Free Republic

**SNIP** A number of Democrats are reluctant to commit to a single payer plan before there’s a comprehensive review of the $2 billion financing system that will be needed to pay for it. Some Democratic lawmakers worry that moving to a single payer health care system in several years could be a political liability. They also want to know the details of the benefit package that will be part of a single payer program. When Senate President John Campbell raised concerns about the financing plan earlier this week, he said out loud what a number of Democrats are saying privately...

(CNN) -- Democratic governors are working every day to grow and strengthen a middle class that's been under assault from global economic forces and failed, trickle-down policies for decades. In furtherance of that mission, we will be proud to stand with President Barack Obama, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee at Central Connecticut State University this afternoon to announce actions we're taking to raise the minimum wage in our states to $10.10 an hour by 2017.

VIDEO: Conservatism vs Liberalism mini-debate between Gov. Scott Walker (WI) and far-Left Gov. Peter Shumlin (VT). Walker cleans Shumlin's clock and shows what kind of candidate Walker might be in 2016.

The Talk Shows February 23rd, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Govs. Scott Walker, R-Wis., and Peter Shumlin, D-Vt.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): National Security Adviser Susan Rice.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Martin O'Malley, D-Md.THIS WEEK (ABC): Former President George W. Bush.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Govs. Rick Perry, R-Texas, Mike Pence, R-Ind., Dannel Malloy, D-Conn., Jay Nixon D-Mo.

Vermont’s health insurance exchange cost $170 million in federal grants to develop (or nearly $4,000 per uninsured Vermonter). It also doesn’t work. So Gov. Peter Shumlin, D, (unhappy-looking guy at right) is pulling the fire alarm...

elief was tempered with caution in Western Massachusetts on Wednesday as news spread that the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station plans to shut down late next year. New Orleans-based Entergy Corporation made the announcement on Tuesday, citing the availability of cheap natural gas and the current economy, which has made it less profitable to operate a nuclear power plant. “This was an agonizing decision and an extremely tough call for us,” said Leo Denault, Entergy’s CEO in a statement released to the media. The company said it will begin shutting down at the end of its current fuel cycle in...

Since the murder of 20 kindergarten students in Newtown, Conn., sparked a nationwide debate over firearms, Gov. Peter Shumlin has been unwavering in his opposition to any new Vermont laws aimed at restricting the rights of gun owners. “I just think you need a 50-state solution,” Shumlin said at a press conference last Thursday. “That’s not something that I feel any ambiguity about.” Could a new piece of information change his mind? At that same press conference, Shumlin was asked whether state and local police should be able to enforce federal gun laws that aren’t codified in Vermont statute. Federal...

ore than 1,000 people turned out Saturday on the Brattleboro town green for a rally to show support for decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, one of the oldest nuclear power plants in the country. The event included speeches by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin, both of whom are calling for the state's wishes to be honored and for the 40-year-old Vernon reactor to be shut down. New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. owns the plant, whose state permit expired in March. The Vermont Senate voted to decommission the plant. But the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the plant...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A late-night encounter with four bears trying to snack from backyard birdfeeders gave Vermont's governor a lesson in what not to do in bear country. One of the bears chased Peter Shumlin and nearly caught the governor while he was trying to shoo the animals away, he said Friday.

President Obama met with a group of Democratic governors on Friday and discussed plans to work around Congress toward policy goals. Gov. Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware and the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, told The Hill that the meeting was “very good” and said many of the governors were responsive to ideas about bypassing Congress. “There was a sense that none of us should wait, we can’t wait for things to happen in Congress,” Markell said of the meeting. “We’re going to do what we can do [now].” Obama has positioned himself against Congress as...

A hotly debated issue-- health care reform-- will hit the House floor... Gov. Peter Shumlin defended the bill Wednesday, saying it abides by President Barack Obama's health care reform law and puts Vermont on track toward single-payer care in the future.

Gov. Peter Shumlin has added fuel to the fire over this week's bust of undocumented migrant farm workers by the Vermont State Police. In an interview with WPTZ-TV's Stewart Ledbetter yesterday, Shumlin said Vermont should "look the other way" when it comes to dealing with immigrants working illegally on Vermont farms. "We have always had a policy in Vermont where we kind of look the other way as much as we can," Shumlin told WPTZ. "I just want to make sure that's what's we're doing. [Vermont farms] can't survive without workers from outside America. It's just the way it is....

Shumlin signs health care reform bill into lawMontpelier, Vermont - May 26, 2011 Vermont is officially on its way to a single-payer, publicly-funded health care system. Thursday morning Governor Peter Shumlin signed into law legislation that's getting the process started. The bill creates a five-member board that will work with the governor and the Legislature to design the system for bringing health coverage to all Vermonters. The group is charged with determining how the system will be funded and implemented. The governor is seeking applications for the new board. Opponents say the move will destroy the private insurance market in...

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat with a unified legislature, is rejecting calls from within his party to raise taxes. And he has a Sarah Palin joke to explain why. “My problem is, on the eastern side of me, I’ve got the state of New Hampshire,” he told POLITICO. “Sarah Palin said that she could do foreign policy because she could see Russia from her house. Well, I’m the first governor in 40 years that can see New Hampshire from my house. So I can do tax policy. And I can tell you, we’ve got no more capacity. They’re killing...

Vt. gov.-elect makes health care team appointmentsBy Dave Gram Associated Press / December 13, 2010 MONTPELIER, Vt.—Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin on Monday announced his appointments to a team he hopes will lead Vermont to become the first state with a single-payer health care system. The Democrat had made that goal the centerpiece of his campaign even under criticism that it would be difficult to achieve given limits placed on states under President Barack Obama's signature health care legislation passed by Congress earlier this year. Shumlin said his goal was to "provide (health care) access to all Vermonters, contain costs and hopefully...

Monday November 1, 2010 Vermont Gov. Candidate Vows to Legalize Assisted Suicide if Elected By Kathleen GilbertMONTPELIER, Vermont, November 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Democratic candidate for governor of Vermont has told a pro-euthanasia lobby group that he would push to decriminalize the actions of those who help others kill themselves."I support end of life choices," said gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin in a September interview with Vermont Today posted on the Death with Dignity website.Shumlin sympathetically described an encounter he had with a cancer-stricken woman who expressed a wish to be able to kill herself legally. "I can't imagine...

MILTON, Vt. – While the Democrat running for Vermont governor spends the final day of the campaign hosting Vice President Joe Biden, the Republican is hitting the pavement to get out the vote in his base.