The odds remain against any kind of mega reform and so from that perspective there's probably upside to these managed care names.
~ Tim Nelson, analyst with First American Funds, describing why you should buy stock in companies that are complicit in the deaths of 45,000 Americans every year.
If the state of affairs in U.S. politics these days does not make you physically ill, you have the stomach of a conservative. And a corresponding lack of humanity. As I have said many times, as indifferent as the Democrats have been lately to the majority of people in this country, the Republicans are that much worse in their outright hostility. Amazingly, President Barack Obama is determined to see the goodness of the Republian heart and still has an abiding belief that they are reasonable people (or he is just cozying up to the same campaign cash trough as they).
The latest kick to the groin of the Democratic base by the "Rham-bama" administration arrived recently in the form of a massive taxpayer handout to price-gouging insurance cartels disguised as the official Presidential "health care reform" plan. What a heaping load of betrayal this thing is. Just like NAFTA, it has DLC fingerprints all over it, and like NAFTA, it is a means of degrading the lives of working people in favor of large corporate campaign sponsors. In another sign of how low our expectations have become, no one was surprised that it lacked a public option that would provide competition with the profiteers. What was a bit of a surprise was an increase in the take from our pockets to the HMO's profit margins.
This plan is so lame and ultimately useless as "reform" it could well have been written by a Republican. It would most certainly be supported by a majority of Republicans in congress if it were proposed by a Republican president. Since it was not, not a single Republican will support it. You see, they might be lying, hypocritcal, nasty, misanthopic pricks but they are extremely disciplined and loyal lying, hypocritcal, nasty, misanthopic pricks. Which is why Rhambama is in a lose/lose situation when it comes to this disastrous strategy of trying to get a Republican on board with anything these days. Even if it were to garner the incredibly hard target of one or two Republican votes it is still a shitty bill that won't energize the Democrat base. The only smart strategy here is to offer this to the Republicans, watch them reject it, then announce to the world that you tried so hard to make concessions to the Republicans, but they refused to work with you. Then announce that you will do what the clear majority of Americans WANT and scrap all the insurance company give-aways, add the public option and pass the bill through reconciliation. If this happens, and if a similar tack is taken in dealing with unemployment, we will see a strong resurgence in the Democrat's chances in November.
What I fear will happen instead is the DLC strategy prevails and the two parties continue to be the evil of two lessers, locked in a death struggle for campaign cash from the corporate interests that are literally killing this country and its economy. People want universal health care, yet we get another industry bailout. People want the wars to end, yet they still go on. People want the Wall Street predators reigned in, yet they still are making the rules and getting bonus money instead of jail time.
The only answer to having no viable alternative in the voting booth is to finally address the only thing standing in the way of change we can actually believe in: we must end the pay-for-play system of government we are currently suffering from.
4 comments:
"If the state of affairs in U.S. politics these days does not make you physically ill, you have the stomach of a conservative. And a corresponding lack of humanity."
I see you've noticed. I have a theory. I don't believe people lose their "humanity," as a result of becoming Republicans, or espousing conservative ideologies, I believe, instead, those with a "lack of humanity," gravitate toward Republicanism and conservatism.
It suits their self-centered temperament.
"Amazingly, President Barack Obama is determined to see the goodness of the Republian heart and still has an abiding belief that they are reasonable people (or he is just cozying up to the same campaign cash trough as they)."
Did you catch any of the Health Care Summit? Now that was instructive on how both sides seek to win public support on health care, and their over all stratagem for winning the hearts of Americans: The Repubs supporting kicking the can down the road, until there's no can to kick, or there're player substitutions, and the Dems stressing how much progress has been made, how close the two sides, in reality, are.
"it is a means of degrading the lives of working people in favor of large corporate campaign sponsors."
What's good for coporations and businesses (the economic engine of the country, and the one's hiring workers, and cutting payroll checks) is good for America.
This trend away from the people, and toward corporations and businesses continues unabated.
Our tax codes exist, in seems, to support that sector of our economy.
"Then announce that you will do what the clear majority of Americans WANT and scrap all the insurance company give-aways, add the public option and pass the bill through reconciliation. If this happens, and if a similar tack is taken in dealing with unemployment, we will see a strong resurgence in the Democrat's chances in November."
You're right, of course, and this is the tack I'm hoping the Dems will take. I hoping, too, that the recent Health Care Summit was the first step in that process, a demonstration to the American people of a decided willingness on the part of Dems to seek bipartisan solutions on health care reform, but that the resistance on the Right was just too fierce.
I've got to believe they've got something up their collective sleeve. If not, all this was just an unnecessary delay.
"Did you catch any of the Health Care Summit?"
Yeah, that was smart politics, calling the Republicans on their bluff about televising the proceedings. But political theater isn't going to save the day.
"I've got to believe they've got something up their collective sleeve. If not, all this was just an unnecessary delay."
Do I ever hope so. But "hope" and "change" seem to be taking a back seat to a repeat of some really nasty history. If they pass something in the form of the Senate bill w/o a public option for competition with the conglomerates and their crazy rate hike profiteering, they are done for. The Democratic base will not show up, much like the reaction to Bill Clinton pushing NAFTA in 1994. This is the same DLC recipe from the Clinton years; sacrifice congress and the base to please the deep pocket contributors. We shall see if my fears are well-founded soon. BTW...now it's Easter as a target. Remember when it was Thanksgiving?
"If they pass something in the form of the Senate bill w/o a public option for competition...."
I believe Dems are thinking "exchanges" will accomplish what the public option was designed to do: create more competition within the health insurance industry.
Exchanges aren't a magic bullet, and, in the current bill, may do more harm than good.
Consider this:
I think the exchanges will be similar to any market-based solution, and have the same major drawback; profits take precedence over people's health. No other industrialzed nation allows the kind of perverse exaltation of profit margins as we do. We have to demand better. The only answer is to take the corporate money out of campaign financing, which will be the subect of my next post(s).
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