1. How will the the homeless, the near-homeless and the seriously impoverished deal with these new health care mandates? Destitute people can't pay anything. Some 25 million Americans are "food insecure": How can anyone expect them to pay for a health insurance plan?
Today, if a poor person gets sick, he or she goes to a hospital for emergency treatment. Soon, anyone who visits that emergency room will do so knowing that he or she faces fines that no poor person can pay. Result: Many will die for lack of treatment.
2. The House has just made abortion unaffordable for most women, although the procedure remains technically legal.
A few days ago, I laughed at the "futurist" who predicted that the rich would soon evolve into a separate species. But now we find ourselves in a situation where abortion will be possible only for affluent women. This development would seem to solidify the connection between wealth and genetics, n'est-ce pas?
3. Most Americans still favor legal abortion, or so most polls tell me. So how will Americans react when they learn that the government will now forbid them from using private insurance to pay for a legal procedure?
4. The Republicans have argued all along that they do not want government interfering with health care. So how can they justify telling women what procedures they can and cannot have done, using their employers' insurance plans?
5. Isn't it stunning that a woman's right to abortion was limited by a Congress led by a liberal Democrat? By a female Speaker -- from San Francisco? Good bleeding Jesus, how does such a thing happen?
I believe that Nancy Pelosi entered public office with no desire to infringe upon a woman's right to choose. I am sure that her constituents don't want private insurers to be forbidden from covering abortions. Yet look at what just happened...! She sold out to the Republicans, who will continue to demonize her.
6. Why does the House debate anything? I watched a lot of the proceedings on CSPAN, and it was clear that nearly everyone who came to the podium was not going to budge from the talking points issued by their party leaders. So why bother with the charade?
7. California may be the reason why the Kucinich amendment was doomed. Our state legislature will vote for single payer. AH-nuld will oppose it, but AH-nuld's days are numbered. A successful single payer program in California will remove an enormous burden from businesses in this state. More companies will want to set up shop here. If California prospers, other states will follow suit.
8. Fantasy springs eternal. Over on D.U., people are arguing that health care reform legislation, however compromised, must pass because otherwise "Obama will be crippled." It's all about the O. Meanwhile, anything wrong with the bill must be blamed on the dreaded DLC -- as though the DLC has power and Obama does not. (And as though Obama himself were not sympatico with the DLC.)
These clowns have their script and they are sticking to it.
9. Some ladies on the Confluence discussed emigration to France, via marriage. A pleasant idea. Alas, I cannot marry my way into that country. I need another method.
I must admit that I spend a lot of time dreaming about the south of France. Every time I fire up Google Earth, I find myself in the Pyrenees, getting lost in the street-level photographs, mentally traveling up and down various byways while listening to Cesar Franck's "Ce Qu'on Entend Sur la Montagne." I know some of those locales pretty well by now. Every time I see an image of an ancient fort or church nestled beneath ice-capped mountains, I think: "Why can't I live there?"
Do you know that there is a town in the midi-Pyrenees called Condom? The big problem in that burg is tourists who steal signs displaying the city's name. And near the border, high in the mountains, is a quaint village with the coolest name ever: Oô. Wonderful scenery. Old buildings. Only 120 residents. How could you not want to live among them?
The dream of escape. We've all felt it.
5 comments:
One other thing: remember the promise that this reform will not mess your existing coverage? "If you like what you have, you can keep it"
Not applicable to women covered for their reproductive rights care.
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/women-under-the-bus-long-live-healthcare-reform/
I've been telling any and all to get out before these other countries close the gates on refugees from the Big PX. If they are in college I tell them to get a language minor so they can teach English although it's importance will be dropping as the U S left behind.
I've written my Senators and Representative about getting a grant to cover the cost of leaving since they do it for business that wants to move manufacturing overseas.
The irony was lost on them.
I don't understand why Pelosi, Reid are pandering to the GOP at all. None of them would vote for a bill stemming from Democrats, whether it's health care reform or garbage collections when they can reframe it successfully as failure?
The only reason that progressive-liberals-crossovers-whatever you call them - demands end up being negotiable is because they know they have little choice.
When I vote, I'm usually presented with a choice of extremist rightwing zealot or conservative libertarian (sometimes masquerading as Democrat). The lesser of the evils wins.
I think Democrats have come very close to crafting a bill that no one wants in their desire to prove that they are centrists.
Someone should explain to them, they won so they can stop providing homogenized bills that ultimately prove there is no difference between the GOP and Dem's (or at least hire an ad agency with more imagination that "public option").
Scary stuff.
For anyone who has a choice, we are approaching time to "renounce your US citizenship" territory.
Speaker Pelosi is doing what she can or must, in her considered opinion, after she had the Democratic caucus leadership count the votes IN THE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS.
This was fairly clear when they didn't have the vote on the day expected, because they needed to reclaim balking members on the Democratic side of the aisle, still shy the 218 required for passage.
Evidently, there are either enough pro-life Democrats, or at least enough of those plus those afraid of pro-lifer opposition, to cause this bad policy to be necessary for passage in the House, given the bill's inclusion of some public option
If a single payer approach will show success, it should already have done so in Hawaii. I think California is less likely to show a successful result than Hawaii is (and hasn't yet, to my knowledge).
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