Reversed an inexcusable US position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide full partnership benefits to federal employees

Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act

Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King

Appointed the first transgender DNC member in history

Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees

Conceived a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders -- the nation's first ever -- funded by a three-year HHS grant to SAGE

Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA

Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability -- the first positive federal LGBT legislation in the nation's history

Hired and appointed a record number of qualified LGBT Americans, including more than 10 Senate-confirmed appointments

Sworn in Ambassador David Huebner

Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)

Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation's largest employer)

Dispatched the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call on the Senate to repeal Don't Ask / Don't Tell, in the meantime dialing back on discharges

Launched a website to gather public comment on first-ever federal LGBT housing discrimination study

Appointed long-time equality champion Chai Feldblum one of the four Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept gay relationships from being counted, encouraging couples who consider themselves married to file that way, even if their state of residence does not yet permit legal marriage

Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons.

Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.





ALL actual items of accomplishment. Which ones do you want to do without? The outrage doesn't match the facts.

This pool has nothing to do with whether you think SP would pass the senate. Its my intention to prove that almost everyone here on DU thinks SP is the superior system. The problem, of course, is that it will not pass.

so, lets vote

The recent discussion regarding Cadillac plans has amazed me as so many people seem to think that large numbers of average Americans will be impacted by a Excise tax on premium plans. I know and can prove statistically that the general cost for a family plan, union or non union, costs around $13K per year based on the Kaiser family research. The excise tax in the senate bill is indexed with inflation so it should grow over time. I wanted to check out the danger of the excise tax more thoroughly so went to a trusted source, the AFLCIO, who opposes the excise tax to follow their line of reasoning.

After walking backward through their links, i eventually arrived the Economic Policy Institute, who's advices has driven the AFLCIO's stand against this facet of the senate plan. The EPI believes that a significant portion of working Americans have plans that cost more than $25K a year currently and that carving niches out of the tax would be in effective. They believe that insurance costs will rise faster than inflation making the index ineffectual. They also believe that either bill will cut insurance costs which would seem to contradict the claim that insurance costs would rise quickly.

Regarding the reduction in insurance plan cost, they stated that the reduction in insurance costs would NOT be translated into worker pay as historical evidence shows(and was shown) no circumstance where reduced costs effected the wage line. This of course means that any claims of increased income tax are probably not accurate but increases in corporate taxes are probably.

This was all interesting but i wanted to find the actual stats on Americans who's plans cost more than $25K a year. I read through their plans and followed all their links which all ended with one of their analysts named Elise Gould. Elise seems confident in the stance that Americans pay a lot for premium plans but each and every link that promised research or statistics on these plans or their costs and statistics had nothing.


So this is what it comes down to for me. I personally don't think this stance is accurate, but if someone knows where the true stats on this rest, i would sure like to see them.


does anyone have the facts?

This has been the new screed of the fake left here at DU, the health industry thugs that come here to turn our board into just another screaming health care forum to create disruption and stall progress through lies and intimidation.


I pay $12K for insurance and that is the average for just about every working class family policy in America. The Cadillac policies are NOT held by Union members, they are held by the very rich. This does not equate to a tax increase for those under $250K except in the oddest of circumstances.

While firms that posses union workers have slightly higher value policies than firms who do not, that value is only a $1000 per year more, NOT double.

Feel free to check out the facts at the Kaiser Family Foundation website which shows 2009 survey results.

http://ehbs.kff.org/?page=charts&id=2&sn=1...

And for you pikers who tried to spin based on geography:

Now that the primary is over, it is important for Obama to move toward the center.

Over the past few decades, the republicans have been spending their propaganda time telling the middle that the liberals are weak on defense,big on tax increases, and anti-business while they will protect us and make us all rich. Must of us here know this to be untrue but it has taken some root among those who pay less attention. Their efforts have, none the less, moved the center to the right. This was indicative during the bush election when the many MSM morons pronounced the need for the democratic party to become more conservative.

Any political credit they may have earned has been wasted by a continuing record of increased spending, national debt, removal of civil liberties, economic woe,institutional dishonesty, and global instability. While they have fooled the center into looking right for so long, now is the time for us to show them that we are not extremists but rather simply the party bent on instituting equity, peace, and decency here at home.


The time is ripe and it should be clear that Obama should begin his turn to the middle as the primaries have ended. If we can move the center back to the actual center or maybe to the left some, we can begin a phase of continued progression that can last for decades on end. politicians at the local level can reap this benefit as can nominees that may come in the future.

Its time for us to go get the center square back.