ANDERSON PUSHES FOR LOWER INSURANCE RATES

OPPONENT REJECTS "NO INSURANCE MONEY PLEDGE," POCKETS INDUSTRY MONEY BY THOUSANDS

Biloxi, Mississippi - Insurance Commissioner Candidate Gary Anderson held a press conference at historic Mary Mahoney's in Biloxi to address Mississippi's insurance crisis. He reaffirmed his pledge to NOT take money from big insurance or their executives and his plans to lower insurance costs in our state.

"I want to reduce fraud and waste in the system and aggressively investigate and punish those who commit insurance fraud, including insurance companies themselves," said Anderson at the press conference. "I will fight for plain English policies. Let's remove confusing language from insurance policies so Mississippians can understand their insurance coverage," Anderson continued.

Gary Anderson reaffirmed his pledge to remain independent of big insurance. Anderson said, "Back in June, I promised the people of Mississippi that I would not accept contributions from insurance companies. I haven't taken a single dime from big insurance because it's just plain wrong to take money from an industry you are responsible to regulate. You can't protect the pocketbooks of the ratepayer if you are in the back pocket of big insurance."

Anderson said his independence from the insurance industry is one of the main differences between himself and Mike Chaney. Chaney flip-flopped on his promise not to take money from the industry he would be charged with regulating as insurance commissioner. According to Chaney's own financial disclosure, he has taken thousands from insurance since he entered the race for insurance commissioner.

Anderson also pointed out that Mike Chaney wanted to make the Insurance Commissioner position appointed not elected, saying Chaney wanted to take away the right of the voter to elect or remove the state's sole insurance rate setting authority.

Anderson said he would use his over 25 years of experience working in the public and private sectors to encourage competition in the insurance marketplace. He announced he would use his economic and community development experience to help speed up recovery along the Gulf Coast. Anderson has served as the state's Chief Fiscal Officer as well as the Director of Community Development.

Gary was born and raised on his family's farm in Byhalia, Mississippi where his mother, a retired schoolteacher and his father, a farmer and retired fireman still call home. Gary and his wife of 25 years, Debra Miller of Vicksburg, live in Jackson.

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

The Madness of Little Things Inside Katrina Land

by Ana Maria

Isn’t it maddening when you’ve worked hard on a document pushing up against a deadline and you go to print the thing and the printer is on the blink? Or you get to the last few pages and run out of paper—as in there is no more to be had and you have to run out to the store? Or you are trying to upload it into a email to send to your boss from your home office and the Internet goes on the blink? The madness of the little things that go haywire—however temporary it may be—is enough to have any of us go batty.

Thankfully, it often is very temporary, and we resolve the matter in short order. Yeah, I remember those days which for me were but seven months ago. Yep, those were the days before I stepped foot inside Katrina Land where the madness of the little things are neither temporary nor do they remain little after but a short while.

Almost a month ago, I got new Internet service installed. Most of the time it has been down. That aggravates me to no end. The company’s customer service isn’t a high priority here. Over the last decade alone, when I lived in Nashville, Tenn., or Northern Virginia outside of DC, or San Jose, Calif., being without service was as rare as snow—which never occurred.

Add to this trying to learn a new software program that has all kinds of fantastic video tutorials . . . if only I could get online to view them. So, I decided to print out the 407 page manual and read through it to figure out a few things. Hmmm. I don’t have 3-hold punched paper, and I’m not really feeling like printing out 407 pages and punching the holes myself. The holes don’t come out the same, and the paper doesn’t sit evenly in the binder if I were to do that many pieces. It drives me crazy and aggravates me so I decided I’d just run out to the store and pick up a pack of paper with the holes already pre-punched.

Oh, Geeze, Louise! I hate shopping at Wal-Mart, and I’ll be you-know-what if I’m going to waste my time and gas going there to look for something that it doesn’t have. So, I called and was put on hold. I got put on hold and would probably still be holding the phone at this minute if I hadn’t finally just hung up, because it seemed apparent that customer service wasn’t exactly their strong suit last night. I knew that I would be going to Gulfport this afternoon for a fundraiser for our Democratic nominee for Insurance Commissioner Gary Anderson. Before going to this fabulous event that I'm excited about attending, I could pop into Office Depot to get the paper I need.

By the time all is said and done, I will have waited over 24 hours and traveled a good 25 to 30 minutes extra (one way) to get the paper I could have gotten in a heart beat were I still living in San Jose, California. Granted, that city is the 10th largest in the country with a population of a million and my hometown has not even one percent of that. I’ve lived in communities with far less population: Nashville, Tenn., and Annandale, Virginia. Access to office supplies in each of those places is as common as bell pepper in a grocery store.

And throughout the 24 hours, access to my Internet service will be sporadic, at best. The madness of little things like copy paper and Internet service inside Katrina Land is, well, maddening!

Since I’m not able to do anything much with my new software for a bit, I turn to read a few newspaper articles I had downloaded in the mad rush to take advantage of the moments that my Internet service is up and running.

I see that Alabama’s U.S. Senator Shelby isn’t jumping on board to praise the ever visionary multiple peril insurance legislation that Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) championed in the House of Representatives. Today’s editorial in the Sun Herald asks the right question.

If a New Yorker gets it, why can't an Alabamian?

The editorial is referring to the fact that New York Senator Charles Schumer is definitely on board with passing in the Senate the Taylor multiple peril insurance reform legisation. Way to go, Charlie!

I’m sure that my neighbors in Alabama who’ve been dealing with all of the big and little aggravations since Katrina are too overwhelmed to lobby their senator. With all the destruction and devastation geeze, Louise, they should not have to have the political wherewithal to do so. After all, they didn’t lobby Senator Schumer of New York, and he definitely gets it. Perhaps we can do it for them and put in a few calls and emails to ask Senator Shelby this poignantly stated question. If a New Yorker gets it, why can't an Alabamian?

Being without the conveniences of everyday American life—you know, a home to live in, clothes for the kids, jobs for mom and dad, running water in the elementary schools, are more than a little maddening. All the more because it is so apparent that turning our lives upside down and inside out has been for the sheer greed and gluttony of corporate goons. This is madness, and it is wrong. With the changes that the multiple peril legislation provides, this madness need not ever again happen in the USA.

But it did happen throughout South Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. U.S. Senators Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, Republicans representing Mississippi, get it. New York Senator Charles Schumer gets it. After over two years of his people suffering in South Alabama, Senator Shelby doesn’t. How maddening! And that’s no little thing.

I think the Sun Herald has the question down pat. If a New Yorker gets it, why can't an Alabamian?



© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

If a New Yorker gets it, why can't an Alabamian?

Editorial
October 4, 2007

As expected, Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, Mississippi's two Republican senators, voiced support this week for Coast Congressman Gene Taylor's effort to expand the National Flood Insurance Program to include damage done by wind as well as water.

Taylor's proposed legislation passed the House of Representatives last week and is now drawing the attention of the Senate.

As hoped, a senator from another coastal state applauded the House plan to expand the federal insurance program. "I believe we should do the same in the Senate, and will work toward that," said Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, a senior member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue.

But not all the news is positive.

The Bush administration is still trumpeting the possibility of a presidential veto of a multiperil plan.

And next door in Alabama, Sen. Richard Shelby has declared himself a foe of the proposal. As a fellow Republican who also represents a regular route for hurricanes, perhaps Shelby can be persuaded by Cochran and Lott.

We hope so. And sooner rather than later.

As Schumer appreciates, the private sector is abandoning property owners in coastal areas while objecting to the public sector filling the gap.

"You can't have it both ways," Schumer says.

So he is trying to help homeowners on Long Island in New York and in Long Beach in Mississippi.

He deserves a lot more support.


Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

The Insurance Apologists: Loving America, not Americans

by Ana Maria

Sticking his foot down his mouth, George Dale—the soon-to-be former Mississippi Insurance Commissioner proclaimed as D.O.A. in the U.S. Senate the multiple peril insurance policy that Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) successfully led to being overwhelming passed last week with bi-partisan support in the House of Representatives. Since losing the primary election in August to Democratic candidate Gary Anderson, guess George Dale hasn’t gotten any better at telling which way the political winds are blowing.

On the heels of this obviously premature proclamation, U.S. Senators Lott (R-MS) and Cochran (R-MS)came out in favor of addressing the issue. Moreover, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) expressed his support for Taylor’s multiple peril legislation specifically. Yes, ma’am, and yes, sir. We have a live one! Congressional Quarterly reported

At least one influential Senate Democrat wants to see the federal flood insurance program expanded to include wind-damage coverage, setting up a potential clash with Republicans.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the flood insurance overhaul bill (HR 3121) passed last week by the House, noting that it would allow individuals and businesses to purchase wind-damage coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program.

“I believe we should do the same in the Senate, and will work toward that,” Schumer told a Banking committee hearing Tuesday.

For some people, having egg on their faces—as in the case of George Dale—seems to be a regular fashion accessory, kind of goes with the shoe hanging from their mouths. Dale never understood what could be the big deal with families and businesses being financial wiped out by the insurance companies that he and he alone permitted to write worthless policies while these same families and businesses paid good money for the policies Dale authorized to be sold in this state. Fortunately, others do get it.

Senator Schumer

said property and casualty insurers have stopped writing wind-damage policies in many coastal areas, including Long Island.

At the same time, he observed, private insurers largely oppose the House bill for its inclusion of wind in the federal program.

“Gentlemen, ladies — you can’t have it both ways,” Schumer said.

Way to go, Charlie!

With Schumer’s leadership joined with Lott and Cochran, other Senators will join in to provide what Americans—and therefore America—needs for financial security’s sake.

Conveniently enough and as if on cue, Big Insurance and their political apologists like George Dale in the U.S. Senate will be seen waving Old Glory while speaking with patriotic language about God and country as the national anthem plays softly in the background . . . while Big Insurance continues to pick our pockets thereby legally stealing the financial security from our families and businesses.

What is it with politicians and corporations who claim to love America but obviously can’t stand Americans?! Yes, that’s a take off of a line from a character played by Annette Benning slamming Richard Dreyfuss’ conservative senatorial character in one of my all time favorite movies, The American President. The line resonates with such poignancy, doesn’t it?

When it comes to loving America and hating Americans, Senator Schumer himself said it best, “Gentlemen, ladies — you can’t have it both ways.”


© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Schumer Backs Wind-Damage Coverage in Flood Insurance Overhaul

At least one influential Senate Democrat wants to expand the federal flood insurance program to allow property owners to purchase coverage for wind damage as well, setting up a potential clash with Republicans.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the flood insurance overhaul bill (HR 3121) passed last week by the House, noting it would allow individuals and businesses to purchase wind-damage coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program.

“I believe we should do the same in the Senate, and will work toward that,” said Schumer, a senior member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue.

The proposed coverage expansion is an outgrowth of insurance disputes that arose after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.

The wind damage provision in the House bill was pushed by Mississippi Democrat Gene Taylor, one of hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents whose homes were destroyed by Katrina, and who then saw their insurance claims denied when they sought to collect. The industry asserted that homes and businesses were destroyed by flooding, covered by the federal program, and not by wind damage, which private policies cover.

Taylor argued that homeowners should be able to purchase coverage for both types of damage through the federal program. But the administration opposes such a move, arguing it would crowd out private insurers and expose the federal program to added financial risks. The White House has threatened to veto a bill that includes such a provision.

The Senate has not yet begun work on its version of a flood insurance overhaul.
Source: CQ Today Midday Update
Political Clippings compiled from BNN Frontrunner and CQ Politics.com.
© 2007 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Cochran, Lott voice support for flood bill

Posted on Wed, Oct. 03, 2007

By MARIA RECIO
SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Mississippi's GOP senators for the first time Tuesday publicly supported a wind provision crafted by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, which is part of a flood insurance reform program approved by the House last week.

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott and Sen. Thad Cochran kept open the possibility of pursuing another legislative approach, but said they wanted the Senate to move a bill that helped the Gulf Coast.

They spoke separately to the Sun Herald in the Capitol on the day the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held its first hearing on the embattled flood insurance program.

"We have got to come up with a way to have people get an opportunity to have access to coverage," said Lott. "The flood insurance program has problems of its own. It's not actuarially sound; it needs to be reformed.

"But my point to the House and to Gene is, at least he's got a proposal here and the Senate should seriously consider what the House has passed and unless we can come up with something better, I think we need to look at doing this."

"I'm going to be working with the committee to get this whole area addressed," he said.

Lott and Cochran are not banking committee members but Lott, because of his past and present leadership position, has considerable influence with GOP members.

Lott and Taylor lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina and ended up settling lawsuits with their insurer.

Cochran, for his part, said, "I'm not a member of the committee, so I'm not involved in writing of the bill or markup session.

"Gene Taylor is trying to do what he can to help protect the interests of people in hurricane-prone areas. Our state was so terribly damaged, a lot of people who had insurance found it wasn't sufficient to help them rebuild. It's been a big hardship," said Cochran.

"I support whatever he and Sen. Lott think will be helpful to improving growth and rebuilding opportunities in Gulf Coast areas."

The Taylor provision is designed to prevent legal battles between policyholders and insurance companies over which caused hurricane damage - wind, covered by insurance firms, or water, covered by the federal government.

The White House has threatened to veto the House-passed bill because of the wind provision, which it says increases the taxpayers' financial exposure.

At the Senate hearing, most panel members did not address wind coverage, focusing on concerns about the program's $17.5 billion debt to the U.S. Treasury. David Maurstad, assistant administrator and federal insurance administrator for FEMA, said the agency paid $20 billion in Katrina claims.

Ranking member Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is opposed to adding wind coverage and said he is concerned about the viability of the program.

"The National Flood Insurance Program is now at a crossroads," said Shelby, whose state was also hit by Katrina.

But there was one surprise, vocal supporter of the wind provision - Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is incensed that private insurers have abandoned coastal Long Island and still object to the federal government assuming coverage. "Gentlemen, ladies - you can't have it both ways," said Schumer.

Referring to the House wind provision, he said, "I believe we should do the same in the Senate, and will work toward that."

What they said

Mississippi senators on wind coverage championed by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, in the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007, H.R. 3121, approved by the House Thursday:

"We have got to come up with a way to have people get an opportunity to have access to coverage. The flood insurance program has problems of its own. It's not actuarially sound; it needs to be reformed.

"But my point to the House and to Gene is, at least he's got a proposal here and the Senate should seriously consider what the House has passed and unless we can come up with something better, I think we need to look at doing this."

- Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss.

"Gene Taylor is trying to do what he can to help protect the interests of people in hurricane-prone areas. Our state was so terribly damaged, a lot of people who had insurance found it wasn't sufficient to help them rebuild. It's been a big hardship.

I support whatever he and Sen. Lott think will be helpful to improving growth and rebuilding opportunities in Gulf Coast areas."

- Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.




© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Schumer Backs Wind-Damage Coverage in Flood Insurance Overhaul

By Victoria McGrane, CQ Staff

At least one influential Senate Democrat wants to see the federal flood insurance program expanded to include wind-damage coverage, setting up a potential clash with Republicans.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the flood insurance overhaul bill (HR 3121) passed last week by the House, noting that it would allow individuals and businesses to purchase wind-damage coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program.

“I believe we should do the same in the Senate, and will work toward that,” Schumer told a Banking committee hearing Tuesday. He said property and casualty insurers have stopped writing wind-damage policies in many coastal areas, including Long Island.

At the same time, he observed, private insurers largely oppose the House bill for its inclusion of wind in the federal program.

“Gentlemen, ladies — you can’t have it both ways,” Schumer said.

While the House passed an overhaul of the flood insurance program, a Senate version has not yet been introduced in the 110th Congress. Democratic and GOP panel members however, praised the legislation the Senate Banking panel approved unanimously in the 109th Congress — which then stalled in the Senate — indicating that could be a starting point for a bill panel Chairman Christopher J. Dodd is drafting.

Yet the issue of wind coverage is a new element of the debate. The proposed coverage expansion is an outgrowth of insurance disputes that arose after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.

The inclusion of wind damage in the House bill was spearheaded by Mississippi Democrat Gene Taylor, one of hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents whose homes were destroyed by Katrina, who then had their insurance claims denied when they sought to collect. The industry asserted that homes and businesses were destroyed by flooding, covered by the federal program, and not by wind damage, which private policies cover.

The administration strongly opposes the expansion of the program to include wind damage coverage and the White House said it would veto the House bill if such language was included.

None of the Republicans on the Senate Banking panel weighed in on the wind program during opening remarks Tuesday, though Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida asked witnesses to testify on its ramifications. Aside from some Gulf Coast Republicans, House GOP members opposed the wind-damage coverage in the House bill.

Private insurers are lobbying the Senate to exclude the wind provision.

The flood bill approved by the Senate panel in the 109th Congress sought to move the program toward actuarial soundness by mandating more accurate flood maps and ensuring premiums reflected the risk of catastrophic years such as 2005.

Louisiana’s senators, Democrat Mary L. Landrieu and Republican David Vitter, blocked floor action on that bill, however, saying the legislation would make living in coastal areas too costly.

The devastating 2005 Gulf Coast storms left the program, established in 1968, with about $17.5 billion in debt owed to the federal Treasury.

David I. Maurstad, assistant administrator and federal insurance administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the flood program, told lawmakers that the agency expects total 2005 costs, including interest payments to the Treasury, to approach $20 billion.


Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Bush’s Veto Threat Threatens More Than Multiple Peril Legislation

by Ana Maria
Last week, when George W. Bush threatened to veto the much needed and fiscally sound multiple peril insurance legislation that Congressman Gene Taylor championed, Bush threw oil on the fire of the emotional and mental stress of plenty of folks. See, here in South Mississippi, Bush has plenty of folks who still believe in him. While Bush’s approval rating continues to sink to the bottom of the history books, plenty of South Mississippians still believe in him. Not me, mind you. Personally, I’ve been in the other camp all along from that fateful day in December of 2000 when his daddy’s Supreme Court buddies voted him into the Oval Office.

But here, for reasons even this native woman—yours truly, that is—can’t quite understand, Bush has been believed. His actions toward these people who have had placed their faith in God and country into a man who would look them in the proverbial eye and again say one thing while his action prove his words hollow. A pattern that has been so very familiar for plenty of us. For me, today, though, this is deeply personal. These people are my family, neighbors, friends, and my regional community.

Here in my own hometown at the Our Lady of the Gulf Community Center—the Catholic Church which I attended throughout my formative years and whose schools provided a strong foundation for my life, Bush said

"The folks here had special, extra problems to deal with. And I heard you loud and clear, and I thank you for sharing that with me," Bush said. Emphasis added.

He also said

"People are worried about insurance here. They're worried about bureaucracy. It's one of the reasons Laura and I have come back, to remind people that we haven't forgotten and won't." Emphasis added.

Then last week, his office announced it would veto the legislation. So that’s where Bush stands today. Guess the man forgot.

Throughout the Katrina-ravaged region—from Louisiana through South Mississippi and Alabama, life is so tremendously difficult that depression and suicidal tendencies have skyrocketed. Just yesterday, I read that domestic abuse has climbed upwards as well—and the shelters that once assisted and protected women and their children are fewer than pre-Katrina.

Good Morning, America’s Robin Roberts—a native of Pass Christian which was blown away with Katrina’s winds—publicized the fact that one of the elementary schools had no running water for its 600 kids. Bush’s FEMA had turned down the request for money for a well. Roberts’ publicity placed pressure on FEMA to reverse its morally repulsive decision. A much-loved national television anchor made this happen, not George W. Bush or his cronies in office.

Yesterday’s Sun Herald ran an editorial titled Presidential Veto Would Break Faith With South Mississippi.

On his most recent visit here, on the second anniversary of the great storm, he sat in a room in Bay St. Louis with our political leadership, including Sen. Trent Lott, Congressman Gene Taylor and local mayors and county supervisors, and they told him that the thing we need most now, the one thing that is necessary for our rebuilding and recovery efforts, is multiple-peril insurance.

So it was with disappointment, sadness, and perhaps bewilderment, that we learned Wednesday that the president was being advised to veto this most important piece of legislation on the very eve of debate in the House of Representatives. It is inconceivable that a president who has seen firsthand this flattened region, and has been thoroughly briefed on the roadblocks to rebuilding posed by the insurance industry's intransigence, would yield to such a suggestion.

Yet, in spite of that threat, the overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives passed this much needed legislation and did so with strong bi-partisan support. Through the courageous leadership of South Mississippi’s Congressman Gene Taylor, this legislation soared through. Because of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s real commitment to the people throughout the Katrina-ravaged region, she put her leadership into action and made this legislation get through the subcommittee and committee hearings and finally through the House of Representatives. Real words with action that correspond to those words.

What to do given the fact that Bush has threatened the veto and to date the legislation has not found a legislative sponsor in the U.S. Senate? The answer to this is two-fold.

The Mississippi Press Register is a daily paper that covers U.S. Senator Trent Lott’s hometown of Pascagoula, Miss.. In its editorial this past Sunday, the paper wrote

Bush, Lott and Thad Cochran, Mississippi's other senior statesman in the Senate, need to seriously weigh the consequences of this bill. Not just the added burden to the federal government, but also the added burden to millions of homeowners who are increasingly being priced out of the insurance market because of the probability of a hurricane.

Here in Mississippi, we have two very powerful Republican Senators who are keenly devoted to this humble state. One the ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations Committee (Thad Cochran) and the other the Senate Minority Leader (Trent Lott). The two become natural allies with their neighboring U. S. Senators in protecting the people of South Mississippi from further ravages from the insurance industry hell bent on making our lives a living hell as they transfer the claims money into the ever growing salaries and bonuses of the corporations’ upper most management.

Senator Lott himself lost his home in Katrina. [See the photo.]

Another natural on this legislation, of course, is Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from New Orleans. The Democratic Leadership in the Senate will be on board with this. They already sponsored the bill to close the loophole that has permitted the insurance industry to escape the nation’s anti-trust laws prohibiting price fixing, collusion, and the like. Senator Lott joined Landrieu and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in co-sponsoring this important legislation. Adding the important political clout of Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran to this powerful team will create a potent dream team.

In talking about the anti-trust legislation that he co-sponsored, Senator Lott himself said "You think if the majority leader calls its up, it's not going to happen?" The same can be said of the multiple peril legislation.

This is the first part of the two-fold answer to the question above. For the second part, I draw on my extensive experience in the kitchen, especially at Thanksgiving. I love food analogies. So here’s this one which applies well to the situation. See if you agree.

Every household that has a big Thanksgiving turkey dinner faces the same problem after the meal: the yucky, baked on, can’t-take-a jackhammer-to-it, turkey pan. Shoot, any of us could expend plenty of energy trying to chisel away at it. Experienced cooks, however, put hot sudsy water in the pan, move the pan to the side, and then go on about their business. By the time every morsel of dinner and dessert has been savored, the table cleared, the rest of the dishes stacked in the dishwasher or washed by hand, the hot sudsy water will have worked its way through the previously seemingly entrenched “nothing’s-gonna-get-that--clean-again” turkey pan and voila! Almost like magic, everything rinses away with great ease. And so it can be in politics.

The very next step is obtaining an appropriate sponsor requires us to again rev up the pressure, the big political momentum. Then we move to getting the legislation on a subcommittee calendar and passed out of the subcommittee, getting the legislation on the committee calendar and passed out of committee, then getting the legislation on the calendar for the Senate floor and passed out of the U.S. Senate. We’ll get the legislation through the U.S. Senate with strong bi-partisan support just as we did in the House of Representatives. Today, we need to start with getting the sponsors lined up. Let’s focus our attention on and contact three U.S. Senators: Trent Lott (R-MS), Thad Cochran (R-MS), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA). A simple email or phone call to each will help them understand that we respectfully request their leadership on this critical legislation.

As we ratchet up the political pressure to pass this out of the U.S. Senate, our political hot sudsy water action will continue to work its way through the White House entrenchment—or not.

One of two things will happen. Either Bush will sign the legislation into law, or he will hand the Democratic Party a strong bread and butter, kitchen table economic issue on which to run their 2008 presidential campaign. Either way, the people inside the Katrina-ravaged region win.

Of course, were Bush to have an epiphany—perhaps with the help of a great deal of internal Republican pressure that we ourselves assist in creating, we in the Katrina region will win sooner. For me, I just want this legislation to go through the Senate and for Bush to go ahead and sign it. We need this legislative action to be speedy to jump start our long overdue economic recovery. We don’t need presidential politics.

Bush’s veto threat threatens more than just the legislation that will do plenty of good here and throughout all of America’s coastal communities from sea to shining sea. Bush’s veto threatens the mental health of a region, challenges that have been discussed here in this blog and in many different newspapers in the nation. We need hope to ward off the stress, the depression, the suicidal thoughts that come from a sense of hopelessness. Folks here need to see that their government is responsive, that the wrongs that have besieged them are being righted in the courts and in the legislative halls of Congress and the White House.

If Bush resists the political heat that you and I along with others create—then fine. Bush could be handing the Democratic presidential nominee a key legislative jewel in the party’s arsenal to rest the White House from Bush’s party. Bush threatening to veto the multiple peril legislation may threaten his party’s control of the White House . . . and more.

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Presidential Veto Would Break Faith with South Mississippi

President George Bush comforts Kim Bassier, left, and Bronwynne Bassier as he toured Howard Avenue in Biloxi on September 2, 2005, the first of fifteen visits the President has made to the Mississippi Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina. The President has threatened to veto multiple-peril insurance legislation.

SUN HERALD EDITORIAL

President Bush has visited South Mississippi 15 times since Aug. 29, 2005.

He has hugged our people, wiped their tears and heard the voice of a region that has spoken clearly and carefully as to the specific needs that will allow it to recover and survive.

On his most recent visit here, on the second anniversary of the great storm, he sat in a room in Bay St. Louis with our political leadership, including Sen. Trent Lott, Congressman Gene Taylor and local mayors and county supervisors, and they told him that the thing we need most now, the one thing that is necessary for our rebuilding and recovery efforts, is multiple-peril insurance.

So it was with disappointment, sadness, and perhaps bewilderment, that we learned Wednesday that the president was being advised to veto this most important piece of legislation on the very eve of debate in the House of Representatives. It is inconceivable that a president who has seen firsthand this flattened region, and has been thoroughly briefed on the roadblocks to rebuilding posed by the insurance industry's intransigence, would yield to such a suggestion.

We have gone back and reviewed the sweet words and promises that the president has uttered on each of his visits. And while we have appreciated each visit, and the support, including billions in aid that he has supported and that the Congress and the American people have provided us following the worst natural disaster in American history, we must regard his administration's threat of a veto as breaking faith with our people, tens of thousands of whom are still struggling to survive in the devastation zone.

Not that this legislation is designed solely to meet the needs of the Gulf Coast. It would help shield communities on both the East and West coasts that are in harm's way. Must a more politically potent community be devastated before the White House appreciates the necessity of a federal, multiple-peril insurance program?

Political leaders sometimes are forced to choose between competing interests, but surely President Bush will not choose to support the interests of big insurance companies over the people of South Mississippi whose hopes for the future are invested in this legislation.

Mr. President, your heart and head must have spoken to the clear need for this legislation. Far more important, we believe, than the suggestions of policy bureaucrats are the firsthand knowledge and judgment that you must have gained from all of those trips, and the sweat and tears of a people who are pleading for the opportunity to stay and rebuild their shattered homes and lives.

Mr. President, we know that you heard us in those hours and days after the storm. Please, hear us now.

This editorial reflects the views of the Sun Herald editorial board: President-Publisher Ricky R. Mathews, Vice President and Executive Editor Stan Tiner, Chief Financial Officer Flora Point, Opinion Page Editor Marie Harris, Associate Editor Tony Biffle.

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Revving Up Insurance Reform Momentum!

by Ana Maria

Last week posted two major victories for property owners in the United States. The first came Thursday with a strong bi-partisan majority vote (263 – 146) for the multiple peril legislation that Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) had successfully incorporated into the bill (H.R. 3121) that reauthorized the National Flood Insurance Program. Once this bill goes through the legislative gauntlet and becomes law, American property owners will again have the option of purchasing one insurance policy that covers both flood and wind damage. That is not something we’ve seen since the 60’s when the private insurance industry quit covering flood damage to residential and commercial properties.

The second came immediately on the heels of the passage of this magnificent multiple peril legislation.

A federal jury in south Mississippi sided Friday with a couple who sued their insurance company after Hurricane Katrina for refusing to cover more than $1.7 million in damage to their beachfront home and property.

The eight-member jury wasn't asked to specify how much money USAA Casualty Insurance Co. owes Kevin and Sherrye Webster for damage to their home in Bay St. Louis.

But jurors concluded that all of the damage to the couple's house was caused by Katrina's wind, wind-blown debris or wind-driven rain—perils that are covered by the San Antonio-based insurer's policies.

Glory be, and halleluiah! The precedent has been set. So powerful a precedent that the insurer apparently immediately made an out of court settlement offer. John Cocke, one of the Webster’s attorneys said “USAA will owe the Websters at least $800,000.”

The Websters' policy had limits of $811,000 for the house, $81,000 for a barn on their property, $162,200 for living expenses and $760,480 for the home's contents. USAA paid them $10,944 for wind damage to the house and $42,929 for the barn.

Apparently the punitive damages part of the lawsuit continues. Good. Many insurance companies have ripped off property owners here in Katrina Land and across the country.

Two major victories for American property owners and both had their beginning right here in my hometown of Bay St. Louis, Miss.,—one of the coastal beach towns comprising Katrina’s ground zero.

Next is convincing U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), who also holds the distinguished position of Senate Minority Leader, to introduce companion legislation in the Senate. Lott also lost his Gulf Coast home in the Katrina winds. The irony of ironies had Lott hire the ever tough lawyer Dickie Scruggs, of the Scruggs Katrina Group and Lott’s own brother-in-law, to sue State Farm to obtain the insurance money that the company should have sent him in a matter of weeks, if not days of filing the claim.

In a classic example of “it all depends on whose ox is being gored ,” Lott availed himself of the very American legal system of which he had been so critical, a system that is in place to protect against corporate greed, avarice, and other wrong doing such as has been lain bare for all to see with the insurance companies failure to live up to their good hands, good neighbor marketing.

A lifelong apologist for corporate behavior and a darling of the insurance industry from way back, Lott has changed his tune. Losing everything you have—including faith in a corporate system that has had their way with him, ways that he could never have ever imagined could have befallen his family—often has us looking at things through a very different lens.

Today, we need his baritone voice to lead us through the U.S. Senate. His leadership is important and he has begun to indicate his willingness to lead the country in a new tune. Some of his more notable quotes came in a May Bloomberg article.

"It's long overdue for this industry to be held accountable''
"I'm prepared to continue to kick their fanny until the last day I'm alive on this Earth because they have mistreated too many people.''
"These are venal people,'' he says. "I'm embarrassed for them.''

We have so much work to do down here. Our housing situation is pathetic both for homeowners and renters. Not much construction going on because insurance is either sky high or impossible to get and because many insurance companies have padded their profit margin with the money it had owed its policyholders. Mississippi’s Republican Governor Haley Barbour—former head of the Republican National Committee—is trying to swipe $600 million of federal money to “from disaster relief accounts to help double the size of the Port of Gulfport” which is a city in the middle of the state’s coastline. That $600 million was intended for the Home Owners Grant Program.

Just the other day I spoke with a woman whose family is still awaiting news for a grant to fund elevating their home. The grant worker told her that the fact that there has been no work on her home is a positive in terms of getting that particular grant.

Oh yeah? It’s been over TWO years since the hurricane. There should be NO money left to administer. This project should be in the shut down and being audited to account for the funding phase. The only reason the lady, her husband, and their six children remain in the two FEMA trailers . . . is because they don’t have money to rebuild their home.

In the meantime, we have bureaucratic red tape that should be the shame of every administrator associated with the program. Efficient and effective delivery of the money apparently doesn’t mean . . . efficient and effective delivery of the money to those for whom it was intended.

Heck, it was only a few months ago that a dear friend of my family, a 78 year-old woman, received her original grant. Goodness gracious! This is beyond ridiculous.

So, we have Governor Barbour trying to swipe the money from our homeowners grant program. We have no construction boom which means that families remain living in the formaldehyde-filled FEMA trailers or living with friends and family. We have homeowners waiting for the insurance companies to live up to their financial obligations to pay on the wind damage policies. And the economic impact of all of this is . . . stagnation, a stand still.

Like oxygen, insurance isn’t sexy or exciting . . . until you don’t have a good supply of it when you need it.

Absolutely, last week’s triumphs were a major breath of much needed fresh air. A big boost in the engine of hope that we can effect a vibrant recovery. A wonderful win for the human spirit centered on persistence, perseverance, and political action.

To keep things moving in this direction so that we can continue to end the madness that is eating away at the financial security for our nation’s families and business, let’s dedicate today’s political hell raising to asking Senator Trent Lott to use his baritone voice to lead the Senate in a perfect harmony with his Congressional and Democratic counterpart some 40 miles west of his Pascagoula, Miss., home—Congressman Gene Taylor. Let’s contact Senator Lott and ask him to be the primary sponsor of the Multiple Peril Legislation in the Senate.

We’ll ask him to make good on his words about it being “long overdue for this industry to be held accountable'' and being “prepared to continue to kick their fanny . . . because they have mistreated too many people.''

With those words, Senator Lott is singing a tune in perfect harmony with many of us throughout the nation. Together, imagine how we can really rev up the engine for insurance reform.

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......