Galenwainwright... September 13th, 2009
Obama talks the talk. And talks. And talks. And talks. And talks.
And that is all he does. Talk.
Here are some FACTS:
-The economy is still in the crapper.
-Billions in bailouts are still flowing to the criminal kleptocrats.
-Guantanimo is still open.
-The abduction and rendition, and subsequent torture (excuse me, 'enhanced interrogation') of 'terrorists' are still happening.
-Innocents are still dying by the score in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
-The occupation of Iraq is still in place.
-Blackwater and similar criminal mercenary companies are still on the US payroll.
-China has become the single largest *seller* of US Government bonds. (THAT should scare the hell out of you!)
-Officially, unemployment is at it's highest level (9.7%) since the Great Depression. Unofficially, real unemployment is at 16% or 27%, depending on who you talk to. (In California 40% of working age employables are unemployed...)
-Iran is now firmly in the cross hairs for an Israeli and/or American attack.
-Israel continues to expand it's illegal encroachment of Palestinian land, building new settlements, and throwing Palestinians out on the street.
So how is the 'Hope (TM)' and 'Change you can believe in(TM)' thing going for you?
Walk in peace.
I have unemployment at 22%; you have to be a lefty to have it at 25 or 27%, and I'm middle of the road. (Laugh out loud?)
Well, if you ever wondered what you get when a guy who theoretically, possibly, might be a centrist becomes the ostensible leader of a country that has been lost to extreme right wing ideology for a generation, now you can see what happens with that combination. You get that guy morphing from centrist to solidly right wing right before your eyes.
It is amusing to see the actual far right wingers criticizing Obama’s and the Democrats’ health reform, because they are criticizing a right wing bill. I guess they didn’t know they are closet socialists, laugh out loud. (Seriously, not a few of them don't know that.)
Ideologically, having no public option at all is even more right wing than having a weak, doomed to fail public option. But no public option at all will allow the health insurance reform to fail more quickly, which is a good thing, because that in turn will put more pressure more quickly on individual states to enact some kind of single payer themselves. Especially since states, like individuals, are going to be saddled with new and ever higher expenses that the federal government refuses to deal with due to right wing ideology. And with the no public option at all scenario, there will be no chance for true single payer to be tarnished with (by being associated with a failed public option) an undeserved reputation.
Even a strong public option just increases the time before the system collapses entirely, before the premiums, co-pays, deductibles, and disallowed items become so high that even average income individuals find them impossible to pay, and above average income individuals find them increasingly difficult to pay.
The New York Times is reporting that the public option appears to be dead, meaning the health insurance reform will be a solidly right wing, dead on arrival reform. Anyone who spent time or money electing Democrats got essentially nothing for their efforts (other than perhaps a kick in the groin.) Had they perpetually remained in charge of all branches of the government, the Republicans would have eventually gotten around to passing roughly the very same law!
The new law will consist primarily of new laws against health insurance corporation acts that should have been illegal decades ago, and a brand new, unprecedented, and doomed to failure regressive tax law "requiring" the purchase of private health insurance. I put the requiring" in quotes, because as in the very last years of the Soviet Union (and other dying systems) what people in general and government officials in particular are "required" to do and what they actually do can be quite a bit different.
The New York Times Public Option Obituary
[The above was in response to this article.]
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