(08-01-2009) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, today announced a new provision to the massive health care reform bill that would provide treatment for so-called Blue Dog syndrome which she said has afflicted members of her own party.
The condition causes a rash rejection of legislation that includes new expenditures without compensating cuts. Recent outbreaks threaten to cripple major Obama administration initiatives.
While the cause of Blue Dog syndrome remains mysterious, experts think it may originate in a lawmaker’s home district, and spread by face to face contact with voters.
“If we don’t suppress it early,” said Rep. Pelosi, “we risk a pandemic that could threaten our way of life.”
Rep. Barney Frank Goes After "Blue Dog Democrats" Over Health Care:
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117 comments:
Republicans are people who think Jesus would be against healthcare for the poor but would be for everyone owning a gun.
Oh, and both Buffy and Doc commented yesterday.
Barney Frank needs to have his own show, i just love that pose he has sitting in a chair with the slight lean to the left...
Looks like the leadership grew a spine and informed the blue dogs they can stop being a bunch of whiny prima donnas and do something, or they can see how their re-elections go in 2010 without the assistance of the DCCC.
Fuck the Blue Dogs, and fuck Blue Dog Sen. Max Baucus for killing the public option.
Like degenerate street pimps, low-life and despicable blue-dogs will not retreat quietly from millions in kickbacks paid out by their willing health industry whores. Public option now!
John Barrow, Blue Dog Dem from Georgia, has a Health Care Survey that you can complete in a few minutes. You can participate even if you're not his constituent and you can voice your preference for the Public Option. A good thing to do.
GO TO: http://www.barrow.house.gov/
I did as you suggest and filled out the survey. I now feel like a good citizen.
So now the blue mad dogs are trying to sneak negotiated payments into the public option, which was proposed to be like Medicare. They're a public menace, in need of muzzling and cages.
I saw a revolting big pharma ad saying they are in favor of no pre existing condition exclusions bla bla bla. Like the old Chevron ads saying We protect wild bunnies. Oh please spare us. Of course the medical corporate p1gs like this, they will get billions more when mandatory pay kicks in.
This is disgusting and it is the reason that we are having so many problems with the Blue Dogs. They have to go.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x343887
Its time to play hardball with the Bluedogs. Let them understand that they get no Democratic Party support if they remain intransigent on the Public option. If they want to walk like a duck and quack like a duck, let them duck on over to the Party of No and join them in their march into insignificance.
thanks to the blue dogs, we'll wind up with health INSURANCE reform not health CARE reform
The response is simple: defeat any Democrat who votes for this, but replace them with Non-Blue Dog Democrats. Scorched earth. There is no point to a Democratic majority if this is what they come up with.
Today on NPR, Terry Gross is talking to Paul Krugman and a guy from the Heritage Foundation, ostensibly about health care financing. Imagine, including the Heritage Foundation and expecting us to take the conversation seriously. It's like inviting foxes to a conversation about how to build a better chicken coop.
NPR is now following cable TV's lead, diluting facts by presenting obstructionist views at the same time. (The truth has a well-known liberal bias.) The HF guy is framing the conversation around their favorite scare tactic: that under a government health plan, if the government decides that your heart treatment is too expensive, so you will be selected to die. This went unchallenged on our "liberal" NPR.
I share your disenchantment with NPR. It's gone downhill since mid-2005.
Okay, I read this mess yesterday, took a cool down timeout, and looked at it again. This is the worst possible thing that could happen to all of us, repus or dem.
No requirement for employers to offer health insurance, no public option to provide real competition, incredibly weak co-op plan, no pooling to address high rates for individuals, and individuals must purchase insurance. This is reform????
Wow, must have been some great contributions they got; insurance companies are going to make money like never before. I fail to see one thing that helps people.
If the Dems let the likes of my Representative, Earl Pomeroy, determine the nature of a deal, they might as well by Republicans. Representative Pomeroy's number one industry donor for the current cycle is, according to Open Secrets, "Insurance." His number two contribution industry is "health care professionals." His number two is three times larger in contributions than his third largest industry. His contributions from Insurance and Health Care Professionals exceeds all individual donations.
Pomeroy is against Cap n' Trade, for Military Commissions Act, Patriot Act, etc. There is a growing movement among Dems and Independents to support the Republican in the next election just to assist the dysfunctional Dems in shedding a cloaked Republican. Once Pomeroy is purged, the move would be to elect a Dem two years later. At least it is a move toward truth in advertising.
Can't another real dem go up against the blue dog in the primaries?
Look, I don't know if the rest of you are as fed up as I am with the obstruction and political gameplaying going on with this health care reform...but I DO know this - the Republican obstructionists and the Blue Dog Dems have absolutely NO clue what the rest of us are going through with healthcare. Maybe it's time they did!
If you agree, please sign the petition below, and forward it - any way you can - to anyone and everyone you know! Time to let them know how we feel!!!!
http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
Blue Dog, just fucking stop it!
Just stop.
Because right now, you don't represent the majority of Americans on health care reform or even the majority of constituents in your district.
And you certainly don't represent the majority of Democrats.
You represent yourselves and all the health care corporations who directly or indirectly fund your career.
But this is not about your career or their massive profits.
It's about America -- a rich, powerful, civilized country you were elected to help run.
And a country that up till now has said that the value of human health is best measured in material wealth.
That if you're rich, you get the best treatment; if you're not, you don't.
That's insane.
Cancer doesn't know how much money a patient has; a virus doesn't ask for a credit report.
And public health should never be a business where the profits are counted in quarterly double digits and the profiteers are paid annually in tens of millions.
Health care can be a business, but first and foremost it is a basic human right.
A right that President Obama was elected to recognize and help make law.
A right that you are trying to deny.
So stop. Please.
Think about who you represent, what you were actually elected to do and do it.
Or continue to stall and dilute this bill, in what has be one of the most transparently corrupt actions ever to take place in Washington DC.
Which is a real achievement -- if what you seek is eternal political infamy.
We don't call you The Wise One for nothing. Awesome comment!
Any one who doesn't realize the importance of supporting a public health care option is either a fool, in somebody's pocket, or both.
Without a true alternative to the private insurers, there's no incentive to change their ways.
Three years ago my wife and I paid about $600 a month in premiums. Two years ago that rose to over $700. This year we're paying $922 a month. And come January 1st, as sure as members of Congress get free health care, my premium is jumping to over a $1000 a month. That's $12,000 a year. And that is criminal.
This has what's been occurring to me over and over....
"Or continue to stall and dilute this bill, in what has be one of the most transparently corrupt actions ever to take place in Washington DC." (nostradamus)
The actions of the Blue Dogs and Baucus are corruption in action....
Would that we had a MSM that would call a spade a spade... instead we get articles about the "fiscally conservative" BDs and other outright lies.
God we are in dire straits if these two groups can derail true reform of profit-driven healthcare.
Memo to Blue Dogs--
OK, fine!
Let Congress buy their own health insurance. No more Socialized Medicine from the government. No coverage for pre-existing conditions. They can research, apply for, and pay for their own insurance!
No $$ from medical industry, no jobs in medical industry.
Then watch how fast Health Care Reform happens!
The so called Blue Dogs are so corrupt it's a wonder their constituents can still support them. Sen. Baucus has received more money from health care than any other member of Congress. Fiscal conservatism is just another word for the bought and paid for members of Congress who serve themselves at the expense of their country.
Blue Dog Dems should be ashamed of themselves. I propose that we shame these congressmen/women by showing on MSM DAILY how much money these people receive from the Health care lobby, and why they are really going lock step with what Health Care lobbyists want.
Come on Blue Dogs, people are dying, 150 people are going bankrupt every hour because of health care costs. Have these people no heart? Have they no soul?
If these blue dogs succeed in killing Medicare for All, we will ... hound them out of office. They'll get a job with the vested interests, but they won't be able to prance in congress any more.
Is there a Blue Dog map?
photo
Not that I know of, but there's a list:
Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06)
photo
In addition (since Blue Dogs are a phenomenon of the House), there are a group of ConservaDems in the Senate. Officially:
Evan Bayh (IN)
Tom Carper (DE)
Blanche Lincoln (AR)
Mark Udall (CO)
Michael Bennet (CO)
Mark Begich (AK)
Kay Hagan (NC)
Herb Kohl (WI)
Mary Landrieu (LA)
Joe Liberman (I-CT)
Clair McCaskill (MO)
Ben Nelson (NE)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Mark Warner (VA)
To which list I would add:
Max Baucus (MT) and
Kent Conrad (SD)
Blue Dogs do not represent their districts well, if they represent them at all. In every one of Max Baucus's town hall meetings, constituents ask about a single-payer system and are flatly told it's out of the question. Others ask about a public option, and Baucus tells them that it will raise their taxes, offer less care, and have Washington bureaucrats stand between them and their doctors - in other words he discourages them at best, or lies to them at worst.
Even if all their constituents didn't want the health care system that would be the best for them, Senators have a duty to make politically difficult choices that they know will result in better outcomes for the entire country, as well as their voters. It boils down to their caring more about keeping their jobs than doing what's right.
What we need in this fight are statesman - what we have are politicians, bought and paid for by the lobbyists for private health insurance companies, for-profit hospitals and big pharma.
Blue dogs are so used to pay for play and privatizing of america they just cant stop. Its time we helped them stop this injustice to all americans..
I hope all of you Blue Dogs get a lot of cash from the insurance business because you will need it when you are looking for your next jobs. I am represented by Congressman Tim Holden from PA, who has surely been in DC too long if he thinks we want anything other than a REAL public option in healthcare. Tim, maybe you have had your time in politics and should consider a new career like driving a truck or something useful.
Matt
Finding another job won't be a problem, they'll work for the very companies they are accepting lobbying money from. Then they will be getting their 10 million a year in bonuses.
If a strong public plan isn't passed that's available to anyone who wants it, then every single Progressive in America will target the minority communities in each Blue Dog's district, get them out to vote in the Dem primaries for real candidates, and we'll treat these Dogs like Joe Lieberman.
They're gonna be gone.
And it won't really be very hard.
These Blue Dogs are no Joe Lieberman, and they don't have his dedicated voter base.
Blue Dogs' careers in politics might take a hit from conservatives in their districts if they support the public option, but their careers are guaranteed over with if they don't.
And that's a promise Joe Lieberman can tell them about.
Hint: Look up Sore Loser Law on google, Blue Dogs.
Expose those Republicrooks in Democractic clothing for who and what they are...... they are bought and paid for by the the insurance companies who've had a monopoly on the health care industry for many, many decades and are all about mega profits
Those blue dog lackies had better think long and hard about their obstructionism, and remember that they have to go before the voters every two years, and 2010 is "Show Time"....... They'll have to decide who their "Master" is, and who casts votes for or against them. I wonder if they realize that if they aren't re-elected in 2010 ..... if they haven't cut their own throats, and won`t be able to afford they and their families "Cadillac" health care packages, paid for by us, the American tax payers
Point of correction, heavyload6 - only House members are up for reelection every two years, and the Democrats have enough votes to carry the House bill.
It's the Senate Blue Dogs who are causing the heartburn, and they are elected every six years.
Max Baucus, head of the Senate Finance Committee, who just gave away the public option and the employer mandate for the sake of "bipartisanship" was just re-elected last year so won't come back asking for another term until 2014.
Americans have a very short memory in politics, and unless Montana is outraged enough to hold a grudge for the next five years, his seat won't be in jeopardy.
Here's the problem though -- they WON'T live in infamy. The mainstream media headlines will say they voted against it, and that will be IT.
WHY isn't this being presented to the public with the full array of facts, as in your piece? WHY aren't people upset that the plain truth isn't being spoken? WHY doesn't someone do something to hold these bought-and-paid-for parasites to be accountable for their conflicts of interest???
Why doesn't someone introduce a bill that BARS anyone that has received money from an industry from being involved in any vote or committee decisions that involve that industry??? How is this not the very definition of common sense in a capitalist democracy???
You can thank the Supreme Court for the legalized bribery in our elections - not the current Supreme Court, but a decision handed down about a hundred years ago that gave corporations "free speech" rights under the 1st Amendment, then equated campaign contributions to "speech." That court has made some truly wicked decisions.
Amen! In Tennessee and Virginia clearly the politician$ and the profit machine$ are more important than people.
http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62
I've seen what is deemed, defended and supported as "the acceptable standards of care" in (D) Phil Bredesen, (D) Tim Kaine and (D) Rick Boucher's baliwick and on their watch. It's disgusting because all they have are excuses, pass you on to someone else or don't even reply.
We pay for top-notch health insurance, regardless of preconditions, for members of Congress who want to deny us the right to buy the same quality health insurance for ourselves.
Say what?
Blue Dogs? More like Blue Vermin! Weaselly power brokers is what they are.
Actually we should be calling them the "Blue Cross Democrats". Fits don't it?
UNBELIEVABLE that these so-called Democrats are on the verge of preventing a major Democratic objective.
KEEP A LIST of every single congressperson and senator who votes against (or refuses to offer) a public option. Use it against them in the next election.
These frauds are trying to convince us that their commitment to fiscal responsibility is what motivates them, when in fact it's their commitment to getting themselves re-elected using huge private insurance company contributions. Voting against a public option must have exactly the opposite effect - it must cost them their bids for re-election.
Would any of these self-serving hypocrites give up THEIR government supplied health insurance programs and go shopping for an alternative in the private sector? Didn't think so. AreTHEIR families more worthy of healthcare than ours?
These guys must know that we are not stupid, and we are not buying their lies about fiscal responsibility. They are killing the public option because they are in bed with insurance companies........ monopolistic, FOR-PROFIT, non-competitive insurance companies that shudder at the thought of possibly having to compete.
Our military is not-for-profit. Our fire and police are not-for-profit. Our public education system is not-for-profit. Why not our healthcare system? Why not?
Keep a list, and make them pay for their greedy, self-serving, hypocritical actions.
You nailed it. VOTE THEM OUT! I will be campaigning against most of my senators and representatives from Arkansas, notably, Blanche Lincoln, Mike Ross, and Mark Pryor. Only Vic Snyder seems truly untouched by the corporate lobby.
Just for fun, watch Michael Moore's "Sicko." Our esteemed Mark Pryor declares that "you don't have to pass an IQ test to be a US Senator!" How true. And how sad.
The seven main Blue Dog Democrats holding up health care reform legislation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee have received tens of thousands more dollars from health and insurance interests than other Democrats on the same committee:
http://www.campaignmoney.org/threevotes
Blue Dogs? More like Blue Hogs! Can't you hear them squealing for their corporate slops?
Health care is the real war that Americans are fighting, and it's a fight against a lying, thieving "Axis of Greed" that has unlimited cash and almost unlimited power over both the government and the media. It's a superpowerful enemy that, for over 40 years, has brainwashed the people of this country with propaganda.
We have spineless, greedy, self-interested politicians in this country, on both sides of the aisle. EXPOSE THEM!!
The Health Care Industry Spends 1.4 Million Dollars a Day on Lobbying
Gangsters.
Traitors.
So for the right money, the Blue Dogs will give the healthcare industries the bill they want. In any other business, this would be called "extortion". How is it that these individuals can remain in office?
Contact the White House, so you can tell President Obama to veto any bill that doesn't contain the public option:
* 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500-0004
* Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Email form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
Whoa! Lemme copy that shit down. Seriously gonna do some contacting.
Right now, Health Insurance Co.s (HIC) executives are STANDING between you and your doctor,
denying you treatment, cherry picking only the healthiest people to insure and yet denying them care when they fall sick. HIC executives are telling your doctor which pill to prescribe; no, that pill is too expensive, no! that procedure is too expensive, etc.
Yeah, HIC BUREAUCRATS standing BETWEEN you and your doctor!
Their ONLY purpose: DENY as much care as possible --> save HICs as much money as possible ---> get as much bonus as possible.
If your Rep. is a BLUE DOG, CALL him NOW!
TELL HIM TO SUPPORT THE PUBLIC OPTION!
There is NO TRUE health care reform without at least, the Public Option. Best would have been Universal Healthcare. Barring that, we NEED at least, the Public Option.
NO TRUE REFORM without, at least, a Public Option.
photo
So let's see;
1) Blue dogs are against the Public Option that would bring prices down by competing with Private Insurance Co.s who are currently scamming Americans out of their money and denying them Health Care.
2) Blue dogs are against a provision to force large Companies to provide HC to their employees.
Who are these Blue Dogs working for?
Why would they even reach out to the G"No!"P which has declared that its goal is to kill reform?
These Blue Dogs are destroyers of Democracy. Government owned by the highest bidder. They are'nt the only ones. Sadly we will end up with more fig leaf legislation designed to look good on the surface but will enrich the special interest insiders at the expense of the public.
Receiving thousands of dollars from health care lobbyists we have blue dog dems holding up HC reform, forget being public servants, that was just the speech given when they ran for office, these people are for sale.
These people really are Rethuglicans in disguise!!!! Where were these so called Blue Dog Democrats when the banks and wall street were being bailed out, at the tax payer's expense? You didn't hear a peep out of them, nor their rethuglican counterparts. Oh, but when there's something in the pot for the American People, there's always it costs too much, and how is it going to be paid for. BS, I want to know who these rethuglicans trying to pass themselves off as democrats are so that they can be put out in the open. They need to be exposed for the fakes that they are, and then booted out of office.
Most people in Indiana know that Baron Hill is corrupt and in the hand of big business, but he still keeps getting elected.
Here is another situation where the Democrats have let the Rethugs and the Blue Dogs control the message! In my state (NC), we are being deluged 24/7 with ads against health care reform, complete with all the lies and distortions they can muster.
I just listened to the President debunk many of the lies told in these ads in his town hall meeting. If the Dems could only blanket the airwaves with their message instead of letting these corporate shills have the upper hand, then the American people just might be able to get decent, affordable health care.
I wish I had a Senator to do good stuff for me, but unfortunately, I CAN'T AFFORD ONE!
This is unsustainable--money has replaced the people. Before we do anything else, we need to get money out of politics--it is the root cause of what ails us.
And we also need to get PROFIT out of health care! No one should be able to profit from your illness and a lack of treatment denied by a greedy insurance company!
Blue Dog Democrats are really Republicans. They're all from the south and white.
A politician takes money and then votes on behalf of his benefactors. What's the difference between that and an official taking bribes in Mexico or a spy collecting payments and betraying his country?
none
There is no difference.
photo
Americans want affordable world class healthcare for all, know that it is doable, but the Corporate Masters of the Universe controlling our politics and government want profits.
We have a mentally sick psyche in the US, around money, where "making a living" isn't acceptable. Only "making a killing".
We can't fix this problem, or any others, until we get money out of politics, and the people get control of the government. We have career politicians entrenched in Washington and state government who do not work on the people's behalf; they work for Big Corporate.
Up until about 30 years ago, there were no politicians, no lobbyists or lawyers operating as public relations firms spending their entire lives and careers in Washington, switchbacking between government posts and corporate jobs. Politicians served in office and when their terms were over and when they weren't reelected, THEY WENT HOME.
Tom Delay has been turned out of office, but remains in Washington. Daschle, Gingrich, and tens of thousands of others (and their spouses and children), the same story. This isn't what the founders envisioned when they created this government. These are not great Americans, not patriots, not serving the public in any way. This is the 'leech class'.
Amen.
The blue dogs are, supposedly, from conservative districts and need to respond to their heavily Republican voters. They are afraid they won't be re-elected if they go for this deal. Just a couple of questions.
1. Do these guys really believe that their districts will re-elect them if this administration isn't able to make strides against the problems we're having today? If everything is status quo in 2010, would there be any reason for their constituents to vote them in again?
2. Do they think that only Democrats have lost their health insurance? No independents? No fed-up or unemployed Republicans? Interesting theory, but with 80 percent of Americans being for health care reform, it's doubtful,
3. Can't they see that there is a price to pay within their own party? If I were Nancy Pelosi, I'd be doing some serious blocking of lots of peoples pet projects. The Republicans have done this for years in an effort to keep their guys in line. Pelosi doesn't look as if she'd be afraid to do it, too.
She should take their parking spaces too.
Heck, I'd be willing to go there and lie in their parking spaces if I thought it would help.
This is the letter I sent to all Senators on the Finance Committee, including the Blue Dogs:
Dear Senator,
We know you"re working hard to reform our health care system. But, who exactly are you working for: The citizens who voted for you or the insurance interests who paid for your campaign? I understand it"s a hard choice for you, but people who don"t make millions of dollars a year are hurting and have to make very real choices: keep my house or keep my skyrocketing health insurance that denies most every claim, at least until we make an appeal. (What a great game, if you"ve got the time and energy!)
We need a single payer health care system, not more profit protection for insurance companies. This should be an easy moral choice for you, lobbyist"s bribes aside.
Many of you claim to be people of faith. Exactly whom are you worshipping? United Health Care CEOs? Blue Cross/Blue Shield shareholders? I think we"ve tithed plenty in their names. It"s time for you to consider We The People.
Please give us meaningful, decent health care reform. Not insurance reform. If you won"t make it happen, please know that we will contribute to and support other candidates who will, regardless of state boundaries.
Sincerely--
Blue Dogs Rake in the Dollars from the Health Care Industry ... The 20 Blue Dogs have taken a combined $6,849,273 from various segments of the health care industry, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics
Shocking Hypocrisy Audio found Obama didnt like it when Bush Rushed Through Legislation!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOnYnIDX0Eg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefoxnation.com%2Fpolitics%2F2009%2F07%2F28%2F2004-classic-audio-what-do-you-think-obama-s-rush-these-budgets-comments&feature=player_embedded
So, what's your point AZ. We've been talking about Health care reform for 30 yrs or more! What fucking rush?
Oh my - SHOCKING!! Shocking, I tell you!!!!!
~snark~
So, you think you will come here and stir up trouble among the liberals, huh AZ? You think you will come here and convert some liberals, huh AZ?
Not gonna happen dude.
It helps to air out your brain if you occasionally remove the tin foil hat AZ.
Nearly 50 million Americans -- one-in-six of our fellow citizens -- lack health insurance. Even those families lucky enough to have health insurance have seen their premiums triple in the past decade. America's health care system is in a crisis, and it's time to do something about it.
This month, Congress is working on new reform legislation that will make quality health care available and affordable for all Americans. We support a public health insurance option that would foster greater competition in the marketplace, create more choices for consumers, and lead to lower costs and better quality for all. But we know the forces of the status quo will battle us every step of the way.
Please sign this online petition, showing your support of Congress' work to reform America's health care system now.
Thank you,
Senator Dick Durbin Senator Patrick Leahy Senator Chuck Schumer
Please go to their new web site and sign their petition for a public option:
http://citizensforapublicoption.com/
Yes sign the petition by all means. But don't stop there. Write, call, email your senators and representatives. Send Baucus an email while you're at it.
I hate the BLUE CROSS DEMS with the heat of a thousand red-hot suns.
(not a joke)
To Max Baucus, Mike Ross, et al:
OK, fine! Let's save America from Socialized Medicine!
And here's where we'll start, with the big-govt healthcare giveaway we need least: YOURS!
That's right, let's get rid of healthcare benefits for Congress, right folks? Give the tax[payers' money back to them, and not give it away. We're gonna let you people find, apply for (no pre-existing conditions) and pay for your own healthcare.
How's that sound? Max? Mike? ...... Hey guys? ............. MAX?! MIKE!?
GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS DON"T WORK ! This is the message that the right wing blue dog Democratic and the Republican politicians want to promote. They want to sabotage, eliminate, and create Government programs that fail. This is the mantra on right wing media, 'Government programs don't work, Government programs don't work, see I told you so, Government programs don't work.'
They want to eliminate the unions, and the programs of FDR's NEW DEAL, because it created a strong middle class that was able to talk back to the bosses, and get paid well.
They want us to return to the era of the Robber Barons.
You are sooo right. It's whose running the government that matters, not government itself.
Look at FEMA. Before bush appointed a wealthy horse-trader to head it, FEMA was incredibly efficiently run, right there for every emergency, and well known for the amazing work it did. A great example of our taxes at work.
The minute you allow government to be run by those who despise it, you get perverted, broken government. Then it's simply a matter of pointing to the broken government and saying, 'See, I told you so.'
We need honest brokers, moral people to run government.--not cronies who see government simply as a stepping stone to a seat on the board of their most-favored corporations. But time is running out--they've just about gamed the system. (I would recommend everyone read Matt Tiabbi's piece on Goldman Sachs in 'Rolling Stone'--but do it on an empty stomach.)
The party that time forgot (Repubs) are even more shameless about being lackeys for US corporations. What is needed here is Democrats who run on a platform of holding Wall Street and Insurance companies accountable to the taxpayers. Just hammer that home, over and over.
All this debate about public vs. private ignores the fact that it is the for-profit health "INSURANCE" companies that are the biggest cause of the dysfunctional system you now have. Canada has a publicly-funded health system administered by private health providers. There is no monster of PRIVATE INSURANCE in between Canadians and their doctors.
AGREED and well said!
The blue dog coalition is running a very real risk of destroying itself if they persist in obstructing an idea whose time has finally arrived.
Individually they will be tagged for the remainder of their lives for being on the wrong side of US history of social progress.
Yes and when they take their position with a Healthcare Lobbying group or as a Consultant with an Insurance Co they will cry all the way to the Bank.
Or they will change their party to what they really are now, Republicans, and be rewarded for obstructing Obama.
I agree, globalcitizen, we will not forget the names of the "blue dogs" from now on, and if the other side thinks they will benefit, dream on! My own yellow dog representative is sitting on the fence. I'll be watching and remembering.
The war against the middle class along with the war against the environment are the only two the government is winning.
The watered down bill before congress should be called the "Private Health Care Insurance Industry Bail Out BIll". Washington continues to line the pockets of the wealthiest corporations with our FUTURE earnings. We have socialism all right, and it's called corporate welfare. What heartless thugs.
This is why we won't get single payer health care...
Top drug and insurance company executive pay:
Miles White - Abbott - $17,395.00 per hour
Fred Hassan - Schering-Plough - $16,677.00 per hour
Bill Weldon - Johnson & Johnson - $13,022.00 per hour
The top ten drug company executives earn $199.5 million a year.
Ron Williams - Aetna - $12,656.00 per hour
H. Edwar Hanway - CIGNA - $6,373.00 per hour
Angela Braly - WellPoint $5,127.00 per hour
The top ten insurance executives earn $86.9 million a year
I knew the CEOs made a lot, but this is mind boggling. These clowns make more each day than most people earn in a year. BigPharma and Health Insurance companies are right now spending millions of dollars a day to lobbyists to promote their agenda against a health care reform bill. There is no justification to continue down this path. Health care should NOT be a for-profit industry, at least not the way it currently is.
What you mean, docwang, is that the health "insurance" monstrosity should be shrunk until we can "drown it in the bathtub" (Grover Norquist's famous phrase).
We all want fair compensation for those who provide health CARE, but not obscene payments and bonuses for shuffling paper and gumming up the works and working against us by DENYING care, or inflating costs of drugs, hospital stays and medical equipment. That is the obscenity of it.
Half of those make more in ONE HOUR than I make in ONE YEAR
Howard Dean and his guest said it best on the Olbermann show Tuesday night. If we don't get a STRONG public option, it will be a trillion dollar giveaway to the insurance industry. I'd rather see it crash and burn, than wake up to that!
We're spending $3,000 more per person per year on health care than any other industrialize country in the world!
Therefore, if we were to enact universal single payer, the SAVINGS would be:
$3,000 SAVINGS * 310 Million US inhabitants = $930 BILLION in the first year.
That is $1 TRILLION in the first 13 months!
Yet the Senate Finance Committee is looking for an EXTRA TRILLION dollars to give their corporate masters.
Why hasn't single payer gotten to the table?
Because the Insurance Companies don't want it.
The Congressional Progressives Caucus backed single payer until it was taken off the table, and now they're pushing back the Blue Dogs for a a strong public option.
You can check 'em out and email your support here:
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/.
Health Care as is practiced has a lot of spin-offs & huge negative effects on the population at large for the long and short term
Health Care and its subsidiaries makes a lot of money for a lot of well connected people
I think if you check the economic portfolios of the senators fighting against health care reform, I bet you will find that they all are heavily invested in the prison systems, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, insurances, and any industry that they think A Reformed Health care may impact.
Their primary interest is to protect their interests, the American people be dammed !!!
SINGLE PAYER! SINGLE PAYER! SINGLE PAYER! If these idiots have their way, the plans they are proposing will be enough to ensure that we never get an adequate national health plan. The Repubs will simply be able to say, "Look at what happened the last time we tried national health."
Why is it that we seem to be the only industrialized country where a single payer plan is not possible? It guarantees that everyone is covered. It relieves ALL businesses from the need to offer or administer health insurance, and in all the countries that have such a plan, health outcomes are better than in the U.S.
Quit calling this issue health care, it is medical care.
This is a business that thrives and is dependent upon illness, disease and injury and profits from the pain and suffering that ill health brings.
The Republicans and the "Blue Dog" allies are interested in maintaining and growing this profitable business, not in either making medical care available to everyone or in moving the US population towards a healthy future.
Too much money at stake.
The future looks like a country whose only healthy industry is one based on the perpetuation of pain and suffering.
This cannot be the basis for a healthy economy or population in the future. It will be a disaster if the wealthy corporate interests win again.
All one has to do is look at the true conservative agenda and philosophy to understand this assault on the working and middle class.
Keep these folks financially unstable, keep them poor, keep them uneducated, keep them unhealthy, keep them endlessly busy just trying to survive.
What you end up with is an elite political class which determines the course of government without the consent of the governed.
What you end up with is a very wealthy elite who control every aspect of life for those below them.
I hope you notice that I did not write any party affiliation for conservatives.
(Read conservative philosophers and writers. Read Hobbs, Russel Kirk, Robert Nisbet, Richard Weaver, Clinton Rossiter, and Leo Strauss so you will be informed and, might I say, armed with knowledge. Do a search of "conservative philosophers" to start and go from there.)
It may just be wishful thinking on my part. I would like for the leadership to play some hardball with the blue dogs and DINOs. The party has the numbers to be able to afford losing a couple of the ones that whore them selves out to corporate lobbyists.
Sixty-four percent of Americans say the government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans. Yet, the only plan Republicans can agree on is to attack the Democrats.
After nearly two weeks of delays, a health care bill passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee late Friday night, setting the stage for a full floor vote in the lower chamber -- but not for more than a month, as the House will be on vacation until Sept. 8.
The committee passed its reform bill 31 to 28, with five blue dog Democrats joining every single Republican in voting 'no'.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/31/house-health-bill-clears_n_249150.html
The four Blue Dogs who voted to SUPPORT the bill were Reps. Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Baron Hill of Indiana, Zack Space of Ohio and frontman Mike Ross of Arkansas.
Apparently they know what's good for them.
The five Democrats who voted against the bill include three blue dogs -- Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah, Charlie Melancon of Louisiana and Bart Stupak of Michigan --
plus Reps. John Barrow of Georgia and Rick Boucher of Virginia, who weren't considered blue dogs before. They are now, and I hope voters will elect more progressive democrats in the future and get rid of these DINOs!
what is in this bill that is going to help the american people?
It will help the American People who are employed by the Insurance and Pharmaceutical Companies!
Oh, cock-a-doodle-dill!
The Committee cleared a bill!
No vote for a month
cause the whole darn bunch
vacations away from the Hill!
We are not out of the woods. I will be amazed (and I hope I will be) if a public option makes it into the final bill that goes to Obama for his signature. There is a lot of maneuvering left, a lot of palms to be greased, a lot of backroom deals to be made, a lot of grandstanding for perception to allow a vote opposite to what you declare you stood for, a lot of plain and simple double-dealing left to happen. Then, and only then, will we know if we have got something, or nothing at all.
Remember, a bill without a strong public option -- dare I hope for single payer? -- is not worth the ink used to print it.
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