Mon 25 Jan 2010
MONDAY MUSINGS
Posted by admin under politics
Now that winter has returned to McHenry County, Illinois, it is time once again for AWMD’s Monday Musings. There are plenty of news items to choose from after the weekend, but I just want to discuss one. If my “Musing” interests you, let us know what you think. Hell, even if it doesn’t interest you, let us know!
After the Republican victory in Massachusetts and the amazing Supreme Court decision that granted “personhood” to corporations, it is time for President Obama and the Democrats to grow a set and push legitimate health care reform legislation through Congress using Reconciliation, if necessary, and to force any Republican filibuster to the floor of the Senate. We discussed on an earlier thread just how many times the filibuster has been used by the Republicans. http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/cloture_motions/clotureCounts.htm It is heartening to see that some Dems agree with our view on this subject. White House advisor, David Axelrod put it this way in Politico: ‘ “The Republican strategy in the Senate is to turn 50 into 60, in other words no longer do you need a majority to carry the day in the Senate. You need 60 votes for everything because the Republicans are filibustering every single bill,” he said. “We need to call that out, and they need to explain to the American people whether throwing a wrench into everything at a time of national emergency is the appropriate policy. They want to win and election and take us back to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place.” ‘
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0110/Ax_GOP_throwing_a_wrench_in_midst_of_national_emergency.html?showall
Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania also appealed to the Democrats in the Senate to not be timid and to force the Republicans to actually debate their filibusters on the floor of the Senate. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/01/make-them-filibuster-gov-rendell-tells-president-obama-democrats-to-play-hardball.html Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa actually has suggested that the filibuster rule should be weakened. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/01/sen-harkin-proposes-weakening-the-filibuster/1 Now that some of the Democratic leadership have signaled a willingness to actually fight the Republicans instead of trying to negotiate with people who have no intention of being reasonable, maybe we will get to see the Democrats return the Senate to a Majority rule body. The Democrats and the Obama Administration have the opportunity to turn the corner on the Republican obstructionism if they stand up to their lies. They have to call them liars when they lie. They need to show the American public just what the Republican party is trying to do. They are on the record that they will do everything and anything they can to deny Obama any success, even at the expense of the country. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0709/Health_reform_foes_plan_Obamas_Waterloo.html?showall & http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/frank-luntz-the-language-of-healthcare-20091.pdf How can these guys sleep at night??
The more I think about it, the Democratic Health Care Bill is ridiculous. Why not start out with something simple, that the country can easily digest, and the majority of people would agree with, like “WalMart, Target, McDonald’s and the like have to provide affordable health care to their employees.” Take the largest U.S. companies and you probably have 5-10 million people right there who currently are not provided with affordable health care by their employers and, for that reason, the measly health care they do get is paid for by the government. We subsidize these corporations by letting them get away with not treating their employees fairly. Furthermore, before losing the Senate seat in Mass, insurance company stocks were going up. Big Business will cash in on the Democracts Health Care Plan- while not nearly as Socialist as some say it is, it doesn’t take away from the fact that its just plain stupid.
The Democrats want to add on to a broken system, spend billions upon billions of dollars on a plan that no one knows for sure will work, and scare people have to death about what the plan will do to their existing medicare. I personally think its ridiculous.
Now, we are talking about trimming the federal government so that we can deal with the deficit? Please. When its time to renew the defense budget, or the offense budget, few will raise their voice in opposition. The idea that we don’t have money for health care and education and job creation is just not true- the only problem is, money for bombs is patriotic, money for health care and education is Socialist.
I do agree with you that the idea of a super majority required to pass every law causes a break down in democracy- while the filibuster has its role it should not be abused. Too bad the Democrats are too afraid to challenge it.
Not that my idea wouldn’t cause insurance company stock prices to rise- obviously they would have millions of more customers. My point is that industry experts believe that any cost cutting measures in the bill are a joke.
Tom,
It is good to hear from you again. I don’t agree with everything that you noted, but I do agree with the fact that a true single payer universal health care plan would be the best way to go. Of course, the Republicants would bust a vein if single payer was actually proposed. the only chance we have of getting to a real single payer or Meidicare for all plan is to do it incrementally. I am still hopeful that the Dems will push the important aspects of the House bill through Congress. Part of the reason that the mandate was added to the Senate version was a payback to the insurance companies to offset the ban on pre-existing conditions and the ban on the insurance companies cancelling policies when people get sick. I also agree that the best way to pay for health care for all is to get out of Iraq immediately and to look very closely at the defense budget to remove the weapons and weapon systems that the military doesn’t want, but some Congressman does.