You all realize, I'm sure, that health care is THE issue of the decade

It eclipses the wars. It eclipses 9/11. It eclipses the two stolen elections.

Not to minimize those and other issues, but all of them are moments in time or of some temporary duration. REAL health care reform will be transformative. It is more important than Medicare, which was really just an incremental step forward.

REAL health care reform is right up there with Social Security, the Voting Rights Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

This is not the time to triangulate, equivocate or abdicate.

It is the time for truly BOLD action.

The demand is huge; the opportunity fleeting. In all of my life, I can not recall an issue more impactful.

:dem:

-Laelth

If someone charged me a toll to walk down the sidewalk, I would be angry.

This is Obama's FDR moment. And if he doesn't seize it, I don't think he'll get another chance. The Democrats will pay a terrible price in the next round of elections, and his now-almost-taken-for-granted re-election will be doomed.

We'll be faced with a great big fat rightwing backlash, joined in part by disillusioned Democrats.

I would quit voting. I know I would.

You're right - if this one goes down in flames, nothing much matters after that. We're talking about saving lives, as if it were a war.

In fact, it is a war, and it's to save the lives of poor people, middle-class people, people who are not getting any kind of fair shake.

Hard one, Stinky. Real hard one, but backing down is not an option. Telling Congress that he's proposing to open Medicare to everyone who wants to buy in, and that Congress can just go fuck themselves would be an excellent starting point, one which everyone could understand.............................

Done!

Single payer.

No more insurance premiums.

Use that money to save/fund/expand Medicare.

What's your point? :shrug:

I was not sure what you meant. I assume now from your response that you were speaking specifically of "insurance" companies.

Everyone currently on medicare pays a monthly premium (unless they are receiving assistance) on a graduated scale based on earned income. Also, most seniors purchase private insurance policies to cover the deductibles, 20% copays and medicine.

What's your problem?

If we get non-reform "reform", I'm not sure I will be able to stomach the thought of voting again either.

Maybe a better metaphor would be that we are in a flood.

The insurance companies are selling sandbags at a profit, and only the rich can afford to protect their property.

The rest of us better pray that the water doesn't get too high in our neighbourhood, because if it does, we'll be left to drown.

if you mean things that affect US residents, sure.

If you look at it from an Iraqi perspective, no, our health care is a nonissue. The damage we are doing there is generational - and beyond generational, we've destroyed national/world treasures that were centuries old and irreplaceable; we've left residue in their soil that will continue to poison them well into the future.

If you look at it from a world perspective, all the stuff which impacts global warming and destroys the environment is far more critical than anything remotely related to health care.

as the doctor's oath says "First, do no harm."
Let's stop killing people overseas and then concentrate on our own health. At least the insurance companies are not dropping bombs on us (literally anyway).

as usual. I'd say a slightly bigger elephant in the room is the looming financial meltdown of the US as China yanks the rug out from under us. But, hopefully, we will still have a Government and therefore, government health insurance sure would be a boon to an otherwise horrible situation. And hey, we could, if we act quickly, be the first third world nation to have universal healthcare. Now, wouldn't that be a coup?

I'm not the fly in the ointment. I am a nurse fully behind government universal healthcare and kicking the insurance companies completely out. I just happen to see that there isn't just one issue of our lifetime. Damn, I wish it were so.

It could, to be sure. But it is far from a slam dunk.

Meanwhile, our citizens are REALLY hurting in the here and now.

I'm not minimizing the issue you cite with China. I'm simply not in agreement that it is bigger, although it does, indeed, have the potential to be so.

I don't think it's bigger, either, until the day they actually pull the rug. If they don't, we will limp along and it would be awfully important to have healthcare for all for that nasty limp. If the day comes that our provider cuts us off, all the other things become, well, less important. Food, water and shelter then become paramount above all. Ask any third worlder.

But yeah, I think you and I are on the same ticket here and we're fighting hard and we'll keep fighting until we get this.

Send this to Obama, and to the sellout Congresscritters...

and now it comes to a head. It's now or never. If I was a nail biter they'd be biten to the quick.

how say you?

"In all of my life, I can not recall an issue more impactful."

are there 51 Senate votes for single payer?

(If so) I can't believe that less that 10 people
can prevent the American people from getting
what they want.

More this century and for that matter, last century.

...so he can win this fight.

Got a link that proves conclusively your assertion(s)?

voted for this admin. And then there's Uncle Ted...

The private sector is hanging on to their healthcare profits like gold. It's not enough for them to have more defense contractors in Iraq/Afghanistan than we have troops. It's not enough for them to have naked drunken private security forces guarding our diplomats over there. They want to keep healthcare off limits to the government.

BTW, I think they eventually want the Defense Dept off limits to the government too. They are working on that with Blackwater, etc.