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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2011 > January > 20
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Brown takes federal health care
After 18 years of buying his own health care coverage, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown went on the federal employee system this month.
“I made a promise in 1992 that I would pay my own health insurance until Congress passed health insurance for the country. I did it for 18 years,” Brown said on Thursday. “My wife and I went on the plan two weeks ago that every other federal employee is eligible for - not just Congress.”
Brown said his trip to the dentist this month was covered by insurance - a first in a long time. “I had health care coverage that I personally paid for but I never had had dental coverage before now,” the Democrat said.
It’s official: Ohio challenging federal health care law
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida made it official Wednesday:
Ohio is part of the lawsuit challenging the federal health care overhaul law.
Vinson added Ohio to the lawsuit on the same day the Republican-controlled U.S. House voted to repeal the law. The Democratic-controlled Senate is not expected to agree.
“I am pleased that the judge has made Ohio formally a part of the case, just one day after our motion was filed,” Republican Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a press release.
“With Ohio as the 21st state, and the addition of five other states, there are now more than half of the states represented.”
In November, DeWine defeated Democratic incumbent Attorney General Richard Cordray who was opposed to joining the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.
Brown calls for crackdown on oil and gas speculation
As gas prices climb higher, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is calling on the Obama Administration to exercise a provision in the new Wall Street reform law to crack down on speculators who may be driving prices higher at the pump.
Brown, a Democrat, sent a letter Jan. 20 to the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that outlines the senator’s concern about speculative bets on oil exchanges are driving up consumer costs.
The new law requires the commission to come up with rules on energy futures speculation by Jan. 21. “I am deeply concerned that the CFTC will miss this deadline,” Brown wrote. “The need for these rules is clear, and the CFTC must use its full authority to protect consumers and small businesses from artificially inflated gas prices.”
Some analysts are projecting $4 per gallon gas prices by spring. The price of gas in Ohio has climbed12 cents per gallon in the past month and crude oil futures prices have increased 18 percent in the last three months, according to Brown.
Ohio voters view Boehner favorably; weeping a sign of strength
More than half of Ohio voters don’t know enough about U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, the West Chester Township Republican, to have an opinion, but among those who do the Speaker gets good marks.
In a Quinnpiac University poll of Ohio voters released Thursday, 27 percent have a favorable view of Boehner, compared to 18 percent with a negative opinion and 52 percent with no opinion.
Boehner’s much publicized tendency to weep at emotional moments is seen as more of a strength than a weakness.
Thirty six percent say it’s a strength, compared to 27 percent who says it’s a weakness and 37 percent who are undecided.
Men and women are split on weeping.
Women see it as a strength, 44-20 percent. Men say it’s a weakness, 34-27 percent.
It’s not surprising that relatively few Ohioans know much about Boehner, despite his powerful position, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“That’s not hugely surprising since even in their own states members of Congress are not very well known outside their own districts,” Brown said in a press release.
The poll was taken Jan. 12 through Monday, Jan. 17 with 1,299 registered voters statewide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
Boehner also fared well in two recent national polls. A USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday showed that his favorability rating has improved to 42 percent from 27 percent in October.
In a new CNN poll, Boehner’s favorability was at 45 percent, up from 36 percent in December.
Ohio poll: Obama, Brown deserve re-election in 2012
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and President Barack Obama, both Democrats, deserve re-election in 2012, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of Ohio voters released Thursday.
Voters give Brown a bigger edge, saying 45-30 percent that he deserves a second term. By a 48-44 percent spread, they say Obama, also expected to seek a second term in 2012, merits re-election.
Voters approve Brown’s performance, 45-25 percent, and Obama’s narrowly, 49-46 percent. For the president, however, this reverses June poll results when 49 percent disapproved Obama’s performance and 45 percent approved.
There’s a sharp partisan divide in evaluating the president.
Democrats support his re-election, 84-10 percent, while Republicans are opposed, 83-7 percent and independents are opposed, 51-40 percent.
“Given the shellacking Democrats took in the November election, both here in Ohio and around the country, both Sen. Brown and President Obama, begin their 2012 campaigns in reasonably good shape,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a press release.
On other issues:
*Voters say, 54-38 percent, that the U.S should not be involved in Afghanistan.
*Voters split on the federal health care reform law, with 46 percent supporting repeal and 44 percent in favor of keeping it.
*New Republican Ohio U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, in his first month in office, gets an approval rating of 34-16 percent, with 51 percent saying they didn’t know or had no answer.
The poll was taken Jan. 12 through Monday, Jan. 17 with 1,299 registered voters statewide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. Live interviewers made the calls on land lines and cell phones.
