David Soper of The Coffee Ethic had the winning art of the evening
with a double-heart rosetta.

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:

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Eric Cantor, for example, says that it is full of ‘pork-spending’, though there are no earmarks in the bill. He also maintains that it has created no jobs, though in his own state it looks to create upward of 160,000 jobs. The majority of Republicans in office right now are following suit. This can’t bode well for Republicans, regardless of what Democrats do.

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

The recent Supreme Court decision is NOT about freedom of speech, regardless of what Republicans claim.

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Want to see exactly where the funds are going?
www.recovery.gov

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C-SPAN link to the President’s remarks about the Stimulus Bill

Bond and other Republicans claim that there are Military tribunals that have been created since 9/11 that are supposed to interrogate such suspects, even though such things have existed for years and years, long prior to the 9/11 tragedy. This and apparently the lack of understanding that foreign convicted terrorists like Richard Reid were also read their Miranda rights, tried in a court, convicted, and incarcerated under the Bush Administration.

It seems that this hypocrisy can’t be argued effectively by persons in the GOP, considering that Bush’s Administration took the same actions as Obama’s Administration…so they are going to throw Bush’s Administration under the bus now too.

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Kit Bond: John Brennan ‘needs to go’
Kasie Hunt (2010, February 9). Politico.

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This has occurred with Health Care reform, as the current reform proposals are nearly identical to proposed legislation from the 1990s when Hillary Clinton was preaching Universal Healthcare. But now the Republicans are against their own ideas.

Even better than that are the cap-and-trade ideas being proposed. These are nearly identical to Republican proposals from the Reagan Presidency. YES…the REAGAN Presidency. But now that Democrats are willing to leverage that…the Republicans are against it.

And this is evident now with the “stimulus” bills. The massive bailouts under the George W. Bush administration were good policy ideas to Republicans. But even though the current stimulus package has tax cuts the Republicans asked for (nearly a 1/3 of the funds), and even though Republicans are taking credit for new jobs created by these funds in their own states and districts that were funded by the stimulus package, Republicans are stating that the stimulus is all bad and did nothing to help anyone. This is also despite a consensus by economists that more likely the stimulus package wasn’t enough money (as opposed to being a lot of waste, as Republicans keep claiming).

How much hypocrisy is required before Republican voters realize they are being taken for a ride?

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

For more on this…see the recent movie “Sicko”….which I actually just saw tonight. Yeah, I know…I’m behind the times.