Blue Commonwealth - Health Care bill

Friedman's Health Care Zingers

Teddy Goodson — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:39:25 GMT

What would the patriarch of capitalism, economist Milton Friedman himself, have to say about the new Health Care Reform bill?

Milton Friedman, as I am sure you recall, was the chief founder and promoter of the Free Market theory of capitalism, which was, of course, the political-economic theory that has utterly dominated everything from Wall Street to MBA schools to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (not to mention both our political parties), that brought us globalization and eventually defeated Soviet Communism in the world market of ideas, or so say Reagan Republicans.

Almost every speech (and rant) against the Health Care bill is replete with references to Friedman's doctrine, despite the fact that the bill itself is extraordinarily careful to preserve "market-based" solutions---- remember, President Obama himself took off the table any government (i.e., socialist) competition in the form of even a diddly little public option, which makes it all the more puzzling when we hear major blowouts about "socialism" and the end of America, that the government is taking over one-sixth (or more) of our economy.
Friedman made a speech in the 1970's about health care in America and it is now circulating among the fanatical acolytes of the Free Market, providing them with more fodder in their war against anything (and I do mean anything) which might frustrate establishment of their idea of Free Market Nirvana. That naturally includes almost everything Obama and the Democrats are doing, and most especially reforming health care.

In analyzing who "won" and who "lost" in the Health Care bill, Forbes magazine decided that doctors lost, mainly because they did not get tort reform, and their reimbursements for Medicare might go down, leading Forbes to conclude that doctors are naive. Listen to what Friedman had to say about doctors: he wanted to abolish licensing of doctors entirely, along with every other government licensing of every other profession. That is his idea of a free market.... and it is all of a piece, indivisible from the rest of his economic jungle-theory: no government regulation of anything. Quacks would kill so many paatients that ill folks would avoid them, and thus the market would force them out of business. Too bad about the collateral damage.

Operation Rescue's President Cannot Explain How Health Care Bill Funds Abortion

SumofChange — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:09:29 GMT

(Footage purchased from Sam Sumner, originally posted by Will Urquhart at Sum of Change)

As you may be aware, this weekend (tomorrow to be exact) marks the 37th anniversary of the passage of Roe v Wade, the supreme court decision that effectively legalized abortion nationwide. We have been working on a documentary about clinic escorts for some time now (tomorrow we will be making a big announcement about the film, sign up for our emails and you will be one of first to hear about it), so this weekend is a big chance for us to get some footage.

When I got back home from volunteering at the clinic, I saw an email from Operation Rescue announcing a press conference at the White House today. Luckily, I was able to track down a freelance videographer who sold us some great exclusive footage of Operation Rescue's President, Troy Newman, failing several times to name a single part of the current health care bills that allows for federal funding of abortion (although he knows for a fact it does, he just cannot tell you how):

We took a little extra time to write up a transcript for the video-impaired among us:

SUMNER: Can you just give us a brief summary of what it is in this bill that allows for federal funding for abortion?
NEWMAN: Well, you know, nobody's really read the bill. And that's the ironic thing, you know, Obama has said that he's going to make this available, it's gonna be on C-SPAN, but nothing could be further from the truth. The bill that was brought through the house was radically changed by the time it was voting on. The bill that was running its way through the Senate and a lot of us had read was radically changed behind closed doors, so nobody really knows. One thing we do know, is that it contains abortion funding. In fact, I have been calling this health care system, this Obamacare, right from the very beginning, nothing more than an abortion clinic bail out fund. It's all about abortion, it's all about eugenics. And one need only look at the history of abortion and eugenics to know that that's absolutely true. The people that are sitting in the White House today the people that are running congress, despise people of what they would consider to be lower means. It's a detailed eugenic program that they're trying to impress upon the American people.
(Note from Sam: "I have to admit, at this point I was a little caught off guard. I hear whacko things all the time, but does this dude seriously believe the Obama's want to kill poor people? I quickly gathered myself, let it go, and continued pressing for an answer, how does this bill fund abortion?")
SUMNER: Okay. When we were speaking to some of the escorts earlier, they said that this bill does not allow for federal funding. I mean, what do you say to that?
NEWMAN: Have they read the bill? The parts I read detail it explicitly.
SUMNER: I don't know if they have read the bill. But can you explain what parts in the bill actually allow for the federal funding then?
NEWMAN: Well, you know, again, the bill has not even been made public, that has been the huge problem in this. But let's take for instance, a hypothetical...
SUMNER: Aren't both the bills available online though?
NEWMAN: ...If you look at a hypothetical situation that, that this bill would not contain abortion funding, there's already been a huge push to call abortion health care. And so it would just be a stroke of the bureaucratic pen to make sure that abortion is included in this health care bill. So any sort of revamp of health care that includes a government option of funding, it will include government funding of abortion. We already have government funding for aboriton in every single state through medicare.
SUMNER: But the bills are available online. Do you know what parts in the bill actually allow for federal funding?
NEWMAN: I don't have the bill, the bill's 2,000 pages long.
SUMNER: So you haven't read it?
NEWMAN: I have read portions of it, and it does detail that... both the house bill did before the Stupak amendment, and the Senate bill did, the parts I read. But again, this has been revamped, it's been rewritten and it is not available right now."

There you have it: "One thing we do know, is that it contains abortion funding..." although... "the bill has not even been made public..." although... "I have read portions of it..." although... "the bill has not even been made public."

So this super-secret bill that hasn't been made public absolutely funds abortion and he knows it because he has read the super-secret bill that hasn't been made public but is an attempt to kill poor people.

(VIDEOS) Health Care Town Hall: Congresswoman Donna Edwards Leading on Reform

Rusty5329 — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:38:24 GMT

originally posted at Sum of Change

Oh, and I totally owe slinkerwink for posting this spreadsheet of town halls.

We at Sum of Change, attended a health care town hall last night, hosted by Congresswoman Donna Edwards. The Congresswoman gave a brief speech, and then opened the floor for questions. The town hall was heated, which should come as no surprise. Not only were conservative groups organizing to get people out to these town halls (with detailed instructions about how to act and talk), OFA 2.0, several Unions, and liberal bloggers pushed progressives to turn out as well. The debate was vigorous, but not disrespectful. If anyone came there with the intent of disrupting the town hall, they failed miserably.

We'll go through a round of the Q&A's. I strongly recommend watching these all the way through, the Congresswoman knows how to finish an answer.
We shall start with the big, scary end of life care question :

Ladies and gentleman, that is how it's done.

How about the 'our health care system isn't broken' question (which, as it turns out, isn't a question):

Buddy, my mother is a cardiologist, in Maryland too, with a private practice, who deals with plenty of Medicare and private insurance patients, and makes a damn fine living at it. She voted for President Obama in large part because she believes our health care system is a disaster. She loves her job, and her patients.

And on health care as it relates to undocumented workers:

The Congresswoman takes a question from a military wife:

And here is our quick interview with her: (since the room was so loud we have provided a transcript of this interview for those that have difficulty hearing it):

Q: At the progressive press conference last week, the progressive caucus press conference, you touched on progressives ceding single payer if, and only if, there is a public option.

EDWARDS: (aside) Thank you...

Q: And you touched, briefly, on why that's important for progressives to do. Can you talk a little more about why it is important, and why, for the blue dogs, why the compromises end at the public option?

EDWARDS: Well, you know, it's hard for me to speak for where the blue dogs are going because a number of the provisions that they have proposed actually increase costs. And, which is amazing from a group a members, frankly, who've said that they want to decrease costs. What I can share with you though, is that we are, out of energy and commerce, we got a commitment that we are gonna get a stand alone vote on single payer, which I think is important to set a marker. But we also cannot abandon the public option, sort of take our eye off of that prize because we run the risk of not being able to preserve anything going into a battle with the United States Senate.

Q: Okay, and one last question. A lot of people have talked about the demons of socialized medicine and obviously we all know the military is on the government run option. Have the opponents of health care, has anyone proposed giving the military a better health care system? Or do they think that the military gets the best health care we can buy?

EDWARDS: No, I mean, I think that, I mean, I come from this experience, because I grew up in the air force, I know the military system. And know that, that it works, and I also know that it's government provided. And so, I always just share with people that, for those people who are so against government being involved in health care, look at our military, look at our veterans, look at Medicare, so many of us are actually already engaged in government provided health care.

Q: But, as far as you know, no opponents have, have suggested changing that?

EDWARDS: No.

Q: Do they think, they don't think there's a better system for the military?

EDWARDS: No. I mean, it's a good, the military system is a good system and it serves, but it serves a particular purpose. Whether that's something that we could then, sort of, translate into the public sector is a different question all together. It's something that has to do with just by the way they can provide service, just because of the (inaudible, contiguity?) of having everybody located on a duty station or something like that, that may or may not be appropriate for the broader public.