Its clear that real campaign finance reform is necessary to wrest control of the government from the corporations and return it to the people. Without it, we will never fix anything else.

Kerry’s opposition at what he admits was at the behest of Raytheon creeps me out as much as any of it.

Excellent reporting.

May we clone you, Jane, Marcy, and the rest of the tough pups?

This is what healthcare reform means, using the Baucus marked up bill formula.
For reference, I am using Capital Health Plan in Florida, same plan as the federal “high” plan.

$ 383.98 Federal employee rate
$ 992.15 My current rate as a small group, 2 employees
$ 2,894.78 My new premium under the Baucus plan

Our household income exceeds 400% of the poverty level but my insurance premium will be 61% of our gross income. These figures are accurate, not pulled out of the air.

This needs to be on the national news and shouted from the rooftops!

Also, only three of them are needed to beat Baucus. Should be more than enough with Wyden, Rockefeller, Schumer, and Kerry around. The problem is they don’t know whether it’s better to vote against it and kill it in committee or get it out of committee so Harry Reid can make a new bill up by “merging” “Help” and Baucus.

Other than letsgetitdone’s lovely, snarky, and apropos “search for the unicorn of bipartisanship,” I assume there isn’t anything in the Baucus piece of crap worth adding to Kennedy’s bill, so by all means kill it in committee NOW!

Citizen foothillsmike:

“Are you suggesting that the reserves that the insurance companies are mandated to maintain took a severe hit in the collapse?”

What reserves…what do ya think this entire economic mess is all about??!! Obama still has time to hop on board and tell everyone that the insurance industry is bankrupt and he’s gunna do what he shoulda done with the fake banks: NATIONALIZE ‘EM!!

Some government agency must have the responsibility for oversight to make sure the insurance companies maintain the statutorily required percentage of reserves. Is it a state Department of Licensing, or its equivalent, in each state, or is it a federal agency like the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, or whatever it’s called now if I got the name wrong?

Does Wendell Potter know anything about this?

If the information isn’t online, isn’t it FOIA time?

Of course, the possibility of cooked books can’t be ignored.