SoonerBlue

 

If you only listen to Fox News. you'd think a couple of wins for Republicans last night will kill the chances of healthcare reform. Maybe someone should tell them that McDonnell and Christie are governors and can't vote on healthcare reform in Congress.

But, guess what? The two Democrats who won congressional elections yesterday in CA-10 and NY-23 CAN vote on the healthcare bill.

In fact, when they won both of those congressional seats, Democrats expanded their House majority. Yesterday, Democrats had 256 voting members in the House...after Owens and Garamendi are sworn in, they'll have 258.

 

Next time you hear righties whining about President Obama's lack of accomplishments during these last nine months, or about how the Democrats never keep any of their promises ....

Just take a minute to remember how successful the Republicans were at keeping their promises. Like privatizing Social Security, reforming Medicare, doing away with Welfare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and all those other social programs they detest. Another longtime political goal was to gut the Department of Education...also to rewrite the laws that govern the SEC, FDA, and all the other regulatory agencies they hate.

Oh, wait...none of that stuff really happened.

The reality is that the Republican Congress couldn't get anything done. Yes, they have Tax Cuts, Patriot Act, and the Iraq War on their side...and they expanded government powers and even gave Medicare a drug plan. But the rest of their time was spent on silly political grandstanding...which hurt them at the polls.

Egad, reams have been written about how do-nothing the Republican Congresses were...but now I keep reading revisionist history about how good they were at getting things done while we Democrats sit on our hands doing nothing.

I know that organizing Democrats is like herding cats -- but hell, we've gotten MUCH MUCH further at reforming healthcare than they ever got at reforming Social Security.

Yes, legislation IS like making sausage - ugly, messy, and difficult. But, everything being the same, Democrats now have a chance to show how much better we are at it than Republicans.

We WILL have health insurance/healthcare reform legislation passed this year...something no President has been able to do in the last 80 years. It will probably help more Americans than any single piece of legislation ever.  

It's just killing Republicans though...they have thrown in with the health insurance industry, cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Also -- Obama has definitely accomplished a lot more in his first nine months of office than Bush ever did...unless you want to count 9/11 as an "accomplishment."

 

The Congressional Budget Office has released a report saying that a Public Option would come under budget and reduce the deficit over the next 10 years.

There are five bills being negotiated. They say the House bill has the best Public Option. Other versions have a national plan, negotiated rates, opt-out allowed. It can demonstrate its effects compared to states without it.

Hey, that opt-out thang ought to make Republicans happy -- it's a move by the Feds that actually INCREASES states rights for once.

~~New CBO numbers make public option a virtual certainty~~

From examiner.com: "The CBO has dealt a death blow to opponents of a public option by giving an estimate of a House bill which contains what's been called "a robust" public option that budgets out to $871 billion over ten years and reduces the deficit.

["Blue Dogs"] ...were holding out for a government run insurance option that would allow for rates to be negotiated directly with doctors and hospitals. But the CBO estimated that version wouldn't save as much money as the one in the current House bill.

[S]ome senate aides estimated that a senate bill with a public option already had 52-54 votes, more than the 51 needed. The number 60 has been bandied about ....but that number is only needed to break a Republican filibuster.

[T]he Republican argument against a public option, that it would put insurance companies out of business has always fallen on deaf ears among Democrats and has no traction in the country where there is no sympathy for insurance companies."[..]~~~

Here's where you can keep track of where Congress stands on the Public Option.

I think it needs 218 votes to pass in the House.

Here's hoping the House bill will prevail!

(BTW - There are five bills that have to be negotiated and merged into the final bill that must be passed by both houses. I apologize if I get what's in which bill mixed up. I do try to do my research...but after a while it just makes my head hurt.)

Polling shows Americans support a Public Option. The CBO has shown that it will SAVE us money and drive down the cost of health care.

Democrats are on the side of the people, Republicans are on the side of the insurance companies. It's really as simple as that.

 

 

Last night on MSNBC, I loved the way Keith Olbermann called the Republicans out on how they oppose public option health insurance for people, but they love socialized property insurance. Like they support mandatory property flood insurance...which is subsidized by the government, because the 'market' decided it couldn't make oodles of money from it.

Yep, the ones who holler loudest about a public option for people, calling it socialized insurance, are gung-ho for socialized insurance for property.

Earlier this week the "Gang of 6" -- Baucus, Bingaman, Conrad, Grassley, Enzi and Snowe -- all voted against a public health insurance option...but voted for a home insurance public option. A government-run insurance for property -- National Flood Insurance.

You know those million dollar plus waterfront estates that are in flood areas? They're covered. They can even sign up during storm warnings.

So, again we have socialism for the rich guys...capitalism for the working class.

Folks, the health and lives of our loved ones should be more precious than any property we hold.

Damned insurance companies! It's despicable to sell people a policy then fudge when asked to pay out...and then go whining to the government if they actually had to pay out on it.

Either sell flood insurance or don't, but don't pretend you do while the government is actually paying out.

 

 

Yes, last Tuesday a key Senate committee shot down two versions of the public health insurance option offered by Democratic Senators Schumer of NY and Rockefeller of WV... but I'm not losing hope yet. This is just the Finance Committee's bill*... it still needs to be reconciled with the House. It's not over yet.

The House had passed its healthcare proposal out of three committees before it adjourned for August ... whereas the Senate likes avoid conflict, and takes a lot of time to mull things over. George Washington told Thomas Jefferson that the framers created the Senate to "cool" House legislation the same way a saucer cools hot tea.

I've seen several Senators on TV, going on the record to support a public option. Very encouraging, and also makes me think that maybe they honestly feel this thing can pass.

The Republican attack machine revved up full throttle against a public option at those townhall shout-downs through the summer...and still continues to trash it with TV ads, etc.

BTW -- Two signs you didn't see at those tea party protests:

"Please Take Away My Medicare" .. and "STOP sending my Social Security check"...no siree.

But public option is still popular with we the voters...poll after poll shows anywhere from 65 to 75 percent approval for including a public option.

Any reasonable thinking person should be able to understand why a public health insurance plan is good for all Americans...everyone but the CEO's of private insurance companies with their death by spread sheet profit margins, that is.

For every dollar that we consumers pay in premiums, private insurance companies skim off 38 cents for their corporate jets, Las Vegas party trips and obscenely bloated CEO compensation packages. That leaves 62 cents, less than two thirds of every dollar, to pay for actual healthcare.

For every dollar paid to Medicare, only 4 cents goes to administrative costs, leaving 96 cents for actual healthcare. Anyone who can add and subtract can see that even without tort reform, etc., we can easily chop 34 percent off our national cost just by cutting out the private insurance middleman.

Ask yourself this: What if some catastrophe, some "natural" disaster happened in the US, causing tens of thousands of injuries? What if a nasty new virus suddenly ran rampant through our schools causing many fatalities among our children?

Who would receive the best medical care -- the ones who had health insurance?

Without a public option, it would be impossible to handle either scenario.

...and yet...and yet...sometimes, somehow...things get done. Like Medicare in the 60's...like women and blacks getting the vote. Sometimes the right thing to do is just keep fighting, not give up.

* UPDATE: Again, The Daily Show gives us real news we don't hear elsewhere. As the Senate Finance Committee voted against our public option on the health reform bill...they voted FOR an amendment that would give 50 million dollars to fund abstinence-only programs. It was sponsored by Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT), and passed 12 to 11. Even when it's been proven REPEATEDLY that abstinence only doesn't work.