This is what I don’t understand. Obama has proposed a health care plan that is a continuation of the existing system with minor modifications. It seems that there is so little to argue about that the opposition has to incite their supporters by reframing things like end-of-life counseling to fiction like killing older citizens. They’re really afraid of single-payer health care. Why not take the fight to them and propose real health care reform; a single-payer system? Let them argue the point instead of their made-up boogie men. I think there is much stronger support in this country for real change in the form of a single-payer system than for expanding the health insurance industry. Why can’t there be debate in this country about the issues without diverting public attention with fairy tale trolls?
Category: politics
The line we won’t cross
After the military discharged a gay, Arabic translator from the military, Jon Stewart points out the irony: while some officials in the U.S. say that torture is so important to ensuring our safety that we should disregard the Geneva Convention, openly gay people aren’t allowed to serve in the armed forces.
Also check out the John Oliver clip, Dan Choi is Gay.
Single-payer health care now!
Send a message to President Obama about health care reform at healthreform.gov.
My message 09.05.15:
President Obama's argument that our insurance based health care system is already in place so insurance should be part of health care "reform" is just an excuse, just bowing to pressure from insurance companies. Insurance companies and equity markets provide no health benefit to U.S. citizens and have NO place in our health care system, much less their current position of controlling decisions about life, death, and quality of life. Now is the time for strong leadership. Our economy, and more importantly our health, should not be sacrificed to maintain an industry that exists only to profit from one of our citizens' primary needs. Single payer health care is the only real solution.
Failure, the Republican agenda
I listened to CSPAN for a couple hours this morning. I was appalled that for about 45 minutes Congressmen (Yes, men. No women.) were “debating” the passage of a bill honoring the Pittsburg Steelers. It felt like these elected representatives were making a joke of the current economic situation. Instead of spending their time, energy, intelligence…and our money, on making progress on real problems, they were making a farce of the legislative system.
I guess it was no worse than most of the Republican input on the economic stimulus debate. Republicans passed inscrutable bank bail outs prior to Obama’s inauguration, but now oppose creating jobs while moving the country toward energy independence and lower health care costs. It seems that number one on the Republican agenda is causing Obama and the Democrats to fail. At least in the debates I’ve heard on CSPAN, there has been a lot of criticism by Republicans, but no constructive alternatives. The Bush administration created the current crisis and it seems as if the Republican party has decided their best chance of regaining power is to facilitate a deepening crisis and more pain for citizens over the next four years.
I wish there was a minimum requirement of CSPAN viewing in order to vote in the U.S. Then more citizens would see for themselves what is going on, rather than getting a summary from their favorite commentator.