The Health Care Bill Dies? Matt Taibbi

[Demeter]

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/07/28/the-health-care-bill-dies/


...The reason a real health-care bill is not going to get passed is simple: because nobody in Washington really wants it. There is insufficient political will to get it done. It doesn’t matter that it’s an urgent national calamity, that it is plainly obvious to anyone with an IQ over 8 that our system could not possibly be worse and needs to be fixed very soon, and that, moreover, the only people opposing a real reform bill are a pitifully small number of executives in the insurance industry who stand to lose the chance for a fifth summer house if this thing passes.

It won’t get done, because that’s not the way our government works. Our government doesn’t exist to protect voters from interests, it exists to protect interests from voters. The situation we have here is an angry and desperate population that at long last has voted in a majority that it believes should be able to pass a health care bill. It expects something to be done. The task of the lawmakers on the Hill, at least as they see things, is to create the appearance of having done something. And that’s what they’re doing. Personally, I think they’re doing a lousy job even of that. I lauded Roddick for playing out the string with heart, and giving a good show. But these Democrats aren’t even pretending to give a shit, not really. I mean, they’re not even willing to give up their vacations.

This whole business, it was a litmus test for whether or not we even have a functioning government. Here we had a political majority in congress and a popular president armed with oodles of political capital and backed by the overwhelming sentiment of perhaps 150 million Americans, and this government could not bring itself to offend ten thousand insurance men in order to pass a bill that addresses an urgent emergency. What’s left? Third-party politics?


POSTED ON JULY 28TH AND NO LESS TRUE TODAY

[Mr Rabble]

1. A great quote to describe "political will" from James Madison:

"The primary responsibility of government is to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority".

This is the way it works, and always has. There is of course one way to make sure that this does not continue.

We need to be as loud and as strong as possible.

[jtrockville]

2. I would change Madison's quote for today's times....

"The primary responsibility of government is to protect the people with the minority of the wealth against people with the majority of the wealth."

[bemildred]

3. Word.

Taibbi rocks. What we have is a thorougly corrupt and decadent political system, which can neither rule nor govern. It is illegitimate to the core. The only thing the Congress can agree on is war.

[WatchWhatISay]

11. The illusion of our Democracy is dead

And all we get out of it is reading a few great articles.

[FormerDittoHead]

4. He's got it right - IT'S NOT DEMOCRACY IT'S AN AUCTION.

>litmus test for whether or not we even have a functioning government

After having been TRICKED into thinking my political donations MEANT something, I've come realize WE'VE BEEN OUTBID.

you see, IF *WE* GAVE THEM MORE MONEY THAN THE CORPS, THEN *WE'D* WIN. But the insurance corps have taken the money WE GAVE TO THEM IN FEAR OF GETTING SICK, and BID HIGHER.

At what point do we say, "I give up."? I mean, if we vote for it, if they know what we want, what's best for us, what works everywhere else it's tried, but they refuse to give it to us because they get MORE money from the very few making an insane amount of money from the situation....

How can anyone call this a democratic representative gov't? How can anyone THINK that just because the Democrats don't want to DIVE INTO THE CULTURAL, ECOLOGICAL, AND ECONOMIC ABYSS THAT REPUBLICANS DO that that makes them GOOD and not just the lesser of two evils.

I will continue to vote for Democrats, if I vote at all, but if this clusterfuck turns out to be as bad as it's looking, don't ask me 1) for more money or 2) to give a shit.

[nightrain]

5. knr. we certainly have a massively dysfunctional government, formed by

dysfunctional and greedy people.

I guess if we're actually to get health CARE reform, it'll take the second coming! (If that even exists!) If the government won't act on our behalf, looks like we'll have to do it ourselves (as usual).

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. "This whole business, it was a litmus test for whether or not we even have a functioning government.

I think that the questin has been asked and answered.

"What's left? Third-party politics?" ---- Very possibly since Dems are letting us down just as surely as Republicans are and if anything the party is becoming even more corporate/conservative especially if "moderate" Republican refugees flood the party.

There are four major issues that define our American society today:

*Election Finance reform

*The role of government in protecting and promoting the interests of citizens and the nation as a whole and preventing the country from becoming a corporate fiefdom

*Healthcare reform since it's come to the point that 40,000 American deaths a year can be attributed to Lack of Coverage and the Americans who got ill and didn't die probably went bankrupt or suffered severe financial distress

*The overemphasis on Defense and War as a percentage of the GDP

I would hop on the train or bus for any movement/Party that articulated thos issues as their central platform and rounded up likeminded candidates.

[Demeter]

7. But Would We Survive The Experience?

Or get mowed down in the street?

I think there are enough Boomers sufficiently old, ill, desperate, who might find martyrdom a strangely compelling, if not the only choice left.

And with cries about "shooting granny in the street like a dog", maybe this whole horrible thing will finally come to a crashing end.

[WatchWhatISay]

12. Don't think about hopping on the train

Think about being the conducter

[eridani]

8. There are useful things in these bills that can be salvaged

So why not do that by removing them and passing them as separate legislation?

[WatchWhatISay]

13. Because you are talking about band-aids

when we need a tournaquate

[Narkos]

9. I love Taibbi, but his pessimism is starting to irritate. n/t

[Raster]

10. Pessimism? It's called reality.

[Narkos]

15. You really think the health care bill is dead?

I'd call that pessimistic.

[Raster]

16. In any real, viable, useful form? Yes.

[WatchWhatISay]

14. Read your own sig line

I think optimism requires more than a minor bit of delusion by now

[Narkos]

17. Wow, how my sig line relates to HCR is beyond me

So this is all about greed? Dude, you're way to cynical.