Americans showed their creativity and passion for health care reform ...but the WINNING video all Americans should see is longer than 30 seconds, and so would be disqualified:
http://vodpod.com/watch/2367112-american-sickos-will-the-current-bills-help
http://blip.tv/play/gdElgajBUQI
My parents provided me with health care 33 years ago when my dad's job brought us to Canada. It has never failed me, and Canada's nowhere near the top of the list of countries that do better for their citizens than the U.S.
President Obama can expect an instant surge in poll numbers if and when he gets back on board with the majority of Americans who don't give two figs what Snowe and the Party of No think...
To me the only mystery is why some seem to think there's any mystery. It's not like Republicans, with whom a mere 20% of Americans identify and only 36% still think have a clue about what to do are picking up the numbers.
I can only speak for my own disappointment in this once inspirational president who used to fill us all with so much hope, but I fully expect there are others who feel as I do. The President's approval numbers are inversely proportionate to his tacit approval for the antics of disingeuous Republicans such as Olympia Snowe and Chuck Grassley, support for spineless compromises such as Max Baucus's self-serving gift to the industry who supported and supports his re-election, his willingness to place the groups who elected him on hold, as he's done with the gay community, or to call us"opinionated," as he did when he recently described me and my fellow progressives that way. "Principled," Mr. Obama, and "resolute" are two of the adjectives I'd have chosen.
I don't need a public option, I live in Canada where they've understood for decades that single-payer provides the widest high quality coverage at the lowest cost to tax payers. Like over 80% of Canadians I'm very happy with the way it works, and I know it doesn't shut out private companies that enhance my coverage. I'm worried about my nephew and niece, who live in the States and have no health care. I'm worried about families who are plummeted into bankruptcy and still have to bury their 4-year-old child who dies of cystic-fibrosis, a disease that also claimed my first wife -- at the age of 40. She was Canadian. She was covered. "Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are more than words in Canada.
The so-called "public option" is the compromise. It has the potential of proving to Americans that the health insurance industry will either adapt and put up, as it has all over the globe, or shut up. Without a robust public option health care reform is a sham.
Democrats, progressive or otherwise, must reject the Baucus Boondoggle without blinking. Bought and paid for by the Health Care industry Wendell Potter describes it as an "absolute gift" and that it "might as well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act."
We need to put Max Baucus on notice -- his allegiance is with the sources of his campaign funding -- banks and Wall St., and the pharmaceuticals/health care/insurance industries -- not the American People, and he does not deserve to sit in the Senate of the United States of America.
The Tea Partiers may not understand American history or the concept of taxation as it relates to representation by a democratically elected president and congress, but they have one slogan that rings true: it's time to take our country back -- from the corporations and industries who now own Congress.
"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering," President Franklin Roosevelt told an audience in Madison Square Garden in 1936. "They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred."
Currently Americans oppose health care reform for only two reasons: 1) they and their opinions are entirely beholden to propaganda and as a result they remain ignorant and afraid of the facts or 2) they have a financial stake in the status quo and are actively involved in spreading the fear and propaganda that keeps the others beholden.
If the so-called Blue Dogs, or the President himself, fail to bring about believable health care reform -- publicly funded universal health care comparable to any provided by the remainder of the industrialized world -- then we must find candidates and individuals who are not afraid.
I stumbled on two articles on NPR that are only about a year old and contain some very interesting facts.
I've posted some excerpts below, but I highly recommend reading the entire article and using the comparison utility to check out what's done in other countries...
I am an educator who has been blessed with the opportunity to live and work abroad for a large part of my life, and to see what an impact the American dream has had in places as far apart historically and culturally as Ethiopia and Canada. America's promise shines as a bright light regardless where in the world one may be. Dark clouds of fear and loathing have briefly dimmed that light, but the election of President Barak Obama has reminded the world that Americans have good hearts and always, ultimately, remember what is right. His presidency has begun to push away the clouds, and we recall the dream of the Founders who established the egalitarian system under which The Law is our only king.
The Press has been very reluctant to look beneath the surface of Obama's falling popularity numbers, and once again the spinmeisters on the right step in and dominate. My own support for Obama began to decline before the election, when he flipped on the FISA issue. The fact that John Yoo is free to teach law at Berkley infuriates me. The constant attempt to appease the nihilist Republicans, or give credit to dinosaurs like Chuck Grassley with anything but obstructionism and dishonesty of the highest, most hypocritical order, just turn my stomach. Where's the change I believed in?
In summary, Obama's falling numbers are due to his turning his back on the progressives who elected him, not the fantasy being perpetrated by conservatives and parroted by the uncritical media. He will continue to slide the further he moves to the center. If there is no public option in health care reform he will almost certainly be a one-term president.
On the other hand, the Republicans would have to find someone to run against him. Unless Meghan McCain suddenly wants to run for president I don't see anyone with any credibility, never mind vision, anywhere on the horizon.
I am currently supporting Anthony Weiner for president in 2012. I certainly hope he'll consider running.
Those of us who remember when America's beacon was bright and honorable understand that there was only one choice for her future back in November 2008. What we've seen since from the opposing party -- Adulterers, Antagonists to Truth, Antagonists to Critical Thought, Bigotry, Birthers, Deathers, Defenders of Corporate Welfare, Divisiveness, Obstructionism -- is a shocking and depressing testimony to the degree of American decline.
There's no doubt we elected the best man for the job, the only man who did not fear to recognize or acknowledge the decline and spoke in language so eloquent, uplifting, and audacious as to inspire our fading hope.
What has become of the man we elected President, defender of our Constitution and the Rule of Law, who promised to break the cycle of special corporate interests in Washington and bring health care to all Americans?
We discuss and debate healthcare reform and miss the obvious. We don't need reform, we need a whole new system. A system that puts the patient first and lets doctors do their job. Making healthcare a public service as opposed to the private commodity it has become should be the focus of this new system. Yes, there will be a cost, but the price of doing nothing will be greater. Human lives are at stake here. What happened to our so called 'culture of life'?
People put off check-ups and tests because they fear the cost. What they fear most are the results of tests and exams, as these may show that they need expensive medications or treatments they already know they can't afford. And these are people with insurance. According to a recent issue of the American Journal of Medicine, the cost of obtaining medical care resulted in 62% of bankruptcies in 2007. Among those filing for bankruptcy due to excessive medical bills, 77% had health insurance.
We now have our own web site! Visit http://www.bethlehemforobama.com.
