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People view the Republican presidential debate on a large video screen outside of the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People view the Republican presidential debate on a large video screen outside of the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidates, from left to right: Texas Gov. Rick Perry; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, participate in the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich participate in the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Mitt Romney ignored the most significant expansion of trade ties in nearly two decades when he accused the Obama administration Monday night of doing nothing to open new markets. Rick Santorum claimed to be taking purely the high road in campaign ads even as a new one from him veered from that path.
Newt Gingrich mischaracterized the Chilean retirement system that he favors as a partial model for the United States, declaring that the system of private accounts is voluntary when it's not.
So it went in the latest Republican presidential debate as the candidates took shortcuts with complex realities and committed some outright distortions. A look at some of the claims and how they compare with the facts:
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ROMNEY: "This president has opened up no new markets for American goods around the world in his three years, even as European nations and China have opened up 44."
THE FACTS: Actually, Obama revived Bush-administration-era free-trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, all passed by Congress in October, in the biggest round of trade liberalization since the North American Free Trade Agreement and other pacts of that era.
In particular, the agreement with South Korea is designed to break down barriers between the United States and the world's 15th-largest economy. The South Korea deal has the potential to create as many as 280,000 American jobs, according to a recent assessment by the staff of the U.S. International Trade Commission, and to boost exports by more than $12 billion.
Obama also, on a recent trip to Asia, endorsed an Asia-Pacific free-trade pact that would also boost U.S. exports to Asia. With economies weak, the benefits of freer trade may not be immediate but Romney was incorrect to say President Barack Obama has opened "no new markets."
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SANTORUM: "My ads have been positive. The only ad that I've ever put up has contrasted myself with the other candidates, and does so in a way talking about issues."
THE FACTS: Santorum is coming out with an ad this week accusing Romney of being "just like Obama" and saying Romney "once bragged he's even more liberal than Ted Kennedy on social issues," two negative assertions that go beyond a mere look at issues.
As a Massachusetts senate candidate in 1994, Romney wrote to a group of gay Republicans that outlined a plan to do better than Kennedy to make "equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern." But that's not bragging about liberalism, and Romney is hardly more liberal than the late senator ? or Obama ? on social issues. Romney, for example, supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
Santorum has, in fact, stayed positive in the campaign but the new ad is a departure from that.
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GINGRICH on Chile's system of private retirement accounts: "First of all, it's totally voluntary. If you want to stay in the current system, stay in it. If you are younger and you want to go and take a personal savings account, which would be a Social Security savings account, you can take it."
THE FACTS: There is nothing voluntary about Chile's system. It requires that all workers contribute 10 percent of their salaries to private pension plans, plus other fees for insurance, instead of a government program like Social Security.
Workers had a choice when Chile created the private pensions in 1981 but after that phase-in, all new employees have been required to contribute 10 percent of their first $33,360 in annual wages, choosing among five funds whose investments range from safe bonds to riskier stocks.
The Chile model was also a favorite of Herman Cain when he was in the Republican race. He, too, mischaracterized the system as optional.
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ROMNEY: "We invested in well over 100 different businesses. And the people have looked at the places that have added jobs and lost jobs and that record is pretty much available for people to take a close look at."
THE FACTS: Romney's record as a venture capitalist at Bain Capital has been presented by his campaign highly selectively; namely, by detailing several big success stories and ignoring the job losses that resulted from Bain-owned plants and companies that closed or shrank their workforce.
His overall record is not even close to being known, because it is so complex. Many of the companies are private, without the public disclosure requirements that big corporations have, and his campaign has not released details.
Under scrutiny, Romney has stepped back from claiming that he created more than 100,000 jobs overall with his Bain investments. That claim was never substantiated. In the debate, he named four successful investments in companies that now ? a decade after he left Bain ? employ about 120,000 people, a more measured and accurate statement, but one that still does not account for losses elsewhere.
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RON PAUL: "Taliban are people who want ? their main goal is to keep foreigners off their land. It's the al-Qaida ? you can't mix the two. The al-Qaida want to come here to kill us. The Taliban just says we don't want foreigners. We need to understand that or we can't resolve this problem in the Middle East."
THE FACTS: What Paul is missing is that the Taliban harbored foreigners in their land ? al-Qaida terrorists who came to the United States and killed Americans? and that the Obama administration fears that might happen again if the Taliban regain control in Kabul.
He was correct that the U.S. prior to the 2001 terrorist attacks did not consider the Taliban to be a threat to the U.S. homeland.
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ROMNEY: "Three years into office, he doesn't have a jobs plan."
FACT CHECK: Like them or not, Obama has proposed several plans intended to spur the economy and create jobs. The most well-known was his stimulus plan, introduced in February 2009, which included about $800 billion in tax cuts and spending.
At the end of 2010, Obama struck a deal with GOP congressional leaders on a package intended to stimulate hiring and growth. The deal cut the Social Security payroll tax, which provided about an extra $1,000 a year to an average family. It also extended an unemployment benefits program that provided up to 99 weeks of aid.
And in September, Obama introduced his most recent jobs plan, rolling it out in a speech to the full Congress in which he urged Congress to "pass it right away." It included $450 billion in tax cuts and new spending, including greater cuts to payroll taxes and tax breaks for companies that hire those who've been out of work for six months or more. Almost none of it has been passed into law.
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GINGRICH: Romney "raised taxes."
ROMNEY: "We reduced taxes 19 times."
THE FACTS: Both assertions were basically true, though decidedly one-sided.
Romney largely held the line on tax increases but there were notable exceptions. The state raised business taxes by $140 million in one year with measures mostly recommended by Romney. As well, the Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers raised hundreds of millions of dollars from higher fees and fines ? taxation by another name. Romney himself proposed raising nearly $60 million by creating 33 new fees and increasing 57 others. Romney won praise from anti-tax advocates by firmly backing income tax cuts ? and criticism over the business taxes and fees.
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GINGRICH: "More people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history."
THE FACTS: It's gotten easier to qualify for food stamps in the past decade but that is because of measures taken before Obama became president.
It's true that the number of people on food stamps is now at a record level. That's due mainly to the ailing economy, which Republicans blame on Obama, as well as rising food costs.
The worst downturn since the Great Depression wiped out 8.7 million jobs, pushed the unemployment rate to a peak of 10 percent in October 2009 and increased poverty.
More than 46.2 million people were on food stamps in October 2011, down slightly from a record 46.3 million in September. That's up from fewer than 31 million people three years earlier.
Eligibility rules were relaxed in 2002 and 2008 during the Bush administration. Obama's stimulus package, passed in February 2009, relaxed the program's work requirements through September 2010.
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Associated Press writers Christopher S. Rugaber, Tom Raum, Steve Peoples, Robert Burns and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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Escrito por: MANUEL ANTONIO OZORIA (Ozoria27antonio@hotmail.com)
SAN PEDRO DE MACOR?S. Desconocidos que participaban en una fiesta de brujer?a hirieron de bala ayer a dos hombres, en el barrio Lindo.
Los heridos son Carlos Alberto Corpor?n, de 20 a?os y Ram?n Mazara, de 22, quienes fueron internados en el hospital Doctor Antonio Musa.
El primero fue impactado en una pierna, mientras que el segundo en uno de sus gl?teos, cuando ambos transitaban por una calle de ese sector donde se realizaba dicha fiesta de hechicer?a, dijo la Polic?a.
La instituci?n del orden investiga el hecho para determinar culpabilidad y someterlo a la justicia, dijo la vocera polcial de la direcci?n regional Sureste, teniente Ruth Isambert.
Escopeta chilena
Por otra parte, la Polic?a ocup? una escopeta casera de las denominadas, chilena, a un hombre en el sector Villa Progreso, en esta ciudad.
Se trata de Ricardo Jos? Matos, de 21 a?os, residente en la calle Primera, de Villa Progreso, quien ser? sometido a la justicia.
elnacional.com.do
Source: http://www.noticias247fm.com/2012/01/17/individuos-hieren-dos-en-fiesta-en-spm/
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Intercepted communications indicated Asimullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal area. In about a half a dozen intercepts the militants discussed whether their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed on January 12.
FOX News reported:
Intercepted militant radio communications indicate the leader of the Pakistani Taliban may have been killed in a recent U.S. drone strike, Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday. A Taliban official denied that.
The report coincided with sectarian violence ? a bomb blast in eastern Pakistan that killed 14 people in a Shiite religious procession.
The claim that the Pakistani Taliban chief was killed came from officials who said they intercepted a number of Taliban radio conversations. In about a half a dozen intercepts, the militants discussed whether their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed on Jan. 12 in the North Waziristan tribal area. Some militants confirmed Mehsud was dead, and one criticized others for talking about the issue over the radio.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Asimullah Mehsud denied the group?s leader was killed and said he was not in the area where the drone strike occurred.
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A glaring gap in oversight by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (MITI) has left Japanese citizens with a new worry about the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Stockpiled gravel located in the nearby community of Namie, as reported by the Mainichi Daily News, has been shipped to over 200 construction firms throughout Japan. The gravel is contaminated with radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
MITI, was reportedly told that the facility was shut down when they checked last May. No follow up seems to have been conducted. About 5,200 metric tons of radioactive gravel has been shipped from the facility. AFP reports that a newly constructed apartment building in Nihonmatsu is radioactive. Built in July, the 12 families in the building have been exposed to radiation levels half of level that establishes the mandatory evacuation zone around Fukushima.
A Japanese government committee investigating the Fukushima disaster released a report just after Christmas that was sharply critical of the power plant's owner, TEPCO, and the various governmental agencies involved with the site. Poor pre-planning, poor communication during the crisis and an inability to manage a complex disaster are among the criticisms the committee announced. The issues discovered involved everyone from the technicians at the Fukushima plant itself all the way to the top management of TEPCO and the Japanese Cabinet.
The Wall Street Journal is quoting Japanese sources about continued nuclear power plant shutdowns in that nation. Only five of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors are currently in operation. By the end of January, that number will be three. The loss of electrical generation capacity has resulted in increased use of oil and coal by electrical plants that produce using fossil fuels. Combined with the complex nature of the Japanese electrical grid, power shortages continue to exist in various parts of the nation.
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WASHINGTON ? Is health-care relief finally in sight? Health spending stabilized as a share of the nation's economy in 2010 after two back-to-back years of historically low growth, the government reported Monday.
Experts debated whether it's a fleeting consequence of the sluggish economy, or a real sign that cost controls by private employers and government at all levels are starting to work.
The answers will be vital for Medicare's sustainability, as well as for workplace coverage.
U.S. health care spending grew by 3.9 percent in 2010, reaching $2.6 trillion, according to the report by the Health and Human Services department.
That's an average of $8,402 per person ? far more than any other economically advanced country.
Still, the increases for 2010 and 2009 were the lowest measured in 51 years. And health care as a share of the economy leveled off at 17.9 percent, the first time in a decade there's been no growth.
The main reason for the slowdown was that Americans were more frugal in their use of health care, from postponing elective surgery to using generic drugs and thinking twice about that late-night visit to the emergency room.
"Although medical goods and services are generally viewed as necessities, the latest recession has had a dramatic effect on their utilization," said the report published in the journal Health Affairs. "Though the recession officially ended in 2009, its impact on the health care sector appears to have continued into 2010."
Independent economists issued conflicting assessments.
"I think it could signal slower growth in the future," said Ken Thorpe, professor of health policy at Emory University in Atlanta. "Any discussion about reducing the deficit is going to focus on how we reduce the growth in health-care costs. And employers are adopting more effective tools to keep putting downward pressure on health-care cost increases."
But his counterpart Len Nichols at George Mason University in Virginia said people are getting less medical care because too many have lost jobs and insurance, and they just can't afford to pay.
"The slowdown is mostly due to postponement of care, due to anticipated inability to pay," said Nichols. If he's right, that could mean costs will spike once the economy is on solid footing.
The report provided relief for a jittery White House facing a 2012 reelection campaign in which President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is a top target for Republicans.
The nonpartisan number crunchers at HHS found that the health care law barely contributed to cost increases in 2010 ? just one-tenth of 1 percentage point. Major provisions expanding coverage to more than 30 million uninsured don't take effect until 2014, well after the presidential election.
The federal government's share of the total health care tab ? another issue in this year's political debate ? grew to 29 percent in 2010, up from 23 percent as recently as 2007. Counting state and local spending, the overall government share stood at 45 percent of the total.
Medicare spending grew by 5 percent in 2010. That was slower growth than in 2009, due mainly to reductions in what the government paid private Medicare Advantage insurance plans. Medicaid spending increased by 7.2 percent, less than the 2009 rate because of fewer people covered by the program.
However, the main finding of the report was a continued slowdown in the use of services across major health-care categories, one its authors termed "dramatic." Higher copayments for those with private insurance are part of the reason.
Hospital care, which accounts for just over 30 percent of what Americans spend, grew more slowly because of a decline in a key measure of inpatient admissions, and slower growth in emergency room visits, outpatient appointments, and outpatient surgery.
Spending on doctor visits and related care ? about 20 percent of the total ? grew at a historically low rate of 2.5 percent, due to an overall drop in visits and a milder 2010 flu season. But spending on dental care increased faster than in 2009.
Prescription drugs, about 10 percent of overall spending, also saw a slower increase ? just 1.2 percent in 2010. That was not only due to the continuing shift to generic drugs, but also slower growth in the overall volume of medications that Americans took.
Will less health care hurt consumers?
That remains to be seen, but current evidence suggests it won't. Americans are no healthier than their counterparts in other developed countries, which spend far less. And research suggests that as much as 30 percent of tests and treatments for U.S. patients may be of little or no benefit.
The HHS experts refused to speculate about the implications of the slowdown, although their report stressed the connection to a weak economy. More may be known by the summer, when another team in the same HHS unit will update projections for future health care spending.
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Online:
HHS report in Health Affairs: http://tinyurl.com/6nyuzrr
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