Update: This writer hasn't had the opportunity to listen to progressive radio consistently as of late, but have sent e-mail messages to the Thom Hartmann Show, the Norman Goldman Show, the Randi Rhodes Show and the Mike Malloy Show. These messages include a note of thanks if they have already covered this story and encouragement to provide some airtime for this bill if they have not yet done so.
The Ed Schultz Show interviewed Alan Grayson today between the 30 and 45 minute mark of the first hour. If interested, you can go to here, where you can find links to a live or tape delayed feed on various stations about the country.
Once this writer receives an e-mail response from his representative, this article will be further updated. Stay tuned!
H. R. 4789 is so simple and makes so much sense that corporate Dems will stumble all over themselves trying to sweep this pesky bill under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist. This bill is only four pages long and within two days has gained at least 50 co-sponsors as well as more than 25,000 signatures on a mass e-mail petition.
Would you like the option of buying into Medicare at any age, at cost? This bill, if passed, would not require even one cent from taxpayers. War hawks should be reassured since this bill would not divert a single penny from funding dedicated to blowing up innocent people on the other side of the globe.
Rep. Grayson eloquently explains this bill on the video that follows...
Markos Moulitsas (DKos) is now calling progressive Congressman Dennis Kucinich "reprehensible" for having the strength of integrity and character to refuse to agree to this hollowed-out, Insurance-Monopoly, bailout-bill (unlike Barack Obama and the Democratic Leadership). Link: Markos attacks the progressive Congressman.
Gee, isn't that what we all wanted from Democrats? The strength not to just cave in all the time like scared sheep, and actually stand up for something? (unlike Markos himself apparently).
Even as we speak, both Howard Dean and Alan Grayson have now also ramped-up the rhetoric for introducing some type of Medicare Buy In (a.k.a. "public option") as a reconcilliation fix for the existing corrupt Health Care Bill. Alan Grayson has even formally proposed a "public option act" H.R. 4789.
In reality, Obama and Rahm Emanuel really don't want there to be any "fixes" of any consequence made to their happy Insurance Monopoly bill. And without Presidential leadership and support, any reconcilliation efforts will quickly fail, and may never even see any formal debate or consideration (as the Democratic Leadership always happily succumbs to the pressures exerted by Rahm Emanuel and Obama -- like yet another massive War Funding bill).
Perhaps the best thing that could happen here would be that the Obama Health Care Bill falls short by a vote or two in the House. At that point, instead of a $70 Billion Bailout to Insurance Fat Cats, and IRS fees for defenseless U.S. citizens, the whole process would then have to be rethought.
In the event of Obama and Rahm having failed to shove a Insurance Monopoly bill down our throats, perhaps then a set of individual, stand-alone bills could be brought forward to make some real progress on Health Care Reform. For example:
A stand alone bill to end the denial of care based on "pre-existing conditions" (even many GOP members support this provision).
An expansion of Medicare, or Medicare-Buy-In, passed through the reconcilliation process.
A repeal of the existing Anti-Trust rules that protects the Insurance Monopoly.
Funding for local, cost-effective Health Care Clinics.
How about a bill to actually allow the reimportation of cheaper generic drugs from Canada? (Rahm and Obama would be pissed)
The Democratic talking-point here that the Obama's sell-out bill is "the only way" to ever make forward progress on Health Care, is just like the same faulty logic that we heard before with the crooked Goldman Sachs/Wall-Street bailouts (who by the way are now making big profits, and the CEOs are getting huge bonuses -- with that money that we gave them).
Lies don't equal reform.
And neither does a corrupt system of bailouts, and mandates in the service of a Monopoly.
In a 5-to-4 decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations have the "right" to spend an unlimited amount of money to influence and manipulate federal elections. The decision overturns more than a century of law and precedent.
[...]
"The Supreme Court has decided to protect the rights of GE, Volkswagen, Lukoil and Aramco, at the expense of our right to good government," Grayson added.
[...]
Today, Rep. Grayson called for immediate action on his Save Our Democracy bills. "If we do nothing, then before long, there won't be Senators from Oklahoma or Virginia, there will be Senators from Citibank and WalMart. Maybe they will wear insignias on their $500 suits, like NASCAR drivers do."
Question is, do our Legslators have the guts to make use of our Constitutional "Checks and Balances"?
Can the Legslators actually pass laws to reel in the excesses of the Corporate Rights enabling Court?
Democrats See GOP Hypocrisy in Health Care Debate Citing 2003 Medicare vote, Democrats see GOP hypocrites in debate over health care spending
Charles Babington, AP Writer
Dec 25, 2009
[...] when Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House in 2003, they overcame Democratic opposition to add a deficit-financed prescription drug benefit to Medicare. The program will cost a half-trillion dollars over 10 years, or more by some estimates.
With no new taxes or spending offsets accompanying the Medicare drug program, the cost has been added to the federal debt.
[...]
Six years ago, "it was standard practice not to pay for things," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Cross-posted at Daily Kos ********************************
Jacob Heilbrunn has a new essay up at the Huffington Post titled "Please, Cut Obama Some Slack." It is Exhibit A in hero mythology of the President, as well as a prime example of chastising anyone -- even progressives -- who would dare criticize any of Obama's policies.
A year ago, Barack Obama was a hero for Democrats. Now he's becoming a villain. Have the Democrats lost their minds?
The tenebrous story is recounted by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, who notes that some liberals are even starting to join forces with the tea party to decry Obama over the confirmation of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The decriers are also upset about Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, the administration's readiness to make concessions on health care, its failure to shutter Guantanamo, along with a host of other grievances.
Apparently, because some liberals have chosen not to regard President Obama as a "hero" and have begun to seriously question some of the policies of the Obama Administration, that qualifies Heilbrunn to assert that those same liberals have "lost their minds." Heilbrunn doesn't identify in his article who those allegedly insane Democrats are -- though for the record, Dana Milbank does, naming liberal voices such as Howard Dean, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, MoveOn.org, John Conyers, and Alan Grayson as the progressives who are supposedly "joining forces with the tea party," to use Heilbrunn's language.
H.R. 1068, the Let Wall Street Pay for Wall Street's Bailout Act.
Wall Street Transaction Tax Proposed by Democrats Ryan J. Donmoyer
Dec. 3, 2009 (Bloomberg) -- A group of congressional Democrats proposed taxing large transactions in stocks and derivatives, an idea that has received a cool reception from the Obama administration. [...]
.25 Percent for Stocks
The measure would be based on legislation DeFazio proposed in the House that would apply a tax of 0.25 percent or 25 basis points to stock transactions in excess of $100,000, and a levy of 0.02 percent or 2 basis points on derivatives including futures, options, swaps and credit default swaps.
Harkin and DeFazio said the proposed new levy is backed by more than 200 economists, the AFL-CIO labor union federation and business leaders including Warren Buffett and Vanguard Group Inc. founder John C. Bogle, now president of Bogle Financial Markets Research.
"My daughter got sick with cancer after her husband lost his job. She never told anyone she was sick because she knew the financial hardship it would cause and eventually the hospital would take their house for unpaid medical bills. We lost her in the following spring ... We read her diary and learned all she was feeling and thinking. Now I wonder how many others are just like her in this America? And how many before her?"
Deaths due to Preventable Diseases: Dead Last
Rankings 1st to 19th. France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, Austria, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Portugal, United States
If you DON'T Study, DON'T play by the Rules, and DON'T CARE who is hurt by your careless actions -- would you expect an "all expenses paid" Scholarship? ... or record Bonuses? ... or more free Mad Money than you know what to do with?
Hardly!
Yet that is exactly what the reckless Wall Street Bankers got -- HUGE Rewards -- FOR BEHAVING BADLY!
In some circles, this is call Co-dependency and "Enabling" ...
In America we call it "Too Big to Fail".
Well Alan Grayson and Ron Paul, are about expose this Trillion Dollar "reward for failure" system, for what it is ...
Rep. Alan Grayson on the Fed Bailing Out Big Banks:
"You Don't Give Scholarships to Kids Who Fail"
Back in late September, Alan Grayson (Big D-FL08) grilled Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez on whether or not the Federal Reserve has manipulated the stock and futures market. Since this hasn't been diaried and Sunday is a slow news day, I thought it would be fun to watch Alan Grayson in action in a bit of a flashback.
(UPDATE: Unfortunately and oddly, the video is no longer working for some strange reason. Good thing I transcribed it when I did. I am looking for another version of the same vide, so hang in there until I can find it
(Updated to include all 4 videos, with a hat tip to Kossacks Scarce and Miss Information)
Not just GUTS, but HEART too.
After reading over 8 minutes of the testimony of the people who have lost loved ones to our Murder For Profit Health Insurance, Alan Grayson invoked the name of God and pleadedbefore Congress "For Gods' sake, I look forward to a time when we will have finally done our jobs."
Video 1
I have provided a short transcript of the final video of Grayson's House floor speech, and I hope you will forgive me for not including a transcript of the first. I can not transcribe it by ear without welling up in tears myself.
This is another absolute beaut from the CongressmanWithGUTS, Alan Grayson (BIG D-FL08).
In a hearing on the Republican Witch Hunt over ACORN (pardon to any witches), Alan Grayson SCHOOLS the Republicans on the committee and achieved classic EPIC WIN!
Alan Grayson has recently raised the ire of the corpatocracy and their volunteer army of teabaggers merely by simply stating the obvious, this being our obligation as good citizens, as defined by the Republican Party and the mislabeled "centrists" of the Democratic Party:
1. Don't get sick.
2. If you do get sick...
3. Die quickly.
The Economic Royalist cabal has cried loudly, and in unison, demanding that Mr. Grayson apologize. And even some in the so-called liberal blogosphere have joined the call for him to fall on his sword for his Holocaust reference. Although the numbers of dead (officially) are not yet as large, Big Money in this country has positioned themselves to realize a profit from the deaths of those inhabiting the "undesirable" class, those whose lack of wealth must surely be due to laziness and sloth. Even the Nazis, to our knowledge, did not realize six and seven-figure tax-free payouts from those who were sent to the gas chambers. Fortunately, Rep. Grayson's recent apology was not what his detractors had in mind, that of apologizing for the congressional inaction that continues while approximately 122 people per day die in this country due to lack of access to healthcare. In case you haven't seen it yet:
Adding to the intrigue is the recent revelation that Wall Street is now combining life insurance settlements, bundling and securitizing them. Again, if you or one of your loved ones is party to such a settlement, the sooner you die, the more lucrative the payout for whoever now stands to profit from your death. There are many articles about this topic to be found. Here is one: http://moneynews.com/investing...
The matter of unbridled corporate greed and profiteering from the deaths of the "underclass" was brought to light on or before April, 2008, specifically, that of Wal-Mart taking out life insurance policies on their lower level employees, without their knowledge, with the proceeds paid to the company upon that worker's death. This story can be seen at the following link, which was added to youtube almost a year and a half ago (Warning: if you have a severe allergy to salty language, you may wish to skip this video or cover your children's ears):
Although many of us were already aware of this phenomenon, Michael Moore's film, "Capitalism: A Love Story", now shines an unwelcome light on this absolutely deplorable practice in such a manner that a much broader cross section of people in this country will be aware of this practice.
Frank Luntz must surely be working overtime to help the Reich Wing counter this story, raising fears that if our corporations cannot improve their bottom lines by employing such practices, even more jobs will be moving offshore, although these same people cheered the matter of the 315,000 2012 Summer Olympics jobs going to Brazil rather than the United States. And like the German people in the 1930s and 1940s, the teabaggers, zombie-like, will slavishly and obediently fall into line. Adolf Hitler clearly understood this practice and the usefulness of the teabagger set, as revealed by the following quotes:
"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those toward whom it is directed will understand it... Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."
"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies, but would be ashamed to tell big lies."
"What luck for the rulers that men do not think."
Unfortunately, the embedding feature has been disabled on youtube, however, you can view a recent ABC news story about this travesty at the following web address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Predictably, the ABC News story significantly downplays the frightening implications raised by this deplorable practice, which raises numerous questions, including, but most assuredly not limited to the following:
1) Where is the incentive for employers to enact meaningful safety practices for their workers, when lucrative, tax-free payouts await them when insured employees die?
2) More cynically, could there be a financial incentive for employers to introduce additional work conditions that place their insured employees in even greater danger, ensuring an earlier demise, and an earlier financial bonanza? Will those employers place particular emphasis on insuring those employees who work under the most hazardous conditions? Here's another reason for corporations to vehemently oppose effective OSHA inspections as governmental interference. I know, some of you are saying that our corporations would never engage in such a horribly unethical practice. If this is the case for you, please refer to the above quote about the "big lie."
Even more cynically, if the employer is providing even minimal health coverage for its employees, and, as a consequence, has access to a worker's health care profile, for those who are in the early stages of a horrible, expensive illness and a certain death, might there not be an incentive to take out a large life insurance policy on that employee, fire them, and then wait for the payoff?
3) If effective health care is made available for existing employees (or for former employees whose lives, but not necessarly their health, are still insured), the deaths of the insured may be delayed for many years, with death-related jackpots sometimes delayed for decades. In the meantime, the company must continue to pay life insurance premiums, adversely impacting their respective bottom lines. Here's another reason for large corporations to emphatically oppose meaningful health care reform.
4) If it's acceptable for present or former employers to take out life insurance policies on you without your consent, then why not your personal physician, surgeon, oncologist, health maintenance organization, health insurance company, and/or anyone else who might profit from your demise?
The pursuit of even greater profits by the already wealthy is the American Way, is it not? After all, this is the land of opportunity, that is, if you are already wealthy. The United States, accounting for a mere 4% of the global population, is the proud home of 45% of the world's billionaires. See the following for further details: http://finchannel.com/index.ph... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
5) Consider the case of W. R Grace and Company, whose Libby, Montana vermiculite plant released asbestos into the environment, resulting in huge environmental costs to U. S. taxpayers and skyrocketing cancer rates for its inhabitants. The Federal government took action against W. R. Grace in 2005, and, as Gomer Pyle would say, "Surpise, surpise, surprise", lost the case. For further details, you can go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W... And for a little additional food for thought: http://open.salon.com/blog/mah... and http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12...
Please also consider that Halliburton, Dick Cheney's company, had acquired a significant exposure to asbestos-related liability when it acquired Dresser Industries in 1998 for $7.7 billion. Dick Cheney owned stock options for 433,333 shares of Halliburton during his vice-presidency, meaning that the financial health of his former company was at least indirectly related to the outcome of the W. R. Grace and Company lawsuit, where asbestos-related claims were the primary concern. Keep in mind that in 2005, the position of the corporate-friendly Attorney General was held by John Ashcroft until February 3, 2005, when he was replaced by Alberto Gonzales. And that W. R. Grace and Company had been long-time contributors to the Republican Party. Might there have been more than a little incentive for the prosecution to "take a dive" in this fight?
So, the reference to dying early by Rep. Grayson would seem to dovetail perfectly with the corporate agenda of maximizing profits to health insurers (the quicker you die, the less they have to pay out), for companies who insure the life of their employees (and benefit only when they die) and for those who have purchased life insurance settlements from those desperate to obtain quick cash to purchase medical care in the hopes of improving the length and quality of their lives.
Yes, Rep. Grayson and Michael Moore have stepped on some very sensitive toes, and the predictable yelling and screaming has ensued, which brings to mind the following quote from Harry S. Truman:
"I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."
Ed Schultz: This wasn't flippant, Grayson just took it to them 'by the rules'. And he doesn't have to apologize to nobody for anything. And you know what, there are a lot of Lefties around this Country, in their living rooms tonight saying, 'YES! this is how you got to handle these folks!'
The Republicans are demanding an apology for the same reason they are offering Amendments about Czars -- They have nothing to offer in the Health Care Debate!
[...]
Ed Schultz: Congressman Grayson do you take anything back?
Alan Grayson: Absolutely NOT! -- the people WHO should be apologizing are the Republicans -- they're the ones who should be apologize for dragging us all through the mud here, while we are just trying to improve Health Care in America.
How many ways can we think of to say it and say it and say it?
The shot rang around the blogosphere this morning, everyone has heard it. It's quoted on a rec list diary at Daily Kos.
GRAYSON: My response is WHATEVER. America is sick of you, Republican Party. You are a LIE FACTORY - that's all you ever do. Why don't you work together with the Democrats to solve America's problems instead of making stuff up?
It is good to see that Dem leadership is going to stand with Grayson on his "Die quickly" line and reject the fake outrage from the other side. However, I can't help but feel like we will let an opportunity to go on offense slip away. Again.
Last night, I went onto the House floor and did something that the Republicans aren't used to. I told the truth about the Republican health care plan. The plan is simple:
1. Don't get sick.
2. If you do get sick...
3. Die quickly.
Sounds about right! The Party of No, Knows one thing -- How to say NO!
It's not like Grayson didn't use any Facts to back it up ...
44789 / 365 = 122.7 people per day
Die for "Lack of health insurance" ...
What does 120 People a Day look like, anyways?
That about what it takes to fill up 2 city buses ...
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
