Jeff is such a generous guy.

Which union PAC paid for it?

Jack, does that mailer have any "Paid for by..." information on it? Seems like that'd be an interesting little tidbit to know.

Oh, so you guys think it's better that 11 million children don't have health care?

I received not one but TWO of these pieces in the mail today, although since I live in Washington they urged me to thank Senator Patty Murray. First piece said it was paid for by "FamiliesUSA, Service Employees International Union, The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and America's Pharmaceutical Research Companies". Second piece (slightly different text and pics but basically the same) said it was paid for by "America's Agenda:Health Care for Kids, America's Pharmaceutical Research Companies, and the Laborers' International Union of North America".

Give him about two years and then he'll get ot Wyden's level and assume that it is his god-given right to be our senator. Then he won't even bother to visit Oregon.

THese little puff pieces let the party know its appartchik is doing their will.

Thanks to cigarette smokers 11 million children have health care, not Jeff Merkley. Why is it that everyone can't shoulder the cost of this?

Jeff is such a generous guy.

Modest too.

Big Pharma supports expanded healthcare coverage? They must think that price caps are better than giving the stuff away for indigent care.

It is hard to believe that Sen. Merkeley's backers would already be campaigning for the next election (still 5 years away).

If the goal is to make smokers live more healthy lives couldn't we design a plan that applies to more people? We could require that everyone walk 2 miles every day. Folks could opt out by making a 2 dollar payment to a fund dedicated to "the children."

Someone might object to a "command" that they walk, so we could reformulate it to a command for everyone to pay 2 dollars a day to a fund for the children but allow them to opt out by walking 2 miles a day.

The children would learn by example about healthy living. Look up childhood diabetes and you will see that we have an epidemic that calls for some kind of immediate and targeted action.

Do smokers cause childhood diabetes? Would local mom above belittle someone who chooses to walk so as to avoid paying 2 dollars a day for the children?

The downfall of politicians comes when they begin to believe the PR releases published by their sycophants.

"Someone might object to a "command" that they walk, so we could reformulate it to a command for everyone to pay 2 dollars a day to a fund for the children but allow them to opt out by walking 2 miles a day."

2 x 365 x 300,000,000 = 219 billion dollars / year. I'm pretty sure that would overshoot the funding mark.

That is, if you could ever get around the massive deluge of lawsuits from the impoverished, infirmed, disabled, elderly, etc.

Smokers are an easy target. Buying tobacco is a choice, and the tax is already there so it's (comparitively) easy to increase; and the "Big Tobacco" companies are already viewed as easy marks for money because of their past criminal acts.

Oh, and I didn't even get into the administrative cost of enforcement - hundreds of thousands of federal employees going over pedometer readings every freakin day...

Glad to see this Merkley piece. Good to remind people that who holds office does make a difference.

Well, one way to look at it is by the time they are 12 or 13, about 25% of those kids will be paying for their own healthcare...

Pete,
You're "Glad to see this Merkley piece"?

words????? I can't type here.

"Why is it that everyone can't shoulder the cost of this?"

Because most states took the tobacco settelment money and threw it into their general funds (like Oregon did.) Oh wait, that doesn't make sense.

These politicians are screwed up, face it.

Such a good D soldier! I might understand his braggadocio if he
had co-sponsored the bill, but he did not. And it would have passed two-to-one without his yes vote. Incidentally, I hope none of you folks smokes cigars.

Among other things, I wonder if "America's Pharmaceutical Research Companies" is somehow different from PhRMA. It would amuse me if that group has decided their brand is too tarnished to use in literature.

The campaign never ends - here's a letter I just received from Congressman Kurt Schrader. How many days has he been in office?

TG

I am writing to thank you for all your support over the past year on my race for Congress. We’ve been working hard in Washington to keep the promises we made during the campaign, and to get our country moving again. In fact, the recently passed recovery package contained many of the elements we campaigned on last year.

We’re certainly off to a fast start. We’ve hit the ground running. We’ve already passed legislation to extend healthcare coverage to 40,000 additional children in Oregon and the recovery package put together by President Obama and the Congress that will get our country back to work, provide urgently needed money to our state, and began an overhaul of our infrastructure.

Unfortunately, the campaign never seems to end. National Republicans and other outside interest groups have already started attacking me in the press. One of the first press releases attacking me from the NRCC was a complete fabrication! They outright lied about my voting record. Now they’ve pledged to attack me with radio ads across the district.

Our opponents continue to engage in the same tired political attacks that Americans rejected in November. But I need your help to make sure we’re able to respond to their attacks while we get this country back on track. I need your help to get my message out to the voters.

I know times are tough in our economy right now, but I hope you’ll help my campaign by going to my website and making a contribution today. Every dollar will help our effort to be ready to respond when outside groups attack, and a healthy campaign account can discourage potential opponents from jumping in the race early.

Your support has meant a great deal to me. It’s allowed me to get a running start here in Washington and achieve the goals we share for Oregon and our country. I hope you’ll be able to help out again.

Sincerely,

Kurt Schrader

From now on I might make a point of calling every legislator just doing their job quietly and exhibiting restraint by NOT wasting time and money sending out full color puff pieces and thank THEM. I don't care who is paying for them; in the long run, it's probably us.

I'd rather they simply send a press release to the local media and let them pursue the story if it is newsworthy.