Bernie and Pete: Where We Go From Here

Bernie Sanders denounces the looming healthcare disaster caused by Trump's "big, beautiful bill":

Pete Buttigieg is rocking the beard and stache, with a message of hope for all Americans:

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CBO Report: 52 Million Uninsured by 2026

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The Congressional Budget Office today released its estimate of the effects of the assoholic Republican healthcare plan: 14 million Americans would lose their health insurance in the coming year, leading to 52 million being uninsured by 2026, the Washington Post reports.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) responded to the report:




Ezra Klein in Vox, excerpt:

The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the GOP’s American Health Care Act is one of the most singularly devastating documents I’ve seen in American politics. For a thorough explanation of the findings, read Sarah Kliff’s explainer. But here is the one-sentence summary: Under the GOP’s bill, the more help you need, the less you get.

The AHCA would increase the uninsured population by about 24 million people — which is more people than live in New York state. But the raw numbers obscure the cruelty of the choices. The policy is particularly bad for the old, the sick, and the poor. It is particularly good for the rich, the young, and the healthy.

Here, in short, is what the AHCA does. The bill guts Medicaid, halves the value of Obamacare’s insurance subsidies, and allows insurers to charge older Americans 500 percent more than they charge young Americans.

Then it takes the subsidies that are left and reworks them to be worth less to the poor and the old, takes the insurers that are left and lets them change their plans to cover fewer medical expenses for the sick, and rewrites the tax code to offer hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich. As Dylan Matthews writes, it is an act of class warfare by the rich against the poor.

The result isn’t just 24 million fewer people with insurance: Of those who remain insured, the pool is tilted toward younger, healthier people who need help less, because many of the older, poorer people who need the most help can no longer afford insurance. As German Lopez notes, a 64-year-old making $26,500 would see his premiums rise by 750 percent. 750 percent! And with that 64-year-old gone, premiums are a little bit lower, because the pool is a little bit younger.

Let’s break that down. According to the CBO, the lower premiums Ryan celebrates (which are, mind you, only 10 percent lower after 10 years — and that’s after rising initially) are largely the product of driving older people out of the market and letting insurers offer plans that cover fewer medical expenses and require more out-of-pocket spending. This is not “lower premiums” as most Americans understand the term. . . .

But this is not fine. It is not decent, it is not compassionate, and it is not what Republicans promised. It is a betrayal of Donald Trump’s vow to protect Medicaid from cuts and to pass a health care bill that covers everyone with insurance that has lower deductibles and better coverage. It is a betrayal of Ryan’s promise to give Americans more choices — as it is only when you can afford insurance that you truly have the choice of which plan to buy. It is a betrayal of the older, rural voters who put Republicans in office and who will pay the most for heath insurance under this proposal.

The editorial board of USA Today writes:

The House GOP measure would greatly curtail the financial incentives for individuals to buy insurance on state exchanges while all but eliminating the penalties for not doing so. It would also scale back on Medicaid, the principal form of insurance for those on the bottom rungs of the income ladder.

The result would be bleak, if not horrific. One out of every 14 Americans who now has insurance would lose it over the next decade. The government's red ink would be reduced by $337 billion in the same period, but that would come largely by cutting assistance to poorer people while offering a whopping tax cut for families making more than $250,000 a year.

Given the CBO "scoring" of their bill, House Republicans ought to start over on their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Better yet, they should look for ways to retain and repair the current law. Instead, their initial reaction was to to blame the messenger by bad-mouthing the CBO.

Rep. David Brat, R-Va., for example, claimed that “the CBO has scored everything wrong, forever.” Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said "we disagree strenuously" and the CBO estimate is "just not believable."

Estimating the impact over time of any legislation is a Herculean task that does not always lend itself to perfect accuracy. But the CBO has long had a better track record than the Office of Management and Budget, which is under the control of the White House.

Republicans have traditionally been more supportive of the CBO, using it to counter more rosy estimates made by the Clinton and Obama administrations. What's more, when Republicans took control of both chamber of Congress in 2015, they dumped the longtime and well-respected director of the CBO, Douglas Elmendorf, and replaced him with Keith Hall, a proponent of "dynamic" scoring methods that generally see GOP proposals in a more favorable light.

Attacking the CBO now will only strengthen the argument that President Trump and his backers on Capitol Hill live in a world of alternative facts and relative truths. A superior approach would be to come up with a way to actually improve the nation’s health care system.

FYI, last week CNN reported the salaries of the top executives in the health insurance industry:

Aetna (AET) CEO Mark Bertolini received $17.3 million in 2015, the most recent year for which compensation has been reported. Cigna CEO David Cordani made the same amount. UnitedHealth (UNH) CEO Stephen Hemsley had total compensation of $14.5 million, while Anthem (ANTM) CEO Joseph Swedish received $13.6 million. Humana CEO Bruce Broussard received $10.3 million.

This is so wrong.

Health Insurance Is Not a Product

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An excerpt from a piece by Egberto Willies in Daily Kos:

One of the biggest problems with health insurance is that we allow Republicans to treat it as if it is a consumer product.

It is not.

Republicans love to talk about leaving health insurance to market forces. Their ideological blindness and callousness leads them to believe that what is good for a capitalist market is always right for the individuals it purports to serve. The reality is that we have made the capital markets our religion, as opposed to treating it as a tool that can make life better for us all.

A company does not sell a product that is not profitable. The fiduciary responsibility of a business in a capitalist market is to its shareholders, not the customer. The client is nothing more than a means to transfer wealth to the shareholder and the executives running the business.

A company cannot make a profit on an unaffordable product. Prices must rise or costs of manufacturing the product must go down, or the product will cease to exist. That’s what is happening to health insurance under Obamacare. Some insurance companies raised their prices, while some just abandoned the health insurance 'product.' Because proper regulations were finally in place, they could not make the product less expensive. In other words, Obamacare did not allow health insurance companies to sell their customers a crappy insurance policy.

Republicans argue that it is a lack of choice that allows these businesses to charge exorbitant premiums. They claim it is overregulation that causes health insurance companies to have to provide services people don't necessarily want. They say that disallowing interstate health insurance purchase reduces competition and competitive pricing.

There is some truth in those statements—but that’s only because as long as health insurance is seen as a product, that abridgment of market forces is detrimental to the company's bottom line, and also to insurance pricing for Americans. . . .

Here is the reality: We do not decide when we get sick. When we get sick, we cannot just shop around for the hospital and doctor that will provide the best price to treat a disease we do not yet know we have. Sickness does not know our socioeconomic condition, so having a ‘choice’ to purchase a plan we can afford means we get wealth-based health care.

Health insurance is not a product. Selling it that way is immoral, un-American, and downright evil.

What I Say: Your Head Trucker, who has endured a great deal of poverty in his life, and watched his loved ones suffer and die with precious little help from the free-market system, believes in a much-expanded and much-improved Medicare for All - by which I mean, a single-payer system, which could be funded and provided by various means, but which would automatically cover every resident of the United States from cradle to grave without limitations, exclusions, or premium payments. Ideally, it should be free at the point of access, though I could support a sliding scale for nominal co-payments, based on income.  Anything less is inexcusable and immoral in this, the richest nation on the face of the earth.

All medically necessary care and services, including preventive exams and treatments, physical therapy, mental health services, prescription drugs, and appliances, as well as hospital and residential care, would be provided under a nationally determined list of allowable benefits to patients. Doctors, clinics, and hospitals could be either government employees or private providers who agree to accept the standard compensation for services. Patients would not be involved in the billing process at all.

The whole program would be funded either out of general taxation, or with the help of a nominal withholding tax on wages. But everyone young and old would be fully covered at all times, regardless of whether they were employed or not.  Private insurers would be forbidden from competing with Medicare on any benefits covered by the national program.

The ultra-rich - like snooty rich-kid pig Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) - who can't bear to sit in ordinary waiting rooms with the commonality could use their gold-plated private doctors and hospitals, who could charge whatever the fat-cat market would bear - but they could not also receive any payments from Medicare.

Or maybe there's a better way than all that to cover everyone - I am no financier, but I do believe in the three principles upon which Britain's National Health Service was founded:

• That it meet the needs of everyone
• That it be free at the point of delivery
• That it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay

I see that the total expenditure from all sources on healthcare in the United States in 2015 was $3.2 trillion.  (For comparison, the total annual payroll in the United States, including government employees, was $5.9 trillion in 2014; and total federal spending in 2015 was $3.7 trillion.)  That's a lot of money, but I'll wager at least half of it is wasted on insurance middlemen and their bulging profits, not to mention mindless paperwork and the utterly needless drug advertisements that flood the airwaves and Internet night and day. All other developed countries spend much less per capita on healthcare than the U.S. does, and get better outcomes, too:

Click to enlarge.

And then there is the combined $2.1 trillion net profits of American corporations the year 2015, which benefit immensely from our skilled, educated workforce, high-class infrastructure, and natural resources - your Head Trucker thinks that instead of paying fantastic salaries and bonuses to the execs, the big companies should be doing some substantial good for the general public.

Chart from Statista.com; click to enlarge.

USA Today reported that just 28 big firms, or 6 percent of the total, made fifty percent of those profits in 2015.

I don't know for sure the best way to finance universal coverage, but what I do know is that there is plenty of money circulating around this old world, and the big-money boys in their gold-plated towers can always find a way to finance every whim and extravagance and obscene profit they want, and the public be damned - so they can sure can sure as hell figure out a way to finance Medicare for All if they are made to, and if they don't - may God reward them as He did Dives.

It's instructive to check out this comparison of various national healthcare systems from Wikipedia, with links to many other sources of information. Also enlightening is this comparison of U.S. and Canadian healthcare systems.

Physicians for a National Health Program has a proposal for a single-payer system that seems well thought out to your Head Trucker.

Millions Flee Obamacare

As everyone knows, Obamacare starts open enrollment today, and House Assholes Republicans were unable to force its postponement in last-minute voting overnight. Consequently, the Interstates are jammed all across America today as tearful, angry, bewildered Tea Partiers desperately seek an escape route. Staff humorist Andy Borowitz reports on the wild scenes playing out across the country in the New Yorker - a must read:

Millions Flee Obamacare

Meanwhile, all you liberal sheeple, as we are so graciously known by the demented lemmings on the Right, can go enroll in a low-cost health care plan at HealthCare.gov right now - no matter where you live in the country. Even if your state has officially rejected Obamacare and all that goes with it, you can still get coverage. Even if, like me, you live in Bumfuck, Texas.

Horrifying, isn't it?

Related news: In his inimitable way, Jon Stuart skewers and roasts the intransigent Republicans who have now forced the federal government to shut down, with about a million employees out of work immediately, with no pay, and at a cost to the economy of billions of dollars in suspended government services.

I can't get the episode to embed properly, but go watch it here.

I say kudos to the President and the Democratic leadership for having the balls to stand up to the sorry bastards. We saw in the debt-ceiling crisis of 2011 that playing Mr. Nice Guy just doesn't work with these thugs. The one-year Obamacare delay is just a ruse - they will keep postponing every year from now till Kingdom Come if they get away with it this time.

Oh but don't worry - all your Congresspeeps continue to get paid their $174,000 annual salaries right on schedule, of course. And enjoy full coverage of their platinum-plated government-sponsored health care plans - totally free of charge.

What's wrong with this fucking picture?

Get Ready for Obamacare

A friendly little presentation about our soon-to-be wonderful new nationwide healthcare program half-hearted attempt at national health insurance - not even close to what it should be, but at least it's a start. Maybe in another generation or so, we'll catch up with Canada and the rest of the civilized world. I hope.

You Can Help

In this iconic photo of Monday's tragedy,
bystanders rush the injured Bauman, seated in a wheelchair, towards
medical help at the scene of the bombing.  Both of Jeff's legs were later
amputated below the knee.

Jeff Bauman, 27, whose legs were torn off in the Boston Marthon bombing last Monday, and who from his hospital bed gave investigators the first eyewitness description of the bombers, faces enormous medical bills as he recoveries from his injuries.  Friends have set up a Bucks for Bauman account in his name, with a goal of raising $1 million to ensure that Jeff gets all the care he needs without the burden of the expenses:  as a part-time worker at Costco, Jeff could not afford medical insurance.  You can donate as much or as little as you please here.

In addition, last week Governor Duval and Mayor Menino established The One Fund Boston to assist all the victims of the attacks.  [Update, 4/25:  more than 250 have been identified now.]  More info and a donation link to that fund here.

It goes without saying that the need to raise money to pay for victims' medical bills and rehabilitation even in Massachusetts, with its groundbreaking statewide health insurance coverage, aka Romneycare, says a lot about the failure of our society to provide for the most basic needs of its citizens.

Your Head Trucker fiercely believes that all healthcare should be free at the point of delivery and available to every man, woman, and child in the country, regardless of employment or income, no questions asked.  The ways and means are negotiable, but it must be done.

American Sadists

Poet and essayist Charles Simic in the New York Review of Books:

In the past, even the most venal among our politicians would now and then show that they have hearts. No more. Now that money rules politics more than ever before and those for whom private gain outweighs public good every time fill the coffers of both political parties, any mention of the plight of the sick, the homeless, and the old borders on political suicide. Polls show that most Americans do not quite share the callousness of our political class to the suffering of the less fortunate members of our society. But some do. We all remember, I hope, the cheers that went up in the audience during the GOP’s presidential debate last spring in Tampa when Ron Paul, the libertarian candidate and former doctor, stated that he would let an uninsured man lying in a coma die without lifting a finger. “That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risk,” he said. “This whole idea that you have to compare and take care of everybody…” at which point, a few members of the audience shouted “Yeah,” cutting off the congressman in mid-sentence.

This is the new face of American sadism: the unconcealed burst of joy at the thought that pain is going to be inflicted on someone weak and helpless. Its viciousness, I believe, is symptomatic of the way our society is changing. Everything from the healthcare industry, payday loans, and for-profit prisons to the trading in so-called derivatives, privatization of public education, outsourcing of jobs, war profiteering, and hundreds of other ongoing rackets all have that same predatory quality. It’s as if this were not their own country, but some place they’ve invaded in order to loot its wealth and fleece its population without caring what happens to that population tomorrow. The only interest these profit-seekers have in us is as cheap labor, cannon fodder for wars, and suckers to be parted with our money. If we ever have a police state here, I’ve been thinking, it won’t be because we’ve become fascists overnight, but because rounding up people and locking them up will be seen as just another way to get rich. If the hell that Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan divines described in such gruesome and graphic detail is still up and running, I hope that’s where many of them are headed for.

See also the latest charts and current concerns at the Washington Post: "Obamacare's Five Biggest Challenges."

Why American Health Care Co$$$ts So Much

There's a documentary on this topic airing tonight on PBS, if any of you fellas want to see it.  Here's a trailer:

Watch Documentary: Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Still a BFD

In the wake of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that saved "Obamacare" from extinction, the Obama re-election campaign is now selling t-shirts that recall Vice-President Joe Biden's overheard remark at the signing of the law, back in 2010. A bit crude, perhaps, but for this profane day and time hardly outrageous, and very humorous:

Meanwhile, rightwingers have barely been able to catch their breath after the unexpected rescue of the healthcare law, sputtering and twitching and burbling incoherently.  A number of them, including the unhinged Glenn Beck, are openly suggesting that Chief Justice Roberts - once the idol of the rightwingers - is mentally ill, or morally deficient, or both, and thus his ruling has no validity whatsoever.  As witness this t-shirt Beck is offering to his tea-party minions:

So much for his patriotism and respect for our Constitutional system. But guys, you need to appreciate that it's not merely backwoods Baptists calling into question the validity of the ruling: all sorts of urbane, highly-educated, well-connected types are frothing at the mouth now, muttering about "constutional malpractice" and such. Go take a look at some of the opinion pieces at the Wall Street Journal site to get the flavor of the diehard rightwing views of the profiteering class.

On the other side of the fence, the New Yorker now has a collection of excellent articles and reactions to the Supreme Court's ruling. In particular, I like the article about the unsung hero in all this: the tough-as-nails Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom no one can accuse of not having a sharp legal mind and respect for the Constitution.

As an aside - your Head Trucker may be just an ol' country boy stuck way to hell out in BFE, but it warms the cockles of his heart to see that a writer for a high-class mag like the New Yorker agrees exactly with something I told you boys on Thursday:

“This is a toe hold,” Hertzberg, looking further into the future, says. “In one way, the most important thing about this is that it establishes the idea, if not the reality, that health insurance and health care should be universal . . . . This is the beginning of what’s going to be a long struggle."

BTW, it's very telling, isn't it, that all of the women Justices voted to keep the law. As I heard someone say in a news clip the other day, maybe Nancy Pelosi, "Now, being a woman will no longer be a 'pre-existing condition.'" Check. If the Congress and the Supreme Court were more than fifty percent women, we would have had universal healthcare in this country a hundred years ago, I guaran-damn-tee you, boys.

There's nothing evil per se in being a wealthy, straight white man. There is something very wrong, however, with a world that is set up to cater to their wishes and wants alone. Slowly, slowly that old world is passing away, and a new world of true justice and equality for all is being born.

Though the drawn-out labor sure does work my nerves.

Healthcare Ruling: Reax

The President, on the most important Supreme Court ruling in a generation:



Full text here.


House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), with a sweet remembrance of Senator Ted Kennedy, who until his death in 2009 worked tirelessly for many years for a national healthcare act:




Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act on his first day in the White House, if elected:



House Republicans have already scheduled a repeal vote for July 11. But in a delicious irony, Justice Ginsburg in her concurring opinion cited Mitt's great legacy as Governor of Massacusetts - what pundits call "Romneycare," which Mitt two-facedly disowns now - as a great success that Congress used as a model for the national law.


Some rich-bitch soccer mom in Alaska:

@SarahPalinUSA: Obama lied to the American people. Again. He said it wasn't a tax. Obama lies; freedom dies.

BONUS: Today's funniest headline:

Republicans say they're moving to Canada due to health care decision

Funniest photo of the day, from Reddit via Andrew Sullivan:

The Impossible Dream?

As we await the Supreme Court's judgment on the Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare," this morning at 9 o'clock Texas time, your Head Trucker is filled with pessimism. I very much fear that the justices will eviscerate the law, which means the cruel, obscene lack of universal healthcare in this country will go on, perhaps for decades longer. And all because of the wicked, coldhearted opposition of the thieving, lying, greedy Republicans and their bloodsucking determination to make billions in profits out of human need and suffering.

For a full century now, ever since Teddy Roosevelt called for a national insurance plan in his 1912 "Bull Moose" campaign, the dark, cunning powers of the wealthy and the hypocritical have kept strangling this idea at birth, an idea that should be a vibrant reality, and the birthright of every American, indeed of every human being the world over. FDR, Truman, JFK, Clinton, even Nixon, for God's sake, have all tried to bring this to fruition, but all were rebuffed by the reactionary opposition of the profit-mongers.

With these thoughts in mind, I have turned my gaze once more to Canada, where is displayed what should be here in our own country: a humane, effective, and much-loved system of universal health insurance that covers all regardless of ability to pay. This little video made in 2009 is just one of many available on YouTube that illustrate the Canadian system; I share this one with you all because it makes the point so simply and so well that it brings a tear to my eye - perhaps when you watch it, you will understand why.



Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo writes this morning:

The fact that the Court might completely void the law is the consequence of an extremely esoteric oversight. The challengers’ case rests on a legal theory hatched explicitly to achieve a political end. That’s why most Constitutional scholars continue to believe the case for the law is strong, even if its legal chances have dimmed over the past several months. And that’s the reason why it would be extraordinary and condemnable if the Court throws the whole thing out anyhow.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said yesterday, "If the court does not strike down the entire law, the House will move to repeal what's left of it."

One small glimmer of hope in the gathering gloom, though: some think that if the mandate is struck down, it would in fact pave the way for a single-payer system nationwide.

And Ted Frier in Salon offers an instructive insight into the current Supreme Court, which for the first time in history counts not a single Protestant among its members, who include the buffoonish, openly partisan Justice Scalia:

I'm convinced Scalia would like to see the country governed just like the Catholic Church of his pre-Vatican II dreams while he and the bishops win back the faith and trust of followers through brute force and intimidation and showing the unlettered masses who's boss.

I've long maintained that one cannot understand the behavior of the current conservative Court majority without also appreciating its affinity for a traditional hierarchy that is an indelible hallmark of the autocratic Catholicism to which all five members of this right wing majority are devoted.

Both the Catholic bishops and the conservative Catholic members of the Court, after all, are attempting to resuscitate a discredited and disgraced elite and restore it to power. . . .

See also this interactive guide from the Washington Post on how today's ruling, whatever it is, will affect you.

BREAKING: Live from ScotusBlog at 10:13 a.m., Washington time:

The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government's power to terminate states' Medicaid funds is narrowly read.

Apparently a 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative Republican and Bush appointee, uncharacteristically voting with the left of the court. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

10:20 a.m.: Justice Kennedy, the swing voter who often sides with the liberal wing of the court on social issues, surprisingly joined the conservative justices in voting against the law. The majority, however, held that the individual mandate is a tax, and thus well within the constitutional authority of Congress to impose on citizens.

10:28 a.m.: Justice Kennedy, writing for the dissenting minority, says, "In our view, the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety." So God bless the Chief Justice, who either has an actual heart, or at least an eye to the history books.

Your Head Trucker cries Shame! Shame! Shame! and every condign imprecation upon on the heads of the four dissenting justices, whose names will most certainly be engraved in infamy.

10:35: So the entire ACA is held to be consitutional indeed, and the only penalty for an individual who doesn't obey the mandate to purchase insurance is a penalty that you have to pay when you file your income tax - I think it's $695, which is less than many people get back every year from the IRS. So a damn good win for the side of the angels.

10:38: The full text of the healthcare decision is now online.

10:45: It occurs to your Head Trucker that this decision makes Obama's victory in November much more likely now. If you doubt that, just consider what his position would have been had the Court thrown out the law that he staked so much of his prestige on. I'll bet his balls are clanking at every step he takes now.

If only the meek, mild, nicey-nice Democrats in Congress will now go out and pound the stumps and stir up some fucking enthusiasm before voting day!

10:59: The Court has now recessed until October 1, and the decision goes into the history books, allowing the life of the Republic to continue trudging along, as it so often as, sometimes slipping, sliding, or stumbling, but somehow in the long run always onward and upward toward a more perfect union.

Though many improvements remain to be made in our healthcare system and how it is funded, at least from this moment on, no longer will healthcare be the privilege of the wealthy and the well-off and the well-connected. From today forward, it will be considered not merely the privilege, but the inalienable right of every citizen - even if the Court has not used that language in today's ruling. From henceforth, universal healthcare will be regarded as the birthright of every American, rich or poor, high or low. It may yet take awhile for this realization to dawn in every mind, in every heart, but dawn it will, and that right soon, I have no doubt.

And I thank God for that.

The Supreme Court

À Votre Santé

Why the World Health Organization has dubbed the French healthcare system the best in the world.  Works for me.



Candidate Obama praised the French system too.  Oh but will we ever see any real reform here?

Rachel: What Just Happened

The monumental significance of the healthcare victory is still slowly sinking in with me.  Rachel deftly spells it out and sums it up in this report:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Newsbites

Well now that the BFD of healthcare reform is finally almost sorta kinda over - the Senate had to do some last-minute tweaks on the bill and sent it back to the House today for final approval, which makes me wonder how the President could sign something on Tuesday that wasn't absolutely final, but - well, here are a few other stories that have caught my eye in the last few days that I haven't had time to comment on, thought I'd post them for your information.

--Pentagon Relaxes DADT - making it a little harder for the military to boot people out based on third-party outings.



--Pope Should Resign - so says Andrew Sullivan, a devout Catholic, in light of the deepening crisis over Benedict's role in covering up sexual abuse scandals in Germany and the United States, including a case where one priest allegedly molested 200 deaf boys at a Wisconsin school.



--National party identification, registered voters and likely voters only, at this point in time:



All adults:



State of the Country, all adults:



--Legal Pot?  Come November, California voters will get a chance to legalize marijuana in that state, and not just for medical purposes - no doubt while still looking down their noses at us lowly but perfectly legal tobacco smokers.  Marijuana, of course, is as harmless as sugar candy, and doesn't rot your teeth.  Right . . . .

--Ten Democrats Attacked - Capitol Hill police are dealing with reports of bricks and bullets through office windows, vandalism, and in one case, a cut propane gas line.  CS Monitor:

Complicating matters for Republicans is the rhetoric of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), a favorite of tea partyers. On a Twitter feed Tuesday, Ms. Palin called on conservatives not to retreat, but to “RELOAD!” On her Facebook page, she posted a US map with cross-hair targets on the states where she plans to campaign against Democrats who voted for healthcare reform.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona defended Palin, his running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign, saying that such “battleground” language is typical for political campaigns.

Palin, BTW, has just signed a deal for her new reality TV show on TLC, asking $1+ million per episode.  Ah, no wonder she gave up that crappy little lowlife job as, um, what was it?  Oh yeah, Governor of Alaska.  Sales of her book, Going Rogue, are already up to $7 million, and she signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Fox News a while back too.

And here I worked my ass off all these years, slaving away through college and dead-end jobs and poverty and all sorts of difficulties, and still have very damn little to show for all that honest work - and may still be a homeless man in retirement.  I don't care what you say, boys - brazen, busty, and dumb always wins the pot hands down, always has, always will.

--And finally:  Texas Christians outraged over "Gay Jesus" play - big-ass uproar in Stephenville at the Tarleton State campus over a student workshop production of Terrence McNally's 1998 passion play, Corpus Christi, depicting Jesus and the apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas.  Local Bible-thumpers say it demeans Christianity to portray Jesus as a gay man.  Video report here.

I never heard of the play before, but I sure would like to see it now.  From the 1998 production:

Honks to Andrew Sullivan and Joe.My.God. for some of these stories/images.

Update:  9:08 p.m., Texas time:  the House just passed the reconciliation bill, 220-207, so now the healthcare reform fight is really over.  And with this week's victory, the President's balls are starting to clank a little - good for him:

BFD: Healthcare Reform Signed into Law

President Obama signed the health insurance reform bill into law yesterday in the East Room of the White House.   "I'm signing this reform bill into law on behalf of my mother," he said, "who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days."  Transcript here.



And it's a Big Fucking Deal.  So said no less than Joe Biden, the Vice-President of the United States.  On live nationwide television, sort of.

And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted shortly thereafter:  "And yes, Mr. Vice-President, you're right."

Be prepared for an unceasing campaign by the Republicans to repeal the law, at least from now till the November elections. 

From the L.A. Times, a map of how the House voted on Sunday:

Click to enlarge.

And FYI:  the Wikipedia article on the legislation provides an overview and many helpful links.

Rube Goldberg Would Be Proud

The L.A. Times explains the nuts and bolts of healthcare reform and how it will affect you.  As I said in my last post, it's a mishmash of provisions no ordinary person would ever dream up, and few ordinary persons can see any sense to.  If you are poor or unemployed, and single - you are still screwed under this plan, basically, as I see it.

Sigh.  But as I also said - after a century of trying, it's a start.


Honk to Inverse Square for the illustration.


Update:  President Obama's remarks last night after the House vote:




Bonus:  Charts from the LAT and the NYT show how the plan will affect you.

House Passes Healthcare Reform

By 219 votes to 212, and not a single Republican vote among them.  NYT:

Never in modern memory has a major piece of legislation passed without a single Republican vote. Even President Lyndon B. Johnson got just shy of half of Republicans in the House to vote for Medicare in 1965, a piece of legislation that was denounced with many of the same words used to oppose this one. That may be the true measure of how much has changed in Washington in the ensuing 45 years, and how Mr. Obama’s own strategy is changing with the discovery that the approach to governing he had in mind simply will not work. . . .  In 1966, celebrating the creation of the first Medicare rolls that covered 20 million Americans, President Johnson recalled the complaints three decades earlier that Social Security “would destroy this country,” and noted “there is not one out of 100 who would think of repealing it.” . . .

Mr. Obama’s gamble is that what worked for Johnson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt will ultimately work for him. Once Americans discover that they can no longer be rejected for insurance for pre-existing conditions, he is betting, or that they can keep their children on their own insurance plans longer, the more they will come to appreciate the effect of the changes on their day-to-day lives.

L.A. Times:

The House vote Sunday to send a comprehensive healthcare reform bill to President Obama's desk put the United States on a path toward universal health insurance, a goal that had eluded reformers since then-presidential candidate Teddy Roosevelt called for all workers to have coverage in 1912. It may prove to be the signal accomplishment of Obama's administration, even though the controversy surrounding it threatens to end his party's majority in Congress. Rarely has such a good thing for Americans been perceived by so many as a threat to their livelihood and liberty.

There's wide agreement in the healthcare industry and across the political spectrum that the system is in dire need of repair. But while liberals called for government to eliminate the insurance middleman and act as the single source of coverage, conservatives sought to reduce the government's presence in the market and give consumers more responsibility.

The measure that emerged from the Senate, HR 3590, pursues a course between those two extremes. It augments the existing system with a new marketplace for individuals and small groups to shop for insurance, a mandate that everyone buy coverage, insurance subsidies for the working class and rules limiting insurers' freedom to design, price and market their policies. It won't bring coverage to everyone -- the Congressional Budget Office estimated that HR 3590 would leave about 6% of Americans uninsured in 10 years. But that's a significant improvement over the situation today, when an estimated 17% have no insurance and thousands lose their coverage daily.

Well, finally a victory after a hundred years of struggle on this issue:  Obama has done what FDR, Truman, Nixon, and Clinton could not.  For an enlightening history of the long, drawn-out fight for healthcare reform, see this excellent summary (PDF) by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

What this bill ended up being is a mishmash and doesn't go nearly far enough in my opinion; I would like to see a single-payer nationwide system, which this is not.  But at least, thank God, it's a start on something that could eventually be a decent program.

If the fascist fundamentalist know-nothing crowd doesn't overthrow the government, that is.  Note this very interesting map I swiped from Sullivan's blog, and the overwhelming Baptist population of my tragic, benighted Southern homeland:  notice that the green area is practically identical with the boundaries of the Confederacy, even 150 years later.  Nothing wrong with being a Baptist per se, but so very often that kind of believing is allied with ignorance, arrogance, and a hatred of everything and everyone who isn't a straight white Bible-believing Anglo-Saxon Republican.  And then there are plenty of people in this region who never show up in church and don't much miss it, but still retain the prejudices of the culture they grew up in.

Compare that with the NYT's interactive map of the geography of tonight's House vote here.

Obama's Last Stand

Seems like the President is finally taking the gloves off over healthcare reform, and it's about damn time if you ask me.  Kenneth T. Walsh reports in U.S. News and World Report:

President Obama has begun his last stand on healthcare. "Every idea has been put on the table," he said last week. "Every argument has been made. Everything to say about healthcare has been said, and just about everybody has said it. I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on healthcare reform."

Obama has taken a year to reach this point. He has long argued that without massive change, the public will face higher premiums, the government will amass more debt, and tens of millions of Americans won't have any health insurance at all. What is new, White House officials say, is the president's acknowledgment that he needs to get a bill passed now or nothing will be done anytime soon. He also has accepted the idea that there probably will be no Republican support so he will have to win passage with only Democratic votes. . . .

"The United States Congress owes the American people a final up or down vote on healthcare," he said. "It's time to make a decision. The time for talk is over. We need to see where people stand. And we need all of you to help us win that vote. So I need you to knock on doors. Talk to you neighbors. Pick up the phone. When you hear an argument by the water cooler and somebody is saying this or that about it, say, 'No, no, no, no--hold on a second.' And we need you to make your voices heard all the way in Washington, D.C."

He added: "They need to hear your voices because right now the Washington echo chamber is in full throttle. It is as deafening as it's ever been. And as we come to that final vote, that echo chamber is telling members of Congress, wait, think about the politics instead of thinking about doing the right thing."

And in a speech at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania, the President ripped the insurance companies for being the greedy bloodsucking bastards they are - those are my words, here are Obama's:

"Every year, insurance companies deny more people coverage because they have a preexisting condition. Every year, they drop more people's coverage when they're sick and need it most. Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher."

"These insurance companies have made a calculation," Obama said. "Listen to this, the other day, there was a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs; you know Goldman Sachs," he said to laughter.

He continued, "An insurance broker told Wall Street investors that insurance companies know they will lose customers if they keep raising premiums. But since there's so little competition in the insurance industry, they're okay with people being priced out of health insurance because they'll still make more by raising premiums on the customers they have. And they will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it."

In his remarks, Obama cited the move last month by Anthem Blue Cross in California to raise rates by nearly 40 percent. He also mentioned his home state of Illinois where, he said, rates are going up by as much as 60 percent.

"So how much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it? How many more Americans have to lose their health insurance?" Obama said. "How many more businesses have to drop coverage? How many more years can the federal budget handle the crushing costs of Medicare and Medicaid? When is the right time for health insurance reform?"

I well recall when my best friend Tommy was dying of AIDS back twenty years ago, and how he had to argue, beg, and plead with the insurance company over the phone from his hospital bed to please approve this drug or that procedure, every single new thing the doctor ordered: the insurance company put him through flaming hell at his weakest, most vulnerable time.

And I could go on to talk about other friends and relatives, but the bottom line is this: it's simply immoral to be making a profit out of people's illness and injuries, period. And all that has to stop. Now.

Motion and Intertia

In an interview on NBC, General Petraeus said he has served in combat with gay and lesbian fellow soldiers.  He also said "I'm not sure" that today's troops give a fuck about their comrades' sexuality.

Interesting comments.  We'll see how all that goes down when he and other top commanders testify before Congress.  Just don't expect this to be a short process:  the military is totally anal retentive methodical about everything it does, from ordering paper clips to building battleships.

But at least the process has started - finally.  And about damn time.

I didn't blog this last week, but guess you guys know that Lt. Dan Choi was called back to duty with his National Guard outfit; an unexpected and highly indicative turn of events, I think.

Now if only we could get some motion going on healthcare reform.  Why, with a Democrat majority in both houses of Congress, and a Democrat president, nothing - just nothing - can be accomplished on that is beyond my ability to comprehend.

You know if it were a Republican idea, and they had the majorities, you'd already have your Medicare ID card in your hand by now, don't you guys?

The State of the Union, 2010

9:24 p.m., Texas time: some reflections on what I particularly noted in the President's address to Congress, which he just concluded. The New York Times has the full text here; curiously enough, I couldn't find it at whitehouse.gov.

First of all, listening to him speak so honestly and directly, so clearly and rationally, well, I have to tell you, boys - I felt some of that thrill once more that I felt on Election Night, 2008, and on Inauguration Day last year.  And I thanked God once again that we have such a brilliant, eloquent, and thoroughly admirable man as our President; someone to be proud of, very proud, down the long annals of American history.

Now you fellas know I have at times been critical of Mr. Obama's words and deeds, or the lack thereof, in this past year, and I'll continue to criticize when and where I think it deserved.  But that's my privilege as an American, which I bought with my vote; and it's your privilege too, under a free government ruled by laws, not men.

Overall, I thought it was a very good speech; could have been a little more fiery, but the tone seemed noticeably more assertive than in some speeches.  A couple of deadpan-humor lines I appreciated:

To Congress, on working together:  "Let's use common sense.  A novel idea." 

Another laugh line, about the bank bailout:  "I hated it.  You hated it.  It was about as popular as a root canal."

After speaking about American efforts to help Haiti, and support people in other countries:  "America must always stand on the side of freedom and human dignity."

"We abide by the notion that all are created equal, no matter who you are or what you look like.  If you abide by the law, you should be protected by it.  If you adhere to our common values, you should be treated no different than anyone else."

"Our administration has had some setbacks in the past year, some of them deserved; but nothing compared to what many families are going through.  What keeps me going is knowing that the spirit of determination and optimism, the fundamental decency at the core of the American people lives on."

I especially like the vigor of his concluding words, delivered with some of that old fired-up, ready-to-go spirit he showed in the campaign:

"We have finished a difficult year.  We have come through a difficult decade.  But a new year has come.  A new decade stretches before us.  We don't quit.  I don't quit.  Let's seize this moment - to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more."

A couple of surprises, for me anyway:  he plans to get more nuclear plants built.  I know there's always a risk with that, but how else can we realistically meet the nation's energy needs?

And he wants legislation to forgive your student loans after 20 years, 10 if you go into some unspecified "public service" jobs; and he wants to end the privileged (or should I say bloodsucking) role of banks in giving student loans (I well remember the sons of bitches charged me 9 percent on mine) and to increase Pell Grants, which in my day were called Basic Grants; and increase every household's tax credit for college education:  "no one should go broke because they chose to go to college."  A-fucking-men to that. 

And of course I applauded when he said, "This year, I will work with Congress and the military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.  Because it's the right thing to do." 

Oh my God, I have lived to see this day:  not only did the President of the United States mention gay people in his State of the Union address, he also openly acknowledged their human worth as well as their patriotism.  You young'uns under 40 cannot know how thrilling, how deeply moving that is for us guys who vividly remember an America where the word "homosexual" was damn near unpronounceable - almost always spoken, if at all, in a low whisper by straight people:  an ugly, repellent, shameful thought.

As I quoted from Andrew Sullivan the other day, it behooves us even in the midst of our struggles for equal rights, always to be "insanely happy" that we are living at one of the rare periods in human history when being gay is not a ticket to the gallows or the stake.

But back to the President's address:  I was disappointed that he did not speak more forcefully about getting healthcare reform passed, specifically, though he did call for the parties to keep working to pass the legislation.  But I did appreciate very much his acknowledging that Americans are fed up with the totally irresponsible behavior of banks, corporations, the media, and Congress.  And I liked very much that he took both parties to task: 

To Democrats, I would remind you that we have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.

All I could think was, my God:  an adult in the house.  Finally.  A responsible parent.  Or at least, a fair but firm schoolmaster. 

Well, God bless him.  What a helluva tough job he has, made doubly or triply worse - as he reminded the audience - by the financial and military mess made by his predecessor.

And though I reserve the right to criticize, I did ask myself:  if it were me, standing at that podium in his place, just what in the world would I do, what could I do, that would be a bit better?

I had to admit - not a damn thing.  Because the task is beyond my powers and above my comprehension in many ways.

But I do believe Obama is up to the task.  Certainly much more, way much more than his predecessor, for which we can all thank God heartily.  Obama acknowledged tonight that he has made some mistakes in the past year, and no doubt, being human, he will make some more.

But fellas - when all is said and done, I still have hope for this country as long as Obama is in the White House.  And I am still so damn proud that this intelligent, moral, compassionate guy, this thoroughly decent man, is my President.

You should be too.