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The Drive for Single Payer
After several weeks of protests at Senate hearings and health care events by single payer advocates (visit singlepayeraction.org), six physicians from Oregon, with 191 years of combined real-world medical experience, are crossing the country in a 27-foot Winnebago making stops in nearly 30 cities, to debate, educate and advance full medicare for all. Everybody in, nobody out.
Calling themselves "Mad as Hell Doctors," these physicians are already drawing crowds and expect thousands to turn out at each city that they visit, culminating in a large arrival demonstration in front of the White House around October 1. (Visit www.madashelldoctors.com)
They have written President Obama asking for a meeting "to discuss the future of health care as well as the moral, social, and fiscal imperative of enacting a single-payer system for America at this moment in our history."
The White House turned them down flat, not even leaving the door open for reconsideration. Mr. Obama has met countless times with the CEOs of large corporations, whose greed and callousness causes so much of this crisis. Though he believes in single payer "if we started from scratch," he has yet to meet with any single payer delegation.
The White House has shown that it lacks smarts. The formless, waffling Obama health insurance proposal is being shattered by the Republican cluster of Limbaugh-driven lies and the Blue Dog renegades in the Democratic Party, who are busy cashing mounds of campaign checks from the so-called health business. By ignoring and excluding the majority-supported single payer approach, the White House stifles any kind of insurance reform worthy of the name.
Publicized lies are translating into fears among people who should be supporting full medicare for all. FactCheck.org reports that "a notorious analysis of the House health care bill contains 48 claims. Twenty-six of them are false, and the rest are mostly misleading. Only four are true. For example, false are claims that the bill includes an order for end-of-life plans or health care for illegal aliens or assertions that ‘your health care will be rationed.'"
So wild are the falsehoods, fueled by runaway internet traffic, that the Republican National Committee implied in a fundraising letter that Democrats may structure the overhaul in a way to deny medical treatment to Republicans!
As with war, truth is the first casualty when it comes to the health care debate. The Democratically-controlled Congress, on its return after Labor Day, needs a wide-ranging personal, evidence-based series of public House and Senate hearings to again publicize the compelling story of avoidable suffering, fraud, waste, egregious profiteering and top executive self-enrichment - all subsidized by taxpayers.
Take the enormous and shocking information researched by Harvard Professor Malcolm Sparrow-an applied mathematician whose knowledge of health care billing schemes and regulatory deficiencies is without peer.
Mr. Sparrow is no arm-chair commentator. He has dug deeply into the enormously comprehensive frauds on medicare and consumers. He has found payments for medical services ordered by deceased doctors or huge payments in treatments for deceased patients-many gone for years.
Highlighting the widespread fraud on medicare by criminal behavior, he argues that these actions should be treated as "a crime problem" not just a "claims-processing problem." Without criminal prosecutions, there is no deterrent stopping this massive robbery.
How massive? Read these words in recent testimony by Professor Sparrow:
The units of measure for losses due to health care fraud and abuse in this country are hundreds of billions of dollars per year. We just don't know the first digit. It might be as low as one hundred billion. More likely two or three. Possibly four or five. But whatever that first digit is, it has eleven zeroes after it. These are staggering sums of money to waste, and the task of controlling and reducing these losses warrants a great deal of serious attention.
In the early 1990s, the Congressional Government Accounting Office estimated that billing fraud accounts for 10% of health care spending annually. That would be about $250 billion this year. In 1993, Attorney General Janet Reno declared that health care fraud was the number two crime problem, after violent crime in the country.
With someone as carefully authoritative as Malcolm Sparrow, the Democrats can make this crime spree front and center during the health care debate. People want to be assured that their health insurance dollars are protected. Instead the "license to steal," which is the title of Mr. Sparrow's groundbreaking book, continues. And the Republicans continue to sidetrack priorities for action with seedy prevarications.
It is a remarkable commentary on the state of the White House and Congress that the Democrats appear befuddled in dealing with the kind of coarse, cruel, fear-mongering that an FDR and Lyndon Johnson would have overwhelmed and sent packing.
Meanwhile, join the "Care-A-Van" of roadtripping Oregon physicians and their efforts to bring the message of health care for all to Washington, DC.
- Posted in
111 Comments so far
Show AllOff their website.............
Imagine...
Thousands of cars pulling into the nation's capital for a protest on the White House lawn. The sidewalks are filled with supporters carrying signs in support of the Mad As Hell Doctors who have captured the imagination and the ignited the passion of their fellow citizens. We wave and honk at the camera crews, as do the endless line of cars behind us, as we wend our way toward the White House. On every antenna, on the backside of every car, and flapping like flags from sidewalk supporters, is the symbol of this new movement: the White Ribbon.
If Obama and Congress were seriously considering any real reform they would at least order an economic analysis of a single payer program from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Obama and Congress have demonstrated no reluctance to order CBO data for the public option (whatever that is) and other programs they plan to push off the table.
I like the White Ribbon idea.
Perhaps they can be decorated with the words "Start From Scratch!"
elainem: Great idea: with a chicken logo.
This really is a good slogan; I don't do brevity, but I appreciate it. Has it been copyrighted yet?
It's good because, as Homer Simpson once said, it works on so many LEVELS: as a pure, simple statement of the preferred approach, and of course as a rebuttal to Obama's fatalistic and dismissive use of the term.
Well, two levels anyway. Oh, and it's snappy enough to be placed on buttons, banners, T-shirts. And yes, even bumper stickers.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Thank you. It's what I wrote on my last card to the White House.
And really, isn't that what legislating is all about: an opportunity to start from scratch?
I am reminded of prohibition, when one day alcohol was legal and the next day a new set of laws had started the entire nation from scratch. The government even went so far as to destroy the inventory of the (formerly legal) breweries. Wouldn't it be sweet if the gov't took that attitude towards the insurance companies?
madashelldoctors sez: "We wave and honk at the camera crews, as do the endless line of cars behind us, as we wend our way toward the White House."
***
No.
The cameras are over at the 'crowd' of a few dozen brain-dead waving their "Keep goverments hands OFF my medicaire!" signs.
Media-wise, you won't actually exist.
Goebbels: not even with the "start from scratch" and chicken logos on their vans?
imagine education combined with free health care
nevergiveup September 1st, 2009 9:03 am
"Imagine...
Thousands of cars pulling into the nation's capital for a protest on the White House lawn."
Earlier this month a doctor organization delivered free health care in a low income part of Los Angeles. Thousands lined up daily.
Imagine free healthcare delivery repeated - moving across the country - with education, voter registration, and the slogan, "This is what universal health care looks like."
Whoever wrote this doesn't know much about DC, nor ever organized protests there. There is no access to the "White House lawn" without getting shot. The closest access is Lafayette Park and the pedestrian only segment of Pa. Avenue to the north. Going there in a car is a very bad idea DC is a big city, not a shopping mall. The streets are already endless lines of cars. To get the a sufficient mass of people, it needs to be done using buses and/or come in via the metro.
Nader tells the real truth, as usual, which is why he can never be elected to any high office. Now take a look at David Brooks in today's NY Times, for the other side of this story. He says Obama is losing ground with voters because he's shifted so far to the LEFT on health care, and blah blah blah. No one trusts him with this because we won't have any choices, the government is "taking over" and wants to kill us all, not just grannies. About half the people in this country believe these lies, and Brooks wants them to believe them. The fact that Obama has already sold out to the big insurers and pharmaceuticals is entirely lost on Brooks, and that Obamacare is even worse than the failed Clinton plan of the '90s, because it preserves for-profit care (abuse, theft and fraud) above all else, namely sanity and humanity.
I am so sick of health care reform. Good thing I have health insurance, even though I can barely afford it. I live in New York State. Three or four years ago I received a check of $1200 from my health insurance company because the attorney General's office found the company to be overcharging for its premiums. It didn't really matter as a few months later the premiums went up another whopping amount to around eight or nine hundred dollars per month. Needless to say...I couldn't afford that and had to scramble around to find something...anything. I am single and self-employed so I was like a leper (with pending no insurance).
I am so sick of the whole thing because: what's the point? Is it a charade? is its demise due to the Republican's tricky and unethical maneuvers? Are the Democrats and Obama as weak-kneed, unprepared and stupid as they appear? One would think the Democrats would've been ready to present their plan in a clear format to the American people, not to mention know that the Republicans were NEVER going to go along with it. August was a really long month of nothing...but false hope, confusion, nastiness and lack of foresight, will and determination, and most of all, a lack of heart. How the Hell do they think people can afford to get sick? They don't care. They should pass a bill that changes the name from "health care" to "I don't care" Frequently, the media ends its coverage by saying most Americans want single payer. Where are they?
I think the heart is gone from a country that has no sense of our inter-connectedness regarding the healthcare debacle, tortures and defends torture and spends a huge amount of time and money on peering through a peephole and ogling celebrity lives.
I hope the woman who was crying at the townhall meeting (her husband was sent home with a feeding tube I think), the many who were in line at this year's and next year's healthcare fair in the animal stalls, and the countless others whose lives are diminished or even ended by this mess find some hope and help from somewhere. How can you have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without your health?
The HOPE is in us. And the directions are in this article.
This is Nader at his best. Fighting from the sidelines. Encouraging citizen action. ORGANIZING.
How do you think the Right crumbled public confidence in Obama so early and have had him running around like he has one foot nailed to the floor?
Bodies. Feet on the street. Organization. Demonstrations. Outrageous behavior at Town Halls.
And then ...
Voila! Media Coverage.
Followed by Controlled talking points. Focus on the topic. and over and over again.
The Left shrugs because this is all so consistent with all the other offenses of the culture: war, a ravaged planet, injustice, etc.
It makes us and the population feel helpless and overwhelmed. The Left gripes because our elected officials aren't doing our job for us, or what they promised.
But they are not going to do anything they are neither paid nor forced to do.
When will we get it?
Well all I can say is you are lucky you have heath care. Otherwise you'd be out there too.
And don't say you are sick of it. Sounds ... insular in light of all the damage to human lives out this is causing.
When we will progressives get the moral dimension to all this.
It's not about you or me.
It's (to begin with) about 50 million uninsured.
Then 18 thousand who die for want of care. etc.
The heart IS gone if we think this way.
Only we can put it back.
Single payer or impeachment Banka Obanka. That's your choice you corporate whore.
well said hounddog
banka obanka. love it.
I begin to believe that after being elected, OB has learned that he is NOT his own man. Think what the threatened loss of 250 billion dollars a year as mentioned above --- this on top of the scam insurance companies and drug cartel would lose --- if a system that was well run came about---- to the unscrupulous types. Threats on the life of the man's family perhaps???? When real crooks feel threatened with loss of their cash flow, they don't hesitate to use any means at hand to protect the status quo. Look at the recent drug violence in Mexico as an example of what I suggest.
Dr. Sparrow has the correct diagnosis of our health care system problems and Mr. Nader and the Mad As Hell doctors have the correct prescription for same: "everybody in" health care. As the senseless mobilizations for support of an Obama plan that doesn't even exist (or, if it does exist, is but a prescription for further illness of our system) proceed, the real mobilizations for real reform like that of the Mad as Hells must build momentum. Please see what you can do in your own community. Among other things, please note that HR 676, with 100 co-sponsors, is still lost somewhere in committee in Congress, and there is (supposedly) to be an amendment to the "comprehensive" bill introduced by Kucinich and to be debated and voted on in the House. These are action items we can sensibly endorse, as opposed to those calls for support of that "Obama (non) plan." Jerry Rose, Gainesville Florida
Exactly, Jerry: Obama's vagueness invites unfounded speculation. Not once has he mentioned HR 676, a clearly written bill that's been around for a while. A push from Obama would get that through committee. It's time for him to merely stand up and say the phrase "Single Payer". Will he? Has all this waltzing with Republicans been a drama put on for the benefit of the people so that he can now say: time for compromise is over, we are going to give you what's good for you whether you like it/know it or not...? Stay tuned...
elainem: The scenario you suggest is exactly what I had predicted from the beginning for the fate of "health care reform": that the "plan" which is a non-plan would be so vague and also frightening that it would elicit opposition from all sides and would fail: as it was always INTENDED to fail. What would follow would be a "plan" imposed by the President as you suggest or, more likely, it would suffer the fate of "immigration reform" so far: NO action as any change would be too hot to handle, leaving in place the travesty of a health care system that we now have.
obama is doing what he set out to do - that is to take care of "the boys" in big pharma and big insurance. having already taken care of "the boys" on wall street with a cool 23.4 trillion of loaned dollars - read made up, non-existent dollars - now its on to the other mafia family of pharma and insurance.
all of this activity would relate directly to the 600 million dollars "the boys" gave him while he was running for the prez.
the circle is small
obama is a nwo shill and he has no intention of ruffling "the boys" feathers in the slightest degree. obama has been christened by henry kissinger, american ghoul numero uno, as the nwo man and further says kissinger - now that there is a crisis in the bank sector it is a good opportunity for their boy obama to move the nwo agenda along.
kissinger feels that the good feelings people had about obama should be exploited, before it dissipates
go barak go, says he
now when you look at the obama plan...oh yeah, there is no obama plan...
maybe that gives you an indication of his committment to helping the reform movement
his secret sweetheart deals, conducted behind closed doors with big pharma and insurance, assures that their blood profits not only will be protected but they will be enhanced.
the secret deals have left the bloodsuckers drooling at their new upside profit margins
go barak go
obama is a fraud - from pillar to post, andan incompetent spineless one at that
the man whose finger is on the "button" of the nuclear arsenal cannot dispel rumors that he is foreign born
can't dispel rumors that he wants to kill your granny
he likes killing a lot of afghams and pakistanis because he thinks he is in a "good" war. he wants to kill lots of latinos in central and south america. patience obie soon....
here's the deal - the entire discussion on health care reform should have been held without any input from pharma or insurance whatsoever.
its none of their business what the people wnat to do with their money.
it should have been strictly with single payer groups and of course when the plan was finalized the "big boys" could take all the time they want to decide if they like it or not and who gives a single turd how they would feel about it.
maybe those boys should go out and get real jobs instead of cashing in on the sickness of the american people, profiting from denying health care and killing americans.
we won't miss them...
Obama = Fashion Model with Silver Tongue
Single payer was never on the table because bush 2.5 is nothing but a status quo ho. It will be a long time before we have healthcare reform in this country. The day will come when we the people will institute a government that will secure the entitlements of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare. Unfortunately, a lot of born again pagans and cold war fighters have to move on to Valhalla. When the young people who voted for Obama have grand kids, they will be brave enough to live again in the land of the free.
To ponder: Many of the people who single-payer would help the most are most vocal AGAINST it.
Is this an indication of the depth of the programming by the corporate media and Corporatocracy? Are humans evolving away from a free-thinking mind? What can we do to wake these Zombiis from their glad acceptance of "The Programs" that will ultimately harm them? What will it take to get "We the People" into the streets en masse to make a statement that even Fox News cameras can't ignore?
I apologize for the following in advance: WE HAVE BECOME A NATION OF MINDLESS MECHANISMS TAKING THE EASY WAY, DEPENDING ON "LEADERS"--OUT FOR THEIR OWN BANK ROLLS FIRST AND FOREMOST--TO DO THE "RIGHT THING" FOR THEM. WE ARE BEYOND "DUMBED DOWN"; WE ARE STUPID!!!
Kucinich2012 September 1st, 2009 10:06 am............."Are humans evolving away from a free-thinking mind?"....NO...just Americans!........."What will it take to get we the People" into the streets en masse to make a statement that even Fox News cameras can't ignore?"..........It cannot be done!
" WE HAVE BECOME A NATION OF MINDLESS MECHANISMS TAKING THE EASY WAY, DEPENDING ON "LEADERS"--OUT FOR THEIR OWN BANK ROLLS FIRST AND FOREMOST--TO DO THE "RIGHT THING" FOR THEM. WE ARE BEYOND "DUMBED DOWN"; WE ARE STUPID!!!".....No apology necessary....you have stated the truth.
The rest of the world is laughing at us.........and rightfully so!
And so we let people die?
You say it cannot be done?
It CAN be done. It has been done.
The Right wing is doing it now.
You think their organized actions are NOT having an influence on government? or the public? or the media?
It takes more than bitching on the internet.
It will take us. the population. Just like Nader says in the article.
Hell he even gives us instructions.
No one - not even Kucinich can do this alone. Not now. Not in 2012.
And everyone knows it.
We "the people" have to force government to act on our behalf.
Right now they are being paid to ignore us.
Let them ignore us at their peril.
Oh and this argument about being a nation of stupid fools .. pretty myopic.
Command/Control types have been arguing against democracy since there have been democracies ... on the argument that people are too dumb to govern themselves. History has shown otherwise.
Americans can be intellectually irritating, but they are not stupid.
They've been led to disagree with us through lies and propaganda.
That's not to be minimized.
It's to be fought.
BTW: When you say WE HAVE BECOME A NATION OF MINDLESS MECHANISMS TAKING THE EASY WAY, DEPENDING ON "LEADERS"- would that include Kucinich?
There is no magic candidate.
Just us ... MILLIONS OF US.
Respectfully ...
walt September 1st, 2009 11:20 am.....So, what are you waiting for? Where are the millions? Sitting at home watching re-runs and Katie Couric. No one is moving...get it?...
EXACTLY!!! Couch and Keyboard Cripples!!! Not to mention "Blinder Flu".
Kucinich2012 September 1st, 2009 11:34 am..................The internet works against us...it's all talk and no action....and TPTB KNOW that. They are EONS ahead of we fools! THEY learned from the sixties. We just got old.
If they're eons ahead, what's their next move?
World Police State? Who's providing enforcement? A de-professionalized military/intelligence service accepting rawer recruits, more political influence in decisions, and more mercenaries on insufficient equipment and a budget that will be exhausted? Robots with AIs (can be fooled) or remote control (hackable)?
World Economic Domination? Where's the resource base? Most biological resources are already depleted and global warming will make it infinitely worse. Oil depletion will make any remaining rich pockets costly and time-consuming to transport. Say goodbye to the modern economy, including the modern high-tech security apparatus. Do you seriously think any existing large corporation can even adapt to this? With all the government debt and recently printed paper, plus the lack of resources, inflation's enough to doom them.
World Population Reduction? The biosphere makes this inevitable, but it won't be as organized as they like to imagine. Everyone will fight to make sure they're not the ones eliminated. Reducing the local number of workers reduces economic capacity the leaders themselves need/expect. Wealth concentration can only happen for so long before enough influential ex-powers turn on their masters. (Plus there's an upper bound on their control.) Killing people elsewhere will only trigger exchanges. In short, don't expect the current set of leaders/ideas anywhere to be ruling for too long once major powers start clashing. A good number will die by the same forces (starvation/war/disease) they plot on the people. We all die if nukes are fired.
I'll say what I keep saying on here. They boxed themselves in a corner. Fascism is not the new birth of the Empire, but its final collapse. Whatever skill in "perception management" means nothing if reality is going to hell because of their doing and our complicit cooperation. Either we passively watch like we do TV in a burning hotel or we actively resist in putting out the fire. Just posting here counts as watching.
walt September 1st, 2009 11:20 am............."Let them ignore us at their peril."..What do they have to be afraid about...our sitting at the keyboard or watching the box?
"on the argument that people are too dumb to govern themselves. History has shown otherwise".....What anarchies do YOU know about?
"Americans can be intellectually irritating, but they are not stupid."...........Children have been tortured in our name. 50% of American approve of torture. You are right. This is not stupid...it's MORONIC!
"would that include Kucinich?"........I trust no politician. For Kucinich or any other politician to continue to be part of a criminal and felonious cabal is COMPLICITY. Exercise your integrity...resign! A drop of clean water in a sea of filth will eventually be consumed.
.
Sadly the American voter is brainwashed into to believing that one can only vote for the duopoly. No matter how one demonstrates the corruption to their elected officials, they will always come back licking the hand of their Master, and keep themselves in perpetual servitude.
Between presidential elections these types of stories appear from one source after another, demonstrating just how corrupt the entire system is. Yet, the brain-dead will always cast their vote in a predictable fashion for the very forces that diminish our rights, destroy our planet, and keep the gravy train flowing to fund our Representatives lavish life styles including Obama. In nine months, Obama has shown the system has changed him, not the other way around.
There is a striking metaphor offered in the film The Golden Compass measured against our contemporary moment.
In this film, a group called the Magisterium represents the patriarchal authority who are engaged in a plot to sever the souls of children for the sake of perpetual mind-control.
Nicole Kidman plays Mrs Coulter (no pun on the name) a chief player of the Magisterium who is involved in a massive plot to steal children and sending them to an institution where they undergo a procedure that severs their soul from them leaving them like zombies, emasculated and without any personal power.
In this effort, Mrs Coulter is also seeking a device called an Alethiometer which is the last of its kind in this imagined world. It is a threat to the Powers-THat-Be precisely because it is a device whcih TELLS THE TRUTH and is therefor a grave threat to the Magisterium's plot at complete control of its citizens.
It is astonishing the way contemporary film mimics our current moment. The duopoly is a metaphor for the Magisterium seeking to crush the TRUTH and further fracture any resistance or empowerment against their patriarchal control. So the voices on this site or elsewhere dancing the same tune as our president and his corporate handlers are those (who metaphorically) have had their souls severed and march lock step with the corporate company line.
Sad, but this is our fate unless resistant fighters oppose it. Ralph is a resistance fighter.
Well, um, hold it Ralph, wouldn't the massive fraud of Medicare be an argument against expanding government health care? It is about 10% as you state but private health care fraud is only 3%. Private companies are apparently better than government agencies in fighting fraud.
Health care fraud widespread -- in public and private sectors
Health care entities have been found responsible for 80% of fraud, as federal officials crack down on fraud as part of health system reform.
By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. Posted Aug. 4.
Health care fraud accounts for as much as 10% of overall health spending and is occurring just as frequently among private insurance plans as public programs, according to a recent report.
The June study out of the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., emerges as the Obama administration is becoming more vocal about cracking down on health care fraud as a priority in reforming the health care system.
The report's authors called the issue "a systemic problem affecting public and private insurers alike, in the individual market, the employer-sponsored group market and public programs." Researchers cited fraudulent billing, kickbacks, upcoding and bundling services among the most common examples of fraud. They estimated that 80% of health care fraud is committed by health care entities, 10% by consumers, and the balance by others, including private insurers and their employees.
While the public is more aware of Medicare and Medicaid fraud because the government is required to report it to taxpayers, "perhaps the most striking examples of fraud are those that involve the private insurance industry itself," according to the study.
Thank you mad as hell doctors and good luck!
GREYDOG September 1st, 2009 11:02 am..................Can you join them?
Why can't we all go out on Main Street of our communities with signs supporting single payer at the same time the doctors reach washington, or organize bus trips. It's too important for us not to get millions of us out there supporting what we want, and what we know is right.
HEALTHCARE FOR PEOPLE, NOT HEALTH CARE FOR PROFIT
This is very interesting and fascinating that Obama would be so foolish enough to take single payer off the table. When I first came to this site, I could not understand my niece and her anger with Obama and the Democrats in general. I'm a liberal while she's a progressive might have been one reason but when I come across excellent articles written by Nader and very thoughtful comments and analysis by others on this and other articles, I feel stupid for my ignorance in the past and I want to apologize to not only my niece but to all of you who actually chose wisely last year even if he had no chance of winning. I think that the real reason why the drive for single payer just isn't going is that people are too busy to understand what their own insurance is really all about. I used to be employed and worked longer and would rarely take the time to read about my company's provider. I will be returning to employment tomorrow after getting a new job offer that I like but this time the job offer has fewer benefits unless I allow my new company to deduct more from my paycheck. My new job will only pay me 80% of what my old job paid me unless I work more than 40 hours per week. Why won't our president see that? Why is he still sticking to Bush's idea of opposing nationalized health care? I'm beginning to get upset with Obama for being open to dropping public option. I'm beginning to feel that maybe my vote for Obama wasn't worth much after reading this site, truthdig, and truthout. Even Huffington Post is admitting that Obama is turning out to be a major disappointment.
Stanley1979 September 1st, 2009 12:22 pm..............Do you have that many bills? Are you of retirement age? Maybe it's time to relax and enjoy life as best you can in this insane country.
nevergiveup, that's my uncle. He has been a workaholic most of the time ever since his wife passed away. He has occasionally made it a habit to visit my family and I. He's not too far from retirement age but he still has residual grief about his wife passing away years ago to cancer at the age of 40. When he was finally unemployed, he has time and again complained about feeling somewhat depressed about being alone. I'm not sure I can help him because I've never been married before. He tells me that he's reading this site more often ever since he joined and sometimes he and I will exchange emails to clarify the contents of the articles and comments. He's getting somewhat used to the general thinking on this site.
He's generally calm and cool but he's not used to being unemployed after several years and I think that is hurting him.
You're not stupid just because you voted for Obama. I still think that like many others, you've been conditioned into expecting too little in life. To some extent, I agree that expecting too much can cause unhappiness but so too can expecting too little. You have to understand that Obama proudly accepted the role of being a corporate/military puppet despite whatever he said on the campaign trail.
The healthcare situation is nothing short of a COLOSSAL DISASTER which evolved over many years of non-regulation to the enrichment of the insurance companies and other medical-related industries.
ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're being told that Medicare will go bankrupt in ten years. Well, when that time comes, is the government going to throw trillions of dollars at it like it threw at the "banksters" and "Insurance thieves?" Certainly, average elderly Americans, who have worked hard all their lives, are more worthy of a "bailout" than the Robber Barons of the banks and insurance companies!
No, taxes will be raised which will make the general public even poorer! The elderly will simply be told to pay a larger share than they had been paying, never mind that they can't afford it!
A real SOLUTION has not yet been even discussed by our government and we all know that Obama is intelligent enough to be aware of that. He needs to get serious about the promises he made during his election campaign and, once and for all, declare his allegiance to the general public and TURN HIS BACK ON the elite and wealthy who are calling the shots behind the scenes.
Thank you, "Mad as Hell Doctors," for bringing this detestable situation to the forefront! Stern and verifiable regulation MUST be brought to the medical industry!!! And the Health Insurance Companies must be liquidated through a Single Payer Option for ALL!
The entire healthcare industry as we know it needs to be CLEANED OUT AND CLEANED UP!!!!
Obama is no Waffle... But if he was, he would be an "Eggo"...
Mass marketed to the cult of vanity by the demagogue-in-cheif...
Obama is more like a pitchman for artificial Maple Syrup, to sugar coat the cardboard cutout of Change he is sweet hawking... And the mass consumers think they are smart & savvy for buying Maple Syrup instead of powdered sugar... Yet they fail to read the list of ingredients on the package... for Brand Loyalty trumps nutrition in the minds of most Americans... When the proud consumers get home and realize that it is merely High-Fructose Corn Syrup with artificial flavoring... They choke it down anyway, for since they bought the product, they would rather eat poison and pretend it was healthy, than admit to themselves that they had been snookered into buying it based on manipulative marketing techniques, and popular craze...
"But hey... At least it is not powdered sugar...!" They claim, while failing to realize that both products are owned by the same multinational corporate conglomerate... And also failing to notice the fresh berries growing in their own back yard, or the local honey sold on the same shelf next to the "maple syrup" & powdered sugar...
Trying to get Obama voters to "Leggo my Eggo!" is like trying to pry the gun from Heston's cold, dead hands... There is too much Ego invested in that Eggo... Too much Cult of Personality...
"Trying to get Obama voters to "Leggo my Eggo!" is like trying to pry the gun from Heston's cold, dead hands"
That's not true of all Obama voters. I voted for Obama but I regret it and am ready to vote for a progressive independent next time. Some Obama voters are hardcore Obama supporters but others who voted for Obama are independents and reluctant Republicans.
Change comes from within... We cannot wait for the perfect candidate to rally behind...
Well... then there is hope that you will come to regret working for a defense contractor...
Change your employment to stop working for the war machine...
A vote is just a vote, a drop in the bucket once every four years...
and it is disempowering to think that it is your only power for social change...
Vote with your dollars: support local cottage industries & farmers...
Vote with your labor: don't work for corporations that profit on the killing of innocents...
Your 401k & Social Security will not be there when you finally retire...
Offer your talents to an NGO or grassroots campaign, or start your own business...
proactively work to mobilize folks to support that independent candidate if you believe that to be the solution...
I think that this has already been discussed and others have acknowledged that the war machine is like a cancer that is very difficult to untie from the US economy. Sure, you can preach "perfection" and go on blaming the little guy for everything. Change may come from within alright but not without confronting the outside forces and winning. You sound like the conservatives preaching "personal responsibility" but then saying nothing when despite their attempts, you still blame them. You have to be reasonable somewhere. This isn't a perfect world you know.
I believe that the ONLY way we will get genuine social change is if people begin to actually take responsibility for themselves AND the "greater good"... These are not mutually exclusive... The paleo-conservatives use "personal responsibility" as an excuse to avoid paying taxes on obscene profits while their employees barely scrape by... or refuse to fund remediation for the damage done to the environment by their corporations... That is not what I am saying... I am saying that folks need to take responsibility for their own lives AND the lives of others... This will only occur when folks go on a General Strike against corporations, refusing to work for them, or support them in any way, which includes Boycotts of their products and services... And instead, invest their time & money in the local economy, thru credit unions, farmers markets, and cottage industries... Anything less is "business as usual", an impotent exercise in myopic futility... You must be the change you wish to see in the world... It was your choice to entangle yourself in with the MIC, for whatever reason, unconsciously or willfully, and by willfully disentangling yourself from the MIC, you will be an example to others... By claiming that the problem is too difficult, or the MIC too pervasive, or the loss of benefits too severe... are all excuses and justifications for remaining a part of the problem...
It is not a matter of being an unrealistic purist, or holier-than-thou idealist to identify the causes and solutions to the problems we face... I don't care if it is outrageous or unrealistic to expect others to change their lifestyles and livelihoods once they become aware of the devestation that they directly cause through their complicity as an employee of the MIC... To continue to work for the MIC at this point is beyond hypocrisy and is tantamount to treason against the constitutional rights of the Republic... Our founding fathers fought the Hessian mercenaries as well as the British troops in order to become free from Crown rule, yet you justify working for a privatized defense contractor because everyone else does so as well... Those who would compromise their freedom for security deserve neither, and the same goes for those unwilling to give up creature comforts when their sovereignty is threatened...
Ok, I see what you're getting at. While I thank you for distinguishing from the paleo-cons, some of that I disagree with. But to set it straight, what you're saying about total responsibility only goes so far. It may work but only to a limited extent. Now, I do buy locally at least 50%, travel to farmers markets, and grow a few veggies and fruits of my own, and my wife and I are both credit union members. RichM sometime ago made an excellent argument about why despite our small efforts, the big banks and big stores still win. Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have to be well aware the most Americans are tied to the MIC although to different extents. The solutions you call for would require strong cooperation from tens of millions of Americans to make even a dent which would be cool but the MIC knows how to adjust and they have powerful data ware houses and data mining programs to assist them just like some giant retailers out there. That said, I'm taking a different approach of catching up to their ways and silently spreading out ideas to tech gurus to see if they can succeed in paying the way for more people to do less DoD related jobs. I know it's rather complicated to explain but I think you get the idea.
Working for a private contractor is not the same as being a mercenary. Now, you say about change but I see that you're taking a somewhat radical tone on it and I respect that. However, it's a mistake to equate me with say Obama who promises change and then goes status quo. I'm both a programmer and an analyst who works with project managers and sometimes I can be successful in getting non-military projects put on the table first. Trust me, it's not easy.
I'd love to be a Luddite but we would need the cooperation of 10s of millions to do the same. Meanwhile, I'll keep it slow and steady so that I don't wake up the sleeping giant but at the same time not be status quo.
Max...
Thanks for explaining your situation and the plight of most folks enmeshed in the MIC...
I admit that I don't have much understanding about the situation for those on the "inside" of the Beast...
As I made a choice long ago to not have anything to do with the MIC... Perhaps my POV is idealistic...
I agree that I have a radical view of what needs to be done, and I agree it will take tens of millions of us "opting out" of the system in order to make any difference... Perhaps you are right, and the system will just adjust to compensate for the change and business will continue as usual... Perhaps the system is too resilient and adaptable at this point for any change of the power structure to become more conscionable... If that is indeed the case, then what hope is there left for any of us...?
I respect you and what you do within your own ways and means to make things better...
Perhaps I am being too judgemental and harsh on folks who are a part of the system ...
Perhaps with Drones and killer robots & computers & spy satellites in operation...
it wouldn't matter if ALL the soldiers layer down their guns today, the wars will still continue tomorrow...
Unless all of the IT techies and maintenance crews lay down their tools of the trade as well...
So then, what is your solution to the madness...?
"Perhaps the system is too resilient and adaptable at this point for any change of the power structure to become more conscionable... If that is indeed the case, then what hope is there left for any of us...?"
I'd like to see this system function without electricity, oil, or plush government contracts when this government loses the capacity to even adequately fund, maintain, and update its own war machines.
"Unless all of the IT techies and maintenance crews lay down their tools of the trade as well..."
Or start aiding the resistors. Such people would be in a great position of power in the age of robot soldiers; all it takes is a conscience, public support (even if not overt), a social network, and the ripple effect.