“The 76% of Americans favor” line is being repeated too consistently to be true. I’ve never believed it. I mean I would believe that “76% of uninsured illegal immigrants favor”……but not 76% of all Americans. A more accurate figure would be under 50% I suspect (but we’ll never get a straight answer out of either side at this point).
Too bad.
Lets just kick this can on down the road and revisit health care in a few years.

Well the idiot is from Oklahoma – the only state in the nation that did not change their vote in any congressional district from Bush to McCain. Stated differently this is the only state that Obama lost every district with the same or worse margins as compared to the 2004 elections.

So I would say OK is not really about change – I guess it has something to do with the ‘red dirt’ or something clogging up the works.

O/T – Jackson Browne wins apology from McCain & Republicans – Running On Empty

Ask Him On His Facebook Page

give all those knee jerk ditto heads cluttering up that page something to talk about

Dan Boren’s district has the highest rate of non insured constituents of all Blue Dogs – 25.8%

Amazing – I say we get these SOB’s on record from the floor of the house or within the markup sessions and have them vote the way their rhetoric dictates. The next day we go up with an ad in their district – ‘name and shame’ these shitheads.

25.8% and this bastard wants to talk about ’shit’.

ya know Doc, that 25.8% comes from no less than Nate Silver (via some gallup data). in the post, Swami Silver sees big trouble ahead for these clowns who vote against real relief for their constituents – even if you’re a total corporatist whore, why would you bet against Nate ?

It is morally repugnant to profit off the misery or ill health of Americans. It’s criminal that medical bills to the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX make up 62% of all bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year. Americans spend 2.5 Trillion Dollars a year on Health care. The overhead at the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX is upwards of 35% of the health care dollar spent each year in the U.S. That is approximately $900 Billion a year the MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX uses for BRIBING CONGRESS and their lavish lifestyles, huge salaries plus perks and bonuses. All the while milking the hard-working men/women of this great nation of their hard earned money.
On the other hand Medicare has an overhead of 2%, Canada’s system is 1.5%, Europe’s 2.5% on average. The money that could be saved by eliminating the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX is estimated at $900 Billion a year. Enough money to help pay for putting all Americans on MEDICARE/SINGLE-PAYER TYPE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.

We have to fight back and call, write e-mails, letters-to-editors, Congress and to the White House to let them know how Americans feel about the private for-profit MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX that currently provides the health care in this country.

Here are some Senators and blue dog(dems) who are on the wrong side of Health Care reform. Give them a call and demand,
“MEDICARE/SINGLE-PAYER TYPE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL NOW!”

Thanks to Dateline_Molly for this chart that shows how much money was paid to Senators by the MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX to OBSTRUCT health care refrom. Link Now, when I call each member I can quote to them how much money they were PAID/BRIBED by the MEDICAL/INSURANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX to throw their constituents under the bus and deny them SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE.

(blue dogs)
Ross D-AR, Boucher D-VA, Kind D-WI, Pomeroy D-ND, Tanner D-TN
Polis (CO), Titus (NV) and Altmire (PA)

These are the problem Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee: John Barrow (GA-12), Bruce Braley (IA-01), Bart Gordon (TN-04), Baron Hill (IN-09), Jay Inslee (WA-01), Jim Matheson (UT-02), Charlie Melancon LA-03, Zack Space (OH-18) and Bart Stupak (MI-01).

Joe Lieberman I-CT, Chuck Grassley R-IA, Lindsey Graham R-SC,
Susan Collins R-ME, Olympia Snowe R-ME, David Vitter R-LA,
Saxby Chambliss R-GA, Tom Coburn R-OK, Jon Kyl R-AZ,
John Thune R-SD, Richard Lugar R-IN, Jim DeMint R-SC
Jeff Sessions R-AL, Richard Shelby R-AL, Mel Martinez R-FL,
John McCain R-AZ, Mitch McConnell R-KY, Jim Inhofe R-OK,
Lamar Alexander R-TN, Dick Burr R-NC, John Cornyn R-TX

Mark Pryor D-AR, Thomas Carper D-DE, Mary Landrieu D-LA,
Max Baucus D-MT, Kent Conrad D-ND, Ben Nelson D-NE,
Maria Cantwell D-WA, Kay Hagan D-NC, Blanche Lincoln D-AR,
Ron Wyden D-OR, Evan Bayh D-IN, Diane Feinstein D-CA,
Arlen Specter D-PA

Here are the toll-free numbers for the Capitol Hill Switchboard:
(House and Senate)
1-800-828-0498
1-866-338-1015
1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711

Also give the President a call or write an e-mail:

White House Comments Line:

1-202-456-1111 M-F 9:00-5:00 est. (NOT A TOLL-FREE #)

President Obama’s e-mail: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Nothing rattles the Congress and White House more than informed CITIZEN/VOTERS ringing the phones off the hook for real health care reform. Call the House, Senate and the White House and demand,
“MEDICARE/SINGLE-PAYER TYPE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL NOW!”
SEMPER FI!

I must be misremembering all that ‘bipartisanship’ during the Bush era — I mean, sure, assclowns like Dan Boren happily voted for Bush’s policies, but on the biggest, tightest votes, they passed without one Democratic vote (except for cloture, of course).

This process is a test of Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Harry Reid. Just get the goddamn bills out of committee, pass whatever you can on the floor, and then STACK the conference committee with folks that will put together a real health care reform bill with a public option. And then whip the goddamn Senate to get 60 votes for cloture, and pass with 50 votes, and 218 in the House.

The hell with Dan Boren.

When a Representative so carefully mimics GOP messaging, Blue Dog Democrat is really being too generous.

Yup. That’s why I like to call them False Flag Democrats. Though I guess Bait and Switch Democrats could work, too.

FunnyWheelieDiva

Umm,anybody remember Frank Keating,former Repube Gov of Oklahoma?

Pretty interesting bio on Wiki.

Even MORE interesting is that he became lobbyist numero uno for life insurnace company AFTER leaving stint as gov.

Nursing home care was being discussed LATE last night on CapitAL Hill.
Here’s a letter from Keating’s lobby organization:

ACLI Letter Raises Concerns About The Community Living Assistance Services And Supports Act

Washington, D.C. (July 10, 2009) — American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) President and CEO Frank Keating today sent a letter to members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and Senate leadership, expressing the life insurance industry’s concerns about the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act.

In the letter Keating writes, “ACLI supports the goal of the CLASS program to help adults with severe functional impairments obtain the services and supports they need to maintain their independence, while providing them with choices about community participation, education and employment. However, we are concerned that the over 60 percent of Americans who mistakenly believe that Medicare will help them pay for their long-term care needs, will be further misled by a program that will only cover about 12 percent of the total cost of their potential around-the-clock home health needs.”

Now under consideration as part of healthcare reform, the CLASS Act would charge program participants a monthly premium that would be set annually by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In exchange, participants would receive a benefit for long-term care services of $50 per day.

However, with the cost of a nursing home currently averaging $75,000 annually and home health services running as high as $46 per hour, “the daily benefit of $50 under the CLASS program would not be nearly enough to cover the cost of a full day of these services. In addition, the false sense of security created by $50 per day of inadequate coverage will cause people who can and should plan ahead for their long-term care needs not to take appropriate action.” Keating writes.

“ACLI praises the sponsors of the CLASS Act for seeking ways to address America’s long-term care crisis. However, because the benefits provided under the CLASS Act will not adequately protect Americans who are truly in need of long-term care and we are concerned about the confusion that would be created by offering a government-sponsored long-term care program, the ACLI does not support the CLASS provisions as adopted as part of the HELP Committee’s legislation.

“Long-term care is a serious issue in this country that threatens the financial and retirement security for millions of Americans and we welcome opportunities to engage with lawmakers on more responsible solutions to this growing crisis,” Keating writes.

Download Governor Keating’s letter (PDF).

Sounds almost human for a repube,wouldn’t you say?

As a reminder, Boren is the dumbass who called the stimulus bill un-American.

http://firedoglake.com/2009/02…..-american/

Sounds almost human for a repube,wouldn’t you say?

I guess if you pay them enough…

And to answer the question, I thought bipartisan meant “turn your head and cough”.

This process is a test of Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Harry Reid.

So far, they aren’t good at passing tests. They are good at passing out if a Republic says ‘boo’ to them. Keeping them in leadership positions effectively keeps the Republics in power. Why are they your leaders, Democrats?

Bipartisan in the eyes of Congress means how can we disinform and seduce the stupefied citizenry that despite colossally respecting the needs of Big Pharma and the health care industry that have (legally but immorally and colossally bribed us all) into believing we have a health system that will bring said citizenry security and accessibility, change they can once again think they can believe in (NOT!!!).

So, when they speak about us trusting our health care we already have, I have serious doubts about that said health care, that I didn’t have earlier but anecdotally from loved ones and my social network or honesty on non-corporate blogosphere (God forbid the corporate press rock our confidence in corporatism). Is it really there for me, if I can keep my on thin ice job, or does the 40% in overhead spent in today’s health care that mostly goes to those people who find loopholes to stop my health care support when I do need help which I have been paying for for years with my premiums.

So citizenry wanted to end the war in the Mideast. Not gonna happen. Citizenry wants the right to health care without paying executives horrifying levels of compensation and falling over a cliff if they have serious needs.

Lobbyists own Congress. I watch Congresspeople on tv spouting their care for the American people. What a crock.

What about a PORTABLE single-payer-system. I know that is a pipe dream but with the migratory and ephemeral nature of employment lately, wouldn’t it be important to link citizen directly to insurance provider without the employer in the triangle since moving to a new job and probably new provider entails so much beaucratic, Rube Goldbergian (someone wrote in a blog cleverly and sorry I can’t remember who) machinations. OOops… sorry. That would be too complicated. I mean, like Medicare in which 95% of its money goes into pure health care, 5% into administration and has been working fine. But, sorry… I am contradicting the disinformation generators.

We are so disenfranchised from our real democracy .. republic… thanks to moneyed interests and demands. The best we can hope for from these guys is earnest disinformation presentations.

WTF Does Bipartisan Mean, Anyway?

Absolutely Nothing

I have called and will call, thanks for the streamlined list. Thanks for doing this leg work even to the toll free numbers.

I agree with you (and left that unsaid in my original post).

But I think it bespeaks a much more pernicious and devastating problem for progressives — it shows that the conference committee chairs (Waxman, Miller, Rangel, et al.) probably are not very good at politics, either. They may be well-meaning individuals (well, at least Waxman and Miller, color me unconvinced with Rangel), but their de facto fiefdoms leave them unable to understand how to piece together coalitions and to explain legislation to the body politic writ large.

The only thing that gives me any hope that something decent might pass is that the President has gone out on quite the limb promising it will — and he and his people are cognizant of 2012.

I remain unconvinced our side has the wherewithal or the intellectual ammunition in Congress to get this done.

Look, you’re already paying for health care for all the uninsured. A revised plan will make everyone pay and reduce your costs. Kicking the can down the road lets Aetna pay $1.8bn in dividends and stock repurchases every year, on $30bn in revenues. That’s money down the rathole for nothing.

Bipartisan: Of or pertaining to the capitulation of Democrats to Republicans, liberals to conserviatives, progressives to reactionaries. (I think that’s in the OED. But I didn’t actually look it up.)

Here’s Boren’s voting record.

Says it all.

Absolutely Nothing

Edit

Say it again!

Meaningful according to you. I have great health care already and do not want any more “options’ especially government options. I have worked for it, pay for it, and am very happy with it.