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The threads of life continue to weave back and forth when we take these occasional trips down memory lane. I like the forty year look-back and this time it takes us to the beginning of the decade of the 1970’s . In 1970 the soap opera “All My Children” debuted; the “Chicago Seven” were found not guilty of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago; the Concorde made its first supersonic flight; Paul McCartney announced that the Beatles would disband; students at Kent State University were shot and killed; a bill lowering the voting age to 18 is signed by President Nixon; Three Rivers Stadium opened in Pittsburgh; John Kerry and Jane Fonda attended an anti-war rally in Valley Forge, PA; Janis Joplin died from overdose of heroin; PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) began  broadcasting; Gary Trudeau’s “Doonsbury” comic strip debuted; Democrats swept the mid-term elections; Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California and Jimmy Carter  was elected Governor of Georgia; the U.S. EPA  began operations and OSHA was signed into law; and the North Tower of the World Trade Center topped out at 1,368 ft. - the tallest building in the world. For us personally - Bill got his DMD degree from Tufts and started an internship at the VA and Boston City Hospital - and as the mother of a 15 month old with child-care challenges, I was teaching English classes at Lowell Hgh School.  Using the Lowell SUN edition of the day, let’s take a brief look at Sunday February 1, 1970:

On the State and National News Scene: Governor Frank Sargent proposed sweeping new initiatives to improve the state judicial system… V.P. Spiro Agnew kicked-off a cross-country Lincoln Day speechmaking tour in Baltimore with an off-the-cuff speech that decried the 91st Democratic-controlled Congress as “unproductive and yet spendthrift.”… A U. S. District Court issued a restraining order to stop a nation-wide shutdown of the railroad… Democrat Senators William Proxmire (Wis), Wright Patman (Tex) and Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (Wy) along with House Leader Carl Albert characterized President Nixon’s budget as “pitifully inadequate” to stem inflation and looked for deeper cuts in his defense budget.

Local Round-up: In education - The Lowell School Committee brought budget deliberations to a tentative finish alloting about $10.8 million for education in the public schools. In a dispute over school maintenance - School Committeeman William Collins wanted the City DPW to cede control of school building manitenance to the school department… Mayor Richard Howe and Committeeman George Kouloheras sparred over Howe’s fears of possible “pork barrelling” if the School Committee contracted out the work to special friends. “Lies, lies” responded Kouloheras… School Superintendent Wayne Peters called for the expansion of special ed programs… Increasing Audio-Visual Aids program director George Baker’s salary to $14,000 came under fire… $200,000 was allocated for 18 re-locatable classrooms and $134,000 for 35 new teaching positions… Superintendents of three vocational schools - Nashoba Valley, Shawsheen and Montachusett worried that possible use of an illegal warrant might require the return of some school funds.

On the Municipal Side: Lowell City Councillor John Mahoney, Rules Committee Chair, pushed for a 6:00 PM Council meeting starting time rather than 4:00 PM with a stricter limit on City Council debate time and an elimination of the council afternoon meeting session. Councillors Phil Shea and M. Brendan Fleming also served on the Rules Committee.

In Politics: “Women of Dracut and Ward 9 Lowell” were invited to a “Meet the Candidate Tea” at the Walbrook Lounge in Dracut…  ad signed by Nicholas Lambros.

In City Sports: Lowell Tech beat cross-river rival Lowell State in basketball 96-83 defending against the play of LSC’s Bill Quirk (18 pts), Dave Ryan (20 pts) and others with the stellar play for Tech of Mike Camuso, Mike Finocchio and teamate Pryzdial… George Bossi’s Lowell High School wrestlers routed Westford 45-15 with the winning style of Max Desilets, Ray Delorme, Rick Freitas, Russ Chateauneuf, Gary Potvin and Brian Dowling… Golden Gloves tickets were available at the SUN Annex for as low as $1.75 up to $3.50…All-Star Professional Wrestling was scheduled for the Lowell Memorial Auditorium featuring Killer Kowalski vs Victor Rivera and Gorilla Monsoon vs Prof. Tanaka.

In Business: Pat Meehan of Meehan Tours organized a trip to Mexico sponsored by the League of Catholic Women… The Melody Ranch offered Magnavox color TVs on sale from $239.90 to $499.50… At Ostroff’s on Middlesex Street - GI packpacks for $5.98, GI foxhole shovels for $1.99, flight mittens for $5.98 and mummy sleeping bags for $19.98… the Union National Bank offered a 1-Yr Certificate with a  $100,000 minimum at 7.5% and regular savings at 4.5%… H&R Block offered “to do your income tax” starting at $5.00… There was “Money to Rent” by calling Jackie Boisvert at the  M.V. Finance Company… Glamour Uniforms offered the ingrid Bergman “Cactus Flower-style” uniform for sale with two guest tickets to see the movie at the Lawrence Cimema…

On the Social Scene: Popular local doctor - Dr. Ed Quinn was feted by wife Catherine and daughters Kathy and Stephanie at a Sunday birthday brunch…  Mrs. John (Dolores)  Beati chaired the 1970 Silver Heart Ball at the Speare House… The Lowell Lawyers Wives Club lunched at the Lanam Club. President Mrs. Paul Fitzgerald introduced new members - Mrs. Frank Balas, Mrs. Eugene Bernstein and Mrs. Howard Hall. (No mention of the first names of these ladies even in 1970.) … The South Lowell PTA hosted guests at the J. G. Pyne School with a focus on “guiding not forcing the child” in choosing courses of study. PTA Vice-president Bill Samaras introduced the speakers - Dr. Eugene Wood, Lowell High School Dean of Students and Larry Martin,  L.T.I. Assistant Dean of Admissions.

In Entertainment and Dining: The Peter Pan Drive-In on Pawtucket Boulevard boasted a “broasted” all-white meat chicken dinner at 99 cents… The Dining Out Guide listed: The Branding Iron Steak House, Cathy Gardens, the Coq d’or, the Epicure, Howard Johnson’s, Old Oaken Bucket, the Royal Steak House, the Speare House, the Town House Motor Inn and the Yankee Doodle (Were any of these your favorite place to dine?)… Area Cinemas were showing: “Fanny Hill,” “Midnight Cowboy,” “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” and “Take the Money and Run”… Peggy Fleming guest-starred with the Shipstead and Johnson “Ice Follies” at Boston Garden.

Bits and Pieces: Getting ready for the Immaculate Conception PTA variety show “Under the Spotlight”: Rosemary Casey, Mary Teague, Bob Sayer, Anne and Mary Croke, Chris McCartin, Donna Quinn, Warren Griffin, Mary Anne Monazynski, Tony Casella, Brendan Keegan, Polly O’Donnell, Boyd Gervais, Jean Meehan, Bob Callery, Naomi Sullivan, Pauline King, Joe Pyne, Owen Conway and amny others.

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Real estate is a topic of great interest to many of us. It touches each of us personally since we all have to live somewhere, but trends in real estate also have a far-reaching effect on the global economy. As we watched in fascination as home prices started their ascent to irrationally high levels back in 2003, little did we know that we were witnessing the seeds of a financial crisis that would nearly bring down the world’s economy.

In an attempt to make better sense of what happened and what is happening with real estate in the region, at the end of 2009 I compiled a variety of real estate related statistics and information and put them in a report of the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds. The report has already been distributed to government officials around the region, but it also may be of interest to many others so I decided to put a link to it HERE. (Please note, it’s a good-sized PDF file that may take a bit of time to download so please be patient). The following is an excerpt from the report that discusses the outlook for real estate in the coming year.

When it comes to tracking real estate activity, the registry of deeds provides a unique vantage point. Our data is not comprehensive – we lack information regarding the use of properties – but by counting and comparing the number and type of documents recorded, we are able to observe and comment on trends.

The 65,383 documents recorded in 2009 was the second lowest annual total in the previous fourteen years. The good news is that the number of documents recorded in 2009 was 18% higher than the 56,011 recorded in 2008 which could suggest that things are improving if only slightly. The amount of revenue the registry collected in recording fees tends to corroborate this observation. In 2008, recording fees accounted for $4.5 million in revenue, but in 2009, they accounted for $5.3 million, an increase of 18%. Another positive sign may be found in the number of mortgages recorded. The 14,519 recorded in 2009 represented a 31% increase over the 11,108 recorded in 2008.

Unfortunately, some negative indicators force us to restrain our optimism. The core of the mortgage market’s strength, for example, occurred in April through August with the volume receding significantly in the fall and early winter. While the number of foreclosure deeds recorded in 2009 was down 33% from 2008, the foreclosure deeds recorded in the second half of 2009 exceeded those recorded in the first half by 24%. The increase in orders of notice – the document that commences foreclosure proceedings - was even more dramatic, rising from 216 recorded in the first half of 2009 to 536 in the second half, a jump of 148%. Another negative indicator is a decline in collections of the deeds excise tax, a tax assessed at a rate of $2.28 per $500 of sales price. The $5.1 million in deeds excise collected in 2009 was a drop of 19% from the $6.3 million of 2008. Because there was essentially no change in the number of deeds recorded (5,409 in 2008 versus 5,434 in 2009), this indicates that sales prices have dropped markedly. While such a decline might be a necessary part of a post-bubble correction, it also means that many homeowners who bought or refinanced during the boom will continue to owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, a circumstance bound to keep the volume of foreclosures high during 2010.

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UMass Lowell invites everyone to the new Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell for Winterfest fun, hockey excitement, and a community celebration on Friday, Feb. 5, starting at 5 p.m.

This will be the first hockey game with UML as the owner of the former “arena.” The interior has already been transformed with dynamic signage, banners, and a new 400-foot LED electronic “ribbon” display. The place is visually jumping now.

The Division One River Hawks face off at 7.30 p.m. against the defending national champion Boston University Terriers. I think I’ll bring my two-year-old Boston Terrier in a River Hawks sweater. The River Hawks won their last two home games against Boston College and Merrimack.

Winterfest activities begin at 5 p.m. in the Kids’ Zone in the lobby. Check out the popular childrens’ Chocolate Factory, the Lola bear and Rowdy the River Hawk mascots, a practice puck-shooting area, autograph booth with River Hawk players, music, food and drinks for kids, and more.

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My campus colleague Renae sent this op-ed around to a few folks this morning. The writer, Reg Henry of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, offers a smart and funny take on the political scene—and brings in Yeats to underscore his analysis.—PM

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Local playwright Jack Neary shares his thought on bullying in this entry cross posted from Jack’s own blog, Captain Show Biz.

No, this is not a blog entry extolling the life and times of Teddy Roosevelt.

I just felt like chiming in with my two cents regarding the sad story last week out of South Hadley, Massachusetts, where high school student Phoebe Prince committed suicide, allegedly as a result of bullying from her schoolmates.

Okay, sure…Phoebe may have, could have had, probably did have, …emotional issues unrelated to bullying that contributed to her state of mind as she contemplated being no more. That’s not the point.

The point is, bullies, and you know who you are, need to be identified and stopped. I wanted to say bullies need to stop but…I just don’t think bullies are smart enough to understand that they are who they are and therefore they are not smart enough to know to stop. In fact, a bully, by nature, outrageous as it may seem, might even increase his or her bullying energies in the wake of something like Phoebe’s death, to prove to others (really, to prove to themselves) that what they do is harmless, that what they do is not responsible for the failure to continue to live of the people they target, that what they do is…really nothing. If it’s anything, it’s entertainment.

Entertainment never moved anybody to suicide.

And what is a bully, really, in his or her own eyes, but an entertainer?

I’m not sure about this, but does a bully bully in a vacuum? Does a bully bully for his or her own gratification? Or must there be a middle-man, or -men, or-women? Must there be an audience? There must be, right? The bully must have a way to take a curtain call for the relentless humiliation he or she imposes on the target. There has to be people laughing; there has to be people patting the bully’s back, reporting the bully’s achievement to the world, usually the middle- or high school world at large. Otherwise, what’s the point? Where else is the bully going to be embraced as a success? In the classroom? No. On the athletic field? Maybe, but not likely. In the debating society? Please.

The word is a problem. Bully. It’s become a buzzword. A lightning rod. In a way, it’s losing its potency. Bullying. Bullyism. It’s a thing that happens. Not a big thing. A thing that happens in schools. Just the kids being kids, most of the time. Plus, it doesn’t SOUND like a word that describes a crime. Bullyism. It sounds like what Bluto did to Popeye. And Popeye always, always ended up beating the bejesus out of Bluto.

I found myself in trouble a year or so ago because of the word. I had written an article for a Catholic magazine, the St. Anthony Messenger, detailing my high school friendship with John Ogonowski, Captain of the first plane to fly into the WTC on September 11, 2001. The point of the article was that I was a shy, quiet kid as a freshman in high school, and, as a shy and quiet kid, I was the target of a few geniuses who took it upon themselves to entertain their entourages by making the first few months of my high school career a living hell. Not that big a deal, in the grand scheme of things. I would have survived on my own. But John, a great kid who became a great man, took me under his wing, and the idiots went on to bother someone else. The word “bully” appeared in the article, though bullyism was not the article’s focus. When the Lowell Sun interviewed me about the article, bullyism again was mentioned, but, again, my friendship with John is what gave birth to the interview.

Still, for a month or so after the newspaper article appeared, I heard from friends that a few of my high school classmates were upset about my implication that there was bullying when I was there. One brave individual cornered me at a neighborhood party and identified me to his friends as the guy who “bloviated” in the Sun about bullying at my (and his) high school. None of these people, to my knowledge, ever read the original St. Anthony’s article.

So I’m wondering…just wondering…if the guys who were upset about the article, might just have been…

Never mind.

My point is, the callous, careless, relentless psychological abuse of the quieter, the smaller, the less popular of kids in schools is a real thing. And the perpetrators of the abuse are just not intelligent enough to realize the harm they are doing.

Sure, it’s been going on forever. Sure, it’s just kids being kids.

But it’s really all about arrogance. Arrogance born of stupidity and insecurity. And arrogance very often sticks to a person’s character into adulthood. I hate arrogance.

I don’t know what schools should do to the offenders, if and when they might be discovered. Suspend ‘em? Expel ‘em? I pretty much don’t think that will do anything but provide them with impetus to become even worse human beings than they already are.

I say confront ‘em, tell them what they are doing, show them how it hurts, and why it hurts, and then watch them to see if they change. If they don’t, then confront ‘em again. Give them the opportunity to show they have a brain. It’s a longshot, but it’s worth a try.

What they need to learn is that they are in no way entertaining.

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Earlier today I wrote about Senator John Kerry’s remarks at this morning’s forum on the economy at Middlesex Community College. But Kerry wasn’t the only one who spoke. The event opened with Jay Linnehan, a vice president at MCC, welcoming everyone to the college and citing the school’s importance in educating the work force of the future. Next came Lowell Mayor Jim Milinazzo who served as master of ceremonies of the event. He introduced the elected officials who were present (but on the speaking program) including city councilors Franky Descoteaux, Joe Mendonca and Patrick Murphy; school committee member Jackie Doherty; and Greater Lowell Vocational school committee members Fred Bahou and Steve O’Neil (Tyngsboro) and Sam Poulten of the Nashoba Valley Technical High School. Also in the audience were State Representatives Tom Golden and David Nangle. City Manager Bernie Lynch was present along with several from his Division of Planning and Development.

State Representative Kevin Murphy spoke next and reminded everyone of the importance of partnerships among local, state and federal governments. State Senator Steve Panagiotakos then reminded everyone how, in September 2008 with a consumer slump already underway, the bottom fell out of Wall Street and the country’s economy went into a downward spiral from which it has yet to fully recover. Steve said “government can’t create private sector jobs, but it can create fertile ground for businesses to create those jobs.” He also said that small businesses in particular need immediate relief from the high cost of health care premiums and that there’s a bill working its way through the state house that will provide some relief. He also warned that the state’s unemployment insurance fund is almost exhausted and be at zero if not for a no-interest loan provided to the state by the federal government. In mid-February, the new employer contribution rate to the unemployment fund will be calculated. It could go up anywhere from $120 to $300 per person. He said state government is doing everything it can to keep it at the low end of that range.

Congresswoman Niki Tsongas spoke next. She said that Senator Kerry was one of the foremost champions of small business in the Senate. She also spoke of the importance of schools like Middlesex Community College, Northern Essex Community College and UML in driving the economic recovery by educating the workforce of tomorrow.

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Tom Dempsey (from New York Times)

With this being their first-ever trip to the Super Bowl, the New Orleans Saints are the primary focus of the sports media this week. Besides Archie “the father of Peyton and Eli” Manning, the Saints’ most famous player may be Tom Dempsey, a place kicker who was with the team for only two seasons. Dempsey is most famous for setting the record for the longest field goal in NFL history when he kicked a 63-yarder in 1970. An added twist to Dempsey’s accomplishment was that he was born without any toes on his right (kicking) foot. Dempsey’s feat gained added notoriety in 1998 when the Denver Bronco’s Jason Elam tied the record.

Today’s New York Times has a story on Dempsey, who settled down to a quiet life in New Orleans after he left football. The story caught my interest because, as I repeatedly say, so much in life is connected to Lowell.

I’ve always heard that before Dempsey made it to the NFL, he played semi-pro ball at Cawley Stadium in Lowell. Tonight I googled “Tom Dempsey Cawley Stadium” and immediately found a story about Dempsey and Lowell in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, of all places, written the day after Elam’s record-tying 1998 kick. The writer’s name was Pat Bigold who grew up in Dracut with clear memories of Dempsey. Bigold’s column is here but the Lowell/Dracut portion is quoted below:

IT’S a name I hadn’t thought about for a long time.

The big guy — 6-foot-1, 265 pounds — who was substitute-teaching in 1967 at the Dracut Middle School in Massachusetts.

My late father, Leon, spent most of his 40-year teaching career in the Dracut school system, so he knew Tom Dempsey. I remember him mentioning the “football player” who was working with him.

Dempsey had a clubbed foot but was known to play for the semi-pro Lowell (Mass.) Giants at old Cawley Stadium.

“Lowell was a great town to play in,” said Dempsey by phone yesterday from his consumer relations job in New Orleans. “We drew 8,000 to 10,000 people to a home game. I was playing at night, so they got me a job substitute-teaching in the day.”

After that year, we lost track of Dempsey, and never had much reason to think about him. That was until he became somebody on Nov. 8, 1970.

The teacher boomed a 63-yarder through the goal posts at Tulane Stadium (the Saints’ old home field) to shatter the 56-yard NFL record set in 1953 by the Baltimore Colts’ Bert Rechichar.

IT’S one thing to marvel at Jason Elam’s accuracy in tying the record Sunday at Mile High Stadium. But imagine the skill it required for Dempsey to direct his kick off a toeless foot.

Tom Dempsey kicked at Cawley Stadium: One more reason to root for the Saints to beat the Colts next Sunday. Does anyone else remember Tom Dempsey’s playing days in Lowell?

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Methuen’s working-est writer Jay Atkinson is wending his way north from Florida up through the mid-Atlantic states and back to the Merrimack Valley in one long meandering sojourn before his Kerouac book hits the streets in March. The book, Paradise Road: Kerouac’s Lost Highway and My Search for America , has Jay retracing JK’s actual travel routes that make the novelist’s map in On the Road. On the current trip, Jay is doing the free-lance thing for outlets such as the NY Times. Yesterday’s Times had among its many articles Jay’s Travel-section report on wintertime Savannah, Georgia. Read the story here.

Jay will be launching Paradise Road in Lowell on March 12 with events at Brew’d Awakening, The Old Court, and Fortunato’s Restaurant. Check www.uml.edu/artsandideas or http://www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org

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At the roundtable on job creation in the Morse Federal Building of Middlesex Community College earlier today there was a lot of talk about tax incentives for small businesses which account for about 90 percent of the jobs in the USA. There was also talk about the benefits of the Recovery Act of last February, namely helping to fund state and local government budgets so that layoffs would be lessened: teachers, police officers, firefighters, and such, including public higher education personnel. And Senator Kerry talked about the strategy of reforming health care as a way to reduce the health-care cost burden carried by companies and agencies for their employees—the theory being that money saved on insurance costs could be plowed into expanded operations, investment in new equipment, and, more importantly, more jobs. While the “stimulus bill” saved jobs, it has not created nearly as many as needed (I know there are some exceptions here).

Missing from the discussion was a public-employment program that could employ people with all kinds of skills, from trades-people and professional-services types to technology workers and health-care providers. I believe Congresswoman Tsongas has a proposal in circulation to fund a public-works program for renovation, energy retro-fitting, and preservation of public buildings across the country: local, state, and federal buildings.

A person walking around Lowell would see in some sidewalks small bronze plaques that indicate that the sidewalk was constructed with funds from the Works Progress Administration, the WPA of the Great Drepression years. People in places like Lowell were served well by the WPA. The program was a piece of President Roosevelt’s strategy to get the country moving again. The Civilian Conservation Corps, CCC, was another jobs program that helped thousands of people, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. In my generation, there was a public jobs program called the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, CETA.

When I graduated from “ULowell” in 1976, the economy was in tough shape. It seemed like every other person with a bachelor’s degree from the University was a CETA worker for some period of time. The program wound up with a bad reputation because of patronage abuses in some places, but overall I believe the CETA program was a critical professional-life preserver for many people. CETA jobs often provided a foot in the door of a professional office (public agencies or nonprofit org’s) where someone could gain valuable experience. I was fortunate enough to get a job as a writer in a public relations office at slightly more than minimum wage. In Lowell there was even a CETA-funded arts-jobs program called City Fair that employed ten or twelve artists, as I recall. Last year, a post on this blog referenced the WPA antecedent to City Fair, which was an arts and culture-based WPA program of the 1930s in Lowell (arts and recreation programs were taught in “leisure centers” around the city).

With official unemployment figures staying around 10 percent and the unofficial number much higher  (including those underemployed and so-called discouraged people who stopped looking for work), maybe it is time to look at a public option.  Some observers are now saying President Obama should have come out of the gate last January with a massive green jobs program or something similar before tackling health care. The President is now pushing on the jobs front—let’s hope this can be fast-tracked like other legislative action. While some banks and financial companies might be too big for us to allow them to fail, the federal government should not fail the people of the country. After all, the government is nothing other than “we the people.”

The Huffington Post had a report on recent discussions about a CETA-like program being considered:

“Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post reported today that “as desperate Democratic lawmakers cast about for ways to create jobs from Capitol Hill, a 1970s-era jobs program is getting a fresh look”:

Known as CETA — the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act — the program provided direct government funding to hire temporary workers. At its peak in 1978, it had created 725,000 public service jobs and shaved roughly one point off the unemployment figure…The version of CETA being discussed by Democrats would be some type of public-private partnership through which the government would pay part of an employee’s salary, while he or she would train under and work for a private firm.”

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More than 120 people jammed into the Assembly Room at Middlesex Community College’s Federal Building in Lowell this morning to hear Senator John Kerry, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, State Senator Steve Panagiotakos and others talk about job creation and the state of our economy. While other participants made brief remarks (which I’ll cover in a separate post), Senator Kerry said much that was interesting, relevant and informative so I’ll concentrate on his remarks here.

Senator Kerry began by observing that the great relationship that now exists among Greater Lowell’s local officials, statehouse delegation and our representatives in Washington is a key ingredient to solving the problems that currently plague us.

After commending President Obama for his lengthy and public exchange with Republican members of Congress yesterday in Baltimore, Senator Kerry criticized what he called “the perpetual campaign.” He said the Republican strategy in Washington today is “let’s stop everything so that people will get angry and blame the party that’s in power.” Kerry reminded us of the when Obama took office, we were already losing up to 800,000 jobs per month and the deficit had exceeded $1 trillion. The Recovery Act (aka “The Stimulus”) proposed by the President and enacted by Congress has worked. He urged us to ask our police and fire chiefs how many layoffs would have occurred their departments if not for the Federal stimulus funds. The same is true with teachers.

Senator Kerry next spoke about health insurance reform. Increasing the number who are covered is critical because “the more people that have health insurance, the more you spread the risk.” Regarding the Senate bill, he said “Our bill got caught up in a lot of lies by people who just wanted to whack it to just beat up Obama.” He said there were no cuts in Medicare in the Senate bill; in fact, it would extend Medicare by 10 years, all of which would be paid for by a 1% tax increase on people making more than $200,000 per year. He highlighted the equity of this arrangement by pointing out that the current Medicare tax we all contribute to is capped at $106,000 in earnings meaning that low-income taxpayers are now subsidize the Medicare coverage of the wealthiest Americans.

He explained that the problem with Medicare right now is the surging costs of Medicare Advantage, the program adopted in the 1990s that allows private insurers to provide Medicare coverage. Because of the efforts of lobbyists of these private insurers, the private insurers are reimbursed by the government at 114% of the cost of services, while regular Medicare receives 100% reimbursement. The current Senate bill would force the private insurers to live with “only” 100%.

Senator Kerry transitioned from health care to jobs by saying “We thought that easing the cost of health care would help create more jobs.” As for jobs, Kerry said that we should just forget about
lower-tier manufacturing jobs that are mostly performed in China and other countries with low standards of living. Instead, America should maximize high-skill, high value added jobs that can’t be duplicated elsewhere in fields like life sciences, biotechnology, renewable energy, robotics, artificial intelligence and others. Some of the most important jobs will be in energy because those jobs will not only provide valuable employment opportunities, they will also help us break our dependence on oil we now purchase from countries that don’t like us in addition to helping to save the planet from environmental catastrophe.

For all of these jobs, education is key. “If we cut our funding to education, we will cripple our future.” As for continuing to fund government, Kerry said you can’t raise taxes during a recession because you want people to have more money to spend on necessities. Instead, deficit spending is needed to finance the recovery and to get the economy back on track.

Senator Kerry ended by saying that we’re on the right track and that now is the time to be steadfast and patient to allow the measures already put in place to continue driving our recovery.

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