The President’s Proposal puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care. | The White House
Important!
A public option is a great invention, something between government provided care or insurance and a free market of private companies. Today, we have neither. But - if pre-existing condition denials, rescission on technicalities, etc., are outlawed on a federal basis, the insurance companies, faced with a much broader pool of applicants both healthy and sick, may be forced to provide high quality and affordable coverage instead of the mess they administer today.
A mandate for all is necessary to expand the indemnity pool, so the well pay for the sick - the 80/20 rule. A mandate is working, in fits and starts, in Massachusetts. Mandates have been Republican ideas for a couple of decades.
Buying insurance across state borders is fine. It has to be heavily regulated, so the companies in the worst states have to perform like the companies in the most heavily regulated states, so this is really just another smokescreen. Deregulation and cross-state-line banking sure has been a success! Look at Joe Biden's Delaware state credit card machine.
Tort reform, malpractice reform...few people who use the word tort know what a tort is. Yearly in the US, about 90,000 malpractice lawsuits are filed; about 10% of those reach settlement or trial; of those, only 10% are found in favor of the plaintiff. The culprit here is, drumroll, please, the insurance companies, making things miserable for both providers and consumers for decades! Health care reform as we see it today is insurance reform, which when clearly seen is what will fix malpractice lawsuits (errant lawyers etc. are already regulated by states). And how do we set a cost today for tomorrows sponge left in an abdomen by a tired surgeon or for a the next day's wrong limb amputated after mislabeling by a double-shift OR nurse?
There is no excuse for not shaking our insurance system to the core. Now. Around 50,000 of us die each year simply because they are stuck between government programs and private insurance-robbery. 15% of us don't have any insurance. Many of us make less money than we did a decade ago due to increases in employer-furnished insurance increases of 3-5 times the rate of inflation. Many of us avoid using the insurance we do have - our jobs are unstable in this economy, and we're afraid that we won't be able to buy insurance at any price if we change jobs, and copays/deductibles are so high that they put minor issues and preventative care out of reach.
The radical extremists screaming at town hall meetings and rallies are the ones most affected by this mess, and they should be screaming for rationality in our health care system. The corporatization of our health care, and profitization of our health care dollars, are the real issue. And this issue kills.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Malpractice Reform: A Smokescreen to keep us from achieving true health care reform.
Malpractice Reform: A Test Case for Bipartisanship At The Health Summit - Kaiser Health News
"Sorry Works" is one of many approaches that can decrease insurers' roles in doctors' procedures
The insurance companies are the common enemy of both consumers and providers of medical care. Lawyers and courts already have solid controls in most states that limit frivolous lawsuits and errant lawyers, and in the states that don't have sufficient controls (typically Republican-dominated southern or western states), more controls should be put in place. Without insurance regulation on a national level, the perceived problem with malpractice lawsuits and insurance increasing costs to consumers (and decreasing care quality) won't go away.
Only about ten percent of malpractice lawsuits make it to settlement or court. Of those, only about ten percent are found in favor of the plaintiff.
Those ranting about malpractice reform either know this, or are too ignorant to join the discussion.
"Sorry Works" is one of many approaches that can decrease insurers' roles in doctors' procedures
...doctors report medical errors to hospital administrators, who would then notify patients and begin negotiations. Our president clearly supports malpractice reform.
in 2005, while he was still just a senator, (Barack Obama) co-sponsored (with Hillary Clinton) a bill that would have implemented a "sorry works" model nationally. It didn't become law, but Obama kept talking up malpractice reform.
The insurance companies are the common enemy of both consumers and providers of medical care. Lawyers and courts already have solid controls in most states that limit frivolous lawsuits and errant lawyers, and in the states that don't have sufficient controls (typically Republican-dominated southern or western states), more controls should be put in place. Without insurance regulation on a national level, the perceived problem with malpractice lawsuits and insurance increasing costs to consumers (and decreasing care quality) won't go away.
Only about ten percent of malpractice lawsuits make it to settlement or court. Of those, only about ten percent are found in favor of the plaintiff.
Those ranting about malpractice reform either know this, or are too ignorant to join the discussion.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Obama to announce loan help for nuclear power | Reuters
Obama to announce loan help for nuclear power | Reuters
Nuclear waste, political fallout.
I'm quite sure that Barack Obama hasn't come up with a way to eliminate the danger from waste that stays toxic for half a million years.
He does seem to have come to the realization of the fact that never in the history of nuclear power has it produced one watt of electricity that wasn't heavily subsidised with taxpayer funds. No private industry has ever fully funded, or profited from, a nuclear power plant and the energy that it delivers without corporate welfare, whether in the US or France or elsewhere.
The President has also forgotten that if we decentralize, conserve, insulate, etc., much more can be saved in terms of money or carbon than with an infinite number of nuclear power plants.
At least we have elected a president who can pronounce the word nuclear.
Nuclear waste, political fallout.
I'm quite sure that Barack Obama hasn't come up with a way to eliminate the danger from waste that stays toxic for half a million years.
He does seem to have come to the realization of the fact that never in the history of nuclear power has it produced one watt of electricity that wasn't heavily subsidised with taxpayer funds. No private industry has ever fully funded, or profited from, a nuclear power plant and the energy that it delivers without corporate welfare, whether in the US or France or elsewhere.
The President has also forgotten that if we decentralize, conserve, insulate, etc., much more can be saved in terms of money or carbon than with an infinite number of nuclear power plants.
At least we have elected a president who can pronounce the word nuclear.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Evidence of Dick Cheney's Treason - 'This Week' Transcript: Former Vice President Dick Cheney - ABC News
'This Week' Transcript: Former Vice President Dick Cheney - ABC News
Dick Cheney has regressed from bullshit politician to treasonist with this interview.
Read the transcript! He is so full of shit, making up lie after lie, distorting his record as shadow-Commander-in-Chief, and slandering the current administration - he should be waterboarded. In fact, he should be executed for treason.
"The president's been largely silent" "the president was trying to avoid treating this as a war"
Repeat a lie often enough, and enough people will start to believe it. You know that long before day one of his majority-elected presidency Barack Obama has clearly and repeatedly said "Make no mistake about this - we are at war."
"I was and remain a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program."
That's torture, gramps. That violates every moral concept ever adopted by civilized humans. You show that you do not belong to that group.
"he went out and said this was the act of an isolated extremist. No, it wasn't. And we found out over time, obviously -- and he eventually changed his -- his assessment"
No change on the part of President Obama...again, lie, lie, lie. There were no further attacks after the "jihad that couldn't shoot straight" tried to blow up a plane on Christmas. This guy was a nutcase who wanted to avenge what he perceived as a world against him, and he received training and support from those with the resources to do so and with similar aspirations, but he failed and we didn't. Obama 1/terrorists 0.
"... the professionals need to make that judgment. We've got people in -- we had in our administration -- I'm sure they're still there -- many of them were career personnel -- who are expects in this subject. And they are the ones that you ought to turn somebody like Abdulmutallab over to, let them be the judge"
These spooks are not judges! They are spys, operatives, and law enforcement officials. We are a nation of laws, no matter what obscene lengths you will go to slander a political rival, destabilize the security of the United States of America for you own and your party's short-term political aspirations, and lie, lie, lie to make a point to an ill-informed and emotional electorate. If you want to live in a country without laws, where justice is served in the shadows, move! Iran, China, North Korea...many nations would be willing to accept an evil-doer such as you, Dick Cheney.
"Well, first of all, I believe he was not tried. He plead guilty. They never did end up having a trial."
That's called a trial, gramps. You need to regain your sense of reality and justice. This was a trial, under the laws of the United States of America, the very laws you transparently reject, show you oppose, and want to circumvent for your personal monetary and political profit.
---
This miscreant, Dick Cheney, should never be allowed in front of a microphone again. Dick Cheney shouldn't be allowed a soapbox to rewrite history as it happens. He should never have served as the de facto President of the United States, as he did during his stint as Vice President under minority-elected George W. Bush.
Dick Cheney has regressed from bullshit politician to treasonist with this interview.
Read the transcript! He is so full of shit, making up lie after lie, distorting his record as shadow-Commander-in-Chief, and slandering the current administration - he should be waterboarded. In fact, he should be executed for treason.
"The president's been largely silent" "the president was trying to avoid treating this as a war"
Repeat a lie often enough, and enough people will start to believe it. You know that long before day one of his majority-elected presidency Barack Obama has clearly and repeatedly said "Make no mistake about this - we are at war."
"I was and remain a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program."
That's torture, gramps. That violates every moral concept ever adopted by civilized humans. You show that you do not belong to that group.
"he went out and said this was the act of an isolated extremist. No, it wasn't. And we found out over time, obviously -- and he eventually changed his -- his assessment"
No change on the part of President Obama...again, lie, lie, lie. There were no further attacks after the "jihad that couldn't shoot straight" tried to blow up a plane on Christmas. This guy was a nutcase who wanted to avenge what he perceived as a world against him, and he received training and support from those with the resources to do so and with similar aspirations, but he failed and we didn't. Obama 1/terrorists 0.
"... the professionals need to make that judgment. We've got people in -- we had in our administration -- I'm sure they're still there -- many of them were career personnel -- who are expects in this subject. And they are the ones that you ought to turn somebody like Abdulmutallab over to, let them be the judge"
These spooks are not judges! They are spys, operatives, and law enforcement officials. We are a nation of laws, no matter what obscene lengths you will go to slander a political rival, destabilize the security of the United States of America for you own and your party's short-term political aspirations, and lie, lie, lie to make a point to an ill-informed and emotional electorate. If you want to live in a country without laws, where justice is served in the shadows, move! Iran, China, North Korea...many nations would be willing to accept an evil-doer such as you, Dick Cheney.
"Well, first of all, I believe he was not tried. He plead guilty. They never did end up having a trial."
That's called a trial, gramps. You need to regain your sense of reality and justice. This was a trial, under the laws of the United States of America, the very laws you transparently reject, show you oppose, and want to circumvent for your personal monetary and political profit.
---
This miscreant, Dick Cheney, should never be allowed in front of a microphone again. Dick Cheney shouldn't be allowed a soapbox to rewrite history as it happens. He should never have served as the de facto President of the United States, as he did during his stint as Vice President under minority-elected George W. Bush.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Poll - Obama Has Edge Over G.O.P. With Public - NYTimes.com
Poll - Obama Has Edge Over G.O.P. With Public - NYTimes.com
I hate the political football...but this poll represents the true state of the nation.
The Democrats have to realize this and start to LEAD. They have a strong majority in the House and Senate, and they are solidly in the Executive branch (the partisan, activist Supreme Court is another story). Health Care reform, bank and broker regulation, tax fairness, climate change...it's time.
At a time of deepening political disaffection and intensified distress about the economy, President Obama enjoys an edge over Republicans in the battle for public support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
I hate the political football...but this poll represents the true state of the nation.
The Democrats have to realize this and start to LEAD. They have a strong majority in the House and Senate, and they are solidly in the Executive branch (the partisan, activist Supreme Court is another story). Health Care reform, bank and broker regulation, tax fairness, climate change...it's time.
Health insurers take heat for rise in profits - latimes.com
Health insurers take heat for rise in profits - latimes.com
Is there any living, breathing human who doesn't think our health care system is broken?
Basically, these companies kill people to retain a few profit dollars to sink into Wall Street so they can pay their CEOs/board-members/institutiona-investors more. Fewer expenditures to pay to the dropped means more money for the already-wealthy. The already wealthy pay capital gains rates on this largesse instead of the income rate that most of us pay. They reward a few for being wealthy instead of making it possible for more to become secure through their work.
This is the legacy of a corporate coup de etat in the United States, and three decades of people working against their self interest by voting idealogues into office who have destroyed any sense of this country being a meritocracy.
If you fancy yourself a revolutionary tea party libertarian freedom-seeker - look, even superficially into this. We've been had. The corporations are killing you, and have each and every one of your federal legislators in their pocket.
The wars of choice and welfare for the wealthy of the last administration, pumping billions into US and foriegn companies to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and to give tax breaks to the wealthy few while we are in a deficit situation, are simple examples. And shamefully, many who call our current administration socialist and question our President's citizenship supported these shameful policies.
We already pay for nearly a third of all medical care in the US, and we overpay by up to 30%. Health care is a vital national economic, security, and moral issue, and to not fix this is criminal, and works against the security of each American.
The five biggest companies covered 2.7 million fewer people last year but earned 56% more...
Is there any living, breathing human who doesn't think our health care system is broken?
Basically, these companies kill people to retain a few profit dollars to sink into Wall Street so they can pay their CEOs/board-members/institutiona-investors more. Fewer expenditures to pay to the dropped means more money for the already-wealthy. The already wealthy pay capital gains rates on this largesse instead of the income rate that most of us pay. They reward a few for being wealthy instead of making it possible for more to become secure through their work.
This is the legacy of a corporate coup de etat in the United States, and three decades of people working against their self interest by voting idealogues into office who have destroyed any sense of this country being a meritocracy.
If you fancy yourself a revolutionary tea party libertarian freedom-seeker - look, even superficially into this. We've been had. The corporations are killing you, and have each and every one of your federal legislators in their pocket.
The wars of choice and welfare for the wealthy of the last administration, pumping billions into US and foriegn companies to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and to give tax breaks to the wealthy few while we are in a deficit situation, are simple examples. And shamefully, many who call our current administration socialist and question our President's citizenship supported these shameful policies.
We already pay for nearly a third of all medical care in the US, and we overpay by up to 30%. Health care is a vital national economic, security, and moral issue, and to not fix this is criminal, and works against the security of each American.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
'Miss me yet' billboard shows power of outdoor ads in Internet age / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
'Miss me yet' billboard shows power of outdoor ads in Internet age / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
This is amazing.
Miss George W. Bush as President?
The very president who's administration, and others stretching back to Reagan's, virtually destroyed the ability of small businesses and individuals to prosper?
Think for yourselves people! How many of you are already wealthy, and have a great sense of security? Few small businesses and individuals are, and fewer can hope to be under Republican policies of welfare for the wealthy, corporate control of government, and the Politics of NO.
These administrations have handed us, and President Obama, a shit sandwich of debt, war, and division, and if you look at any objective measure Barack Obama is successfully handling this with intelligence and foresight.
Trust me, nobody but the isolated and extreme miss the policies of the nation-breaking President George W. Bush.
The billboard showed a picture of former President George W. Bush with the words: "Miss Me Yet?"
By Tuesday, the billboard along Interstate 35 outside Wyoming, Minn., was one of the hottest searches on Google, generating news articles and nationwide attention. It's mystery just added to the allure.
The creators are a "group of small businessmen and individuals who just felt like Washington was against them,"
This is amazing.
Miss George W. Bush as President?
The very president who's administration, and others stretching back to Reagan's, virtually destroyed the ability of small businesses and individuals to prosper?
Think for yourselves people! How many of you are already wealthy, and have a great sense of security? Few small businesses and individuals are, and fewer can hope to be under Republican policies of welfare for the wealthy, corporate control of government, and the Politics of NO.
These administrations have handed us, and President Obama, a shit sandwich of debt, war, and division, and if you look at any objective measure Barack Obama is successfully handling this with intelligence and foresight.
Trust me, nobody but the isolated and extreme miss the policies of the nation-breaking President George W. Bush.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Tell 'The Nation': Voices of the Uninsured
Tell 'The Nation': Voices of the Uninsured
In College and Out of Insurance
I haven't had health insurance since I was 18. I'm 23 now. My health started to take a turn for the worse around two to three years ago. I currently have many conditions--TMJ, tendonitis, spinal problems, poor eyesight, poor dental health, etc., and I almost never see doctors or dentists because they're so hard to afford on a student budget.
I once had insurance for three months but it was cancelled after I had trouble paying the premiums on time. Now I can't get insurance from anyone due to pre-existing conditions, and I've applied multiple times to every carrier on eHealthInsurance. There are no options for me in the US, except to pay out-of-pocket, which is wildly expensive. I can't even move to another country because I'm still in college.
I have been living with these conditions too long and I really don't want to do it anymore. I've been suicidal for a while and my one hope was health insurance reform (specifically the interim high-risk pools, ban on rescission, and the extension of maximum age on a family plan to 27). I've been happier for the past month since the Senate bill was passed, but stunningly, that all went away because of the sudden rise of Brown's support, which virtually no one saw coming. Politicians almost always defend lack of progress by citing how slow Congress moves and how it's not an institution that makes sudden and/or radical changes, but this election at least partially proves them wrong.
So my hope is almost completely gone and I don't want to continue living with these conditions.
J. Travis Rolko, 23
Ohio
A Member of the Country's Invisible Poor
In a letter sent to the White House:
I've been coping with chronic pain and autoimmune dysfunction throughout my life and, as it has with far too many others, it has become debilitating. An ever-increasing number of the population is living with these invisible illnesses. Due to the very nature of these symptoms that are hard to track and harder to see, medical care is seldom pursued or even available until one's quality of life is severely diminished. I reached that point years ago, once I was no longer covered by my parents' health plan. My husband and I live paycheck to paycheck, so insurance has never been an affordable option. Doctors can do little more than guess once the few tests I can afford fail to provide answers. Healthcare clinics and employee benefits are equally outrageous in price and too seldom available.
We are members of this country's invisible poor, hiding in plain sight as job-seekers and rent-payers who look the part of middle-class America but are struggling to buy groceries, much less medical care or insurance. In the current status quo, I am neither recognized as poor nor ill, but am living with the constantly increasing pressures of both. A healthcare system that takes into account not only affordability and availability but allows for the many different circumstances American citizens find themselves in can literally begin giving me, and those like me, our lives back.
My husband is currently laid off, and has been since December. I got significantly sicker during my last job (yet have no diagnosis). We cannot afford a vehicle (but have been consistently just above the poverty line), and have not had health check-ups in years (due to continually rising costs). We deserve, along with every citizen against whom there is a financial bias, to do more than survive; we are ready to thrive.
I've done mostly retail over the years with a stint in theatre as a stage manager. My last job was manager of a Hollywood Video in Fountain Valley, California. My husband is a writer-for-hire whose last job was the manager-on-duty at the Palm Springs Hilton. Finally, allow me to say that I'm very invested in healthcare reform. As frustrating as the process has been, I have to believe we can get something signed that at least gives us a platform to work from. Congress needs to stop buying into rhetoric, allowing things like a sixty-vote requirement, and pay more attention to policy than politics and simply care more about their constituents than their own asses.
Dorian Rhodes and Dave Rhodes, 41 and 50
California
Will You Stop Fighting, and Listen? We're Dying Out Here
Our son has been severely disabled since birth; he is wheelchair bound and cannot sit, stand or walk on his own. He is also developmentally handicapped. We have a $5 million lifetime insurance cap, and are about to hit it. My son is 11, and last Christmas (2008) he had an almost $600,000, thirty-day hospital stay. If that happens again, I'm doomed. Add to that almost $1500 a month in prescription food, $100 a month in diapers, wheelchairs, etc. and the costs are staggering. It is no wonder most bankruptcies are medical, and those folks have insurance.
We're dying out here, and the Congress wants to fight about... what are they fighting about again? I forget. Oh yeah, they're mostly fighting for the folks that pay them to be there: insurance companies. I sent my letter to President Obama and almost every member of the Senate, to no avail. With the announcements from Pelosi and the Supreme Court, I fear I am well and truly screwed.
I am, frankly, disgusted. Not just by the demise, but also by the way the Democratic "leadership" (and in the case of Senator Reid, I use that term quite loosely!) has conducted themselves in this matter. Having, first Joe Lieberman, and then Ben Nelson, and a parade of other Democrats hold the process hostage was disheartening, to say the least. The idea that somehow, we Democrats need a super-majority to fix a mess that a simple majority of Republicans created is just downright stupid. If Lieberman wants to filibuster, make him stand up on C-SPAN and read the phone book make him look like the ass that he is acting like. And start by taking his chairmanship away.
I fight with United Healthcare, and Ceridian (who manages our healthcare spending account) on a weekly basis, and I'm tired of it. Add to that the impending lifetime benefit cap, and the inability of me (and my family) to move from state to state--my Medicaid coverage is not portable!--and I'm trapped. On top of that, there is no consistency of coverage from policy to policy. So, for instance I work (this week) for Sun Microsystems. We have a defined set of benefits, as negotiated, and are actually self-insured (though the program is [mis]-managed by United Healthcare). But next week we are being taken over by Oracle. How will my coverage change? I have no idea. There is no basic level of coverage either mandated or provided by the federal government. So I have no idea what will happen.
I'm not panicked, yet, because Medicaid covers my son. But that's not portable, so should I get transferred to another state? He would fall out of Medicaid coverage, and would have to get on a waiting list for Medicaid waivers. Currently, the state of North Carolina is considering increasing the Medicaid co-pay to 30 percent. If I had to pay 30 percent of $600,000, it would ruin me.
We need single-payer. We need to remove the profit motive. As I've said for over a year now, this has not been correctly framed from the beginning. It is not healthcare reform. It is health insurance reform. Our healthcare is pretty darned good. Our insurance system is shameful. The former CEO of UnitedHealthGroup was paid $129M one year. one year. That's money that could have been spent on medical care. But it was wasted.
Obviously, I could go on and on and on forever. I've tried meeting with my Congressional representatives. Senator Kay Hagan "didn't have time" and Congressman David Price wasn't available until Contessa Brewer wanted to interview me on MSNBC, at which point he was magically available. Obviously last week's Supreme Court ruling will only make our Congressional representatives less available and less responsive to individual constituents so that they can pay better attention to corporate sponsors. We spin further and further out of control.
Have you had enough yet? Believe me, I have. But I have to fight on. I have no choice but to continue this fight until a solution is found that serves the needs of my son, because he cannot fight for himself.
David G. Simmons, 46
North Carolina
Why Couldn't My Tax Dollars Pay to Save My Stepfather's Life?
I lost my job a year ago, and I don't have health insurance. I'm 37. My stepdad did have private health insurance--he was healthy and fit, and paid hundreds of dollars a month. And when he did get sick with a rare cancer, we had to fight for every appointment and wait months for others. His cancer spread quickly and he died within several months, but I believe the insurance companies caused his death. His illness was treatable and he could have beaten it.
It's been a few years and I still miss him.
I actually hope the current version of the healthcare bill fails. I cannot afford insurance right now--and to be put on my husband's insurance will be over $300 a month, and that's with Kaiser Permanente; I haven't had good dealings with them in the past.
In any case, the bill currently punishes people with fines for not having insurance, and it's just wrong. It's a giveaway to the insurance companies, and that makes my blood boil. At the very least, we need a public option, but I'm a single-payer girl. I just refuse to believe that those moronic teabaggers are the majority opinion in this country. I know they aren't, but you'd think they were with all the attention they get. I'm also an "average Joe." I've worked all my life and paid taxes. I'm sickened (pun intended) that my tax dollars pay for war and death, and not saving people's lives, like my stepfather's.
Jennifer M., 37
California
Do the Right Thing--Start Leading, Stop Following Lobbyists
I'm a single mom on the verge of declaring medical bankruptcy. I was forced to sell my home. My son, now 17, and I live with my 89-year-old mother (illegally) in a retirement community. For the past year, we have shared a 10x10 bedroom roughly the size of my old walk-in closet. I have two college degrees and I am now working only fifteen hours a week as a church administrator. Due to a pre-existing chronic medical condition, I am not able to buy insurance (even if I could afford it). As a result, it is being left untreated.
I am absolutely dismayed with the Massachusetts election outcome and its potential ramifications for healthcare reform. Whether on moral/ethical grounds, as a human rights issue or viewed solely on the numbers, I do not understand how anyone could be opposed to healthcare reform in this country. If conservatives want to stay away from the "touchy/feely" views, fine. However, how can they not see the bottom line? The costs of no healthcare reform far outweigh the costs of the status quo. We have a failed system and it is affecting everyone.
I'd like to see Congress actually represent the people and not corporate America. I'd like to see Congress develop a spine, some ethics, locate their hearts and do the right thing. They all know what that is, but are all in bed with Big Pharma and the insurance industry and the fear of not getting re-elected outweighs everything else. We need healthcare reform and not a watered-down version rubber-stamped by the above. We need our elected officials to actually lead and stop following lobbyists.
Suzi Spagenberg, 49
California
We Need Real Protection
I've honestly suspected from the get-go that neither the conservatives nor the liberals really care about healthcare reform, and that both sides have done their best to silence the progressives, who do. Frankly, the more cynical part of me is not the least bit surprised. I find it train wreck level interesting, that at the first little excuse the Democrats start to drop even making an attempt at healthcare reform and run in the opposite direction.
As for my investment in healthcare reform, being working-class poor, it's a bit like asking someone on the Titanic if they feel invested in the ship's sinking. I'm in this boat so there's no way for me not to be invested. Last year my wife and I both came down sick at the same time. We were living in West Virginia at the time, and it was during the weeks of the big freeze, twenty below zero at night and zero during the day, and we both came down sick with what we suspected was a sinus infection. Our solution? Swallow enough symptom suppressors to be able to sleep, and enough to be able to work, and hope that it wouldn't get any worse.
I want Congress to pass the bill that is most likely to pass (sadly, I know that is the Senate version) and then use reconciliation to put the public option back in play, and if it fits within the boundaries to also put the individual mandate on a trigger so it would not kick in for at least ten years. Then they should prepare to be dogged by progressives until they perfect the legislation, so that it offers real protection and access to healthcare that doesn't turn into vaporcare the first time you try to use it.
RFT, 36
Texas
One Pretzel Hit Cost $500--This is Not the American Dream
I have healthcare. However, I recently took legal custody of my 11-year-old cousin, and because it's residential custody and not full, he is unable to be put under my insurance. His mother is on welfare. Before giving him up to my custody, she let his New Jersey Family Care insurance lapse. So right now we're waiting to see if we qualify to cover him. If we make too much money or don't jump through the proper flaming hoop, then my cousin will remain uninsured. He was recently hit in the eye with a pretzel while having lunch at school. It required an ER visit. I now have a bill of over $500.
The demise of healthcare scares me. I am a stay at home mom and paternal caretaker. Besides the 11-year-old, I have a 6-year-old autistic son and an aging, wheelchair-bound mom, who has been diabetic for over thirty-six years and is now on Medicare. One bad illness will bankrupt us for generations, and aid for my son's lifelong autism ends at age 22.
This is not the American dream. This isn't even basic compassion.
Shea Murphy, 35
New Jersey
The "Obscene Meanness" of America
After hearing Senator Jim Webb say that "The American people have spoken," when the Democrats lost the Massachusetts special election, I was so completely incensed that he or anyone could come to that conclusion, when the people of Massachusetts who have healthcare elected an anti-healthcare candidate.
My husband and I are educated, intelligent, unemployed and in our mid-40s. I am a writer and he is in commercial insurance. We used to rely on his employment to cover the entire family. He has been unemployed for more than a year. We could not afford the COBRA, and indeed can barely afford our mortgage. All other creditors are waiting in line until we get back on our feet, and I have several herniated disks. I live in pain and anxiously await a healthcare plan that will provide me with an opportunity to get the surgeries I need. My husband was raised in London and is so discouraged with what he calls the "obscene meanness" of our system. We have contemplated uprooting our entire lives, to move to England, just to get the surgeries I desperately need. It is difficult to understand how the American people can stand for this and how our politicians can come to the insane conclusions that we do not want it. Howard Dean seems to be the only person talking sense on the pop-culture news.
We have three adult children who are struggling for insurance. My 25-year-old son graduated from American University and lives and works full-time in DC and is covered for now, but he is planning to leave work to get his masters. He has had major back surgery (scoliosis) and can never afford to go without insurance. My 23-year-old daughter works part-time at an advertising agency and part-time pursuing her career as an artist (for which she studied at Boston University). My 21-year-old son is in school at American University, covered for now, but also had major back surgery (stenosis) and cannot go without insurance.
Again, we could not afford the COBRA for ourselves, let alone to help the kids, even if we were allowed to cover them. It's killing us.
Angela Combs, 47
California
Beside Myself, Waiting for Change
I was diagnosed with throat cancer on Tuesday, January 12. I am unemployed and have no health insurance. I intend to get the care I need. My doctor has not turned me down, nor has the hospital for treatment. I anticipate the bills will begin soon and I will not be able to pay them. Prognosis is 80/20 for recovery with radiation and chemotherapy. I have a notion I am going to face something nastier than cancer in my life: bill collectors. So it begins.
My occupation used to be an administrative assistant. The last two positions that paid well were transferred to different states so my job was gone with them. At 59, with the tight job market, I am not getting any offers. And now, with this diagnosis, there really isn't going to be a job.
I've been beside myself with the Democrats not coming together at once to pass healthcare, and I am livid that just a few people held it hostage. I've tried to do my share by signing petitions and beating up Evan Bayh. This was before I knew I was ill. I think Congress should pass some scrap of something. I wanted the public option. I also hoped they would lower Medicare eligibility to 55. That was selfish, of course. Still, they must try to do something, if only to have it to build upon. They are crazy to think this will come around again this generation.
Sarah Hurt, 59
Indiana
Get Tough For God's Sake and Ours
My brother is losing his COBRA on February 28. He recently was hospitalized for a heart attack and stroke.
It is difficult for my brother to type since his stroke. I have been researching to find him insurance. There is nothing affordable since he is out of work. Part of the reason he had his stroke/heart attack was because he had cut back on his medication due to finances. His cardiologist told me he keeps seeing this, people who can't afford medication and they stop taking it, which causes dire complications.
Even with health insurance, he owed the hospital over $5,600 and rehabilitation about $2,000. We were able to have the hospital bill "forgiven" after proving my brother had no money. The hospital has a charity fund we applied for; we are applying for the same for rehabilitation. We live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and there are low-cost medical clinics for people who are not more than 20 percent over the poverty level. This is what I have been looking into once COBRA runs out. My brother is not eligible for Medicaid since he is a single male. He lost his job and his house last year so is now living with my husband and I.
I went through a similar instance with my daughter when she graduated college in 2007 and went off our insurance. She had an ultrasound due to menstrual cramps earlier that year and it was inconclusive. Not one insurance carrier would cover her because of the "inconclusive" diagnosis! She took no medications and her doctor wrote a letter to the insurance companies. Eventually she was able to get insurance when she found a job, but the immorality of this made me so angry!
I have been fortunate because I have had good healthcare. However, now that I have someone in my family who has no insurance, it makes me very angry. I have been following healthcare ever since Obama took office.
I want to see the Democrats get tough, for God's sake. I love Obama, but he is too damn nice. Why can't we get fifty-one Senate votes and go for reconciliation? I tell everyone about my brother and tell them that it could happen to them. We elected Obama to be the president who would finally get healthcare done. He needs to get tough and do it. The Republicans only want him to fail for their own selfish political needs. They couldn't care less about the American people. They don't want him to go down in history as the president that got healthcare.
LR and BT, 55 and 51
North Carolina
Is Congress the Opposite of Progress? I Hope Not
I used to be covered by my mom's insurance, but I couldn't afford this semester of school and they cut her, so now both of us are uninsured.
She's 56, works in retail as a salesperson. She's been there for almost twelve years. I'm 21 and currently work a few hours a week as a homemaker. They started cutting her hours in September, but I was in college at the time so we somewhat had coverage.
It bothers me greatly that there's the possibility but no progress with the healthcare bill. I tore the ligaments in my shoulder a few years ago and had I not been under my mother's insurance I'd have to pay $1,500 per MRI. Hospital bills have prevented me from going on with education. I was supposed to have surgery, but couldn't afford it. So now we're sort of at the edge. We can't get sick or anything. Honestly, the Senate bill does bother me. But I can't expect a huge change right away. In my opinion, it would be a baby step toward progress. A friend once told me "If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?" I hope not. I wish Democrats would unite. There are worse cases than mine.
Bisera Rozic, 21
Illinois
In College and Out of Insurance
I haven't had health insurance since I was 18. I'm 23 now. My health started to take a turn for the worse around two to three years ago. I currently have many conditions--TMJ, tendonitis, spinal problems, poor eyesight, poor dental health, etc., and I almost never see doctors or dentists because they're so hard to afford on a student budget.
I once had insurance for three months but it was cancelled after I had trouble paying the premiums on time. Now I can't get insurance from anyone due to pre-existing conditions, and I've applied multiple times to every carrier on eHealthInsurance. There are no options for me in the US, except to pay out-of-pocket, which is wildly expensive. I can't even move to another country because I'm still in college.
I have been living with these conditions too long and I really don't want to do it anymore. I've been suicidal for a while and my one hope was health insurance reform (specifically the interim high-risk pools, ban on rescission, and the extension of maximum age on a family plan to 27). I've been happier for the past month since the Senate bill was passed, but stunningly, that all went away because of the sudden rise of Brown's support, which virtually no one saw coming. Politicians almost always defend lack of progress by citing how slow Congress moves and how it's not an institution that makes sudden and/or radical changes, but this election at least partially proves them wrong.
So my hope is almost completely gone and I don't want to continue living with these conditions.
J. Travis Rolko, 23
Ohio
A Member of the Country's Invisible Poor
In a letter sent to the White House:
I've been coping with chronic pain and autoimmune dysfunction throughout my life and, as it has with far too many others, it has become debilitating. An ever-increasing number of the population is living with these invisible illnesses. Due to the very nature of these symptoms that are hard to track and harder to see, medical care is seldom pursued or even available until one's quality of life is severely diminished. I reached that point years ago, once I was no longer covered by my parents' health plan. My husband and I live paycheck to paycheck, so insurance has never been an affordable option. Doctors can do little more than guess once the few tests I can afford fail to provide answers. Healthcare clinics and employee benefits are equally outrageous in price and too seldom available.
We are members of this country's invisible poor, hiding in plain sight as job-seekers and rent-payers who look the part of middle-class America but are struggling to buy groceries, much less medical care or insurance. In the current status quo, I am neither recognized as poor nor ill, but am living with the constantly increasing pressures of both. A healthcare system that takes into account not only affordability and availability but allows for the many different circumstances American citizens find themselves in can literally begin giving me, and those like me, our lives back.
My husband is currently laid off, and has been since December. I got significantly sicker during my last job (yet have no diagnosis). We cannot afford a vehicle (but have been consistently just above the poverty line), and have not had health check-ups in years (due to continually rising costs). We deserve, along with every citizen against whom there is a financial bias, to do more than survive; we are ready to thrive.
I've done mostly retail over the years with a stint in theatre as a stage manager. My last job was manager of a Hollywood Video in Fountain Valley, California. My husband is a writer-for-hire whose last job was the manager-on-duty at the Palm Springs Hilton. Finally, allow me to say that I'm very invested in healthcare reform. As frustrating as the process has been, I have to believe we can get something signed that at least gives us a platform to work from. Congress needs to stop buying into rhetoric, allowing things like a sixty-vote requirement, and pay more attention to policy than politics and simply care more about their constituents than their own asses.
Dorian Rhodes and Dave Rhodes, 41 and 50
California
Will You Stop Fighting, and Listen? We're Dying Out Here
Our son has been severely disabled since birth; he is wheelchair bound and cannot sit, stand or walk on his own. He is also developmentally handicapped. We have a $5 million lifetime insurance cap, and are about to hit it. My son is 11, and last Christmas (2008) he had an almost $600,000, thirty-day hospital stay. If that happens again, I'm doomed. Add to that almost $1500 a month in prescription food, $100 a month in diapers, wheelchairs, etc. and the costs are staggering. It is no wonder most bankruptcies are medical, and those folks have insurance.
We're dying out here, and the Congress wants to fight about... what are they fighting about again? I forget. Oh yeah, they're mostly fighting for the folks that pay them to be there: insurance companies. I sent my letter to President Obama and almost every member of the Senate, to no avail. With the announcements from Pelosi and the Supreme Court, I fear I am well and truly screwed.
I am, frankly, disgusted. Not just by the demise, but also by the way the Democratic "leadership" (and in the case of Senator Reid, I use that term quite loosely!) has conducted themselves in this matter. Having, first Joe Lieberman, and then Ben Nelson, and a parade of other Democrats hold the process hostage was disheartening, to say the least. The idea that somehow, we Democrats need a super-majority to fix a mess that a simple majority of Republicans created is just downright stupid. If Lieberman wants to filibuster, make him stand up on C-SPAN and read the phone book make him look like the ass that he is acting like. And start by taking his chairmanship away.
I fight with United Healthcare, and Ceridian (who manages our healthcare spending account) on a weekly basis, and I'm tired of it. Add to that the impending lifetime benefit cap, and the inability of me (and my family) to move from state to state--my Medicaid coverage is not portable!--and I'm trapped. On top of that, there is no consistency of coverage from policy to policy. So, for instance I work (this week) for Sun Microsystems. We have a defined set of benefits, as negotiated, and are actually self-insured (though the program is [mis]-managed by United Healthcare). But next week we are being taken over by Oracle. How will my coverage change? I have no idea. There is no basic level of coverage either mandated or provided by the federal government. So I have no idea what will happen.
I'm not panicked, yet, because Medicaid covers my son. But that's not portable, so should I get transferred to another state? He would fall out of Medicaid coverage, and would have to get on a waiting list for Medicaid waivers. Currently, the state of North Carolina is considering increasing the Medicaid co-pay to 30 percent. If I had to pay 30 percent of $600,000, it would ruin me.
We need single-payer. We need to remove the profit motive. As I've said for over a year now, this has not been correctly framed from the beginning. It is not healthcare reform. It is health insurance reform. Our healthcare is pretty darned good. Our insurance system is shameful. The former CEO of UnitedHealthGroup was paid $129M one year. one year. That's money that could have been spent on medical care. But it was wasted.
Obviously, I could go on and on and on forever. I've tried meeting with my Congressional representatives. Senator Kay Hagan "didn't have time" and Congressman David Price wasn't available until Contessa Brewer wanted to interview me on MSNBC, at which point he was magically available. Obviously last week's Supreme Court ruling will only make our Congressional representatives less available and less responsive to individual constituents so that they can pay better attention to corporate sponsors. We spin further and further out of control.
Have you had enough yet? Believe me, I have. But I have to fight on. I have no choice but to continue this fight until a solution is found that serves the needs of my son, because he cannot fight for himself.
David G. Simmons, 46
North Carolina
Why Couldn't My Tax Dollars Pay to Save My Stepfather's Life?
I lost my job a year ago, and I don't have health insurance. I'm 37. My stepdad did have private health insurance--he was healthy and fit, and paid hundreds of dollars a month. And when he did get sick with a rare cancer, we had to fight for every appointment and wait months for others. His cancer spread quickly and he died within several months, but I believe the insurance companies caused his death. His illness was treatable and he could have beaten it.
It's been a few years and I still miss him.
I actually hope the current version of the healthcare bill fails. I cannot afford insurance right now--and to be put on my husband's insurance will be over $300 a month, and that's with Kaiser Permanente; I haven't had good dealings with them in the past.
In any case, the bill currently punishes people with fines for not having insurance, and it's just wrong. It's a giveaway to the insurance companies, and that makes my blood boil. At the very least, we need a public option, but I'm a single-payer girl. I just refuse to believe that those moronic teabaggers are the majority opinion in this country. I know they aren't, but you'd think they were with all the attention they get. I'm also an "average Joe." I've worked all my life and paid taxes. I'm sickened (pun intended) that my tax dollars pay for war and death, and not saving people's lives, like my stepfather's.
Jennifer M., 37
California
Do the Right Thing--Start Leading, Stop Following Lobbyists
I'm a single mom on the verge of declaring medical bankruptcy. I was forced to sell my home. My son, now 17, and I live with my 89-year-old mother (illegally) in a retirement community. For the past year, we have shared a 10x10 bedroom roughly the size of my old walk-in closet. I have two college degrees and I am now working only fifteen hours a week as a church administrator. Due to a pre-existing chronic medical condition, I am not able to buy insurance (even if I could afford it). As a result, it is being left untreated.
I am absolutely dismayed with the Massachusetts election outcome and its potential ramifications for healthcare reform. Whether on moral/ethical grounds, as a human rights issue or viewed solely on the numbers, I do not understand how anyone could be opposed to healthcare reform in this country. If conservatives want to stay away from the "touchy/feely" views, fine. However, how can they not see the bottom line? The costs of no healthcare reform far outweigh the costs of the status quo. We have a failed system and it is affecting everyone.
I'd like to see Congress actually represent the people and not corporate America. I'd like to see Congress develop a spine, some ethics, locate their hearts and do the right thing. They all know what that is, but are all in bed with Big Pharma and the insurance industry and the fear of not getting re-elected outweighs everything else. We need healthcare reform and not a watered-down version rubber-stamped by the above. We need our elected officials to actually lead and stop following lobbyists.
Suzi Spagenberg, 49
California
We Need Real Protection
I've honestly suspected from the get-go that neither the conservatives nor the liberals really care about healthcare reform, and that both sides have done their best to silence the progressives, who do. Frankly, the more cynical part of me is not the least bit surprised. I find it train wreck level interesting, that at the first little excuse the Democrats start to drop even making an attempt at healthcare reform and run in the opposite direction.
As for my investment in healthcare reform, being working-class poor, it's a bit like asking someone on the Titanic if they feel invested in the ship's sinking. I'm in this boat so there's no way for me not to be invested. Last year my wife and I both came down sick at the same time. We were living in West Virginia at the time, and it was during the weeks of the big freeze, twenty below zero at night and zero during the day, and we both came down sick with what we suspected was a sinus infection. Our solution? Swallow enough symptom suppressors to be able to sleep, and enough to be able to work, and hope that it wouldn't get any worse.
I want Congress to pass the bill that is most likely to pass (sadly, I know that is the Senate version) and then use reconciliation to put the public option back in play, and if it fits within the boundaries to also put the individual mandate on a trigger so it would not kick in for at least ten years. Then they should prepare to be dogged by progressives until they perfect the legislation, so that it offers real protection and access to healthcare that doesn't turn into vaporcare the first time you try to use it.
RFT, 36
Texas
One Pretzel Hit Cost $500--This is Not the American Dream
I have healthcare. However, I recently took legal custody of my 11-year-old cousin, and because it's residential custody and not full, he is unable to be put under my insurance. His mother is on welfare. Before giving him up to my custody, she let his New Jersey Family Care insurance lapse. So right now we're waiting to see if we qualify to cover him. If we make too much money or don't jump through the proper flaming hoop, then my cousin will remain uninsured. He was recently hit in the eye with a pretzel while having lunch at school. It required an ER visit. I now have a bill of over $500.
The demise of healthcare scares me. I am a stay at home mom and paternal caretaker. Besides the 11-year-old, I have a 6-year-old autistic son and an aging, wheelchair-bound mom, who has been diabetic for over thirty-six years and is now on Medicare. One bad illness will bankrupt us for generations, and aid for my son's lifelong autism ends at age 22.
This is not the American dream. This isn't even basic compassion.
Shea Murphy, 35
New Jersey
The "Obscene Meanness" of America
After hearing Senator Jim Webb say that "The American people have spoken," when the Democrats lost the Massachusetts special election, I was so completely incensed that he or anyone could come to that conclusion, when the people of Massachusetts who have healthcare elected an anti-healthcare candidate.
My husband and I are educated, intelligent, unemployed and in our mid-40s. I am a writer and he is in commercial insurance. We used to rely on his employment to cover the entire family. He has been unemployed for more than a year. We could not afford the COBRA, and indeed can barely afford our mortgage. All other creditors are waiting in line until we get back on our feet, and I have several herniated disks. I live in pain and anxiously await a healthcare plan that will provide me with an opportunity to get the surgeries I need. My husband was raised in London and is so discouraged with what he calls the "obscene meanness" of our system. We have contemplated uprooting our entire lives, to move to England, just to get the surgeries I desperately need. It is difficult to understand how the American people can stand for this and how our politicians can come to the insane conclusions that we do not want it. Howard Dean seems to be the only person talking sense on the pop-culture news.
We have three adult children who are struggling for insurance. My 25-year-old son graduated from American University and lives and works full-time in DC and is covered for now, but he is planning to leave work to get his masters. He has had major back surgery (scoliosis) and can never afford to go without insurance. My 23-year-old daughter works part-time at an advertising agency and part-time pursuing her career as an artist (for which she studied at Boston University). My 21-year-old son is in school at American University, covered for now, but also had major back surgery (stenosis) and cannot go without insurance.
Again, we could not afford the COBRA for ourselves, let alone to help the kids, even if we were allowed to cover them. It's killing us.
Angela Combs, 47
California
Beside Myself, Waiting for Change
I was diagnosed with throat cancer on Tuesday, January 12. I am unemployed and have no health insurance. I intend to get the care I need. My doctor has not turned me down, nor has the hospital for treatment. I anticipate the bills will begin soon and I will not be able to pay them. Prognosis is 80/20 for recovery with radiation and chemotherapy. I have a notion I am going to face something nastier than cancer in my life: bill collectors. So it begins.
My occupation used to be an administrative assistant. The last two positions that paid well were transferred to different states so my job was gone with them. At 59, with the tight job market, I am not getting any offers. And now, with this diagnosis, there really isn't going to be a job.
I've been beside myself with the Democrats not coming together at once to pass healthcare, and I am livid that just a few people held it hostage. I've tried to do my share by signing petitions and beating up Evan Bayh. This was before I knew I was ill. I think Congress should pass some scrap of something. I wanted the public option. I also hoped they would lower Medicare eligibility to 55. That was selfish, of course. Still, they must try to do something, if only to have it to build upon. They are crazy to think this will come around again this generation.
Sarah Hurt, 59
Indiana
Get Tough For God's Sake and Ours
My brother is losing his COBRA on February 28. He recently was hospitalized for a heart attack and stroke.
It is difficult for my brother to type since his stroke. I have been researching to find him insurance. There is nothing affordable since he is out of work. Part of the reason he had his stroke/heart attack was because he had cut back on his medication due to finances. His cardiologist told me he keeps seeing this, people who can't afford medication and they stop taking it, which causes dire complications.
Even with health insurance, he owed the hospital over $5,600 and rehabilitation about $2,000. We were able to have the hospital bill "forgiven" after proving my brother had no money. The hospital has a charity fund we applied for; we are applying for the same for rehabilitation. We live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and there are low-cost medical clinics for people who are not more than 20 percent over the poverty level. This is what I have been looking into once COBRA runs out. My brother is not eligible for Medicaid since he is a single male. He lost his job and his house last year so is now living with my husband and I.
I went through a similar instance with my daughter when she graduated college in 2007 and went off our insurance. She had an ultrasound due to menstrual cramps earlier that year and it was inconclusive. Not one insurance carrier would cover her because of the "inconclusive" diagnosis! She took no medications and her doctor wrote a letter to the insurance companies. Eventually she was able to get insurance when she found a job, but the immorality of this made me so angry!
I have been fortunate because I have had good healthcare. However, now that I have someone in my family who has no insurance, it makes me very angry. I have been following healthcare ever since Obama took office.
I want to see the Democrats get tough, for God's sake. I love Obama, but he is too damn nice. Why can't we get fifty-one Senate votes and go for reconciliation? I tell everyone about my brother and tell them that it could happen to them. We elected Obama to be the president who would finally get healthcare done. He needs to get tough and do it. The Republicans only want him to fail for their own selfish political needs. They couldn't care less about the American people. They don't want him to go down in history as the president that got healthcare.
LR and BT, 55 and 51
North Carolina
Is Congress the Opposite of Progress? I Hope Not
I used to be covered by my mom's insurance, but I couldn't afford this semester of school and they cut her, so now both of us are uninsured.
She's 56, works in retail as a salesperson. She's been there for almost twelve years. I'm 21 and currently work a few hours a week as a homemaker. They started cutting her hours in September, but I was in college at the time so we somewhat had coverage.
It bothers me greatly that there's the possibility but no progress with the healthcare bill. I tore the ligaments in my shoulder a few years ago and had I not been under my mother's insurance I'd have to pay $1,500 per MRI. Hospital bills have prevented me from going on with education. I was supposed to have surgery, but couldn't afford it. So now we're sort of at the edge. We can't get sick or anything. Honestly, the Senate bill does bother me. But I can't expect a huge change right away. In my opinion, it would be a baby step toward progress. A friend once told me "If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?" I hope not. I wish Democrats would unite. There are worse cases than mine.
Bisera Rozic, 21
Illinois
Saturday, February 06, 2010
California's outsize problems won't be easy for Schwarzenegger to solve - washingtonpost.com
California's outsize problems won't be easy for Schwarzenegger to solve - washingtonpost.com
All this blather about California and no mention of Prop 13, or of the corporate and out-of-state takeover of our initiative process?
Prop 13 was not a populist tax revolt, it was a corporate and big-state governemnt money grab.
From the initiative that brought in the CA state lottery to Prop 8, wealthy and powerful out of state interests have flooded money into the legislative process of our state, the world's sixth largest economy. It's time to take back control of our governor's mansion, and of our state legislature.
We need to repeal or significantly modify Prop 13. Commercial real estate has to be subject to the same regulations and local governments must be given back the power to set their own revenue through their own political process, while keeping reasonable property tax controls for homeowners to provide stability in an always volatile CA home real estate market.
It's time to ban paid signature takers, ban out of state money from our initiative process, and provide for constitutionality review before any intiative becomes law.
All this blather about California and no mention of Prop 13, or of the corporate and out-of-state takeover of our initiative process?
Prop 13 was not a populist tax revolt, it was a corporate and big-state governemnt money grab.
From the initiative that brought in the CA state lottery to Prop 8, wealthy and powerful out of state interests have flooded money into the legislative process of our state, the world's sixth largest economy. It's time to take back control of our governor's mansion, and of our state legislature.
We need to repeal or significantly modify Prop 13. Commercial real estate has to be subject to the same regulations and local governments must be given back the power to set their own revenue through their own political process, while keeping reasonable property tax controls for homeowners to provide stability in an always volatile CA home real estate market.
It's time to ban paid signature takers, ban out of state money from our initiative process, and provide for constitutionality review before any intiative becomes law.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Impeach Alito!
Justice Alito mouths 'not true' - POLITICO Live - POLITICO.com
This man is not fit to judge a dog show.
Days after striking a blow to our Representative Democracy so strong it will take generations to regain our freedoms lost with this arrogant ruling from an activist Supreme Court, Justice Alito strikes a blow against decorum and respect by taking his plutocratic sociopathy to President Obama's State of the Union address.
This man, Justice Roberts and this activist Supreme Court must be stopped before decimating what is left of our great nation.
This man is not fit to judge a dog show.
Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words "not true" when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision.
"Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said. "Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong."
The shot of the black-robed Supreme Court justices, stone-faced, was priceless.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stood up behind the justices and clapped vigorously while Alito shook his head and quietly mouthed his discontent.
Days after striking a blow to our Representative Democracy so strong it will take generations to regain our freedoms lost with this arrogant ruling from an activist Supreme Court, Justice Alito strikes a blow against decorum and respect by taking his plutocratic sociopathy to President Obama's State of the Union address.
This man, Justice Roberts and this activist Supreme Court must be stopped before decimating what is left of our great nation.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Impeach Justice Roberts!
Supreme Court Rolls Back Campaign Spending Limits On Corporations : NPR
An activist Supreme Court delivered a stunning blow to the core of Democracy today.
Corporations are not persons, and money is not speech.
Every one of us, Democrat and Republican, rich and poor, Liberal and Conservative, has been dealt a blow today by powerful corporate interests who have taken over our representative Democracy and turned it into a way to transparently funnel every available bit of wealth and powerful to the already wealthy and powerful.
This is the stuff that all of should be marching on Washington D. C. to protest.
Instead, the disaffected on all sides of the political and economic fight point fingers at each other while the corporate takeover of our government destroys our society.
Stand up! Socialists, Teabaggers, moderates, and party faithfuls. You, unless you are already part of the wealthiest 1%, have had your representation stolen!
An activist Supreme Court delivered a stunning blow to the core of Democracy today.
Corporations are not persons, and money is not speech.
Every one of us, Democrat and Republican, rich and poor, Liberal and Conservative, has been dealt a blow today by powerful corporate interests who have taken over our representative Democracy and turned it into a way to transparently funnel every available bit of wealth and powerful to the already wealthy and powerful.
This is the stuff that all of should be marching on Washington D. C. to protest.
Instead, the disaffected on all sides of the political and economic fight point fingers at each other while the corporate takeover of our government destroys our society.
Stand up! Socialists, Teabaggers, moderates, and party faithfuls. You, unless you are already part of the wealthiest 1%, have had your representation stolen!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Republican Murdering Obstructionists Lose Divisive Health Insurance Vote
Democrats win the historic but divisive vote, 60 to 39
With every member of the House and Senate firmly in the pocket of corporate interests, the Republican members of the Senate still failed to stop the passage of a long overdue federal health care bill.
Every year tens of thousands of us in the United States die simply because we don't have access to medical care. Most bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, with costs inflated from the insane pressure to feed ever increasing profit dollars to an ever decreasing number of C-Level executives, board members, and institutional investors.
Next stop - a divided Republican party will sink deeper into irrelevancy in upcoming elections as they face the fact that voters know, despite the onslaught of partisan bullshit from a complicit media, that these reforms are needed.
With every member of the House and Senate firmly in the pocket of corporate interests, the Republican members of the Senate still failed to stop the passage of a long overdue federal health care bill.
Every year tens of thousands of us in the United States die simply because we don't have access to medical care. Most bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, with costs inflated from the insane pressure to feed ever increasing profit dollars to an ever decreasing number of C-Level executives, board members, and institutional investors.
Next stop - a divided Republican party will sink deeper into irrelevancy in upcoming elections as they face the fact that voters know, despite the onslaught of partisan bullshit from a complicit media, that these reforms are needed.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Republicans to pay at polls in 2010 for Health Care Obstructionism
A deeply divided Republican party will lose significant votes in 2010 with its role as opposition to meaningful health care reform in 2009.
Split between extremest right wing influences and mainstream party supporters, the schism can't be repaired to unite a Republican party that represents nothing but building a framework for the next election. Support for significant change in our health care system in America by a large majority is obscured by an obstructionist Republican minority in the House and Senate and a complicit media. As both lie and misdirect the public, saying that opposition to health care reform is overwhelming, they dig a deep political hole.
In the meantime, tens of thousands are being murdered by corporatists of every stripe yearly, in support of a failed health care system that serves only to support fat cat politicians, C-Level executives, board members, and institutional investors in ever-profitable health care corporations.
November 2010 will prove a watershed for non-presidential-year elections. The repercussions of a Congressional minority that only knows one word - "NO" - and a majority that finally comes to a realization that they won will bring as many voters to reject the Republican obstructionists and political terrorists as happened in 2008.
Split between extremest right wing influences and mainstream party supporters, the schism can't be repaired to unite a Republican party that represents nothing but building a framework for the next election. Support for significant change in our health care system in America by a large majority is obscured by an obstructionist Republican minority in the House and Senate and a complicit media. As both lie and misdirect the public, saying that opposition to health care reform is overwhelming, they dig a deep political hole.
In the meantime, tens of thousands are being murdered by corporatists of every stripe yearly, in support of a failed health care system that serves only to support fat cat politicians, C-Level executives, board members, and institutional investors in ever-profitable health care corporations.
November 2010 will prove a watershed for non-presidential-year elections. The repercussions of a Congressional minority that only knows one word - "NO" - and a majority that finally comes to a realization that they won will bring as many voters to reject the Republican obstructionists and political terrorists as happened in 2008.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Health Care Reform NOW! Today's Letter to President Obama and my Congressional Representatives
Now more than ever, we need to fix our broken health care system.
We speak, yet the federal government doesn't listen. A large majority of us know that the system is broken, that a single payer system is the only way to truly fix it. Yet, our legislators are paid by corporate interests not to represent our wishes, and are delivering to their corporate constituents reform that isn't reform.
Other than knowing that our Congress is bought and paid for by the already wealthy and powerful, I am not an expert in the ways of Washington. I do know that with enough will in your office, the passage of true health care reform can be influenced.
True reform in the shape of a single payer system can cut the average medical provider's administrative cost by at least half. Independent physicians know this, and they support this type of reform so insead of dozens of vendors with different practices and rates they have one. Yet a bribed Congress refuses to consider the simple system that could save lives and our fragile economy, simply so each member has to think no further than their next election.
If a single payer system isn't to be, a strong bill with a public option, gurantees of no rescission, no yearly or lifetime caps, no corporate panels denying service, no individuals going bankrupt from medical bills, no small business mandated out of business because they are forced into the role of health care provider, etc., *must* be passed. And it must be passed soon. And it must take effect immediately, not 2010, not 2012.
Our lives and our economy demand this.
We speak, yet the federal government doesn't listen. A large majority of us know that the system is broken, that a single payer system is the only way to truly fix it. Yet, our legislators are paid by corporate interests not to represent our wishes, and are delivering to their corporate constituents reform that isn't reform.
Other than knowing that our Congress is bought and paid for by the already wealthy and powerful, I am not an expert in the ways of Washington. I do know that with enough will in your office, the passage of true health care reform can be influenced.
True reform in the shape of a single payer system can cut the average medical provider's administrative cost by at least half. Independent physicians know this, and they support this type of reform so insead of dozens of vendors with different practices and rates they have one. Yet a bribed Congress refuses to consider the simple system that could save lives and our fragile economy, simply so each member has to think no further than their next election.
If a single payer system isn't to be, a strong bill with a public option, gurantees of no rescission, no yearly or lifetime caps, no corporate panels denying service, no individuals going bankrupt from medical bills, no small business mandated out of business because they are forced into the role of health care provider, etc., *must* be passed. And it must be passed soon. And it must take effect immediately, not 2010, not 2012.
Our lives and our economy demand this.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
The Weekend Interview with John Mackey: The Conscience of a Capitalist - WSJ.com
The Weekend Interview with John Mackey: The Conscience of a Capitalist - WSJ.com
Saying this stuff makes you look like an idiot, Mackey, and it makes Stephen Moore look like a fascist. I suspect that neither is an idiot or a fascist. I see that in each, they are supporting an ignorant, rabid minority that will exert any political pressure it can to defeat a President and party that are currently in power trying to do the right thing - the thing that a significant majority of us voted them in to accomplish. This is deliberate political terrorism.
These are great things. The majority of jobs in the US are supplied by small businesses. Care to tell me what percentage of small businesses supply this type of benefits, or plan to? Care to tell me how many could possibly afford this, without commanding the bulk of revenues in a niche market (sorry to say that fresh fruits and vegetables, etc., are a niche market, but it's a fact) as you do with WF?
WF, called Whole Paycheck even by many who continue to shop there, simply adds a 20-30% markup on most of their products over conventional retailers - in return for this premium, some of us consumers shop there in hopes of better quality foods, sustainable products, and we hope that our extra $$$ help pay for a well-compensated workforce.
HSAs can be great, as long as the money can roll over from one year to the next. And guess what, this money is kept in banks that make a lot of profit from this task of maintaining our savings, while we receive little or no interest for the privilege of letting them use our money - and these are the very same banks still paying their C-Level execs 300 times their average worker while receiving government bailouts (this is the kind of crap the WSJ and Mackey should be railing about, but their limited worlds, never having left the corporate farm, and extremist political agenda, do not allow them to see this). And the average worker at a Whole Foods doesn't earn very much money, certainly not enough to be a living wage in more expensive areas like L. A., Boston, etc., (and no more than a union worker at conventional markets, based on total compensation). The average employer in the US can't possibly afford to fund their employees' HSAs, and the employer can't afford to pay the employee enough so they can fund their own. The vast majority of prosperous larger employers can afford to do this...which brings us back to the hideous rise in CEO compensation.
Low premium/high deductible plans work great for people who don't get sick, but might get run over by a car, or some of the other catastrophic events that are much more likely to kill a young person than the things that older people typically die from. You know full well, Mackey, that your workforce is very young compared to most companies your size, and that LP/HD plans wouldn't be acceptable for an older workforce, and that most companies will pay their CEO, board members, etc., before they will pay their average worker enough to be able to afford the high deductibles and maintain a high level of security and health.
Incentives for wellness? Who's talking nanny, now? My gut feeling is that yes, somehow we should charge fat people, smokers, etc., more than the more-sane among us, but how do we go about doing this? And how do we reward people for eating more fresh fruits and vegetables? First we need to end all farm subsidies, since these are typically paid to corporate farmers to grow the stuff that is killing us. Second, we need to pay all of our workers more, so they can afford to choose better foods, instead of the fast cheap crap that is often the only available or obvious choice. This too goes back to the CEO pay issue, and good luck getting our bribed-Congress to take any action on that.
Medical malpractice reform? You mean that scarecrow hauled up in front of the ignorant, whether they write for the WSJ or rant at townhall meetings, that at best would save us 1-2% and not result in one more person having access to healthcare? Just stop it, bringing this up makes you look STUPID.
Again, you overcharge your customers so you can afford to compensate your employees in ways most employers can't, and in ways that those employers who can, don't, so their executives can have the right corporate jet and their progeny can attend the right private schools.
How stupid are you, and how stupid do you think your readers are? A single payer system is the only way to truly simplify our healthcare system. Most medical practices pay at least half of their revenues simply to plow into the mess of an insurance system that they have to contend with, Between all of the private and public systems. This is many, many times what they spend on total insurance (malpractice, etc.). The labor cost to a medical practice to account for our haphazard corporatist medical care system can be staggering. Imagine having one price, and one entity to receive payment from. Every medical practice in the country, separated from extremist politics, is for single payer.
Right, the unions...straw man of the ignorant, extremist right.
Stephen Moore: Mackey says that he probably won't write another op-ed piece for a long, long time. Of course you want to push your, and your paper's, corporatist agenda, but why regurgitate this?
"I honestly don't know why the article became such a lightning rod," says John Mackey, CEO and founder of Whole Foods MarketHe's not that studpid. His store either provides a needed service or exploits a willing market, I'm not sure which, but his average customer is better educated than most, more successful in life than most, cares more about their own health than most (or at least acts in the interest of their health with some sense of global sustainablility)...and most of them voted for Barack Obama to lead our nation to needed healthcare reform.
His piece advised that "the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us closer to a complete government takeover of our health-care system."The proposals currently being hammered-out in Congress will not significantly add to the deficit, and as hard as I look, I can't see a Soviet style government-owned-and-run healthcare system in any of the proposals.
Saying this stuff makes you look like an idiot, Mackey, and it makes Stephen Moore look like a fascist. I suspect that neither is an idiot or a fascist. I see that in each, they are supporting an ignorant, rabid minority that will exert any political pressure it can to defeat a President and party that are currently in power trying to do the right thing - the thing that a significant majority of us voted them in to accomplish. This is deliberate political terrorism.
more health savings accounts (HSAs), more low-premium, high-deductible plans, more incentives for wellness, and medical malpractice reform. None of these initiatives are in any of the Democratic bills winding their way through Congress
These are great things. The majority of jobs in the US are supplied by small businesses. Care to tell me what percentage of small businesses supply this type of benefits, or plan to? Care to tell me how many could possibly afford this, without commanding the bulk of revenues in a niche market (sorry to say that fresh fruits and vegetables, etc., are a niche market, but it's a fact) as you do with WF?
WF, called Whole Paycheck even by many who continue to shop there, simply adds a 20-30% markup on most of their products over conventional retailers - in return for this premium, some of us consumers shop there in hopes of better quality foods, sustainable products, and we hope that our extra $$$ help pay for a well-compensated workforce.
HSAs can be great, as long as the money can roll over from one year to the next. And guess what, this money is kept in banks that make a lot of profit from this task of maintaining our savings, while we receive little or no interest for the privilege of letting them use our money - and these are the very same banks still paying their C-Level execs 300 times their average worker while receiving government bailouts (this is the kind of crap the WSJ and Mackey should be railing about, but their limited worlds, never having left the corporate farm, and extremist political agenda, do not allow them to see this). And the average worker at a Whole Foods doesn't earn very much money, certainly not enough to be a living wage in more expensive areas like L. A., Boston, etc., (and no more than a union worker at conventional markets, based on total compensation). The average employer in the US can't possibly afford to fund their employees' HSAs, and the employer can't afford to pay the employee enough so they can fund their own. The vast majority of prosperous larger employers can afford to do this...which brings us back to the hideous rise in CEO compensation.
Low premium/high deductible plans work great for people who don't get sick, but might get run over by a car, or some of the other catastrophic events that are much more likely to kill a young person than the things that older people typically die from. You know full well, Mackey, that your workforce is very young compared to most companies your size, and that LP/HD plans wouldn't be acceptable for an older workforce, and that most companies will pay their CEO, board members, etc., before they will pay their average worker enough to be able to afford the high deductibles and maintain a high level of security and health.
Incentives for wellness? Who's talking nanny, now? My gut feeling is that yes, somehow we should charge fat people, smokers, etc., more than the more-sane among us, but how do we go about doing this? And how do we reward people for eating more fresh fruits and vegetables? First we need to end all farm subsidies, since these are typically paid to corporate farmers to grow the stuff that is killing us. Second, we need to pay all of our workers more, so they can afford to choose better foods, instead of the fast cheap crap that is often the only available or obvious choice. This too goes back to the CEO pay issue, and good luck getting our bribed-Congress to take any action on that.
Medical malpractice reform? You mean that scarecrow hauled up in front of the ignorant, whether they write for the WSJ or rant at townhall meetings, that at best would save us 1-2% and not result in one more person having access to healthcare? Just stop it, bringing this up makes you look STUPID.
combining "our high deductible plan (patients pay for the first $2,500 of medical expenses) with personal wellness accounts or health savings accounts works extremely well for us." He estimates the plan's premiums plus other costs at $2,100 per employee, and about $7,000 for a family. This is about half what other companies typically pay. "And," he is quick to add, "we do cover pre-existing conditions after one year of service."
Again, you overcharge your customers so you can afford to compensate your employees in ways most employers can't, and in ways that those employers who can, don't, so their executives can have the right corporate jet and their progeny can attend the right private schools.
This type of plan does not excite proponents of a single-payer system, who think that individuals can't make wise health-care choices
How stupid are you, and how stupid do you think your readers are? A single payer system is the only way to truly simplify our healthcare system. Most medical practices pay at least half of their revenues simply to plow into the mess of an insurance system that they have to contend with, Between all of the private and public systems. This is many, many times what they spend on total insurance (malpractice, etc.). The labor cost to a medical practice to account for our haphazard corporatist medical care system can be staggering. Imagine having one price, and one entity to receive payment from. Every medical practice in the country, separated from extremist politics, is for single payer.
unions
Right, the unions...straw man of the ignorant, extremist right.
Stephen Moore: Mackey says that he probably won't write another op-ed piece for a long, long time. Of course you want to push your, and your paper's, corporatist agenda, but why regurgitate this?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Presidential Legitimacy - crazies stirred!
Where Did ‘We’ Go?
Let's sum this:
Politics has always been a dangerous game, and seeking political office is never for the thin skinned.
Legitimacy? Every president in my 53-year-long life has been legitimate, since the bar to entry is set pretty low - age and citizenship - and the Electoral College system is badly in need of revision.
Nixon? An angry, bitter man who wasn't a bad president but got no love when he was caught associating with common criminals, and he deserved what he got.
Ford? Probably a decent man, but when the criminal steps aside for you, and then you pardon him, you probably do not deserve re-election.
Carter? Still paying for the mistakes of his predecessors, and you know it.
Reagan? Held aloft as a muscled, tanned God above God by Republicans...he was reviled in his time yet legitimate evil stuff like Iran-Contra slid off his hide as if it were...teflon. I have in my posession a souvenier of the times which molds Reagan's head into a, well I won't say but it is not complementary. If rational, thinking humans don't finally see how his presidency, legitimate or not, led to today's ecomonic situation, I see little hope for this great experiment we call the United States. But even with a massive US and global opposition to his policies, he achieved re-election and got his VP, a wealthy WWII vet who had a couple of kids, elected to replace him.
When GHWB's presidency, again legitimate, floundered, things were ripe for, what's the word, change. The Republican politicians, already drooling over the prospect of a permanant Republican majority and an inflation of Executive powers heretofore unimagined, fueled by their bitter rage that Nixon was screwed simply because he was caught, were complacent, and saw Bill Clinton get elected.
The Republican overseers whipped their minions into a froth, and within a few years for the first time legitimized and institutionalized into our lawmaking process the means to slur and slander a president, with the end simply being a few more seats in congress. Led by a man named Newt, they publicly took every opportunity to obstruct any good work this legitimately elected administration wanted to pass, hogtying them to Don't Ask Don't Tell, shamefully defeating healthcare reform which would have transformed our country to one where we showed the world that we respect and love our people, instead of the one where the world sees that we let corporations steer our polititians to do whatever it takes to gain political power, instead of doing what's right.
Nothing short of convicting President Clinton of murdering Vince Foster with his bare hands on the steps of the White House would have satisfied these goons. Instead, we had taxpayer-robbing investigations that led nowhere, and a president who was not convicted of anything, even though articles of impeachment were passed. Every move this president made especially in his second term was open for labeling by an evil Republican machine and complicit media. When middle eastern terrorists were showing their intent to harm us, for example, every move by the President was called not-enough, Wag-the-dog, etc., - the very same acts that if the demigod Reagan had done them, they would have been held up as a shining example of strategic brilliance and our American superiority. Gingrich, the blood of 9/11 victims is on your hands for establishing a system where you can discredit an American presidency simply to elect more Republicans, hampering an existing president's ability to lead in the process.
GWB? Legitimately elected, but not by a majority of us. Put in office essentially by an activist Supreme Court, no wonder his actions were questioned. Even most in the US who didn't vote for him rallied around after 9/11, and GWB simply blew it going into Iraq, wanting to turn Social Security over to Wall Street, etc. Comparisons to Nazis were wrong, but in our quiet, sane, moments, we can see how a Bush steamrolling over Iraq might be held up on a banner by some as being like a Hitler steamrolling over Poland.
Yet, the Republicans, continue to argue that GWB was a legitimate - and infathomably, good - president, and that Obama is not. this is where Friedman is right, that against sanity itself, these Republicans continue to argue these things, and yes, it would be supremely ironic if GWB were to be considered in history books to be a legitimate president, and Obama not.
Friedman's point, obviously that idiot Grover Norquist in Politico's Arena never actually read it, is right, that percieved legitimacy can be very different from actuality, and that legitimacy can be used by nasty people to stir others to very nasty action, is right.
Let's sum this:
Politics has always been a dangerous game, and seeking political office is never for the thin skinned.
Legitimacy? Every president in my 53-year-long life has been legitimate, since the bar to entry is set pretty low - age and citizenship - and the Electoral College system is badly in need of revision.
Nixon? An angry, bitter man who wasn't a bad president but got no love when he was caught associating with common criminals, and he deserved what he got.
Ford? Probably a decent man, but when the criminal steps aside for you, and then you pardon him, you probably do not deserve re-election.
Carter? Still paying for the mistakes of his predecessors, and you know it.
Reagan? Held aloft as a muscled, tanned God above God by Republicans...he was reviled in his time yet legitimate evil stuff like Iran-Contra slid off his hide as if it were...teflon. I have in my posession a souvenier of the times which molds Reagan's head into a, well I won't say but it is not complementary. If rational, thinking humans don't finally see how his presidency, legitimate or not, led to today's ecomonic situation, I see little hope for this great experiment we call the United States. But even with a massive US and global opposition to his policies, he achieved re-election and got his VP, a wealthy WWII vet who had a couple of kids, elected to replace him.
When GHWB's presidency, again legitimate, floundered, things were ripe for, what's the word, change. The Republican politicians, already drooling over the prospect of a permanant Republican majority and an inflation of Executive powers heretofore unimagined, fueled by their bitter rage that Nixon was screwed simply because he was caught, were complacent, and saw Bill Clinton get elected.
The Republican overseers whipped their minions into a froth, and within a few years for the first time legitimized and institutionalized into our lawmaking process the means to slur and slander a president, with the end simply being a few more seats in congress. Led by a man named Newt, they publicly took every opportunity to obstruct any good work this legitimately elected administration wanted to pass, hogtying them to Don't Ask Don't Tell, shamefully defeating healthcare reform which would have transformed our country to one where we showed the world that we respect and love our people, instead of the one where the world sees that we let corporations steer our polititians to do whatever it takes to gain political power, instead of doing what's right.
Nothing short of convicting President Clinton of murdering Vince Foster with his bare hands on the steps of the White House would have satisfied these goons. Instead, we had taxpayer-robbing investigations that led nowhere, and a president who was not convicted of anything, even though articles of impeachment were passed. Every move this president made especially in his second term was open for labeling by an evil Republican machine and complicit media. When middle eastern terrorists were showing their intent to harm us, for example, every move by the President was called not-enough, Wag-the-dog, etc., - the very same acts that if the demigod Reagan had done them, they would have been held up as a shining example of strategic brilliance and our American superiority. Gingrich, the blood of 9/11 victims is on your hands for establishing a system where you can discredit an American presidency simply to elect more Republicans, hampering an existing president's ability to lead in the process.
GWB? Legitimately elected, but not by a majority of us. Put in office essentially by an activist Supreme Court, no wonder his actions were questioned. Even most in the US who didn't vote for him rallied around after 9/11, and GWB simply blew it going into Iraq, wanting to turn Social Security over to Wall Street, etc. Comparisons to Nazis were wrong, but in our quiet, sane, moments, we can see how a Bush steamrolling over Iraq might be held up on a banner by some as being like a Hitler steamrolling over Poland.
Yet, the Republicans, continue to argue that GWB was a legitimate - and infathomably, good - president, and that Obama is not. this is where Friedman is right, that against sanity itself, these Republicans continue to argue these things, and yes, it would be supremely ironic if GWB were to be considered in history books to be a legitimate president, and Obama not.
Friedman's point, obviously that idiot Grover Norquist in Politico's Arena never actually read it, is right, that percieved legitimacy can be very different from actuality, and that legitimacy can be used by nasty people to stir others to very nasty action, is right.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes - Forbes.com
Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes - Forbes.com
I rarely agree with Bartlett, but thanks to him, and it should be obvious to all that cutting taxes for a few already-wealthy people during a deficit situation and passing the Medicare drug benefit without a means to pay for it - both simply to curry votes - were not conservative and just about the worst things that government could do for the economy. Yes, smash the tax code and rebuild it so corporations actually pay tax - a reasonable one, and rebuild it so everyone has the chance to benefit from itemized deductions - not just the already-wealthy.
This won't happen until we abolish the notion of corporate personhood, and stop deluding ourselves to believe that money is speech.
At some point, taxes have to be back on the table as the price that must be paid for profligate spending. Only then will the American people realize that they can't have their cake and eat it too, as Republicans have preached for the last decade. Only when the American people go back to believing that spending must be paid for will they stop demanding something for nothing and put the country back on the path to fiscal sanity.
I rarely agree with Bartlett, but thanks to him, and it should be obvious to all that cutting taxes for a few already-wealthy people during a deficit situation and passing the Medicare drug benefit without a means to pay for it - both simply to curry votes - were not conservative and just about the worst things that government could do for the economy. Yes, smash the tax code and rebuild it so corporations actually pay tax - a reasonable one, and rebuild it so everyone has the chance to benefit from itemized deductions - not just the already-wealthy.
This won't happen until we abolish the notion of corporate personhood, and stop deluding ourselves to believe that money is speech.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Daniel Henninger: From Bismarck to Obama - WSJ.com
Daniel Henninger: From Bismarck to Obama - WSJ.com
ObamaCareEvery time a reader or listener hears this term, he or she should run screaming. It is equivalent to "death panel." It doesn't exist, and hasn't been used by a sentient being to label this initiative. It shows how dull, misleading, and manipulative a publication like WSJ is.
the country has been waiting for "national health reform" for 70 yearsDude, try 97 years:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1447696 in 1912 Theodore Roosevelt’s insurgent Progressive Party included a health insurance plank in its campaign platform
Every time the state assumes an additional function such as health insurance, child care or benefits for the aged, the need for close family ties becomes weakerWhere to begin on support for such a stupid, inflammatory, and outrageous remark? Let's sum it up by saying that keeping your and my family healthy is right up there with keeping them housed and fed. Unfortunately, the deck is stacked against many of us. We can't win in the game - and the already-wealthy-and-powerful have made this a game, and a deadly one - to make enough money to afford even basic health care in some cases. And the rest of us who can afford it pay, and overpay, for those who can not afford it, it many, many egregious ways. And the tiny sliver of us who are among the wealthy overpay, but don't feel a thing from the inflation.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
ACORN Obsession Kills GOP Chances in '10
News in November '10.
ACORN, socialist, Hitler...just posters on the crazy train.
ACORN, socialist, Hitler...just posters on the crazy train.
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