Comments on: Everybody who cares about the effort for Health Care Reform should read this one.

By: puredoxyk

puredoxyk — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:31:23 +0000

HELL YES. Thanks, nemogbr!

By: nemogbr

nemogbr — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:41:41 +0000

I hope you guys do end up with a proper healthcare system. The corporatocracy a.k.a. Corporate Communists have too much power over the American public.

Breaking some of it away the better for everyone.

By: puredoxyk

puredoxyk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:42:57 +0000

Michael: I think I agree, overall — let’s get something going, so that we can make it a better something, because without SOMETHING we’re doomed.

Though when I first read about that blow-up doll, I was really worried. Then I realized you meant “so you could punch it”. ;)

By: Michael Turner

Michael Turner — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:07:16 +0000

When I think about how a rather small minority of rightwingers are basically holding American progress hostage these days, I just want to punch somebody. (Will be googling on “Glenn Beck / Sarah Palin blow-up doll” after I’m done writing this).

That said, there IS some truth to the Republican objection to new entitlement programs: they inevitably grow. And in that, there’s actually hope that healthcare entitlements WILL grow, from what Robert Reich considers negligible up to something like the levels found in other advanced industrial democracies.

Legislation can always be fixed, after the voter has tasted the fruit, and found that it’s not poison, and asks legislators for more. If you look at who was originally covered by Social Security, for example, you’d be shocked at how miserly it seems by today’s standards. Those improvements happened because they were popular. But first they had to be made acceptable in the first place, and that required an absurd degree of compromise.

I certainly support pressure for more and better health care reform, but for now, put me down for whatever will make it pass, and soon.