So after campaigning on universal health care, Lieberman (the second largest recipient in the senate of money from the insurance and medical industries), Lieberman insisted the public option be taken out of the Senate Bill. The Dems went along with him.
In its place they put in a provision that would lower the eligible age for Medicare to 55, something Joe was also in favor of. Now he has killed that provision as well.
Thank you Joe Lieberman for showing the voters of America your true colors (obstructionist lying Republican). Now that the Health Care Bill is completely gutted of anything that will lower costs for consumers the Republicans in the Senate are STILL united against it! Once again, thanks, this also allows the voters of America to see where the Republican party stands - against the American public.
So if Joe Lieberman or any Republicans still have their jobs after they come up for re-election, well then the voters are to blame, for it can not be more clear that they are not interested in helping the American people. This also applies to the "blue dog" democrats that have been working on behalf of the insurance industry throughout this process.
I agree with Howard Dean that this bill should now be killed. It, in fact, requires people to buy private insurance (with tax payer subsidies for the poor) while refusing to offer any option. This, in fact, will drive up costs and actually benefits the insurance companies that were the problem in the first place!!!
Now for Obama. He of course is proving to be quite a corporatist (unlike the socialist the Right tries to make him out to be) so maybe he is happy with this bill. But with that being said he needs to learn his lesson from Joe Lieberman! Joe campaigned against Obama in support of McCain. Then when there was talk of stripping Joe of his committee chairmanship Obama stepped in and said, we need to work together and not hold grudges. Obama has gone out of his way to get Republican support for this Health Bill and other legislation. Even though the Republicans went on record as saying they want this issue to fail in order to take out Obama.
So when will Obama learn the lesson that these Republicans (Joe included) are not to be worked with, much less catered to. Obama and the Democrats need to push for strong legislation, allow the Republicans to filibuster it if that is what they choose, and then make the point to the voters that the Republicans are obstructing progress and they need to go.
I want to see a strong, principled Obama, not a weak compromising Obama. I do realize that the latter is probably his true political self but it is proving ineffective against the united Republican front against the American People.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
two good developments in health care reform!
OK, I am feeling a bit optimistic about the progress of the health care reform in congress. Two items of news made me happy:
first the senate voted down the anti abortion ammendment and that was just a horrible attack on poor women. It is still in the House Bill and must be defeated. It says women cannot buy insurance that covers abortion. This means only women who can pay out of their own pocket can afford abortions. This would be most hurtful to those who have complications late in a wanted pregnancy and must pay for an EXPENSIVE emergancy abortion that is already something they do not really want to do. BAD. And for the poor it will return folks to back alley abortions.
second the senate says they may scrap the public option and hire a private insurance company to run the "public option". I just love this irony!!!! BUT there are two good things that I like about this plan.
First the public option was going to be so shitty that it would discredit the who idea of a public option. This way in the future there will still be the desire for a public option and we just may get a stronger one.
Second, they said instead they may lower the enrollment age for medicare to 55 years old. THIS is a brilliant plan! The infrastructure is already there. If that works out then perhaps we can lower it even further in the future, and then further, and then finally have the OPTION of medicare for anyone who would like it. GREAT IDEA, didn't I say that a long time ago. Me and many others, I can't take credit for the idea.
first the senate voted down the anti abortion ammendment and that was just a horrible attack on poor women. It is still in the House Bill and must be defeated. It says women cannot buy insurance that covers abortion. This means only women who can pay out of their own pocket can afford abortions. This would be most hurtful to those who have complications late in a wanted pregnancy and must pay for an EXPENSIVE emergancy abortion that is already something they do not really want to do. BAD. And for the poor it will return folks to back alley abortions.
second the senate says they may scrap the public option and hire a private insurance company to run the "public option". I just love this irony!!!! BUT there are two good things that I like about this plan.
First the public option was going to be so shitty that it would discredit the who idea of a public option. This way in the future there will still be the desire for a public option and we just may get a stronger one.
Second, they said instead they may lower the enrollment age for medicare to 55 years old. THIS is a brilliant plan! The infrastructure is already there. If that works out then perhaps we can lower it even further in the future, and then further, and then finally have the OPTION of medicare for anyone who would like it. GREAT IDEA, didn't I say that a long time ago. Me and many others, I can't take credit for the idea.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
the only MORAL choice: leave Afghanistan NOW
[I wrote this before Obama's speech, a brief reaction to his speech will soon follow]
First there should be no surprise that Obama is sending more troops to Afghanistan. He said when he was running for President that he thought we did not send enough and that Afghanistan was the war we should be fighting. He was against the Iraq war which is why he seemed the peace candidate to many. He was really the candidate of less war. Dennis Kucinich was the Peace candidate. And Ron Paul I suppose. And Ralph Nader. And Cynthia McKinney.
Many of my smartest friends and family seem to agree with Obama and the conventional wisdom that we need to stay in Afghanistan. End what we started. Protect the Afghan people from the horrible Taliban. Prevent creating a safe haven for Al Qaida. A 'you break it, you buy it' sort of attitude.
These arguments might hold some water if we were putting a good government in charge of the country. But the truth is we have been fighting what will be the longest war in US history to put War Lords, Drug Lords, War Criminals, Corrupt Urban Elite, Mass Murderers, and Misogynists in charge of the country.
We were giving the Taliban money just months before we invaded. We helped them get in power to throw out the Russians and now we are supporting equally bad people to get rid of them. The government we are propping up just legalized the rape of women, to give just one example.
Look at the recent election - both candidates were involved in wide spread fraud. One is a War Lord from the Northern Alliance and one (the current president) is corrupt and his brother is a drug Lord. Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries on Earth, is a decade of war going to make it a peaceful democracy?
The people we are fighting may call themselves the Taliban. But they are mostly tribal people who do not want to be ruled by the Urban Elite and they are fighting the foreign occupation. When we leave they will most likely fight any outsiders who try to control them. We are taking sides in an ethnic civil war, much like Iraq. What are we going to do? Train one ethnic group to go into rural villages and kill another, that is genocide.
As long as we are there they will fight us.
When we leave they will fight each other. This is just as likely if we leave now or later. There very may well be a civil war, but that was guaranteed when our government (R and D) went into the country and destabilized it. Barbara Lee was the only person in the House or Senate who voted the way I would have voted: against the war in Afghanistan in the first place. I think it is about time to replace my "surfers for obama" sticker with a 'barbara lee speaks for me' sticker.
OTHER REASONS:
The Al Qaida excuse is now mute as there are only 100 left in the country according to our own government. But this was never a good reason to invade the entire country. 9/11 was planned in Spain and Germany and the terrorists got their flight training in the United States. They do not need any particular country to operate from. The war on terror is a recruiting gold mine for anti American militants.
Many are complaining in this country because we are running up deficits and we can't afford health care reform. Ah, but there is endless money for war. It costs $1 million dollars per soldier per year. Much of this expense is due to the privatization of many services that were one run by the military. Privatization means profit. War for profit.
$1 million dollars will build 20 school in Afghanistan.
One of my students raises money to send wheel chairs to Iraqi kids. The program is privately funded but supported by the military. A wheel chair costs the organization $350. They have raised half a million dollars so far. The pictures of the people who get those wheel chairs are of happy, grateful people. Why does it take kids playing guitars on street corners in America to win the hearts and minds of those in the middle east? Why can't our government learn from such examples?
I say pull out our guns and build schools. Stop dropping bombs and drop wheel chairs. Build hospitals. Ask the people what they need and want. Show the world there is another way to deal with a country like Afghanistan. Then get out and let the people who live there deal with each other how they chose. Use the United Nations to pressure the government to abide by international standards like they do with every other awful regime.
The Taliban control half the country. What happens even if we put in a government. How many years before it is overthrown? Look at Honduras. We cannot control the world. The Northern Allience are no better than the Taliban. What about working with all the Ethnic groups in Afghanistan, including those who comprise the Taliban, to come together with eachother in peace. We are arming one side against the other, fueling war. Where is the deplomacy?
The ONLY moral choice: GET ( OUR MILITARY) OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, get our military out of Iraq, get our military out of Pakistan.
More citizens of this country die every year (way more) due to lack of health insurance than were killed by Al Qaida. The countries of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran have never attacked us.
OK, you get the point.
First there should be no surprise that Obama is sending more troops to Afghanistan. He said when he was running for President that he thought we did not send enough and that Afghanistan was the war we should be fighting. He was against the Iraq war which is why he seemed the peace candidate to many. He was really the candidate of less war. Dennis Kucinich was the Peace candidate. And Ron Paul I suppose. And Ralph Nader. And Cynthia McKinney.
Many of my smartest friends and family seem to agree with Obama and the conventional wisdom that we need to stay in Afghanistan. End what we started. Protect the Afghan people from the horrible Taliban. Prevent creating a safe haven for Al Qaida. A 'you break it, you buy it' sort of attitude.
These arguments might hold some water if we were putting a good government in charge of the country. But the truth is we have been fighting what will be the longest war in US history to put War Lords, Drug Lords, War Criminals, Corrupt Urban Elite, Mass Murderers, and Misogynists in charge of the country.
We were giving the Taliban money just months before we invaded. We helped them get in power to throw out the Russians and now we are supporting equally bad people to get rid of them. The government we are propping up just legalized the rape of women, to give just one example.
Look at the recent election - both candidates were involved in wide spread fraud. One is a War Lord from the Northern Alliance and one (the current president) is corrupt and his brother is a drug Lord. Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries on Earth, is a decade of war going to make it a peaceful democracy?
The people we are fighting may call themselves the Taliban. But they are mostly tribal people who do not want to be ruled by the Urban Elite and they are fighting the foreign occupation. When we leave they will most likely fight any outsiders who try to control them. We are taking sides in an ethnic civil war, much like Iraq. What are we going to do? Train one ethnic group to go into rural villages and kill another, that is genocide.
As long as we are there they will fight us.
When we leave they will fight each other. This is just as likely if we leave now or later. There very may well be a civil war, but that was guaranteed when our government (R and D) went into the country and destabilized it. Barbara Lee was the only person in the House or Senate who voted the way I would have voted: against the war in Afghanistan in the first place. I think it is about time to replace my "surfers for obama" sticker with a 'barbara lee speaks for me' sticker.
OTHER REASONS:
The Al Qaida excuse is now mute as there are only 100 left in the country according to our own government. But this was never a good reason to invade the entire country. 9/11 was planned in Spain and Germany and the terrorists got their flight training in the United States. They do not need any particular country to operate from. The war on terror is a recruiting gold mine for anti American militants.
Many are complaining in this country because we are running up deficits and we can't afford health care reform. Ah, but there is endless money for war. It costs $1 million dollars per soldier per year. Much of this expense is due to the privatization of many services that were one run by the military. Privatization means profit. War for profit.
$1 million dollars will build 20 school in Afghanistan.
One of my students raises money to send wheel chairs to Iraqi kids. The program is privately funded but supported by the military. A wheel chair costs the organization $350. They have raised half a million dollars so far. The pictures of the people who get those wheel chairs are of happy, grateful people. Why does it take kids playing guitars on street corners in America to win the hearts and minds of those in the middle east? Why can't our government learn from such examples?
I say pull out our guns and build schools. Stop dropping bombs and drop wheel chairs. Build hospitals. Ask the people what they need and want. Show the world there is another way to deal with a country like Afghanistan. Then get out and let the people who live there deal with each other how they chose. Use the United Nations to pressure the government to abide by international standards like they do with every other awful regime.
The Taliban control half the country. What happens even if we put in a government. How many years before it is overthrown? Look at Honduras. We cannot control the world. The Northern Allience are no better than the Taliban. What about working with all the Ethnic groups in Afghanistan, including those who comprise the Taliban, to come together with eachother in peace. We are arming one side against the other, fueling war. Where is the deplomacy?
The ONLY moral choice: GET ( OUR MILITARY) OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, get our military out of Iraq, get our military out of Pakistan.
More citizens of this country die every year (way more) due to lack of health insurance than were killed by Al Qaida. The countries of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran have never attacked us.
OK, you get the point.
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