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Health Care Reform Lite.... or Suicide is Painless "I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got into this war I had a very clear understanding with the Pentagon. No guns. I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, Cary Grant, carry me back to old Virginie, I'll even hari-kari if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!"... Hawkeye Pierce As the 2010 Congress is poised to pass a watered-down health care bill painfully similar to the legislation green-lighted by the Senate, advocates for more extensive reform are beginning to see the handwriting on the wall. With comments trickling out from the House leadership that it now could envision voting for a bill that does not contain a public option, it would appear that the support for the House's more progressive initial bill may be taking its last breaths. I can understand the argument, now seemingly supported by the majority, that given the likelihood of more Democratic s

Health Care Blackmail: Merry Christmas America After months of internal struggles, the Democratic caucus in the US Senate has passed its version of health care reform. Announcing he had at last marshaled the 60 Democratic votes necessary to shut down a Republican filibuster, majority leader Harry Reid set up a Christmas eve vote that will effectively surrender many of the key reforms supported by the progressive wing of the Democrats. After having promised during the initial phases of the health care debate that he would not sign a bill that lacked an optional public health care alternative to compete with private insurance, President Obama, along with several key progressive Democrats, have bent over backwards to insure the continued health of the private insurance model of health care delivery. In the end, the administration and Congressional allies were willing to shelve truly systemic reform in order to appease two Democratic conservatives (Joe Lieberman (ID-CN) and Ben Nelson (D-N

Joseph Lieberman: Demo-Repugnant One has to wonder why so many of Joseph Lieberman's Democratic colleagues were so surprised that the Connecticut senator did an about-face on the latest incarnation of the health care reform bill. Reports had some Democrats expressing shock and dismay that Lieberman would declare his opposition to the proposal to allow people to buy into Medicare at age fifty-five. It is true that while running as a Democratic candidate for vice-President with Al Gore (and in more recent statements), Lieberman had been on record as supporting expanding Medicare eligibility, even hinting that the policy shift was his original idea. What fellow Democrats ignored all too easily this time, however, was the two-faced character of the Connecticut legislator. This was a man who lost the Democratic Senatorial primary in 2006 and, after winning the race as an independent, supported the Republican ticket in the presidential election. Mindful of the need for a 60 vote majorit

Is Nausea a pre-existing Condition? I have just one request from American politicians, including President Obama. I don't ever want to hear you guys again utter the famous phrase used so often in speeches from both sides of the aisle. "America is the greatest country in the world..." It's a common boast, so much an accepted part of our political discourse that no one ever seems to challenge it. As the debate over health care reform enters the home stretch, however, with a senate bill that would appear to strip away most of the key provisions advocated by progressives, the nation's presumed lofty status has, to say the least, been severely diminished in the eyes of many. The frustrated attempts by the United States to reform the country's health care system is a sad tale of a deformed democracy with a political leadership that is out of touch with human needs, disdainful of the electorate, brazenly exhibiting little regard for the well-being of its own citizens

THE FIGHT OVER THE PUBLIC OPTION? WHAT PUBLIC OPTION? As the leaks from behind senate doors have it, the progressive and conservative forces within the Democratic party have struck a deal that could permit passage of health care reform legislation. The leaks have played like a jolt of shock therapy to legislators and to the millions of citizens who have invested their hopes in the possibility of reform. The key point of contention is that the deal would completely eliminate what has widely been considered as the most critical and controversial element of the reform package - the creation of the government-run system known as the public option, which would act as a cost cutting competitor to private insurance. In place of the non-profit public option, the legislation would expand eligibility for Medicare to those age fifty-five and older. The talking heads echoing through the halls of the Capitol have presented a picture of fracturing opinions on the progressive wing of the Democratic P

Watch the Birdie or The Tiger and the Tush After months of procedural wrangling, the U.S. Senate finally began debate on the proposal by the Democratic party to overhaul the nation's health care system. The momentous occasion received dedicated coverage on most news media outlets, coming in third behind two other stories critical to the country: golfer Tiger Woods crashing his automobile and the party crashers at the Obama's first state dinner. For anyone who faithfully follows news reporting in the United States, it is not surprising that any story that contains the word "crash" in it will normally rise to the top of the pile on the cable channels on any given news day. The recipe is well known: start with some violence or greed; add a blond in a red dress (what I would call "a bit of tush"); mix in a billionaire sports figure cheating on his wife, and voila, the priorities of the TV viewing brain start to happily shift away from reality to the much more lu

Health Care on the Floor It was an interesting display of political theater. If there is such a thing as American values, its best and its worst have been on stage in the monumental grappling over health carer reform. With Saturday's close vote of the Democratic caucus to bring their health bill to the Senate floor for debate a lot was revealed about how the process of our government functions. That process will now move forward to what promises to be a raucous and lengthy argument between Democrats and Republicans and between Democrats and themselves. With so-called moderate Democrats such as Ben Nelson (D-Co.,) Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) announcing that they will likely not vote to pass legislation if it includes a public option, the die may be cast. The rejection of the idea that the American public should be given the right to choose their health care from a non-profit, government administered competitor to private insurance could still prove to be the

Health Care: Follow the Bouncing Ball Progressives scored a key victory in the battle for health care reform last night with the announcement by leader Harry Reid that the Democratic caucus had reached agreement on the legislation's critical principles. With the Congressional Budget Office ringing up the potential costs, the verdict surprised more than a few naysayers on Capitol Hill. At $849 billion, the proposed bill would be less expensive than a similar measure passed by the House of Representatives earlier in the month; it would save $127 billion over the next ten years and reduce the deficit by $170 billion. Among concessions to opponents, the new law would allow states to opt out of the system and would weaken the proposed non-profit health plan known as the public option. The whole affair would not be implemented until 2014, giving insurance companies plenty of time to use their influence and largess to further strip the legislation of its progressive elements and consumer

The War Against Women As Uncle Sam prepares to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and their religious extremist supporters, the two main political parties in America continued to wage a religious war against women in the United States. What has become known as the Stupak Amendment has added an additional threat to the passage of health care reform revealing a new level of stupidity in American political dialogue. The issue in question is a proposal by Michigan representative Bart Stupak to restrict a woman's right to pay for an abortion under a health plan that receives federal subsidies. Endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the idea was included in the health care measure passed by the House of Representatives on November 7th. After months of battlefield engagements over such mundane affairs as universal coverage, fee for service, medicare reimbursement rates, pre-existing conditions and medical loss ratios, the fate of reform in the United State

Bart Stupak: Please Pass the Collection Plate Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak is the latest Democrat to threaten to block health care reform legislation by acting in the interests of someone other than the American people. This time the beneficiaries are the ideologues of the Catholic Church. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops had originally opposed the Democratic reform plan that had emerged from the House of Representatives because it allowed coverage of abortion expenses by private insurers that receive federal health care subsidies. By attaching a last minute amendment to the House bill that would prohibit such coverage, the Michigan legislator allowed the legislation to pass with the assent of the Church; in doing so he has opened a serious rift within the Democratic Party. Someone should tell Mr. Stupak that the number one cause of bankruptcies in the United States has been the rising cost of health care and that Michigan has the highest rate of unemployment in the country.

Fed Up with the Health Care Debate? Stand up and Be Counted or Be Counted Out So lets see what we have; last night, the House of Reps passed its version of health care reform, including meaningful controls on the rapacious insurance industry and an optional public plan that will compete with private insurers. It seemed like a dream realized for those who have fought for this critical turn on the road to social justice. The euphoria lasted about an hour or two. Today the hosannas soured as Democratic Party turncoat Joe Lieberman and Strom Thurmond protege Lindsey Graham, both declared their intent to kill the reform bill in the Senate. One has to wonder how much longer the American public will be willing to endure this manner of partisan political gamesmanship. While polls on health care reform have jockeyed back and forth through the months of debate, recent surveys indicate an overwhelming number of Americans (72%) support the idea of a public option. Polls taken by the NY Times and

Death by a Thousand Cuts The GOP released its health care reform plan this week in response to critics who have charged that the minority party had no hand in the critical issue beyond its complete opposition to the proposal from congressional Democrats. Did I say minority party? If recent polls are to be believed, only 20% of Americans dare identify themselves as Republicans these days. What more evidence is needed for the electorate and their representatives to label the party of Boehner, Hatch and Limbaugh what they are: irrelevant. Yet the warriors from the right came out with their vision for health reform. Under the plan, Americans wouldn't be required to carry insurance and insurers wouldn't be prevented from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions or to those who are currently ill -- two key elements of the Democratic plan. Instead, the bill would allow insurance firms to sell policies across state lines, permit small businesses to pool their risks to br

Lieberman's Hypocritical Oath First Do No Harm. That is what Joe Lieberman said on Face the Nation this weekend. Vowing to support a Republican filibuster to block passage of health care reform that contains the government administered program known as the public option, the Senator from Connecticut recited the familiar maxim. Mistakenly attributed as part of the Hippocratic oath, the remark must have been particularly galling to legions of medical professionals who have fought long and hard to create a system of health care in the United States that puts patients at the center of concern rather than insurance companies. Senator Lieberman was clearly not paying attention to the poll that indicated 68% of voters in his state back the idea of a publicly supported, non-profit competitor to private health insurance. The more important number to Joe Lieberman would appear to be 2.6 million; that's the number of dollars he has received from the insurance lobby over the last ten yea

Reid Reads the Handwriting on the Wall Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave birth to the official Senate version of the Democratic plan for health reform, by announcing that it will contain a plan that includes a public option. Individual states could opt out of participation in the federal plan. Widely viewed as moribund just a few months ago, President Obama's idea for a non-profit, government administered health insurance to compete against private insurers was on life support since the summer when Republicans appeared to succeed in manipulating the public dialog with a program of manufactured, incendiary attacks. Condemned from the outset by the GOP, the public option has steadily grown in the esteem of the voters according to recent polls. A Washington Post poll this week came in at above 60% in favor; one tally from SurveyUSA showed support at close to 77% As proposed by Senator Reid and colleagues this particular version of the public option will come up short in the eyes

Health Care: Your Money or Your Life (part 2) Today the Congressional Budget Office reported the results of its study on the Obama health plan, concluding that the proposal, when featuring a non-profit, government run component known as "the public option," would lower the deficit and cost the country $30 billion less than had been originally predicted. Coming in at $871 billion over the next 10 years, the tally surprised many. The report was music to the ears of supporters of the public option who have fought for its inclusion in final legislation despite intense opposition by the insurance industry and the Republicans in Congress. It has always been a bit hard to believe that money would be a legitimate stumbling block as the United States struggles to emerge from the Dark Ages and give its citizens access to universal health care. Critics of the Obama administration have consistently blasted Democratic proposals for health reform as being too expensive, insisting that the

Snowe Job, or When History Calls, Olympia Goes Rogue Maine senator Olympia Snowe made big headlines by being the lone Republican to vote with the Democrats this week for the health reform bill constructed by chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus. "When history calls, history calls," she said trying to underscore her momentous move. Well, if history is any judge, a Republican politician's support for any important piece of social legislation - be it Medicare, Social Security or civil rights - could quickly evaporate. Indeed, within hours of the vote, Ms. Snowe turned around and issued a caveat by saying that her thumbs-up on the Baucus bill does not necessarily mean she will also say aye as the legislation makes its way through the mandatory committees and on to a final congressional vote. It is a senator's job to reflect the opinion of her constituents and perhaps take her conscience into account before making a decision. Though some Democratic lead

America's Uncivil War As the debate over health care reform appears to reach the home stretch, one wonders how historians will look back on what has proven to be a sordid chapter in American political life. There were news reports the other day that Rick Perry, the Texas Republican governor, was so incensed at the prospect of a government-run health care option that he mentioned the possibility of having the country's second largest state secede from the union. Political grandstanding aside, the governor's remark has reminded us of a sobering truth: nearly 150 years after the end of the war between the states, America is still fighting the same old battles - and some are now being fought by the elderly. The bizarre spectacle of the town hall meetings this summer where angry, aging, right-wing activists railed against the health care reform plan of nation's first African-American president was a telling piece of political theater. We live in a country where pensions hav

The GOP on Fantasy Island After last night's health care speech by President Obama to a joint session of Congress there could be little doubt: Barak Obama is a man for all seasons. I was prepared to roll out the cannons and take aim at an administration that has essentially allowed right-wing hooligans to define the debate on health care for the entire nation. At the end of what was certainly one of the most moving speeches of his presidency, Mr. Obama had managed to solidify his base, keep an open door to bi-partisanship, and leave even his ideological enemies somewhat in awe. One enemy clearly not in awe was the South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson who blatantly broke the traditions of congressional decorum by yelling at the president, calling him a liar in the middle of his speech. The contrast between the calm intelligence of Obama and the maniacal behavior of the representative was stark and will surely be the subject of national discussion in the coming days. There is little

Plugging a Leaking Waterloo It didn’t take long. In spite of ascending to office on a wave of public sentiment and hope, in spite of surrounding himself with a cadre of experts, in spite of being one of the most intelligent men to ever inhabit the White House, Barack Obama may be proving himself to be a political neophyte. Over the weekend, the White House dropped some clear hints that the government-run health care proposal known as the "public option" would not be considered mandatory for an Obama signature on a health care bill. The statements ignited a political firestorm within the Democratic party. It is a conflagration that should have been anticipated. Coming on the heels of a series of shameful distortions by the very Republican leaders the White House had been carefully cultivating for a bi-partisan agreement, the apparent policy shift had the hallmarks of a bona fide political disaster. Rather than boldly and unequivocally backing up what was widely considered to

Disruptive Arguments: Congressional representatives holding town hall meetings have begun to employ a good tactic in response to disruptive audience members who rant against President Obama's health care reform plan as "socialized medicine." Supporters of the president's plan ask the disruptors if they have Medicare and invariably a large number of people raise their hands. The hands quickly drop when the attendees are asked how many would be willing to give up their Medicare. The simple fact that Medicare is socialized medicine is lost on these participants, as it is on the Republican members of Congress who know that it would be political suicide for them to declare themselves against the popular medical care program for the elderly. It is clear that such blatant hypocrisy doesn't register with the disruptors; they are either hired political functionaries, rabid ideologues or are simply tragically uneducated. In spite of this, the noise makers seem to be having

Health Care: Your Money or Your Life Having lived in France, where health care for all citizens is viewed as a fundamental human right, I have been witnessing the debate over health care reform in the U.S. with a mixture excitement and horror. It seems that at the very least, the United States - which is ceaselessly referred to as "the greatest country on the face of the earth" by its politicians - may finally bring a measure of control to the health insurance industry and its obscene practice of making profits through manipulation of human suffering. One would hope that the White House and the Democrats in Congress would finally stop pulling their punches in their drive to secure bi-partisan legislation. One might expect that with the publication of information detailing health insurance industry profits Americans would finally recognize the current system for what it is: a publicly sanctioned form of racketeering. Over the last several years, CEOs at the top health insuranc

Human Need, Human Greed One must be careful of brain damage while watching cable news. I tuned in recently to watch the daily coverage of the health care drama. There was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi presenting a woman who told a harrowing story about how she got cancer and how she went bankrupt after her insurance company refused to cover treatment. After five minutes they broke for commercials from Tax Masters, Binder and Binder, three pharmaceutical companies, and that idiot who sings for Free Credit Report dot com. That American society as a whole seems at times to be rather ill is evident in the health care reform debate. One has to marvel at the degree to which Americans are willing to be smacked down by the inequities of the system in order to pop back up and ask for more. Polls indicate that much of middle America is beginning to turn away from its initial support of the Obama health care plan after buying into the argument from the Republican Party that the plan will resu

President Obama's Plan for Health Care: Time to Attack The news reports today say that support for the president's health care initiative is starting to slip. The "curve is trending downward." With millions of dollars of lobbyist greenbacks flooding into Washington, some commentators are already saying Obama-care could be in mortal danger. After weeks of fruitlessly trying to forge an agreement with Republicans, the White House finally appears to have realized that it must mount an all-out assault to combat those who are trying to sell the argument that health care reform will be too expensive. The country must not be led to believe that it can't afford to have health care reform. It must be led to believe that it can't afford not to. Here's what you must do Mr. President: Continue to make personal appeals in the media, outlining carefully and simply how the costs of the program will be worth the expense to the nation. Get away from being the lone voice a

Battling for Health Care The deadly provincialism that characterizes so much of American thinking is again threatening the best chance the country has had for substantive health care reform. Though the Democratic Party has a nominal 60 votes in Congress, it still apparently is seeking a bi-partisan imprint on a final bill. In attempting to consider GOP participation, the Obama administration may have been seeking to avoid one of the mistakes made by the 1992 Clinton health care reform team, which was roundly attacked for deliberating in secret. In doing so, the administration has opened itself to the arrows of false message manipulation wielded by the opposition. One would hope that Rahm Emanuel and the other street fighters on President Obama's team would step to the plate, prove their mettle and hit Republican knuckleballs. It is hard to believe how the same people who ushered in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression can be considered credible partners in formu

Cracks in the Culture: It's interesting how Michael Jackson's mysterious death seems to have pulverized the emotions of American popular culture. Wall-to-wall coverage on the cable stations has ensured that the strange obsessions of Americans over Jackson's music and bizarre, confused identity will continue to defy easy answers. Turning this sad, and in some ways warped, individual into a Dionysian godhead worthy of ostentatious public worship is as bizarre as the twisted star himself.

Blogging and Social Networking: What a Laugh – At least that’s what I thought a few years back when the phenomenon first arose. There was something vaguely uncomfortable about it – something that reminded me too much of the bubbly predictions about the dot com world a few years prior. The job that I lost as a writer for an online webcast financial news service had taught me that placing billions of dollars on flimsy speculative ventures, on new ideas written on old cocktail napkins, on companies with loads of employees and no revenue, was an exercise in stupidity. It had happened because we were suckers for our own technology; we were so enamored with our own image reflected in the enchanted mirror we created that we made long-term financial assumptions that were extremely foolish and ultimately deadly. Some of the people who made those assumptions were renowned financial professionals, bankers, venture capitalists who were experts in investing. So the idea of another at bat after th

Who's on the Side of the American People? The upcoming debate over health care bills in Congress should be a clear test of the mettle of the Democratic Party, which swept to an electoral majority last fall. Make no mistake about it. The chance for meaningful health care reform may either live or die with Barak Obama's skills as a leader. As I predicted in a recent blog post, by taking the single-payer health plan concept off the negotiating table at the start, the Democratic leadership has turned the "public option" component of the administration's plan into a convenient target for Republicans to chip away at. The operative question is: Have the Dems learned their lesson from the Republican rejections of the stimulus package, the Obama budget and other critical votes where the GOP overwhelmingly refused to offer any support to the administration? While it is understandable that the White House would prefer a bi-partisan agreement on the shape of the most importan

Negotiating Health Care Reform For the next several weeks, the Obama administration will be putting the full-court press on Congress to come up with a health care bill that will reflect his vision of reform. Political progressives and a variety of professional medical associations around the country have been ratcheting up the pressure on the Democratic Party and the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) criticizing them for excluding advocates of a "single-payer" system from initial discussions on reform. Single-payer, the system in which the government acts as sole provider and administrator of a national health plan, has broad support around the country. Though it is similar to the type of health plan used in most industrialized countries, the Democratic leadership in Congress announced that it would not consider it for inclusion in the national debate because it was deemed to be "politically unfeasible." This precipitous bit of cowardice

Arlen Specter has been a Republican for over 40 years. His sudden conversion to the faith of the Democratic party, while welcome for those who think it will mean that key measures of President Obama's administration will be turned into law, nevertheless leaves us wondering. It is clear that Specter waltzed across the aisle because he didn't have the votes to beat a Republican challenger in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary. With Pennsylvania surging toward shades of blue in the last few elections, Specter saw the handwriting on the wall. Make no mistake: the senator openly admitted that his change of political heart, while spurred by the vote of his GOP colleagues against the president's stimulus package, was a vote to undergird his political future. Anyone who thinks that the man from Pennsylvania will abandon many of his right-leaning positions because he now sits with the Democrats may need to think again.

I Bought a Wooden Whistle that Wouldn't Whistle - I Bought a Steel Whistle and it Still Wouldn't Whistle. You would think that the GOP would have learned its lesson about shallowness with Sarah Palin's failed candidacy. The governor of Alaska was chosen by the Republican Party to be its nominee for president in response to Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. It is perhaps easy to forget in the wake of Barack Obama's revolutionary election just how much Ms. Clinton groundbreaking run as the first viable woman presidential candidate shook the world of American politics. So what did the GOP do to counter the notoriety the Democrats garnered for a landmark act on the political stage? They got one of their own. The fact that a presidential candidate may need certain qualities that transcend the mere fact of gender mattered little to the Republican managers, steeped as they were in the plastic culture of Madison Avenue and certain of the shallowness of the American

The General Tosses the Coin What was General David Petreus doing tossing the coin at the Super Bowl? It seems odd that the man who George Bush relied on to run the war in Iraq would appear like a wax figure at the nation's annual sports spectacle. I suppose the NFL producers of the Big Show thought it was a way to honor American service men and women by proxy, having their general determine who gets the kickoff. Yet, amidst the pomp and circumstance of the occasion, few seemed to care about the general's role in prolonging the conflict with his "stay the course" recommendations during his tenure in Baghdad. After more than 4,000 American lives lost and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead or wounded, after billions of dollars spent on a mistake, there is something profoundly unsettling about the inability of Americans to separate tragedy from entertainment.

Stimule Us Can anyone be surprised that not one Republican in the House voted for the Obama stimulus package? In the midst of the worst economic crisis to hit the country since the Great Depression, a crisis brought about largely by the de-regulation philosophy of the Republican party, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican leadership have opted to return to the strategy of Newt Gingrich and walk in lock-step like lemmings over the political cliff. They do this, not surprisingly, while asking the rest of the country to follow. It is truly astonishing that in the midst of global financial collapse, Republican leaders are once again peddling trickle-down economics - read tax cuts for the wealthy - as the answer to our economic needs. By opposing the rescue plan laid out be the administration, the GOP seems determined to gamble that electorate hasn't yet wised up, that in spite of the election of a new president and Congress, voters still don't understand wh

Farewell and Good Riddance: George W. Bush said his goodbyes to the nation last night, telling us of all the successes of his administration as Vice-president Dick Cheney nodded out in the audience. One couldn't have expected more than this ultimate, final insult from the august team that has brought the country the blessings of war and financial ruin. These last eight years should stand as a bitter lesson, not only to all Americans, but to all of those around the world who have been convinced that democracy has value. The lesson should read: Do not elect ignorant people to office; require standards of basic intelligence and ethics from your leaders; don't elect businessmen; do not be fooled by those who play with your fears while their hands are in your pockets.

Drill Baby Drill Now that the price of gasoline has dropped below two dollars a gallon and the country is focusing on the overall disaster we know as the US economy, what happened to all of the frenzied calls for expanded oil drilling that characterized the presidential election? It wasn't terribly long ago that both Democrats and Republicans, both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, were insisting that new oil wells would play a vital role in the energy scheme of a new administration. Dire predictions of dwindling supply, accelerating demand and runaway prices at the pump drove the political discourse. In poll after poll, Americans voiced their support of drilling off the coasts of California, Florida and other previously prohibited locations, convinced there was no alternative. The Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, long considered sacrosanct by those who cherish the environment, was clearly in jeopardy. All the while, oil companies reported record earnings as the Bush administration repeatedly blo