I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer holds up a copy of a controversial health care reform bill. (Photo by Todd A. Heywood/Michigan Messenger)
DELTA TOWNSHIP — Mark Schauer, a first-term Democratic congressman from Battle Creek expected to face a tough 2010 re-election bid, on Thursday accused one of his Michigan colleagues in the U.S. House of manipulating the current debate over health care reform, saying that Republican Thaddeus McCotter of Livonia “should read the bill” and “study” what it actually says.
During an invitation-only town hall meeting at a senior center in this Eaton County township near Lansing, Schauer took aim at McCotter, the suburban Detroit congressman that Democrats hope to unseat during next year’s elections.
McCotter has been a vocal opponent of national health care reform and was among the first Republican lawmakers to promote the idea that Democratic legislative efforts includes provisions to send elderly citizens before “death panels” to see if they are eligible for euthanasia.
During an interview with Michigan Messenger, Schauer said of McCotter:
I think anyone — whether [former Alaska Gov.] Sarah Palin or one of my colleagues from Michigan — is misrepresenting and mischaracterizing for the purposes of fear ought to really think about why they’re doing what they’re doing. That does a disservice to people that rely on policy makers to be honest and think about their constituents and do the right thing.
All credible non-partisan sources have debunked Republican claims that health care reform efforts would lead to such “death panels.”
According to the nonpartisan Factcheck.org, the claims pushed by McCotter and other Republican lawmakers refer to making sure doctors are reimbursed by Medicaid to discuss end-of-life directives, or “living wills,” with patients. The bill neither mandates nor requires such meetings to occur, only that if they do, they should be reimbursed.
Schauer said such manipulations by Republicans in Congress is harmful. “We shouldn’t be scaring seniors. We shouldn’t be scaring anyone. In fact, we should be working together in a bipartisan way to make sure we solve our broken health care system.”
Calls and email inquiries to McCotter’s officer were not returned on Thursday.
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