Sunday, July 19, 2009

Only Dennis Could Kill Single-Payer Healthcare in America



by Scott Creighton

The “progressive” blogs are vibrant today. They are touting the recently accepted Kucinich Amendment to HR 3200 (Obamacare) as the compromise we have all been waiting for; a way to pass this draconian healthcare plan monstrosity (that actually serves no-one but the insurance industry) while still maintaining the “HOPE” of having a single-payer not-for-profit healthcare-for-all system sometime in the future.

At a crucial time when dissent was actually making real headway against this raging Obamacare insurance industry bailout plan  (not only on main street but also in the halls of congress) along comes the Kucinich Amendment which will undoubtedly be used by the phony left to justify their “transition” to that of supporting HR 3200.  

This is a historic moment for patients, for American families, and for the tens of thousands of nurses and other single-payer activists from coast to coast who can now work in state capitols to pass single-payer bills…” CNA

This meaningless caveat of an amendment will allow legislators to switch sides and support the “mandatory health coverage” bill, HR 3200, and it will also provide just enough of a smoke-screen to enable certain influential liberal and “progressive” blogs and organizations to do the same.
But this was a win for the people — and it came in the People’s House.” Commondreams

The notion that single-payer advocates will succeed on a state-by-state level after this dramatic failure on the national stage is naive to say the very least; downright disingenuous, is more like it.

In short, Dennis Kucinich, long time champion of real universal healthcare and a man I advocated for to be President of the United States, has just killed single-payer not-for-profit healthcare in America.

Let’s first address the notion that this will be successful on any level on a state-by-state basis (that is provided that the Obama administration allows the bill to pass with the Kucinich Amendment intact, which more than likely, they will remove it in the last days of the process after it has been used to garner the “liberal” left’s support).  It won’t be.

Anyone who tells you differently, is flat out lying.  Period.

In state legislature, just like the federal counterparts, it only takes one corrupt, bought and paid for lawmaker, to shelve a bill in committee indefinately. Just ONE.

And consider the fact that California has passed a single-payer bill, not once but TWICE in recent history, only to see that law vetoed by the signature of just ONE man;

Just ONE.

It’s too easy at this point in the game to sit back and claim that if we pass this fight on to the states, then we still have a chance at victory. The health insurance industry will never let that happen for if they did, single-payer healthcare would spread like a malignancy across the nation, and ultimately spell the end of their entire industry. People burdened by mandatory healthcare bills would move to whatever state passed the measure causing a mass exodus nation wide.


So the insurance industry will buy whomever they have to, they will spend whatever they have to, in order to make damn sure single-payer never sees the light of day in any state legislature.  And armed with the money and the clout from their success with HR 3200, it will be next to impossible for localized state-run campaigns to gain any real success.

I mean, let’s face it… the reason we are even having this discussion now is because this is an agenda of the Obama administration; they are determined to pass their own fraudlulent version “healthcare reform” bailout this year and that is the ONLY reason we are as close as were are right now.

Otherwise, where would HR 676 be? Languishing in committee somewhere (which is where it STILL is) doomed by corrupt politicians who serve their lobbyists first… and their own pocketbooks second.

Look, we have this opportunity ONLY because the vast majority of the people want single-payer not-for-profit healthcare at a time when Team DLC Obama™ Brand is determined to force major profits on the insurance industry at the cost of so much hardship for the average working American.

Before you listen to ANYONE talking about the success of this amendment, ask yourself, and then ask them, exactly what kind of healthcare those “progressive” bloggers have.

What healthcare plan does Huffington Post provide it’s staff with?  ThinkProgress? Democratic Underground? What is David Swanson’s insurance company? How about Michael Moore?  Who covers Sicko?

Fact is, not only will HR3200 not cover all Americans, nor will it actually improve the oversight of the insurance industries major players when it comes to the kinds of misdeeds that Sicko so brilliantly exposed, but it will cause untold hardships on the working men and women of this country, many of whom have recently fallen into a place where they simply can’t afford coverage on the reduced wages they are getting paid (if they are still getting paid at all).

The mandatory coverage aspect of this bill (”Shared Responsibility” in pure Obama NewSpeak) is draconian.

I mean, it would have been just simply disturbingly distasteful had it been proposed 3 years ago when the economy was just about to teeter on the brink of the banker induced bubble burst, but NOW? Now, after what we have been through over the past 2+ years? Now, after wages have dropped, millions of jobs shed, 401ks hemorrhaging, housing values depleted, savings accounts dwindled?

Now?

To pass a mandatory coverage clause, under these circumstances, while also promising to gut Medicaid and Medicare in order to help pay for all the profits the insurance industry is going to reap, is absolutely… draconian.

The hardships this bill will cause, like the mortgage crisis and the credit freeze crisis, will be staggering in scope.

Staggering of course to people NOT LIKE the “progressive” bloggers that are now touting the Kucinich Amendment as some kind of real “HOPE”; a reason to finally get behind HR 3200.

You see, those guys, for the most part, like so many other Obamaites, already HAVE health insurance – many of them get that healthcare coverage PAID FOR by employers.

So, of course, THEY won’t be the ones suffering by having to take a second or third job just to pay the insurance bill. They won’t have to sacrifice a vacation or a car payment, just to pay for insurance they may or may not even need at this point in their lives.

And how long will the state-by-state fights take? Years? A decade? What are people to do in the meantime? They are going to be forced to fork over large percentages of their paychecks (accepting a major reduction in their standard of living) to the insurance companies that sat in meetings at the White House and in congress, writing this bill to suit their greed.

But the bloggers who support this Kucinich Amendment as the “HOPE” for single-payer healthcare won’t understand ANY of that kind of suffering.

Or at least, they won’t talk about it.

Dennis won’t either for that matter. He and his family have healthcare coverage for life.

The ONLY shot at real single-payer healthcare we had was to force it now, before this corporatist bill slithered it’s way through congress like the TARP bill or the fake Stimulus Package before it.

We had momentum, we had advocates.

We had people on the inside ready to fight, go to jail, cross party lines, even filibuster if need be.

But now, thanks to Dennis’ red-herring of an amendment, those voices can ease up, back off, and throw their support behind the all powerful Obama administration’s wishes.

They can side with the status quo, while still maintaining their “activist street credit”.

Because now we have a “save it for later” clause that will eventually just end up a ridiculous footnote in the tragic history of what is laughingly (in other countries) referred to as the American Healthcare System.

Just like “Only Nixon can go to China”… only Obama can sell the endgame to the transition to a complete privatized healthcare system in this country. His progressive and liberal popularity will allow him to get away with things even Reagan could only dream of.

And by the same token, only Dennis Kucinch could drive the final nail into the coffin of single-payer healthcare in America.

13 comments:

  1. (I rated my own article... I am ashamed of myself... just a little...)

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  2. lol scott.. when did the rating thing start? I'm not sure I like it. Reminds me too much of being graded in school..........

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  3. Obama's health plan is an insurance industry payoff. Forcing americans to buy insurance? wtf?

    I'm so pissed off at the stupid dem sheeple that think this is just peachy keen because they have NO CLUE what's in this plan.

    Oh hell, they are trying to kill us.. Why would they want to insure us unless it's a life insurance policy and they are the beneficiaries. Oh wait, they are.............

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  4. I don't know when it started. The first thing I saw it on was that great pic laughingguy put up. I like to think of it like an academy award: recognition of my peers, or the lack thereof. I don't care about it either way, to be honest, I just wanted to see a bunch of stars by my name. Makes me feel special... but NO! Don't make poor old scott feel special... NO! don't do that. Why should I have a moment of happiness in my depressing little worthless life?

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  5. "You LIKE me! You REALLY Like me!" *weep weep weep* (i would like to thank the members of the academy...)

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  6. lol.. i gave you 5 stars ya big baby.. just don't go postal on us!

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  7. thank you. I am updating my resume as we speak.

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  8. heh heh... Willie, me lad... I would gladly give ye SIX stars if I could find the fekkin button...

    Aye. Poor Dennis. Just before the "election" he wore the expression of a man who just woke up that morning with a horse's head under the covers with him. The Fats made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

    I'm throwing this information into me very own "how-much-more-fucking-obvious-does-it-have-to-get" bin... along with Family of Secrets... when I finish reading it. Typical "Amerikkkan" "solution:" pay the Fats or go to prison... where ye can be slave labor for the Fats. Oh... you are now... but at least you can leave the premises... temporarily... as long as we hold your family hostage.

    But cheer up! You can get a "job" with the REAL "growth industry:" the prison-industrial complex!

    I think I'm gonna need an industrial dumpster.

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  9. Do we have mandatory healh care here where I live? I think we do. You get a job, as I did, and you hav to insure yourself. It went hand in hand. Confirmation of that "wedding" was delivered over the phone a few days ago as I asked for a copy of my initial records.

    "mandatory health insurance is fascism. period."

    I'm not sure I can go with this. Socialism and Sozilademokratie require confinemtents. I've been living under a Sozialdemokratie for the past 30 years and it has been good to me.Health insurance has been mandatory and I would tend to say this is part of the program/progress. If it were to be free choice, it would not function.

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  10. wici say that 87.5% of die Deutschers have Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung (public health insurance).

    Hell no, I would not mind mandatory insurance if a large swath of the "private" insurance industry were "nationalized."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Germany

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  11. Is this what you are talking about?

    "Currently 85% of the population is covered by a basic health insurance plan provided by statute, which provides a standard level of coverage. The remainder opt for private health insurance, which frequently offers additional benefits."

    I mean Sozialdemokratie is the social democratic party of Germany, isn't it?

    "About 87.5% of the persons with health insurance are members of the public system, while 12.5% are covered by private insurance (as of 2006)..."

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  12. Why is the Cinderfella thread gone? I put a lot of time and effort into getting that man on the cusp of reinstatement. and now the thread is just gone?

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