Respectfully, cause I hope we agree on most things...
Why would you ask such a question? Do you not think there is a world of difference between someone who thinks health care for 35 million Americans is a laudable goal versus someone who thinks 15 million people need jobs just because they wanted to quit and go on employment? Do you think I can't read through
http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-sen_health_care_bill.cfm and come up with my own conclusions? I might ask if it is possible that someone who would ask such a question might be blinded by their allegiance to an ideal which keeps them from doing an honest appraisal of legislation, but I won't. I am here because, generally, I agree with the outlook of most of the people here, although we are going to have honest disagreements on occasion. But one should not mistake that for "siding" with the opposition, and should also understand that such talk has driven support away from more than one movement, business, or government undertaking.
I don't go to church anymore because they (mostly) seem to think, and don't mind telling me, that I can't be a good person unless I believe in their ghosts. Most of the true believers in political parties appear to feel the same way - so I treat most political parties like church. I have read through the bill, and I can point to specific provisions I don't like, not copied from some repub talking point memo, and certainly not as long a list. But my objections are not theirs.
First - we need to put around 15 MILLION people back to work just to get back to 5% unemployment. 15,000,000. These cannot be Walmart greeter jobs, they must be more substantial, paying 20,000 to 80,000 dollars a year, just to stop our economy from continuing into a hole. We are about to pass a bill that tells a single mother, making approximately 16,000 a year that she is going to have to shell out money for health insurance - because she is just above the level of poverty - and we will provide a voucher which will pay an as yet unknown part, not all, of that. Would you mind telling her which dinners it is ok that her child misses each month so mom can pony up the bucks? 50% of all kids here must use food stamps during their childhood. Is that your solution? The non-partisan CBO said that part of the "savings" from HCR is going to come from 167 Billion dollars in expected fines for not getting health care. What portion of that will you be comfortable with single parents paying?
My point is, we need jobs first. At least people have emergency rooms, health care centers, etc. Not ideal, but until doctors can prescribe a meal, a home, or perhaps gas or electricity for heat, mandated health care does not seem to be like it should be job #1.
Instead, why don't we get some innovation going, higher taxes on Walmart, Cargill, ADM and other monopolies who are hoarding money that would otherwise be used by people who are going under, or barely getting by, to get medicine or food. And maybe encourage them to quit screwing with the nutrition in our food while we are at it. Get some regulations on the banks and mortgage companies that MAKE IT MANDATORY that they stop speculating with taxpayers money. Perhaps reverse the rule passed last year that lets banks avoid marking their assets to real market value, instead using the inflated value to appear that they are more solvent than they really are? How about spending an amount equal to, say, three times what we wasted on the TARP Rescue which has been paid out in $600,000 bonuses and million dollar salaries and reimbursements for losses by big investors who knew what kind of risk they were taking, and instead put some people to work cleaning the rivers, rebuilding bridges, roads.
Hannah just posted a picture of a house where an elderly woman died trapped by the new papers she had hoarded around her, one of about 5 or 6 people killed in the same few blocks through similar circumstances, where her gas had been cut off because her fence was blocking the meter. Maybe we pay people to be social workers of sorts, fanning out across cities just to see if they can be of service to someone, or if they can bring more effort to bear on helping someone out of their personal misery. Maybe we open up 1000 centers of innovation, connecting them via high speed internet, and let people start looking for the next "big thing" in technology? Maybe we put math, science, english, and history classes online available tuition free to people who will log in and work through the stuff, get some accredited degrees out there in business, entrepreneurship, math, etc. Come up with your own big ideas - but they better be pretty big, cause we are in a deep, deep hole. And the next shock, whether it be the continuing housing crisis, commercial real estate, oil, whatever is very likely to be much worse because we are in a vulnerable position at the moment.
But let's talk health care. I would be all for it is it included a public plan. Not an "exchange" which is just another term for a monopoly for a few dozen companies complicit in raking a huge portion of health care dollars off the table.
We are on a long slide to the basement. Our health care costs take about 17 cents of every dollar we produce in this country, and it is headed for 20 cents really soon, shows no signs of abating, and a huge group of people is entering an age where they have worked most of their lives, and are now going to need more medical care than ever before. There is not nearly enough in this bill to affect those costs, and they will eventually have to be addressed. This bill is going to make that harder, and move an obscene amount of money into the pockets of a few health care companies (aka murder by spreadsheet companies). These companies have proved themselves to be greedy and untrustworthy, and our congress is trying to pass a bill which will shovel them another 300 Billion dollars as a reward. Although they only make about 5% profit, they nevertheless take about 20% of every dollar that passes through their hands - before that profit is calculated - mostly by denying health care to people.
I voted for Obama and listened to MONTHS of suggestions that he would be standing up for a public plan (notice I did not say public option - neither did he, until after he was elected). When he took office I assumed, wrongly, that he would hit town with a plan, because he had the the backing of a true majority of Americans (instead of just a Supreme Court decision) and say "this is what we said, this is what we are going to do, and we will take responsibility for it". Instead what I think happened is they got there and were told "The sky is falling", and they immediately lost their focus and started resorting to what was probably seen as a more pragmatic course of action, wasting all that public support, and leaving us in the hole we are in today.
The only way, in a capitalistic system, to lower costs is to out-innovate, lower labor costs, or use a competitive advantage. That public plan would have created that competitive advantage, would have provided funds to innovate. Did you notice that AS SOON AS THE PUBLIC OPTION WAS OFF THE TABLE WE QUIT HEARING ABOUT HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES PAYING PEOPLE TO STAGE PHONY GRASS ROOTS DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST HCR? Think about that. Is it possible that the only thing they thought threatened their profits was a public plan? And now you have a bunch of people framing the idea that if you are against this pathetic excuse for health care reform then you must be for the status quo, a dupe, and thus influenced by surreptitious, magical thought waves emanating from the opposition party.
You tell me. Am I influenced by the GOP and their calculated and surreptitious negative talking points?
We still friends?
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