“Democrats mount second sales pitch on health-care law as Republicans seek repeal - Washington Post” plus 1 more |
| Democrats mount second sales pitch on health-care law as Republicans seek repeal - Washington Post Posted: 08 Jan 2011 06:14 PM PST Democrats, who were widely perceived to have blown the political messaging over President Obama's signature law, are revving up for a campaign-style offensive in an attempt to get it right the second time around. In the run-up to a House vote on repeal - originally scheduled for Wednesday but delayed after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and others in Tucson on Saturday - Democrats are staging news conferences and rallies outside the district offices of nearly 70 targeted Republican House members, many of whom were elected in districts Obama carried in his 2008 race. The White House has set up a rapid-response operation and was planning to deploy Cabinet secretaries this week to make the Democrats' case in newspaper editorials, on the radio and in satellite interviews with local television stations. Party officials said they will also showcase regular folks who have benefited from the health-care law - such as those younger than 26 who are now able to stay on their parents' insurance plans and people with preexisting conditions who can now get coverage - in local and national media to "put a face" on popular provisions. "It's not often you get a second chance to make a first impression, but [Republicans] are giving that right to us," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview. "Right now, people don't realize all the good things in the bill. The more we have an opportunity to talk about them, fewer and fewer people are going to be for repeal." The first time around As the bill was being crafted in 2009 and 2010, opponents seemed to gain the upper hand with their political message. Activists dressed down Democratic congressmen at their town hall meetings. They staged hands-off-my-health-care rallies. They dubbed the overhaul "Obamacare." Opposition to the bill helped propel Republicans to the majority in the House, and their effort to repeal it will fulfill a campaign promise and tea party priority. They scheduled a vote for Wednesday on a measure called "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." In the likely event the effort fails to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, House Republican leaders say they will keep whacking at the law piece by piece until it crumbles. "We're listening to the American people," House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Thursday. "They want this bill repealed, and we are going to repeal it. And we're going to do everything we can over the course of however long it takes to stop this because it will ruin the best health-care system in the world, it will bankrupt our nation and it will ruin our economy." Republican strategists say convincing a majority of Americans they are better off with the health-care law than without it will be a high hill for Democrats to climb. "The fundamental problem for the Democrats is that the bill as a whole is widely perceived to raise health-care costs, raise health-insurance premiums, increase taxes, increase the deficit and hurt the quality of care," Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. "That's a five-count indictment that creates major public opinion problems for the health-care reform bill that the Democrats passed." Public opinion on the law has long been divided. A December poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that 42 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of it and 41 percent an unfavorable one. One in four respondents wants to repeal the law in its entirety, while another one in four wants to repeal parts of the law and keep other parts. The remainder wants to leave the law as is or expand it. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| UK beauty queen set for deployment to Afghanistan - YAHOO! Posted: 09 Jan 2011 01:53 AM PST LONDON (AFP) – A former Miss England may be deployed in Afghanistan as early as next year after she returned to the Army following her term as a beauty queen. Corporal Katrina Hodge, who has already served in Iraq, swapped active duty for the glitz and glamour of the catwalk when she took the title last January. But she has now handed over her crown and is back on exercise in Army fatigues, preparing for a possible tour of war-torn Afghanistan. The married soldier, decorated for her bravery in Basra, today insisted she was glad to be back in the forces and ready to take on the challenge. "At the end of the day, it's my job. If that's what I've got to do, then that's what I've got to do," she said. "It's hard to be excited about going to Afghanistan but it's the reality of our job. Our job is be out there, protecting our country." Corporal Hodge, 24, tied the knot with husband Neil - a soldier whose surname cannot be disclosed for security reasons - in a secret ceremony in Sri Lanka in June. Three months later, when her spell as Miss England came to an end, she joined a new regiment and was thrown back into Army life. This involved a month on exercise and tough training to get her up to speed. "I'm not going to lie, it was hard to come back," she said. "It's definitely a change of lifestyle from having your hair and make-up done every day to being in your combats and having your hair scraped back. I was thrown in at the deep end and realised that this was reality. "I went on exercise and it was hard because I was living in woods, having spent the last year living in amazing hotels around the world. To go straight back to this, it was definitely a culture shock." She admitted she had been "apprehensive" about how she would be received by fellow servicemen and women. "When people met me, they knew I had been Miss England and I think people had an opinion of me," she added. "Then they realised that I'm just a normal squaddie. It's nice having a bit of banter at work and it's nice being back in the Army. "There are days when I miss getting dressed up and going to an event but the Army is my life and the Army has made me who I am." Corporal Hodge, from Brighton, joined the forces as a 17-year-old and served with 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, in Iraq for seven months before becoming a beauty queen. She has written a book about her experiences. Combat To Catwalk comes out on April 4 and is available to pre-order. Jessica Linley, 21, a law student at the University of Nottingham, is the new Miss England. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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