A Bit Late But Welcome to 1984

Posted on 2009-12-29 by David

I wanted to gag this morning when I heard the suggestion on the Wall Street Journal This Morning that those who needed health care had the option to go on the internet to purchase it. Since when was Viagra, or even Advil, considered health care?

Of course I understand what they meant – those who need health insurance can go on the internet and find more and better options than they might otherwise encounter and we have been repeatedly exposed to the notion that “health insurance is health care.” Admittedly that’s not quite “War is Peace” or “Freedom is Slavery” but January 1 is approaching and by the time it arrives we might just find that we have another 26 years until 2010.

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A Real Christmas Gift

Posted on 2009-12-25 by David

President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and other congressional leaders among the Democrats hailed the passage of the Senate health “reform” bill as a Christmas gift to the American people. That’s about the equivalent of trying to convince the chief income earner(s) in a home that the real gift of Christmas for them is the increased balance on the credit card (or the reduced balance of their checking and/or saving’s accounts) rather than the presents they got.

In response to the news that the bill had finally passed my wife had a great idea for a real gift that the Senate could give us for Christmas some year (besides repealing that bill). If they have the authority to mandate that we buy insurance that opens up a world of possibilities. First and foremost her suggestion is that they should mandate that everyone in America should get an answering machine. Just imagine and end to:

Ring . . .

Ring . . .

Ring . . .

Ring . . .

Ring . . .

Ring . . .

Ring . . .

Ring . . .

The person you are calling is not available. *click*

I’m quite confident that universal telephone answering machines would have a positive impact on interstate commerce.

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Reid Has a Moment of Sanity

Posted on 2009-12-24 by David

I was very surprised when reading about the results of the Senate vote on health care.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., initially cast a “no” vote.

The explanation we are given is that he was exhausted – which makes sense considering the amount of all-night negotiations and arm-twisting that he has been doing recently.

It reminds me of a friend of mine who grew up in Boston. By the time I knew her she had been out of Boston long enough to lose the accent. one time I called her early enough in the morning that she was still waking up and her natural Boston accent was prominently on display in her voice. When the defenses are down the truth shines through.

I guess it just goes to show that when his defenses are down even Harry Reid knows that this is a horrible piece of legislation.

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It’s Not Too Late to Change Your Mind

Posted on 2009-12-22 by David

Conservatives, for right reasons and wrong reasons, are united in opposition to the current health care reform legislation. Unfortunately many liberals are falling into the trap of “stand by our guys” that already landed us in NCLB, Medicare Part D, and Iraq during the last administration (for which I apologize to all my liberal friends even though I opposed all of those). Of course liberals have little reason to listen to a conservative like me so rather than make my own argument today I’ll share the conclusion from Fire Dog Lake:

The Senate bill isn’t a “starter home,” it’s a sink hole. It needs to die so something else can take its place. It doesn’t matter whether people are on the right or the left — once they understand the con job that’s about to be foist upon them, they agree. That’s why Harry Reid and President Obama are trying to jam it through as fast as they can, before people get wise. So email the list to your friends and family, tweet it and spread the word.

I was going to add my own perspective when I first started reading that, but it is too well done to be condensed. Go read all 10 Reasons to Kill the Senate Bill.

Many people, liberal and conservative, seem ready to give up because the Senate already cleared their first 60-vote hurdle. That’s exactly what Reid and his company of non-representative public officials would love to see. Please don’t give up yet or settle for this poor excuse for reform. We may not agree on all the right directions, but almost everyone who’s paying attention knows that this legislation is not anything close to what we need. Let’s not allow the Senate to pass this just so they and the president can say they passed something – that is simply not a good enough reason.

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Harry Reid the Insomniac

Posted on 2009-12-21 by David

“Senator” Reid must suffer from insomnia to schedule a vote at 1:00 AM on a Monday to torture his fellow members of the Senate as they vote on a bill to torture their constituents throughout America. That is how Harry Reid fits the definition of “insomniac” as a noun.

The definition of “insomniac” as an adjective also fits because his actions will cause a lot of sleepless nights among people who previously believed they had some freedoms left in this country. Even more dangerously, every lawyer and CEO in the health care industry will undoubtedly suffer from insomnia as they try to figure out how to profit from the 2700 page bill that has not even been released online yet as far as I can find (I can only see the “original” 2074 page version of the bill).

I understand the urgency of meeting an artificial deadline on Christmas day for a bill that won’t take effect for another 4 years but I wonder why this could not have waited another 6 or 8 hours until a decent time for a vote. I’m always distrustful of a fast moving legislative body but more than any other rushed vote this move is reminiscent of some other midnight political proceedings that were driven by a desire for power.

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GOP Sheep with No Shepherd

Posted on 2009-12-21 by David

Yet Another Fire Dog Lake post led me to this Progressive Change Campaign Committee poll. My interest in the poll focused on the results of two questions:

Would you favor or oppose a health care bill that does NOT include a public health insurance option and does NOT expand Medicare, but DOES require all Americans to get health insurance?

and

Would you favor or oppose a health care bill that does NOT include a public health insurance option and does NOT expand Medicare and does NOT require all Americans to buy health insurance — but DOES provide significant subsidies to low- and middle-income families to help them buy insurance?

I was specifically interested to compare the Republican responses to these two questions. The first question offers essentially what the health care bill has been boiling down to – a mandate with no public option or alternative. The second offers no mandate, no public option or alternative, but offers subsidies for those who cannot afford insurance. Republican leaders have been fighting against the first option openly without really talking about the second possibility. The results in the republican response are interesting. Those opposed to either option were virtually identical (61% and 60% respectively). Those who were undecided nearly doubled from the first question to the second because they had not been told what to think, had never considered the possibility themselves, and could not think on their feet. Because of that, the number who favored the first question – which is clearly the worst of the two – was 5 points higher than those who favored the second.

This party needs shepherds who know where to lead rather than goats who know only to oppose.

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Missing the Boat

Posted on 2009-12-18 by David

In a comment over at KVNU’s For The People blog Craig concluded that if I was right in my position about health care it would mean that basically everyone had been missing the boat on this issue. My response to Craig was that I honestly believe that this current reform debate is missing the boat on what reforms we need.

Meanwhile, over at Fire Dog Lake (again) I find another insightful post from a staunch liberal, this time it’s from Jane Hamsher (yesterday it was Jon Walker) who is talking about what she calls the left/right populist wrap around.

There is an enormous, rising tide of populism that crosses party lines in objection to the Senate bill. We opposed the bank bailouts, the AIG bonuses, the lack of transparency about the Federal Reserve, “bailout” Ben Bernanke, and the way the Democrats have used their power to sell the country’s resources to secure their own personal advantage, just as the libertarians have. In fact, we’ve worked together with them to oppose these things. What we agree on: both parties are working against the interests of the public, the only difference is in the messaging. (emphasis added)

This is another example of the media missing the boat. They play everything as Left vs Right. They promote the notion that anything which angers both the radical right and the radical left must be pretty good policy – that’s their definition of centrist. In contrast, Ms. Hamsher pits the left/right populist wrap around against the beltway insiders – or as some of my commenters have called them, the corporatists.

Being able to unite the left wing and the right wing in opposition to a policy does not make that a good policy. After all, the German Fascists were able to unite the American Capitalists and the Soviet Communists in opposition against them, but you won’t here anyone (except neo-nazis) arguing that the German Fascists were good because of that.

We’ve had a perfect example of that here recently. I consider myself to be more conservative than the “conservatives” in Congress. Charles considers himself to be more liberal than the “liberals” in Congress. We disagree on many issues, but we’d both like to see a government that represented the people of the United States. I don’t see how it can be argued that Congress is getting it right when I want to see my Republican senator defeated and have him replaced with a real Conservative and Charles want to see his Democratic senator defeated and have her replaced with a real Liberal. (Excuse me for putting words into your mouth Charles.)

There is a disconnect between the roots of representative government and the tree of elected officers. Anyone who thinks that is a positive sign or healthy in any way is definitely missing the boat.

P.S. Having two hits in two days means I will now be following Fire Dog Lake rather than waiting for others to point out their latest articles.

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No Public Option, No Mandate

Posted on 2009-12-17 by David

Over at Fire Dog Lake, Jon Walker challenges those with the “we can fix it later” mentality (which may or may not include enough senators to pass this bill) to hold the individual mandate out of the bill as a hostage to ensure that Congress will have leverage to come back and replace all the things they have compromised away in this bill already.

Progressives should make the rallying cry of “no public option, no mandate” an unmovable demand, now and in the future. Progressives in Congress should refuse to support the individual mandate until it is accompanied by the government guarantee of a decent, cost-effective public health insurance option.

To me that sounds like killing two birds with one stone – we could get a bill without a public option as the Republicans have worked so hard to remove already and we could get a bill without an individual mandate which is the most serious infraction contained in the bill (more serious than the public option ever was).

I would be perfectly content, if the bill passes now without either of those provisions, to never come back and “fix the bill” (at least the way he is thinking of it). But I’d rather gain a temporary victory against the individual mandate and have to come fight against it again in the future, than have the individual mandate pass and face the prospect of having to try and reverse it later.

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Howard Dean is Right

Posted on 2009-12-16 by David

Few people would predict that I would agree with Howard Dean as often as I do, fewer still should be at all surprised that I agree with him when he says of the Health Care Bill:

This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly, the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill.

Then again, I also agree with President Obama when he said:

the federal government “will go bankrupt” if Congress does not pass a health care bill

Of course we begin to disagree from there because I’m confident that we will go bankrupt at least as fast with his health care bill (any version of it) as we will if we do nothing. We need reform, but we don’t need this reform. Once again I agree with Howard Dean’s take on the cost issue:

He said he also doesn’t see cost-control measures but, rather “a whole bunch of bureaucracies and a lot of promises.”

While we disagree with what health care reform this nation needs I was dismayed by the truth pointed out by Chris Cillizza as he explained why he feels confident that despite all the wrangling, Congress will pass a health reform bill:

The broad strategy adopted by the White House toward health care is based on a single fundamental belief: coming out of this extended fight with nothing to show for it amounts to a political disaster not just for the President but for congressional Democrats as well.

“It’s a huge problem if nothing gets passed,” said one senior Democratic strategist. “Huge.”

Howard Dean is right about the dangers of that strategy:

We’ve gotten to this stage … in Washington where passing any bill is a victory, and that’s the problem. Decisions are being about the long-term future of this country for short-term political reasons, and that’s never a good sign.

I even agree with Howard Dean that there are some good elements in the current Health Care Reform bill. At least, I agree with him if Section 9002 is still in the bill. (As an aside, when did they return to the term “health care reform” from the more accurate “health insurance reform” that they had begun using earlier this year?)

I still contend that the only proper way forward on health care reform (and the only possible way forward when debate over this bill finally ends – regardless of the outcome) is to stop trying for some sweeping omnibus overhaul bill and pass individual pieces of legislation to take baby steps forward. If this bill passes the very first baby step forward will have to be the repeal of the individual mandate.

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Your Employer: Competitor or Collaborator?

Posted on 2009-12-15 by David

photo credit: Trypode

This question is framed in terms of employer sponsored health care benefits, but it really applies to any employer/employee interaction. Are you working with your employer, or are you competing with your employer? To put it another way, is your employer working with you, or simply working you?

I ask this because in the health care debate there are two groups of people who have opposing views on this. One group argues that employer sponsored health care as the dominant source of health insurance coverage is destructive because it distorts the health insurance market by locking people into few if any options for insurance and locks them out of the economic decisions about what plans they want. They also argue that everything your employer spends sponsoring health care coverage is money out of the employees paycheck. The other group argues that employer sponsored health care is a good thing because that is the only way most people can afford coverage and if the employer were to drop coverage the money they save would not go back into paychecks, but would simply pad their bottom line.

The second group obviously views the employer and employee as competitors. These are the people who favor unions because the employee’s need to band together in order to stand up to their employers. This adversarial relationship dampens production and hampers progress. Before anyone gets too upset with this analysis let me just say that there have been situations where unions were necessary but they are no panacea.

Let me explain why I think the first perspective is more accurate based on my own experience.

Continue reading →

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