career,” Leyva said. “Not only do we have a good wage, we have health insurance and we hopefully will have a great benefits package by the time we finish negotiations. If it wasn’t for the Teamsters, we would have still been at $19.50, and Apple would have never stepped up.”
*ABOUT THE WRITER*
Steven Greenhouse was a New York Times reporter for 31 years and covered labor and workplace matters for The Times from 1995 through 2014. He served at a Times reporter in New York, Chicago, Washington and Paris. He is author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker and is writing another book about the nation’s workers. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 13 hours ago.
It is an industry known as an overwhelmingly white, male bastion — one that has been slow to hire African-Americans, Hispanics and women. It is also an industry that has pushed policies in Washington that some major labor leaders have warned will stifle job growth. And it is an industry that has been accused of labor practices that undercut workers.
In short, Silicon Valley, long celebrated as forward-thinking, is increasingly seen – particularly by bedrock Democratic constituencies – as turning back the clock on some issues.
Yet despite all this, the Democratic Party establishment in Washington, starting with President Obama’s administration, has established an unusually close relationship with the sector’s rich and powerful companies — one that has benefited the two sides immensely, both in financial and political terms.
The ties between top Democrats and the high-tech industry are unmistakable, with the industry pumping millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of Democrats, at the same time that a revolving door brings major industry players into key positions within the Obama administration — and vice versa.
Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America, sharply questioned whether some Democrats are losing their way ideologically as they attempt to foster a close relationship with an industry that has in ways undermined core Democratic constituencies like labor.
“Whether you’re talking about Obama or Hillary or people in Congress or if you look at all the White House people who went to work at tech companies, whether Uber or Amazon, this notion that some Democrats can get unlimited amounts of money from these companies and still proclaim that they support workers, people have had it with that,” he said.
For Democrats, the tech giants of Silicon Valley have become virtual ATMs of campaign cash. In the 2012 elections, Google, Facebook and other Internet companies and their executives tilted heavily toward the Democrats, giving them 73 percent of their donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Over the last two years, the tech industry has paid Hillary Clinton $3.2 million in speaking fees — she has appeared, among other places, at eBay, Qualcomm and Salesforce.com. And as her poll numbers were slipping, Clinton headed to Silicon Valley and San Francisco on Sept. 28 for a fundraising pick-me-up — one event cost $2,700 a ticket.
As for President Obama, he started courting Silicon Valley while still a senator and mined its deep pockets repeatedly in 2008 and 2012, with Google executives and employees giving $800,000 to his re-election campaign. And now Obama is again looking to Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists, this time to help finance his presidential library.
The ties between Silicon Valley and top Democrats go far beyond campaign donations.
More than a dozen former Obama administration officials and aides have flocked to tech industry jobs. The most prominent examples are former White House press secretary Jay Carney, who has become Amazon’s head of global corporate affairs, and David Plouffe, Obama’s former campaign manager and then a White House senior adviser, who has joined Uber as its senior vice president for strategy.
In turn, Obama has tapped a number of Google executives to serve in his administration, including Megan Smith, whom he appointed to be the nation’s technology czar. And earlier this year, the president even created a new position — chief data scientist and deputy chief technology officer for data policy* — *for D.J. Patil, Facebook’s former engineering director and a veteran of LinkedIn, eBay and Skype.
Many Democrats are not thrilled by this cozy relationship between their party and the tech industry. Some bedrock Democrats — most notably organized labor and some staunch liberals — are concerned that Obama and other Democratic Party leaders have come to rely so heavily on the largesse of this single industry. They say the Obama Administration has largely turned a blind eye to an industry that has been criticized as hostile to unions and unfriendly to workers on a number of fronts.
In fact, on the labor front, Silicon Valley has mostly managed to avoid the political pressure from Democrats that has, for example, been directed at the telecommunications industry, where companies tend to “create and maintain far more, and typically better-paying, jobs than the application and content sectors, particularly for people of color,” as the Communication Workers of America and the NAACP put it in a filing with the government. The best example of this was the organized and sharp protests that Verizon drew from top New York Democrats as the company engaged in contract negotiations with its unions.
The growing disenchantment with Silicon Valley among core Democratic constituencies reflects, in some respects, the growing pains of an industry that has gone from visionary upstart to an establishment player. Indeed, high-tech companies such as Google have come under attack for using their vast influence in Washington to slow their competitors and to limit scrutiny from authorities.
On the labor front, union leaders and some liberals have a long list of grievances against Silicon Valley (though tech companies have led the way on a number of workplace issues, including telecommuting, flexible hours and Facebook’s decision to require its contractors to pay their employees a minimum of $15 an hour).
Near the top of union leaders’ list of complaints is Silicon Valley’s effort to bring in tens of thousands of H-1B guest worker engineers from India and elsewhere — which critics say takes away good jobs from Americans and pushes down wages.
Labor and many liberals also have harsh words for Amazon because of its aggressive efforts to beat back unionization drives and because of the punishing work pace it all but requires from its warehouse workers and white-collar staffers.
Some unions and liberals also demonize Uber, asserting that it illegally characterizes its drivers not as employees, but as independent contractors who don’t qualify for minimum wage, overtime, workers’ compensation or many other protections.
Some liberals and feminists criticize Silicon Valley for being a laggard in hiring women and minorities at a time when the workforce is 70 percent male at Google, a situation that reflects the industry in general.
Apple has faced sharp criticism for relying heavily on Foxconn factories in China that abused their employees in various ways — using child labor and often requiring extraordinary amounts of overtime. More recently labor and human rights advocates have criticized the electronics industry for using Malaysian factories that have been found to use trafficked workers.
In Washington’s regulatory arena, Silicon Valley has also asserted its influence, sometimes to the detriment of labor. The industry, along with others, successfully pushed the Obama administration to regulate unionized Internet service providers (ISPs) like AT&T and Verizon under public utility rules that date back to the 1930s.
The rules, adopted by the Federal Communications Commission with the support of President Obama himself, are supposed to ensure “net neutrality,” or open access to the Internet by all sources. But some labor critics argue that these rules are unnecessary, run contrary to the light regulatory touch that allowed the Internet to grow and flourish and potentially discourage investment in the building of broadband networks by ISPs.
Indeed, Democratic allies like the Communications Workers of America warned against any such regulations that would impose new burdens and could lead Internet service providers to scale back broadband investments and thus eliminate jobs for its members.
Closer to home in Silicon Valley, a major concern is that the high-tech boom and masses of high-paid young tech workers have sent housing prices in San Francisco soaring and pushed out many longtime blue-collar residents.
“The middle class is disappearing,” said Russell Hancock, president of the Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an organization of business, government, academics and labor that analyzes pressing issues in the region. “A boom in the tech sector is not necessarily a tide that lifts all boats.”
His group found that the region’s high-skill workers have a median income of $118,700, compared with $27,000 for workers in low-skill jobs.
Rome Aloise, the top Teamsters union official in the San Francisco Bay Area, asserted that tech companies are not mindful enough of the soaring rents and other costs that are squeezing moderate-income people in the area. “It’s almost as if some tech executives are oblivious to the real world,” Aloise said.
He, too, is uneasy about the Democrats’ reliance on tech industry donations. “Democrats and Republicans are going to take money from wherever they can get it,” he said. “Money is something that controls most people. What worries me is the Democrats’ ideals and concerns for workers get overpowered by the kind of money they can get from these companies.”
Efforts to address these problems have been undertaken by groups like the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an association of 390 companies seeking to improve the region’s economy and quality of life. The group has created a $20 million housing trust to help thousands of teachers, police officers and firefighters afford housing in the region, some of it through mortgage subsidies, some by underwriting construction of moderate-income housing.
Steve Wright, senior vice president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, said his group has also pushed for high-density housing along rail lines and helped to engineer a sales tax increase to finance mass transit, including the extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system south to San Jose.
Still, the tensions between labor and high-tech companies have hardly abated. A recent flashpoint between the tech industry and labor has been the unionization fights involving the tech industry’s shuttle bus drivers — as well as Google Express’ delivery drivers.
Many shuttle bus drivers have complained that their income of around $45,000 a year made it hard to afford to live in one of the nation’s most expensive regions, forcing some to commute an hour between home and their Silicon Valley job. Moreover, most of the drivers work split shifts requiring them to begin around 6 a.m. and, after a midday break, end around 9 p.m.
Tommy Leyva, a shuttle bus driver who takes around 40 Apple employees to and from work each day, said that for the last three years, Compass, Apple’s transportation contractor, kept his pay frozen at $19.50 an hour — pay that made it hard for him to afford housing and caused him to drive charter busses on weekends. He said Compass refused to pay time-and-a-half for overtime even though he typically worked 47 hours a week. (The company said it’s an interstate carrier and thus exempt from many overtime rules.)
Leyva said he was at first upset with Apple because it didn’t intervene to stop what he said was Compass’s all-out effort to defeat a unionization drive. Notwithstanding Compass’s resistance, its drivers voted, 104 to 38, in February to join the Teamsters.
But now Leyva praises Apple for making money available so that Compass would provide a good union contract, which went into effect in August. His pay has jumped to $31.50 an hour, from $19.50. He no longer needs to work on weekends, he said, and he is confident he can now afford housing in the area. In addition, the new contract calls for 11 paid holidays — before there were none.
“This just went from a job to a career,” Leyva said. “Not only do we have a good wage, we have health insurance and we hopefully will have a great benefits package by the time we finish negotiations. If it wasn’t for the Teamsters, we would have still been at $19.50, and Apple would have never stepped up.”
*ABOUT THE WRITER*
Steven Greenhouse was a New York Times reporter for 31 years and covered labor and workplace matters for The Times from 1995 through 2014. He served at a Times reporter in New York, Chicago, Washington and Paris. He is author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker and is writing another book about the nation’s workers. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 13 hours ago.
↧
An Open Letter to Main State Representative, John J Picchiotti (R)
Dear Main State Representative, John Picchiotti,
Who randomly shares chain Facebook rants without reading them? Hopefully not State Representatives of our United States of America. Apparently, that is what you did when you shared the following white supremacist post on your public Facebook page, later deleting it.
We got Mike Willette situation in the MEGOP. @jpicch posting seriously racist stuff about Muslims on FB. #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/SpYFxK3Tpj
— Steven Biel (@stevenbiel) October 30, 2015You then apologized saying you only read the beginning part assuming it was just a post about the contributions of Catholic Americans to society, not realizing the venomous, Islamophobic vitriol that followed.
Really?
If I were a State Representative, I would be darn sure everything I posted publicly with my name on it represented the values I hold dear and represent the best interests of my constituency not to mention, the core values of our U.S. Constitution. In fact, I am not in public office and I do this already as just a regular Muslim American mom and blogger.
It's that important to me.
When you are a public servant, you are responsible for the words you post on the internet. They are there forever even if you delete them as you can see from the above screen capture. I'm always one to see the silver lining in every cloud; and, there definitely is one here. You have shown your true colors to the world and now voters can choose to vote you out of office -- like we very systematically did here in the Midwest when we voted out the Islamophobic, homophobic, anti-woman congressional candidate, Joe Walsh (R), even though millions of dollars poured into the district on his behalf. If you think that being a representative in public office means you only serve old, white men, you're wrong. Your position is not a self-serving platform for your exclusivity and hate.
You should take lessons from MY State Representative in Illinois, Michelle Mussman. The Honorable Michelle Mussman invited me to a Women's History event so that I could speak about Islamophobia to people in my district. Education is the only answer to hate rooted in ignorance. I simply spoke from the heart about what it means to be a Muslim American and people hugged me afterwards and thanked me for speaking since they are so inundated with the type of garbage you posted online.
We are all just people. We're Americans trying to live our lives and create a positive experience for our children and contribute positively to society. We actually have more commonality than differences. This is most apparent when I read your bio on Ballotpedia.
You are a U.S. Navy Veteran. I'll be darned; my husband is a U.S. Navy Veteran too. You worked in the Human Resources industry. Me too! 28 years and counting. You were an insurance agent and a small business owner. So was I! I sold health insurance and have my own writing business. You apparently have a high reverence for Catholic people. I do too. The woman who gave birth to me is a devout Catholic. I am a Muslim woman that has probably been to more Catholic masses than some Catholics. And I was raised to not only see the similarities of Islam and Christianity, but to honor them. That's right. Honor them. The differences in our core beliefs actually come down to a few historical semantics. The rest of the Abrahamic teachings about life, justice and caring for the poor are almost boringly verbatim in our two faiths. You wouldn't know that though if you were raised to hate people that are different than you and are determined to hate Muslims. If you would ever like me to come to your district and speak to citizens in Maine about Islam and Muslims, I would be happy to do so.
So aside from the Islamic vitriol stuff, we have a lot in common.
A part of me does not want to address the finer points of the white supremacist chain post above because it seems not worthy of a response. I will do it anyway though for any person that might actually fall for this branding of hate. The opening itself speaks about America being a Judeo-Christian country. It is not. Sorry to burst your bubble; but, America truly is the melting pot that my 3rd grade, Chicago Public School social studies book taught me along with the School House Rock video I used to watch on Saturday mornings as a kid:
Credit: YouTube, US ChronicleSure, many people like you don't want our country to be a melting pot. Many people go out of their way to push public policies that marginalize certain people in said melting pot. Many people like you want to kick and scream and demand that America is a Judeo-Christian country for white people only; but, it simply is not the case. And when you infuse hatred into your public life and into your politics, it doesn't work. It is not going to magically make people go away that are not the race, religion and skin color that you desire.
As for the rants in your Facebook post about there being no Muslim hospitals, no Muslim charities, girl scouts or candy stripers or volunteers:
· Approximately 10 percent of all U.S. physicians are Muslim.· Muslim Americans are well educated and contribute to society in not only medicine, but in law, engineering, teaching and research. We are less seen in Hollywood and political office, but strap yourself into your seat, Rep Picchiotti. We're getting into those things too.· There are hundreds of Muslim Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops in America and thousands of Muslim kids that partake in Scouting activities. I was a Girl Scout as a little Muslim girl in the 70s. I started a Girl Scout troop for my daughter and was a Girl Scout Leader for five years. My troop consisted of girls from every background and religion and we focused on public service primarily.· The mosques I have visited wave a U.S. flag. I wave one on my porch. Not sure that this is a pre-requisite to being American, but I'll have you know that Muslim Americans feel just as American as you -- minus the racial supremacy stuff.· Muslim Charities: There are thousands of Muslim charities in the United States that feed the poor both here and abroad, offer scholarships and contribute to emergency relief efforts. In fact, charity is a core Pillar of Islam and a huge part of the Muslim faith, as it is in Christianity. I am not only proud of the fact that I have raised my kids to take charitable giving very seriously in their lives, they did something amazing with this foundation of spirituality. My kids spent a year of Sunday School through the Webb Foundation raising funds to build a water well in Ghana. Children there were having to miss school as they were spending their entire days fetching (unclean) water for their families. Not only did they present the facts about the water situation to us parents, they did bake sales and held a movie day to raise the money. They even had a Skype spelling bee contest with the children in Ghana who are now the recipient of the well. We make a difference here in America and abroad. This is part and parcel to who Muslims are. You wouldn't know this if you simply believed bigoted Facebook posts about how uncharitable Muslim people are.· Candy striper is a term that is no longer used. Are you kidding me? I was a Certified Nurses Aid as a Senior in high school and even then, they were not calling us candy stripers. But I did take care of the sick and elderly, wiped their behinds, bathed them and held their hands in their last days of life as a young, Muslim American girl.
Representative Picchiotti, I implore you to step down from your public office and make room for a person who truly believes in the sanctity of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans regardless of race, religion or ethnic origin. I implore you to take a look at your inner values and see if they align with the people of your constituency and our U.S. Constitution. It's never too late to kick hate to the door and invite tolerance into your soul.
Sincerely,
Yasmina Reality, Blogger
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 14 hours ago.
Who randomly shares chain Facebook rants without reading them? Hopefully not State Representatives of our United States of America. Apparently, that is what you did when you shared the following white supremacist post on your public Facebook page, later deleting it.
We got Mike Willette situation in the MEGOP. @jpicch posting seriously racist stuff about Muslims on FB. #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/SpYFxK3Tpj
— Steven Biel (@stevenbiel) October 30, 2015You then apologized saying you only read the beginning part assuming it was just a post about the contributions of Catholic Americans to society, not realizing the venomous, Islamophobic vitriol that followed.
Really?
If I were a State Representative, I would be darn sure everything I posted publicly with my name on it represented the values I hold dear and represent the best interests of my constituency not to mention, the core values of our U.S. Constitution. In fact, I am not in public office and I do this already as just a regular Muslim American mom and blogger.
It's that important to me.
When you are a public servant, you are responsible for the words you post on the internet. They are there forever even if you delete them as you can see from the above screen capture. I'm always one to see the silver lining in every cloud; and, there definitely is one here. You have shown your true colors to the world and now voters can choose to vote you out of office -- like we very systematically did here in the Midwest when we voted out the Islamophobic, homophobic, anti-woman congressional candidate, Joe Walsh (R), even though millions of dollars poured into the district on his behalf. If you think that being a representative in public office means you only serve old, white men, you're wrong. Your position is not a self-serving platform for your exclusivity and hate.
You should take lessons from MY State Representative in Illinois, Michelle Mussman. The Honorable Michelle Mussman invited me to a Women's History event so that I could speak about Islamophobia to people in my district. Education is the only answer to hate rooted in ignorance. I simply spoke from the heart about what it means to be a Muslim American and people hugged me afterwards and thanked me for speaking since they are so inundated with the type of garbage you posted online.
We are all just people. We're Americans trying to live our lives and create a positive experience for our children and contribute positively to society. We actually have more commonality than differences. This is most apparent when I read your bio on Ballotpedia.
You are a U.S. Navy Veteran. I'll be darned; my husband is a U.S. Navy Veteran too. You worked in the Human Resources industry. Me too! 28 years and counting. You were an insurance agent and a small business owner. So was I! I sold health insurance and have my own writing business. You apparently have a high reverence for Catholic people. I do too. The woman who gave birth to me is a devout Catholic. I am a Muslim woman that has probably been to more Catholic masses than some Catholics. And I was raised to not only see the similarities of Islam and Christianity, but to honor them. That's right. Honor them. The differences in our core beliefs actually come down to a few historical semantics. The rest of the Abrahamic teachings about life, justice and caring for the poor are almost boringly verbatim in our two faiths. You wouldn't know that though if you were raised to hate people that are different than you and are determined to hate Muslims. If you would ever like me to come to your district and speak to citizens in Maine about Islam and Muslims, I would be happy to do so.
So aside from the Islamic vitriol stuff, we have a lot in common.
A part of me does not want to address the finer points of the white supremacist chain post above because it seems not worthy of a response. I will do it anyway though for any person that might actually fall for this branding of hate. The opening itself speaks about America being a Judeo-Christian country. It is not. Sorry to burst your bubble; but, America truly is the melting pot that my 3rd grade, Chicago Public School social studies book taught me along with the School House Rock video I used to watch on Saturday mornings as a kid:
Credit: YouTube, US ChronicleSure, many people like you don't want our country to be a melting pot. Many people go out of their way to push public policies that marginalize certain people in said melting pot. Many people like you want to kick and scream and demand that America is a Judeo-Christian country for white people only; but, it simply is not the case. And when you infuse hatred into your public life and into your politics, it doesn't work. It is not going to magically make people go away that are not the race, religion and skin color that you desire.
As for the rants in your Facebook post about there being no Muslim hospitals, no Muslim charities, girl scouts or candy stripers or volunteers:
· Approximately 10 percent of all U.S. physicians are Muslim.· Muslim Americans are well educated and contribute to society in not only medicine, but in law, engineering, teaching and research. We are less seen in Hollywood and political office, but strap yourself into your seat, Rep Picchiotti. We're getting into those things too.· There are hundreds of Muslim Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops in America and thousands of Muslim kids that partake in Scouting activities. I was a Girl Scout as a little Muslim girl in the 70s. I started a Girl Scout troop for my daughter and was a Girl Scout Leader for five years. My troop consisted of girls from every background and religion and we focused on public service primarily.· The mosques I have visited wave a U.S. flag. I wave one on my porch. Not sure that this is a pre-requisite to being American, but I'll have you know that Muslim Americans feel just as American as you -- minus the racial supremacy stuff.· Muslim Charities: There are thousands of Muslim charities in the United States that feed the poor both here and abroad, offer scholarships and contribute to emergency relief efforts. In fact, charity is a core Pillar of Islam and a huge part of the Muslim faith, as it is in Christianity. I am not only proud of the fact that I have raised my kids to take charitable giving very seriously in their lives, they did something amazing with this foundation of spirituality. My kids spent a year of Sunday School through the Webb Foundation raising funds to build a water well in Ghana. Children there were having to miss school as they were spending their entire days fetching (unclean) water for their families. Not only did they present the facts about the water situation to us parents, they did bake sales and held a movie day to raise the money. They even had a Skype spelling bee contest with the children in Ghana who are now the recipient of the well. We make a difference here in America and abroad. This is part and parcel to who Muslims are. You wouldn't know this if you simply believed bigoted Facebook posts about how uncharitable Muslim people are.· Candy striper is a term that is no longer used. Are you kidding me? I was a Certified Nurses Aid as a Senior in high school and even then, they were not calling us candy stripers. But I did take care of the sick and elderly, wiped their behinds, bathed them and held their hands in their last days of life as a young, Muslim American girl.
Representative Picchiotti, I implore you to step down from your public office and make room for a person who truly believes in the sanctity of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans regardless of race, religion or ethnic origin. I implore you to take a look at your inner values and see if they align with the people of your constituency and our U.S. Constitution. It's never too late to kick hate to the door and invite tolerance into your soul.
Sincerely,
Yasmina Reality, Blogger
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 14 hours ago.
↧
GoBenefits Becomes First Health Insurance Exchange for Small Businesses with 1-99 Employees to Enter QuickBooks App Store, Apps.com
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GoBenefits today became the first health insurance exchange for small businesses with 1-99 employees to enter the QuickBooks App Store, Apps.com. The exchange—called GoBenefits—premiered this week at Intuit’s QuickBooks Connect Conference within the exhibition hall at the San Jose Convention Center. The online marketplace includes multiple health, voluntary and employer life plans focused on small businesses that utilize QuickBooks for their accounting and pay
Reported by Business Wire 15 hours ago.
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