UNION FIRST!

[itsrobert]

I'm not a union member, but have grown up in a unioin family as my mother was union and had the benifits of being a part of the CWA. I stand with unions first, say no to the Democrats sellout of the benefits the unions work for over 100 years plus.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

1. It's not about the unions....

it's about insurance companies charging Cadillac prices for Chevy coverage. This is a Windfall Profits Tax to prevent insurers from ripping off consumers -- including union workers.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Single payer, universal health care would solve ALL the problems that the insurance companies have

created. The insurance companies have no purpose whatsoever except to make profits and ensure their own survival. They are really like a parasite on the body of the people and the economy. They get fat by sucking us all dry.

Price controls on medical care would not be the worst thing in the world. Insurance companies have contributed to the rising cost of medical care...as Big Pharma has too.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

5. Agreed

Little reported story out of Hawaii is that last year, the state cancelled its universal child coverage just eight months after it began. One of the big reasons is that people were taking their children off private insurance and enrolling them in the government plan. It was just as good -- and cheaper.

Make no mistake about it. A Public Option will strangle the private insurance industry, and they will resort to every delaying tactic imaginable to prevent that day from arriving.

We'll probably need Campaign Finance Reform before we get a single-payer system. But the problem is, we need enough members of Congress to get their hand out of the corporate cookie jar in order for that to happen.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Youa re right about the Campaign Finance Reform..but as you also said...

that is like asking Congress to cut its own throat.

[damntexdem]

7. But the way it is proposed to be done would be an attack on unionized workers.

And if they are so attacked, it is the Democratic Party that will be made to also suffer for it.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

8. Not the way it's proposed -- the way it is FRAMED

Union workers (and others) are getting ripped off by insurance companies selling coverage for WAY more than its worth. We're talking $25,000 in premiums for $15,000 in coverage.

This is price gouging at its worst.

You know what we're going to do? We're going to tax the snot out of these companies until they drop their price. At the same time, we're going to mandate minimum levels of coverage that the insurance companies MUST adhere to, and we're going to make it illegal for them to discriminate based on pre-existing condtitions.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Time and time again Unions have fought for working people...

...when politicians of all parties were more than willing to sell them out. Are Unions oerfect? Of course not. But I will take the record of Union achievements for working Americans over that of our professional political class, Democrats included, any time. I am not a Union member but I strongly back the Union movement, and I back them on this now also. It wasn't so important to have a Public Option to hold down health insurance costs, but a tax on the type of quality health care plans that Unions won for their members, THAT is a nonnegotiatable must it seems.

"You can't fool me, I'm sticking with the Unions... till the day I die."

[humblebum]

4. Union membership has been in a free fall since 1980.

Strong unions are the key to keeping American jobs here. Instead we have allowed our manufacturing base, which should be our nation's life blood, to slip away. When we are subsidizing slave labor (and that's what it is)to produce products at a price that destroys competition, I cannot see how that is called free trade nor fair trade. There is power in numbers and numbers equal votes. that is why we need strong unions in this country. It may be too late.

[mac56]

6. K & R

America works best when you say "union yes."

[arthritisR_US]

9. absofreakinglutely! n/t

[mdmc]

11. $$