Anderson@Large

Open Data Business Plans

I spent most of this week with “my people,” open government advocates whose work is animated by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ observation that “sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

They say you can do well by doing good. During his appearance before the National FOI Day Conference, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra shared how some companies have flipped the script and are using our good work to do well for themselves. They are repurposing open datasets from federal departments and agencies and creating new products and services.

Companies like Bloomberg Government, a subscription- based service that aggregates and filters raw data to help subscribers “understand the government’s impact on business.” Yesterday, @BloombergGov held product demos at Union Station.

VC-backed BrightScope is using data from the Department of Labor, Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies to rate 401k plans.

Weatherbill, a crop insurance company, is mashing up open data from the National Weather Service to help farmers adapt to climate change.

The good government folks who created the Open Data Manual ask, So I’ve Opened Up Some Data, Now What?:

While we’ve looked at how to make government information legally and technically reusable, as well as easy for the public to find, those who publish open datasets may wish to do more to proactively encourage others to make interesting and useful things with it. This section looks at additional (optional) things which can be done to promote the reuse of your data.

Well, the Institute of Medicine is looking for citizen developers and innovators. The Health Data Initiative is a public-private partnership that encourages innovators to use data from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop apps that promote prevention and wellness.

For more info, sign up to attend the “Community Health Data Forum: Harnessing the Power of Information to Improve Health,” which will be held on June 9, 2011 at the National Institutes of Health.

House Republicans Get Down to Business

Today the House will vote on repeal of the health care law, H.R. 2, "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act."

Majority Leader Eric Cantor said House Republicans “can't accept the status quo”:

The reality is, the ObamaCare bill did not lower costs. It will cost small business people money. It will, in many cases, preclude the hiring of people. And if you're in a situation where that's not the case and don't accept that, then you are certainly assuming that more people are going to fall into a government controlled health care system which is going to add to the debt, which obviously is something that we are very focused on trying to reduce.

Meanwhile, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters Democrats have yet to sell the public on the law:

Apparently none of us did a good enough job because public opinion is divided, and they are unsure of whether this legislation is going to be positive for them and their families.

Indeed, Democrats have not moved the needle. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey found 50 percent of Americans support repeal of health care reform.

A Quinnipiac poll shows voters by 48 - 43 percent want Congress to repeal ObamaCare. Fifty-one percent of voters disapprove of the way President Obama is handling health care.

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said:

The Republicans pushing repeal of the health care law have more American people on their side. They may not have the votes in the Senate, but they have many on Main Street. While President Obama's poll rating has improved in recent weeks, the coalition against his health care plan remains and is quite similar to the one that existed when his numbers were at their nadir.

The health care debate do-over will give Americans a second opinion.

Opening Arguments

I am in DC for opening day of the 112th Congress. House Republicans will live stream the opening session, including the swearing-in ceremony, on Facebook beginning at 12:00 pm ET.

At approximately 1:40 pm, Rep. Nancy Pelosi will hand over the gavel to House Speaker-elect John Boehner.

House Republicans are getting off to a quick start. They have posted online a bill to repeal President Obama's signature legislative accomplishment, health care reform. The House will vote on the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” on Jan. 12.

Also today, a coalition of state lawmakers will open a new front in the war to “eliminate all economic attractions and incentives that continue to lure illegal aliens across America’s unsecured borders.”

State Legislators for Legal Immigration will unveil model legislation to “halt the misapplication of the 14th Amendment.” They propose to deny automatic citizenship to American-born children of illegal immigrants. The concern is that birthright citizenship is an incentive for foreign nationals to flout the rule of law in the hope that their anchor babies will give them a foothold on legal residency.

SLLI founder Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe is spearheading the national initiative. He will be joined by legislators from across the country and constitutional scholars, including Kansas Secretary of State-elect Kris Kobach, who helped draft Arizona SB 1070.

The press conference will be held at 9:30 am at the National Press Club, but advocates for illegal immigrants have already sent out talking points.

The yet-to-be-unveiled proposal is called “unworkable and divisive.” They say, presumably with a straight face, that “if enacted, they would place huge burdens on American citizens and create a giant new bureaucracy.”

Hello. Hola. Illegal alien mothers and their anchor babies already place an unfair burden on American citizens.The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that 363,000 anchor babies are born yearly in the U.S., costing American taxpayers billions of dollars annually.

For more info, visit State Legislators for Legal Immigration.

UPDATE: Rep. Steve King, incoming chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement Committee, has introduced a bill, H.R. 140, which would amend section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and end birthright citizenship.

Southern Discomfort

Election Day is 14 days away.

Democrats are in a panic and are looking to their most loyal voting bloc, African Americans, to beat back the Republican wave. They are not too proud to beg and plead for black voters’ sympathy even though some have casts votes that were not in the interest of African Americans.

Jamelle Bouie at The American Prospect writes:

I’m a little amused by this. Despite representing large numbers of black people -- an average of 25.4 percent -- these lawmakers have consistently voted against President Obama’s major initiatives. With the sole exception of Rep. Tom Perriello, each has opposed -- or actively disparaged -- policies supported by a large majority of African American voters. As far as their immediate self-interest is concerned, these voters have no real reason to support their incumbent representatives.

[…]

As a matter of long-term politics, though, I worry about this categorical support for Democratic candidates; the longer Democrats don’t have to worry about losing African American voters, the longer Democratic representatives can take advantage of their black support. Unfortunately, there’s not much of an alternative. Republicans don’t need black votes to win, and as such, have no real stake in advancing African American interests. The only conceivable strategy is for black voters to sit out an election, but that’s just as likely to inspire enmity as it is to force engagement with their interests. African American voters are in a tough spot, to say the least.

As a longtime advocate for African Americans getting a fair return for the investment of their political capital, I am not amused that black voters and their leaders are in the same old trick bag.

Terrible Tuesday

I spent Labor Day Weekend in Maryland.

Although I lived in DC on-and-off for more than 20 years, I did not know the day after Labor Day is known as “Terrible Tuesday” because of the increased traffic with folks returning from vacation and kids going back to school.

For Democrats reading today’s headlines, it is indeed a terrible Tuesday.

From the Huffington Post to the Wall Street Journal, the writing is on the wall: Democrats are in for a terrible beat down the first Tuesday in November.

We’ll Remember in November

That’s the rallying cry of tea partiers who oppose President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul agenda.

It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. So, it’s a testament to the effectiveness of black voter empowerment groups that their mobilization message has been co-opted by Obama’s opponents.

Consider: The National Urban League’s 2010 Equality Index found little change in African Americans’ progress vis-à-vis white Americans in every category, including unemployment, educational attainment and household income. The sole exception was civic engagement:

The 2010 Equality Index for the black-white comparison stands at 71.8%, compared to the revised 2009 index of 71.2%.

The 0.6 percentage point increase in this year’s overall index represents the first one-year uptick in the last four years. This uptick is largely driven by the increase in the civic engagement index (97.6% in 2009 to 102.2% in 2010) which was mostly due to the black voter turnout in the 2008 Presidential elections.

Yes, but will black voters remember to turn out on November 2? Election Day is seven months from today.

Obama to Sign Historic Healthcare Bill

President Barack Obama will deliver remarks and sign the landmark health insurance reform legislation today at 11:15 a.m., in the White House East Room. The signing ceremony will be streamed live.

Most of the provisions do not kick in until 2014, but there are some immediate benefits (h/t Black Youth Vote):

90 Days after Enactment (June 2010)

• Access to insurance through a temporary “high-risk pool” for Americans who were denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition. This will benefit the 15 percent of young Americans who suffer from chronic conditions.

6 Months after Date of Enactment (September 2010)

• Allow young Americans to remain on their parents’ health insurance until their 26th birthday. Over 2 million previously uninsured young adults will benefit from this provision.
• Prohibit health plans from dropping individuals’ coverage when they get sick.
• Ban lifetime limits on covered benefits.
• Prohibit restrictive annual limits on benefits (all annual limits banned by 2014).
• Require pre-deductible preventive care services with no cost-sharing under all new plans (applies to all existing plans by 2018).

January 1, 2011

• Require all plans to spend 80 percent (for small/individual plans) or 85 percent (for large group plans) of premiums on medical services. Those who fail to do so must submit rebates to consumers.

Benefits after Full Implementation (January 1, 2014)

• Expand Medicaid to cover every American earning less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, providing coverage to 9 million currently uninsured young adults.
• Provide tax credits for purchasing health insurance to individuals who lack employer-provided insurance and earn less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
• Ban denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
• Limit insurance companies to charging older adults no more than three times the insurance premiums of younger adults.
• Establish state insurance exchanges to facilitate market competition and enforce minimum benefit standards.
• Offer young adults under age 30 the option of purchasing a low-cost catastrophic plan.

Already, Republicans are drafting bills to repeal health reform. Republican attorneys general in at least 12 states are gearing up to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation “the moment Obama signs the bill.”

For his part, Obama will hit the road on Thursday to sell Obamacare to the 56 percent of Americans who still oppose the healthcare overhaul.

And it will be a hard sell. A CBS News poll found that only 20 percent of Americans think the bill will help them personally.