1. What if? Let us posit an alternate universe in which single payer, or something happily close to it, is under discussion right now in Congress. How would we handle the question of abortion?
I would want the procedure to be both legal and covered by nationalized health insurance. Yet I can muster up some sympathy for those who say that they do not want their tax dollars to support what they consider to be murder. Can you, as a mental exercise, cobble together an arrangement?
(Granted, our tax dollars are being used to support murder in Afghanistan and Iraq right now.)
2. Can Kucinich make it good? Dennis Kucinich wants his state-by-state single-payer approach to become part of a final deal with the Senate. Won't happen. Ah, but what if? Would a bad bill suddenly become worthy of support?
I say yes, it would. Of course, California probably would go single-payer early. If you live in Montana, you may have a differing attitude.
3. Want a filibuster? I do! I hope that the level of support in the Senate for health care reform is above 50 but below 60. To me, a number in that range would be ideal. Why? Because I don't much care for this bill -- but I do want to see a real, old-school filibuster. You know, one with Joe Lieberman entertaining us with a day-long telling of the Aristocrats. That kind of filibuster.
Why? Because a real filibuster would allow the Democrats to amend the rules of the Senate itself, in which case we would have, literally, the filibuster to end all filibusters. I've talked about this before. To change the rules, a two-thirds vote of all the Senators present is necessary -- and the whole point of being a filibusterer is to keep the opposite party (in this case, the Dems) in the room while most members of your own party (the Republicans) get to go home for booze and a snooze.
Picture it: Two-thirds of the senators vote, the rules are changed, and the very idea of a filibuster is gone, baby gone. We would once again have rule by a simple majority. That's the only way to get things done.
(Of course, that sitch would have drawbacks. In 2011, we may have a tea-soaked Republican Senate. The Dems would have no filibuster power against nutjobs who want to declare war on the Illuminati, confer citizenship on angels, and put Jesus on Mount Rushmore.)
4. A T-shirt? You guys serious? People have suggested that the "MS-Led" cartoon (scroll down) would make a nice t-shirt. I tried the t-shirt thing before; it did not go over well. In order to have a company manufacture and ship shirts from your own design, one must charge somewhere on the order of 20 bucks. I've never paid more than $10. Of course, I'm a cheap bastard.
14 comments:
Okay, I've checked into the t-shirt thing. 24 bucks at CafePress for a dark shirt (printed on demand), and 22 bucks at the competitor's joint. And that's without a dime for me.
Not worth it. But thanks to all of those who expressed interest.
I'm pretty sure you could get the shirts made a lot cheaper, but you would have to do a mass printing and front the cost, then hawk them yourself.
Either that or sell the rights for a few ducats and watch someone else make all the profits.
If you did make them yourself and they became popular, you'd have to deal with pirates too.
Free-market capitalism is a wonderful thing, huh?
I gave some thought and there might be copyright problems with the Ms. logo.
Your cartoon would come under fair use but if you start to sell it, who knows.
Perhaps an individual using iron-on printer paper could run some off?
I have an idea for those citizens who don't want their money going to pay for a private legal medical procedure that is none of their business if a sister citizen is getting or not. They can move. There are plenty of Catholic countries all over the world. Bon voyage!
Another idea. If Americans decide that it's American to crotch-sniff and groin-police, then I don't want one public dime going to prop up aging penises. Why erectile aids aren't considered "elective" is beyond me anyway.
If you buy the shirts and color xerox the image onto them is it $20?
Suggestion: a few more cartoons, then do a set of left-bucking Obama t-shirts under your label. It's a niche that is under served. But key is to offer a collection, not just one design.
The economics still don't work. It's like the old joke: "We lose 50 cents on every tire we sell. So how do we stay in business? Volume, volume, volume!"
OK, one more idea regarding the shirts.
"Iron your own damned shirt" productions. IYODS
Make iron-on copies of the graphics and just mail that to people. That should keep it under $10 and people can then iron the graphic onto their own shirt of choice.
I was thinking, removed the color content of his suit, don't add any color to him and go with the T-Shirt (One of your best political to the point cartoons!). We all know he is Bi-Racial...and the main 'FeMANist' Coat Hanger...'Sorry Sweeties' will be clear as day. Besides, there is no question he is the president and he did what BUSH I and BUSH II couldn't, with the DEMOCRATS clapping! Pelosi looked like a Fisherman's Wharf Seal, she was clapping so hard...while the 'wimmin folk' got thrown under the BUS!
I say Hillary 2012!
Guys, thanks, but no shirts. I've tried it before.
What about coffee mugs?
Getting back to your original health questions:
1) Health choice is about health choice: Carry the pregnancy to term or don't carry the pregnancy to term. Both procedures should be paid for. The vast majority of people are unlikely to get a hernia, but that doesn't mean that hernia treatments shouldn't be covered because it only applies to a certain segment of the population.
By the way, in Roman Catholic Italy, abortion on demand is legal during the first three months of pregnancy and is paid for by the government health plan. If they can do it, why can't we?
2) State single payer is a bad idea unless everyone in the state is in the same public plan. Otherwise, it's impossible to spread the costs enough to keep the public policy or subsidized policies inexpensive enough.
Also, what about poor states or states without enough people to generate a large enough risk pool? There's just no way to guarantee adequate care.
3) I am opposed to any government plan that forces people to buy private insurance, so whatever it takes to kill this bill, I'm for it.
grayslady
By all means, do an online download for an iron on transfer that we can print out ourselves and just iron on our own shirts or have it steam pressed on the shirt. You could charge $5 for a download, make some money, not put any out, and we can have the shirt. Paypal would set up the payment and downloads or you could use the yahoo stores. How about that?
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