TheNextReport

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