A Historic Step Forward: Why I知 Supporting The Senate Health Reform Bill - by Al Franken

[kpete]

A Historic Step Forward: Why I知 Supporting The Senate Health Reform Bill
by Al Franken

"Like many of you, I supported a public insurance option to increase competition. I知 disappointed that provision isn稚 in this bill. But what is in this bill is a significant step toward our goal of universal coverage."

Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 09:24:47 AM PST

......................

These are all real, strong reforms that this bill enacts with the urgency this crisis demands. Small businesses will immediately receive tax credits to make covering employees more affordable, and insurers will have to cover recommended preventive services at no cost to the patient. Again, these changes take effect immediately.

In coming years, health insurance exchanges will be created to give more Americans access to affordable coverage. For those who already have coverage, but live in fear that they're just an illness or pink slip away from losing their health insurance, this bill provides the peace of mind that comes with access to secure, stable, affordable coverage.

These reforms are fiscally responsible and crucial to our long-term economic health. By bringing down costs and focusing on prevention and high-value health care, more Americans will get screenings to prevent diseases before they become costly and disabling. We値l also make providers accountable for making people healthier, rewarding them for efficient care. In the end, this bill will save money and keep our country healthier while cutting the deficit by $132 billion in the first ten years and $650 billion in the second ten.

The plain simple truth is, because of this legislation crafted by Leader Reid and others in the Senate, 31 million more Americans will have affordable health insurance and the growth in health care costs for families will be dramatically diminished. For those reasons and the many I outlined here, today I am proud to announce my strong support for this historic step toward universal health care in America.

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/20/817142/-A-Historic-Step-Forward:-Why-Im-Supporting-The-Senate-Health-Reform-Bill

[ananda]

1. Is there something in the water they drink up there in DC?

nt

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[chill_wind]

You're responding to robo-spam. Pure uselss spam. n/t

[chill_wind]

20. deleted dupe

[inna]

23. What's with vicious personal attacks??

Get a grip on yourself.

[Toasterlad]

26. I Rarely Release My Grip On Myself

I happen to find excessive smilies and gloating about a massive betrayal of liberal Americans a vicious personal attack. I was simply responding in kind.

[cilla4progress]

30. Don't understand?

Why would he say this, then? Surely you can't be intimating he too is a sellout?

[Toasterlad]

31. All Politicians Are Sellouts To Some Degree. Read My Post Below.

[cilla4progress]

33. But to make this resounding

statement of support?

[Toasterlad]

34. I'd Like To Believe His Cutting Off Lieberdouch On the Senate Floor...

...is more indicative of how he truly feels about the state of healthcare reform in this country.

[coti]

39. I've got news for you- the vast majority of the American people GET IT.

Poll after poll shows this.

YOU are in the minority here, bucko.

And this bill is political suicide.

[Toasterlad]

4. Al Franken Is a Freshman Senator, And Will Have To Do His Share of Sucking It Up.

ALL politicians have to toe the party line sometimes, otherwise they get marginalized and/or painted as crackpots (see Kucinich and Dean). I doubt Franken really likes this bill any more than I do, but he's a senator, and he still has to work with these people.

Is it right? No, it's fucked up. But that's politics in the country. Our politicians - the good ones and the bad ones - lie to us constantly. All we can do is pay attention and vote for who we believe is going to best represent our interests.

[cilla4progress]

38. Now I understand why I suck

at "office politics." It just ain't me to get along to go along. I'm all about my conscience. However, I would like to think, when I don't get my way that I am mature enough to accept it.

[ixion]

14. I know, right?

it seems like they no sooner get off the bus that something happens to their brain.

Body snatchers? :shrug:

I say that tongue-in-cheek, but seriously, what the hell?

[Name removed]

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[pscot]

19. Probably a lot easier to make a Friend list

I think it would fit on a 3X5 note card.

[dflprincess]

6. Gee, just a few weeks ago Franken was one of those repeating the meme

that we needed a public option to "keep them honest".

When he was running he thought it would be best to allow states to find their own solutions to the health care mess - that won't be allowed with this bill ever.

We're not getting either of those items in this scam.

Pity, I thought Al might represent us and not be one to sell us to the health insurance companies.

[cliffordu]

7. He's a traitor now too, eh?

:eyes:

[hfojvt]

11. yes, there are only two types of people

1. those paragons of intelligence and virtue who agree with me

and

2. the scumbags, sell-outs and morans who disagree with me


Clearly, Franken just made the excrement list

[cliffordu]

13. Well......I always thought he ws kind of a poopie head.

:rofl:

[SIMPLYB1980]

40. LOL!

:rofl:

[pampango]

46. That is a classic, classic post. The two types of people...

And don't forget the same senator or congressperson can go from #1 to #2 and back and forth after every speech, vote or written article. If they only know how fast they went from hero to scumbag and back again, all of their heads would be spinning.

To make matters worse the repubs, who always vote the "industry" line (except when they are outplaying us at 3-D chess and voting against the things they are really for), are often expected to come to the "rescue" and vote down the bills that Feingold, Sanders and other ostensible "progressives" vote for. If Russ, Bernie and others only knew how their reputations swung back and forth, they would either be shocked or amused to learn that they are not the true progressives. We are. ;)

[dflprincess]

17. Franken sold out on this one

that cannot be denied.

There is nothing in the bill to allow states to develop real solutions to the mess something he once supported. And there is nothing to "keep them honest" - in fact it permits them to sell across state lines and that will allow them to screw us over even more.

By 2019 there will still be 23 million uninsured in this country and the numbers of underinsured will continue to grow. There is nothing that protects the middle class from going bankrupt because of medical bills.

[inna]

24. Yep, definitely a sell out on this one.

Too bad.

Not that I ever had any huge expectations about Franken.

[Fumesucker]

8. I suspect Al woke up with a metaphorical horse's head in his bed.. n/t

[Mojorabbit]

9. I guess they all will try to put lipstick on this one

What a difference it would have made if people had portable insurance not tied to their place of employment. A robust public option where the govt administered the plan at a discount would have broken the stranglehold of the big insurance companies. Ah well.

[glitch]

10. Some compromise it too painful and ugly to witness.

For example, when it is complete capitulation.

[placton]

12. sorry Al - I love ya, but you are full of shit this time

[pscot]

21. There is a possibility, however slim

that Al's judgement on this might be better than yours.

[HughMoran]

15. Al Franken - new hero on DU!

I wonder if his support for this bill will diminish his hero status here on DU?

[walldude]

16. LOve ya Al, but I'm supposed to believe that this will be fixed in the future?

The future is here my friend and I have seen the insurance companies work. They have too many of you in their pocket. There is no way they will let you cut into their profits. Idealism is great but eventually you are going to have to face the fact that until everyone who is bought and paid for is gone there will be no reforms that help the people and not the insurance companies.

Al, please, go visit Bernie Sanders, I know you guys are friends, get a lesson for a guy who's been around.

[ShortnFiery]

18. Al Franken is not only WRONG but he's also not up for re-election. eom

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

22. Al also supported the Iraq War when it started.

[Gregorian]

25. Please don't say that. Really? Crap!

There goes another dream.

Are these guys all retarded? With all respect to retarded people of the world, who would never ever support a war.

I honestly don't recall him being for the Iraq invasion. Not a war, an invasion.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. In his own words...youtube clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGdHm8pWLtg

[mascarax]

44. Yes, he did - and then later said he was wrong...

or something like that (not going off to research whether he used the word "wrong" or not).
Why the man who wrote the book on lying liars thought they weren't lying about WMD, etc., is something I didn't understand.

I like Al. I didn't agree with him on Iraq, and I don't agree with him about this bill (the mandate, at least, has to go...states shouldn't be denied...)

[defendandprotect]

27. $600 BILLION/$800 BILLION for insurance/pharma companies would be "irrational" if not insane . .. !!

[Davis_X_Machina]

28. This leaves Dennis Kucinich as the only non-sellout Senator...

...and he isn't in the Senate.

[Leftist Agitator]

32. Kucinich isn't a Senator.

He's a Congressman.

Just so you know.

[Toasterlad]

35. Yeah, He Said "And he isn't in the Senate" In His Post.

So he already knew.

[Leftist Agitator]

42. That's what I get for replying to a title and not reading the post!

:blush:

:dunce:

[Libertas1776]

36. I don't think you read the rest of

Davis_X_Machina post.

[Leftist Agitator]

43. My bad!

:hi:

[coti]

37. They're really not responding to the criticism being presented. nt

[salguine]

41. Maybe Al will pay my medical bills when the junk insurance that I will not be forced to buy won't

cover me anyway.

[OneBlueSky]

45. sorry Al, but you missed the boat on this one . . .

seems that everyone who gets to Washington eventually sells their soul to the corporations . . . seems that Al is no different . . . and it didn't take him very long at all . . .

"A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bonedigger Bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore
If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al"