Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I know that I’ve posted Research 2000′s poll concerning Republican voter.  I will, in light of this, retract my trust in that polling data.

Here is more on the issue from the Daily Kos:

• Research 2000: Problems in plain sight
• More on Research 2000

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Democrats: “We need health care reform”
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! Give us a majority and we’ll do it better”
Democrats: “Done, you have majority of both houses”

12 years later, health care is irrefutably worse in every respect for every single person in the United States

Democrats: “We need health care reform”
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! Americans are tired of partisan politics!”
Democrats: “OK, let’s compromise”
Republicans: “OK, get rid of half your ideas”
Democrats: “Done”
Republicans: “Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas”
Democrats: “Done”
Republicans: “Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas”
Democrats: “Done”
Republicans: “Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas”
Democrats: “Done”
Republicans: “Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas”
Democrats: “Done. Time to end debate”
Republicans: “Too liberal, we need more debate, we will filibuster to prevent you from voting”
Democrats: “OK, we’ll vote–sorry guys, debate is ended. It’s time to vote on the bill”
Republicans: “Too liberal, we vote no”
Democrats: “OK, it passed anyway–sorry guys.”

One month later

Republicans: “Wait–wait, OK, we have less of a minority now so we can filibuster forever.”
Democrats: “Sorry, the bill already passed, we need it to pass the House now”
Republicans: “But we have enough to filibuster”
Democrats: “Sorry, the bill already passed, we need it to pass the House now”
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! You haven’t listened to our ideas! You’ve shut us out of this whole process!”
Democrats: “Sorry, show us your proposal”
Republicans: “Smaller government”
Democrats: “That’s not very specific”
Republicans: “OK, here’s our detailed proposal–It’s our common-sense ideas we spent 12 years not enacting”
Democrats: “OK, we’ll add a bunch more of your ideas”
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! You included all these back-room deals”
Democrats: “OK, we’ll get rid of the back-room deals”
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! You’re using obscure procedural tricks to eliminate the back-room deals!”
Democrats: “No, we’re using reconciliation, which both parties have used dozens of times for much larger bills”
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! You’re pressuring Congressmen to vote for your bill! Scandal!”
Democrats: “It’s called ‘whipping’, it’s been done since 1789″
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! Can’t you see the American people don’t want this?”
Democrats: “This bill is mildly unpopular (40-50%), doing nothing (your proposal) is extraordinarily unpopular (4-6%)”
Republicans: “We need to start over! We need to start over!”
Democrats: “We should really consider voting–”
Republicans: “Liberal fascists! Start over! Clean slate! Common-sense! America!”

Reposted from: Shorter Health Care Debate by Nicole Belle

Domestic terrorism being defined as, “[involving] groups or individuals whose terrorist activities are directed at our government or people in US without foreign direction. Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.” In this case coercion to repeal the new health care legislation via acts of violence and threats.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Some of the people who have opposed this health care legislation have used a quote from Thomas Jefferson to justify their actions: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.” They often follow that quote with a statement like, “She’s looking very thirsty lately!” However, this type of ‘revolutionary’ sort of statement isn’t what Thomas Jefferson was saying. Let us break this down by year to demonstrate:

• 1766 Sons of Liberty formed, meeting under a tree when they met…e.g. liberty tree.
• 1773 Boston Tea Party
• 1776 Declaration of Independence from British rule
• 1781 Articles of Confederation – our first constitution
• 1781-1789 governing body in the United States was the Congress of the Confederation made up of delegates appointed by the legislatures of the states
• 1786 (Aug)-1787 (Feb) Shays’ Rebellion, made up of armed farmers angry about debt and taxation.  They also used the ‘Liberty Tree’ or a ‘Liberty Pole’ to symbolize their cause.
• 1787 (Jan) Over 1000 Shaysites arrested.
• 1787 (Feb) Those involved in Shays’ Rebellion came up against the local militia of Springfield, Mass. The government militia fired warning shots from cannons.  Two of the cannons struck persons of Shays’ Rebellion, killing 4 and wounding 20.  The remaining Shaysites fled.
• 1787 (Sept) Constitution of the United States of America adopted
• 1787 (Nov) Letter from Thomas Jefferson to William S. Smith contains the quote concerning Shays’ Rebellion
• 1789 Bill of Rights introduced and in effect by Dec 1791
• 1789-1797 George Washington Presidency
• 1797-1801 John Adams Presidency
• 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson Presidency

Thomas Jefferson was referring to the Shaysites that happened to be killed as the “tree of liberty” being “refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”  Here is the full quote:

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

Here is another explanation that I found recently from a blog called “The Rude Pundit”:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The good things the new health care reform will do is pretty incredible. And a lot of them start right away, or at least sometime this year.

2010:

• Ban on denial of children because of pre-existing conditions
• Tax credits for small businesses to assist with employee’s insurance premiums, up to 50% of the premium cost.
• Rebates for seniors to help cover the medication coverage expenditure limitation in Medicare
• Cutoff for young adults being on their parents’ insurance policy is reset to age 27.
• Lifetime caps on individual insurance are banned.
• High-risk insurance pool created for adults with pre-existing conditions
• New insurance plans must include preventative care without co-pays
• Insurance companies are banned from cutting someone’s insurance once they get sick
• Insurance companies must reveal how much money they output on administrative costs and profits
• There will finally be an appeals process for coverage and claims for the patient
• New screening processes to tackle health insurance fraud
• Medicare payment protections will be extended to small and rural hospitals.
• Nutritional content will have to be disclosed by chain restaurants

2011:

• Annual wellness visits and prevention care for Medicare recipients
• Medicaid plans that would allow states to offer home and community care for the disabled
• Payments to insurers offering Medicare Advantage frozen at 2010 level to bring costs in line with Medicare.
• Employers must disclose the value of employees’ health benefits on their W-2
• Insurance companies required to spend 80-85 of premiums on actual health care, or they will be required to issue a rebate to the patient for the difference

2012:

• Move in Medicare and Medicaid to track admissions to prevent readmissions because of preventable issues.

2013:

• Medicare payroll tax increased for individuals earning > $200,000 per year, or couples earning > $250,000 per year.

2014:

• Ban on discrimination for adults with pre-existing conditions
• Insurance exchanges for small businesses and individuals
• Annual limits for insurance will be banned

2018:

• All plans must include preventative care without co-pays

There are still a number of fixes that will need to be put into law, like a lot of earmarks and fluff removed…as well as the affirmation that federal dollars will not be spent on abortion services.  I hope the Republicans will be kind in their treatment of these fixes.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Basic fact-checking found that the source of the statistic is a physician recruitment firm in Texas called “The Medicus Firm”. They are using their statistic as promotional material. It was NOT from the New England Journal of Medicine, and Medicus polled their existing population of clients to attract their certain type of clientele with this statistic.

Ridiculous.

I’ve said in the past that the Senate bill contains too many concessions to Republican interests, too many concessions to the insurance and pharma industries, and too few moves to actually address all the complexities of health care in the United States (despite the ridiculous Republican argument that the bill has too many pages). Though > 70% of the American population wants health care reform, < 25% think the Senate bill is any good.

It seemed to me at the time that the Republicans were gearing up to propose good and needed changes to the Senate bill, and that they would work with the majority to hash things out. None of this occurred.

Instead, the Republicans started to be myopic in their quest to stop all progress on everything, inciting clever names for their maneuver, like “The Tarentino” because they “kill bills”. All their ideas were summed up (as seen largely in the bipartisan health care summit recently) in proposals that have been rejected as counterproductive by independent analysis available to the Senate and the President, expansion of ideas that we have today already that aren’t helping, supposed promotion of competition from markets that are too small to actually compete, loosening regulation of insurance though public participation in insurance is failing while insurance industry profits soar, etc. Essentially the Republicans have suggested everything that we have already tried and failed with historically, or ideas that are antithetical to reforming the problem that is occurring.

And that is the reason why I felt my position on the issue needed to take a 180, and support a not-so-good bill with the understanding that reconciliation will happen afterward. And there are a number of parts that have been established to hold insurance companies accountable as well as protect the public in general. Some of which include:

• Review process of unreasonable increases in premiums
• Appeals process for people denied on a claim
• Rebates for policy holders from insurance with high administrative costs
• Public disclosure of administrative costs
• Sweeping requirement of preventative services
• Deficit neutral

I think that despite the initial obvious shortcomings of the Senate bill, the benefits to the public are good compared to a doing absolutely nothing and opposition to everything.  So, thus I find myself supporting reconciliation of the bill under the current sociopolitical environment.

Hope that makes sense.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/03/05/weekly-address-what-health-reform-will-deliver-year

What makes me entirely frustrated with the Republican reaction is two-fold. First, armed with their own ‘facts’…regardless of what professionals in the areas of question say…they pretend that they will cooperate in an attempt to save face while intending to block any idea that isn’t theirs. Second, they assault the media with outright falsehoods that have long since been shown to be entirely inaccurate. The media doesn’t typically call them on it, in the hope of giving airtime to both perspectives as to not be scolded themselves.

So, yeah…I’m ranting. I should give some credit to the Republicans in the House for conducting the business of the House normally…at least for the most part. Perhaps they are doing that only because they know that nothing will get through the Senate. But overall the whole of it is frustrating. Everyone, including the media, needs to wise up to the strategy of the Republicans, and just move on actually governing and representing the American public without them.

Thanks to DailyKosTV for the video feed.

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/

Here is their mission statement:

“The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.”

Check out their video:

I feel exactly the same way. And that is pretty much how it went. Republicans would repeat a number of talking points over and over:

• Need to start over – the Senate bill is already a huge compromise. Most of the worthwhile features have been removed to please Republicans. Democrats need to learn that no compromise or common ground is good enough for the GOP.
• the American people don’t want this bill – That is partially true, but the reasons are important. Conservative people don’t want the Senate Health bill because they fear the evil hand of ‘socialism’. But there are a number of progressive people who don’t want the bill because it doesn’t do enough to really change how things are today…so what is the point. The lie is that the American people don’t want our health care system to change.
• The bill would bankrupt America – this is a stupid argument, since it had already been shown to be deficit neutral.

Anyway…that is just a few points. For those that have a short attention span…let me direct you to these videos, which also accurately express my feelings: