Congressman Sander Levin

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Sandy's Blog

The Human Toll of Our Current Economic Recession We know the human toll of our current economic recession: hard-working people who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs and means for supporting their families.  While the pace of the job loss has slowed, the statistics are still daunting.  Michigan, which has an unemployment rate of 15.2%, has lost 406,000 jobs since the start of the recession in 2007.   Nationally, there are almost 15 million people unemployed, the greatest number since the 1939.  The underemployment rate has reached 16.8 percent and more than one-third jobless workers have been out of work for more than six months.  

Health Care Mis-information - Setting the Record Straight I’m used to the communications battles on any issue of major importance, so I welcome the opportunity to jump right into to debate the substance of an issue.  But, I get really mad when people are provided information that is simply wrong and intended to scare them.  On Tuesday, a nice gentlemen joined a telephone town hall that I hosted on health care and he conveyed to me an email that he received.  This email claimed that senior citizens would have to meet with doctors every year to discuss end of life issues, and at 70 they would no longer receive insurance.  Absolutely false.  No senior citizen is going to lose their health insurance.  Indeed, the reform strengthens Medicare by eliminating co-pays and deductibles for preventative services, phasing on the prescription drug “donut hole” to lower drug costs and extending the solvency of the program for the future.  

Macomb County Worker Training Accolades Continue Macomb County is a national leader in innovative and effective training programs.  President Obama visited recently and was introduced by a re-trained worker and today the U.S. Department of Labor announced a nearly $1 million grant to the Macomb / St. Clair Workforce Development Board so that they can lead in starting a new program to help unemployed workers 55 years and older throughout southeast Michigan.   

Telephone Town Hall on Health Care Technology is amazing.  In the last months we have experimented with holding telephone town halls.  I was skeptical at first because I am a fan of the regular in person town halls.  Since I have been in Congress they have been a staple of my work.   But since it is hard for people to gather on the weekend, I saw the telephone town hall as a way to talk to folks about issues when I had to be in D.C. during the week.   What happens is that computer calls people and asks them to stay on the line if they would like to be joined to a live telephone town hall with me.  When the call starts, they can press *3 to ask a question.  My staff, sitting at a computer, can press a button that makes each person’s phone live so they can ask me a question directly.  So for about an hour we ask and answer questions, and hear comments.  Thousands of people listen in during the calls.  Even more tech savvy, we can ask questions and people can respond by pressing a number on their phone.  The results are tallied immediately.