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.

What are we, idiots?

From Robert Creamer, HuffingtonPost.com:

We spend $7,290 per person and end up in 37th place. They spend only $3,601 and they are number one. That's just not right.

On the average, Frenchmen live almost three years longer than the average American. That's infuriating.

What's more, every legal resident of France is covered by health insurance, and in the U.S. 46 million people are uninsured. When someone in France goes to the hospital, everything except a small co-payment is covered - it's that simple.

The government doesn't deliver health care in France. Private doctors and hospitals do most of that. It just provides health insurance for everyone.

If you walk into one store and a suit you like costs $600 - and next door the very same suit is $300 - most people would call you a chump for spending $600. In this case the French are paying $300 and getting a better suit. What are we, idiots?

Read more.

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.

Best health care solution yet!

Thom Hartmann has the best idea for health care reform, laid out in an open letter to the prez entitled
A Modest Medicare Proposal.

In it, he proposes the simplest solution yet, which is completely revenue neutral and has no complicated provisions that give the right-wing corporate health care deniers (not providers -- let's be honest here) nothing to sink their teeth into.

The idea is to let citizens buy into Medicare if they so choose. Brilliant! Medicare is so cost-effective that allowing people to buy into it should be way cheaper than paying for health insurance from these profit-crazy crooks that are fleecing us now.

Please read Thom's article and send a letter to Obama and your reps today!

Opposed to Socialized Medicine? Now's your chance to pledge to deny yourself Medicare for life!

Finally! All who are opposed to "socialized" health care can now sign a petition created to let you pledge to refuse to use the Medicare you already have, or to promise to never sign up for it. That's right, Medicare is a government run insurance program, much like that evil public option!

If you choose not to sign it, I'm sorry, but you're a hypocrite!

Next up: We hope to create "Thanks but no thanks" yard signs you can put up in your yard, telling those socialistic police and fire departments that you're against all socialist institutions like theirs! After all, our taxes pay for their services! And we all know the government can't do ANYTHING right! So, buy one of these signs (yes, they're for sale -- what'd you think? This is capitalism), and tell those commies where to go! Next time your house is on fire, you can hire help to put it out -- that's the American way!

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.

Tell your reps: Support the public health care option!

To my mind, it is critical to do all we can right now to pressure Congress to support the public health care option.

MoveOn.org says:

Exciting news on health care: The New York Times editorial page joined Paul Krugman, Dr. Howard Dean, and 77 progressives in Congress in support of President Obama's public health insurance option. This option is the key to finally covering everyone and lowering premiums by as much as 30 percent.

All this momentum means the right-wing fear mongering about "socialized medicine," is only going to get louder. And the insurance industry is ramping up its campaign to stop this critical reform as we speak. That means we'll need to work hard to make sure others in Congress are demanding a public health insurance option too.

I agree. This is the first real opportunity we've had in decades to get real health care reform, and the public health care option in particular will give people the option of bypassing the greedy insurance industry.
Please take a few minutes to call your representatives and sign this petition.

It's a small effort to make for a healthier future for our country. Thanks.

Dean campaigning for public health insurance option (Medicare-type option for all)

Good news!

Gov. Howard Dean (an M.D., remember), has declared he's hitting the road to campaign for a health care plan that will give people the right to choose a Medicare-type option.

In his announcement, he said:

During the election, President Obama proposed a health care plan that would give every American the freedom to choose between keeping their private insurance—if they have any—and choosing a universally available public health insurance option like Medicare.

But for-profit insurance companies and HMOs are already working hard to strip this public health insurance option from any upcoming health care bill. They don't want us to have a choice, and they'll stop at nothing to kill real reform. Trouble is, some in Congress are siding with the insurance companies—and against what's best for the rest of us.

Today, we draw a line in the sand. A public health insurance option is the only way to guarantee health care for all Americans. And to show that we mean business, we all need to tell Congress we won't settle for less.

We need a single-payer system for the most efficient, humane system overall, but at the minimum, people should be able to choose a medicare-for-all type option. Gov. Dean's rhetoric suggests Obama would sign such a health care bill, which surprised me, as I thought he was not open to that when he said single-payer was off the table.

I believe providing this sort of choice is the way to real, needed change in the way we provide health care coverage in this country. I think it will end up proving that most people already want single-payer, and many more will figure out it's the best way to go when they see the choice.

Please go here to sign Dean's petition, and please agitate as strongly as you can for a public health insurance option!

Help make Guaranteed Health Care for All a reality in three easy steps

I (and the majority of Americans, according to numerous polls) feel that Guaranteed Health Care for All is a basic human right.

I like this idea from the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), which has launched a nationwide effort to bring this core issue to the heart of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The platform process is underway, and this is a great way to bring the issue to the forefront of the convention -- if we act as citizens, and contact the delegates. Here's how PDA wants to do it. I invite all to join in.

How you can help change history in three easy steps:

1) Click here and find the names of your area’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

2) Contact those delegates and urge them to join three visionary progressive members of Congress--convention delegates John Conyers, Jim McGovern and Lynn Woolsey--who are initial signers of the “Statement in Support of Guaranteed Health Care for All as a Plank in the Democratic Party Platform of 2008.” Any delegate can go online and become a signer at:
http://pdamerica.e-actionmax.com/takeaction.asp?aaid=3410

3) Pass this letter onto websites, listservs and other outlets to spread the word. Post it wherever you can. Think of this as a grassroots chain letter for Guaranteed Health Care for All.

If you contact delegates now, hundreds of them could soon add their names to this new statement. It urges the convention to adopt a plank in the 2008 party platform to “guarantee accessible health care for all” in the United States, to “create a single standard of high quality, comprehensive, and preventive health care for all”--and to “eliminate financial barriers that prevent families and individuals from obtaining the medically necessary care they need.”