Monday, October 28, 2013

Susan Eisenhower on the GOP and Panel Debate on Obamacare 10/27 by Making Sense with Steve Leser | Politics Podcasts

Susan Eisenhower on the GOP and Panel Debate on Obamacare 10/27 by Making Sense with Steve Leser | Politics Podcasts

Susan Eisenhower

Lee Papa aka The Rude Pundit
Stephen Sigmund



Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and joins me to discuss the current state of the Republican Party. Susan is not just the granddaughter of a former President.
Susan has been a Fellow at Harvard’s JFK School of Government’s Institute of Politics and a Distinguished Fellow at the Nixon Center. She currently sits on the Nuclear Threat Initiative board, co-chaired by former Senator Sam Nunn and Ted Turner, the Energy Future Coalition and as an advisor to the US Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy and the Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies.
Then, we have a special panel to discuss the issues with the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare website, Healthcare.gov and discuss the future of Obamacare. The panel will consist of Stephen Sigmund from the Global Strategy Group and the Rude Pundit aka Lee Papa, a Progressive blogger and professor at CUNY Staten Island.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Susan Eisenhower on the GOP, Rude Pundit on my panel on Obamacare on my show this week!



Don't miss Making Sense with Steve Leser this week!

The show airs at 7pm Eastern Time on Blogtalk Radio this Sunday at the below link and at 2pm Pacific time Monday on KCAA 1050am in Inland Empire California and the Los Angeles basin.

Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and joins me to discuss the current state of the Republican Party. Susan is not just the granddaughter of a former President.

Susan has been a Fellow at Harvard’s JFK School of Government’s Institute of Politics and a Distinguished Fellow at the Nixon Center. She currently sits on the Nuclear Threat Initiative board, co-chaired by former Senator Sam Nunn and Ted Turner, the Energy Future Coalition and as an advisor to the US Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy and the Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies.

Then, we have a special panel to discuss the issues with the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare website, Healthcare.gov and discuss the future of Obamacare. The panel will consist of Stephen Sigmund from the Global Strategy Group and the Rude Pundit aka Lee Papa, a Progressive blogger and professor at CUNY Staten Island.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/10/27/susan-eisenhower-on-the-gop-and-panel-debate-on-obamacare-1




Monday, October 21, 2013

My Blockbuster special first Anniversary show this week with Gov Bill Richardson, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Special message from me on Obamacare 10/20 by Making Sense with Steve Leser | Politics Podcasts

Gov Bill Richardson Rep Barbara Lee and Special on Obamacare 10/20 by Making Sense with Steve Leser | Politics Podcasts

Special Statement by me on the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare from my Show this week

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/10/20/gov-bill-richardson-rep-barbara-lee-and-special-on-obamacare

And now a special brief statement by me on the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare.

I’ve been doing a few cable talk shows this past week to talk about the Affordable Care act also known as Obamacare. I’ve noticed that the conservative guests I have been on with have a couple of standard negative talking points that I want to address and in general I want to debunk a lot of the falsehoods going around about this important new program.

First, it’s important to remember at whom the Affordable Care Act is aimed. For 60%-70% of us who are either over 65 and have Medicare, or who have a healthcare plan provided by our employers, the Affordable Care Act barely affects us at all. We won’t see much change beyond free checkups, although that in and of itself saves a fair amount of money per year.

The affordable care act is aimed first of all at those of us under 65 who were not covered by an employer provided health care plan and had trouble affording a health care plan on their own. The vast majority of those folks are lower income people and those with pre-existing conditions or both.

That is why the Affordable care act prevented folks from being excluded from plans for pre-existing conditions and also included premium subsidies for people who make up to 400% of federal poverty level. In other words, if you are a family of:

  • 1 person and make less than $45960
  • 2 people and make less than $62040
  • 3 people and make less than $78120
  • 4 people and make less than $94200
  • 5 people and make less than $110280

You get a subsidy to help pay your premium. The lower your income under the numbers I listed for each family size, the more help you get with your premium.

Now, since the median household income in the US is right around $50,000 a year, you can see from the numbers I just mentioned that well over half of the households in the US, the lowest earning half, would be eligible for substantial subsidies to help pay with their healthcare premiums. For those families earning more than that, a huge percentage, probably 95% or more have one or more adults who get healthcare through their employers and thus would not be buying healthcare through the Obamacare exchanges.

Now that you understand that, let’s look at the numbers that the Heritage Foundation put out. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that seems devoted to attacking President Obama 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The Heritage Foundation compiled a list of the average premiums under the affordable care act exchanges without subsidies and announced that  Obamacare would cost people more money than they were paying before.

Now if you understand what I said just a few moments ago, you know that’s not true. Obamacare is not aimed at higher income households, most of whom don’t need it and will not be buying it because they get health insurance through their employers. Now, there is a small percentage of households where there are one or two adults who are independent contractors earning a lot of money and yes, they will pay more because Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act mandates more and better coverage. It enforces a new standard of better care in health insurance policies.

Still, it’s unfortunate that a fair number of folks in households where the income is greater than 400% of federal poverty level will end up paying more. That’s the main hole in Obamacare. It’s one that could have been fixed in the last two years, if Republicans had been willing to work with the President to improve the bill instead of doing everything possible to kill it. If you are in that category of 400% or greater of federal poverty level and don’t have an employer provided health insurance policy, chances are you might be paying more.

But we are now talking about a very small percentage of people. Remember 60-70% of people are insured through an employer provided plan and most of the folks who are left earn less than median income in the US and will get large subsidies through the Affordable Care Act to get insurance. I’ll talk about Obamacare more in upcoming shows but that, folks, is the no-nonsense truth regarding the Affordable Care Act. Now without delay, here is my interview with the incomparable Bill Richardson...

Cruz Distorts ACA Impact on Seniors, Children

What a surprise, Cruz is caught lying again.

Cruz Distorts ACA Impact on Seniors, Children

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Radio show this week, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D) CA on Shutdown, Geneive Abdo on Syria, Iran and Egypt and more!

Radio show this week, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D) CA on Shutdown, Geneive Abdo on Syria, Iran and Egypt and more!

Last edited Sun Oct 13, 2013, 01:37 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
Don't miss Making Sense with Steve Leser this week, More shutdown coverage and Syria, Egypt and Iran. 



Congresswoman Jackie Speier and I discuss the Government Shutdown and the Debt Ceiling crisis 

Geneive Abdo, Middle East expert from the Brookings Institute joins me to talk about Syria, Iran and Egypt 

Then of course we end with our trademark weekly hall of fame and shame for those politicians and prominent individuals who made great sense or shameful nonsense, respectively. 

You can hear the show tonight at 7pm Eastern time on Blogtalk Radio at the below link (or anytime afterwards at archive in the same link) or tomorrow, Monday at 2pm Pacific time on KCAA 1050am in Inland Empire and the LA Basin in California 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/10/13/shutdown-with-rep-speier-and-middle-east-with-geneive-abdo

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Don't miss our terrific guests on the next two episodes of Making Sense with Steve Leser

Don't miss our terrific guests on the next two episodes of Making Sense with Steve Leser

Don't miss our terrific guests on the next two episodes of Making Sense with Steve Leser

For the show that airs October 13-14 (Link:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/10/13/shutdown-with-rep-speier-and-middle-east-with-geneive-abdo )

Congresswoman Jackie Speier and I discuss the Government Shutdown and Debt Ceiling crisis

Geneive Abdo, Middle East expert from the Brookings Institute joins me to talk about Syria, Iran and Egypt

For the show that airs October 20-21

Bill Richardson - Former Governor of New Mexico discusses his new book and the shutdown

Susan Eisenhower - Granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower discusses how President Eisenhower would view the modern Republican Party

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Dick Armey, former GOP House Majority Leader Criticizes current House Republican Leadership on my Radio Show this week

Calling out the man who holds the job he used to hold, Dick Armey noted that Current House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was appointed to Deputy Whip by Roy Blunt, then turned around and ran against Blunt for House Whip (Blunt then dropped out of the race for the spot), agreeing with my suggestion that Cantor is an opportunist about whom Boehner needs to be concerned.

Also, noting he thinks the world of current Speaker John Boehner, the former House Majority Leader discussed what he thought was lacking in how the Speaker is handling the current crisis.

The full exchange can be heard 7pm ET Sunday at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/10/06/all-about-the-shutdown-with-dick-armey-and-bob-cusack and Monday 2pm Pacific on KCAA 1050am in Southern California.


All about the Shutdown with Dick Armey and Bob Cusack 10/06 by Making Sense with Steve Leser | Politics Podcasts

Don't miss my radio show this week that airs at 7pm Eastern time, Sunday October 6th on BlogtalkRadio.com at the below link, and Monday, October 7th at 2pm Pacific time on the NBC Radio affiliate KCAA 1050am in Inland empire, California!

All about the Shutdown with Dick Armey and Bob Cusack 10/06 by Making Sense with Steve Leser | Politics Podcasts


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