Barack Hussein Obama...yoga enthusiast?

From the first time he threw his hat into the ring as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama has had every part of his identity from his nationality to his religion. A more subtle form of the latter part of his life, which I find most intriguing, is his spirituality.

A South Asian blog called Sepia Mutiny (which I encourage you all to check out for more than just the article I am referring to) has done a very interesting piece on President Obama's sprituality and its link to Kriya Yoga. Though its purely speculation, it really is interesting to delve deeper into the brain of the man making decisions that affect us all.

Read the article here.

Breaking News: College Loan Reform

With President Obama signing the last of the healthcare fixes into law, healthcare is not the only thing is going to chang ein the United States. What also changes with the signing of this bill is the college loan system.

From the Associated Press:

"Under the measure, private banks would no longer get fees for acting as middlemen in federal student loans. The government would use the savings to boost Pell Grants and make it easier for some workers to repay their student loans. 

In addition, some borrowers could see lower interest rates and higher approval rates on student loans.

Obama has touted the changes as a way to make college more affordable for students and their debt load more manageable after graduation. He used his weekend radio and Internet address to cite expected benefits for young people: more student lending, caps on those repayments and more money for minority colleges and universities.

"This reform of the federal student loan programs will save taxpayers $68 billion over the next decade," Obama said in his weekly address. "And with this legislation, we're putting that money to use achieving a goal I set for America: By the end of this decade, we will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."

For many of my friends who are college students, especially those who are at Northwestern and peer institutions, where tuition hovers close to 40,000 dollars per year, this is big news. With the removal of the middleman system in college lending, we can only hope that college students will be in a more advantageous position when they come out of college and enter a turbulent economy.

-Sahil

Terror Alert: It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt

Another terrorist threat looms above us - they have found ways to turn our most beloved technologies against us. But in war, we must sacrifice. How do we know, you ask, what sacrifices must be made. Luckily for you, our friends at Fox News are always the first to tell us about threats. And this one, my friends, is no game (bad pun intended).

Recently in an arms cache found in an Afghan village, a PLAYSTATION controller being using by fighters in Afghanistan as a bomb detonator! Glenn Beck is expected to condemn Sony for building such controllers, and purport that the controller might have even belonged to Barack Obama, who Beck claims is an avid Playstation enthusiast with his own game:

Sarah Palin: Kill the Bill...literally

Facebook started out as a way for college students to connect to one another. This eventually spread to all users and now is open to anyone who is above the age of 13 and in possession of an email address. Facebook now permeates society, and along with Twitter allows celebrities and politicians to remove barriers and layers of people between us and them...also its great for giving us gems like this from Sarah Palin's Facebook:

This image, taken from Sarah Palin's facebook, outlines congressmen that voted for the bill that Sarah wants to get rid of - whats interesting is the use of crosshairs to denote the districts. Really? Crosshairs? 

Part 1 of my feature on South Asian Politics coming tomorrow.

Sahil

Changing Gears

I'm going to dedicate the next few posts to South Asian candidates in the 2010 election cycle and the political environment they operate in.

This feature will be split into three parts

Part 1: Our Community Speaks: Spotlight on South Asian Candidates 

Part 2: Identity Crisis: What about politicians that share our heritage, but not our views? Spotlight on Bobby Jindal, and Nikki Hunter.

Part 3: From Apathy to Engagement: The dynamic shift between generations of politics in the South Asian community. 

I hope you will enjoy my posts. Please comment with your thoughts.

-Sahil

Clarification

I promise that I will post about something other than the healthcare soon!

However, I wanted to present a quick clarification about the bill that many people don't realize. Some have stated that Americans have "lost their freedom" because people will be unable to choose whether or not they want insurance.

A few things...

1) People without insurance are a huge financial burden on the state.

2) This is entirely constitutional.

3) There will be an affordable option for people. 

4) This will only affect people who CAN afford insurance but deliberately choose not to get it. 

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the bill will fine people who don't have Health insurance starting in 2014, however:

 "Exemptions will be granted for financial hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals, if the lowest cost plan option exceeds 8% of an individual’s income, and if the individual has income below 100% of the poverty level."

Will he follow through?

(photo from Boston Herald)

Rush Limbaugh once said that if the Heatlhcare bill passed he would leave the country and leave to Costa Rica.

Healthcare reform has passed - I've received no word of any plans for Rush to leave. Though I do not believe with his views, and think that he is part of the radical right that commands too much attention within the right, he is an entertaining man, and I would be sad to see him go to Costa Rica (which has a more socialized healthcare system than the US).

Some people would rather see him gone.

A facebook group amassing almost 50,000 people has already formed.

In addition, a blogger has already offered to cover the airfare.

Its a pretty popular topic on Google as well:

I'll write more as the week unfolds.

-Sahil

The Morning After Part Two: From Socialist to Baby-Killers

Though healthcare has passed, it passed in a divisively partisan way. 0 republicans representatives voted for the healthcare bill - despite the fact that it was specifically made to be moderate enough and include ideas from the republican party. However, what started as a respectful political process has ended up with a nasty and bipolar environment. 

What we have gained is healthcare - what we may have lost is an intelligent process to politics.

Rahm Emmanuel had said that the Republican party is controlled by a fringe group of extremists who do not represent the majority of Republicans.  This extreme group utilizes fear and labels to mobilize a small base, who have manifested themselves in the tea party.

For the last few weeks, the opponents of health care reform have leveled this plan with socialism. When this failed, and there was no specific provision made to protect pro-life policies, they called Democrats baby-killers. 

Ridiculous statements have been being made, like this one. Really? "The war of Yankee Aggression".

The Huffington Post has done a great job compiling photos of ridiculous signs at the Tea Party Rallies. According to Sarah Palin, these people are the "U.S. political future".

Hopefully, the intelligent members of the GOP will re-take control of party, and stop leveraging fear to stir passion. We cannot experience real progress until Democrats and Republicans work together in the effort to change the way we do things. People's lives, education, and wallets are on the line.

-Sahil

The Morning After, Part 1: What Happened, and what's next?

(photo taken from footage from CNN)

Last night the healthcare bill passed by Senate in December passed in the Congress. With it, another bill with a set of fixes for this original bill were passed through the process of "reconciliation" a procedural use. The bill including the fixes also needs to pass in the Senate. The key here is that the process of reconciliation will also be used to pass the fixes through Senate.

This bill passed after President Obama was able to make a deal with pro-life Democrats in which he wrote an executive order guaranteeing that no taxpayer dollars would be used to fund abortions. Following this, the Republicans still made this their issue - claiming that an executive order was not law, and that the bill would still allow federal funds to be spent on abortion. Despite their last ditch efforts to use procedural motions - the bill made it through.

Many are barking at the high cost of the bill - arguing that it will throw us deeper into debt. 

There is some truth - by no means is the bill cheap. The price tag, as estimated by the CBO, is $940 billion. However it is important that one looks at the net effect on the budget - at the end of the day, it costs money to make money, and frankly, Healthcare is a lucrative business. As a matter of fact, within the first 10 years of the bill taking effect, it is expected to lower the budget deficit by $138 billion dollars. Also, it's important to understand that there is a cost involved if you DON'T provide health care. According to this article on CNN

"Not providing insurance is not free; the annual health care expenditure for an uninsured adult is $1,800, according to a Kaiser Foundation study in 2004."

The important thing to understand is that the costs are not as simple as any one party will make it out to seem. Obviously, the plan will cost money. But the benefit is important - Americans deserve healthcare. 

So, what are the next steps? The Healthcare bill has passed in both the Senate and the House. The Fixes on the bill have only been passed in the House must be passed in the Senate now. The fixes to the bill are available to the public here.

That process - 

1. The Senate must vote on the changes made to the bill (vote by reconciliation, which only requires a 51 vote majority in the Senate, which the Democrats have)
2. If the Senate passes this, President Obama must sign it into law. (Currently the bill could be signed into the law as is, but President Obama will not sign it without the fixes along with it.) 
3.  If Senate does not pass this, there will have to be another vote in the House of Representatives. 

This may not end the process. States with officials that do not want this plan will probably challenge the bill in the courts to try and show that it is unconstitutional. Last night was one major victory in the fight for health care - however, the fight is not over.

This article is a good way to learn what exactly is included in the bill. The original bill is quite lengthy to read.

-Sahil

Picture/Quote of the Day

"We did not fear our future, we shaped it."

-Barack Obama, 3/21/2010

On Sunday night, Congress narrowly passed huge reforms to healthcare, finally bringing about the change that has been needed in the United States for many years. In a country of this size and prosperity, the fact that people die of preventable diseases because they lack the money and the insurance to pay for treatment is unacceptable. Many leaders in the last 100 years have recognized this and fought to bring about coverage for all Americans. This effort was especially pushed by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who passed away in August fighting for this bill. Though the work is not done, this vote is an important step completed, and an important obstacle overcome. 

According to the president's plan, (available here)  95% of Americans will be covered after the passage of this plan, a significant increase from the amount covered today. In addition, the healthcare provided to many will be a more affordable option. Currently, approximately 30 million Americans live without health insurance. 

0 Republican representatives voted for this bill. The fate of this reform and the cultural shift will be inexplicably tied to the fate of Democrats in office, and it will go down in history as a Democratic movement.

First Post

Hello!

I've been interested in starting a blog for a long time. I have been told I have a talent for ranting, and I find myself talking about the political process and the issues that our legislators tackle to many people. This has become an important hobby to me as I learn more about policy and get involved in political campaigning. I also find some of the events in our government unbelievably entertaining.

People in my age group often find themselves inadvertently disconnected, even if they were strong supporters of the Obama presidential campaign. This is a result of a few different circumstances. College students might feel that if they are not pursuing a career in politics, it is not important to be "in the know". Its important for people from all walks of life - whether you're pursuing a career in politics, medicine, business, academics, or anything - to be engaged in the political process. Secondly there is a time constraint - hopefully this blog can help in some minimal way.

We will not and can not own our government unless we take an active and engaged approach to understanding the events that happen, looking beyond the political rhetoric we hear on news networks. At the end of the day, it is up to the voters to ensure that their elected officials are acting in their best interest (sometimes the best way to do this is by making fun of them). 

This blog will attempt to dissect some of the issues facing our country, the politically relevant events that occur on a day to day basis, and the ridiculousness of the circus that is our government. My biggest interests are South Asian politics (I will post highlights about South Asian candidates and government officials), education policy (possibly the most underrated issue in terms of importance), the hilarious things that politicians do, and innovative reform ideas to make our government stronger and better. Full disclosure, I lean left and support the Democratic Party. With that being said, I think what's more important than partisan politics is collaboration, a sharing of ideas, and making decisions on a issue by issue basis, as opposed to just supporting your party blindly. I hope you enjoy reading, and leave comments with your viewpoints. 

-Sahil