Beware The Definition of "Arbitrary"
A simple word of advice from me to our United States Senators on health care reform and their "centrist" colleagues: just say "No" to Ben Nelson if he comes a-callin' with scary stories about getting all our citizens covered by health insurance this year:
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said he planned to urge the president not to force an arbitrary August deadline on health care reform.
Arbitrary?
Because 15 years after the last attempt at meaningful health care reform is too soon?
Maybe the 44 years after Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare Act is rushing it for Senator Nelson.
Arbitrary could be the 64 years since Truman said this:
In my message to the Congress of September 6, 1945, there were enumerated in a proposed Economic Bill of Rights certain rights which ought to be assured to every American citizen.
One of them was: "The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health." Another was the "right to adequate protection from the economic fears of . .. sickness ...."
Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.
The people of the United States received a shock when the medical examinations conducted by the Selective Service System revealed the widespread physical and mental incapacity among the young people of our nation. We had had prior warnings from eminent medical authorities and from investigating committees. The statistics of the last war had shown the same condition. But the Selective Service System has brought it forcibly to our attention recently--in terms which all of us can understand.
As of April 1, 1945, nearly 5,000,000 male registrants between the ages of 18 and 37 had been examined and classified as unfit for military service. The number of those rejected for military service was about 30 percent of all those examined. The percentage of rejection was lower in the younger age groups, and higher in the higher age groups, reaching as high as 49 percent for registrants between the ages of 34 and 37.
Wow, didn't realize the Republican "military lovers" could've killed that proposal -- even with Harry Truman's base militaristic pandering and the shadow of WWII looming over all of us.
Sadly, this self-interest of Nelson (to the detriment of America) only fuels the Republican obstructionism and makes statements like this one from Jim DeMint all that more frustratingly close to reality:
Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina, arguably the chamber's most right-wing member, told an audience at the National Press Club that the United States is currently "about where Germany was before World War II." Everything about his remarks -- the sense of history, the understanding of current events, the philosophy -- was a special kind of stupid.
But DeMint seems quite pleased with himself, and keeps churning out new and creative insanity.
In an interview with the evangelical World Magazine titled "The Taxpayers' Greatest Ally," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) had some interesting things to say about his work with his colleagues in the Senate:
"I am not going to be able to persuade my colleagues to do the right things, so I am just going to have to create pain."
Okay, that is a bit intense. However, it may not even be the most intense statement from Sen. DeMint this week. On a conference call this morning, DeMint discussed health care reform: ""This health care issue Is D-Day for freedom in America... If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."
If you look back historically, you can draw a direct line from the defeat the Clinton suffered in '93 trying to push for Universal Health Care to his far less ambitious actions as President and the capitalization of the hobbled presidency by the GOP and their uprising with the Contract For America. It is critical that we not give the GOP an inch on that and we're certainly not going to be helped by Senators like Nelson who has a personal interest in helping the insurance industry.
those rejected inductees were malnourished too I guess
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that I read it a while back with a short memory, sometimes I have to guess ;)
Chronic Lyme disease is a bitch like that.
To the states which voted persons like Bill Nelson , the blue dogs and the centrist democrats (all republicans)
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ,,, AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PURGE THEM FROM BEING RE-ELECTED.
None
right wing Dems until you meet the Florida Dem party hierarchy, they make Bill Nelson a lib by comparison.
http://www.bcast.co.nz/watch.php?type=youtube...
hates for us to have a healthy military. Just as they hate for us to have a healthy workforce.
Blue Dog Democrats and Republican Triangulation
http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/03/17/blue-...
The Blue Dogs provide an opening for the Republicans to “triangulate” against the progressives inside the Democratic Party. They’re calling for “belt tightening” at a time of severe under-consumption and high employment. Republican leaders in the Senate will try to use the Evan Bayhs and Blanche Lincolns of the Blue Dog faction as a wedge to defeat vital parts of President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda.
None
Blue Dog Democrats and Republican Triangulation
http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/03/17/blue-...
The Blue Dogs provide an opening for the Republicans to “triangulate” against the progressives inside the Democratic Party. They’re calling for “belt tightening” at a time of severe under-consumption and high employment. Republican leaders in the Senate will try to use the Evan Bayhs and Blanche Lincolns of the Blue Dog faction as a wedge to defeat vital parts of President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda.
I say with the leadership of Emanuel they have done a very good job of this...
None
Glad the 20th century is behind us.
January 1, 1901 - - December 31, 2000
R.I.P.
the mental capacity of the people back then was as bad as it is today after the appearance of wingnut radio, in fact it's probably worse
Every other industrialized nation has Universal Health care none of the dire occurrences that these paid shills for the insurance industry have predicted has happened there.I have many Canadian and English friends since I spend a good deal of time in the Bahamas None of the health stories that Ben and his Neanderthal friends tell are the actual case
Politics is ugly
today. I would really like to hear why single-payer was never on the table. I know why, but I want someone to try to explain it to me. Anyone else want to hear the "official" explanation?
official explanation that it would be political suicide to go against big insurance/pharma, the same as what happened when they went against big tobacco?
I always enjoy a good laugh.
the extravagant incomes the current system is designed to do for Docs and Insurance Execs.
problem. The AMA is a lobbying group populated by doctors, but they are the greedy wing-nut battalion. Most other doctors take their oath seriously. Their patients come first.
Is that the Obama administration thought it would be too "disruptive" to the existing system and make it more likely to fail.
AMA. Disruptive to the existing system? Isn't that the whole point of all this? More likely to fail? Is there any lower place they can go? I don't think so, unless they make us pay more money for absolutely NO coverage. I want to hear the reasons they tell to people they actually respect, but don't want to tell about the pay-offs.
Take the lobbiest's dicks out of your mouth. You already have the Democratic record for the most in one mouthful. Rinse and spit, and start to represent the people in your state. You know, the ones who don't have the great coverage you and the whores in your family and on your staff do, you useless waste of oxygen.
Sorry for the language. But, Jesus! I can't take it anymore!
Between more conservative Democratic senators such as Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu and others, and Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd, who are currently too ill to function effectively, the magic number 60 is meaningless. It is too simplistic for everyone except small children and the mainstream media.
It's way past time to play nice with these blue dog saboteurs and DINO's and start knocking some heads. Let them know right now what the deal is, that we're counting on them to help deliver the public option---or else. Who the hell do these smug bastards they think they are, anyway? The voice of the majority of Americans? What a laugh. They just want to seem powerful and important at the expense of providing healthcare access to all. Guess that corporate blood money buys their support.
I hope these yellow cowards get a clue and get on board---or else don't count on the Obama Administration helping them with their future political ambitions.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
You can bet your last dollar that the rejection rate would be a lot higher today. 30% would be rejected just for being too damn fat. Add in the ones who actually are incapacitated in some way and I'd be surprised if 50% made the cut.
some people may wonder why some of us can get discouraged........this is why....ben nelson(d) go big red.
This is all you need to know about the republicans and health care:
Ben Smith (who, imho, is just another right-wing syncophant) has an article in Politico, titled “Health reform foes plan Obama’s ‘Waterloo’, dated July 17, 2009.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0709/H...
This article discusses a conference call between Jim DeMint, Mike Pence ands ome right-wing teabagger group.
DeMint guarantees this group that the health care bill won’t pass before the August recess. DeMint is saying that if the republicans can prevent the bill from passing (out of Congress), when they go home, outraged citizens will voice so much outrage against the bill to the point that when “Senators and Congressmen come back in September they will afraid to vote against the American people, meaning vote for health care reform.
DeMint predicts that if they are able to stop President Obama on this bill it will be his Waterloo.
It will break him” according to DeMint.
Is this the game plan of the blue-dogs DINO?
...to Ben Nelson receiving his own "Cadillac" health care plan on the public dime. If it's too good for us, it's too good for him, too.
I'm sure he could, at age sixty-something, go right out there into the private marketplace and find a wonderful health care plan that would cover him, his spouse and whichever among his dependents he chooses for a great low price--assuming he has no pre-existing conditions and meets their actuarial table requirements.
He makes plenty of money. Let him pay out of pocket.
We need those who have access to the media or large crowds to shout from the roof tops and demand those congress persons who have conflicts of interest get OUT of the health care debate and have no say in legislation.
It is absolutely disgusting and a matter of LIFE AND DEATH for millions who will continue to die and/or become disabled while obscenely rich profiteers and their beneficiaries play ping pong with the public health.
Anyone who is friends with insurance CEOs, owns stock in insurance companies, who receives or has ever received campaign donations from insurance companies, or whose family members do, has no business playing with peoples lives or having any say in how legislation is drafted.
They cannot draft a bill in the best interest of the people because THEIR best interest is to protect the corporate PROFITS and NOT the PUBLIC WELFARE.
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