Kucinich Is Right On Healthcare
Dennis Kucinich rarely gets much airtime in Democratic presidential debates. That was underscored recently when ABC’s George Stephanopoulos called on him in an Iowa forum to talk about God. Kucinich said, “George, I’ve been standing here for the last 45 minutes praying to God you were going to call on me.”
With poll numbers at 1 or 2 percent, the Ohio congressman is the nudge kicking at the knees of the Democratic Party to offer more than incremental change. He deserves more attention than he gets. On healthcare, he says what Americans believe, even as his rivals rake in contributions from the industry.
In a CNN poll this spring, 64 percent of respondents said the government should “provide a national insurance program for all Americans, even if this would require higher taxes,” and 73 percent approve of higher taxes to insure children under 18. Those results track
Such polls allow Kucinich to joke that, far from being in the loony left, “I’m in the center. Everyone else is to the right of me.” More seriously, in a recent visit to the Globe, he accused the other Democratic candidates of faking it on healthcare reform.
“One of the greatest hoaxes of this campaign — everyone’s for universal healthcare,” Kucinich said. “It’s like a mantra. But when you get into the details, you find out that all the other candidates are talking about maintaining the existing for-profit system.”
Kucinich quoted the 2003 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine that found that 31 percent of healthcare expenditures pay not for actual care but for administrative costs. That compares with only 16.7 percent in Canada. Administrative and clerical employees make up 27 percent of the healthcare workforce in the United States, compared with 19 percent in Canada.
“With 46 million Americans without any health insurance at all and another 50 million underinsured,” Kucinich said, “isn’t it really time to look at the other models that exist that are workable for all the other industrialized nations in the world? When you think about it, the only thing that’s stopping us is the hold that the private insurers have on our political system . . . corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork. . .”
The hold of the healthcare industry on the top candidates is already apparent. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top recipient of campaign contributions so far from the pharmaceutical and health products industry is Republican Mitt Romney ($228,260). But the next two are Democrats Barack Obama ($161,124) and Hillary Clinton ($146,000). The top recipient of contributions from health professionals is Clinton ($990,611). Romney is second at $806,837, and Obama third at $748,637.
The top recipient of cash from the insurance industry, which includes health insurers, is another Democrat, Connecticut’s Christopher Dodd, at $605,950. Romney and Republican Rudolph Giuliani are second and third, with Clinton and Obama fourth and fifth. Even though Obama is in fifth place, he still has collected $269,750 from insurance companies.
In a category that is relatively small in money thus far, but huge in terms of healthcare morality, Democratic presidential candidates occupy four of the top six spots in receiving money from death-dealing tobacco companies. After Giuliani’s $69,500 from tobacco companies, Dodd has received $45,400, Clinton $32,300, Romney $31,400, Obama $7,885, and Democrat Joe Biden, $4,000.
When the top Democratic candidates take tobacco contributions, it is hard to see them truly believing, as Kucinich says, that healthcare “is the single-most important domestic issue. . . a defining issue in the presidential race.”
The top recipient from lobbyists by far is Clinton at $406,300. She is still so badly smoldering from the torching of her healthcare efforts as first lady that she recently asserted to the National Association of Black Journalists, “I have never advocated socialized medicine. That has been a right-wing attack on me for 15 years.”
The irony, as Kucinich critically points out, is that Americans are so burned from for-profit healthcare, that they want the government to guarantee coverage. “If people clearly understood that by going to vote on Election Day they would create conditions where they would have health coverage,” Kucinich said, “if you could communicate that message, you wouldn’t have to talk about anything else.”
Derrick Z. Jackson’s e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.
© 2007 The Boston Globe
Tobin Tax would pay for everything!!!
Google it…TOBIN TAX…
You “get” it?
Kucinich is for everything I stand for. That’s why I stand behind him. Less than 1 percent? Aw, come on, people!
He’s right on the money with HR 333, too. Why don’t you sign it?
The establishment will kill Kucinich’s campaign. He is not an Establishment candidate, therefore he cannot win. And If by some miracle he did win, and he actually represented the people, they would get rid of him, or kill him……Remember JFK.
This is so simple that a 10 year old can undestand it. The first job of a business is to make increasing profits. The only ways orivate health insurance has to increase profits is to either raise their rates or to deny claims. In fact that is true of all insurance whether it is life, property, or motor vehicle insurance.
Since either law or common decency demand coverage of all types why should anybody profit from such demands? Don’t stop with healthcare, let’s put the entire private insurance industry out of business.
Kucinich in 08!
Right on, Mr. Jackson - excellent article! Thank you.
KUCINICH in 2008!!! Don’t decieve yourselves, progressives, Democrats, Independents, (or even Republican conservatives)! This guy is the only one who truly cares about and works for human rights, ending war, and freedom, justice, and healthcare for everyone.
Please, please, please don’t avoid voting (with your conscience) for Kucinich merely because he is low in the polls. Make it happen, dang it! Get the word out! Stop complaining, Americans and ACT! The most enlightened human in our whole political body is running for leader of this nation, and we need to make a loud statement: NO CORPORATE PUPPETS, ONLY HONEST LEADERSHIP FOR THE PEOPLE FROM NOW ON!
Vote with your conscience:
Kucinich 08
Kucinich is right on many things and if elections were based on being right would be working on a fourth term as president.
Kucinich is the best candidate hands down. Glad to see him get some good coverage.
sharing equals peace: don’t delude yourself. Kucinich is pure window dressing for a pro-war corporate party. in 2004 he *abandoned* his principles, his supporters and tireless volunteers when he abrogated his pledge to fight for an antiwar plank in the party platform, browbeat his delegates into voting for Kerry and gave his support to that pro-war loser. Democrats are the biggest obstacle to real progress because they co-opt, demobilize and destroy the very social movements that are key to winning change. Change does not come from the inside, from the very people who benefit from and defend the status quo. Change can only come from the outside, through mass struggle.
http://www.isreview.org/issues/37/kerry_bagman.shtml
We love Kucinich, but hate the Dem Party. Dennis, why not help us out here and switch2green?
“The establishment will kill Kucinich’s campaign. He is not an Establishment candidate, therefore he cannot win. And If by some miracle he did win, and he actually represented the people, they would get rid of him, or kill him……Remember JFK.”
- I would argue you are quite correct on this, but unlike some others (not necessarily here), I do not see this as a reason NOT to vote for him. Perhaps more than anytime in the history of this very badly misguided country, we need to stand with our morals, our understanding of the wretched political process, and our logical minds, and VOTE AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT. A VOTE FOR KUCINICH IS A VOTE AGAINST BUSINESS AS USUAL! Don’t listen to the losers who will try and pitch a rigged ball at you, saying “it’s more important to win the White House.” No, it’s not. If somebody wins the White House who is - AGAIN - standing against everything America is about, and against the will of the public, then we organize, organize, organize, yet again.
I have and will continue to back Dennis as long as he is in the race. He raises the real issues in the campaign, and holds the other candidate’s feet to the fire on issues that really matter to most Americans. I urge all of you to take a pledge not to cave to the establishment and REFUSE to vote for whatever corporate candidates the establishment finally puts forward in the general election next Fall. Vote your conscience to the bitter end, and vote Green if it comes to that to send a message to the establishment that we will not keep accepting the crap you keep shoveling our way. Taking down the established political order is going to be the ONLY way to ever achieve REAL change in our political system. Rewarding corporate candidates because they are the only “practical” choices will just keep perpetuating our current misery.
truthteller: supporting a candidate of one of the establishment parties is not a recipe for REAL change. break with the Democrats now if you ever want change. voting is not enough.
http://www.socialistworker.org/2007-2/642/642_08_Socialism.shtml
I strongly suspect that ‘nickhart’ is a paid corporate troll.
All he/she ever does is cross-post the same tired, puerile accusation that Kucinich ‘abandoned’ his principles. What about his stance on health care? (You know, the ‘topic’ of this article?) Should we ignore that because of some childish grudge?
I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
Arriving at a better future in a more humane country will be incremental.
Kucinich stands for more progressive values than any president in American history.
To trash him because he works within the system or because he has offended the purity of someone’s idealism would be profoundly stupid.
May God bless those who conjure full-blown utopias in the immaculate recesses of their headspace.
Meanwhile, a better world will be the incremental product of men and women with the courage and commitment to stand against the evil of bushcheney.
Kucinich is in the middle when it comes to the beliefs, interests, and desires of the American people. However, the corporate media is far to the right of the American people and so they paint Kucinich as far to the left. And we are kidding ourselves if we do not admit that the corporate media will continue to have the only vote that matters until the great majority of US citizens wake up politically.
Kucinich Supporters, so that we all know where you are coming from, PLEASE TAKE THIS POLL:
Question: After the primary election, I will vote for:
A. The candidate whose program / platform most closely resembles that of Dennis Kucinich, if he is not the nominee.
OR
B. Any candidate who wins the Democratic nomination and is endorsed by by Dennis Kucinich, regardless of his or her program / platform.
Thank you.
XigXag: you are wrong and sadly misinformed. I admire Kucinich supporters for *wanting* reform, but I make my points in the hopes that *genuine* progressives will stop wasting their time with the Democratic party–the graveyard of social movements.
The Democratic party and its allies (MoveOn, the Nation and many others) killed the antiwar movement in 2004. Instead of protesting Abu Ghraib or the destruction of Fallujah, when highlighting these grave injustices could have bolstered the movement and turned more against the war, people were told to shutup and vote for a pro-war candidate. Not only did that strategy fail to elect said pro-war candidate, but it set the antiwar movement back years.
This war is not going to be ended *by* Democrats, but in *spite* of them. As nice as Kucinich sounds (esp compared to his colleagues) we need to understand the role that he (and people like him) play within the Democratic party. We can’t “take back” the party (it was *never* “ours” to begin with, unless you count yourself a millionaire or Jim Crow supporter). If we want change it will only come from organizing independently of the Democrats and using our collective power to force the government to do our will.
Kucinich would be the right start for many progressive minded people, period. Most importantly he is right on the right. Granted he is a politician and must be careful about what he says to the MSM but he sure would be a good start for a progressive movement.
Vote Kucionich, then if he isn’t the nominee write him in and vote green for lesser offices.
Until we, or events (much more likely, possibly starting with the mortgage lender meltdown), wake up the great majority of Americans, it really does not matter whether we support Kucinich or Green candidates. The way politics is practiced in the USA in 2007-2008, the only candidates with a shot are compromise candidates and fascist candidates. There is a reason why lesser-evilism continues as the main voting method even though almost everyone finds it highly distasteful.
If either Kucinich or a Green candidate started polling well for president, the corporate media would come down on them like a ton of bricks, sensationalizing trivial missteps or fabricating damning stories, and the great majority of US voters, whether they believed the propaganda or not, would on some emotional level begin to feel there is something “not right” about Kucinich or the Green candidate and would turn away from them.
That is where we are at.
Kucinich is right about most things. As Joe Bageant correctly (and with great humor) observed a while back, “What kind of citizenry consistently sneers at a candidate like Kucinich who openly declares for world peace to the most militarized nation on earth? (Hell, it’s no crime to be three feet tall.)” For those of you not familiar with Joe Bageant, I highly recommend you click on the link below to read the story that contained the quote above. Enjoy!
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/01/dispatch_from_t.html
kivals is right. even if we did somehow manage to elect a progressive majority to Congress and the White House, it is the *unelected* elite parasites who control industry and the media that would be calling the shots. If they didn’t like the new government’s pro-worker policies they would pull out, sabotage the economy and move their capital overseas–which would bring the government to its knees and force it to capitulate to their demands. This sort of blackmail is *exactly* what happened in France in the 1980’s, the last time they elected a “socialist” to office. Pretty soon all the pro-worker reforms were canned and President Mitterand decided that thatcherism/reaganomics weren’t so bad after all.
our real power is not in our vote, but the fact that our bosses *need* us to create their profits. they need us, but we don’t need them. they steal from us with every paycheck. we can organize and run society without them and use the massive wealth that we all *collectively* create for the benefit of all. that is why it is absolutely critical to organize independently of the corporate parties and why *struggle* is the only way to achieve progress. only through struggle can we win reforms *and* change the ideas in people’s heads on a mass scale. blogging is not enough.
BTW, I’d bet the Kucinich household answers “B” to the above poll. That is they’ll support the Democratica candidate that’s pro-war, pro-corporate and pretty much the opposite from what Kucinich says he believes. That’s the track record from 2004 when Kucinich told everyone to support Kerry.
My rule with Democrats is watch what they do, not what they say. Kucinich talks nice. But so far when push really comes down to shove he’ll abandon what he believes and put support of the Democratic Party above is his moral beliefs.
And besides, I fully believe any money, time, effort spent on the Kucinich campaign inside the Democratic party is a waste of time and effort. It can’t win. That’s not defeatism, its an honest appraisal of how undemocratic the Democratic party is. Ever since McGovern the power elites in the party have been fine tuning their rules to make sure a McGovern or a Kucinich can’t possibly ever win again. This goes back to the 1976 convention.
But the time and effort into building a new party or movement. That’s what might change things. Frankly, I wish Kucinich would quit the Democrats and help lead that effort. I like him personally and I like his positions. The fact that he won’t leave a Democratic party that opposes him on almost everything is one of the reasons I can’t take him seriously.
How could any true progressive out there NOT support someone with the following guts and fight for what is right?
The 2004 past and probable “what-if’s” be hanged. Let your inner conscience be your guide. We’ve waited for this gentleman for a long, long time. Don’t turn your back on him because of party affiliation. As someone above said in paraphrase: He knows he must work inside the system to get a foothold. Let’s help him get both legs into the White House where he can truly save this country–and help save the world and planet. NO COMPROMISES IN 2008!
and, nickhart–let it go.
BTW, in my state (CO), I can’t support Kucinich in the caucuses unless I’m a registered Democrat. And I refuse to have my name associated with such a disgusting party that takes position after position and action after action that I can’t support.
I can’t support a party that has approved this war from the beginning and has voted to fund it every year. I can’t support a party that supported the Patriot act and contineus to support every bill to give the government more power and citizens less rights. I can’t support a party that continually lines up and supports the bill the banking industry and the big pharma companies want to see passed.
And since I see the Kucinich campaign as about as realistic as Don Quixote tilting at windmills, officially declaring my support for a party I find morally obscene in order to help him charge another windmill just seems silly to me.
nickhart,
As progressives, we should all take a pledge to never work for a for-profit corporation or for the military-industrial complex in any capacity. I personally passed up lucrative opportunities of that nature as a young man, even changing professions (I cannot tell this to most Americans or they will think I am insane), and I have never regretted it. And I am passing on the same value system to my son, and all progressives should do what they can to pass that on to their children or to other young people.
COmarc,
You’d rather hold on to childish, boxed-up anger, and party prejudice than help change the country? The logic escapes me.
He can’t get a foothold from within the system. That’s the point. Its a useless, hopeless, waste of time to be trying.
I’ve been hearing this ‘work within the system’ nonsense since late in the Clinton\Gore years. How’s it working out? After 10 years of trying tilting at this windmill, is it time to admit that its hopeless and try something else?
You admire the Don Quixotes of the world for their belief and persistence. But that doesn’t mean you can’t also sit back and watch and realise that they are also a complete idiot for struggling to do the impossible. Or to switch analogies, how many times can you watch someone charge straight into a brick wall before you just think “what an idiot” and stop paying any attention to them.
The system is rigged deliberately to prevent any changes from within. Those rules and procedures and such started to be built after the Democratic party elites were shocked that McGovern could get the nomination in 1972. Ever since then they’ve made damn sure it won’t happen again. Ie, they’ve built the brick wall. Now they just sit back and laugh as progressives lower their heads and charge into it yet again somehow expecting this time the results will be different.
celebrity: “true progressives” don’t vote democrat. the party is part of the problem and no amount of wishful thinking or willful ignorance is going to change reality. Dennis is a nice guy, but a political dead end. We deserve everything he promises, but he and his party are incapable of delivering.
The primaries are what, five months away? And its going to be over fast when it starts. So fast your head will spin. Faster than in 2004 when Kerry had the nomination locked before most people realize what is happening. The primary calendar is front loaded with more big states coming together faster and faster. This things going to be ‘wham, bam, thank you maam’ and either Hillary or Obama is going to have the nomination.
If Kucinich was going to win, right now, today, he’d have to have massive grassroots organizations in all the big states. Hillary and Obama are amassing their war chests that they’ll use in the saturation ad campaigns as these big state primaries roll in one after the other. What has Kucinich got TODAY to counter that with?
If we were a year out from the primaries, maybe I could hear that it will be built and not laugh. But we are just a few months out and the days on the calendar are going by fast. So, where is the evidence that Kucinich can do so well that he can win the 60% of the vote he needs to win the nomination.
Oh, you didn’t know he needed 60%? That’s one of those post-McGovern, anti-grassroots rules. About 20% of the delegates at the convention are completely unelected by primary or caucus. They are the ’super-delegates’ that are there for the express purpose of making sure those pesky voters don’t vote the Democratic power elites out of their own convention. The seats for the party hacks are guaranteed. And if its a Kucinich-Hillary contest, you know which way the party hacks are going.
If Kucinich was going to win, he’d need to be polling in the 20’s or 30’s now, with an awful lot of those people already mobilized into grassroots efforts going on TODAY in these states. The myth of Kucinich is that somehow support for him is just going to materialize for him at the last minute, and that with minimal grassroots workers working for him suddenly 60% of the Democratic voters are going to suddenly decide to support him even though they are all being blitzed with saturation ad campaigns from the corporate candidates. And if Kucinich is a real threat then, then those ad campaigns, and the corporate media coverage, will both be a combined negative attack right on Kucinich.
So even if you believe the strange myth that the Democratic party is somehow democratic and Kucinich had a chance to start with, wake up and realize its August and its already over.
If you want to change the country, abandon your party prejudice that says you need to be Democrat and go find your local Green party and start giving them a hand. Then you might be building something real that could someday change things in this country. If you keep putting time and effort and money into the Democrats, then that’s the one certain way to make sure nothing ever changes in this country.
Kucinich is one person who illustrates exactly why we need more than two major parties. If you think about it, the Democratic Party encompasses real progressives like Kucinich at one end, and pro-war centrists like Hillary at the other end. It’d be nice if this country would have five major parties like Canada does. That way, you could really vote for who you like, and not have to worry that your vote is only helping the opposition. What I mean by this is that with our dysfunctional two party system, if we don’t like the Dem nominee and if we write in other folks or vote for the Green candidate, folks like us get blamed if the Dem candidate loses. For example, in 2000, many people blamed folks like us who voted for Nader. In 2004, I worked on Kucinich’s campaign & voted for him in the primary, but then during the general election, I plugged my nose and voted for Kerry. This time around, I really don’t think I can plug my nose enough to be able to vote for Hillary, if she gets the nomination…
To put it another way, an outsider - grassroots campaign would have to be at least as strong today as the Dean campaign was 4 years ago at this time. And remember how that relatively strong looking campaign got blitzed by the Democratic party establishment and the corporate media? A few weeks out from Iowa suddenly there was a flood of stories about Dean lacking experience and being unelectable. Meanwhile the Kerry camp started spending their warchest with the message that since Kerry was a Vietnam vet the Rethugs couldn’t attack him and thus he was the most electable (how’t that little idea work out?). In the space of about 3 weeks, Kerry became the leader, won Iowa, the media went hard on the “Dean-scream” story, and then the Dean campaign was dead and gone and Kerry had the nomination.
That happened to a campaign that was orders of magnitude stronger than the Kucinich campaign today, and this year’s calendar is even more compressed and its going to happen even faster this year.
Face it, Dennis has already lost. He should admit it, leave the Democratic party, and announce today that he’s campaigning for the Green Party nomination. Then I’d work my butt off for him.
The real powers in the US have decided on an oligarchy for this country and since such is already a fact we can do nothing but watch them make it official.
If this were not true Dennis would be a shoo-in. Only he advocates a health care system for the benefit of citizens instead of corporations.
Right now they are holding all the cards. I just hope they don’t lose their sense of humor when the working class has finally had enough.
I wonder what the Kucinich supporters will do in Nov, when Kucinich is not the nominee of the Democrats?
Will they hold their noses, gag, and vote for Clinton? Or will they stay true to their understanding that things like national single payer health insurance are singularly important, and vote FOR someone who supports that sort of idea.
Kucinich and the whole democratic party are the democratic party problem.
3rd party is the only way to go and a 3rd party that doesn’t take money in any multiple greater than 25 or 50 bucks tops and only from individuals.
Public financing best, with runoff voting.
Never gonna happen under the current world order.
Only hope is these fools all self destruct and leave some of us alive to start over….
Most here agree that progressives need a third party and that our first choice is the Greens. But whether Kucinich or other progressive candidate will win as a Green is still a long shot. Maybe we should change strategy:
Seeing how people love celebrities like Britney, Reagan and Schwarzenegger, maybe the Greens should change strategy and draft candidates like Robert Redford, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Angelina. You can’t buy that kind of publicity so what Greens lack in money they make up for in free publicity. They could nominate people like Nader, Gravel and Kucinich for different positions and we would get the same results. Just a thought…
I’m hoping to be a new US citizen in time to vote in the 2008 election. My application is currently pending.
You all know much more about this than I do, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to read your comments, and be educated in the ways of American politics.
I can see how unlikely it is that Kucinich could be mominated, but if he continues to gain support, isn’t it likely that he’d get a position in any Democratic administration (supposing they win in 2008)?
At least his voice would coninue to be heard and he’d have more thrust than now.
I’ll vote Green if I get the chance, and DK’s not an option. I couldn’t vote for Clinton under any circumstances.
George Stephanopoulos is a Clintonite, he is just another corporate shill, the “debates” are rigged! Dennis Kucinich is the only real choice currently in the race. All other candidates are just lesser evils. I will likely hold my nose and register Dem so I can vote for Kucinich in the primary. But I will not vote for Clinton or Obama-rama, no way no how. I will also not likely vote for any of the other dims, even if Dennis throws his support behind one. Dennis has one big problem and that is his loyalty to the dim party.
You all have convinced me –there is no hope. Guess I’ll vote for Giuliani. Or Hillary.
Kucinich is the only candidate who stands 100% for the people of this country. He’s the only truly peace candidate. He’s genuinely progressive (not conveniently progressive). I will vote for him until his name is no longer on the ballot, and then I’ll probably write him in. He is my choice, and I won’t settle.
It would interest many kucinich supporters, pottential write in voters.
Is a write in vote merely an act of protest, which in a vote is wateful, or does the voting processors determine that Dennis Kucinich is who we are voting for by that name. How is this determined, if at all. Can we have his SS#? hmm
Hi nickhart,
There are things you may not realize, about Mr. Kucinich. I completely sympathize with your fervor and recipe of grassroots organizing, but think we need to be cautious about jumping to extreme attitudes.
Allow me explain…
I’m someone who’s seen everything - very conservative family, often around wealthy, “W” supporting Republicans in Plano, Tx…and yet I have participated in two World Social Forums and witnessed first hand South American revolutionaries like Hugo Chavez adddress cheering audiences (myself included!) in packed stadiums, about the fight against corrupt corporate/American political elites!!!
What I’ve learned in life is to be very careful: careful not to go from extremist to extremist. No single ideology will save us. It requires a subtle, and higher level approach, even for many well-meaning progressives. There is another way to address our problems, and I think it involves totally new leadership from the top, but also, LIKE YOU SAY, powerful organization from the bottom. I think the peoples’ movement is well underway, and these are new times we’re entering which are evolving quickly. It’s not even the same as it was 4 years ago: leaders everywhere, who hold secrets and have messed up horribly, are scrambling to save face but they know their time is fast fading. Kucinich might very well have the perfect opportunity to step in at just the right moment when all the “forces” come together. It’s a long shot, I know. I’m not naive. But I’m absolutely sure if WE ALL did something to get his name out we will have some “extra help” to boost the momentum.
I will stop blogging and go do something productive now…
peace to all
See My Tattoo ((()))
Vote~SS# hmm. these are the times. I would like to
vote My Conscience-
I have not talked to anyone who will vote for Hillary if she is nominated and neither will I. I am sick and tired of business as usual.
Veteran ‘66-68
another needs to know- the write in how does it work. ibet one or two is looking for it-thanx
A citizen groundswell to overturn the existing power structure occurs when people stop speculating on what will happen - what can and cannot happen - and put the full weight of their support behind a leader and a cause which represent their highest values and judgement. We all know there’s only one people’s progressive candidate in this race, and isn’t it wearisome to have to listen, again and again, to the same sorry argument that Kucinich can’t win, so why bother? Haven’t the last 6 years taught us why we need to bother? A great quote of Gandhi’s to bring this into focus is “First they ignore you.Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you.Then you win.”. Was Gandhi’s non-violent revolution some kind of slam-dunk then? We need to think bigger, folks.
www.fairvote.org/sf/writeins.pdf
the Lost Generation makes Good
A Good Out-Come is Always a SlamDunk -Beautiful~thanx
Nicely said, dolkar. Were you heard, though?
Seems Write-In voting is not the most honored tradition. All is a write-in must be a registered candidate. This is how the tabulation is determined.
Must get this man Kucinich to Commit to the Presidential Rsce. if he does not register independant in the case of Losing the Primary’s -he wasn’t the Man for the Job. He must show dedication to the mission in spite of any allegiance. i do hope we can have him, but i keep my ear to the ground. Self-Righteousness -exercise your conscience . Who will do for you- that’s my vote
As an advocate of single-payer coverage, am disappointed in Kucinich’s extent/branding of the solution as “non-profit health care”.
“Medicare for EVERYone” is a more bite-sized sell which only “socializes” health insurance - not providers.
Still, Dennis’ courage is inspiring. My wife thinks he’s sexy…so it’s safe(r) for me to note here that Elizabeth is hot.
I have a mental disability. Medicare is a poor choice as i guarentee you from experienc what medicare doesn’t cover can build very quickly into irreconcilable Debt. I am covered in three ways and i still am a month behind on my Utilities from a short chain of dental exam. I am always so very glad to have the medical coverage which pays for my treatment and the few things that arise as I get older. I’m sure we would each welcome such coverage if we don’t have it -deeply grateful. what bothers me is that even people close to me as family welcome the coverage for me while opposing national coverage. this is the neo-achiles heel.
What the man is talking about I’m sure is corporate non-profit. IE Cut out the waste and take care of the Health Professionals. N’est Pas?
I Love this Subject. When are we all going to accept the failure of corporate capitalism to achieve and provide constitutional inalienable rights for each and every CITIZEN. Life Liberty and Happiness Pursuit all require institutional ground work that provides oppotunity and reward with respect to effort talent and the equality of all men before the law -in this case the Constitution. WE ALL Live by PROVIDENCE OF THE STATE.
Entrepreneur, office worker, professional, craftsmen , laborer, SS- none of us would have any of what we have if not for the Providence of the State.
Without the State is no grounds for cooperation nor implementation of ambition. If we were a completely Agrarian Society wee would still be impotent without the State- even if it’s only your Foreman. I digress.
All those who mosst loudly decry taxation and special allocations for those less fortunate or less capable, are those who benefit most disproportionarely by the Providence of the State. The State maintains the infrastructure by which any dream is realized and the only reason for the State to do this in any big way is the sacred Value of Humanity. Not just the Species but especially the Principle.
THE PRINCIPLE OF HUMANITY -let that be our guide in all things- yhsnx
here is how medicare for all should be presented:
I know that Medicare for all is the correct way to do healthcare.
The problem that is not being articulated correctly. Dennis Kucinich said we are already paying for it. I agree; but direct comparisons must be made to show how. I know I have the answers and will give them now. PLEASE INCORPORATE THIS REASONING AND ALL WILL TRULY UNDERSTAND!! HERE GOES!
Medicare is not socialized medicine. It is medical insurance which simply pays the bills to private providers and private hospitals. Socialized medicine is defined as government employed Doctors, medical technicians, nurses, etc. and government owned and run hospitals.
1. CHOICE: Under Medicare one can go to any doctor one wants; one can go to any specialist one wants; one can get a second opinion when one wants; no permission required. That is real choice. Under private health care, PPOs’, HMOs’ one must get permission from their insurance for all these things. One is not allowed to go out of network. TALK ABOUT ELIMINATING CHOICE!! The Republicans talk about free choice while eliminating it. Talk about hypocrisy! Private Insurance, HMOs’, PPOs’, etc have limits and many restrictions that when reached forces the patient to pay from then on, Medicare doesn’t have these problems.
2. EFFICIENCY: Private insurance, HMOs’, PPOs’, etc are the most inefficient forms of healthcare in the world, not to mention the most expensive. 20% goes to administrative/overhead, an average of 15% goes to profit. and only 65% goes to health care providers, in other words, only 65% efficient. Much of this overhead goes to checking for pre-existing conditions before and after acceptance of the insured. If after a claim is filed the insured is reinvestigated and if found to have even an unrelated pre-existing condition that the insured didn’t even know about or was many years in the past and no longer relevant, payment is denied and the insured must pay. Each insurance has it’s own form and instructions that providers must check and call to see if a condition is covered; thus adding extra admin cost, around 30% to the provider which is then also billed and adds more overhead for the provider as well. Actual health services total are at around only 50%. Yet, this is what the conservative call the best healthcare in the world with lower coasts?. What nonsense!
Medicare is 97% efficient. Only 3% goes to administrative/overhead costs. 97% goes entirely to healthcare services without any preexisting conditions requirements, lifetime maximum requirements, or other restrictions. Medicare has only one form and set of instructions and all providers have it. This is maximized efficiency.
COMark and others___I believe in trashing the Democrats on not being more forceful against the trumped up war, you are forgetting that immediatly Cheny labeled any unfavorable comment against it as TRAITOROUS. That is a very powerful word to use against people and it worked well for them as all the robot Repulsives took it and ran with it. In my opinion, anyone that believes in Kucinich should vote for him as a matter of principle, as a third party does not stand a chance either, in this controlled election of ours. We just have to put up with this until over half of the people in the country are homeless, broke, and hungry, then a third party might have a chance. The way things look, it could be sooner than we think.
I sound like a broken record, but: SEE SICKO. This gem of a movie makes it so clear that universal (really universal) healthcare is the only civilized, humane, progressive way to deal with this issue. The US is a backward 3rdWorld society when it comes to this. We can destroy, but we can’t heal to save our lives. We make war because there’s money in it. And we perpetuate medical “insurance” because there’s money in that. But there isn’t money in delivering medical care — that is a financial loss for the insurance company. Is it any wonder it’s not in their interest to see that their customers received the best care possible? The system is corrupt by its very nature. Profit must be removed. The rest of the industrialized world has far more progressive systems to deliver medical care to their populations. Are Americans too stupid to see this?
Dennis can win but the public has to yell louder than the MSM. A tidal wave of support would help. Health care will amount to nothing more than higher prices for medical and RX and fewer benefits with any other candidate for president. Dennis tells it like it is and outlines plans for his proposals. The others use DoubleSpeak and you have no idea what you will be getting, but probably more of the same.
Dennis walks the walk while the rest talk the talk.
As a Canadian I have followed republican and democratic presidential debates very closely. While I do not believe in interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, there are only two candidates who stand out in appearing more committed to the truth, than self interest: Dennis Kucinich, and Ron Paul. If either of these two candidates were elected I might hope to see them restore much needed trust, honor, and accountability to the US presidency, both domestically and internationally. Most people tend to cheer for the front runners, wanting perhaps to back a winner. In that context my views are obviously those of a looser, expressing as I do support for two fringe candidates at opposite ends of the political spectrum. But before I am dismissed as that, I would urge Americans everywhere to participate fully in the political process and find out as much as possible about the caliber of the next President of the US before they assume office, rather than after.