Health Care Reform

From Theodore Roosevelt To Bill Clinton: Presidential Commitment To Health Care For All Americans!

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As we celebrate the accomplishment of landmark legislation on health care, we must acknowledge for history the role of several Presidents of both parties who saw health care as a right for all Americans.

The fight has gone on for nearly a hundred years now, since Theodore Roosevelt first enunciated the idea in his 1912 Progressive Party platform.

Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke about it as a basic human right in his 1941 speech to Congress.

Harry Truman first promoted formal legislation on health care in the late 1940s, but it was stopped by a coalition of conservative Republicans and southern Democrats.

John F. Kennedy promoted Medicare, but could not get it past the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, a Southern Democrat.

Lyndon B. Johnson accomplished both Medicare in 1965 and Medicaid in 1966, overcoming the opposition of Wilbur Mills, the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee.

Richard Nixon came up with a health care plan which was rejected, sadly, for partisan reasons in the early 1970s.

Bill Clinton made the most massive effort for Health Care reform in 1993 and 1994, but it was rejected by Republicans and conservative Democrats.

Now, Barack Obama, with the full support and aggressiveness of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has gained what seven past Presidents worked on but could not fully achieve!

So let us salute and hail the seven former Presidents who had the guts, the courage, and the principles to make progress, no matter how limited, toward the ultimate goal that now has made Barack Obama an historic President!

When Obama is no longer President, and after his lifetime, Health Care reform will be part of the basic biography of this principled, dedicated man, who made his country a better place, as other great and near great Presidents have done!

A Tribute To Ted Kennedy’s Memory: Health Care Reform!

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Senator Ted Kennedy died pursuing his dream of Health Care reform legislation.

The Congress and President Obama have now paid tribute to his memory, and the greatness of this man in our legislative history, by enactment of Health Care reform on Sunday evening.

It was a touching moment that Kennedy’s widow, Vickie, and his son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, were present today when President Obama signed this bill, the most important in 45 years, into law.

The accomplishment of this reform will only add luster to the image that Ted Kennedy was one of the ten greatest Senators in American history, a man for the ages, who in many ways accomplished more than his brothers, John and Robert Kennedy!

The Futile GOP Attempt To Repeal Health Care Legislation

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The Republican party is moving ahead to attempt a repeal of the just enacted Health Care reform legislation. It is an exercise in futility, and further disgraces the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and even Ronald Reagan!

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Congressman Steve King of Iowa in the House, and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina have introduced bills to repeal the legislation.

For them and other Republicans, including John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Eric Cantor to endorse such action, only further marginalizes them in history and in the future political debates!

In order to accomplish the repeal over President Obama’s veto would require a two thirds vote in both houses, meaning a swing of 26 Republicans in the Senate and 113 Republicans in the House in the midterm 2010 elections.

That kind of swing has NEVER happened, and is not about to occur under the most optimistic scenarios! While there will be some gains by the GOP this November, to believe that history and the political atmosphere is on their side to bring about the impossible–a turnover of the legislation–is delusional, to say the least!

If the Republicans had any dignity, they would stop their ridiculous behavior! But what it comes down to is that the GOP has met its “Waterloo”, as Jim DeMint predicted Obama would meet. The tables have been turned on the GOP, and they are Napoleon, and Obama and the Democrats are Wellington!

To promote fear and hysteria, and to expect they will win power on such a basis, is a false strategy that the GOP will come to regret, unless its leaders are smart enough to move on and stop a bitter fight that cannot be won!

The Republican Party Shamed Itself : John Boehner And Randy Neugebauer

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The Republican Party will look bad in history by the way they conducted themselves in the Health Care debate over the past year.

Being the party of “NO!” and obstructionism, they resisted any cooperation with the Obama Administration, and even at the end yesterday, they acted in a disgraceful way!

John Boehner, the Minority Leader, shouted at the top of his lungs in anger that the bill was being voted on, making himself look very mean spirited and nasty, which seems to be his basic public persona.

At the same time, Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas did a “Joe Wilson”, shouting “Baby Killer!”, as Democratic anti abortion Congressman Bart Stupak spoke up in support of the legislation after an agreement with President Obama to issue an executive order banning any public funding of abortion under the legislation. Doesn’t Texas have enough embarrassment by the conduct of its governor, Rick Perry? Now one of its many outrageous Republican congressmen has further disgraced the state, which in many ways is becoming second to South Carolina for reputation of having politicians that destroy the state’s image!

Add the racist, sexist, and homophobic comments of Tea Party activists as they demonstrated against the bill’s passage, and one has to ask: Is anyone in the Republican Party NOT embarrassed by their membership and their followers? Can anyone be proud of being a Republican?

Memo To Rush Limbaugh: Start Packing For Move To Costa Rica! :)

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Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh declared in the past week that he would move to Costa Rica if Health Care reform passed into law.

Since that has now happened, it is time, Rush, to start packing!

You are very welcome to leave, and to access the public health care system that Costa Rica and every other democracy in the world already possesses!

Finally, at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, the United States is joining the other democratic nations in promoting a basic human right–health care!

So, Rush, hurry up and leave, as we are sick and tired of your poisonous, polluted rhetoric which only enriches you and divides the country and promotes hate!

Goodbye and good riddance! (as if you really will leave, which we know will NOT happen, as you are, as always, a damn liar who cares for no one but himself)!

A Great Moment In History: Health Care Reform Becomes Law! :)

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It has finally happened! 🙂

Health Care reform is now law as of this minute!

There will be time to analyze this event, but at this point, plaudits are due Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and President Obama, for sticking to their guns and not caving in to the conservative and Republican lies and propaganda over the past year.

The campaign of 2010 is in full swing, and we will see how the American people react, but I think they will not wish to repeal this path breaking, historic moment bringing health care to millions of more people, as a basic right of all human beings!

This is indeed one of the great progressive moments of reform in our republic’s history! 🙂 HOORAY! 🙂

Anti Obama T Shirts Reach A New Low : Is This Religious Terrorism? YES! :(

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The opposition to President Obama has been fierce, and all kinds of crazy assertions about him have multiplied since he has resided in the White House, and as he has fought for Health Care reform.

But when Bill O’Reilly can ask Lou Dobbs if Obama is the devil, and this weekend, we discover that anti Obama T shirts that quote the King James version of the Bible, Psalm 109:8–“Let his day be few; Let another take his office”–and Psalm 109:9–“Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow”–are being sold online, it is time to say: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” 🙁

How can anyone, who claims to be “religious”, preach violence and death on our President, no matter who he is? 🙁

We have been working against Islamic religious terrorism for the past nine years since September 11, and now, in our midst, we have Christian religious terrorism! Are we to stand by and say that is ok, because it is Christianity?

NO religious terrorism, whether it be Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or whatever is EVER acceptable!

For a “religious” person to promote hate and pray for death is a sickness that MUST be condemned and worked against! Any preacher, talk show host, or political leader who advocates violence and death for anyone in public life has gone beyond the pale, and must be ostracized, and in many cases, prosecuted, as this is “speech” which presents “a clear and present danger” that is not to be protected by the First Amendment.

If we allow this hatred to spread as a poison in our society, one day we will wake up and be facing another Kennedy type assassination that will be a great human tragedy for our nation! We do not want to go through the trauma of the 1960s, when we lost three gifted men–John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.–, and we must as a nation make it clear we will NOT tolerate the kind of hate and threats that religious extremists of any faith advocate!

Religious conviction cannot be a license for violence and hate, and all decent people must deplore it and call for action NOW to stop it before it destroys our nation! 🙁

The Menacing, Anarchistic Tea Party Mob And Capitol Hill Demonstrations Against Health Care Reform

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Today, Saturday, a day before the big House of Representatives vote on Capitol Hill on Health Care reform, the US Capitol and the surrounding House Office Buildings are being besieged by a mob of chanting, belligerent demonstrators shouting epithets at Democrats, including Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Henry Waxman of California.

These anarchists are causing some to wonder why the Capitol Police do not arrest some of the demonstrators as using inappropriate language, conducting themselves in a menacing mob like mentality, and making many observers wonder if we are going to allow a mob psychology to dictate what the US House does tomorrow!

The fact that GOP members of Congress, led by loony Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, have been encouraging lawlessness and open defiance by these Tea Party activists, is to be condemned, and if any violence occurs, those members of Congress encouraging this lawlessness and anarchy should be arrested along with the bums that are acting worse than animals, and measures should be taken to expel such members from the House of Representatives as having conducted themselves inappropriately and unacceptably as lawmakers!

The fear is there that we could see anarchy in Washington, DC if we do not establish that law and order will be imposed if the misbehaving, law breaking domestic “terrorists” that call themselves Tea Party Patriots do not start acting civil and decent in government buildings!

The right of freedom of speech and assembly survives, but not lawless, anarchistic behavior, which must be cracked down upon and punished promptly! 🙁

Barack Obama’s Popularity Remains High Despite Health Care Controversy

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Amidst all of the criticism of President Obama on conservative talk radio and Fox News Channel, the fact is that he remains extremely popular personally. That is certainly infuriating to his naysayers!

While polls this week show Obama down to an all time low of 46 percent, realize that if after all of the venom used against him by Tea Party activists and other conservatives he is still that close to 50 percent, then indeed he is in good shape!

Polls show that 61 percent still find Obama inspiring; 57 percent see him as decisive; 54 percent state that he gives them hope for the future; and 49 percent say he makes them feel proud.

Only about a third feel Obama is arrogant or detached, or makes them feel angry. Only 12 percent of conservative Republicans like the job Obama is doing, but twice that number still find him inspiring.

Early indications are that Obama is in good shape for 2012, considering these polls numbers from the Pew Research Center. While there may be discontent, Obama has not fallen to the low figures that George W. Bush had, and it is, at this point, hard to see any Republican opponent being strong enough to counteract him.

7 Years, $700 Billion For Iraq War, But No Money For Health Care?

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Today marks seven years of the Iraq War, at the cost of $700 Billion, plus over four thousand dead soldiers, and 30,000 plus wounded, many seriously.

This war is now longer than any war in American History, except the Afghan War and the Vietnam War! We have lost so much in young lives and treasure. But we went ahead and continue to pay for it without question!

But the fact that 45,000 Americans die every year for lack of health care seems not to phase Republicans and conservatives, who claim we cannot afford the health care plan costs.

So because we blundered and got involved in a war that has sucked us dry, now the American people have to be denied what should be a basic human right to health care!

If we can, somehow, afford to wage wars that have no end and are bleeding us dry, then we must also find a way to have those who are more fortunate, and have evaded taxes in the past ten years, to start paying now for the good fortune they have had, and to start paying the higher level of taxes they should have been paying, if it was not for the GOP working to favor the upper class and harm the middle class, which they have done, now leading to the Great Recession!