Health Care Quote of the Day

French President Nicolas Sarkozy comes to Columbia University to slam his Conservative American counterparts:

"Welcome to the club of states who don't turn their back on the sick and the poor ...

"[W]hen we look at the American debate on reforming health care, it's difficult to believe.

"The very fact that there should have been such a violent debate simply on the fact that the poorest of Americans should not be left out in the streets without a cent to look after them... is something astonishing to us."

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GOP Talking Point Bingo Card

Here, I caught this over at Brown Man Thinking Hard and thought you'd find it interesting. Scare Tactics Made Simple, AND Fun for the Whole Family!!!




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Obama Ain't Done Sheeeeeeeet ... But What Have We Done?

As The Big Brutha prepares to make his first State of the Union address tonight, there sure is a lotta folks wailing at walls and gnashing at teeth around this great land of ours. For the past couple months, the left wing of Air Blogosphere has exploded with vitriol over Obama's seeming lack of accomplishment (especially when it comes to their own particular agenda--whatever it be). And since Republican Scott Brown was elected to Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, it's gone nuclear with more fervor and rage than one can really explain.

While the Right wing has been complaining that Obama's been doing too much, those on the Left have been utterly apoplectic, spluttering, "Obama ain't done this. Obama ain't done that. Obama ain't done it with a wiffle ball bat." Because the Live Prez has somehow failed them in one arena or another in his first 12 months, they are starting to view him as an utter failure and are wondering how his Presidency can be "salvaged."

The odd thing about this madness is that all this sound and fury really is being told by idiots (yours truly included) and doesn't only signify nothing--but is pure delusion. Obama has already had five pieces of major legislation passed:

--Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

--Matthew Sheppard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

--Repealed the stem cell research ban

--An expanded version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program

--The dreaded Stimulus Package

In fact, Obama's accomplished more than H.W., Carter, and Reagan did in their first year. Bush Babee got five, but two were 9/11-related. Clinton also got five pieces through. If you also throw in all the policy initiatives that he reportedly threw into the stimulus, as one reporter put it, he's had the most successful first year of any president since LBJ.

Oh yeah, and remember how we had eight years of deregulation regulators all throughout the government? Remember our poisoned spinach? Poisoned dog food? Poisoned dry wall, for godsakes?

Remember how SEC officials were handing Bernie Madoff their resumes? And how Interior Department officials, who sold mineral rights, were literally caught in bed with oil company employees?

Oh yeah, and what about motherfuckin' Hurricane Katrina?!!!

FEMA, FDA, SEC, ACC, the Big East, and the Big Ten! The past eight years have been an alphabet clusterfuck soup of governmental incompetence with the "You're doing a good job, Brownie" W. stamp of approval. A mess that, if scuttlebutt around town is to be believed, Obama's steadily cleaning up all the while trying his best to shut the "revolving door" between government officials and lobbyists, while Republicans fight damn near his every nomination.

And has anybody heard about how Obama's Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's kicking oil and mining interests out of our public lands and putting up windmills?

But none of this matters, of course. None of it is enough. "He needs to focus on jobs." As soon as he stepped into office, he got that $787 billion stimulus package (he'd wanted $1.2 trillion) through to save hundreds of thousand state employees from getting laid off and start or continue public works projects. But that's not focusing on jobs. He saved Detroit (which I was against) and tons of suppliers and dealerships. But that's not focusing on jobs either.

He stepped into office looking another Great Depression in the face while being engaged in two wars. The financial mess was 30 years in the making, but somehow he's supposed to fix it in 12 months. Bush, Paulson, and Congress gave Wall Street a $700 billion check and said, "Do what you want?" And while Geithner's got to go, Obama gets slammed for Wall Street's excesses.

Every time he tries to address these problems, the Right says he's doing too much; the Left, too little. And if he actually accomplishes something, we still say, "Obama ain't done shit."

Sure, it comes with the territory. This is politics, after all. But this all reminds me of that scene from Blazing Saddles, when Cleavon Little dispatches the town terror, Mongo, with an explosive candygram. Gene Wilder says, "Nice idea you had there with the candygram." Whereby, Cleavon Little resignedly sighs, "Yeah. But they probably won't give me credit for it, anyway."

Now, many Lefties will counter that he doesn't really deserve credit for any of it because he didn't get health care passed. So they conclude that, you guessed it, "Obama ain't done shit."

Now, this disappointment is to be expected. As I said before, Obama had been adopted as a sort of Messianic figure (just as Reagan and Clinton before him). We won't admit it, but we really wanted him to deliver us out of the wilderness. And while we didn't expect it to be instant--we kinda did. We set ourselves up for disappointment (as I'd promised), and now we've got it.

The thing is, in all that magnificent oratory Obama delivered during the campaign, filling us with "hope" for "change," there was one message of his we've all conveniently forgotten: we were supposed to be the agents for change.

In speech after speech, interview after interview, Obama said that the only thing that could combat the lobbyists and special interests and get Congress off their payola-plump posteriors was if we got out there and pulled them off their seats--you know, "people power." Yet, during this entire health care "debate," where were we?

When I went to a health care town hall meeting, I saw protesters all right. These people:





Oops. Sorry. I meant these people:





Damn. I meant these people:






Well, you get the idea.


Oh yeah, the Right heard Obama's message and acted. Dick Armey, Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachmann, and the Tea Baggers mobilized the troops. And while they represented less than 20 percent of public sentiment on the issue, they not only paralyzed the debate, they took that sumbitch over.

Yet, where were the 70 percent of folks who said they actually wanted health care reform? Better yet, where were all the people who claim to be liberal, Left, Progressive? Here we had a Democratic White House and Congress being besieged by Republicans, Fox News, lobbyists, and Tea Baggers, and we, the people who'd supposedly "fought" for health care for some 20 years now, were nowhere to be found.

At the town hall meeting I'd attended, there were liberals in the crowd. But we were few and far between, and, when the Tea Baggers started chanting for the cameras, few, if any rose their own voices in counter-protest and, when they did, they were timid and mousy and frankly seemed scared.

The Republicans brought the ruckus. This debate was a street fight, and they came with sticks and knives and brass knuckles and bazookas. We didn't even bring a motherfucking guitar to sing "Kumbayah." Hell, we didn't even bother to show up.

Those who used to call themselves Progressives, etc., back in the day would be ashamed. Unions during the Progressive Era faced cops with their billy clubs and guns, Pinkerton boys and their private armies. They faced Gatling guns, people! Civil Rights activists faced the Klan, FBI, cops, assassins' bullets, firebombs, and lynchings. We today couldn't even bother to get in our cars and go shout down a bunch of rednecks.

No, we'd rather sip on our lattes, watch Stewart and Colbert, get snarky on our blogs, and feel morally superior. Instead of joining the street fight, we tsk-tsked the Tea Baggers, clicked a Cause button on our Facebook, and acted like we did some shit.

So, right after you slam The Big Brutha for not doing anything about health care, ask yourself what you did. Most of you didn't protest against the Tea Baggers. You certainly didn't pull off a March on Washington. But the Tea Baggers did.

Oh wait. I know. You signed that MoveOn petition, didn't you?

Well, it looks like it just wasn't enough, was it?

When it comes to politics in this country, like it or not, we get what we deserve. During that whole debacle last year, we saw the fight. We saw the Republicans and Tea Baggers go at our President with guns blazing. We saw the Dems cringe and go lick their wounds on Corporate America's teat. We saw it all.

I'm not saying that things would've been different. Who knows? But we made it all too easy for everyone involved. None of these politicians had angry citizens banging at their doors demanding health care reform. The lobbyists were at the door. The Tea Baggers were at the door. But not the 70 percent of folks who said they wanted health care reform. We weren't there. We didn't make it uncomfortable for them.

To put it bluntly, people, we didn't do shit.

And who's to blame for that, liberals? Obama? The Corporcrats? The Tea Baggers? Or us?










PS. I know this is what we all were expecting when Obama took office ...





But that shit only happens in movies.

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You Think the Health Care "Debate" Was Bad ... Just Wait

There was not a single progressive, liberal, and/or Democrat in this country who did not wake up Wednesday morning with a WTF?! Moment staring them straight in the face. As we all know, the night before the People's Republic of Massachusetts did the unthinkable and elected a Republican, Scott Brown, to fill Ted Kennedy's vacant seat in the US Senate.

Since one of the major keys to his election was Brown's staunch opposition to health care reform (which he seems to be backpedaling on a little already), everybody's pretty much thrown in the towel on health care reform. Obama's said that he didn't want Congress to ram anything through before Brown's seated; Reid halted all proceedings in the Senate; and yesterday, Pelosi declared that she didn't have the votes to pass the Senate version of the bill in the House to pull an effective end-around and get the legislation through. Sure, Republicans are disingenuously claiming that they simply want to start over--but how can they possibly further water down such an amazingly ersatz bill and still call the end result "reform"?

So, one must assume that this health care legislation which has tied up our government for almost a year has gone down in flames.

There's plenty of blame to go around, but this loss will ultimately be his to swallow. But hey, every Icarus has his Sun. As many have often pointed out, no American President had ever been able to pull off significant health care reform. But what I think is more important is something I heard on the radio on Wednesday: no significant piece of progressive legislation has been passed into law since the Nixon administration.

Now, Nixon's presidency was what I consider to be the logical conclusion of the New Deal/Great Great Society era in American governance--where Uncle really thought he could solve everyone's daily problems. Nixon's dabbling with price and wage controls in the face of stag- and inflation sounded the era's death knell. Watergate simply confirmed it. Ford and Carter were the wake. And then, in 1980 the US woke to "Morning in America" and the Reagan era.

Of course, no major, progressive legislation would be passed when even the sole Democratic president proclaimed that "The era of Big Government is over."

But Obama's election was supposed to spell the end to all that. After all, the Bush Babee administration took us to Reaganism's logical conclusion: repeated tax cuts despite massive government spending gave us record-shattering deficits; a "Government is the problem" mentality became all too true when the FDA couldn't even protect us from poisoned broccoli and dog food; no one was around to protect us from toxic children's toys; EMA was nowhere to be found during Katrina; cowboy militarism and the "Imperial President" have given us two wars, "extraordinary rendition," and torture; we've eroded our manufacturing base to the point that China actually manufactures our smart bombs; and large-scale deregulation led to the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression.

In the face of all this, we elected Democrats to, we hoped, right the ship. Finally, we'd get people in there who actually believed in governance, who could run FEMA, end the wars, fix this Wall Street debacle, and get us back on the right track.

Health care was to be the first, shining example of this new age. After all, the Dems had the White House and unprecedented majorities in both houses of Congress. The Republicans simply didn't have the power and votes to stop them.

So, we imagined Pelosi or Reid coming out, saying something like, "We've been studying this problem for the last 20 years. Here are the pros and cons of our system. These are the things we'll be cherry-picking from those countries with universal coverage. And we're going with _________________." Thereby ending one of the many grievous matters that is crippling this country and its citizenry.

Sure, we knew that no American president had ever been able to pull this off before. But what we didn't realize that, as I stated before, no piece of progressive legislation has become law since the friggin' Nixon administration.

Yes, Reagan happened in the interim. But so had Bill Clinton. His liberal-conservative-Democrat "triangulation," where he talked about lending a helping hand to "the people" while really constantly having his hand out to take corporations' money and constantly scratching their backs, has been the prevailing model for most of these Dem pols for almost 20 years now. You might as well call him the Patron Saint of the Blue Dog.

But, more importantly, the nature and expense of political campaigns has changed dramatically. Presidential campaigns run into the hundreds of millions; Senate and House races run in the tens of millions; and even local contests around the country cost seven figures.

And it seems, in order to raise millions, you've got to already have millions. We simply don't have too many working- and/or middle-class politicians in either house in either party fighting the good fight for the "little man." Oh, they give good lip service. They certainly "feel your pain." But they are so far removed from any of the suffering. These "pains" they speak of are no more than abstract concepts--you know, like Calculus 2--in their minds.

Even if this weren't the case and Archie Bunker, Fred Sanford, Chico and the Man were running things alongside Maud, we'd still have to look at the money flooding into their campaigns and who's providing those funds. We know you can't raise all that dough at a couple of bake sales. We know that our nation's political leaders have to constantly spoon our nation's business leaders for all them cookies.

After all, people get you votes, but money gets you elected. These two camps don't necessarily have to be at odds with each other, but they almost always are. This can only lead to conflict. And in almost every conflict, those with the biggest guns constantly win the war.

This is especially true with the health care debate and its apparent demise. No, the Republicans didn't have the Dems cowering in the Senate with their impotent 40 votes. No, the Teabaggers didn't have them quaking in their boots. Glenn Beck's insane ass wasn't riding roughshod over Congress. The American people weren't storming the barricades demanding anyone's head.

In fact, even through all the madness, the American people showed unwavering support for health care reform through most of '09. It wasn't until recent months that people had finally become disgusted with the process. Senator-Elect Brown claims that voters were turned off by the "sausage-making" of legislation.

I disagree. It wasn't the sausage-making at all. I'm a fan of Italian sausage and German bratwurst. If we would've gotten something like that--a perfect piece of spicy pork perfection--we would've been satisfied. Instead, the Dems were trying to cram a tasteless lump of lard in intestinal casings that promised to leave us fat, bloated, broke, and still in need of serious health care.

No, it was the obvious buckling the Dems did in the face of their corporate donors. It was Obama's meeting with the insurance companies, and saying, "Single-payer's off the table," before serious debate had even begun. How Big Pharma left the White House bragging that they were still going to be able to charge us whatever they wanted for their drugs. It was Max Baucus dismissing the public option because way too many private interests contribute to his campaign slush funds.

It was finding out that every delay, every compromise, every setback, every challenge the Dems faced was being thrown up by fellow Dems who were somehow on the health care industry's payroll.

(And don't even get me started on how the Democrats were leading the charge to roll back reproductive rights!!!)

It was becoming all-too-clear that the Democrats now serve two masters--corporate donors and real, live people--and that we people were clearly losing the battle. We expect that shit from Republicans. That's why we voted them out of office. We weren't expecting it from the Democrats. They're liberal! They're progressive! They serve the people! The common man!

But how long has that not been the case. Remember, no progressive legislation since Nixon. What have Democrats considered "progressive" since then? The Great Society? No. How about the Family and Medical Leave Act?

Sure, you can leave your job and return to it if you happen to have a six-week emergency. But you won't get paid in the interim (perhaps causing a minor financial emergency in one's family). And what happens when your emergency runs into the seventh week?

How about COBRA? Sure, if you lose your job, you can keep your medical insurance ... and pay 10 times more than your employer ever paid for the same benefits. And how are you supposed to pay for it when you're un ... em ... ployed?!!!

The Democrats' brand of Progressivism never really seems to address the problem, seems to oddly benefit the employer, and, if used, ends up costing us commoners more than if the law had never been passed in the first place.

The same was probably going to be true with their health care "reform" legislation. They were going to cram mandates down our throats, force us all to buy insurance, and never, ever cap what insurers could charge us. They were going to force insurers to take us if we had pre-existing conditions, but they were going to let those insurers still bankrupt us for those pre-existing conditions. And we were going to be legally bound to keep that insurance ... all the way to the poor house.

Who would that bit of "Progress" really have benefited? We commoners or the Democrats' corporate donors?

But that's what the Corporate Democratic Party offers in the form of relief these days. Their brand of Progressivism leaves their corporate donors relatively unscathed and sometimes even flush, while they dump bags of shit on our heads and call it sunshine. Then they charge us exorbitant rates for the privilege and expect us to praise them for their generosity. After all, it's not every day you get to go to bankruptcy court covered in shit.

That's why this health care debate was so long and convoluted and painful: they just hadn't figured out a way to turn shit to sunshine.

But what's even sadder about this charade is that it may just be the last time Dems even try to pull it off in the foreseeable future. With yesterday's Supreme Court decision to destroy the caps on corporate campaign spending, one can only assume that corporations and their bottomless coffers will be the deciding factor in any election in which they choose to participate (read: "every election").

They will simply have the power to contribute as much as they want to the candidate of their choosing, flood any local market with favorable ads for that candidate and attack ads against their opponent. They'll be able to reward politicians with untold campaign riches if they vote their way and rain down fire and brimstone on any heretic who dares to oppose their will.

Last year, the health care industry spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying against reform. Just imagine what they'll spend if the issue's brought up again. If a bill promising them 30 million new, captive customers was too "radical," one can only scream in horror at the health care "reform" they'd actually approve.

And what about other issues? Climate change? Any kind of environmental legislation? Transportation bills? What about ending the wars? Will Halliburton protect its billions it's making by spending millions saying, "The terrorists will win!!!" if we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan?

Bank re-regulation? Obama finally FINALLY!!! came out yesterday talking about re-regulating the banks, breaking them up, separating commercial banking from investment banking, in order to protect the American public and our tax dollars from another financial meltdown. Yet, we've already heard the pundits saying that those reforms are already dead in the water in Congress.

In light of this sweeping Supreme Court decision, you've gotta think they're right. If anybody has the money (our money, you sons-of-bitches!!!) to influence the way Congress votes, it's most definitely the banks. What politicians will have the moxie to stand in the face of the billions of dollars of wrath the banks can rain down on them?

So, you best be ready to kiss bank re-regulation good-bye.

Kiss health care reform good-bye.

Kiss any progressive legislation in the near future good-bye.

Oh yeah, and Roberts, Thomas, "Scalito," and Kennedy ...




KISS MY BIG, BLACK ASS!!!!

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Health Care Quote of the Day

"We won because [the Democrats] need us. If they are going to summarily dismiss us by taking the pen to that language, there will be hell to pay. I don't say it as a threat, but if they double-cross us, there will be 40 people who won't vote with them the next time they need us -- and that could be the final version of this bill."

-- Rep. Bart Stupak, D[?]-Michigan



Yeah, the Congressman is happier than a pig in shit getting his anti-choice amendment passed and attached to the House's health care bill. And now he's feeling his oats, daring the President and Senate to take the amendment out of the final legislation.

Of course, as the Washington Monthly has pointed out, Stupak only brought 10 votes and not 40 and probably doesn't have the swagger to pull off his threat. Hopefully, they're right and someone finds the chutzpah to hit the Delete button on the Stupak Amendment before it's too late.
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Health Care Quote of the Day

"Well, first leader Reid has the option of putting [the public option] in the final bill. If he puts it in the final bill, in the combined bill, then you would need 60 votes to remove it, and there are clearly not 60 votes against the public option. And so we’re urging him to do that, and he is seriously considering it. Once it passes the Senate, if that were to happen, it is in the House bill, it is in the Senate bill, and it would have to be in the final product. So, it is very important to see if the public option is in the bill leader Reid puts together. He hasn’t yet made up his mind, but many of us who believe in the public option are urging him to do so. So far, we are getting heard."



--Sen. Chuck Schumer on The Rachel Maddow Show






Well, the gauntlet has been thrown down, let's see what Reid ends up doing with it. I'm guessin' he'll punt on the opponents' 1.
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Don't Ruin American Healthcare!

Ahh ... irony.




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Congressional Prostitution: Mike Ross Will Screw Us All for Money

As we've noted before on Tome, this sexy bitch was acting way too suspicious to not be on the stroll for the "health care" industry. He's just been far too willing to go against the wishes of his party and his own district and blue ball the public option to not be bending over for somebody powerful. And witnesses have sworn that the last time he spoke on the floor of Congress, he screamed something along the lines ... "You can do anything! Tie me up! Whip me! Fist me if you want! Just don't kiss me on the mouth!!!"

And what is behind this virulent anti-public option fetish? Well, it ain't all cock rings and feather dusters, people. Nope, according to Politico, the money shot is a land deal that only an Arkansas politician could pull off:

Ross sold Holly’s Health Mart in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for $420,000 — an eye-popping price for real estate in a tiny train and lumber town about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.

“You can buy half the town for $420,000,” said Adam Guthrie, chairman of the county Board of Equalization and the only licensed real estate appraiser in Prescott.

But the $420,000 that USA Drug paid for the pharmacy’s building and land was just the beginning of what Ross and his wife, Holly, made from the sale of Holly’s Health Mart. USA Drug owner Stephen L. LaFrance Sr. also paid the Rosses $500,000 to $1 million for the pharmacy’s assets and paid Holly Ross an additional $100,000 to $250,000 for signing a noncompete agreement. Those numbers, which Mike Ross listed on the financial disclosure reports he files as a member of Congress, bring the total value of the transaction to between $1 million and $1.67 million.

And that’s not counting the $2,300 campaign contribution Ross received from LaFrance two weeks after the sale closed.

Now, don't get it twisted. It's not as though Mike Ross is the only whore in this here Babylon. Damn near all of them are swishing around in their ass-less chaps, singing, "Easy access, baby!" He just knows how to work his pimp for the biggest cut!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Will Ferrell & Co: Something Terrible Is Happening!

Here you go, people! Another health care ad you can believe in!

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

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Sen. Rockefeller: "An Alternative to the Public Option Does Not Exist"

Jay Rockefeller, an obvious enemy! of capitalism, refuses to shovel Max Baucus's shit, and is out hot-and-heavy against Baucus's crap plan--the opening salvo to sinking that watery boatload of one-sided "compromise" diarrhea, one can only hope.




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Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Well, as you know, The Health Care Stories Project is now over, and, as you may have guessed, I've been a bit burned out after the effort. I've been meaning to thank all of you who have contributed your own stories, tweeted, called for submissions, and commented during the project.

So, thank you!

I really appreciate all your efforts and for making the Project the success that it has been.

While I cannot thank you all enough, I decided to add the bloggers who did contribute to the whole thing to my blog roll. I really appreciate all you have done. I hope, in our own small way, we have made a little difference.

So please, check these folks out, yall:


Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

The Adventures of a Foreign Salaryman in Tokyo

The Angry Black Woman

Badtux the Snarky Penguin

birdsonawire

Canadian Soapbox

Cliff's Crib

coffeeyogurt

Doves Today

Drinking Liberally in New Milford

Faboo Mama

The Gay Atheist

Helsingbloggin' - Malmo

Me, A Writer of Movie Scripts

Mr. Writer: Musings from Meaford

The Opposite

Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

Rage against the Minivan

Relaxed Politics

Watergate Summer

Wolfville Watch

Yehuda


If I missed anybody (and I'm sure I have), please let me know, and I'll add you, too.

Thanks again!

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Another Reason to Hang Max Baucus

And I don't mean "in effigy".

According to Press Secretary Gibbs and Think Progress, good old Maxi here has given his stellar new health care proposal to the lobbyists even before showing it to the White House or probably even his fellow committee members.

Of course, there's already scuttlebutt about what the plan includes. According to The Associated Press here are some of the goodies:

Fees on insurance companies, drug makers, medical device manufacturers and insurers. Tax of 35 percent on insurance plans costing above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families, applied to premium amounts over the threshold. Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. A fee on employers whose workers receive government subsidies to help them pay premiums. Fines on those who fail to get coverage, up to $950 for individuals, $3,800 for families.

Of course, you can probably guess what's not included in the Baucus Back-Stab ...

Yep. No public option and no cap on what insurance companies can charge us.

Just more taxes and tax credits.

Of course, why should we be surprised? As I said before, these politicians are in the medical industry's back pocket. And when it comes to Max Baucus, those pockets be mighty deep.

Check out his Top 10 Campaign Contributors:



--Provided by Think Progress

Yes, the future health of this country is in this money-grubber's hands, but it seems as though those hands are already full.

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Another Reason to Hang the Blue Dogs

Polling god, Nate Silver, has a great analysis over at Five Thirty-Eight (and who wasn't addicted to this site during the election?) of how Mike Ross (pictured on the right--of course) and the other Blue Balls' opposition is not only voting against the nation's interests and their party's interests but also, more than likely, the interests of their own districts and their own interests in getting re-elected. As Eugene Robinson has pointed out, if the Dems don't pass the public option, it's not the flaming liberals in California, New York, and the nation's urban centers who will pay, it is these "Blue Dogs" who will take the fall for their own incompetence.

With so many people in favor of the public option, it further illustrates the absolute hold these powerful lobbyists have over our politicians.
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Bill Moyers Bites My Sh!t

Bill gives credit to TPM in his little diatribe this week, but listen carefully. He's obviously riding Tome's jock.

We cool, though. As long as Obama gets the message.




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An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama:

My road to becoming one of your supporters was a long one. I was born a Democrat but became disillusioned with Clinton's election. I don't remember why, but I just didn't feel that he was looking out for my interests. In fact, I came to the conclusion that, no matter the party, all politicians would look out for monied interests first and never the common good. With that, my politics took a hard Left, and I didn't vote for years.

That changed in 2004, when I wanted to record my protest against the Iraq war and, registering with the DC Statehood Party, voted for John Kerry. However, last year, having moved to Maryland, I actually registered as a Democrat for their closed primary to vote for you.

I guess I "drank the Obama Aid." I wanted to believe in the "hope" and "change" you constantly spoke of. I knew the grave crises our country faces, and I truly believed that you were the agent of change you presented yourself to be. But now I'm realizing that yours were simply words, and I'm beginning to regret having ever voted for you. And, judging from conversations I'm having and the blogosphere, I don't think I am alone.

We were willing to give you a lot of leeway because you are facing challenges no other President has ever faced. Yet and still, we have stomached disappointment after disappointment these past seven months.

The bank bailout didn't happen on your watch--though you were a strong advocate on the campaign trail. We don't blame you for that. But what you're doing with it now is truly maddening. We tax payers are paying the piper, but you refuse to call the tune. You're not really calling for tougher regulations. Mortgages are not being lowered and restructured and folks are still being foreclosed upon. Bankers are getting back into mortgage-backed securities. And not only has no one been prosecuted nor fired, but they are also giving themselves outrageous bonuses with our tax dollars!

You've spent billions to save GM and Chrysler. Yet, you haven't explained why we Americans, who don't want to buy their cars, want to purchase their stock.

Anti-war activists voted for you because of your opposition to the Iraq war. But now, you're dragging your feet getting out of there (which makes sense) while ramping up operations in Afghanistan (which doesn't).

You're now fighting your own Attorney General's investigations into the torture allegations. And you, the President of the United States of America, the Constitutional scholar, are using the Nuremberg Defense ("They were just doing their jobs"), flying the face of international and American law, to protect torturers.

Environmentalists supported you only to discover that you plan to clean up fewer Super Fund sites than the Bush administration.

Before you supported DC's receiving a representative in Congress. Now you're mum.

And the gay community is rightfully up in arms over your betrayals. Not only do you not support marriage equality, but you've completely back-pedalled on Don't Ask Don't Tell.

We, your supporters, your base, have swallowed entire bottles of bitter pills these past seven months. But we pumped our stomachs quietly because we knew you were saving all that "political capital" for the big fight: health care.

But you really aren't. Are you?

While your supporters were praying for a single-payer system, you were calling Aetna's CEO, Ronald Williams "friend" and shaking hands with Cigna's Edward Hanway. We hear Billy Tauzin bragging that you're making secret deals with Pharma to not negotiate drug pricing. And before you could say, "pre-existing condition," single-payer was off the table.

We then set our hopes on a public option, but Secretary Sibelius squashed that. The public option is no longer an "essential option."

Instead, we hear such canards as "mandates," where we'll be forced to buy insurance but our insurers will not be capped. They can continue to charge exorbitant rates, ration our care, and drive us into bankruptcy, and we'll be forced to keep paying them for the privilege.

Then you spout on about "co-ops." Sure, they've only worked in Minneapolis and Seattle, but if we spend $6 billion to make them nationwide, they will "introduce" a non-profit provider and magically reduce medical costs. Blue Cross is non-profit in many states and Kaiser is non-profit nationwide. They haven't driven down costs. Why would these co-ops?

And why are we hearing about these? In the name of "bi-partisanship"?

You want to compromise in order to get Republican votes? Isn't Jim DeMint, the one who says health care will be your "Waterloo," a Republican? Michele Bachmann, who said they need to "slit their wrists" to insure reform won't pass, is a Republican, too, right? And isn't Mike Enzi, the senator giddy over the things he's getting taken out of the health care bill ... what party does he belong to?

How does one exactly compromise with the same people who are determined to see you fail?

Is it by passing a health "reform" bill that doesn't reform anything and trumpeting it like you actually did something? Will you be like Bill Clinton, hailing "his" (Republicans') welfare reform? Talking about how x people are now off of welfare, acting as though they're now gainfully employed, when really x people are off welfare because you kicked them off of welfare?

Well, the health care crisis is too grave--with its already exorbitant costs and the Baby Boomers hitting their 60s. We don't want that kind of "reform" now. We don't want a Clintonian Republican-in-Democrat-Clothing "victory." We rejected the Clinton legacy during last year's primaries. We denounced Republican policy in '06 and '08. If you give us those, if you present us with anything less than the public option, you will have failed.

This will, in fact, be your Waterloo. The Republicans will be emboldened and ride roughshod over your every subsequent proposal, knowing they can defeat it. The Blue Dogs will run for cover and contemplate switching parties. The Liberals will be so disgusted, they'll no longer listen to you. And your base will forever regret their mistake in voting for you. You will become the most ineffectual one-term president in US history.

And you will have deserved it. You were elected with 53 percent of the vote. You have a 20-seat advantage in the Senate and a 60-seat one in the House. Yes, some polls say that support for the public option has dipped from 62 to 53 percent. However, the AARP recently released a poll saying almost 80 percent of Americans favor some form of public option; they just don't know what form it should take. In the face of those numbers, you if you fail, you will absolutely prove that you don't even deserve the one term you've been given. Presidents have gone to war with less support.

Your failure will prove that you simply do not possess the courage to occupy the position you're currently holding. Lincoln had the courage to wage total war against the South. Truman desegregated the armed forces in the face of massive opposition. LBJ lost his party the South to pass Civil Rights legislation. Even W. had the temerity to "cherry-pick his facts" to invade Iraq.

But you are buckling before loud-mouthed, Tea Party opposition, who never has and never will vote for you. You cower before Republicans who don't have the power to stop you. You cringe before Blue Dogs who clearly don't know which party they belong to. Worst of all, you are eschewing popular support and the common good to appease the monied interests of the insurers, AMA, and Pharma. The hell with the millions of Americans being bankrupted, denied care, and denying themselves care as long as Ronald Williams, Edward Hanway, and Billy Tauzin are happy?!

However, if I am wrong and you actually do have the courage, then get out there and fight for the public option. Explain to the people what it will do for them, for others, what it will cost, and how long it will take to fully implement. Tell us the truth. Preach to us about the moral and fiscal imperative of health care reform.

Say, yes, some insurers may go out of business with the increased competition. But those who survive and the new insurers who spring up will be more efficient and more responsive to our needs. to help allay their fears, throw the Republicans a bone and allow health care portability and make insurance regulation national instead of making them comply with each state's different regulations. Tell them that that will only increase competition and drive down costs.

Ignore the Tea Party. They'll never vote for you. They are not your base. Forget the Republicans. If they're not on board, throw them into the Boston Harbor. They will suffer for not voting for the public option in subsequent elections.

Throw in Max Baucus while you're at it. He's in the insurers' pocket and will only obstruct all efforts. And get these Blue Dogs in line. Rahm Emmanuel brought them into the world, and he can take them out. Remind them that if they want to be Democrats, they need to vote Democrat.

But, most importantly, get ... the ... public ... option ... passed!

If you don't, you will prove yourself too weak to hold the Oval Office. You will have abandoned your voters. You will prove to be yet another politician who only cares about his powerful campaign contributors. Who cares not one whit about the common good. You will tragically pave the way for Mitt Romney in '12.

And we will not be sorry to see you go.



Bill Campbell

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Health Care Stories: Traverse City, MI

Tim discovers that nobody's harder to insure than a "pregnant" man.



We live in a country with the greatest health care system in the world. Hard to believe? Yeah, I was a little dumbfounded, too, when I heard the news. But I heard it on talk radio, so it must be true. In light of this wonderful revelation, I thought I'd share my own experience with this great system.

It begins in an insurance office. I sit across the desk from an insurance guy as he rattles off a series of questions, rapid-fire. Questions designed to determine whether or not I fall into a high-risk category for medical insurance. So far I'm acing the test. I don't sky dive, work with volatile explosives, perform as a trapeze artist or engage in cliff diving. Hey, I don't even run with scissors.

Then comes the kicker, “Are you expecting a child?” the insurance guy asks. “

“Well...er...my wife is,” I say, immediately rethinking my all-too-honest answer.

But it's too late, the damage is done. After a lengthy consultation with the insurance guy handbook and even a call into the main office, we only determine what had been all too apparent from the get-go. Even though I'm a man, and although I don't look it or feel it, according to the insurance company, I'm pregnant. And although my wife (who is actually the one having the baby) is fully-covered with another policy from a different insurance company, this pregnancy puts me in a high-risk category. Right up there with chainsaw jugglers and fire eaters. I'm uninsurable.

I have never been pregnant before, so I am expecting the worst. Of course, during my pregnancy I have to take care of my wife, who is also pregnant. We are doing a home birth, and we're working with a certified midwife; but we also need to consult with a regular doctor during the pregnancy. Our doctor of many years has just moved on to the Mayo Clinic, so we were in the market for a new one. My wife has gotten an excellent recommendation for a doctor whose office is right up the street. When I call the office, I am elated to discover that this doctor is accepting new patients. “
“Who is your wife's health care provider?” the receptionist asks.
“
“Blue Cross,” I say, with authority, invoking the best known name in American health care. “

“I'm sorry, we only accept Priority Health,” the receptionist says.

Luckily, we live here in America where we can choose any doctor we wish (as long as they’re in network), so we choose to choose another one. When we walk up to the reception desk of our new doctor we again get the question, “What's your insurance?””

After my wife presents her card, we are soon told that she has used up all of the two office visits that her $200.00 a month policy provides per year. Then the receptionist asks how we will be paying. “

“Just bill the insurance,” I say, “we'll pay the difference,” knowing that it is impossible to tell what an insurance company will cover until you bill them for it. For example, my wife's office visits are used up, but, if the visit counted as a prenatal, it may be covered.

The receptionist, with apparent pleasure, sternly points down at a sign that says, ALL PAYMENT DUE AT TIME OF APPOINTMENT, written by hand in marker, and underlined.

We need my wife's policy for her pregnancy. If anything should happen and there is a complication, the policy's major medical coverage would come in handy. It gives us peace of mind to know it's there, that is, until I get the bill the informs us that, for a reason unknown to us, the insurance has been canceled.

My wife, groggy-eyed after spending what seems like days on the phone with numerous uncooperative Blue Cross agents (some of whom actually hang up on her) and trying to figure out what the problem is, finally throws her hands up in disgust and gives up.

I pick up the letter that came from Blue Cross and head down to the agency's office in town. After my wife’s experience on the phone, I figure I need to talk to somebody I can reach out and strangle.

Once we get to the bottom of the issue it's no less frustrating. It seems an overzealous sales agent from Blue Cross had recommended to my wife that she get dental insurance with her policy, keep it long enough to get a cleaning, then dump it, without telling her that the dental portion couldn't be canceled without canceling the whole policy. When my wife did cancel her dental policy, over the phone, with one of Blue Cross's telephone service agents, that person again neglected to tell her that by canceling her dental insurance she was, in fact, canceling her whole policy.

We get it straightened out, and I don't have to strangle anybody; but it is not my last trip to the Blue Cross office. During this period my wife needs to have tests done and checkups. That goes with having a baby. Nothing about the way Blue Cross handles this instills confidence. They pay for services late. They often refuse initially to pay for services that should be covered, only to relent and cover these services at a later date. It seems like I get a letter from Blue Cross or a bill from the hospital for services Blue Cross won't pay every day. Almost all services on the statements are abbreviated, so they are impossible to read. The telephone service workers are worse than useless. If one says they will fix a situation, it won't necessarily happen. They have no accountability and you have no idea who you're talking to. A woman in the hospital's billing office finally lets us in on the secret of how to play the game. “

“You never pay the first bill the hospital sends you,” she says, “don't pay the third or fourth either, the longer you wait, the smaller your bill will get.””

It was true. We found that Blue Cross never covered what they should have the first time it was billed. It usually took many more billing cycles than that.

I think I'm finally getting it. When they say America has the greatest health care system in the world, they must be measuring the level of greatness by how much the health care system can screw you over. It's like that old joke about marking the side of your car for each pedestrian you run over. The more people you screw over, the greater you are!

If that's it then we really do have the greatest health care system in the world. But I don't think that screwing people over is the measure for greatness that the anti-health care reform crowd is talking about.

I know what the true measure of greatness is in America, I see it on a regular basis in my job as a bartender at a large golf resort. I often tend bar for large functions sponsored by big pharmaceutical companies or medical insurance providers. These types have open bars that run up tabs of thousands of dollars on a regular basis for functions lasting only one or two hours, and extravagant black-tie parties featuring butler-passed champagne and hors d'oeuvres.

I once bartended a function for a national medical insurance provider that ran up a $50,000 bar bill in one night. The bar crew and I calculated the average consumption to have been one fifth of liquor per person!

No, I think that if America can be said to have the greatest health care system in the world then the measure of greatness is definitely how much money our health care providers and others who make up the system are able to rake in. That, and the fact that they are able to get people like me to pay them through the nose for health care, provide almost nothing in return, and then blame the high prices on malpractice insurance and go blow the money on booze. Why do people like me put up with it? We don't have a choice. Maybe soon we will.




Tim
Traverse City, MI

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Universal Health Care Is Black Genocide, Part II

Back in my heady, leftist days in the '90s, I used to joke that I'd leave the country the day the US elected a black president because white folks had figured out a way to kill us black people and they wanted a brother to pull it off (yeah, I was full of the jokes back then). Little did I know how right I was. And how could I have ever figured out that the instrument of this Black Genocide would be Universal Health Care? And I would've never guessed in a million years that Glenn Beck would be the White Messiah who would save us from this dastardly, bastardly plot.




Orrrrrr ...

Maybe Beck is trying to prove to his fleeing sponsors that he's not a racist at all. "See, some of my best friends are black."

And apparently just as wacked in the head as he is. Apparently, Armstrong Williams was off somewhere hitting on his male interns; Ward Connerly was confused screaming, "What? Who's black? My grandmother's Dutch!"; and Bishop Harry Jackson was too busy mumbling his own genocidal exegesis to even be bothered.

So, Glenn found this fool, Pastor Stephen Broden of the Fair Park Bible Fellowship Church to spew his "Obama's a socialist," "We black folks lubs us some Constitution, Mr. Charlie!" for our Savior and, "incidentally" plug his "documentary," Maafa 21, fully detailing BLACK GENOCIDE IN THE 21ST CENTURY!!!!



Forgive them, Lord, though they know exactly what they do.

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Just Look for the Union Label

Even before Friday's marking of the 26th anniversary of the March on Washington, I've been wondering where the hell has the Health Care March on Washington has been, why the NAACP, the AARP, the unions, etc., haven't gotten into the health care fight and decided to march to the steps of the Capitol.

Well, I'm still not getting that march. However, the unions are finally getting involved. According to The Huffington Post, AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumka (who, incidentally, campaigned heavily for Obama), has thrown down the gauntlet. Basically, he's telling these Blue Ball Democrats that, if they don't vote for the public option, they won't be getting his union's support come next year.

Rock on, Brother!!!
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Health Care Stories: Denver, CO

Julia confronts the fiction of "death panels" with the real-life story of her aunt's passing.



I was named for my Auntie Julia, and, even as she turned 96, there couldn’t be a person more important to my family. Auntie had been preparing us all for her death since the '90s. To everyone’s surprise she continued to live regardless of the fact that the warranty on her pacemaker was long gone. Auntie laughed it off, took her medicines, and continued to enjoy as much of her life as she could. Always a warning on the phone that this might be the last time she speaks to us. It wasn’t a matter of guilt but a stern reminder of her unending love and a warning to live each day as if it were your last. We laughed it off. I remember telling her that I couldn’t imagine her ever dying, considering she had supposedly been on her last days more than half of my life. To my surprise she said she didn’t want to live forever and was getting a bit impatient to go to heaven.

Finally, one spring day she called my Dad. Julia was in New Mexico with my uncle and wanted to go home to die. She actually said she wanted to get into the state while she was living because it cost too much to transport a dead body across state lines. My great uncle solemnly wished her a good journey and promised he would be following in their RV.

Of course, the truth was that she wanted this to be the last time they saw each other, and Dale wouldn’t start the RV until she had already passed. Dale’s last memory of Julia was of her smiling and waving goodbye before she stepped into the passenger side of my Dad’s truck.

Once at my parents' home, Julia knitted and started on her living will. My father worked hard to insure that every wish of Julia’s was met, and Julia tried her best not to be a burden. She wanted a simple ceremony and wanted to be cremated and buried by my grandfather and her parents. She wanted us to drill a hole in her urn so that she could get out. But most of all, she wanted to die.

She was ready, happy, and almost excited for the new adventure. I remember talking to her for the last time. She laughed and chatted. We talked about how she was going to go, and I told her how much I loved her. On the other side of the phone, tears were in my eyes but Julia laughed joyfully and talked about how she had nearly broken my Dad’s little dog’s leg. Baby the Boston Terrier had leapt into her lap, waking her from a nap which gave her such a fright that poor Baby was sent flying off the chair.

“Now we’re both just a mess, Julia, poor Baby and me!” she exclaimed, voice crackling with laughter.

At hearing her laugh, I wiped my tears and laughed with her for a moment. “I am glad you are doing well, I’m so glad your laughing.”

“Oh Julia, you got to laugh. You just have too.”

My father stewed and fretted over her, trying to make her comfortable and helping her keep down food, even going so far as to sneak a touch of marijuana into the banana nut muffins. But, only two days later, my auntie asked my father for a glass of water and went to lay down in the bedroom. Almost as her head hit the pillow, she slipped into a deep sleep and never opened her eyes again.

If you were to ask my father, he would say that what he did next was the worst mistake he had ever made in his life. He called the hospital. The last days of my auntie's life were spent in a bitter dispute trying to uphold the wishes that she had expressed to my parents--failing only because the wording wasn’t just so and the form wasn’t quite right.

In the end they left Julia on a heart-rate monitor and a oxygen tube; they discontinued her feeding tube. Because nothing specially noted that she didn’t want to be attached to a breathing apparatus, she was forced to starve to death over a period of eight days.

A woman any member of my family would gladly go to jail for experienced a lingering and painful death at the hands of the health care system. As a family, we had to take turns talking each other out of giving her the quick and dignified death she deserved.

Obama has been criticized for admitting the real need of everyone having a right to choose how they will like to die, and under what circumstances they would like to see the end. If your elders are like mine, they know exactly what they want and deserve someone to helpfully smooth over the legal, ethical, and medical processes of them slipping on to the next life. I can only pray that when it comes time for my father to leave this world, there is a system in place that allows him to do so with the dignity and compassion he deserves.


Julia
Denver, CO

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Health Care Quote of the Day

“This cannot pass. What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.”


--Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Locovania, MN)
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