October 1, 2015

September
15, 2014 August Primary Election Issue #1 No.
No. 15-11
14-11

What Would Defunding

Planned Parenthood Mean?
What Would
Defunding Planned
Parenthood Mean?
Services Unavailable
Planned Parenthood provides a
wide range of preventive health
care services, and serves a total
of 2.7 million patients per year.
More than 90 percent of what
they do nationally is:
preventive care, including
lifesaving cancer screenings,
birth control,
and testing and treatment
for sexually transmitted
infections (STIs).
Approximately 1 in 5 women has
relied on a Planned Parenthood
health center for care in her
lifetime.
In 2013 Planned Parenthood
served 2.7 million women, men,
and young people.
1.5 million of those patients
received services through
Title X the nations family
planning program.
At least 78 percent of Planned
Parenthoods health care patients live within incomes of
150 percent of the federal pov15-11

erty level or less (the equivalent of $36,375 a year for a

family of four in 2015).
At least 60 percent of the
patients Planned Parenthood serves each year benefit from public health coverage programs such as the
nations family planning
program and Medicaid.
In addition, Planned Parenthood affiliates reached
1.5 million young people
and families through sex education and outreach.
Patients came into Planned
Parenthood health centers
4.6 million times for services.
2.2 million, or nearly 52
percent of all patient visits,
were with patients enrolled
in Medicaid.
Services Planned Parenthood
provided 10.6 million services.
Nearly 400,000 Pap tests
Nearly 500,000 breast
exams
Nearly 4.5 million STI tests
and treatments, including
HIV tests

TALKING POINTS
1. Defunding Planned Parenthood would take away
vital services from millions.
2. Unless everyone votes, you will
insure that the American citizen has a near-zero, statistically non-significant impact
on the decisions made by
our elected leaders.
3. About 400 families in America rule the other 318 milllion of us. That is called an
Oligarchy.
4. If Planned Parenthood is defunded, men and women
who cant afford other services will have to go without
care altogether.
5. The TransPacific Partnership
is a scam.

[Continued on page 2, DEFUNDING]

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How Bad Is It? Weve always known that

politicians are more responsive to corporate CEOs
and the wealthy than to ordinary citizens. But
now we have proof. An exhaustive study out of
Princeton and Northwestern Universities shows
just how bad the situation really is.

[DEFUNDING, continued from page 1

Funding
Planned Parenthood affiliates received $528.4
million in government reimbursements and
grants. The vast majority of that amount is
reimbursements through Medicaid.
Planned Parenthoods national office and
affiliates receive funding from a wide variety
of sources, including foundations and
individual supporters. Affiliates also receive
reimbursements for providing preventive
health care services like cancer screenings
and birth control to low-income patients, just
like other health care providers receive.
All government funds that Planned
Parenthood affiliates receive are restricted
for specific purposes. Federal funds are
prohibited from covering abortion except
in the dire circumstances of rape, incest, or
when the life of the woman is in jeopardy.
Planned Parenthood fully complies with this
and all government restrictions.
Approximately 1 in 5 women has relied on a
Planned Parenthood health center for care in her
lifetime.
###

Average American Has Near Zero Impact

After comparing the political preferences of
ordinary Americans and wealthy Americans
with adopted government policy, the researchers
conclude that average Americans often have a
near-zero, statistically non-significant impact on
the decisions made by our elected leaders.
In plain English, when it comes to making policy,
politicians care a lot more about what giant
corporations and the wealthy want than what the
great majority of their constituents want. Theres
a word for that kind of government:
Oligarchy.
###

The New Oligarchs and Politics:

Deeply Out of Touch
With Majority Opinion
The .0001% Rule The New Oligarchsnot
even the top 1%, but the top one-ten-thousandth
of 1%live in a profoundly different world than
the rest of us. They have no conception of the
challenges facing the working poor or middle class
families, of the struggle to pay a doctors bill, for
example, or scrape together enough money for
college tuition.

What About Super PACs?

PACs Raised Through the first six months of

2015 Super PACs backing presidential candidates
raised $258 milliontwice what the candidates
official campaigns took in and nearly ten times
what Super PACs had raised by this point in the
They dont worry about their job being moved
2012 election cycle! So far, 58 individuals have
overseas thanks to some trade deal that will fatten
written checks of $1 million or moresometimes
corporate profits at the expense of worker rights
a lot more.
and the environment.
Fewer Than 400 And The New York Times
And when all that retirement security means
reports that nearly half of the $388 million
to them is making sure their compound is wellraised by presidential candidates and Super PACs
patrolled at night, the New Oligarchs dont have to
comes from fewer than 400 families, calling
worry about Social Security and Medicare.
it a concentration of political donors that is
Profoundly Different Personal Experiences
unprecedented in the modern era.
Profoundly different personal experiences give
The New American Oligarchs Theyre
the wealthy radically different political views than
seizing the enormous political power the Supreme
the general public.
Court offered them in Citizens United and a
handful of other appalling decisions. And theyre
[Continued on page 3, OLIGARCHS]
posing a mortal threat to our democracy.

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The Critical Need for Planned

Parenthood Health Centers

[OLIGARCHS, continued from page 2]

For example,
the top 1% are more than twice as likely to Planned Parenthood is many womens ordinary
source of health care.
favor cuts in Medicare
Planned Parenthood provides a wide range
and more than three times as likely to back
cuts in Social Security.
of preventive health care services, and serves
a total of 2.7 million patients per year. More
Why Were Struggling
than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood
No wonder we keep hearing from Democrats.
does nationally is preventive care, including
Fewer than 33% of the wealthy support a
lifesaving cancer screenings, birth control,
single-payer health insurance system
and testing and treatment for sexually
compared to more than 60% of the general
transmitted infections (STIs).
public.
For many of the people Planned Parenthood
Thats why were still struggling to implement
serves, a Planned Parenthood health center is
the deeply flawed Affordable Care Act instead of
the only health care provider in their area that
reaping the benefits of a simple Medicare-for-All
offers these services. For others, a Planned
system that we know would cover all Americans
Parenthood health center is the only provider
and reduce health care costs.
that offers these services without long
Just 35% believe government should spend
appointment wait times, the only provider
whatever is necesary to make sure all students
that will accept their Medicaid coverage, or
can attend good public schools.
the only provider that offers these services at
and only 28% think the government should
a discounted rate.
make it possible for anyone who wants to go
OB/GYN providers, including Planned
to college to do so.
Parenthood, often provide both primary and
Differences Are Glaring And when you put
preventive care.
real faces on the New Oligarchs, the differences
Nearly 60% of women report seeing an OB/
between their narrow political agenda and the
GYN on a regular basis and 35% of women
public good become even more glaring.
view their OB/GYN as their main source of
The Koch brothers, for example, would make
care this is disproportionately true for lowbillions by easing environmental regulations
income women who would be impacted by
their Dirty Energy businesses have to meet, while
defunding.i
Robert Mercer, the secretive hedge fund manager
Planned Parenthood health centers comprise
who gave $11 million to a Super PAC backing Ted
13% of publicly funded family planning
Cruz, would see a huge return on that investment
centers in the U.S., but they serve more than
if Cruzs radical tax proposals were adopted.
one-third of all patients who get care from the
And Diane Hendricks, the owner of the countrys
family planning health center network.
largest supplier of roofing materials who gave $5
The nations community health centers are
million to Scott Walkers Super PAC, would benefit
unable to readily absorb Planned Parenthood
enormously from Walkers promise to lower
patients
corporate tax rates and weaken labor unions.
Because of Planned Parenthoods large role
New Oligarchs Like These speak for only
in delivering family planning care across this
a tiny fraction of us. But thanks to the Supreme
country, public health experts have rebuffed
Courts outrageous decisions equating money with
the notion that other providers, including
speech, it is their voice that is setting the agenda
FQHCs, could serve Planned Parenthoods
in Washington, their voice that is drowning
patients.
out all others ... and their voice that our elected
leaders will continue answering to. Until you and
I put a stop to it --Robert Weissman, Public Citizen,
[Continued on page 4, CRITICAL]
www.citizen.org ###
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health departments, federally qualified health

Loss of Affordable and Accessible Contra- centers (FQHCs), and Planned Parenthood health
ceptive Services According to Sara Rosen- centersfound that,
Planned Parenthood clinics surpass other
baum with the George Washington University
clinics in terms of offering a wide variety
School of Public Health and Health Services, deof [contraceptive] methods and making
funding Planned Parenthood
those methods easily accessible.
would mean the loss of affordable and
accessible contraceptive services and
Planned Parenthood Health
counseling, as well as breast and cervical
cancer screenings and testing and treatment
Centers Are Key Access Points
for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
For Underserved Communities.
The assertion that community health
A majority (54 percent) of Planned
centers could step into a breach of this
Parenthood health centers are located in
magnitude is simply wrong and displays a
health professional shortage areas, rural
fundamental misunderstanding of how the
areas, or medically underserved areas.
health care system works.
Seventy-eight percent [78%] of Planned
More than half of Medicaid providers are not
Parenthood patients have incomes at or
currently offering appointments to enrollees
below 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL),
and over two-thirds of states report difficulty in
and approximately 60 percent of Planned
ensuring enough providers, including OB/GYN
Parenthood patients access care through
care, in particular for Medicaid enrollees.
the Medicaid program or the Title X family
planning program.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, nationwide,
According to a recent Guttmacher Institute
Planned Parenthood serves 36 percent of women
report, in 21 percent of the counties with a
receiving contraceptive care from safety-net family
Planned Parenthood health center, Planned
planning centers, even though they comprise only
Parenthood is the only safety-net family
10 percent of such centers. In 18 states, Planned
planning provider. In 68 percent of counties
Parenthood health centers serve more than 40
with a Planned Parenthood health center,
percent of women receiving contraceptive care
Planned Parenthood serves at least half of
from safety-net family planning providers. Each
all safety-net family planning patients
Planned Parenthood health center serves, on
reinforcing the vital role that Planned
average, nearly 3,000 patients for contraceptive
Parenthood plays in delivering family
services each year, far more than other clinic types.
planning care.
Women Choose Women choose to access
Without Planned Parenthood, many patients
these services at Planned Parenthood because
would not have timely access to basic
of the emphasis on expert, quality reproductive
reproductive health care.
health care.
The mainstream health care field recognizes
Planned Parenthood is a crucial entry point into
Planned Parenthoods unique role.
the health care system for many women. Women
feel more comfortable being honest with OB/ Recognizing the expert care Planned Parenthood
GYN providers like Planned Parenthood, and offers, other providers often refer patients to
Planned Parenthood regularly screens for obesity, Planned Parenthood to ensure they receive
high blood pressure, and tobacco use, and offers information about and access to the full range of
counseling, treatment, or referrals when results contraceptive methods and services. For example,
indicate that additional care management is among FQHCs that reported a family planningfocused provider in their largest sites community,
needed.
69 percent reported making referrals for family
Planned Parenthood Surpasses A planning services.
Guttmacher Institute survey of providers offering
publicly funded family planning careincluding
[Continued on page 5, KEY]
[Continued from page 3, CRITICAL]

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Coming October 2017:

Online Voter Registration

[Continued from page 4, KEY]

Any proposal to exclude Planned

Parenthood from public health programs
will severely curtail womens access to
essential health care services, including
family planning, well-woman exams,
breast and cervical cancers screenings,
and HIV testing and counseling, leaders
of 18 health care groups wrote to Congress.

During the 2015 session, the Florida Legislature

passed Senate Bill 228, Online Voter Registration, and
the Governor signed the bill into law in May. This new
legislation will allow the implementation of online voter registration beginning October 2017. Florida now
joins over 20 states who have already implemented
this non-political program that will reduce costs, provide greater accessibility for voters, and will bolster the
integrity of the process.

For many women in America, Planned

Parenthood is the only place where they
are able to get needed quality care, said
Mark S. DeFrancesco, MD, MBA, FACOG,
president of the American Congress of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Online voter registration will provide new voters with

the option to use a signature currently on file with the
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) when completing the online application, ultimately eliminating the current need to print,
sign and mail/deliver a completed paper application.
Each registrant will be assigned a unique identifier for
security purposes when completing the online application.

Ludicrous The American Public Health

Association (APHA) called it ludicrous to suggest
other providers could simply take on Planned
Parenthoods patients.ii

The Florida Division of Elections is responsible for

constructing the new program, conducting a comprehensive risk evaluation, coordinating efforts with the
DHSMV and local Supervisors of Elections, and performing a routine assessment every two years.
###

[Not all] of the Medicaid services that

would have been obtained .fr6m Planned
Parenthood Federation of America would
instead be obtained from other health
clinics and medical practitioners,
Congressional Budget Office.

Presidential Primary Debate Schedule

Republicans
Wed Oct. 28, 2015: Boulder, Colo. (CNBC)
November 2015: Wisconsin (Fox Business/Wall
Street Journal)
Tue Dec. 15, 2015: Las Vegas (CNN/Salem Radio)
January 2016: Iowa (Fox News)
Sat Feb. 6, 2016: Manchester, New Hampshire
(ABC News/IJReview)
Sat Feb. 13, 2016: South Carolina (CBS News)
Fri Feb. 26, 2016: Houston (NBC/Telemundo/National Review)
Pending:
March 2016: TBD (Fox News)
Thu March 10, 2016: Florida (CNN/Salem Radio)

In many communities, there are not

other health care providers that would
be equipped to fill the void created by
the prohibition of funding for [Planned
Parenthood,] a qualified, trusted family
planning provider, The National Family
Planning and Reproductive Health
Association
Some of [the Community Health Centers
and Federally Qualified Health Centers]
are at capacity, some of them also dont
provide the full range of services, said Alma
Salganicoff, director of womens health
policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation

Democrats
Current candidates include: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin OMalley, Lawrence Lessig,
Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chaffee.
Tue Oct. 13, 2015: Las Vegas (CNN)
Sat Nov. 14, 2015: Des Moines (CBS/KCCI/Des
Moines Regiser)
Sat Dec. 19, 2015: Manchester, N.H. (ABC/WMUR)
Sun Jan. 17, 2016: Charleston, S.C. (NBC/Congressional Black Caucus Institute)
February or March: Miami (Univision/The Washington Post)
February or March: Wisconsin (PBS)

The American College of Emergency Physicians

report:
Women who cant find affordable family
planning services sometimes end up in
the emergency room.... Other women go
without care altogether.
###
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The Trans-Pacific Partnership

Trade Scam

Corporate Talking Points On

TPP
by Jim Hightower
hightowerlowdown.org

The August 2015 issue of The Hightower Lowdown

reported that the 1,000-page TPP trade scam is an
unprecedented power grab by corporate elites. It is
so unbelievably bad for workers, consumers, the environment, and our democracy that people literally cant
believe what theyre hearing.

Who Profits? The campaign for the Trans-Pacific

Partnership is being engineered by the US Business
Coalition for TPP, a whos who of corporate powers that
will directly profit from the deal. To make their case
on Capitol Hill, members of USBCTPP (pronounced
tthhbblltt) visited lawmakers and handed out packets
of very persuasive talking points a.k.a. bundles of
campaign cash.

While the deal is crammed with uglies, two impacts are

downright nasty.
One:
Consistent with every free trade agreement of the
past 20 years, TPP provides US corporations more and
bigger incentives to export shiploads of our remaining
middle-class jobs to low-wage countries. Still throbbing from Bill Clintons 1994 North American Free
Trade Agreement, the US majority no longer swallows
the myth that free trade is invariably good for us.

Their Membership The

front groups members include
more than 150 brand-name
corporations and corporate
lobbying associations from
every
industrial-financialmerchandizing
category
covered by TPP, such as:
Goldman Sachs (Wall Street), Pfizer (drug makers),
Time Warner (telecom), Philip Morris (tobacco), Disney
(media), Apple (computers, smart phones), Facebook
(Internet), ExxonMobil (oil & gas), GM (autos), Nike
(clothing), Walmart (retailing), Monsanto (biotech),
Halliburton (government contracting), Coca-Cola
(food & beverages), and Cargill (agribusiness).

So people fume with disbelief and outrage when they

learn that, far beyond Bills three-nation agreement,
theyre about to be pounded with a 12-nation, nuclearized
NAFTA, pitting our workforce against exploited labor in
such repressive regimes as Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam (where some workers get 59 cents an hour).
Two:
And worse, TPP would sanction direct attacks on US
sovereignty by tens of thousands of foreign corporations. The real intent of this agreement is not to eliminate trade protectionism, but to protect
global corporations
from YOU, me, and
any elected officials
who stand up for us.
BigPharma, BigOil,
BigFood, BigFinance,
and all the other Bigs
would get sweeping
new profit rights
that would trump our
peoples democratic
rights.

In just the past year and a half, as more and more

Congressional attention focused on TPP and fast
track moved to a vote, this exclusive club of global
corporatists shelled out at least $658 million in the
2014 election cycle alone to our senators and reps, not
counting millions more in untraceable dark money
donations. ###
Stay informed by checking out these
organizations.
Global Trade Watch:

www.citizen.org/trade/
Expose The TPP:

www.exposethetpp.org
And check out these efforts as well:
Citizens Trade Campaign:

www.citizenstrade.org
Stopthetpp.org: (a project of the Communications Workers of America):

stopthetpp.org

Of the 30 chapters that comprise this agreement, 24

dont deal at all with trade, but instead provide new
privileges to multinational corporations. Incredibly,
TPP provides the authority and means for global corporate profiteers to attack directly our democratically
enacted laws and regulations. All of this happens outside US courts.
The audacity and enormity of this power grab is mindboggling. Jim Hightower, hightowerlowdown.org

###

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On

2016 ELECTION DATES TO

REMEMBER
Mark Your Calendar:
2016 Presidential Preference
Primary and Municipal Elections:
Tuesday, March 15
Early Voting Period:
Saturday, March 5 to Sunday, March 13
Book Closing Deadline
(New Registration and Party Changes):
Tuesday, February 16
Absentee Ballot Request
Mailing Deadline:
Wednesday, March 9
Primary Election:
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Presidential General Election:
Tuesday, November 8, 2016

America Is Exceptional

The Protecting and Preserving

Social
Security
Act
was
introduced by Rep. Deutch in
the House and Senator Mazie
honoring Social Securitys 80th
birthday. Hirono (D-Hl) in the
U.S. Senate, improves benefits
for all Americans and strengthens
the system for generations to
come by restoring fairness to
Social Security contributions.

Yet high-income earners stop contributing once they

hit the current $118,500 capmeaning that:
A CEO earning $2 million invests just .37
percent of their earnings to their Social
Security premium.
Though Social Security is strong enough to pay out
100 percent of benefits until 2034 and nearly 80
percent of benefits thereafter, Rep. Deutchs bill puts
Social Security on an even stronger fiscal path while
improving cost-of-living adjustments for all retirees.

Life Expectancy When it comes to life expectancy the United States ranks dead last among the
17 other nation studied. On average, a man in the
United States lives four years fewer than a man in
Switzerland. Steven Woolf, the chair of the panel that wrote the report, said he was "stunned" by
the results, noting, "the scope of the disadvantage
covers all ages, from babies to seniors, both sexes,
all classes of society." The study also notes that it's
getting worse - as healthcare trends have moved
downward ever since the 1970's.
The Answer Of course, the easy solution to all
of this is for the United States to do what the rest of
the developed world is doing and make healthcare a basic human right for all its citizens. That
means outlawing the for-profit health insurance
leaches, who make fortunes denying children life
saving medical procedures. Thom Hartmann, Truthout

Congressman Ted Deutch

Today,
nearly 95 percent of American workers invest
6.2 percent of every paycheck in their Social
Security premium.

In screwed news . . . America is exceptional in one

thing: poor healthcare.
Ranks Near the Bottom A new study, by
the National Institute of Health, looks into health
results in the 17 most developed nations in the
world. And it finds that the United States ranks
near the bottom of the list in several important indicators. Those include teen pregnancies, STDs, infant
mortality, heart and lung disease, disability rates, and
homicides.

Your Side

[Your legislative representatives are on your side.]

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Reasons to Tell Your Daughter

Not to Register and Vote

October 1, 2015

No. 15-11

What Would Defunding

Planned Parenthood Mean?

Ask your daughter does she want to be paid less in

the same job as a man,
Then she shouldn't bother to register
and vote.

Dan Isaacson, Ph.D., Editor

Voter Education, Inc.
St. Andrews Estates South
6055 Verde Trail South, Apt. H219
Boca Raton, FL 33433-4423
561-470-7258

Ask your daughter does she want to earn

$430,000 less than a man in the course of her
career,
Then she shouldn't bother to register
and vote.
Ask your daughter if she doesn't want respect from
men,
Then she shouldn't bother to register
and vote.
Ask your daughter does she want to be denied
healthcare services, mammograms, and family
planning,
Then she shouldn't bother to register
and vote.
Ask your daughter if she thinks access to
contraception is not important,
Then she shouldnt bother to register
and vote.
Ask your daughter if she likes her doctor to lie to
her and falsely claim that abortion causes breast
cancer,
Then she shouldnt bother to register
and vote.
Ask your daughter does she want men to have
the right to exclude her from the debate about
women's health care,
Then she shouldnt bother to register
and vote.
Ask your daughter if she believes the Violence
Against Women Act is unimportant,
Then she shouldnt bother to register
and vote.

SIGNUPS FOR OBAMACARE

Spread the word to family
and friends! Sign-ups for
ACA (affectionately known
as Obamacare) begin again
on Nov. 1!!

Ask your daughter if she doesn't want protection

against domestic violence,
Then she shouldnt bother to register
and vote.
Ask your daughter if she doesn't care that if a
woman and a man apply for a job that the man
gets it more than 75% of the time,
Then she shouldnt bother to register
and vote.
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