Milwaukee Teachers Fight to Get Taxpayers to Supply Viagra

With the district in a financial crisis

and hundreds of its members facing layoffs, the Milwaukee teachers union is taking a peculiar stand: fighting to get their taxpayer-funded Viagra back.

The union has asked a judge to order the school board to again include Pfizer Inc.'s erectile dysfunction drug and similar pills in its health insurance plans.

The filing is the latest in a two-year legal campaign in which the union has argued, so far unsuccessfully, that the board's policy of excluding erectile dysfunction drugs discriminates against male employees. The union says Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and others are necessary treatment for "an exclusively gender-related condition."

But lawyers for the school board say the drugs were excluded in 2005 to save money, and there is no discrimination because they are used primarily for recreational sex and not out of medical necessity.

The filing last month comes as the union, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, is also protesting hundreds of layoff notices issued to teachers for the coming school year. Citing a "financial crisis" caused by exploding benefit costs and revenue shortfalls, the district's outgoing superintendent proposed laying off 682 employees in April.

The district gave layoff notices to 482 teachers in June, but recalled 89 of them last month. Additional teachers may be called back, but these are still the first layoffs of Milwaukee teachers in decades.

At least one lawmaker questioned why the union is fighting for Viagra while teachers are losing their jobs. A consultant for the school board has estimated that reinstating the drug benefit would cost $786,000 per year — the cost to keep perhaps a dozen first-year teachers employed.

State Rep. Jason Fields argues that the money could be better spent any number of ways — including saving jobs - FOX News Story

Time for Americans to Force Government to Balance the Budget

We have all experienced a time when we opened a credit card bill, only to be shocked by the balance. On more than one occasion, I’m sure, we’ve all said, “Who put that charge on my account?”

Now, imagine opening that bill and finding out your balance has shot up by $37,000!

You call the company to say somebody ran up $37,000 on your card without your knowledge. Who could have done such a thing? Congress and President Barack Obama.

Let’s look at what they charged to your account:

Obamacare: $1 trillion.

Taxpayer bailouts: $3.5 trillion.

The national debt: $13 trillion.

The deficit: $1.47 trillion.

Though you tell the credit card company you didn’t authorize the charges, you’ve still got to pay the bill. After all, they were from the government, which came to help you.

Too many in Congress, as well as the president, have been issuing checks that they can’t cash, but they want you to — to the tune of $37,000 for each and every American citizen alive at the end of this sentence.

And the government isn’t done yet. So what can we do?

The American people have the ability, under Article V of the Constitution, to compel Congress to pass constitutional amendments — either through a Constitutional Convention or through the threat of 34 states passing petitions to force Congress to hold a convention.

The bottom line is, whether it’s via a Constitutional Convention or an act of Congress, we need the protection of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. - Politico Story

71% of Missourians Against Health Care

While Washington is obsessing over what the results of Missouri’s anti-health care reform ballot initiative mean for President Barack Obama, the state’s political insiders are debating whether it’s Democratic Senate nominee Robin Carnahan who needs to be worried.

A staggering 71 percent of Show-Me state primary voters cast ballots Tuesday opposing the new federal health care law — a symbolic yet resounding message that places Carnahan on the opposite side of a supermajority of the electorate.

The overwhelming vote in favor of Proposition C, a measure crafted to reject a portion of the law that requires most people to carry health insurance by 2014 or pay a fine, is the first tangible demonstration of how unpopular the president’s signature achievement remains in the Midwestern state.

Republicans argue the result from the country’s first proxy vote on the health care law is an ominous sign that bodes ill for Carnahan’s chances of capturing outgoing Republican Sen. Kit Bond’s seat this fall. As they see it, the lopsided vote crystallizes the challenge she faces in explaining her support for the legislation as she attempts to narrow her deficit in the polls with Rep. Roy Blunt, the Republican nominee.

“This is a very difficult issue for Robin Carnahan, because the crown jewel of Obama’s legislative career has been health care, and 71 percent of those voting in the primary — people who are going to come back in the general [election] — are voting for this,” said Patrick Tuohey, a Kansas City Republican who managed the Yes on Prop C campaign. - Politico Story

More Stimulus Spending - This time for the States

When the House returns next week to rubber-stamp the Senate’s $26 billion state-aid package, Democrats will take a political crapshoot.

Even though party leaders expect that approval will be a slam-dunk, some early responses from rank-and-file Democrats have raised red flags about the optics of returning to a special session to vote on more spending — even if it’s framed as saving teachers’ jobs.

The risk for Democrats as they seek to bolster their flagging election prospects is that some of their vulnerable members will feel like they have to walk the plank, yet again, on a politically unpopular economic-stimulus agenda, while reminding voters of their failure to handle routine budget work this year.

Many Democrats are already cranky about the abrupt interruption to their campaign and vacation schedule, wishing the House and Senate would have cut a deal weeks ago. But they don’t want to cross Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly.

“You will certainly have many vulnerable and front-line Dems really upset about coming back because the Senate told them to — when they feel they are already defending their seats because of Senate inaction over the last year and a half,” a top aide to a usually loyal House Democrat said in an e-mail to POLITICO. - Politico Story

Trouble for Dems and Obama, 71% of Missouri Voters Don't Support Obama Health Care Provision

Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision of President Barack Obama's health care law, sending a clear message of discontent to Washington and Democrats less than 100 days before the midterm elections.

About 71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.

The Missouri law conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014.

Tuesday's vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law. But it was also seen as a sign of growing voter disillusionment with federal policies and a show of strength by conservatives and the tea party movement. - ABC News Story

Virginia Next State for Immigration Law?

A handful of Virginia lawmakers may be positioning their state to be the next battleground in the immigration debate.

Virginia, one of nearly 20 states toying with the idea of an Arizona-style immigration law, hurtled onto the national radar screen this week after Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli ruled that police can ask people about their immigration status during routine stops.

While a northern Virginia county has been at the forefront of the push for stricter local immigration laws for three years, none of this activity has prompted the kind of nationwide backlash -- in the form of boycotts and a federal government lawsuit -- that Arizona triggered with its law in April. Those behind the Virginia proposals, including a proposed statewide law, are hoping their state can avoid the kind of public relations and legal pitfalls that have, at least temporarily, ensnared Arizona. - FOX News Story

Missouri Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Obama's Health Care

JEFFERSON CITY

, Mo. -- Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision of President Barack Obama's health care law, sending a clear message of discontent to Washington and Democrats less than 100 days before the midterm elections.

With about 90 percent of the vote counted late Tuesday, nearly three-quarters of voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.

The Missouri law would conflict with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014.

Tuesday's vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law. But it was also seen as a sign of growing voter disillusionment with federal policies and a show of strength by conservatives and the tea party movement.

"To us, it symbolized everything," said Annette Read, a tea party participant from suburban St. Louis who quit her online retail job to lead a yearlong campaign for the Missouri ballot measure. "The entire frustration in the country ... how our government has misspent, how they haven't listened to the people, this measure in general encompassed all of that." - FOX News Story

Obama Selling the Koolaid on Immigration and Arizona

(CBS) President Barack Obama said he understands frustration over the hot-button issue of illegal immigration, but warned against local authorities' "patchwork" attempts to enact reform on their own.

"I understand the frustration of people in Arizona. But what we can't do is demagogue the issue," Mr. Obama told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith in an exclusive interview. "And what we can't do is allow a patchwork of 50 different states, or cities or localities, where anybody who wants to make a name for themselves suddenly says, 'I'm gonna be anti-immigrant and I'm gonna try to see if I can solve the problem ourself.'"

Last week, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton temporarily halted controversial portions of Arizona's newly enacted immigration law, including the requirements for police officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws and for immigrants to carry their papers at all times.

The ruling sets up a lengthy legal battle that may end up in the Supreme Court.

Obama: "Bumpy Road Ahead" for America

While the Obama administration filed a legal challenge to the law, Mr. Obama still acknowledged the "mission of controlling our immigration processes are absolutely correct. And that's why my administration's actually put more resources on the border to the point where we now have more of everything - border patrols. More over flights and, you know, more immigration agents. You name it, we've got more of them.

Mr. Obama also said he wants to "work with Arizona" on the issue. - CBS News Story

If this is all true, How come Obama failed to follow up with the Governor of Arizona after their face to face meeting?

Obama Administrations Amnesty Memo

See Immigration Amnesty Memo (Click Here)

More Voters Blame Obama for Economy than Bush

For the first since President Obama took office, voters see his policies as equally to blame with those of President George W. Bush for the country’s current economic problems.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters now think Obama’s policies are to blame for the continuing bad economy, up three points from last month. Forty-seven percent (47%) say the recession that began under Bush is at fault.

With voters across the country expressing stronger belief that the economy is getting worse rather than better, these new findings spell potential bad news for Democratic candidates this fall. The president is already planning to limit his campaign appearances with candidates because of potential voter backlash.

In June and last October, 45% blamed Obama’s policies for the country’s ongoing economic woes, the previous high finding on this question. The number who blame Bush is down from 62% in May 2009 when Rasmussen Reports first began tracking the question regularly. Only 27% faulted Obama at that time. - Rasmussen Reports