Friday, December 18, 2009

well NO SHIT

A New Poll taken this week shows that a large majority of americans would reject a health care reform bill that has neither the public option or Medicare expansion but STILL has a buy-in mandate. NO DUH. Why is the mandate SO unpopular? Well right now Senate leaders are all over Washington trying to spin that they finally have a healthcare reform bill they can pass, as long as they remove the public option and the Medicare expansion because, After all, they say that even without them, the bill still "covers" 30 million more Americans.

What they are talking about is that "individual mandate." That's a section of the bill that requires every single American buy health insurance or break the law and face penalties and fines. So, the bill doesn't actually "cover" 30 million more Americans -- instead it makes them criminals if they don't buy insurance from the same companies that got us into this mess."

Will Obama next make us ship packages only with Fedex and not the post office? Will we have to call blackwater when we hear a burglar, instead of the police? What ELSE do we have to do that will just rip us off while lining the pockets of private industry?

We've reported in the past that we were always skeptical of Obama given the remark made by his college professor that while at Harvard everyone thought Obama was a republican. Now it seems those inklings bore fruit as he has proven that while campaigning for the little guy, he really intended to work for the big corporations.

This bill as it stands isn't popular with too many people outside of the healthcare industry and their whores. Howard Dean has taken quite a bit of shit for commenting that the bill in its current version should be killed. Despite being ridiculed by the same White House that championed him just a year ago, he refuses to stop his criticism and we appreciate that. Here's an excerpt from his most recent op-ed piece.

The truth is that health care reform was probably doomed to be deeply imperfect. As Ezra Klein pointed out a few weeks ago, we're basically in a hostage situation: progressives really, really want to cover the uninsured, while centrists whose votes are needed can take it or leave it. So the centrists have a lot of power -- which in the case of Joe Lieberman means the power to double-cross and indulge his pettiness.

Now, in a hostage situation there are times when you have to just say no -- when giving in, by encouraging future hostage-takers, would be worse than letting the hostages perish. So the question has to be, is this one of those times? I don't think so, given the history: as Kevin Drum points out, health reform has come back weaker after each defeat. I'd also point out that highly imperfect insurance reforms, like Social Security and Medicare in their initial incarnations, have gotten more comprehensive over time. This suggests that the priority is to get something passed.

By all means denounce Obama for his failed bipartisan gestures. By all means criticize the administration. But don't take it out on the tens of millions of Americans who will have health insurance if this bill passes, but will be out of luck -- and, in some cases, dead -- if it doesn't.



Currently the White House is said to be FINALLY getting off their ass and trying to make the senate bill closer in form the the house bill which had a public option in it, BUT that the WH is just working to make the private plans we HAVE to buy more affordable and are happy to let the Public Option and Medicare buy in die....What an asshole...

We ask that if you are so inclined, email your house rep and make it clear you will not tolerate having to buy overpriced shitty private insurance healthcare.

Never forget, knowledge is power, and the power is YOURS! XD

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