Happy friggin’ new year

I’d like to say “Happy New Year,” but it’s not looking very good for so many people. “Hope and change” seems to have dissolved into despair and more of the same.

I’ve developed a pretty thick skin, politically speaking, over the years. Idealistic in my youth, as the youth tends to be, I thought our generation (I’m 55) could turn things around. When politician after politician dashed my hopes, I decided it was the system, and things would never change until fundamental changes were made there.

I still believe that. Most of all, we must somehow, as a nation, get the big money out of politics. It is corrupting everything, especially Congress, as the recent health care fiasco so obviously shows. (When over 70% of the nation says it wants a robust public option, for example, you’d think it’d be a slam dunk. But no, the insurance companies that pile on the cash for Lieberman and his ilk get their way, yet again!)

I allowed myself to believe Barack Obama was really going to be different. After all, he wasn’t part of the privileged class, like so many of our presidents have been. He worked hard to make something of himself, then eschewed high-paying lawyer jobs to work for the downtrodden on the streets of Chicago. Surely, I thought, this man could not be so easily corrupted.

But there’s something about holding high office, apparently. Now, he does the bidding of his generals and wages war, as is the American custom. He sits on the sidelines and twiddles his thumbs as the very issue that got him elected gets debated in Congress, seemingly oblivious to the fact that botching it would piss off the majority of people who voted for him. He didn’t even defend the things he campaigned for, like the public option.

He and the super-majority of Democrats we elected compromise before the debate even starts, then compromise some more. Any real bargainer knows you start with something way beyond what you expect to get (in this example, Single Payer), giving you a bargaining tool, in order to end up with something acceptable (like a robust public option). You don’t start with what you really want. Not when you’re negotiating with such a powerful force as Big Money, which is, in the final analysis, the actual opponent.

So, surprise, surprise, we end up with something Big Money (and Big Insurance) is very happy with, but which helps the public very little, if at all. And now we’re set to do it all over again, with bank “reform.” Yeah, right! I can save everyone a lot of time: just ask the banks what they want. They’ll get it anyway.

As I see it, every group fighting for change on any issue ought to all come together and fight for campaign reform. Because until we get the big money out of politics, we’ll keep witnessing the same charade, over and over again.

So, happy friggin’ new year.

Drop the toxic health care bill, implement the simple solution

The health care bill has been thoroughly polluted with a stifling complexity, a result of all the haggling and trying to please all sides. The best solution is the simplest one, the one that has worked well for decades in every other industrialized democracy in the world (in various forms): single payer. In fact, it has even worked just fine here, in the form of Medicare for seniors. What we need is Medicare for All.

I firmly believe it is immoral to deny health care to anyone, and that's what our system does on a consistent basis. It denies care to those who can't afford insurance, the cost of which has risen astronomically in recent years, as have insurance company profits; and said insurance companies regularly deny health care to even those who have been paying into their greed-lined coffers. They deny for 'pre-existing conditions,' or because they don't like a procedure the doctor orders, or for whatever reason their legions of deniers can come up with.

Putting a profit motive in between doctors and patients is quite simply morally indefensible.

Congress, drop this toxic bill and give us what the majority wants, and what we all need: single payer.

Bush Tax Cuts Cost 2.5X as Much as the Democrats' Health Care Plan

From Citizens for Tax Justice:

Newly revised estimates show that the Bush tax cuts cost almost $2.5 trillion over the decade after they were first enacted (2001-2010). Preliminary estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office show that the House Democrats' health care reform legislation is projected to cost $1 trillion over a decade after it would be enacted (2010-2019).

And yet, many of the lawmakers who argue that the health care reform legislation is "too costly" are the same lawmakers who supported the Bush tax cuts. Their own voting record demonstrates that health care reform is not a matter of costs, but a matter of priorities.

Read the new report from Citizens for Tax Justice. (PDF)

These figures make clear that costs cannot be the real concern of lawmakers who oppose the House health care legislation and yet supported the Bush tax cuts. Their position seems to be that showering benefits on the wealthiest five percent of taxpayers and leaving the bill for future generations is preferable to making health care available for all at a much lower cost and paying that cost up front. That demonstrates a different set of priorities than most Americans have, but it doesn't demonstrate much concern about costs.

Insurance industry suddenly finds ways to cut health care costs! Wow, aren't we impressed!

So, NOW the insurance industry finally comes around, saying it can reduce costs! Gosh, what were they waiting for? The threat of a public health care option, that's what.

Don't let them fool you, and keep the heat on your elected representatives for real reform.

All the industry's proposal will do is cut a mere 1.5% from the price INCREASES they were hoping to leach our economy further with.

Private insurance is the whole reason our health care is in such a mess in this country. The huge amounts wasted on overhead and unnecessary bureaucracy caused by these greedy companies is bloating our system. They sit in their cubicles, in between you and your doctor, and tell your doctor what he can and can not do for you.

This proposal is nothing more than a desperate attempt to avoid their worst nightmare -- a public health option. They know that if Americans have that option, they'll end up gravitating to it, because it makes so much sense.

Private insurance advocates always talk about preserving choice. So why are they against this choice? Make sure your representatives know you want a public health care option.