The push for real health insurance reform continues on
by Jamee Greer
Here’s a little reminder as we go into the next week from former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s blog:
Washington, D.C. is an echo chamber in which anyone who sounds authoritative repeats the conventional authoritative wisdom about the “consensus” of inside opinion, which they’ve heard from someone else who sounds equally authoritative, who of course has heard it from another authoritative source. Follow the trail to its start and you often find an obscure congressional or White House staffer who has seen some half-assed poll number or briefing memo, but seeking to feel important hypes it a media personality or lobbyist who, desperate to sound authoritative, pronounces it as truth. In any other place on the planet it would be called rumor, gossip, or drivel. In our nation’s capital it’s called “inside information.” The process would be harmless except that it creates self-fulfilling prophesies.
and:
So forget the authoritative sources. Mobilize and organize. We can get comprehensive, meaningful health care reform if we push hard enough. And we must.
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August 31, 2009 at 12:58 am
Nice to hear from you, Jamee.
Here’s an interesting New Yorker article on how congress’ procrastination has hurt (psychologically speaking) any meaningful reform’s chances of passing.
But you’re right, we have to continue to mobilize and organize and keep the pressure on.
August 31, 2009 at 7:28 am
The next two weeks will show there is nothing behind the reform protesters curtain but a crazy old man selling uncle rush’s false medicine elixir.
The great majority in this country want substantial reform with a strong public option.
We don’t trust the insurance weasels anymore. They have swindled too many of us.
August 31, 2009 at 9:50 am
I’m sure the overwhelming majority readership here appreciates the constant drum banging on health care.
But what about unemployment, where’s the outrage? Sure, our state suffers marginally, health care like having a job, is a nationwide issue too.
But then it came to me, you guys aren’t about self worth. You don’t appreciate success, even marginal achievements like providing for your family and retiring with out burdening some one else. The more dependent you are the better.
What a sad, sorry existence.
August 31, 2009 at 9:59 am
^^ LOL!
August 31, 2009 at 10:15 am
Plenty of outrage at unemployment, BS. You been selectively reading? During the stim bill, unemployment was the main topic.
Now we have health care legislation–of course our attention is going to be focused there.
But you want some outrage over unemployment? Bush & Cheney should be vilified till the cows come home for losing almost 5 million jobs before they turned over an economic wreck to Obama.
And your stab about self worth? You don’t have a clue about what you’re talking about. You’re just another conservative who loves a system of structural poverty who can tut-tut when the poor can’t pick themselves up by the bootstraps.
Your notion of self-worth is all about gaming the system so that money and power oscillates around the haves, and oppresses the have nots.
Sad sorry existence? We both have to meet the same maker, BS. How’s your conscience these days?
August 31, 2009 at 10:37 am
The overwhelming majority want the stim money back JC, ditto with status quo on health care.
The minority is oppressing the majority.
August 31, 2009 at 11:17 am
You want the stim money back, then you would be responsible for pushing the job loss rate back up to 600,000+ per month. Wanna go there?
See all those guys out there working on the highways? Rather they be home collecting unemployment checks?
You know that tax break you got with the stim? You want to give it back to the government?
I though you were against job loss BS. Thought you liked tax cuts.
Can’t have it both ways. You’re just being adversarial and ornery. And irrational.
August 31, 2009 at 11:27 am
Ok I see, short term construction jobs create long term economic health?
Whose irrational?
August 31, 2009 at 11:25 am
And minority oppressing the majority?
HAHAHAHAHAHA. I haven’t heard one that good in a long, long time.
August 31, 2009 at 10:59 am
Yes, it is indeed very much like trying to argue with a dining room table.
I don’t know why you bother.
August 31, 2009 at 10:43 am
distract, detract, and derail huh swede…following the play book of the health insurance corportate supported astroturfers and obama rush failers to the letter.
well played, swede. well played….
but your side is running out of steam and toto is pulling the curtains back on the sound machine this week. watch what happens. nobody is buying that travelling medicine show of yours anymore. but keep hawking your elixirs of hatred and selfishness. it just makes everyone realize how lacking in decency the protester movement is at its core. pure corporate profit protectionism along with some hope for failure for america. the truth will out swede.
August 31, 2009 at 1:32 pm
PB, i feel compelled to point out that it’s the far right – but not the health insurance companies- who are opposed to a health reform bill.
While it’s true that the insurance companies oppose a strong the pubic option (which isn’t in any of the bills), it’s also equally true that they are thrilled with the individual mandates and are more than eager to trade away pre-existing conditions, modified community rating and annual and lifetime caps in return for access to the 80 million uninsured and under insured Americans who will be having to buy their products. Obama said as much in Belgrade a few weeks ago in reply to the questioner who sells individual health insurance policies.
There is no doubt that the teabaggers want Obama and America to fail to reform it’s health care system. They also want Obama and America to fail economically, to fail in Afghanistan and Iraq, in fact in any and all ways. They lost big and they hate Obama for it. The voters repudiated racism and the voters repudiated fear of socialism, fear of the “other” and it scares the crap out of teabaggers. They believe the only way they can regain any momentum is if Obama fails. It’s not about health care (Or corporate health care profits) it’s about fear and loathing.
August 31, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Big Swede? Do you realize that only 38% of all private employers offer health insurance?
Your compassion for your fellow man should embarass you, but instead your proud of it. It reminds me of a playground bully.
August 31, 2009 at 2:43 pm
First of all define “private employers”. Are ya meaning as in privately or publicly held? Can ya put in context? Full time employers vs. part time, seasonal vs. year round. Illegal vs. legal.
Second lets address compassion. I’m being raked because I’d like a little more of the money I earn. Let’s say for example, extend the Bush tax cut. That meets your barometer as a bully or greedy.
And yet when the government takes 40 to 50% of my money in various taxes and fees to give the unfortunate 10%, keeping the other 90% that denotes compassion? “Here poor soul, keep the crumbs on my plate”.
Likewise when health ins co.s and drug companies make a profit of 20 cents on the dollar, the govt. takes 35% in corporate taxes. 20%=greedy, 35%=compassion?
If facts out here in the playground scare ya, maybe ya should stay inside during recess.
September 1, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Health care insurers are taking 40% of what you give ‘em purely for their pocket. That’s not an exaggerated figure and it is going up every year.
Where’s your outrage there?
August 31, 2009 at 10:31 am
canadians answer back on protester false fear marketing;
“It’s one of the best systems in the world. Everyone is guaranteed health care and it does not matter if you’re rich or poor or what your medical condition is — you will be seen and provided health care. How can you argue with that?” says Kambli, who used to practice medicine in her native India.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32587330/ns/health-health_care/
August 31, 2009 at 10:35 am
That’s the rub, pb. People like BS think that the rich deserve better health care. You gotta prove your “self worth” before you get admitted to the club.
August 31, 2009 at 11:17 am
Do you have a job JC? Not this one as a poster, but one that pays?
Because if ya did you’d realize the personal satisfaction of self dependancy, ie self worth.
August 31, 2009 at 11:23 am
Yes, BS. I pay taxes, too, if that’s what you mean. But I gain my self worth from more sources than my “self-dependency.”
I gain more far more self worth through my service to my community.
In my world, money does not equate level of self worth. And I do not judge others’ worth by how much money they have, or how self-dependent they are.
August 31, 2009 at 11:35 am
Sound like you’re the kind that just wants to give the man a fish, so to speak.
August 31, 2009 at 11:43 am
And you’re the kind who just wants to give him the boot.
September 1, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Just out of curiousity, since I thought the mandate for this Democratic majority was the economy, why aren’t you actually fixing it before ramming through all the pet policies you’ve wanted for so long? At least then you’d have credibility on health care.
When your trillion dollar stimulus manages to push unemployment higher, why do you think anyone is convinced your attempts at health care reform will be any better??
September 1, 2009 at 5:05 pm
the little piece of logic that you are missing in your argument tim is that people who show up in the emergency rooms with what was a treatable problem beforehand always cost us more to treat than if they had been treated before the problem became life threatening. withholding medical care because people do not have the means to pay for it always costs us more in the end. so what savings are we going to have if we just ignore the problem. seems stupid to not address it with a decent universal health care bill rather than just pay more for problems later. like the mechanic says – you can pay me now or pay me later. later always costs more.
so how is it going to help our deficit in the future to spend more on health care because we failed to deal with this festering problem intelligently right now?