Fear strikes out - Krugman

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/opinion/22krugman.html?hp

The day before Sunday’s health care vote, President Obama gave an unscripted talk to House Democrats. Near the end, he spoke about why his party should pass reform: “Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.”

A keeper quote.

that gets played over and over throughout history.

I used to have that quote in my profile.

Make good on promises? What is fucking HELL does he mean? He promised a public option, no mandates, and no benefits taxes.

claimed, in an earlier incarnation, he was a proponent of single payer. As usual, nice talk, but reality is at odds with the content. Maybe those we've murdered in Afghanistan will appreciate the part about letting "whatever light we have shine," but I doubt it.

http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1946-night-watch-afghan-atrocity-and-american-values.html

Night Riders: Afghan Atrocity and American Values
Written by Chris Floyd
Saturday, 20 March 2010 01:19

If you are an American -- or indeed, any denizen of "Western Civilization" whose security and values are supposedly being "defended" on the far-flung fields of the Terror War -- then take a good, long look at what is being done in your name, with your money, by the ever-surging Peace Laureate and his War Machine. From The Times:

Covert troops who killed two pregnant women and a teenage girl in eastern Afghanistan went on to inflict “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” on the survivors of a botched night raid, a report by the UN said.

The family of the victims in Paktiya province have accused Nato of trying to cover up the atrocity after an investigation by The Times revealed that two men, who were also killed, were not the intended targets of the raid. One was a police commander and his brother was a district-attorney.

...The report, written in the aftermath of the February 12 attack, states: “As a result of the operation, five people were killed, two men and three women, all belonging to the same family.” There were about 25 guests and three musicians at the house on the night of the raid. They had gathered to celebrate the naming of a newborn child. It was only when a musician stepped outside to go to the lavatory at about 3.30am, that someone flashed a light in his eyes and he ran back inside shouting “Taleban”.

Witnesses said that Commander Dawood, the policeman, was shot with his son, Sediqullah, 15, when they ran across a courtyard. His brother, Saranwal Zahir, was shot trying to protest the family’s innocence. The three women were caught in a volley of fire behind him.

They had gathered to celebrate the naming of a newborn child. They had gathered in a family home, in their own country. They were not insurgents -- indeed, they at first mistook the Guardians of Western Civilization themselves as "Taliban," and sought to flee from them. But they were caught, shot, killed -- in their own country, in a family home, celebrating the naming of a newborn child.

In its current form, it's only a half-measure at best, a tiny step in a struggle that requires walking a mile. Mandating people to purchase private insurance with subsidies to those who are too poor to pay won't save us much money in the long-run because the system is hopelessly fragmented.

Ultimately, the measure that will be viable for the longest term is a form of Medicare for everyone, minus Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D. If there is a single entity negotiating prices for everybody, that entity automatically gains the upper hand in negotiating prices with care providers and pharmaceutical companies. This isn't the case in a market where you have several private entities, all of whom are primarily interested in profit margins, where each company operates on different standards and possesses its own bureaucracy. In business, the most efficient operations avoid costly duplication of activities, and having multiple entities providing insurance is a prime case of costly duplication.

The only reason this bill passed in its current form is because it was the only thing that was allowed to pass through Congress. There are a lot of corrupt people inside the halls of Congress, a lot of people on the dole, and a lot of people primarily interested in maintaining their grip on power past the next re-election campaign instead of being primarily interested in representing the views of their constituents, a sizable chunk of whom probably are rather poor.

guess his light didn't shine far enough to illuminate what he had previously said.