Saturday, August 01, 2009

Single Payer will come to a vote

Single payer health care reform will come to a vote. To a degree, this move is a sham, since the vote has about as much chance of passage as I have of bench-pressing my body weight. Neither Obama nor Pelosi will support HR 676, even though they have, in the past, pretended to like the idea.

Still, we have the month of August to work on our congress-critters. Force your representatives to drop the petticoat and show what's underneath. This is your chance to fight the good fight, and never mind the odds.

Lambert at Corrente notes that no A-list blogs have bothered to mention the floor vote. I can confirm that, at this writing, Kos features pieces on the birthers (but of course!) and a wacky conspiracy theory favored by Glenn Beck. Nothing about 676 on Talking Points Memo. Americablog is doing same-sex marriage. PuffHo features more birther blather, Diane Feinstein on wiretapping, and some crap from Obama. I guess progressives do not consider nationalized health insurance an important matter.

The big exception right now is Democratic Underground.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pardon me for not getting excited.

Last year the Democratic leadership let the nomination come to a roll call vote.

That didn't work out so hot.

Hoarseface said...

I have no faith in the democratic party in enacting any meaningful, effective reform. I've long been concerned that, as important health-care reform is, our current political situation inherently prevents it. Our so-called 'elected representatives' are so thoroughly bought and paid for through lobbyist and industry money that they have, collectively, abrogated their responsibility to their actual constituents and handed them over to their donors. I can barely envision a scenario in which meaningful, effectual health-care reform is accomplished without first divorcing our 'representatives' from their fund-raising needs. The be-all, end-all reform to end all reforms is 100% public financing of elections and the absolute removal of moneyed interests. Until that happens, expect nothing but a continuation of legislation-as-enabling-of-corporate(contributor)-profits.

The class war started decades ago; until the victims of said war realize there is a war being waged upon them, nothing will change, except cosmetically. My main concern is that the victims of this war mis-indentify their oppressors, and in doing so enable the continuation of the war itself.

There may come a day when the backlash is too great to withstand. My intuition is.. the longer it takes for us, as a nation, to reach that point, the uglier the consequences will be.

lambert strether said...

Benin frames this as "symbolic." Then again, one of the things that politics does, as I understand it, is take symbols and make them real.

So: I take the attitude that here's an opportunity. And it's not like the battles that were fought in 2008 aren't going to be refought again and again until justice is done.

Peter of Lone Tree said...

Birther Blather?
Joe, what if he renounced his American citizenship?

Take a look at "Obama's spring break in Pakistan" at http://www.colony14.net/id40.html which contains this quote:

"Barack Obama was likely a citizen of Indonesia, by virtue of adoption, and possibly maintained both his citizenship and his passport for many years – or at least long enough to travel to Pakistan in 1981. But because Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship, Obama would have had to relinquish his U. S. citizenship (assuming he was born in Hawaii and actually had it) to be a citizen of Indonesia and carry a passport from that country. If Obama never relinquished his Indonesian citizenship, he is not an American citizen – and thus ineligible to serve as its President."

If even the MSM is talking about the "birth question" what are they NOT talking about? Another way of asking, "Is the birth certificate smoke and mirrors?"

Anonymous said...

I wonder what keeping the option of third party off the table. It amazes me how the most of us who loathe the 2- party system still cringe when you mention the 3rd party(except me of course..ha ..ha)
What I am trying to say is that things will continue to be the same untill we take serious steps to change. Please don't think money because it is the root of the problem to begin with. Take it out of the political proccess and that will be your solution, if you want one that is.

Anonymous said...

HR 676 Single Payer Healthcare for All Americans. Don’t let CONGRESS KILL HR 676 BILL. Write Your Representative https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml and ask them to PASS HR 676, Everyone In, Nobody Out, only 23 pages long…It’s ALL American!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3SI5naKbsQ&feature

Woman Voter