Bill Maher said something last week that was 100% true. Too long for twitter…
“You ever watch House or Gray’s Anatomy? It’s like ten or twelve doctors for just you. All they do is treat you and then they go home and fuck each other and think about you. That’s the fantasy.”
Makes a strong case for watching Nurse Jackie instead of House.
Unfortunately I don’t have much time to write about this since work has been real busy. I just wanted to say a few things about the bill.
I don’t like the whole thing. I’m not in love with it. I don’t like a lot of stuff that’s in it. Having said that, I do believe it’s the best we can do right now and if I were a member of congress, I would have voted for it. I wanted more in the bill like a lot more regulation on insurance companies and a robust public option (let alone ANY public option). But like Kucinich and other progressives, I had to put those wants aside and realize this bill is the best we can do now.
People who won’t compromise get in the way of democracy. The entire Republican party basically refused to compromise. They couldn’t see the good things about the bill like no exclusions on preexisting conditions and adults can stay on their parents health care until 26. Even Bart Stupak wanted to vote no on the bill unless Obama issued an executive order for no funding on abortion (which that was assumed in the bill anyway… I guess Stupak just needed it underlined and in BOLD).
Stupak did compromise and he did vote for the bill (to which he does deserve a thank you). Republican’s couldn’t and I believe they’re on the wrong side of history yet again.
Now, what I’m scared of is people not knowing or realizing that this bill helped them, just like how some people don’t realize that Medicare is a government run program. I’m worried that those teabaggers will not realize that when they get sick, their insurance company can’t drop them like they used to before this bill.
I’m also worried that when (big IF) the Republicans regain power in 2012, they’ll get the credit for the bill when it takes effect in 2014 (kinda like Obama took credit for the new GI bill which Bush passed). I’m also worried that they won’t get the bad rep for NOT supporting it.
I do hope that progressives won’t give up on wanting a single payer universal health care system like the other first world countries. Nancy Pelosi declared HC solved. Progressives don’t think so. I just hope they don’t give up the fight. I know I won’t.
Enough ranting… I also wanted to point to a good resource about information about the bill: www.politifact.com . It’s a bipartisan site with lots of good stuff.
So Dennis Kucinich decided to change his mind and vote for the current HCR bill. He rode on Air Force One, had a talk with Obama and Pelosi and decided to switch. Ever since he’s been getting flack for it.
I don’t really think he deserves it. Bloggers have been bashing him, calling him a Washington Insider, etc. I know why he did it, and it could be the right thing to do. I totally agree with him, the bill is a tremendous give away to the insurance companies, but at least it’s something. If I were Kucinich, I’d probably do the same thing. You also have a lot of progressives that support the bill like Alan Grayson.
It’s by far not the right bill, but Kucinich has hope that it’ll be a start. He has hope that there will be other bills introduced that will make it better. Congress just doesn’t have the vote thanks to centrist and bought out Dems for it to be better right now.
I’d follow Kucinich anywhere. I have complete faith in him. I really wish he’d become more popular and have a shot at POTUS. I think he does the right thing, every time. He’s one of the few representatives that I actually trust.
I really hope he doesn’t have a good Democratic challenger in the primary. We need him and we need more people like him in Congress.
I’ve been wanting to blog about this topic for a while, but some songs just get on my nerves because they are so elitist. A few come to mind: