...It's official: no public option. Congratulations! Because you stood up, the President and the government heard you. The spineless wonders probably only caved because they care about their own hides, BUT if you didn't stand up you can bet Universal Health would have been passed. But don't celebrate yet -- there is still work to be done. Think the progressives will give up that easily? ~ Glenn Beck, Right-wing loony toon and Fox News propagandizer.
This morning I received an "urgent message" via email from the "League of American Voters" which warned me that I shouldn't become "complacent" regarding the defeat of "ObamaCare" (although the message implied that such a defeat may be imminent, otherwise Obama wouldn't be "frantic" about getting an interim senator to replace Ted Kennedy until the MA special election in January).
A "League" that purports to represent "American Voters" has got to be one of those "grass roots" organizations representing ordinary middle-class Americans, right? If "ordinary" Americans are really against reforming the healthcare insurance industry then this "monstrosity" should go down in defeat, shouldn't it? This is a democracy, after all. Shouldn't our REPRESENATIVES be giving us what we want?
So, lets take a look at the "League of American Voters" and the other so-called grassroots organizations and try to discern who, exactly, they are representing.
The "urgent message" concerning the fact that "ObamaCare" isn't quite dead yet was sent out by Newsmax. Financial backing for Newsmax was provided by a group of conservative investors, including billionaire, and "vast right-wing conspiracy" Godfather, Richard Mellon Scaife (dubbed the "funding father" of the Right by the Washington Post).
Newsmax founder Christopher W. Ruddy ascribes to the cuckoo right-wing conspiracy that Hillary Clinton murdered Vince Foster. In my opinion, Newsmax is in the same category as another blatant right-wing propaganda peddling "media organization" World NUT Daily, which claims that they are "A free press for a free people". They're good for a laugh, but not to be taken seriously.
According to PR watch, whose stated mission is to expose deceptive and misleading public relations campaigns, "the League of American Voters is housed at the very same Washington, D.C. address as a slew of other pro-business, conservative supposed grassroots citizen groups that lobby for business interests, like Americans for Tax Reform, the American Family Business Institute, and the Property Rights Alliance" (From "Big Insurance, Big Tobacco and You". Submitted to PR Watch by Anne Landman on 8/6/2009)
An article on Think Progress says, "The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo ... details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress".
If we take a look at who is bankrolling these supposed "grassroots" organizations - we find that Americans for Prosperity's largest contributor, "Koch Family Foundations" is a long-time supporter of conservative and libertarian political causes (with a damaged reputation due to multiple guilty rulings in federal and state lawsuits) (from Wikipedia).
FreedomWorks contributors include foundations controlled by the conservative Scaife family (as reported by Mark Ames' in "The Exiled" and The Washington Post). Another deceptively named group, "Patients United Now", is actually a subsidiary of "Americans for Prosperity".
Given these facts, I think I can honestly conclude that opposition to healthcare reform isn't coming from average Americans citizens who've come together to form a non-partisan grassroots "league". Opposition to healthcare reform is coming wealthy conservatives defending the revenue streams of other wealthy conservatives, or as journalist Mark Ames puts it "billionaires are posing as grassroots groups to oppose anything that isn't in the billionaires' interests, including health care reform...".
Don't write off that public option just yet.
ReplyDeleteAfter slogging through about 1/3 of HR 3200 I realized it is hopelessly mired in it's own verbiosity and so I'm now pushing HR 676 which is the single payer bill and only 30 pages. Very sane and straight forward. It will never pass because it's simple and fair and rational. Maybe I'll just move to Europe...
If you enter "Obamacare" at Wikipedia there actually is a redirect that takes you to a page titled "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" (H.R. 3200, introduced July 14, 2009).
ReplyDeleteThere is also a Wikipedia page for HR 676. The bill is titled "United States National Health Care Act", or the "Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act" and was introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI).
I encourage anyone who says that we can't afford National Healthcare to read the "Cost analysis of the bill" section. We CAN afford National Healthcare. In fact it would be CHEAPER (by far) in the long term.
I was listening to the Thom Hartmann program yesterday, and Thom quoted a study which claimed that the savings over 10 years (I believe) would be in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars. (I don't recall exactly, but I do plan on listening to the recording I made and transcribing that info for use in a future post).
For all the other ways a National Healthcare system would SAVE money, I recommend the following website:
Health Care Reform vs. Single Payer Like HR676.
It lays out the many ways huge amounts of money would be saved if the US adopted a single-payer system.
No offense to the blog hit booster lady but one comment from a TAO, Rockync or W-dervish is worth a hundred hits from a hoarde of apathetic fools searching for internet porn. Or a typical hit and run troll.
ReplyDeleteWhy, thank you, Truth! If you weren't already married and I wasn't already married... ummm, I could probably be your aunt! :)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, that's a lovely compliment and I thank you.
Was there any doubt about where the noise is coming from? Nothing can outshout the corporations, nothing else can be heard.
ReplyDeleteRather useful idea
ReplyDelete