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How The Affordable Care Act Actually Affects Small Business

admin — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Healthcare reform, and the impact it has made on small businesses and employers, may not be an issue that you can afford to ignore. Lacking an understanding of hot-button issues and the new developments and political efforts that may impact your life style and business more directly can be a serious oversight, one that you may not be able to afford making. Finding and making use of the best news and information sites and services will ensure that you are able to stay up to date and current with any issue that may be important to you.

Political news and economic events that could play a big role in your daily life and professional efforts is never a concern that should be taken lightly. With full access to the resources you need to stay well-informed and educated about important issues and breaking news, many advantages can be enjoyed. If you are concerned about recent events that you may not have a full understanding of, and the potential impact that they might have on your future, educating yourself and finding a better way to stay informed can make a big difference. The right news sites and information resources are not something that should be overlooked.

War on Women\’s Health Rights, Abortion and Contraception

www.houstongrind.com — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Today\’s young women cannot remember a time when abortions were illegal and when women seeking one were forced to go to back-alley butchers who jeopardized their lives and reproductive futures. They can\’t fathom going to a doctor and being denied birth control, or having to prove they were married in order to get a prescription for the Pill. But since the GOP declared its War on Women, these scenarios loom just beyond the upcoming presidential election. Women can no longer afford to be complacent when their rights are under attack. We have senators voting against renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, redefining rape, making preposterous claims that women can\’t be impregnated during a rape and, with one sweep of the legislative pen, systematically dismantling the women\’s healthcare programs that were painstakingly constructed over decades.

Can there be a more personal decision than when to bring a baby into the world? Most people would say this decision should be made by the woman, in consultation with her doctor. But now the GOP wants to make those decisions for America\’s women instead. They want to legislate what goes on inside a woman\’s womb. Nothing can disenfranchise a woman faster and consign her to a life of poverty than to saddle herself with babies she is ill-equipped to care for or feed. Single mothers who struggle with juggling work and child care face obstacles to upward mobility that can keep them trapped in the miasma of poverty for decades.

But the War on Women doesn\’t stop with criminalizing abortion and denying access to birth control. Republicans have proposed cuts of nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies and toddlers through WIC and other programs. They want to end government funds going to early childhood preschool classes attended by millions of America\’s children. And with full GOP support, state budgets that fund early detection screenings for breast and cervical cancers have been gutted. Without these free and low-cost screenings, many cancers that could be caught and treated early will progress until the survival rates are much lower and the cancers treated more aggressively. Women will die because of these legislative decisions made mostly by men. But women still have options, can still fight back and win this war. Women can unite, vote together as a bloc to protect their access to affordable screenings, birth control and a full array of reproductive choices. They can vote out the incumbents and block the Tea Party-backed candidates who believe women belong barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. A national election looms on the horizon; it\’s time to make some choices. Women have the power to stand up to the dark forces behind this assault on their reproductive choices and liberties and retain the rights for which their sisters who came before have fought.

Who Are Mitt Romney\’s Forty Seven Percent of Americans?

www.houstongrind.com — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

If Mitt Romney has the support of 47 percent of American voters, who are they? The people who want this country to change for the better are who support Romney. They are the older Americans who are tired of losing their jobs to foreign companies. The younger people of America who want to lower unemployment and improve the economy are part of the 47 percent of people who support Romney. He has the support of the middle class. These are people who have lost everything they owned because they have been laid off or fired from their job.

Another group of people who support Romney are those who want to see the people of America support themselves instead of depending on government assistance. It is also the people who don\\\’t want tax increases and who want the overall deficit of the country to decrease. There are people who want to choose their own insurance instead of someone else telling them what doctor they can or can\\\’t see. When it comes to religious organizations, it is the Mormons and Baptists who are supporting Romney through the presidential campaign. Lastly, the people who support Romney are those who are against gay rights, abortion and the freedom of choice.

Popular Vote Versus Electoral College: Which Should Determine Elections?

www.houstongrind.com — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

There have been two instances in American history where a seemingly illogical result has occurred in a presidential election: the candidate with fewer popular votes became president. This has happened because presidents are not elected by the popular vote. The Constitution requires that presidents be elected by electors from each state. The candidate who wins the popular vote in a particular state wins that state\’s electors. It takes 270 Electoral votes to become president.

In 1876, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the vote in the Electoral College and became president. The most recent split between the popular and Electoral vote came in 2000, when George W. Bush became president despite having lost the popular vote by about half a million votes.

The drafters of the Constitution believed that it was dangerous to give too much power directly to anyone. Thus, the drafters established the Electoral College to act as a â€œcheckâ€ on the popular vote.

The Electoral College has not sparked much discussion about its necessity over the past two hundred years. But the result of the 2000 presidential election resurrected the debate about the usefulness and fairness of the Electoral College in the modern United States. If another presidential election produces another president who has lost the popular vote, it seems likely that there will be efforts to abolish the Electoral College and have the president be elected directly by popular vote.

Vice Presidential Debates: Discovering If They Affect Election Outcomes

admin — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Judging from the first Presidential debate, the impression that candidates make during these ninety minutes has the potential to influence election outcomes. At the very least, this is what candidates are hoping for, we see this when the day following the debate, each of the opposing sides claims the victory for their candidate. One cannot deny that the results from the Presidential debate showed a victory for the right, Romney was confident, assertive, and very well prepared. Many Democrats were disappointed with the performance of the President, an opportunity that Republicans took to gain on undecided voters.Additional information can be found at http://www.businessinsider.com/vp-debate-poll-biden-wins-ryan-2012-10. Polls shifted and the race tightened, yet there are more debates to come. The Democrats appeared to have learned from this debate and when Vice President Biden hit the stage on Thursday night, many will argue he walked away victorious. Joe Biden and Paul Ryan both seemed well versed and prepared, but Biden was definitely more on the offense arguably in an attempt to reinvigorate the left in support of the administration. The debates have the ability to motivate the electorate to go out and vote on November 6th and to gain the trust of undecided voters. We can certainly agree on the fickle nature of voters and therefore, we are not ready to draw any conclusions yet, there are more debates to come.

Alaskan Wildlife Preservation, Oil Drilling, and Pipeline Construction

www.houstongrind.com — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

There has been controversy over the drilling in Alaska since it became a state in 1959. When Alaska first was selected for its statehood, politicians selected a mere third of the wilderness to be for development. Several acres were then set aside as National Parks. The wildlife preservation areas expanded to over one hundred and four acres million acres once the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Since the act was passed, however, oil and gas consumption have become more pressing issues in the United States. Most of the Alaskian wilderness is home to many endangered and protected species of animals and wildlife. One of the largest concerns is the Porcupine Caribou, a native herd comprised of one hundred thousand animals, and how drilling will affect their grazing land. In 1987, a treaty was passed with Canada, allowing for the protection of the herd and drilling for oil in its natural habitat is likely to cause adverse effects on the herd\’s behavior as it migrates.

Because of the need to preserve the native wildlife, the Alaskian Pipeline has been a heated political topic. The United States is very reliant on oil and allowing the drilling could help end the gas crisis in America.
The information doesn\’t stop now. Keep looking: Terry Tempest Williams: A Generational Stance on Behalf of the Arctic Ocean