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World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV.

The Congressional Black Caucus is holding a World AIDS Day Commemoration and Holiday Reception TODAY, from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, in Room HC-5, U.S. Capitol Building.

The CBC will collect items for two nonprofit groups that serve the HIV/AIDS population, Mtogolo Village Development Project in Malawi and DC-based Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care, Inc. Suggested donations include children’s books, board games, art and school supplies, hat/scarf sets, and new toys (ages 5+).

Donations are appreciated but not required. RSVP is required to Congressional Black Caucus.

Also today at the White House, Obama administration officials and AIDS activists will “reflect on the lessons learned and the path forward in the fight against HIV and AIDS in the United States and around the world.” The participants will include:

• Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
• White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes
• Office of National AIDS Policy Director Jeffrey Crowley
• U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Eric Goosby
• USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
• NIAID Director Anthony Fauci

The event will be live streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live, beginning at 1:30 pm EST.

State of the Union Remixed

President Barack Obama has delivered his first State of the Union address. After acknowledging the 10 percent unemployment rate and declining home values, Obama asserted:

Despite our hardships, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not quit. We don’t allow fear or division to break our spirit.

Obama spoke about Americans’ shared anxieties:

So we face big and difficult challenges. And what the American people hope -- what they deserve -- is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same.

Obama addressed the concerns of small business owners, gays and lesbians, women and illegal immigrants, but said nothing about the racial disparities that are inducing anxiety in the African American community.

Obama’s overall message: “I don't quit.”

But Obama should quit taking black folks for granted. So, here’s the State of Black Americans, by the numbers:

23.9% -- Unemployment rate in Michigan (highest in the country)

16.2% -- National unemployment rate

15.6% -- Unemployment rate in Florida (Obama holds a campaign rally town hall meeting at the University of Tampa today)

$34,218 -- Annual median income in 2008

.62 -- Blacks earn 62 cents for every dollar of white income

$142 billion -- Estimated wages and salaries lost from 2008 to 2012

.10 -- Blacks have 10 cents for every dollar of net worth whites have

34.7% -- African American children living in poverty in 2008

24.6% -- Overall black poverty rate

19.1% -- Lacked health insurance in 2008

48% -- Mortgages to African American borrowers were subprime loans

$71 billion and $92 billion -- Estimated loss of housing wealth from subprime loans

35% -- Voter turnout in predominately black precincts in Massachusetts special election.

State of Black America (Again)

I attended Circle of Sisters 2009 on Saturday. In addition to workshops led by Steve Harvey and the fabulously ageless Ann Tripp, the program included a hearty perennial, the “State of Black America.”

The panelists included the Rev. Al Sharpton, president and founder of the National Action Network, TV and radio personality Jeff Johnson, and C. Virginia Fields, president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

Tripp asked the panelists:

We’ve got a black president. Is that it?

Sharpton observed:

We’re in the best of times and the worst of times. We are in positions we were never in before. But on the ground, life has not fundamentally changed.

Sharpton pointed to the black unemployment rate, education achievement gap and prison industrial complex. He noted that “putting black faces in high places” is not enough:

Some of us are still celebrating the inaugural balls while others are cutting deals in boardrooms … Those that lost their jobs are still unemployed … We have to hold those in position accountable.

Citing the experience of former New York City mayor David Dinkins, Sharpton said:

We’ve seen this movie before. We should make sure that it doesn’t end with us on the ticket line while others enjoy the popcorn.

Fields, a former president of the Borough of Manhattan, agreed the black community is in crisis:

We are in a pitiable state in just about any indicator you think about … We have an opportunity … Let’s step into the space of transformation and make some real changes.

Johnson cautioned against “deifying” President Obama. He sparked a spirited exchange about whether Obama deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

While Sharpton agreed that Obama should not be deified and must be held accountable, he declared:

If de Klerk can get an award for shaking Nelson Mandela’s hand, then Barack Obama can get an award for shaking up America and ending the era of Bush.

Given the emotional state of black America, Sharpton’s comment brought the house down.

CBC Letter to the President

President Barack Obama is expected to the “big questions” about his healthcare reform plan in his address to a joint session of Congress.

A Gallup poll found that Americans across the political spectrum question about Obama’s plan.

During my visit to my dearest friend who’s now a resident at the Avante Rehab Center in Leesburg, Fla., I had an opportunity to chat with some of the staff about healthcare reform. For seniors, the big questions are whether reform will lead to the loss of physician choice, rationed care and euthanasia.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Black Caucus has sent a letter to President outlining its hopes for healthcare reform:

A strong public health option that will allow the nation’s more than 46 million uninsured Americans – more than half of whom are people of color – to finally have access to affordable, meaningful health care coverage no later than 2013. As you know and we have firmly noted throughout the health care reform debate, a robust public option not only will play a pivotal role in our collective efforts to eliminate uninsurance – a public health challenge that detrimentally affects millions of hardworking, innocent Americans – but also in our efforts to ensure that every American citizen, regardless of race, ethnicity, geography or gender, has affordable access to meaningful, reliable health care treatments and services when needed. Thus, we firmly believe that the extraordinary benefits of a robust public option to the health and strength of this nation should, and do, outweigh the immediate, upfront costs associated with creating it.

The CBC also wants Obama to address racial disparities in access to care:

A strong and demonstrative commitment from the White House to, in the days and weeks to come, use health care reform to achieve health equity. This will include not only ensuring the passage of existing health disparity elimination provisions – such as those around data collection, workforce diversity and community health workers – but also supporting stronger provisions, such as those included in Titles I, II, III and IV of the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2009 (H.R. 3090). These measures are necessary to address the root causes of the health inequities that disproportionately and detrimentally affect racial and ethnic minorities, women, rural Americans and Americans within the U.S. Territories. These provisions are integral to efforts to ensure that as health care reform proceeds, we succeed in closing the gaps in health care that are independent of an insurance coverage, but that millions of Americans fall through and suffer from every day.

The complete letter is available here.

The CBC, Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, and other African American leaders will hold a news conference today at 11:00 a.m., to discuss “maintaining key priorities in America’s Affordable Health Choices Act.” The event will be held in Room H-137 in the Capitol.

For more info, call (202) 226-9776.

CBC Stands Firm on Public Option

The public option is back from a near-death experience.

In the wake of an outcry from key Democratic lawmakers and progressives, the White House walked back Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ comment that a government-run health insurance option is “not the essential element.”

In a statement, Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said:

Recent comments by Obama Administration officials regarding the public option and health reform are deeply troubling.

Any bill without a public health insurance plan like Medicare is not health reform.

Without a public option there will be no way to keep insurance companies honest and their rates down. A public health option that competes with private insurers will set standards that could help lower costs and improve access.

The Congressional Black Caucus remains committed to ensuring that health reform is meaningful and that means making sure the a public option is part of the package.”

Lee’s concerns were echoed by Rep. Maxine Waters:

I am very troubled to hear that after months of negotiations – supposedly moving toward meaningful health care reform – the public option may in fact be off the table. As I have said before, particularly in conjunction with my colleagues in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, I will not be able to support a health care reform bill that does not guarantee the creation of a public option that will provide an alternative for the 47 million uninsured Americans and millions more who face rising premiums, deductibles and co-pays.

Waters continued:

The pressure on Congress from lobbyists who represent health care reform opponents is immense: recent reports suggest there may be as many as 6 lobbyists for each Member of Congress working to defeat meaningful health care reform. I cannot and will not sit by and quietly allow outside opposition to dismantle a program meant to provide the American people with an option so that they and their families can access quality, affordable health care.

At the CBC Institute’s recent policy conference, Rep. John Lewis thundered:

Some of the opposition is cold-hearted politics. They want to see the President fail … We control the White House, the House and the Senate. If we can’t do it, we don’t deserve to be in control.

Lewis added:

We are too darn quiet. We need to make some noise.

To make your voice heard, visit WeWantThePublicOption.com.

Public Option on Life Support

President Barack Obama reportedly is preparing to pull the plug on the public option in his plan to overhaul the health care system.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said a government insurance program was “not the essential element”:

What we don’t know is exactly what the Senate Finance Committee is likely to come up. They’ve been more focused on a co-op, not-for-profit co-op as a competitor as opposed to a straight government-run program.

And I think what's important is choice and competition. And I’m convinced at the end of the day, the plan will have both of those. But that is not the essential element.

Over on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, told Chris Wallace the public option is dead on arrival:

The fact of the matter is, there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit, I think, is just a wasted effort.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Black Caucus wants a second opinion.

During the CBC Institute’s healthcare workshop in Tunica, Miss., CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee said:

The public option has to be on the table. For many of us, that’s the bottom line.

Lee added:

The public option must be central to any public health plan that we pass. Many of our constituents are uninsured and they wouldn’t have an option without a public health plan.

Health care has been a privilege and it has been exclusionary for many people. But in the wealthiest country in the world, it should be a right.

The Congressional TriCaucus, which includes the CBC, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, has outlined priorities for healthcare reform. A public health insurance option is at the top of the list.

For info on the TriCaucus’ healthcare reform priorities, go here.

Mississippi Blues

Concerned citizens are giving members of Congress the blues over healthcare reform at town hall meetings.

The conversation will be civil at the CBC Institute’s workshop on healthcare reform, moderated by CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee, and Reps. Donna Christensen and Donald Payne.

The panelists will include Dr. Willarda Edwards, president of the National Medical Association, and Dr. Cora Christian, a member of the AARP board of directors.

I’m a policy wonk so spending Saturday morning in a meeting room at a casino is my idea of a good time.

But the good times will roll Saturday night at the 7th Annual Memphis Tri-State Blues Festival. The performers will include Shirley Brown, Floyd Taylor, son of the late, great Johnnie Taylor,  Ms. Jody Floyd and the inimitable Bobby Rush.