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This Is Reform?
It’s never a contest when the interests of big business are pitted against the public interest. So if we manage to get health care “reform” this time around it will be the kind of reform that benefits the very people who have given us a failed system, and thus made reform so necessary.
Forget about a crackdown on price-gouging drug companies and predatory insurance firms. That’s not happening. With the public pretty well confused about what is going on, we’re headed — at best — toward changes that will result in a lot more people getting covered, but that will not control exploding health care costs and will leave industry leaders feeling like they’ve hit the jackpot.
The hope of a government-run insurance option is all but gone. So there will be no effective alternative for consumers in the market for health coverage, which means no competitive pressure for private insurers to rein in premiums and other charges. (Forget about the nonprofit cooperatives. That’s like sending peewee footballers up against the Super Bowl champs.)
Insurance companies are delighted with the way “reform” is unfolding. Think of it: The government is planning to require most uninsured Americans to buy health coverage. Millions of young and healthy individuals will be herded into the industry’s welcoming arms. This is the population the insurers drool over.
This additional business — a gold mine — will more than offset the cost of important new regulations that, among other things, will prevent insurers from denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing conditions or imposing lifetime limits on benefits. Poor people will either be funneled into Medicaid, which will have its eligibility ceiling raised, or will receive a government subsidy to help with the purchase of private insurance.
If the oldest and sickest are on Medicare, and the poorest are on Medicaid, and the young and the healthy are required to purchase private insurance without the option of a competing government-run plan — well, that’s reform the insurance companies can believe in.
And then there are the drug companies. A couple of months ago the Obama administration made a secret and extremely troubling deal with the drug industry’s lobbying arm, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. The lobby agreed to contribute $80 billion in savings over 10 years and to sponsor a multimillion-dollar ad campaign in support of health care reform.
The White House, for its part, agreed not to seek additional savings from the drug companies over those 10 years. This resulted in big grins and high fives at the drug lobby. The White House was rolled. The deal meant that the government’s ability to use its enormous purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices was off the table.
The $80 billion in savings (in the form of discounts) would apply only to a certain category of Medicare recipients — those who fall into a gap in their drug coverage known as the doughnut hole — and only to brand-name drugs. (Drug industry lobbyists probably chuckled, knowing that some patients would switch from generic drugs to the more expensive brand names in order to get the industry-sponsored discounts.)
To get a sense of how sweet a deal this is for the drug industry, compare its offer of $8 billion in savings a year over 10 years with its annual profits of $300 billion a year. Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary in the Clinton administration, wrote that the deal struck by the Obama White House was very similar to the “deal George W. Bush struck in getting the Medicare drug benefit, and it’s proven a bonanza for the drug industry.”
The bonanza to come would be even larger, he said, “given all the Boomers who will be enrolling in Medicare over the next decade.”
While it is undoubtedly important to bring as many people as possible under the umbrella of health coverage, the way it is being done now does not address what President Obama and so many other advocates have said is a crucial component of reform — bringing the ever-spiraling costs of health care under control. Those costs, we’re told, are hamstringing the U.S. economy, making us less competitive globally and driving up the budget deficit.
Giving consumers the choice of an efficient, nonprofit, government-run insurance plan would have moved us toward real cost control, but that option has gone a-glimmering. The public deserves better. The drug companies, the insurance industry and the rest of the corporate high-rollers have their tentacles all over this so-called reform effort, squeezing it for all it’s worth.
Meanwhile, the public — struggling with the worst economic downturn since the 1930s — is looking on with great anxiety and confusion. If the drug companies and the insurance industry are smiling, it can only mean that the public interest is being left behind.
- Posted in
52 Comments so far
Show AllAnother scam to mandate a massive transferral of wealth, with boy Obama as the dutiful servant to the elite ruling class.
We thought the Clintons were bad but even after all the evidence, many still in denial and clinging to shreds of hope, advocate for more time--presumably to continue on the same trajectory.
The only "reform" that will remain "on the table" appears to be criminalizing the uninsured and criminalizing businesses that resist extortion by the insurance industry.
This will assure that the Democrats lose control of both houses of Congress in the 2010 elections.
Well, if one wants to have a positive outlook, one could always hope that the Blue Dogs such as Baucus get kicked to the curb for a more prograssive candidate. But then again, it is very difficult to have a positive outlook considering the "change" that has been made since 2006.
This administration apparently has at least a few more weeks before we can gripe. According to Republican tradition, you are not responsible for anything that happens on your watch until Sept 12 of your first year in office.
yes, obama is the "boy" of the ruling elite--fascism. he will be gone in 2012 with another dupe to dupe the American Public.
How dumb can the voting public be? election after election voting for the corporate whores. its not a matter of democrat or rebulican...what's the difference? NONE!
how can we claim to be a democracy when the 70% who support SINGLE PAYER are ignored? maybe we exported (one of our few exports) all the remaining shreds of democracy.
Max Baucus and the boys have done their bidding...how noble!
"How dumb can the voting public be?"
Stay tuned.
Bob Herbert hit the sweetspot with his article today. I heard Dennis Kucinich recently making essentially the same point. Obama is an unbelievable sellout (even for a centrist democrat).
Although I have got to say to Vern, regarding the previous post, that referring to Obama as "boy" might lead one to speculate that perhaps you got lost on you way to a townhall meeting.
Not lost on me. I know it isn't politically correct, but look at the psychology.
What does it look like to you--first African-American president serves the interests of the corporate elite at the expense of the increasingly squeezed population? It seems to me that Obama's ambition to be the first African American president ended there. Nothing else seems to drive him. He should've thought it through. Now, how does it look to have the first African-American president not only incompetent, but more than willing to betray everyone but his corporate masters? Looks like a tom to me and the other side toys with him like he is a boy they can push around.
I think he's more like Simon Legree.
Vern -
While I agree with your sentiments, perhaps, instead of 'boy' which is a term loaded with racism, you use the more accurate description, 'pawn'.
And while we are trudging to whatever half-assed jobs are left in this "Land of the Free" or receiving your pittance of an SS retirement check.... remember this.........
Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of United Health Care, makes $102,000 per hour.
That's the line that I noticed, too, in an otherwise perfect piece: "The White House was rolled." Was not.
Let's not be bamboozled any further than supporters like Bob Herbert already have been. Just say NO to "reform" that amounts to another trillion dollar bailout for the FIRE industry.
There does seem to be this tendency for left-wing pundits and journalists to give 'cover' for the Obama administration. "Give him more time!" "What do you expect when half the country just wants to obstruct?" "Maybe BO is playing chess, not checkers."
I'm sick of these lame, wait-and-see excuses. If Obama is selling us out, then at least take him to task for running on a platform of 'Change We Can Believe In'.
"In our society, REAL POWER does not happen to lie in the political system, it lies in the private economy...as long as you have private control over the economy, it doesn't make any difference what forms (of government) you have, because they can't do anything."---Chomsky
RichM, I agree with you. The evidence shows over and over the same results. Whether the industry is finance, medical, insurance or military, they come out on top and the public loses it's shirt. This is no accident.
On the health care sellout, the insurance and drug execs aren't just smiling, they are salivating. And let's be clear on this $80 billion in savings. It's "up to" $80 billion savings on rising prices. Reminds me of Safeway coupons. Save $300 although you would have to spend $1500 to achieve that. And there's no guarantee that $80 billion wouldn't melt away into negative numbers. I'd be willing to bet on that outcome.
Obama would do better to stay away from town halls, or even open his mouth at all. People will start realizing he speaks with a forked tongue. Talk about a snake oil salesman.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Of course, this is not reform. Although, it will work out quite well for the health insurance companies. At the same time, "we the people," once again, are forced to hand over our hard-earned money, if we are lucky enough to be working, to the health industry corporations. And, here we go again. I don't know about you, but I am tapped out!
As for the White House being "rolled" -- I agree with RichM:
"No, actually, the White House was not "rolled." The truth is far worse. Being "rolled" would imply it had been tricked, contrary to its real intentions. But here, its intentions were in line with the insurance & drug companies from the get-go."
"And, here we go again. I don't know about you, but I am tapped out!"
Likewise. And that is why the Republican base fights Obama's healthcare plan, too. Somebody tell the let-them-eat-cake Senate that the American people are already tapped out by Bush's reign of terror. We need relief, not more burdens. The Senators are clearly planning on delivering more buckets of cash to the country's richest. They justify this monstrosity by saying they will extend coverage to the poor - also through increased tax burden. Nothing in this bill will help those struggling to pay for all the previous congressional stupidities such as the merger between Treasury and Goldman Sachs. The Senate is incapable of responding to the needs of ordinary citizens. We can''t be seen or heard through the iron curtain of campaign contributions. At this rate, I expect a horse to become Senator. We've already got several starts on one.
Pitch Fork,
I agree with your post!
We need to pay close attention to the commercial real estate market -- a market that both Michael Hudson and Paul Craig Roberts report as about to crash. The people who own commercial real estate are wealthier than most of us who simply rent (me), or own our own homes -- or did, prior to the sub-prime market crash.
I live in NYC, and I have have never, in the 15 years that I have lived here, seen so many empty commercial real estate spaces -- small spaces, large spaces, and even entire blocks that are empty of businesses. And, this is true in every neighborhood in the city, including Madison Avenue. A couple of months ago, I read an article written by Andrew Cockburn on Counterpuch that described his area of the country -- empty malls, etc., similar to what I notice here in NYC. This has to a widespread crisis waiting to happen.
When the crash comes, will these millionaires and billionaires, along with the speculators, be bailed out?
Another terrific guy to read on the economy is Mike Whitney at Counterpunch!
I always read his articles, too! Counterpunch publishes quite a few articles about the economy, and the writers that publish are well versed. They really understand what's going on behind the scenes, and beneath the surface.
Naturally, my comment on Herbert's column was censored by the media whores at the New York Times, despite the fact that my comment was one of the earliest:
"The most important 'public option' is not in health care, but in saving democracy!
The real 'public option' that we need is a 'public option' populist-progressive, socialist democracy party that actually represents the people instead of both these lying, ruling-elite, 'Vichy' parties that represent the corporate EMPIRE, which runs this 'plantation nation' and enslaves the downtrodden proles, serfs, and peons by fooling all the people all the time through the EMPIRE's corporate monopoly media whores!
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
(a confident, four-time Nader voter, whose time is coming round at last --- for real revolution against this two-party 'Vichy' facade that has the arrogance to call itself democracy)
The momentum and cause and effect that the masses can have if they all cooperate as one is almost beyond the imagination. I guess it is only a matter of time until the people wake up or get pushed hard enough into a corner and then decide to do something about it. We shall see how long until this festering boil we are sitting on needs to be lanced. Then the ugly, pus laden diseases that have infected this country will be gone.
Thank you John Conner,
Of course! The only thing that matters is our ability to organize; and we need a national conversation about how to do it.
It would help if Common Dreams carried an ongoing blog for organizing techniques. Not a one or two day fireball, but a continuing conversation, where each comment stayed up as long as people voted for it to stay up. We need to conduct a campaign to make that happen.
If you are interested, drop me a line, or even phone, and let's see what we can do.
Laurence Schechtman, aka Laurence of Berkeley
Laurenceofberk@aol.com
510-540-1975
By the way, in the Bay Area there is a "Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives" or NoBAWC (pronounced "No Boss") which you can reach through www.nobawc.org
For peace and solidarity
Laurence
” The White House, for its part, agreed not to seek additional savings from the drug companies over those 10 years. This resulted in big grins and high fives at the drug lobby. The White House was rolled. The deal meant that the government’s ability to use its enormous purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices was off the table.”
The White House was rolled? I don’t think so. When you say the word rolled I think of a victim who was so stupid that he allowed himself to be suckered. No, I don’t think President Obama is a stupid sucker who got rolled, like I have been in life, but knows exactly what he is doing.
Denial is easier to face than the truth and so many of the people who voted for President Obama are making excuses for his actions. They hope beyond hope that President Obama will prove himself to be the man they thought he was when they voted for him. It is always someone elses fault but not the man they voted for. Many times they blame it all on Republicans, Conservatives and George Bush. Yet, President Obama needs to start being held accountable for the things he does under his watch. It has been 7 months now and what do we see more of the same ole same ole of lying, greed, doublecross, allowing torture and human rights violation of prisoners in our country, the destruction of our mountains with mountaintop removal mining, no real action to stop climate change and more spying on the American people with FISA. I believe President Obama is proving himself to be no different than all the other corrupt politicans who do the bidding of the large corporations. Dare I say the word indentured servent.
He didn’t earn my vote or my respect so I didn’t vote for him. I am so happy with my choice to leave the Democratic party and join the Green Party.
Obama, like the legend of Robert Johnson, went down to the crossroads and sold his soul to the Devil. Johnson gave us something wonderful. Obama will simply be leaving a sack of horse shit in front of the doors of everyone who voted for him. If this betrayal doesn't actually finish him off, it will come very close. Wonder what it's like being a lame duck for three years?
I have a question that I hope one of you political junkies can help me with.
Senate Majority Whip, Dick Durban, is keeping tabs on who in the Senate will or will not vote for various reforms. He says he cannot get up to 60 votes on a plan that has a 'public option'.
Here is my question: Is he telling the American public that the 6 or so Senators not on board with a 'public option' will stand with the Senate Republicans in a filibuster. I mean, even if they don't ultimately vote for the bill, do you think they'll filibuster reform? I don't. And if they will, let them. Let America see the conservative Democrats actually filibuster and defeat a bill. I think the Democrats should show some balls and give a bill (with a robust public option) an up or down vote.
Can anyone explain to me why the 60 is so important to pass the bill, I thought it was only necessary to defeat a filibuster, and like I said, I don't think the conservative Dems will filibuster - regardless of their ultimate vote. Also, I understand about Reconciliation, that's not my question.
My guess is since the Democrats, in their present status, can't blame the Republicans for obstructing, the minority Blue Dog coalition is a convenient replacement. The Progressive Caucus is actually bigger, I believe, but when some of the more vulnerable freshmen intended to vote against the latest round of war funding, the Administration threatened them. You see they can "whip" them into line if they choose to.
The Administration didn't threaten them, just reminded them of the animosity from the MIC corporations that would come down on their heads in their re-elecction campaigns if they persisted to oppose more war funding.
By comparison, the "anger" of actual voter constituents is (assumed to be) of no real consequence to their re-elections.
Tidbit worth saving:
In June the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the White House, together with Nancy Pelosi , was trying 'to muscle through a $106 billion war funding bill today'. But among Democrats enthusiasm for this is not very high: 'I see no reason to be keeping our troops in Iraq that much longer and to start into Afghanistan when there's no end in sight," Woolsey said Monday. "If we were voting on funds to bring our troops home from Iraq, I'd vote for it in a minute. ... I just hope we're not repeating the mistake we made in Iraq'. The solution? '[...] the White House has threatened to pull support from Democratic freshmen who vote no'. Author Norman Solomon wonders: 'But why would a president choose to single out fellow Democrats in their first congressional term? Because, according to conventional wisdom, they're the most politically vulnerable and the easiest to intimidate'. In the end the 106 billion dollar package was approved. By the end of this fiscal year, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will have cost Americans 915 billion dollars. 'Asked if the United States was winning in Afghanistan, a war he effectively adopted as his own last month by ordering an additional 17,000 troops sent there, Mr. Obama replied flatly, “No.”'
"Can anyone explain to me why the 60 is so important to pass the bill, I thought it was only necessary to defeat a filibuster, and like I said, I don't think the conservative Dems will filibuster - regardless of their ultimate vote. Also, I understand about Reconciliation, that's not my question."
Please refer to my earlier post of a quote by Noam Chomsky. To briefly recap, it's all smoke and mirrors with regard to our elected officials be they Dems or Repubs because REAL POWER lies elsewhere in the financial sector. The filibuster is used as a convenient excuse to make it seem like congress is acting on behalf of their constituents while they remain subservient to their corporate masters.
the planet is, if not dying, certainly being pushed in that direction by our industrial activity, which is the underlying support activity for our jobs, which is, of course, where we get income, which is where we get income taxes, which is what pays for shit like this bogus health care reform package...as the planet sickens, human populations sicken and dwindle with it, because we are all, along with the planet, the same physical body...jobs and industries collapse, leaving nothing but ruin and ongoing toxicity, and, as a by-product, a vastly smaller pool of income, and, therefore, income taxes...even if such a thing as health care (death prevention, really) continues to exist, we will not be able to pay for it...we are killing ourselves and our living world to stay alive...
we all die, health care or no...to save the species, all species, for that matter, the individual may have to die sooner, rather than later...perhaps we could compensate by making such a life more freedom-laden...
I agree with the others who don't buy that Obama was "rolled." No way. He may be a corporate tool, but he's too smart to be tricked by getting "rolled."
But, if he was rolled, he has an opportunity to show 'em who's boss -- if legislation is passed without a public option, he can VETO the bill.
If he doesn't use his veto pen, it will prove that he never intended true reform.
Enter Howard Dean -- give 'em hell in 2012, Dr. Dean!
"This additional business — a gold mine..."
There is only one answer: The American Public Care Trust Fund.
All Americans, universal health care for $40/month. That's $150 billion/year.
Docs, hospitals, drug makers - 5% profit guaranteed, plus 75 million new customers overnight. Long-term customers. As in, life-long.
No more health insurance except for those who wish to purchase 'extra' insurance, employers out of the equation.
APCTF - cost-plus system, no medical decisions, just financial ones. IOW, zero tolerance lying, cheating and stealing.
No new taxes, no mandates, no more f#@king bullshit. We pay $40/month just like we pay the cell or gas bill.
Right now, workers 'contribute' over $800 to their work plan/year, and at least another $500 deductible. For half that, full coverage - saving workers over $60 billion/year, and employers almost twice that!
Full coverage, all Americans, 1 price. The only answer.
Frank--Before we decided to self-insure, my retired aunt was paying $850/mo for BlueCross--$10,200/yr. If we had retained it, the monthly permium would now be about 930/mo--11,160/yr, with no end in sight. Likely over 1k/mo next year. And this was a group insurance plan that supposedly has leverage WRT premiums. We now self-insure everthing. Agreed, this isn't for everyone. But as far as my family's concerned, ALL insurance companies can go bankrupt and their CEOs rot in hell.
Bob Herbert's another media hypocrite who knew Obama was a fraud from the beginning but still vociferously supported him. Now he's crying fowl once more. We'll get a lot of that from Democratic Party hacks like Herbert, Krugman and other liberals in the next few years.
Why didn't you support Cynthia McKinney, Mr. Herbert? As a fellow African-American she needed your help. But instead you threw your support to this half-black, half-honest car salesman Barack Obysmal, didn't you? So don't complain now. Just admit you were wrong.
At least he is calling him out now. Obama still has his partisan defenders and apologists. The tide is turning at places like Huff Post but there are still his diehard fools demanding allegiance and attacking the growing tide of malcontents as being "to angry" or "whining".
Too little too late. Calling Obama out now is useless, Herbert had a powerful forum from which to expose Obama during the campaign. He knew all the reactionary forces funneling millions into Obama's campaign. Did he think Obama was going to betray the same corporations that gave him all those millions?
The only thing that would move me a little is a full-blown apology from Herbert, Olbermann, Maddow and all remaining Lesser Evilists.
The business of government is to find new goldmines for the corporations, and that would be us, the taxpayers.
It is also the job of government to bail out corporations who made bad decisions, at our expense.
While the job of the government is to keep the public too busy treading water to have time or energy to pay attention to what is going on, the job of the media is to keep the public too uninformed, misinformed and distracted to do anything about all this.
It all seems to be working quite well for those running the country. As for the taxpayers, they can eat shit.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
I agree with RichM and Kay Johnson, and I, too, am about tapped out.
More than 10 per cent of my Social Security check is deducted each month for Medicare Part B premiums. I need serious dental work, but that's not covered. If I get sick and need medical care, add a 20% co-pay...
Car insurance annually is equal to a month of Social Security despite an exemplary driving record.
Property taxes on my house eat another month of social security payments. The roof leaks but I can't afford to pay someone else to fix it and have no time to repair it myself because I have to work at a low-paying, high-skill, part-time job to supplement my social security (and the job offers no health insurance, so in effect my employer is being subsidized by my medicare payments!). And I can't get homeowners insurance because the roof leaks! Catch-22.
In effect, three out of 12 months of social security payments are going to forced insurance and taxes, excluding sales and income taxes and telephone excise taxes. Add that during the winter months my heating bills take half the social security income. During the sweltering summer months my kitchen gets too hot to cook in and I can't afford air-conditioning.
This is written not out of self-pity but anecdotally out of increasing anger, as I contemplate what Max Baucus and Obama, et al, are about to do to many millions of fellow-Americans already hit up by what is increasingly recognized as a fascist government.
I guess I'll have to work at some stinking low-paying job (if I can keep one) until I die, because sure as hell there is no safety net.
Has anyone ever heard of The Revolt of the Sheep? If this health care "reform" becomes a fait accompli, what's next? Soylent Green but this time as bio-fuel?
-30-
I sympathize, and I don't read your story as being self-pity. It's the facts, and so many people, across this country are suffering.
Your reference to Soylent Green is chilling! I remember the first time I saw the film.
Cameiros
Anyone, from Herbert on down, who continues to vote Dem/Rep is clueless.
The 2 parties have only superficial differences dictated by their corporate sponsors.
Their agenda has nothing to do with the agenda of governance, simply with the agenda of retaining power.
The dems will do only those things their sponsors approve; same for the repubs.
There is no 'American' agenda - an agenda for the people.
How can you possibly continue to support either party..?
Herbert sez: "Insurance companies are delighted with the way “reform” is unfolding."
***
They should be. They're writing it.
America, you have been had again. You are settling for something you will regret very shortly. Single payer is the only way. SP or get the hell to DC and demand the people be heard. Enough is enough. Use your power of numbers or bend over further for the final sodomization. False flags, illegal wars, Katrina, loss of rights, loss of habeas corpus, the felonious bailout, foreclosures, unemployment, torture, lies, deception, depleted uranium, indiscriminate drone bombing, rendition, CONgressional blackmail, mercenaries, no-bid contracts, MSM control, voter fraud, lies, lies, lies.....how much more for Keericed sake!!! DO SOMETHING...for yourself...for your children.
sierra7
This is my latest letter-to-editor:
"The Democratic Party, the incoming Obama Administration bleated “change” to the American voters. They would clean house of the horrible execution of the presidency by the outgoing Bush Team.
Our “American Empire” continues it’s overt and covert war(s), renditions and the ensuing torture, holding individuals in prisons regardless of whether they have been charged or not with a crime, giving those who precipitated in the economic mess the reins to bring us out with no new ideas whatsoever except to begin building another bubble to crash in the near future, increasing our overly bloated military machine while we now are cutting back those necessary parts of a good democracy like education, support for the unfortunate and condemning Universal Single-Payer Health Care to the trash bin without any good, healthy debate.
We have the “staging” of “town hall” meetings that are pre-empted by picture slides and ground rules to stifle debate, and probably a “salted” audience in opposition to true health-care reform.
Business Week (a true “lefty” rag 8-17-09) says that the insurance industry is already giving hi-fives and celebrating.
I’m reminded by my friends who oppose my views that, “….things can’t change overnight.” But, when all is said and done, this political party in charge will leave no stone unturned to maintain the grasp of power over the people. (Disclosure: I’m a registered no-partisan voter)
To have true “change”, and at least a good debate about change we need more political parties to grow and challenge the two-party “American Exceptionalism” theory whereby our leaders are always right and the American people are just “children.”
That is monarchy and political mediocrity.
Maybe we need some anarchy."
********************************************************************
“You do not cut deals with the system that has to be replaced, which is the health insurance system and the monster costs imposed by the drug corporations, all of which are getting huge taxpayer subsidies, by the way.” Ralph Nader at:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23268.htm
*************************************************************
We need a "firewall" between the forces of capital and the progressive needs (not necessarily the "desires") of society. Marx and Adam Smith essentially stated the same. Until this happens we will have to fight for every little bit of social progress. That's America.
The "two-party" system is sham democracy. Until we remember historically how we obtained the social amenities like 8 hr days, unemployment compensation, fair labor standards, Social Security, equal-pay standards, etc., we will not remember "how to fight."
What would this bankers/political opportunist economic meltdown be like if we didn't have Social Security, unemployment benefits??
We need more anarchy and less complacency.
the dems have proven once more that there is only a one party system.
Hey Sierra7---
Let us know if your letter-to-the-editor gets published!
If I were to write what you wrote above to my two local newspapers, they would not publish. Most of my now-infrequent letters DO get published, but usually after two or three careful drafts while calculating what they will accept. If I were to write, "Maybe we need some anarchy" or were to suggest that what we have is a "monarchy" there is no way they would publish.
In any case, given current social/political/economic organization, the term "anarchy" is probably anachronistic. These days, through the efforts of former Senator Phil Gramm (TX) (now raking in millions as a Swiss Banker), the resultant DEREGULATION of the financial system can be seen as a "form" of "anarchy," but ultimately it enabled Goldman-Sachs to kill off Lehman Brothers and create what amounts to a cabal. (It is no longer even a Plutocracy...) The human animal seeks patterns in the environment even when there is chaos (entropy, anarchy?), and we tend to organize our actions and reactions in response to perceived patterns because we cannot respond very well to chaos, which is one reason why non-combantants take such large casualties in wars---the combatants have a plan "and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?". [Thanks, Bob, Bleeker Street, Gaslight, mid 60s.
Same with health care "reform." Bob Herbert's leading sentence pretty much says it all. We civilians don't have a chance in this WAR. (After all, is this not a matter of life and death?)
Civilians need to take a stand and join some organization just to get some idea of where this is going, because sure as hell our MSM media ain't tellin us. This past weekend, when the HHHSSSSSHHHH Secretary, Sibelius, ASSerted that the Public Option is NOT the essential element of the "reform," all hell broke loose.
If, at this sad time, the Public Option is not "the essential element" in health care "reform," pray tell us Ms. Sibelius, WHAT IS?
After all, you and the Pres and Nancy Pelosi took "single payer" off the table going in. The doctors and nurses want "single payer" so now you are screwing the primary care providers to enrich the parasites?
A few days ago an elderly art professor came into the shop and somehow we got into a discussion about health care, and he stopped at a certain point and declared that he had an idea:
A million people show up and march on Washington, with any signs they want, but they speak or utter not. No sound (except of people walking). The utter silence of the vocal chords and the goddam cell-phones.
Given the utter cacaphony (a form of Anarchy?) coming from the loudmouths on television these days, such a march strikes me as a very refreshing idea.
But bring your own toilet paper (er, asswipes), because Goldman-Sachs OWNS Barack Obama. He majored in Law.
Actually, come to think of it, another Professor showed up at the shop earlier this evening asking me to bind into books five old Treatesies [sic] on the God(s), Symbolisms of several ancient civilizations in the Mideast. I was happy to activate the bindery machine.
Without culture, through language and art, Humans are pretty goddam stupid, like ivory soap close to apes. As Ben Franklin is alleged to have said, "if we do not hang together, we will all hang separately." That single sentence probably may have determined the Future.
People, we are really stupid as individuals. Notice that those who "succeed" are Members of Corporations THAT (not WHO) are artificial constructs THAT have been the Constitutional Power against the Individual Citizen. 1886.
We need to study other models. The Chinese and the Indians seem to be improving, while we are descending. Etc. Etc. Etc.
I disagree on the idea of Anarchy, but I consider yours a valid post. Anarchy and Anarchism as social organization (dare I utter that?) are in my opinion worthy of study, and possible action.
One serious problem in re the idea of Anarchy is that one dictionary meaning of it is "terrorism." To my own mind, it could be claimed that the Amish and Mennonites et al in Pennsylvania and Ohio and Indiana, etc. could be called Anarchists. But they are not. They simply understand their surround in ways to which you and I generally are not attuned. Same with Islam... Different cultures, same desire.
Each to his/her own.
Be not complacent. It is time to ACT, and Act Out. The window of opportunity is too small. Without a true "single payer" system system similar to what our globsal peers provide, we cannot compete. Period.
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Ha! The 'competing government run plan' was private insurance companies acting as government contractors. So even in that scenario, the insurance companies had a win-win.
Some of us have been trying to tell you that for months now.
Ha! The 'competing government run plan' was private insurance companies acting as government contractors. So even in that scenario, the insurance companies had a win-win.
Some of us have been trying to tell you that for months now.
Ha! The 'competing government run plan' was private insurance companies acting as government contractors. So even in that scenario, the insurance companies had a win-win.
Some of us have been trying to tell you that for months now.
in a time of increasing scarcity,.. the winners win, watching the losers die, tearing each other's throats...
It's all about the Free Market business model.
The American people are free to be livestock and obey the government.
Corporate oligarchs are free to manage the government and harvest the livestock.
The livestock have *(1)fast food and *(2)fox news so they know everything is OK.
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*(1)Fast food: A high-efficiency nutritional system in which the chickens are fed cow manure and the cows are fed chicken manure - and are conditioned to like it and grow fat.
*(2)fox news: A high-efficiency informational system in which the chickens are fed cow manure and the cows are fed chicken manure - and are conditioned to like it and grow compliant.
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Greatest Nation on Earth, bringin' it on!
(Are we pissed yet?)