Ohio Sunday Papers – Ill winds beginning to blow on Cap Square

• Governor’s doubters grow – Columbus Dispatch
• Foreclosure crisis everywhere in Cleveland – The Plain Dealer
• 1933 eviction riots in Cleveland bear similarities to today – The Plain Dealer
• Plummeting stock prices rock four venerable Toledo firms – The Toledo Blade
• Op-Ed, Joe Hallett: Brunner v. Fisher could be Dem nightmare – Columbus Dispatch
• Op-Ed, Dennis Willard: Ohio legislators divided and evasive – Akron Beacon Journal
• Op-Ed, Aaron Marshall: Ohio House Republicans ready to fight – The Plain Dealer
• Op-Ed, Jonathan Riskind: Voinovich far from being lame duck – Columbus Dispatch
• Editorial: Ohio Auditor has waited long enough for data – The Plain Dealer
• Editorial: Stimulus should focus on fixing what’s broken – Columbus Dispatch
• Editorial: Passenger rail – waiting at the station – Akron Beacon Journal
• Some Lucas County agency heads get raises – The Toledo Blade
• Use of furloughs for workers on the rise – The Plain Dealer
• Personal bailouts sought on Ohio site – Akron Beacon Journal
• Where will the local stimulus dollars go? – Akron Beacon Journal
• Ohio stimulus proposals point out crumbling infrastructure – The Plain Dealer
• Fragile mental health safety net – Columbus Dispatch
• Ohio mental health facts – Columbus Dispatch
• Traficant could be back in Ohio soon – Youngstown Vindicator
• Dettelbach rises to top of U.S. Atty list – The Plain Dealer

Video: President Obama Weekly Address – Keeping Promises – The Budget – February 28

Full Text: President Obama Weekly Address – Keeping Promises – The Budget – February 28

(Source: White House Press Office)

Remarks of President Barack Obama – Weekly Address

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Washington, DC

Two years ago, we set out on a journey to change the way that Washington works.

We sought a government that served not the interests of powerful lobbyists or the wealthiest few, but the middle-class Americans I met every day in every community along the campaign trail – responsible men and women who are working harder than ever, worrying about their jobs, and struggling to raise their families.  In so many town halls and backyards, they spoke of their hopes for a government that finally confronts the challenges that their families face every day; a government that treats their tax dollars as responsibly as they treat their own hard-earned paychecks.

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Can We Spend a Few Million on Kids’ Health?

Families USA has a new study out which shows Ohio has 214,000 children without health coverage – the 11th most of all 50 states.  Key findings of the study:

• Nationwide, 8.6 million children are uninsured.  That’s one in nine of all our children.
• Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) pick up some of the slack. Between 2006-07, child enrollment in these two programs increased by over 900,000. President George W. Bush vetoed an expansion of SCHIP this year.
• 88% of the uninsured children come from families where at least one parent works.
• 59% of uninsured children come from two-parent households.

I think it’s interesting that Families USA included the final two statistics above in the summary of their report.  It says something about the political arguments that occur over funding healthcare or any other assistance for the needy.  The facts that most kids without health coverage come from working and two-parent families shows that this is a problem affecting the upper lower and lower middle classes.  Personally, I could care less whether or not those kids’ parents work or are married.  The salient fact is that kids don’t have control over their economic well-being or their ability to pay for health care.  Every child should have affordable access to health insurance on a sliding scale or for free. Period.

We can spend nearly a trillion dollars in Iraq and the talk is that we’ll spend several trillion on getting the economy moving again through more corporate bailouts and economic stimulus programs.  I would think that the next Congress and President Obama could find a few million dollars for the health of America’s kids.  Expanding SCHIP would be a good start.

• Cincinnati Enquirer story on the study
• Families USA Study: Left Behind – America’s Uninsured Children