Rush Limbaugh says he will leave the country if the healthcare bill is passed. Great! Even more incentive for everyone to get on board and support the bill! In the ironies of all ironies Limbaugh will flee to Costa Rica which has socialized medicine…out of the frying pan and into the fryer eh Rush?
Think Progress – Limbaugh vows to flee the country if health care passes
Every time I hear a right winger go hysterical about “Barack Hussein Obama taking over the country” or “Socialist Obama is using Big Government to get me” I just have to laugh. Where were these people when the Republicans were shoving the Department of Homeland Security down our throats? Where were the limited government Tea Baggers then? Where were the Tea Baggers when Bush was using warrantless wiretapping to spy on Americans, monitor their bank transactions, read their emails, and data mine their internet searches? Where were the Tea Baggers to protest the trillions in wasted spending, trillions added to the National Debt, and Medicare Part D being passed without being paid for?
I’ll tell you where they were – they were cheerleading their boy Bush the whole time. They were telling people like me to STFU. They were calling me a traitor for criticizing President Bush. They were telling me if I had nothing to hide I had nothing to fear. They told me deficits don’t matter. They were telling me Iraq attacked us on 9/11. They were telling me Sadam had WMD.
Yesterday’s Loyal Bushies are today’s Tea Baggers. There’s no difference. The only reason the Tea Bagger movement exists is to try to capitalize on the National Malaise and anti-incumbent mood to ride it back into power. And make no mistake Tea Bagger = Republican. Arizonans think that what, they are going to be electing a “real” “Tea Bagger” in J.D. Hayworth? The dude was in Congress for 12 years! He was there while the National Debt was doubled! And this is supposed to be the Great Tea Bagger revolution by voting in Hayworth? LMFAO! All Hayworth is doing is Tea Bagging the Tea Baggers.
If McCain Palin were in power all these white people who are scared right now would be the quiet little sheep they were during the Bush Administration. They would not give a shit. Hell, as long as a white Republican is President they can pretty much do anything they want. Reagan, Bush Sr, and Bush Jr proved this much.
All you Tea Baggers are stupid ignorant phonies plain and simple. You think advocating for corporations is going to get you better pay? You think “free market capitalism” is going to keep your fire departments in order and your drinking water safe? You think free trade is going to create jobs? You think deregulating the market even further is going to magically help? You think giving even more tax cuts to the wealthy elite is going to stimulate the economy? It hasn’t worked yet! Go ahead, keep working against your best interest morons. We’ll see how you feel when you’re on unemployment and a Republican tries to keep you from getting your check.
And for God’s Sake can you please just for once STOP LYING?!? Obama is an American citizen, there is no “government takeover of healthcare”, Obama is a Christian, and Obama is a capitalist. Give it up already. You are making fools of yourselves.
Turns out the DHS was right…even though Janet Napolitano was skewered for the DHS report that said the United States was experiencing an increase in right wing extremist groups.
You know that’s fine…in America there’s freedom of speech blah blah blah. Carry your Nazi signs and wear your KKK hoods. Rally around the Confederate flag and say all the hateful things you feel. It’s your right as an American.
But one thing I tire of are all these right wingers, tenthers, birthers, and separatists claiming the American Flag. They need to get their own damn flag. Go ahead and hate the government, hate the President, and work to get your State to secede from the Union. Just don’t carry an American Flag and call yourself a “patriot” for doing it.
The first true patriots, the ones that died fighting the British Empire so that we could become an independent nation, fought and died for the United States. They fought and died for the idea that while we were different colonies we were all one country. As such we formed a Federal Government to run this country The symbol of that Federal Government is the Stars and Stripes. Originally it was 13 stars and 13 stripes. It was meant to signify the unification of the States into one country.
As more States were added to the Union we added more stars. The 13 stripes remain to remind us of our colonial beginnings and the original 13 colonies that united to fight against the British. You would think this would be apparent to all Americans. After all, it’s pounded into our soft skulls starting in kindergarten. We all know our history right?
So why do these self proclaimed uber patriots who put themselves out as being more American than the rest of us because they want to break away from the United States still try to claim the Stars and Stripes as their own? They need to get their own damn flag. The American Flag stands for Union, One Country, and the Federal Government. Go ahead and be against the Federal Government just stop hiding behind the American Flag.
Get your own flag and go ahead and get your State to secede from the Union, I really don’t care. Just don’t call yourself American and stop wrapping yourself in the flag. If you are against the Union you are not American. We fought a Civil War already. Do we really need to have another?
Southern Poverty Law Center Report On Increased Right Wing Extremism
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Also, watch Colbert pull an O’Keefe on Hannity
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Tip/Wag – James O’Keefe & Sean Hannity | ||||
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The decimation of the Middle Class in this country will continue for years to come as it has been occurring ever since Reagan took office in the 1980’s. This is because the structural problems of our economy are not being addressed. They have not been addressed arguably since Eisenhower and continue to not be addressed.
The main problem is the lack of jobs which pay a living wage. The reason for the lack of decent paying jobs is because companies both foreign and domestic have for decades moved operations overseas to exploit cheap labor and lax environmental regulations. We saw just this week Apple report the use of child labor in China for the production of their popular gadgets. How can any American compete with Chinese child labor?
I know right wingers would say “fine, relax the environmental regulations and scrap the minimum wage” but common. Can’t we all agree that people should be paid a living wage, be able to drink safe water, and breathe clean air?
Recently Ben Bernanke signaled a need for the United States to loosen its immigration policies so “skilled” labor could be more easily imported from countries like India. This is because engineers from India will work for $30,000 per year as opposed to the $80,000+ American engineers earn. Even our so-called educated jobs are being lost to outsourcing and importation.
Labor is by far the largest expense for any corporation. As such, pure capitalism prefers a system of slavery and indentured servitude where labor costs are reduced to providing rudimentary housing, food, water, and security to keep slaves from escaping. Humanity for the most part has rejected slavery as immoral though it is still practiced today even by large corporations.
What Americans need to decide is how much their labor is worth. The reason there are no jobs is because corporations think Americans are over paid. They will continue to pay their workers less and increase their work load until they can’t get away with it any more. This is why Wall St. is recovering while Main St. continues to suffer.
So how much should we pay workers? It would seem to make sense that workers should earn at least enough to provide themselves with housing, food, basic utilities, and healthcare. Indeed we have a myriad of regulations in place to make this a reality. But in response corporations have just moved jobs overseas and it’s not just factory jobs anymore. They are even moving what used to be high paying R&D jobs overseas. The last bastion of what kept the American Economy afloat is now being outsourced. It used to be that even though things were being manufactured overseas at least we were still designing the new gadgets and software. Not any more.
The structural problems with our economy are clear to many but will never be fixed. What needs to happen are clear and strong Buy American provisions. Imports need to be tariffed at a rate that makes the imports cost the same as products manufactured in the United States. There also needs to be strong restrictions against outsourcing. We need to reward American Manufacturers and punish foreign manufacturers.
The reason this will never happen is because it will drive up labor costs which in turn will drive up the price of goods. The powers at be have us all convinced that we are living the good life because we can buy $5 items made in China at Wall Mart. That same item may cost $20 if made in the United States. What the powers at be fail to explain to Americans is that if more Americans are working and being paid well then they will have extra money to spend on goods produced here in the United States.
What the wealthy elite want is for us all to be making near slave wages while we still continue to buy their crap. It’s not going to happen. No one will be able to afford all the crap they are manufacturing overseas even at MaoMart prices at the rate we are going. They would rather have their private Island and $500 million dollar yacht than work with all of us to create a better society.
Social stability requires a vibrant and strong middle class. That only comes with decent paying jobs where the worker does not feel over exploited, has additional income to spend, and the leisure time to enjoy it. We saw this in the 1950’s when even a High School diploma landed someone a strong middle class job. Mom stayed home because the family could afford to live on one income. Dad worked Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm, got two weeks vacation per year, a pension, and healthcare. That was sold to us as the American Dream. Those days are long gone and will likely never come back.
And we know the structural changes to recreate a strong middle class will never hapen. Why? Because multinational corporations have become more powerful than governments. Their revenue is much larger than many countries. As such they can lobby Congress to get legislation passed that favors free trade and outsourcing all which equates to even greater corporate profits. More profits means more money to lobby Congress with.
In the 1990’s this economic theory was given an altruistic slant to it by claiming we were boot strapping up the rest of the world. Sure we were losing jobs and our wages were declining but at least the children in China could work even if it was for $1 a day – at least they had a job. Really this slant was put out there simply to mask the pure greed of the whole thing. It transformed the rich into the wealthy elite ruling class similar to what we used to call Royalty or Landed Gentry – all on the backs of American Labor.
The sad thing is deep down Tea Baggers probably realize this. Especially Tea Baggers living in areas that were once the industrial powerhouse of this country like Detroit and Pittsburgh. But if Obama tried to do anything meaningful to help increase jobs and wages he would be branded a socialist for doing it. He’s already branded a communist and socialist even though he is largely keeping intact the economic policies of Bush.
Thus expect more pain to come. Human beings react to crisis and tend to do well in crisis situations. The problem is it takes a crisis of mammoth proportions for us to react. It took the Great Depression for us to right our economy last time. Sadly, it will take an even Greater Depression to right it this time.
It’s deeply depressing and demoralizing when the media engages in broad disinformation campaigns under the guise of being willing dupes. We saw this with the run up to the Iraq War and with the 9/11 investigations.
It’s never really stopped but the sick and sad part currently is watching the media get played by Conservatives, Tea Baggers, and Republicans. In the case of Fox News it’s explainable – they have an agenda that we are all aware of. They work to further Conservative political philosophy and aid Republicans in elections. But how the brain eating zombies at Fox News can continue to parrot obvious lies and get away with it is beyond me.
There seems to be no way to combat it. I know Rachel Maddow tries. Some liberal progressive talk show hosts try and bloggers try. But we are powerless compared to the propaganda machine of Fox News.
If you don’t understand what I am talking about there are a couple of obvious examples. The first is with regard to the Nuclear Option. The term Nuclear Option was coined by Senator Trent Lott to describe the political tactic of getting rid of the filibuster during a Senate Session. Currently Senate rules can only be changed at the start of a session not in mid-session.
Republicans were mad because Democrats were filibustering some of Bush’s Supreme Court pics. Republicans demanded an “up or down vote”. In order to force this vote Republicans threatened the “Nuclear Option” or simply put to get rid of the filibuster while a Senate Session was in progress. Democrats backed down and Bush got all his nominees except for John Bolton who Bush appointed by recess appointment.
And the talking point that “but Democrats filibustered too” is also bullshit as Republicans have been filibustering 80% of the legislation in this current Senate session more so than any other session in history – way more than Democrats ever did.
Flash forward to today and Republicans have renamed reconciliation the Nuclear Option. This is total bullshit but it’s not stopping Fox News and others from running with it. Republicans are also lying claiming they never used reconciliation to pass major pieces of legislation. This is bullshit as well. They used it to pass the Bush Tax Cuts as well as Medicare Part D just to name a few. Maddow and others have documented Republican use of reconciliation 18 times. But the truth doesn’t seem to combat the lies.
The other big lies that are continually perpetuated is this false meme that somehow all the spending and debt occurred under President Obama. This is patently false. It makes sense politically for Tea Baggers, Conservatives, and Republicans to claim this but it is a bold faced lie. It was the Bush Cheney Regime coupled with a Republican Congress that doubled the National Debt. It was Bush and Paulson that bailed out the banks. It was Bush who forced through tax cuts on the wealthy without paying for them. It was Bush that took us from a budget surplus and plundged us into deficit spending.
To lay this whole mess at the feet of Obama is absurd. But it’s being done meticulously, loudly, and frequently. Again it makes sense politically to try to blame Obama for $14 Trillion in debt as Senator Bunning was trying to do. It makes sense politically for Republicans to now after 8 long years finally be concerned about deficit spending. But it’s also disingenuous and a lie for them to claim that all this debt and deficit is somehow Obama’s fault. It doesn’t seem to matter how much we make this point because Tea Baggers, Fox News, and right wing radio spew this crap every day. There is no way possible to reach all the people the lies are getting to so their brains can be scrubbed with the truth.
It’s frustrating and maddening especially when Republican Tea Bagger Conservative talking points smack me in the face on a daily basis. I hear the damn Tea Bagger party line every fucking day. It goes like “Tea Baggers is concerned about all the spending by the Obama Administration. That’s the biggest driver motivating people to get active”. I will point out the debt was doubled under Bush who also put us the path of deficit spending to which the response will be “Tea Baggers is fiscal responsibility and we is against reckless spending no matter if it is Democrat or Republican, Republicans have been bad spenders as well”.
That’s all good and well but Tea Baggers you’re late to the fucking party. You should have been protesting in 2005 rather than rallying around Bush and Republicans. You hate Obama for the spending and want to get rid of him as well as the Democrats. That’s your objective. Yet it was a Republican President with a Republican Congress that brought you this fucking mess. And what do you want to do? Vote back in Republicans again? Do you think Tea Bagger candidates can for one win and for two will realy solve the problem?
I got news for you Tea Baggers, if McCain was elected President there would STILL be a debt and deficit problem and he is a beloved Republican. If McCain was President do you even really think there would even be a Tea Bagger movement?
And to my Tea Bagger friends who are rallying around Senator Bunning, do you really think cutting unemployment benefits will solve this fucking problem? We have a $1.4 Trillion dollar deficit. The real waste lies in the Pentagon and military spending. If you Tea Baggers really wanted to tackle this crisis you would be taking aim at the Military Industrial Complex in this country that soaks up over $1 Trillion a year in our tax dollars.
But no, that’s not your concern. After all that’s National Defense and we need to be tough so spare no expense. Instead you cheer when unemployment benefits and COBRA are defunded. You agitate for the elimination of Medicare, Social Security, and other Social Safety Net programs labeling it as “Big Government”. But keep those military no bid cost plus contracts going boys! And while we’re at it let’s start yet another war with Iran so we can throw away even more money! Yeeehaaawww! Damn ain’t it great to be a Tea Bagger???!!!???
BeanBag Bunning
The Senator from Kentucky Jim Bunning is late. He’s late in complaining about debt and deficits. Finally after watching Bush Republicans double the National Debt, pass tax cuts for the wealthy elite that weren’t paid for, all while borrowing money to fight two wars he’s finally had enough. The record deficits and debt didn’t seem to bother Bunning…when Republicans were in power.
But now that we have a black man who is a Democrat as President with Democratic majorities in Congress and well we just can’t have deficits no more! All these Republican Conservative Tea Baggers are complete phonies. They run around screaming about debt and deficits as if it’s a new thing. They pretend as if it all happened overnight on Obama’s watch. It’s all pure bullshit politics aimed specifically at tearing down the Obama Presidency.
If Bunning had took a stand in 2003 when Republicans were ramming tax cuts through Congress via reconciliation that were not paid for which lead to massive deficits I’d be more inclined to take him seriously. But he didn’t place a hold on those tax cuts. I don’t recall Bunning grandstanding when billions of dollars went missing in Iraq. I don’t recall Bunning getting upset when it was projected the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan would cost well over $2 Trillion.
But now all of a sudden Bunning is going to demand that something be cut in order to pay for the jobs bill. In the process hundreds of thousands of people are losing their unemployment, State workers are being furloughed, and doctors are taking a 21% medicare cut. This truly is sick. Did Bunning take this principled stand when Bush was ramming through TARP? And, if we’re going to cut stuff to make up the difference why not start with the $1 Trillion sloshing around at the Pentagon? Why do social safety nets have to take the cut? Why not try to find the $2.3 Trillion “missing” at the DOD?
What Bunning is doing would be like after an earthquake standing on the rubble of a broken bridge demanding that it be retrofit for earthquakes before anyone could be helped or rescued. He’s way overdue in his outrage. And now his antics will actually hurt our economy rather than help. His outrage would have been a huge help in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Right now we need to rescue people and worry about retrofitting the economy afterward.
And now we are also seeing the true colors of Republicans come out. Did you hear that Republican basically calling people on unemployment lazy? As if they would rather collect unemployment than get a job?
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting “because people are being paid even though they’re not working.”
Unemployment insurance “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,” Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.
Pretty amazing huh? He says it as if there are just loads of decent paying jobs out there to be had for all if they would just get off the unemployment. In what reality do these people live in?
The cynic in me says what’s going on is this is a last ditch effort Republicans are mounting to really drive this country into the ground. Slashing unemployment, COBRA, the Doctor Fix, and jobs funding is just going to drive us further into this recession. I think it’s what Republicans want. They don’t want a recovery because they see that as benefiting Obama and the Democrats. Thus they are prepared to go to the mat to completely tank the country so they can regain power politically. The American People be damned in their eyes.
Someone better figure out how to stop this Bunning filibuster and quick before things really start going to shit. Republicans are already trying to spin it that it’s all the Democrats fault since they are the party in charge even though it’s been Republicans completely sabotaging Democrats every step of the way.
I heard about Operation Northwoods for the first time last week on Mike Malloy’s radio program. It’s one of those things that when you read about it you think “why doesn’t everyone know about this and why isn’t everyone outraged”? I felt the same way when I first read about Major General Smedley Butler as well as when I learned about the attept of a Corporate Coup in the U.S. in the 1930’s. It’s that sick feeling one gets in their stomach when they realize Bin Laden was/is a CIA Operative and that the CIA radicalized Muslims in the 1980’s to fight against the Soviets.
Now, I am not going to pretend that I have researched Operation Northwoods all that well. There’s plenty on the internet and I will let you decide if you want to believe it or not. But consider what ABC News wrote in 2001:
In the early 1960s, America’s top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.
Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.
The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba’s then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.
America’s top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: “We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba,” and, “casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.”
Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets (Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford about the history of America’s largest spy agency, the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not connected to the agency, he notes.
The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy’s defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.
Operation Northwoods also has a wiki entry which reads:
Operation Northwoods, or Northwoods, was a false-flag plan that originated within the United States government in 1962. The plan called for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or other operatives to commit genuine acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and elsewhere. These acts of terrorism were to be blamed on Cuba in order to create public support for a war against that nation, which had recently become communist under Fidel Castro. One part of the Operation Northwoods plan was to “develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.”
Operation Northwoods is especially notable in that it included proposals for hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate a foreign government.
The actual documents themselves are available online. WhatReallyHappened.Com has the documents scanned and uploaded so you can read them if you like.
Skeptics will often cite Operation Northwoods to say that “hey, it never actually happened so you see, our government knows better and would never attempt such a thing”. Let’s just forget about the Gulf of Tonkin and even more recently 9/11. So think what you want and draw whatever conclusions you like.
The “government” is a huge organization comprised of a myriad of agencies with competing internal forces not to mention the sheer politics of it. I do think it’s possible the right hand of our government often knows not what the left hand is doing. Does that make it right? No, it’s just reality.
I’m pretty close to being done with the whole healthcare thing. I can’t promise I will never write about healthcare again but I honestly don’t see any more movement coming.
For the record I prefer a total government take over of healthcare overnight making it single payer and not for profit. Whether or not the actual government runs healthcare or is administered by a non-profit corporation can be determined. I do believe doctors, nurses, and staff should be paid well.
But we all know this will never happen so the next step down would be a “public option”. This would not be a government takeover of anything. Rather, when you went to buy your insurance you would have an option to buy a government administered plan if you so choose. In theory it would be cheaper than other insurance with adequate care. At this point we don’t know if a public option will be in the final healthcare bill but odds have been steadily improving. Next to the public option would be lowering the Medicare eligibility age or making Medicare available to everyone as a single payer plan.
I think we know where Tea Baggers, Republicans, and Conservatives stand. They are against any government involvement in healthcare. They like things the way they are now with huge profitable insurance companies making billions of dollars in profit who then contribute to political campaigns to ensure government doesn’t try to regulate them.
There are two reasons why Republicans are opposing healthcare. The first one is political. They fear if healthcare reform is passed it will be seen as a victory for Obama. Republicans have made it clear they want Obama to fail because they think if he fails then they think they will sweep the 2010 and 2012 elections. To that end Republicans in the Senate have been filibustering every piece of legislation that comes up for a vote. They also have their brain eating Tea Bagger zombies blogging and twittering every minute that anything Obama wants must be blocked. We saw what they said about Scott Brown when he dared to vote to end the filibuster on the limited jobs bill.
The second reason Republicans oppose healthcare is philosophical. They don’t believe in government. Ever since the Reagan Revolution they have been trying to break government. They have been trying to deregulate and bankrupt the government every chance they get. They do this by blowing all our tax dollars on pie in the sky weapons systems while engaging in unnecessary military operations and simultaneously cutting taxes on the wealthy elite. The increased expenditures coupled with tax cuts leads to massive deficits. This in turn creates the need to cut entitlement programs which is the ultimate Republican goal – to scrap Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans represent the wealthy elite in this country. As such they continually advocate for the wealthy elite and huge corporations to get even more tax cuts. They despise the notion that the wealthy should pay taxes which are used to fund things like education, Social Security, and Medicare. Thus, the idea of creating yet another entitlement program such as Universal Healthcare is an anethema to them. Another entitlement would decrease the possibility of enacting yet another tax cut for the wealthy.
Even though the current proposed healthcare reform legislation is not Universal Healthcare nor is it single payer Republicans still oppose it. They oppose it because they fear over time if it is popular with the public that eventually all for-profit insurance companies will be phased out. The health insurance industry fears this as well which is why they spend hundreds of millions lobbying Congress (both Democrats and Republicans) to prevent any wide sweeping legislation from passing.
Republicans tell us healthcare reform will destroy the country. My question has always been if they think it’s such a bad idea and that it will fail then why not let it pass? After all, if it is a failure the American People will reject it, vote in Republicans, who then can repeal it. They are not concerned healthcare reform will destroy the country as much as they are concerned it will be popular thus helping Democrats gain ground in 2010 and 2012 as well as cementing Obama’s re-election.
Democrats for their part are also heavily lobbied by the health insurance industry which is why if any sort of reform passes at all it will be implemented slowly. The exchanges won’t be up until 2013 and if the public option is included only those without insurance will be able to buy it. The fear moderate Democrats have is causing too much disruption in the system. They fear putting too many people out of work too fast in the health insurance industry. And think what it would do to WellPoint’s stock price let alone the multi million dollar bonuses and salaries for their executives.
As far as Republicans, Conservative, and Tea Baggers go I really question their claim that “the private sector can do things better than government thus we should just leave well enough alone” meme. They claim to love the free market and capitalism. Yet, in the early 2000’s the Bush Administration under Donald Rumsfeld’s direction sought to privatize our military as much as possible. Instead of having our soldiers protect our embassies and State Department employees that job was outsourced to private military contractors. Instead of our military hauling their own supplies, cooking their own food, and building their own bases it was all outsourced. We were told the private sector could perform the same tasks for less money and be more effective than bloated inefficient government.
The outsourcing that occured was done on the basis of cost plus no bid contracts for the likes of Halliburton, KBR, BlackWater USA, USIS, Bechtel, etc meaning no other companies could compete for these contracts. What resulted was rampant fraud, waste, and abuse. The tax payers watched as billions of dollars vanished while a Republican Congress could not care less because it was their cronies making the profits.
To add insult to injury alot of the contractors hired by BlackWater USA were ex-military meaning our tax dollars, in some cases millions of dollars, were already spent training these people. They are then lured away by the promise of a six figure salary at BlackWater USA (now Xe). Yet somehow we are to believe that privatization would save tax dollars and be more effective. It wasn’t and continues not to be.
So, why should we expect anything different than what we have now from the for-profit health insurance industry if left to their own devices? They are not going to lower premiums out of the goodness of their heart. If the private sector was working so well for Americans there would be no need for reform. Clearly it’s not working as we can all agree at the very least the concept of preexisting conditions is killing people. And, WellPoint turning in record profits while raising rates also makes no sense unless you are a shareholder or executive or a politician getting campaign contributions.
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 | jacksmith on Might As Well Have Socialized Medicine Mar 9th 10 From: jacksmith - WorkingClass Dennis Kucinich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuFVm6QdPU WE THE PEOPLE OF The UNITED STATES - DEMAND!! an up or down vote on ... |
 | John Umana on Sad and Pathetic Mar 8th 10 I think all heads of state and political parties today are essentially immoral. Its hard to really feel happy about ... |
 | health quote on Missile Defense Logo Takes Aim At Islam Mar 7th 10 I hate the fact that all organized religions (including Islam and Christianity) brainwash people into blindly following a particular ideology. ... |
 | Mrs. Bitch on If McCain Palin Were Elected There Would Be No Tea Baggers Mar 7th 10 I think this post ties in nicely with the previous one. All of these dolts call themselves patriots and are ... |
 | health insurance on Cheney – Projection, CYA, or Guilt? Mar 6th 10 The advocates of waterboarding have yet to explain why they want to permit this. There is no evidence that torture ... |
 | insurance on Bunning’s Late To The Deficit Party Mar 6th 10 I can't really guess as to what Bunning what was thinking and your right he would have much more cred, ... |
 | jim marquis on Jon Stewart Shreds Fox News Again Mar 6th 10 Thank God for these two, especially Stewart. There's nothing better than seeing FOX and the other right-wing denizens hoisted on ... |
 | PoliShifter on Bunning’s Late To The Deficit Party Mar 5th 10 hmmm...you ask if can believe what I wrote then you say you are certain it is all true? No doubt many ... |
| insurance on Bunning’s Late To The Deficit Party Mar 5th 10 You can't really believe what you wrote here? I am not debating a single thing you said at all, ... |
 | Kvatch on Bunning’s Late To The Deficit Party Mar 2nd 10 Bunning is an ass, and an ass who's not going to run again to boot. The Republican leadership is ... |
