Yesterday Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) charged on the House floor that the Republican Party is “a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.
I couldn’t agree more. However Rep. Weiner forgot to add: “and so is the majority of the Democratic Party”
THAT IS THE REAL PROBLEM. Our elected officials are protecting their own Wall Street portfolios instead of the American people. That explains the brilliant Democratic solution to turn over 50 million new customer to convicted criminals that we call the health care insurance industry instead of setting up public option that the American people could buy into. But BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans allowed the representatives of the special interests groups to start the rumor that it was “socialized” medicine.
A public option is not anywhere near socialized medicine. It is a democratic (as in “democracy”) solution. They don’t want that. They want a Wall Street solution because our elected official in DC make money from the Wall Street solution. Just ask Evan Bayh and Joe Lieberman.
YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY THESE JACKASSE WERE SO WILLING TO FILIBUSTER HEATH CARE?
MANY “POWER COUPLES” IN THE SENATE ARE WORKING THE CORPORATE WELFARE SYSTEM. Unlike Ronald Reagan’s Welfare Queen who was a propaganda prop for the right-wing, these people are real and they are bilking Americans out of more than money. They are taking our lives too–at the rate of 42,000 a year.
Susan Bayh, woman behind the man–Evan Bayh’s wife
Bayh began her careers in law and business as a litigator for the law firms of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher; and later Barnes & Thornburg. In 1989, she joined the pharmaceutical division at the Indianapolis based Eli Lilly and Company, managing the company’s handling of federal regulatory issues.
An Indiana newspaper listed eight corporations of which Bayh was a director as of 2006 and stated, “Susan Bayh’s position as a director for eight businesses puts her in the league of ‘professional directors’, a term used to refer to people who sit on multiple corporate boards and are not otherwise employed. Source
She currently sits on the board of directors for WellPoint and she and her husband have over $1million worth of WellPoint stock. It’s a good gig for Susan Bayh. Last year, she earned $327,000 in fees, stock and stock options from WellPoint, according to IBJ research. SOURCE
Haddassah Lieberman, wife of Senator Joe Lieberman with her partner
Prior to signing on to Hill & Knowlton, Hadassah has also worked for the lobbying company, APCO Associates, that had many pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations among its clients, as well as four major drug companies such as Pfizer. SOURCE
When Mrs. Lieberman signed on with the Hill & Knowlton in March of 2005, GlaxoSmithKline, the huge British-based drug company that makes vaccines along with many other drugs. In April of 2005, a month after his wife joined Hill and Knowlton Senator Lieberman introduced a bill that would awared bilions of dollars in new “incentives” to companies like GlaxoSmithKline to persuade them to make more new vaccines. The bill was written by Chuck Ludlan, a former pharmaceutical industry lobbyist who then worked on the Connecticut senator’s staff. From his office to his bedroom, Lieberman is totally surrounded by current and former employees of Big Pharma. SOURCE
In the USA, one thing is certain–only Wall Street and Corporate America get the free rides.
It’s true that our elected officials and federal employees get a better deal by far than the rest of us. However, it’s also true that they are not getting a free lunch–unless of course you insist on being a real stickler and count their bloated annual salaries which are paid in full by taxpayers.
My investigation into the topic of what our elected officials pay compared to what we pay revealed that our elected officials and federal employees pay about 1/3 of the the costs for their health care insurance that the rest of us pay.
I’ll use Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon as an example. He has selected the most generous of two Blue Cross Blue Shield offerings for himself and his family.
This “cadillac” plan, by many American’s standards, costs Senator Wyden $4,279 a year. If you or I were to choose close to this same plan, it would cost us approximately $13,500 a year. [NOTE I WRITE "CLOSE" BECAUSE, UNLIKE OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS AND FEDERAL EMPLOYEES, WE ARE SUBJECT TO CANCELLATIONS AND NONPAYMENTS OF CLAIMS BECAUSE OF PRE-EXISTING CLAUSES. Therefore this is in great part a comparison of apples to oranges as ordinary Americans are exposed to a huge risk that Federal employees and elected officials never have to consider--cancellations and nonpayment of claims.]
While Wyden pays $356.59 a month for the plan, you or I would pay $1,120.47 a month for the same plan and most likely our plans would be written with much higher annual deductibles.
Isn’t it interesting in our “free” market society that Republicans and Centrist Democrats so love to tout that we allow corporations to charge customers different prices for the same product? Somehow I feel like that should be against the law. Certainly no one would call that democratic because it is devoid of the any sense of equality.
Annual deductible is $300 per member or $600 per family.
Routine physical is $20 for the doctor and screening tests are fully covered
Well-baby care for the twins is fully covered.
all with preferred providers.
The federal health plan offers among the best choices in any workplace. Because of its enormous size and market power, insurers participating in the federal plan cannot deny coverage to workers who have pre-existing conditions. The plans are portable, meaning if that Forest Service worker from Oregon gets transferred to Idaho or Florida, or even overseas, the coverage follows.
WHO IS THE REAL GOVERNMENT WELFARE RECIPIENT BEHIND THE DOOR? Who is the one who has taken from the American Taxpayers the most?
Is it Dr. Bob Johnson, son of Texas US Representative Sam Johnson who has received over $1million dollars from the American taxpayers for running a fusion center in North Texas (when Dr. Johnson is a resident of Santa Fe New Mexico)
ANSWER: No question about it if you are talking about real life as opposed to a fantasy world lala land that some prefer to live in.Dr. Bob Johnson (son of Texas US Congressman Sam Johnson from the US 3rd Congressional District) and Dr. Johnson’s wife who manage a fusion center in North Texas are the real government welfare recipients.
These two have actually received over a million dollarsin handouts from taxpayers like you and me.The manager of the center is listed as Anita Miller. Ms. Miller is the wife of Dr. Bob Johnson (Bob Johnson is the son of Sam Johnson, 80 year old U.S. Representative for 20 years from the 3rd US Congressional District where the center is located.. Together, Miller and Johnson are ADB, a two person company that has been paid over one million dollars to build and operate the NCTFS)
Entrusting the management of this critical multi-million dollar operation to a husband and wife team who live 600 miles away in Santa Fe, New Mexico should raise questions about managerial probity at NCTFS—especially since one of them just “happens” to be the son of a US Congressman from the district where the fusion center is located.
Ronald Reagan’s welfare queen never existed.She was one of the many Hollywood props that this grade B actor used to “prove” that poor people were really well-off because they lived off the taxpayers getting all those many welfare checks.
It is not the poor who game the system.They do not have the resources.It is the rich and connected who game the system.
HERE IS A QUIZ I FOUND ON SAM JOHNSON’S SITE.FOLLOWING ARE MY ANSWERS.
1. Do you support or oppose the health care reform legislation that passed the House?I support the reform passed by the House [although it could be better] and oppose that passed by the Senate which is nothing more than a handout to Wall Street health insurance predators. In fact, it is a bill that was created with the assistance of Wall Street Health Insurance predators and supported by those who stand the most to profit (as investors whose stock portfolios include health insurance corporations) from the influx of 50 million new customers to these Wall Street crooks.]Heading the list of these profiteers are Evan Byah and Joe Lieberman, both of whom own hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of health insurance stock and both of whom have wives who work as lobbyists for the health care industry.
Support
2. Do you like your health insurance?I am very recently on Medicare which is another great health care myth in the USA.Many people, and I was included among them at one time, thought that Medicare was single payer—a system like that of France, but limited in the USA to people over 65.Well that is simply not true.Medicare is not “free”.It is not even close to free. First of all you have $110 taken out of your Social Security check each month for what is called “Plan B”.If you don’t, then none of your doctor visits are covered.Now paying $110 a month might not be a bad deal if that covered everything but it does not.You are still left with having to pay 20% of the remaining doctor and hospital bill.20% can be unaffordable for many seniors as it could amount to anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 racked up from one bout with pneumonia for example. And if that’s not enough, thanks in great part to Obama’s big pharma deal that he made behind closed doors, seniors will have to continue to pay big bucks for their medications as well.By the time you are all done, you are paying out about $250 a month forhealth care insurance AND $150 of that goes to private health insurers who live on Wall Street.WE HAVE THE CRAPPIEST HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD AND IT IS BROKEN.The bill that the Senate passed does NOTHING to contain the ridiculous gouging and rising costs.It is beyond absurd that Barack Obama just folded his arms on this and stepped back like a Sphinx.Maybe he is just an empty suit that reads teleprompters well.
The question, Sam Johnson, is how do YOU like YOUR government sponsored health care that you have enjoyed at the taxpayers’ expense for the past 20 years?How can you stand up and deny your constituents the very teat that you have been sucking on for over 20 years?How exactly, sir, do you justify that? From my viewpoint it appears that you reside at the very pinnacle of hypocrisy.
144 people are predicted to die in your district in 2010 because they do not have health insurance.what do you recommend that they do?What is your solution for them?Beg for charity, even though most of them pay taxes and support their communities and have all their lives?
You say that you support our veterans, but as you know, even combat veterans may not be able to receive care at a VA hospital. VA facilities provide care for any veteran who is disabled by a condition connected to his or her military service and care for specific medical conditions acquired during military service.and as you also must know, VA hospitals do all they can to get out of treating these veterans. This is a fact that is documented from many different SourcesThey act just like the for profit predator Wall Street health Insurance companies that you support as a “cherished American Way of life.”That is choice.You protect the right of Wall Street predators to rip off the American people.
No
3. Do you think the stimulus has created jobs? [Yes, and this is not a matter of what one “thinks”-- the stimulus has created and saved jobs and this is a verifiable fact.The only problem is that is has not create enough jobs.If the Obama administration had pumped as much money into small local banks and local economies that they handed over to Wall Street, then our economy would be well on its road to recovery today and we would likely not have Goldman Sachs, Bank of America or Chase—which would be just fine with me.]
Yes
4. Do you think that the stimulus was worth it? [Yes, of course I do.The stimulus has created thousands of jobs, but even if it only created 100 jobs for ordinary Americans, it would be worth more than billions that we forked over to Goldman Sachs even before Bush left office in 2008 which not only did not create jobs or loans for ordinary Americans as it promised, it created the loss of 10% of Goldman Sachs lower echelon employees. That’s right.To make sure that their investors got paid, Goldman Sachs fired thousands of Americans. And for all this, Goldman Sachs paid 1% of their income in taxes in 2008.1% folks. Job creation from the rich?I don’t think so. I don’t know what percentage of your income that you paid in 2008, but mine was substantially higher at about 28%.Sure would have made life a lot easier for me if I had only paid 1% like Goldman Sachs—but then who would be giving Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street Banks their handouts?The rich Wall Street firms are the true government welfare recipients.They and not poor people are the predators who live off taxes paid by ordinary Americans.]
Yes
5. Do you support or oppose the national energy tax – sometimes called cap-and-trade – that passed the House this summer? [I oppose it as a false solution disguised as needed legislation.Cap and Trade is little more than another Wall Street Shell Game. We don’t need more taxes. Corporations will just wriggle out of that: We need strong laws passed that hold their CEO’s personally accountable and fine companies directly who are polluting and destroying our environment and they should be made to clean up every single superfund site in the USA—with their money, not the taxpayer’s money.They are the ones who willfully destroyed the land and polluted the environment.] The cap and trade solution is one of those faux solutions that Wall Street often manipulates their puppets in Congress to pass so that it looks like they are being controlled.It is all so remindful of Brer Rabbit who screamed to Brer Fox—“Please don’t throw me in the Briar Patch.”The briar patch was, of course, Brer Rabbit’s home. So it is with Cap and Trade.Wall Street carnies have just created another one of their “financial products” that they can sell for millions.Somewhere in all of this, I’m sure, will be a way that taxpayers will be forced to subsidize Wall Street and yet another of their faux financial products.
Oppose
6. The President has ordered the closing of the terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by January without a plan of where to move the suspected terrorists. Do you feel the President’s plan will make America safer?[How does keeping the prison in Guantanamo Bay make Americans safer?WHAT KIND OF CRAZED CONVOLUTED REASONING JUSTIFES THAT?It does nothing but make us MORE insecure by increasing world fear and hatred of our nation as a police state.
We have criminals in our prisons within our borders who have committed crimes far more heinous that those that the people in Guantanamo are “accused” of committing NOT convicted of committing. Yes Guantanamo Bay should be closed.It never should have been opened in the first place. Isn’t it too absurd that we can have a US prison on Cuban soil and yet Americans still are not allowed to freely travel to Cuba? What kind of a gulag has the USA become?]
Yes
7. Do you support using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions?[This is obviously a loaded question wrapped around an emotional issue that people feel very strongly about—some of them so strongly that they believe that their beliefs are justified by murdering doctors.
It is not a question of whether I support using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.It is a question of whether or not I support the law.Abortion BY LAW is a legal procedure in this nation.Until that LAW is changed, by law, Americans cannot pick and choose which procedures that our tax dollars will or will not fund.Hundreds of thousands of Americans oppose war but that does not stop the members of Congress from using our tax dollars to fund the killing and maiming of thousands of human beings against the wills of those Americans.
As a member of Congress, while I will work to change laws.However, I will support the law of the land until it is changed by due process and not a second before.Either we are to be a nation of laws and our Constitution, or we are to be a nation of ignorant, angry vigilantes. I choose to support a democratic nation that is bound to uphold its laws—and not opinions or religious beliefs, regardless the religion.]
Yes
8. Do you support allowing illegal immigrants to participate in the government-run health plan?[Yes I do—at least until the mess regarding illegal immigration is cleaned up.Illegal immigrants have flooded into the USA because of NAFTA.OUR GOVERNMENT LEADERS AT THE REQUEST OF WALL STREET HAVE CREATED THE IMMIGRANT PROBLEM.THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE.The leaders of our nation with their legislation have created this mess.
Most Americans do not understand the connection between our immigration problems today and the North American “Free” Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was signed into law during the early part of Clinton’s first term. Instead they are blinded by the ethnic hatred for Mexican immigrants that is pumped 24/7 via our mainstream media channels.
Until our Congress changes this trade agreement, we can continue to expect to see more and more Mexicans fleeing their country and seeking refuge in the USA to clean our toilets, flip our burgers and do whatever they can to earn a few dollars. Because the truth is, thanks in great part to what the leaders of our government have created with NAFTA, almost any place is better than Mexico for the ordinary citizen.
True, more of them will die in trying to cross the border because the gaps left in the fence are in deserted areas where the heat in the summer reaches over 100 degrees almost every day, but they will continue to come until Congress rewrites NAFTA and the inequitable burden that it, like most US trade agreements has put on the Mexican worker.
In 1992, prior to NAFTA, it is estimated that the USA had less than 2 million immigrants from Mexico who were in this country illegally.Today, that number is estimated to be between 12 and as high as 18 million.
The first thing that NAFTA did was to destroy the Mexican farmer.They could not compete with the prices of corn of the USA government subsidized corporate agribusinesses.They were literally driven off their land—the same story of American trade agreements is told all over central and South America.Today over 1/3 of all the corn that is used to make tortillas in Mexico comes from USA corporate agribusinesses. The small Mexican farmer cannot compete with the corporate USA government subsidized agribusiness.NAFTA is a one-way street to Mexico with Wall Street calling the shots all the way. This is not “free-enterprise”.This is bully-enterprise and human beings on both sides of the border are suffering terribly from this wanton greed of a few.
10 TIMES MORE PEOPLE DIED TRYING TO CROSS THE BORDER FROM MEXICO INTO THE USA IN THE 10 YEARS BETWEEN 1993 (after passage of NAFTA) AND2004 THAN DIED IN THE ENTIRE 28 YEARS THAT THAT THE BERLIN WALL WAS IN PLACE..
BORDER FENCES DO NOT WORK.Maybe someday we will have enough people in Congress who are intelligent enough to understand this bare-assed fact.From 1993 to 2004, Congress more than tripled spending for border enforcement activities, despite evidence that this unprecedented border build-up has failed to deter significant numbers of unauthorized migrants from attempting entry. [We have gone from about 2 million immigrants to between an estimated 12 and 18 million today.]At the same time, some major unintended consequences have materialized, including more than 2,640 border crossing-related deaths – 10 times more lives than the Berlin Wall claimed during its 28-year existence – and a sharp increase in permanent settlement of unauthorized Mexicans in the United States. SOURCE
Yes
9. Doyou support the Administration’s plan to try terrorists in New York City and give suspected terrorists constitutional protections? [Yes I do.Either we are a nation of laws with a Constitution or we are not.You cannot have it both ways:one law for “them” (which by the way not only includes ‘suspected’ terrorists, but also poor and middle class Americans—if you are middle class and don’t realize that you are part of “them” then you have not been paying attention.) and another law for the ruling class. Either you support the law or you support vigilante mentality.Our law CLEARLYstates that “suspected” is not good enough for conviction. Conviction on suspicion is not the law of our land or the law of our Constitution.Conviction in a court of law with a trial by jury is. Suspicions and assumptions are not grounds for convictions.Instead, they are grounds for mistakes.
Yes
10. With unemployment over 10%, do you support the so-called second stimulus?[Talk about your biased questions, Sam—“so-called”.No one will accuse you of not being transparent. Yes, of course I support a second stimulus.I support paying for it in part by demanding that Goldman Sachs pay the other 34% of their income tax that they owe from 2008.In addition, I support paying for it by finding the trillions of dollars that are literally unaccounted for by the Pentagon.In addition, I support paying for the second stimulus by forcing Max Baucus to keep his word:In a statement, in August of 2008, Baucus said, “I’m committed to finding ways to improve compliance and reduce taxpayer burden so that we begin to bridge the tax gap, which accounts for $345 billion in legally owed but uncollected federal revenues each year.”$345 billion owed but uncollected federal revenues each year!Imagine how many jobs that could create if we got a few rich deadbeats to pay what they owe.No, I agree with Republicans.There is no need to raise taxes.Instead, we need to start collecting them from the deadbeats who don’t pay.FORGET ABOUT RAISING TAXES.FORGET ABOUT ELIMINATING PROGRAMS THAT GIVE PEOPLE A HAND UP.CONCENTRATE INSTEAD ONCOLLECTING TAXES THAT ARE OWED AND START CLOSING TAX LOOPHOLES FOR THE RICH.WE DON’T NEED TO RAISE TAXES ON ANY ONE—THE RICH OR THE MIDDLE CLASS.
Well, believe it or not, some of them might be among the veterans that Sam Johnson, the current U.S. Representative says that he supports.
Many in Congress today like to brag that they support our troops. Perhaps, but their “bucks” stop at the point where it comes to supporting healthcare for our veterans.
James Ridgeway, a senior correspondent at Mother Jones put it well in a post last November titled “Veterans Die from Lack of Health Insurance“. A lot of Americans don’t really understand how our veterans are treated when it comes to health care.
“. . . While many Americans believe that all veterans can get care from the VA, even combat veterans may not be able to obtain VA care, Woolhandler said. As a rule, VA facilities provide care for any veteran who is disabled by a condition connected to his or her military service and care for specific medical conditions acquired during military service.
Woolhandler said veterans who pass a means test are eligible for care in VA facilities, but have lower priority status…Veterans with higher incomes are classified in the lowest priority group and are not eligible for VA enrollment. . .
So after these men and women risk their lives in the military, we throw them on the mercy of the private system of medicine-for-profit, which is touted as a cherished part of the American way of life. It all gives a whole new meaning to dying for your country.”
as is pointed out in the video that follows, some New England newspaper reported that the Republicans now have a 41 to 59 majority in the Senate!
Honest to God I think that is how many in the Senate view the recent win by Brown. This is absurd.
The truth is that that Democrats NEVER had a 60 seat majority in the Senate. You cannot count people such as Joe Liebermann, Ben Nelson, Evan Byah and Blanche Lincoln as “Democrats”. However the democrats do have a 51% majority and they need to be reminded of the value of reconciliation.
F THE REPUBLICANS AND THEIR OBSTRUCTIONISM. OUR NATION NEEDS TO MOVE FORWARD AND BARACK OBAMA NEEDS TO STOP ACTING LIKE A SHRINKING VIOLET. HE NEEDS TO REMEMBER THE PROMISES HE MADE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND START KEEPING THEM.
Do you know what the American people will remember about Obama and the way his Clinton administration led by foul mouthed Rahm Emanuel handled health care “reform”? THEY WILL REMEMBER OBAMA’S PROMISE FOR A TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE WHITE HOUSE AND THEIR BACK ROOM DEALS WITH BIG PHARMA AND BARACK OBAMA’S REFUSAL TO EVEN ALLOW THE DISCUSSION OF SINGLE PAYER AS AN OPTION.
BARACK OBAMA HAS A LONG WAY TO GO TO MAKE UP THE WAY HE HAS NOT LED DURING HIS FIRST YEAR.
HERE IS WHAT THE MAJORITY REALLY WANT FOR HEALTH CARE:
The snapshot above was taken today Feb 4, 2010.
Back in September of 2009 I created this poll. Unlike President Obama, I gave Americans a real choice at all options: Public option, Single payer and status quo (no change). This poll over the past six months has consistently showed single payer capturing over 50% of all the votes. In the beginning, status quo was about as far ahead as is public option now. These two choices have essentially reversed their positions. However at NO TIME over the past six months has the single payer choice been any less than 55%.
The fact that Obama and his elitist administration (who are now trying to position themselves as populists) would not even allow the discussion of single payer is reprehensible and anti-democratic. It was at the point when citizens (doctors and nurses) wanted to sit down at the table and discuss with the corporate health insurance representatives and Obama allowed Max Baucus to kick them out of Congress that Obama died to me. That was the day he became just like the rest–not that different from George Bush.
One of the basic tenants of a democratic government is representation of the majority.
In fact, representation of the wishes of the majority is so central to the definition of a true Democracy that a Democracy cannot exist without this voice. Here in the USA, we have representation of the majority of those who go to the polls and vote. This is NOT the same as representation of the majority who are eligible to vote [the true majority] because close to half of those eligible to vote do not vote.
Until at least 80 to 85% of those who are eligible to vote are voting, we do not and cannot have a true democracy.
The reason the Republicans have been in power for so long and continue to be so strongly represented is because they represent those with the most to lose as our government moves toward a more democratic representation of the majority. These people have a reason to vote.
The rest of us, the ordinary Americans, the working poor, are a lot like victims of abusers and unfortunately, we exhibit many of the characteristics of the victims of habitual abuse. We tend to think that the reason we are abused is our fault. We must be doing something wrong because our homes are being foreclosed one. We must be doing something wrong because we lost our jobs. Maybe we are not smart enough. Our attitudes and low self-esteem encourage the abusers to take even further advantage of us.
The only way that things will change for the majority in the USA is if and when the majority begin to get their asses to the polls and vote for candidates who will represent them AND run as candidates themselves.
I know it’s tough, but if a candidate has the truth to tell and if they get out and among the people and tell their truth, they will win. I believe that. I believe that democracy is still possible here in the USA–for the first time.
While Gruber’s ethical lapses are his own personal and professional issue, the true problem here is that the White House used Gruber and his research as a seemingly unbiased source in support of its unpopular reforms.
When Obama wanted to tax middle class health care plans, Gruber defends the tax. When Obama wanted to force people to buy private insurance, Gruber defends individual mandate. When Obama does not want public option, Gruber says a public option is not important. When Obama needs to pretend the bill has cost controls, Gruber says it has the greatest cost controls ever.
It is simply not right for the White House to cite Gruber’s analysis to illustrate the benefits of the bill they support without disclosing that Gruber is on the government payroll. A biased insider can’t be an unbiased outside observer. But that’s exactly the approach of the Obama Administration, to the tune of $780,000 in tax dollars.
This is the problem with letting Clinton Rat-Pack run the administration. I wouldn’t trust ANY of that bunch any further than I could throw them. They were all mad as hell because Hillary was not elected and they all are stuck in the 1990′s. They still don’t seem to get it that Citizen journalists are not like mainstream media journalists. We will NOT automatically accept something as true just because it is reported. They still do not respect the power that citizen journalist have.
I would not even put it past them to be working against Obama on deals like the healthcare. Honestly, I think some of them want Obama to fail as much as the Republicans do. They are pulling backroom strategies and then letting them leak to the press. Like the big Pharma deal behind closed doors. Like keeping Tim Geithner on. Like Lanny Davis’s involvement with Honduras–just like Mark Penn and his South American meddling during Hillary’s campaign. This is exactly how the Clinton’s operate–behind the scenes for Wall Street Bankers. Their own daughter works for a Hedge Fund on Wall Street for crying out loud! When he was President, Bill Clinton invited the Rothschilds to sleep over in the Lincoln bedroom. One of Bill’s parting gifts to Wall Street and bankers in general was to destroy all the check and balances by essentially repealing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and replacing it with the “Bank Modernization Act of 1999″
Is Obama REALLY this gullible, or is he a member of the Clinton rat pack too?
Five Critical Flaws in the Senate Health Care Bill
The Senate bill would:
#1—Deny Americans the choice of a public option. In contrast, the House bill contains a national public option, the key to real competition, greater choice, and lower costs.
#2—Leave insurance unaffordable for some lower income and working people. Both bills require virtually all Americans to buy insurance. But even with the subsidies provided, some families could have to pay up to 20% of their income on health care expenses.
#3—Impose dangerous restrictions on women’s reproductive health care. Unfortunately, both bills do this and the House provision is worse. Both versions would be a dangerous step and neither should be in the final bill.
#4—Tax American workers’ health coverage to pay for reform. The Senate would pay for part of reform by taxing the hard-won benefits packages of some working Americans. The House, on the other hand, pays for reform with a small surcharge on only the wealthiest Americans—a far better approach.4
#5—Allow insurance companies to remain exempt from anti-trust laws. Under current law, insurance companies are actually exempt from laws designed to prevent monopolies and price-gouging. The House bill would fix this, but the Senate bill leaves it in place.
CHANGE THE NAMES, CHANGE THE FACES, IT’S STILL THE SAME STUPID PHONY GAME.
Oh yeah, it slipped my mind. Professional Wrestlers are fakes who pretend to hate each other who are supposed to entertain us.
US Senators are fakes who pretend to hate each other while they are supposed to represent us. FACT IS: We don’t give a damn if they like each other or not. We do give a damn, however, when they represent their own financial interests over the will of the majority of their constituents.
If the Baucus display is not a perfect example of a professional wrestler’s phony tirade, then I’ve never seen one. Those Republicans are not the enemies of Baucus. They played their game hand in glove–just like the phony professional wrestlers who pretend to be enemies.
If Baucus and the Obama administration had any intentions of crafting a bill in the true spirit democracy, they would have allowed ALL THE VOICES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE to the table–including those who wanted single payer. Instead they gagged the majority of the people in the USA. If Baucus and the Obama administration had any intentions of crafting a health care bill that meant something real to the American people, they never would have negotiated with big Pharma behind closed doors and given away the opportunity for real control over drug prices. If Baucus and the Obama administration had any intentions of crafting a health care bill for the people, they never would have allowed a former vice president of WellPoint, Liz Fowler, to author the bill–perhaps one of the biggest slaps in the face to the American people.
F BAUCUS AND HIS PHONY TIRADE. F THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND THEIR PHONY HEALTH CARE “REFORM”. I’M FED UP WITH THEM PRETENDING TO BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT THEY ARE: WALL STREET PIMPS FOR THE RICH.
By the way, Baucus appears to be drunk, suffering from sleep deprivation, or in need of changing one of his prescriptions. What’s up with the slurring?
We are all raised to know that in the USA you get what you pay for.
That is the mythological glue that holds our capitalism together.
You want more? Then you pay more.
So what I would like to see is a side by side comparison of the health care delivered to a family of four earning $33,000 who are forced to pay $1,521 in premiums to some health care predator beside the same benefits paid to a family of four who pay out $25,000 for a health insurance plan–the so called “Cadillac Plans”.
NEED has NO relationship to affordability. A human being will have the need regardless their ability to pay for the need being met.
For example, If a person needs a prosthesis to replace a leg that they have lost, it is irrelevant if they can afford the plan that covers the delivery of that prosthesis. They still VERY MUCH NEED THAT PROSTHESIS.
WHAT’S WITH THE DIFFERENT PRICES FOR THE PLANS? Does this mean then that the richer you are and the more you can afford to pay the more comfortable that your prosthesis will be and the more that it will look like a real leg?
Perhaps with the $1,521 premium package the person is given a stick of wood that they can whittle down for a peg leg.
Does this mean that if you need an operation to save your life and it is not covered under the $1,521 premium or that you can’t afford the “cost-sharing” as designated by multimillionaire Senators that you can just die?
YES, I would very much like to see exactly what would be delivered to a family of four who pay an annual premium of $1,521 (or was that a monthly premium? The writer in the New York Times didn’t clearly designate monthly or annually. If the Senate means “monthly” then that is beyond all absurdity–that an American family of four, earning $33,000 a year would be expected to pay more than half their annual income to an insurance predator is too ridiculous to contemplate. Still knowing the absurdity of the Senate in terms of their expectations of ordinary American to shoulder the burdens of Wall Street, who knows.)
STILL I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON OF WHAT AN ANNUAL $1,521 PREMIUM BUYS A FAMILY OF FOUR COMPARED TO WHAT AN ANNUAL $25,000 PREMIUM BUYS A FAMILY OF FOUR.
This is a democracy? No, this is not an example of a democracy. A democracy gives people REAL choices such as a public option. It does not force them to only buy from crooks who rob from them.
