BALANCING HEALTHCARE, PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICS: Which Candidates are the Real Deal -- And Which are Counterfeit?

Balancing Healthcare, Public Policy and Politics with Linda de Seife

Tuesday, May 18th was Super Tuesday 2010, and pundits of all political stripes have analyzed the results of primaries and special elections held that day. Most seem to agree that there is a rebellion growing amongst American voters.

Basically, the poll numbers discussed in previous columns haven’t changed much, and if anything, have trended more negative toward incumbents. So, here I want to discuss one race in particular that Republicans need to learn from for the fall 2010. That race is the special election in PA-12 (Pennsylvania) to replace the late John Murtha.

The situation is that the district has an overwhelming Democratic registration majority. John Murtha represented the district and “brought home the bacon” for decades. The Democratic candidate, Mark Critz, was a Murtha staffer, and is therefore well known in the district. Despite all these factors, right up to election day, most major polls had the race a dead heat. Yet, Critz went on to defeat Republican Tim Burns by an unexpectedly large 8-point margin.

Republicans were understandably disappointed, but they need to learn from this. Critz ran as pro-gun and pro-life, said he would have voted against health care reform, and is opposed to cap-and-tax. These are Republican issue positions, yet Critz was able to co-opt them. Thus the question: Who is the real deal and who just talks the talk? Will Critz go back to Washington as a Member and vote with Nancy Pelosi as his mentor did, or will he truly vote based on what he told his constituents in order to get elected?

The Republicans need to know that this is a tactic that Democrats will use in November, and they need to nip it in the bud. PA-12 showed that simply running against the national Democratic establishment doesn’t work. Candidates need to know their district and know the folks and what they’re thinking. As this column has mentioned several times, all politics is local; that hasn’t changed. The Republican positions are in tune with the majority of Americans’ views, but they need to take it district by district. PA-12 gave Democrats a blueprint for November, which is basically, if you need to run to the right to get elected, do it. At the end of the day, if they do that, they could still end up with the majority. The question then will be, will they still try to govern from the left, or will Nancy Pelosi no longer be able to control her members?

For the Republicans, they need to stop a repeat of PA-12 by challenging Democrats who attempt to outflank them. They need to challenge the voters to choose between “the real deal” and a counterfeit. In 2008, and today, Barack Obama continues to say one thing that people want to hear and to reel them in, and then do another. The American people cannot fall for this again.

So, before you vote in November think: Real deal or counterfeit?

The Center for Health Transformation (www.healthtransformation.net) has a daily “news you can use” post relating to the implementation of the health care reform law. On May 23rd, they published an article from thehill.com (http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/99387-study-healthcare-law-encourages-small-businesses-to-stay-small) which reports on a study by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) showing that tax credits in the new law could negatively impact small business hiring.

The new law provides a 50% tax credit to companies with fewer than ten employees who offer health insurance and whose employees’ average annual wages are $25,000. The tax credit is reduced as more employees are added to the payroll.

Pamela Villarreal, a senior NCPA analyst says, “If a business can make a decision to substitute capital for labor – say, contract the procedure out or automate it – I believe (losing the tax credit) will play an important part in the reluctance to hire. It’s puzzling that we have this perverse incentive not to have business grow by not encouraging them to hire additional workers.”

This column will continue to provide updates on the implementation of the law and their impact. Stay tuned.

Quote of the Month: “Society is infested by persons who, seeing that the sentiments please, counterfeit the expression of them. These we call sentimentalists – talkers who mistake the description for the thing, saying for having.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson


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BALANCING HEALTHCARE, PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICS: Which Candidates are the Real Deal -- And Which are Counterfeit?

How to Use Technorati for Website Networking

Networking Your Website with Rita Wilhelm

Technorati is a website designed to highlight latest blog entries and user generated media such as photos, videos and music from around the world in various categories. This means that at any given time the latest news, special events, products and opinions from users around the world are featured in one convenient place for anyone to see and to link to.

Currently, there are nearly 113 million blogs that are featured and 250 million citizen generated media entries. Found on the Internet at http://technorati.com/, this site can be a highly valuable tool to use in networking and increasing traffic to your personal or professional web presence.

If you have a blog site or other media you want to share with the world, Technorati is the ideal place to feature it. In order to get started there is some basic information you will need to understand.

The use of tags is the primary method of getting your site categorized correctly for feature on the site. There are different ways to use tags within your content in order to get it featured properly and the method you use will depend on the type of software you have for your media as well as what programming experience you have.

If you use one of the well known blog software types such as WordPress or Moveable Type, you already have built in tools to use tags, typically called categories within the programs. Make sure when you publish your content on your site that you always use categories that suit your topic. These will be read by Technorati and filtered into the appropriate tags. If you do not use blog software that supports categories or tags automatically, you can still get Technorati to categorize your site appropriately with the use of some simple HTML links within the body of your post.

For example, if you have a post that pertains to pop music you will add in a link such as: pop music. If you have two pertinent tags such as pop music and Britney Spears add in a plus sign between the tags. For example, pop music Britney Spears.

Once you have your posts correctly identified, you need to tell Technorati about them so they can be posted. This can be done in two ways. First, most blog software can be configured to automatically notify Technorati upon publishing. Or, you can manually ping them by going to http://technorati.com/ping/ and entering the URL of your particular post. Using Technorati is quick and easy and can highly benefit your site by exposing millions of users to your content and allowing others to link to you site. This will increase your traffic and refine your search engine optimization processes.

Rita Wilhelm is founder and president of SnapMonkey Inc, which is a company that provides both online marketing consulting to businesses, as well as easy-to-use web-based technologies to help businesses effectively promote themselves on the web.
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How to Use Technorati for Website Networking

Be Sure Not to Miss This Show...

Three Top Experts on Networking Interviewed with Secrets to Increase Your Business

Fast-Pitch Networking

Date Released: 08/21/2007

Be sure to join us this Thursday, August 23rd, at www.uiplive.com 6 pm, est. Uniqueness is Power is delivering another special episode - this one on networking. As guests that day, we'll be bringing you a trio that will show you how to grow your business through referrals - both online and off. Bill Jula, CEO of Fast Pitch Networking.com will join us - which on the show, we've called a as a combination of Linked In, YouTube, PR Web and happy hour. We'll also be joined by Adam J. Kovitz, founder of the National Networker and Relationship Networking Industry Association (RNIA) - both vehicles geared towards smarter and more leveraged networking. In addition, we'll have on BNI veteran Mike Neal, who will speak about the benefits of closed networking, of how to build your network and how you can make referrals your one main source of leads. You don't want to miss this - but if you do, you can always download the podcast at www.uniquenessispower.com - You can also download specials on franchising, on fundrasing and more at the link above - just scroll through and find something that speaks to you, the download the mp3 and listen.

About Carroll White

Marketing, Business and Technology Consultancy that does the work, too. Services from branding and naming to websites and DB intergration. We seek to grow your company for the long term and specialize in: (1) Bringing companies to the United States; (2) Franchise work, (3) Bank start up, (4)Residential real estate (builders/developers), (5) Retail ..... and more Because we create solutions from a business fundamental baseline, we are successful in whatever industry we touch. Give us a call for a 90 minute meeting - no dog and pony show - just us solving problems together, and getting the ball rolling.

Submitted by Carroll White

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