Will Republicans Stop Reforms By Not Funding Them? Probably.

One of the little details lost among the health care reform, financial reform and every other reform since President Obama took office was when those so-called reforms were going to take effect.  It turns out that little detail might just come back and bite Obama and the Democrats in the butt.

None of the reforms were scheduled to take effect right away.  That’s because they had to be funded by Congress to take effect.  And since the Congressional Democratic leadership and President Obama’s staff couldn’t take the time to organize themselves and get their business done as quickly as possible, there wasn’t enough time left in this session to pass the 2011 fiscal year budget.  Even though the fiscal year started on October 1st (yes, 2.5 months ago).  So what Congress has done instead is pass funding through continuing resolutions.

Unfortunately, they mean what they sound like: they continue current funding.  They don’t allocate new funding.  They don’t change funding levels for anything.  They continue funding.  The latest continuing resolution that passed Congress today funds the government through March 2011.  That’s after Republican Teabaggers take control of the House of Representatives, where all spending bills must originate.  There will be fewer Democratic Senators in March 2011 than there are now.  The President has displayed an obsessive desire to negotiate with right-wing extremists and beat up on his base.  Guess what’s going to happen the next time the budget comes up for debate and votes?

I’m betting Republican Teabaggers take the budget and de-fund all of President Obama’s and the Democrats’ absurdly over-negotiated reforms. Furthermore, I’m betting President Obama doesn’t fight the Republican Teabaggers on not funding his “victories”.  He’s shown himself to care more that nobody is fighting than in passing good policies.  Too few Democrats realized this political weakness prior to putting him into office.  Now they have no choice.  Democrats got frustrated in 2009 and 2010 when Obama didn’t push for the most he could get even when perfect situations screamed for him to do so.  Just wait until he rolls over on issue after issue as Republican Teabaggers warm up their “spending is too high” talking points and begin investigating his administration for every silly, petty thing Teabaggers can dream up.

Which leads me again to address all the incrementalists that told liberal activists that we had to take what we could get and not expect a centimeter more: if your so-called reforms aren’t funded, what good are they?  How much time, energy and money was wasted moving a pathetic distance toward solving some of this nation’s crises but won’t be enacted because of your overwhelming pragmatism?

How willing will Democrats be to donate to President Obama’s re-election campaign when these things happen?  How many doors will they knock on?  How many phone calls will they make?  When the reforms go down in flames and unemployment stays high (because Obama never seriously addressed the Great Recession), will there be a 2012 “enthusiasm gap” that outshines the 2010 version?  Only time will tell.

Arizona Gov Cut Transplant Patient Financing; AZ Gov Blames Obama For Results

Death Panels are alive and well.  Of course, ignored by the corporate media, death panels have been created by Republican Teabaggers like AZ Gov Jan Brewer.

Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.

You see, Republican Teabaggers think poor people want to be poor, so they have no one to blame but themselves for not being able to afford transplant operations that will keep them alive.

But the story has an added bonus: Jan Brewer is now blaming Obama and his health care reform insurance giveaway for killing these people.

The Republican governor has in turn blamed “Obamacare,” meaning the federal health care overhaul, for the transplant cuts even though the Arizona vote came in March, before President Obama signed that bill into law.

To uninformed Americans, this might resonate, since Republican Teabaggers have dishonestly attacked the legislation for 2 years now.  What Brewer and other Teabaggers will never discuss is how forcing Americans to buy private insurance translates into an Arizona state health program deciding to save $14 million per year while poor people die for lack of transplant organs.  Of course it doesn’t make sense.  Nothing the Teabaggers propose as policy actually makes sense.  This is simply what follows after millions of greedy, selfish old white people decide to exert their influence on politics.  Wake up America: these kinds of policies are coming to a neighborhood near you if you allow the Teabaggers to take this country back to the 1750s.

I could advocate that the President finally wake up too, if I thought it would make any difference.  Brewer’s cowardly assignment of blame is what results when you capitulate to everything extremists like her want.  By all means, keep capitulating though.  As long as Sarah Palin is the 2012 Republican Teabagger nominee, the President might be able to eek out a 2nd term.

Health Care Reform Already Being Weakened?

If the deficit peacocks get their way, Medicare could be seriously weakened.  Why?  Because the $519 Billion program is expected to grow to $929 Billion by 2020.  And since CorporateDems and Incrementalists insisted that the 2009-2010 Health Insurance Giveaway could be easily strengthened “the next time around”, a Medicare buy-in in place of single-payer in place of a public option, was never seriously considered, the growth in the cost of Medicare moving forward presents a nice, fat target for which the D.C. establishment can aim.

Opening Medicare up to a larger pool of customers would have helped keep the program’s overall costs down.  But the “serious people” involved with health care reform couldn’t allow that to happen.  That was too much change too quickly.  The health care apple cart might get tipped over, or some such nonsense.  Well, I would love to hear from the Incrementalists how accepting crumbs in the reform gutter will save Medicare or ensure more Americans have access to quality health care.  And no, insurance coverage doesn’t not equate to quality health care.  It should become obvious soon that forcing people into private insurance coverage doesn’t mean existing health care systems will get the changes they need.  There was a critical question that the Incrementalists could never answer during the health care debate: how will their version of “reform” be strengthened moving forward?  It turns out that it won’t.  The health care system doesn’t need tweaks at the edges, it needs revolutionary, fundamental change.

How disgusting will it be when a Democratic President oversees privatization of portions of Medicare?  How about Social Security?  The Incrementalists were dead wrong – the only thing their approach will accomplish is taking steps toward privatizing the social safety nets brought into existence by liberals and progressives in the 20th century.  This isn’t “Change we can believe in”.

Health Insurance Cos. Secretly Gave Millions To Defeat Health Care Reform Effort

What will the pro-incrementalists say?  $86.2 million were given to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by the largest health insurance corporations, which the Chamber used to undermine health care reform legislative efforts in 2009 and 2010.

As eventually became clear, but not until too late, health care reform became a Health Insurance Giveaway orchestrated by Democrats and opposed by Republican Teabaggers who were only hell-bent on destroying the Obama Presidency.  They Republican Teabaggers could give a fig leaf less whether the legislation passed or  not, or what form it took.  They’re only interest is in putting a Teabagger back in the White House and continuing this country’s march back to the 1750s.

On the Democratic side, I read and talked to folks for months who advocated taking a small chunk, any small chuck that could be salvaged from the gutter and declaring the first step toward health care reform taken.  Incrementalists were happy to point out that health insurance corporations were supposedly in negotiations with President Obama and Congressional Democrats in an effort to help pass health care reform. This news publicizes the lie behind that duplicitous sham.  I’m sure the incrementalists will say now that those millions of dollars didn’t make much of a difference, that reform was successfully attained.  I think it demonstrates how patently absurd it was for any Democrat to believe that the health insurance companies were negotiating with Obama and Democrats in good faith.  They got exactly what they wanted at the end of the day.  Can the same be said for most Americans?

I suppose the rest of us should thank the incrementalists for helping ensure 34 million Americans will be forced to purchase insurance from private insurers but remain without any public option that would help drive costs down.  Or, we can stop listening to the incrementalists and stand up more forcefully for what we want – on health care and other issues.

Rep. Grayson’s “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act”

Activists are disappointed (to put it lightly) that health insurance legislation, and not health care reform, passed after a year of intense debate and discussion at the highest levels of government.  A few solidly progressive items made it through the process; many more did not.  Among those that did not is a public option, to say nothing of single-payer.

Flying somewhat below the back-and-forth arguments of whether or not a public option should have been a part of the legislation and what form it might or might not take is an effort that should be lauded.  Rep. Alan Grayson (D,FL-08) has a piece of legislation that accomplishes many progressive goals: H.R. 4789, the “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act”.  Rep. Grayson has done what many activists wish our elected officials would do: show some leadership.

H.R. 4789 has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.  It has already garnered 80 co-sponsors.  In answer to complaints in the Colorado blogosphere, I would point out that both Rep. Jared Polis (D,CO-02) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D,CO-01) are among those co-sponsors.  Notably, Rep. Polis was an original co-sponsor, another sign of progressive leadership.

This likely isn’t going to be the sole effort to keep the public option discussion going as we move forward.  However, it is concrete and it is available to us right now.  The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has a tool up so people can ask their Representatives to join as a co-sponsor to the bill.  While CO-01 and CO-02 have been taken care of, there are plenty of other representatives who could sign on and I’m sure we all have friends and family in other states to point this to.  I am unaware of similar action coming out from the Senate.  It would be refreshing to see a Senator present something fashioned closely to H.R. 4789.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Corporate Media Fails To Cover Real American Outrage

The corporate media fell over themselves producing wall-to-wall coverage of anything Tea Party related starting last August.  Despite being able to only gather a few hundred people at any single gathering, despite the supposed grass-roots outrage over the health legislation in Congress, the corporate media couldn’t cover the story enough.  They had no platform, only mindless rage directed at any number of targets supplied by their behind-the-scenes corporate organizers.

What happens when thousands of real grass-roots activists gather, in Washington D.C. no less, to protest against health insurance lobbyists and executives?  Next to no corporate media coverage.  Even a supposed paragon of liberal media like MSNBC has no front-page articles this afternoon about today’s rally.

The anger from those fed up with our broken health care system is real; it is pervasive.  At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if this rally, or any other rally like it, goes uncovered by the corporate media.  True grass-roots activists will continue to demand change and take action when and where it is needed.  The system will be changed.  We will change it.

Given the resounding lack of corporate media coverage, I haven’t been able to answer the first question that came to mind when I saw the article: how diverse was this crowd?  Was it more diverse than the near-absolute all-white folks showing up for Tea Party gatherings?  I’m willing to bet it was.

Unprincipled Whiners

No matter what the issue, Cons have demonstrated that their only party platform is whatever anti-Obama happens to be.  In a growing number of cases, this holds true … until the Cons end up working for the opposite of what they initially “stood for”.  Confused yet?  Don’t be – let’s look at the latest example.  The Cons were entirely against the stimulus funding late last year and early this year.  They issued their typical free-market-religious talking points that made no sense and patted themselves on the back for opposing anything that President Obama wanted done.

Now, a different story emerges.  The same Cons who voted against the stimulus are now begging for some of those stimulus dollars to be doled out to NASA instead of other places.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  They certainly haven’t had an epiphany about the role that science should play in our society.  No, we’re still a looooong way from that.  Like everything else, this beg-session is all about politics.  In this case, they can bring home some federal money (since they refuse to pay for things themselves, socialists that they are) and pat each other on the back about that.

The best part?  They continue to slam the stimulus funding while begging for it to be redirected toward NASA.  Two opposing viewpoints in the same request!  How uniquely conservative of them.

It would make more sense for these clowns to request an increase in NASA’s operating budget for FY10 or FY11, if they’re really so concerned about the space program.  But that won’t happen.  They’re anti-public-investment, anti-health care reform, pro-rich tax cuts and pro-occupation.  You see, Trillions of future taxpayer dollars can be spent occupying Iraq and Afghanistan.  Billions and billions of taxpayer dollars can be redistributed from the middle class to the rich.  But health care reform and stimulus?  Not a chance!  Unless they can get something out of it politically.  That’s immoral.

Why We Can’t Trust Insurance Companies To Keep Costs Down

Because when they have the opportunity, they spend millions of dollars of Americans’ premiums to maintain the shitty status quo:

A campaign finance watchdog’s analysis of insurance and HMO political contributions and lobbying expenses found the industries spent $126,430,438 over the first half of 2009 and $585,725,712 over the past two and a half years to influence public policy and elected officials. The group, Public Campaign Action Fund, found that in the first part of 2009, the industries were spending money at nearly a $700,000 a day clip to influence the political process and that the monthly pace of political spending this year has increased by nearly $400,000 over the average spent per month in the previous two years.

CorporateDems and Republicans are equally sought after by these immoral corporations.

How much health care could have been provided for $126 Million?

How much health care could have been provided for Half A Billion dollars?

Guess what, America – those of us with health insurance – we paid that money so the corporations can keep their monopoly on the market.  There’s no competition.  There’s not enough care going on (way too much management!).  The crap in Congress?  Health insurance “reform”, not health care reform.  There is a critical difference.

So the next time your premiums are increased by a double-digit percentage, you know exactly where the money is going.  To prevent reform of the system.

Tell me again why we’re so proud to have insurance middle-men get between us and our health care.

Health Care Expense Question

I’m beginning to take quite the contrarian role in the health care debate.  Representatives and Senators are fools if they think that the American people don’t want real reform of the care system (note: insurance reform isn’t the same thing!).  They’re fools if they think that there won’t be a consequence in the 2010 elections if real reform isn’t passed this year.  Oh, the 2013 start date for the reform?  Also not a good idea.  Most Americans don’t want reform in 4 years, after the 2012 Presidential election.  They want it next year, at the latest.  But by too many measures now, there remain too many reform obstructionists, both Con and Democrat alike.  So as an activist, I ask myself, “How should the ground be shifted to get the work done?”  Volumes of statistics haven’t done it.  People dying by the thousands haven’t done it (interesting how 3,000 dead people on 9/11 “changed everything” though, isn’t it?).  So what would do it?

Well, I really liked Rep. Anthony Weiner’s idea to shut down Medicare on January 1st, 2010.  I like it for the reason I stated yesterday: it proves that the Cons really aren’t against government-run health care.  If they had the courage of their convictions, every one of them would have voted to kill Medicare.  But they don’t.  They’re sniveling little cowards, which has been proven all too often.  I like it for another reason.  Given enough threats, it could get a key demographic group to take notice and come out in more public, vocal support for health care reform.

Then I read something that I think could make a difference:

Still, insurers are pushing back against several proposals that lawmakers see as favorable to consumers. One proposal would prevent insurers from charging older Americans more than twice the rates charged to younger people. Insurers want to be able to charge older people as much as five times more.

At first, this generated a feeling of anger at the insurance corporations.  They’re already racking up record profits quarter after quarter.  How much profit is enough?  But then, I thought to myself, “This is actually perfect!”.  What demographic group is listened to by politicians?  Older people; seniors; those over 65, perhaps over 55.  If they were charged 5 times as much as younger people, and the insurance corporations want Congress to legislate that everybody must buy insurance, seniors would flip.  I understand their care costs more.  But if everybody has to buy insurance, that care would be paid for.  But on top of it, in their greed, insurance corporations want to quintuple the amount younger people are charged.  Does Congress seriously think this would be allowed to continue very long?  I know what the insurance corporations think – they’ll get no blowback for this.  They’re quite mistaken about that.  I can easily see legions of seniors bombarding Congress with demands to put the insurance corporations back under control and open up choices to new care programs.

So I say go for it!  I say the insurance corporations should be able to charge older people 10 times what younger people have to pay.  They’ll nearly literally sign their own death warrants as a result.  And America would join the rest of the civilized world by implementing universal health care.

Bought-off Baucus, Health Care & Elections

Sen. Max Baucus has raised the ire of millions of progressives around the country by consistently standing in the way of single-payer health care during discussions of health care reform in the 111th Congress.  He has steadily worked to implement the around-the-edge tweaks that Big Insurance and Big Pharma want – not the deep top-to-bottom revolution that our health care system requires.  He excluded every single-payer advocate from the initial discussions with representatives from every industry interest group and fellow Senators.  He sent a staffer to town-hall meetings in Montana to solicit his constituents’ opinions – which went overwhelmingly against the current system and in which strong majorities expressed interest for a public health care system to at least compete with private insurance.  Not only were his constituents against the system the staffer was sent to talk about, they were justifiably upset that their own Senator didn’t show up for his own town-hall meetings.

These actions are signs that Sen. Max Baucus has been bought off by the health care industry.  He isn’t listening to his constituents – many of whom worked to get him reelected last year – which is even harder to do when he won’t show up to talk with them directly now that his job is safe for the next six years.  And there’s the crux of the problem.  Montanans and other interested citizens need to get in touch with Baucus’ office and make it quite clear that removing options from the table at the beginning of a discussion is bad politics.  I’m sure many Montanans realize, just like I do, that single-payer wouldn’t get passed by Congress this year even if it weren’t preemptively excluded.  That’s beside the point.  The point is Americans are making their demands for real health care reform known and Baucus and other ConservaDems are pointedly ignoring them.  They do so at their own peril.

As I mentioned, Sen. Baucus was reelected last year, so threatening his job is nearly pointless this early in his current term – 2014 is a long way off.  Rest assured, however, that by 2014, we’ll have a very good idea of how well his legislation is working to revolutionize health care in the U.S.  People, including myself, will not easily forget his involvement with whatever happens.  So what’s left?  Well, electing more populist Democrats in Montana would help put pressure on federal level policymaking.  I recognize that that process is slow.  Interested progressives can also keep an eye on the remainder of the Senators on the committee of interest, the Senate Finance Committee.  Their reelection dates will be important, especially if they are in 2010.

Speaking only for myself – I will not only not support Democrats like Max Baucus who prefer to represent industries at the expense of people, I will begin supporting their opponents in the future.*  I don’t care if they’re other Democrats or if they’re Republicans.  Democrats that don’t do the job they were sent to Congress to do, especially when that job is so clearly defined, do not need their jobs.

* I realize the reelect numbers of incumbent Senators – it’s very difficult to get them out of office once they’re in.  Supporting their opponents will only be part of the effort I make in the future to remove them.