Being the Change I Wish to See

I don’t know what the Republicans are smoking these days, but they’re acting crazy enough for it to be LSD. And by crazy I mean psychotic and certifiably insane. When you can’t get anywhere by just saying no, you have to make up lies to scare people so they’ll feel okay about it when you screw them royally.

GOP Health Care Reform Myths

Health care reform with a public option won’t save money and is a secret plot to make the elderly sign papers on their choice of how they want to be euthanized. The money for taking care of everyone else will be paid for by the early deaths of our elderly citizens, since end-of-life care is usually very expensive. Oh, and it will encourage more women to have government-paid abortions. — GOP Wing-Nut Deathers

Reality

The deathers are putting forth such a big lie it’s ridiculous! Euthanasia of humans is illegal. There is nothing in any legislation to make it legal.

The only thing everyone is encouraged to do is to make a living will so their families don’t have to make really tough, heart-wrenching decisions when a patient can no longer speak for him or her self. Just like everyone 18 and over should have a will, everyone 18 and over should have a living will and appropriate powers of attorney.

An overwhelming majority of Americans want real reform. What pisses me off the most is nearly all Republicans are sitting in Washington NOT representing what their constituents want and need. That’s not why they were elected and not what we’re paying them to do.

The President demands the following on health insurance coverage for all Americans:

• No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
• No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
• No cost-sharing for preventive care
• No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
• No gender discrimination
• No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
• Extended coverage for young adults
• Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid

Bills being worked on in the House and Senate have these items and will also include help for many middle class families to pay premiums and will continue to make sure millions of children remain covered under SCHIP.

The cost of all health care for everyone is increasing at alarming rates. Only 38% of Americans are covered by employer health insurance plans today. Forty-eight million Americans are uninsured and the number of uninsured increases by 14,000 people per day. Another 35-40 million Americans are under-insured. These people are one serious illness away from financial disaster.

The U.S. population is currently about 306 million people. The number of uninsured and under-insured consists of roughly 1/3 of the American population. We are the richest country in the world and we can’t afford to take care of our peoples’ health care? Bullpuckey.

We are the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have universal health care. We spend far more on health care than any other country and we are not getting our money’s worth. We have far more negative outcomes compared to other industrialized nations. Our people live sicker and die younger than they have to because they can’t afford adequate preventive and managed care, along with better care for sick people.

In 1993, 68% of people were insured by their employers with better benefits and far fewer Americans were uninsured than today.

If we require everyone to be insured, costs will decline and risk will be evenly spread through the entire population. It would be illegal to deny coverage, and a public option along with non-profit options will control insurance premium costs and keep the private insurance companies from making a killing off the American people like they are now.

Government-run health care is so horrible and so expensive that all Senators and Representatives, federal employees, the President and his family, the elderly, and veterans are well covered by it and very much like the cost and the benefits they have. The VA costs 2/3 of what private health care costs and provides better outcomes. These government-run plans cost less because they are non-profit. They also have more streamlined delivery of health care to its members, which lowers costs.

Elderly people have written President Obama letters against government-run health care, and say by the way, don’t mess with their Medicare! Uh…Medicare is a government-run health care plan.

Why aren’t the rest of the American people entitled to the same benefits as our Senators and Representatives, federal employees, elderly, veterans and President? Because the private insurance companies who are in the wallets of the GOP would lose a ton of money if they had to compete with a government-run plan that doesn’t buy politicians, pay its executives huge salaries and shoulder the costs of marketing and advertising to get the few people they are willing to insure.

The system is broken and we either fix it now or it will be kicked down the road for us to fix in 5 or 10 years when we may be in a far worse economic crisis. Without health care reform, insuring everyone and reducing costs, our economy won’t recover as much as it needs to. When 5-10 years gets here with no changes, we will spend $1 out of every $5 on health care costs. If we get a plan like the President wants, we will save $2-$3 trillion over the next decade.

While you mull that over in your mind, remember these bozos who are debating your health care future and spreading lies and myths have great insurance paid for by YOU!

At least Harry and Louise are for health care reform this time…

Sources: Healthcare Reform Myths
Who’s behind the attacks on a health care overhaul? McClatchy

Technorati Tags: deathers, GOP fearmongering, health care reform, living will, right-wing nuts

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Pres. Obama speaks at NAACP 100th Anniversary

July 16, 2009 was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the U.S. Yet on this day, and during this week, the GOP members of the Senate committee holding Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings were all about race.

Sotomayor’s record, experience and other qualifications seemed to have little bearing on her confirmation. It’s ironic that she is a shoe-in for the appointment given her long record and experience on the Federal bench, and that the Senate has confirmed her twice over the past two decades for Federal judge-ships.

Judge Sotomayor at Senate Confirmation Hearings

I don’t know why I’m shocked, given I live in South Louisiana where racial prejudice is a common occurrence. Nevertheless, I am shocked that in 2009 anyone would go on TV and defend the white race as the race against which discrimination is the problem, and that racial diversity and affirmative action have no place in building our society to be stronger and better than it was in the past.

Pat Buchanan clearly fell down on his debating skills last night on The Rachel Maddow Show. I never agree with him, but Pat is usually great at debate. He usually gets all his facts right and supports his position well. Last night, he didn’t have a defensible argument of any sort, and his examples were essentially fact-free.

Please watch the following video of Mr. Buchanan’s argument:

How Rachel keeps her cool with Pat is beyond me. I would have beat the crap out of him by now. Perhaps it is best that we are made aware that these beliefs and attitudes are still clearly in existence in America today. Maybe it is best that we know we still have a lot of work to do on racism, and by giving Pat a forum, Rachel is making that point crystal clear.

Pat’s arguments are all opinion-based. He believes white people built America and fought in our major wars. Pat said persons of color had nothing to do with any of it. Please watch the following video where Rachel Maddow corrects Pat’s “facts”.

For his argument to be affirmative action is the deliberate discrimination of white males, and that anyone who benefits from affirmative action automatically is not qualified to enter educational institutions such as Princeton or Yale, and is automatically not qualified to serve on the Supreme Court is beyond reason.

Affirmative action is not a gender or racial quota program, nor does it advance unqualified women and minorities over more qualified white males. It’s only function is to assist equally qualified women and minorities to be given a preference in education and jobs. Equally qualified, meaning if a woman or minority candidate is equally or better qualified for a job or admission to a school, the minority candidate should be hired or admitted before the white guy. This is not unreasonable given women and minorities were denied access to jobs and education for centuries because they were women and minorities. Women still earn 78% of what men earn in equal positions with equal experience.

Judge Sotomayor had some affirmative action help getting into Princeton, but once there, her performance was completely up to her, and she performed brilliantly. She was a summa cum laude graduate from Princeton, meaning she graduated in the top 10% of her class. Once you’re in, no affirmative action program helps you get good grades. You’re on your own. I seriously doubt her admission to Yale had anything to do with race or gender since she graduated so highly in her Princeton class. She went on to serve on the Yale Law Review, another position that has nothing to do with affirmative action.

That Pat would presume to lecture Rachel on working class white people being discriminated against is almost laughable if he didn’t believe what he was saying. Given his family and status, I seriously doubt he even knows anyone who is a white working class person. That’s my opinion. Rachel grew up in a middle class family and attended public school, went to Stanford University on scholarships and then received a Rhodes Scholarship and earned her Ph.D.

Rachel spent some years being dirt poor while she finished her Ph.D. She had to work at a plethora of minimum wage and hard labor jobs until she finished her doctoral dissertation. I have known many graduate students, and they are extremely poor, unless their parents are helping them financially.

In the past couple of years has Rachel gotten a break and made her radio show and TV guest appearances into a rock star career with MSNBC. She impressed Keith Olbermann, and he helped her get the exposure and recognition she needed with the top brass. She kept his ratings while he was on vacation when she subbed for him last summer. She had a mentor in her corner, but she had to perform to get where she is.

Pat was far more privileged than most of us, though he doesn’t have his own TV show. His parents afforded his Georgetown University education, from which he did not graduate cum laude, meaning in the top 30% of his class. He wasn’t a Rhodes Scholar. Rachel had to work for everything she has become. She likely didn’t benefit at all from affirmative action. She went to college in 1990 when women entering college was commonplace. She has likely faced discrimination because she is openly gay.

Pat Buchanan is showing his racial fear in his column and in his television appearances this week through open racial hatred focused on Sonia Sotomayor. I hate to tell him that the demographics of the United States have changed significantly since the 1950′s. We are close to the tipping point where whites will no longer be the majority race in America. Racism is a dangerous path for the GOP to take because if they don’t win Latino, Asian and African American voters, they will never rise to power again.

Pat Buchanan and other whites with his opinion had better wake up and smell the coffee because their lily-white America doesn’t exist anymore. It isn’t reality and it isn’t fair. Americans are all supposed to be equal, but in the eyes of Pat Buchanan, some Americans (white men) should still be more equal than others (see Animal Farm by George Orwell).

Photo Credits:
President Obama: Chicago Sun-Times
Judge Sotomayor: Huffington Post.com

Technorati Tags: affirmative action, Barack Obama, NAACP 100th Anniversary, Pat Buchanan, Rachel Maddow, racism, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice Senate confirmation

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