Thom Hartmann's Opinion piece "On the News" . . .

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If you don't get this on a daily basis, you should request it from Truthout.org
These are fantastic daily pieces of information that I think most everyone here should read.

Read the full article at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/16490-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann

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In today's On the News segment: Recently released hospital billing data shows huge disparities in how uninsured patients were charged for care, and more.

Thom Hartmann here – on the news...

You need to know this. For over a week, Republicans have refused to focus on anything but their so-called scandals. And, it turns out, that's exactly the way they want it. On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, sent a letter to GOP leaders, and told them to avoid working on any legislation that could take the focus off of the Obama Administration. Michael Needham, the CEO of Heritage Action for America, wrote, "Legislation such as the Internet sales tax, or the FARRM Act, which contains nearly $800 billion in food stamp spending, would give the press a reason to shift their attention away from the failures of the Obama administration to write another 'circular firing squad' article." In other words, they want Republicans to use the media's scandal obsession to keep the focus off of in-fighting within the GOP, and to avoid getting any real work done. It's also important to note that Heritage Action is a registered 501(c)(4) organization. That means that taxpayers are subsidizing the very organization that's telling our lawmakers not to do their jobs. As if Republicans in Congress ever needed an excuse to do nothing. The fact is, while the GOP obsesses about so-called scandal, the pressing issues facing our nation are being ignored. Instead of trying to score political points, Republicans could be working to help our economy, create jobs, or to fix our broken immigration system. They were not elected to do the bidding of conservative think tanks. It's time for Republicans to listen to the American people, put aside political witch-hunts, and start working on the issues that could actually help the people they represent.

In screwed news...

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