Archive for 'Healthcare' Category

Wilson’s “Lie” reveals GOP wants untenable Citizenship test for healthcare.

Everyone has heard by now “the heckle heard round the world”: Rep. Joe Wilson’s astoundingly disrespectful outburst calling the President of the United States a liar before a televised joint session of Congress Wednesday. But that incident is only half the story. What Wilson was referring to is the other. While there are five draft [...]

Petition: Public Option must be available to EVERYONE, or there’s no incentive to cut costs!

During his historic healthcare speech Wednesday night, President Obama suggested the possibility of placing crippling restrictions on any Public Option that would almost certainly doom it to fail from Day One.     In response, I have created the following petition on Change.org. Please forward the link to everyone you know. – Mugsy Public Option [...]

Healthcare reform as Economic stimulus.

Some call me crazy (and some have called me worse… like “a Republican”), but I watch Fox News Sunday every week as part of my Sunday routine of watching all the political talkshows every Sunday morning. I subject myself to this torture each week to catch moments like the one below from a week ago: [...]

Bi-Partisanship is Hurting Democrats

(Special bonus op/ed) After the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy last week, a parade of Republicans lined up to bemoan how his departure could spell the end of bi-partisanship in the Senate with regards to the healthcare bill. Because, as we all know, “bi-partisanship is a one-way street in Republicanland”. Kennedy is gone. Ipso-facto, these [...]

Ted Poe’s Healthcare Town Hall in a Funeral Home. A live report.

Saturday, Texas Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) held his “Healthcare Town Hall” in the chapel of a Houston funeral home, which I attended. Despite Poe’s insistence that they had held other “Town Halls” there before (a wealthy Houston suburb consisting almost entirely of Republicans), the choice of venue was clearly deliberate. Political theater at its most [...]

Is this country literally too stupid to live? Will Public Option be defeated by those who need it most?

During Sunday’s political talkshows, the consensus appeared to be that “the Public Option is dead.” If so, I can guarantee you the healthcare lobbyists and special interests are dancing in their offices this morning, smelling victory in the air as a $173 million dollar effort to defeat healthcare reform pays off. Through a well-concerted effort of [...]

Standing up to Town Hall stupidity.

I was all prepared to talk about Rightwing lunacy in general this week following a parade of morons hitting the headlines day after day, but (as is so often the case), I got distracted. This week, we saw the Stock Market close above 9,300… it’s highest point since before Bush left office (Election Day to [...]

Why they are fighting it: Because a Cap on Profits is Inevitable.

A major concern regarding a government insurance program, should one pass, is that Private insurers will snap up all the “healthy” people, turning the Public plan into a dumping ground for the highest risk & most costly patients, costing the government billions. While it has been nice this past week to FINALLY hear President Obama [...]

A Special Place in Hell for Healthcare Reform Opponents.

I learned just minutes ago that a member of my extended family died of throat cancer (my step-brothers’ father). As bad as it is to lose any family member to cancer, it is made doubly awful by the fact it happened so quickly. Around February or March of this year, he was finally hospitalized after [...]

How to fund healthcare and create jobs by closing foreign tax loopholes.

A story on the BBC caught my attention last week:   China’s economy soars thanks to MASSIVE government spending on infrastructure   In a perfect example of “the tail wagging the dog”, the Republican minority… the very same group whose policies got us into this economic nightmare… are controlling the debate on how to revive [...]

Overlooked Savings from Single-Payer Healthcare

Ask any Republican, “If you could pass a tax cut that saved the average American $10-$30,000 a year and the average corporation millions of dollars a year, would you do it?” What do you think their answer would be? It’s harder to argue against a “Single-Payer” healthcare system when you phrase it in those terms, [...]

Health Insurance costs are killing the car companies.

Sometime today, General Motors (GM) is expected to declare bankruptcy, joining fellow U.S. automaker Chrysler, who should announce its emergence from the bankruptcy declared barely one month ago as it is bought out by Italian automaker Fiat. Ford, the third of the “Big Three”, in what I believe was a shrewd marketing ploy more than [...]