Inspire Political Discourse

Best Political Cartoon of the Week

Via Time Magazine

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Wellpoint Executive Pay Increases

Wellpoint. The company which garnered much attention during the fight for health care reform when they announced a double-digit increase in their rates earlier this year, has just announced huge increases in compensation to several Wellpoint executives, the CEO, Laura Braly, being the recipient of the largest increase. Braly's compensation went from  $8.7 million to $13.1 million in 2009, a jump of 51%.

Leighton Woodhouse, Political Director of Brave New Films:

It's all just a big misunderstanding, see. The problem is that all of us amateur, casual observers, with our pious concerns about "fairness" and "right and wrong," just don't understand the entirely rational and ultimately equitable dynamics of the free market system for labor compensation. Companies have to find and keep talented leaders, and if it takes $6.2 million in restricted stock, a $1.1 million salary increase, a $1.5 million performance bonus, $4 million in stock options and $292,036 in "other expenses" (including over $150,000 in "security-related improvements" to protect Angela Braly from us, the angry, overcharged, underinsured hordes) to retain a CEO who had the wisdom to force hundreds of thousands of Californians off the company's rolls or into bankruptcy-threatening situations in order to buoy WellPoint stock prices (which rose by close to 40% last year), then that's just how the free market works, which is nobody's fault, really, when you think about it.

Via HuffPost

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Trash Talking: the health care reform bill not as unpopular as you think

At least according to Ana Marie Cox at The Wire, and she makes a very good case for her position:

I was on the phone with a Republican staffer the other day, talking about the GOP's response to the passage of health care reform legislation. He said that his side was actually pleased, not because they like the bill, obviously, but because "the public will fight back in November. It's an enormously unpopular bill and the Democrats will suffer for having supported it."

But, I replied, what about the most recent polling? The USA Today poll, that showed 48 percent of respondents think of the bill as "a good first step"? Or the ABC/Washington Post poll that showed a more voters -- (40 percent) -- say that their representative's vote on the legislation will make "no difference" in who they support in the fall than say it will be a positive or a negative? Or the CBS poll that showed a five point bump in favor of the bill after passage? Or the second ABC/WP poll that showed that Congressional Democrats and Nancy Pelosi got steady in their approval ratings among after it passed?

Be sure to read the entire article.......there is much more to it than what I quoted, and it will help you to bolster your arguments with the naysayers/proponents of "I hate the bill so I'll claim that everyone else does too, and because of all this hate, Democrats are gonna lose big in the midterms".  Heh.

Daily Vid

Obama's "Yes we can!" as John Boehner says "Hell no you can't!".  A masterful video montage. Enjoy.

Insurance cartel agrees to close child coverage loophole

President Obama, a winner again. Bolding mine:

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the industry's top lobbyist said insurers will accept new regulations to dispel uncertainty over a much-publicized guarantee that children with medical problems can get coverage starting this year.

Quick resolution of the doubts was a win for Obama – and a sign that the industry has no stomach for another war of words with a president who deftly used double-digit rate hikes by the companies to revive his sweeping health care legislation from near collapse in Congress.

Now, anyone taking odds on how long it might be until the American people have a public option or single payer?

The health insurance cartel has been, very effectively, boxed. Further struggle will only hasten their demise.

Via HuffPost

Health Care Reform Progress

The Senate bill which is the base for health care reform passed the house on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

Today, the reconciliation bill passed the Senate, The Senate Parliamentarian claims that the Byrd rule was violated, and the bill now returns to the House for another vote.

UPDATE:
Last night, March 25, the House passed the reconciliation bill, and the long effort to enact health care reform is over. That is, excepting the improvements we intend to make over the next few years before the mandates kick in.

Obama tells Republicans to "go for it" on running on repeal

In Iowa today.

Frickin' hypocrites........

Frivolous lawsuits from the criers of "torte reform now"?  Of course. They can't resist the display of utterly useless hypocrisy.

Health care reform is a bfd....

via...

Turning back the Reagan legacy

As Obama tackles health care reform, he simultaneously strikes at wealth inequality.

In the U.S., we have been dogged by wealth inequality via redistribution, since the Reagan years. Hence the near demise of the middle class. Along comes Obama.

The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.

Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.[.....]

Former Bush Speechwriter, David Frum, on the Republican HCR Waterloo

George W. Bush's former speechwriter, David Frum, on the passage of the health care reform bill:

“Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

 

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections.

 

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

 

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

 

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours. [.....]

The Truth About the Uninsured and Emergency Room Services

The GOP likes to say that

In this country, the uninsured are covered by emergency room services.

This is only slightly truthful, and more false than it is true, with the actual truth being, of course,  far more complicated.

The uninsured are ONLY covered by ER care in so far as STABILIZATION. They do NOT receive one tiny bit more care than is necessary to STABLIZE the condition for which they sought care via the emergency room. The underlying condition is not treated.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES:

1.  Bob goes to the ER because he is having difficulty breathing. He also has lung cancer which is the underlying issue re his breathing difficulty. Bob is given a breathing treatment, and referred to an oncology specialist.

The oncology specialist will not see him because Bob has no insurance. Bob is relegated to dying of treatable lung cancer without even the ability to obtain the drugs needed to control his pain as he dies.

Bob is also billed an outrageous amount for this minimal care. It is certainly not given freely, and the hospital will SUE Bob or his family if it is not paid.

THIS is what happens to the uninsured.

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In the emergency room, the uninsured are ONLY TREATED FOR STABILIZATION, NOT FOR THE UNDERLYING CONDITION.

2. Mary has an asthma attack, goes to the ER where she is stabilized, and sent home within a couple of hours with 3 prescriptions.
Without prescription coverage, the cost of these 3 common prescriptions is $442 for a one-month supply, and Mary has to make the decision between the drugs and food because she is on a fixed income. .
Mary is subsequently billed by the hospital for $1800, which she also can not afford.

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3.  Tom-- a twenty year old college student who was covered under his step-father's insurance plan until his step-dad divorced Tom's mom. He now has no insurance, and can not currently work because of what turns out to be a herniated disc in his spine.

He lives with constant pain, and does not go to the doctor because of an inability to pay.

One evening, unable to tolerate the worsening pain, he begs his mother to take him to the hospital.
He is examined, and told he must see a specialist, and undergo an MRI. He receives a couple of Vicodin for pain, and a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, as well as Vicodin. .

His mom fills the prescriptions for him, but they can not find a specialist who will work with him because he has no insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, the hospital bills him for the visit at the rate of $4000. He can't pay it, it is sent to a collection agency and his credit is ruined at the age of 20.

THIS is the reality of the uninsured.

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AMERICA is the ONLY COUNTRY IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD that does NOT TAKE CARE OF ITS CITIZENS.

TEXT-TRANSCRIPT: PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEECH TO CONGRESS ON HEALTHCARE REFORM SEPT. 9, 2009

Click here to watch the video.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:
“Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, and the American people:

When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on the verge of collapse.

As any American who is still looking for work or a way to pay their bills will tell you, we are by no means out of the woods. A full and vibrant recovery is many months away. And I will not let up until those Americans who seek jobs can find them; until those businesses that seek capital and credit can thrive; until all responsible homeowners can stay in their homes. That is our ultimate goal. But thanks to the bold and decisive action we have taken since January, I can stand here with confidence and say that we have pulled this economy back from the brink.

VIDEO : PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEECH TO CONGRESS ON HEALTHCARE REFORM SEPT. 9, 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Click here to read the transcript.

Keith Olbermann to Sarah Palin on Her Imaginary "Death Panels"

I just listened to this episode of Countdown, with Keith Olbermann. Two of the people Olbermann focuses on here are Sarah Palin and her inspired claims of "death panels", and Glenn Beck. Both are, in my view, among the most disgusting human beings I can imagine, and Olbermann speaks out for those of us who are bloody damn TIRED of the right wing's racist, fear mongering, violent, ignorant and un-American rhetoric.

 

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sarah Palin: the Utterly Predictable LIAR

The woman never ceases to amaze. Her complete audacity, her attempts to manipulate the public with outright lies, is enough to make one want to gag. Or better still, send her to a gulag (only partly joking).

Horrid, unintelligent woman that she is, she is inciting public fear yet again, via her publication of the following statement on her Facebook account:

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

A complete fabrication by Palin, it is a quite horrific lie, it's intention being to fear monger in the short term, and defeat Obama in the long term, which to Palin, is 2012.

Rated "Pants on Fire" by Politifact.com, they had this to say:

“We agree with Palin that such a system would be evil. But it's definitely not what President Barack Obama or any other Democrat has proposed.

We have read all 1,000-plus pages of the Democratic bill and examined versions in various committees. There is no panel in any version of the health care bills in Congress that judges a person's "level of productivity in society" to determine whether they are "worthy" of health care.

Palin's claim sounds a little like another statement making the rounds, which says that health care reform would mandate counseling for seniors on how to end their lives sooner. We rated this claim Pants on Fire! The truth is that the health bill allows Medicare, for the first time, to pay for doctors' appointments for patients to discuss living wills and other end-of-life issues with their physicians. These types of appointments are completely optional, and AARP supports the measure.”

Sarah Palin is a fear-mongering, self-centered politician, and we really would benefit immensely if we could ban her lying derriere from the national political debate. For the truth about the healthcare related distortions currently making the rounds, check out Politifact's Guide.

VIDEO: President Obama’s Speech on the Economy at Georgetown University, April 14, 2009

You can read the transcript of President Obama’s speech here.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Full Transcript: President Obama’s Speech on the Economy at Georgetown University, April 14, 2009

If you’re looking for the video of the speech, click here.

President Obama's Full Remarks As Prepared for Delivery:

It has now been twelve weeks since my administration began. And I think even our critics would agree that at the very least, we've been busy. In just under three months, we have responded to an extraordinary set of economic challenges with extraordinary action - action that has been unprecedented in both its scale and its speed.

Sebelius Faces Strong Oppostion From Anti-Abortion Groups

:: President Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), faces tough opposition from anti-abortion forces. 

From The Hill:

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins called Sebelius an "extremely pro-abortion" pick to head HHS.

Patrick Mahoney, executive director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said within an hour of the news of Sebelius' nomination on Saturday night, he had been in touch with many social conservatives about formulating a strategy to oppose the nomination. One facet of that strategy will be to hold a news conference this week, he said.

Like several other Catholic Democratic politicians, Sebelius has come under fire from Church officials who say she should repudiate her pro-abortion rights positions. In 2006, Joseph Neumann, the archbishop of Kansas City, said Sebelius should refrain from receiving communion until she changed her views.

AP photo.
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Full Transcript: President Obama's Speech to Congress - February 24, 2009

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Address to Joint Session of Congress
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
To view the video, click here.

“Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, and the first lady of the United States.

I have come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.