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GOP Unlikely to Back Health Reform
President Obama's dreams of a bipartisan health bill are becoming increasingly unlikely, as GOP lawmakers say that few, if any Republicans, are likely to vote for the final legislation. While on the surface, the headline "Republicans likely to vote against Obama plan" is hardly a shocker, Democratic lawmakers had hoped that a consensus bill could be agreed upon through negotiation. At issue is the Democrats' demand for a public health insurance plan to compete with private coverage, which Republicans warn will push out current insurance companies. House Minority Leader John Boehner told the New York Times that he did not know any Republicans in the House who would vote for the Democrats' plan. As for the Senate, when asked by The New York Times how many GOP Senators would vote for the legislation if it were put forth today, Sen. Richard Burr said "I think right now, none. Zero.”
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How much more evidence do We The People need to convince us that the GOP has not only lost it's way, it's willing to put US in jeopardy.
The GOP voted against Medicare, SCHIP and insisted on the provision that prevents medicare from negotiating for prescription drug prices.
The Reps. still think what's good for business is good for America, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary provided the implosion of the car and finance & banking industries.
I just hope the voters in Boehners, Bachmann, Vitter, etc., home states recognize that their concerns are of no interest to their elected representative.
If we don't force real competition in the healthcare industry then it will be a restricted priviledge available only to the wealthy and well connected as it true in many 3rd world nations.
Even the health insurance industry is growing aware of the need to do something as they are losing subscribers by an estimate of 50,000 per week. Companies that go out of business no longer provide health insurance to their employees and laid off employees can't afford Cobra or individual policies.
The GOP ( and some Blue Dog Democrats) is lost in a swamp of its own making. They can either find their way out or get sucked into quicksand until they are no more.
the GOP also voted against the GI Bill, the Voting Rights Act, the Student Loan Program, the establishment of Unemployment Compensation, and a thousand other progressive measures that characterize a modern society.
I don't know what it is in the psychological makeup of these people, but they seem to fear and dislike change above everything, and then retreat behind their mantras of "taxes", "socialism", and their various code words for racism. They do this to avoid discussing the issue because they know, down deep, that they are really wrong (especially if they are pious Christians).
The Blue Dog Democrats, such as Mary Landrieu, simply are whoring themselves for reelection--even in cases where reelection isn't until 2012.
Why is opposition to something always considered racist?
It isn't "always" considered racist. It's just that it's at the bottom of some of the things that Republicans do. Ever hear of the "Southern Strategy?"
Ever hear of Japanese internment? Digging up skeletons from the past actions of dead politicians does not serve us in the future.
Once the government issues it's own health insurance plan, most companies will likely drop their carrying of a private insurance company plan. And don't assume that the government plan will be better and have all the options of a private one. If Obama does tax employee's health benefits to cover the government plan, it will ruin this country.
Not a shock... (Boehner is an idiot, why don't they get someone else?)
I love it when I hear... "Leave it as it is!" If we do that the system will fold. The prices are rising faster than middle America can keep up. This absurd notion that if we just do nothing everything will be alright... only shows ignorance.
We are 37th in world healthcare. (Morocco is 9 places higher then we are, NICE!) And the irony is we spend the MOST. It isn't the amount of money you spend, it is how you spend it. The system has to be fundamentally changed or we as a nation are going to be put in a very, very sad place 10 to 15 years from now. It will bankrupt this nation.
Your argument possibly would have an iota of merit if the Democratic bill did anything to cut cost or improve service delivery. As it stands, it does neither.
I was not defending the bill, just the need for change. And as far as I know.. the bill is not finished yet, or am I wrong on that?
...Unless, of course, one bases one's opinion on the actual merits of the bill instead of on what conservatives are sure MUST be true. Then it does both.
The people who oopose this bill are the same people who thought that GW Bush was a good choice fo president.
Shocking statistics. It really is embarrassing that we can't take care of own better than that.
The truth behind the statistic is that we have an incredibly high rate of third-world immigration to this country, which is the root of the health care problem. Additionally, we have a propensity to eat too much and shoot each other. None of this has to do with the health care delivery system. This is an easily debunked canard.
@never
You are right about our collective health as a country. I don't know if you are right, though, about 'third-world immigration' being as big a problem as you say... although I could be wrong.
The problem in this country is not dlivery of health care... it's availibility. Yes, if I get sick - even if I don't have healthcare - I can go to a hospital to get better. The problem is, though, even if I DO have healthcare, there is always the possibility that my getting sick will make me destitute.
Healthcare needs do be available to everyone at reasonable cost and of excellent coverage. As it is, some (a lot) hold back on taking care of themselves because it is too costly. Then when they get even sicker, WE cover their costs. So, either/or, we are paying the costs.
Why not set up a tax-payer health system that lets people maintain their health from the start? This would seriously reduce overalll costs in the long-run, extend happiness and overall lifespan, and make for a more peaceful society.
We are looking to make a better society... right?
Not true Neverlate,
It looks at many things. Life length, disease rates, infant mortality... and on and on and on...
Immigration is a problem. But it is not the beginning and the end of our problems. There are larger and system issues at hand.
The problem with our healthcare is that those people without regular access to it show up at an ER with an advanced case of Cancer, heart disease, etc., and the procedures to deal with these things are hugely expensive. Early screening would have made the whole process cheaper. (BTW, this is NOT a code statement for black people.)
The hospitals have to do this work pro bono, so we pay for it eventually. And the drug companies and the med industry make a fortune, for now, at least. The GOP has never voted to improve this, because too many of their people make too much money.
As usual intellectual luminaries like Boehner and his 2-digit IQ are lapsing into the same slogans about "socialized medicine", etc. that I have been hearing for 40 years.
Hawnzz, I read through the math in the bill, if 97% of Americans are covered for catastrophic and it doesn't cost us any extra I would say they have done their job well. If people are willing to pay for all the extra's then I would say the bill is going to work because when people are told they have to pay $125 for a sneez that will soon stop and prices will either come down or nurse practitioners will take care of the sneezes for less. This might put a crunch on GP's until the nurse practitioners can get ready but healthcare is passing liability down the line to less trained people and this is how they are going to save money.
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I've been to many countries. And many of those countries have superior healthcare. (And it doesn't cost as much...and everyone has access.) Americans have this delusion that we are the pinnacle of civilization. When frankly there are many places on Earth that do alot of things better then we do.
And that doesn't change that fact that if our system is not fundamentally changed it will bankrupt the nation within the next 20 years.
Agree completely. What Americans fail to understand is that we no longer are the shining example. When you travel in Europe you realize that we are on the downside of our power curve. Americans are stereotyped as "obese, loud, and ill mannered but no longer overpaid."
From my extensive time in other countries, I have to say that you speak the truth, Hawnzz.
True change will only come when we focus on fixing service delivery. Once we have that fixed, we can deal with the coverage issue. I would like to see health care reformed, I just do not trust the Government to make sound decisions on allocating scarce resources or go against key constituents (what happen to Tort reform Obama?) - Take a look at their track record?
TRUE change will ONLY come once we have rid ourselves of having FOR-PROFIT insurance companies dictating who does and doesn't get coverage or services. The PROFIT MOTIVE is what drives the insurance companies to rescind policies, screw people who have played by the rules, and generally "eff" up the system. If the government can run Tricare fot the military, it can run a single -payer system - it's the SPINELESS POLITICIANS (DEMS) and the NAYSAYERS (GOP), who don't want this country to have single-payer, even when it would likely solve the problem once and for all.
If the republicans won't support repairing a broken and corrupt health care model, why not give people the efficient effective single-payer system we want and need so desperately? What Republicans oppose is any alteration of insurance, doctors, hospitals and other potential contributors. I am VERY angry with the moderate Democrats who think similarly. If Obama doesn't have the audacity to give the people what we want - there is no hope for change!!!!!
Republican Congressmen and Senators thank the baby Jesus for the wonderful health care plan they have.
Their Darwinistic attitude is "I got mine, now good luck getting yours".
They don't give a damn what you get.
These politicians do not understand that a healthy country is a productive country, is a happy country.
They care about what kind of deal they can get for the company(ies) that paid for them to get elected.
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No one pays
NO taxes.
Right, Rita.
Property and sales tax ARE taxes. I think 'laugh' meant payroll taxes.
The GOP does not
Want health care reform passed
Because if the Dems get another program
Through with the popularity
Of social security-
Their wilderness horizons expand
To infinity.
It never ceases to amaze me, that people think that the same government that mismanaged FEMA, Social Services, Medicare, Veterans Affairs, etc.(the list is endless) will somehow manage our healthcare better.
Wake up America, the health care problem is not going to be solved with "insurance", that is just another bureaucracy managed by inept and everchanging politicos. The health care problem IS the government. Over regulation but lack of oversight.
Insurance is easy, pass the law that allows organizations (AAA, National Restaurant Association, etc) to create group plans, and it will be available to everyone for a low price (that is against the law now)
Better coverage is easy. Allow the Doctors to focus on medicine rather than deal with attorneys and unreasonable malpractice insurance fees.
Lower prescriptions are easy (make it more practical to get competitive drugs to market).
At a time when we are doing all we can to wipe out tobacco smoking, while at the same time legalizing marijuana, isn't it about time we realize that one size doesn't fit all?
If you want to give the people what they want, then let them make the choices, not some bureaucrat who in 4 years will have a different political position anyway.
The government just needs to referee, and stop thinking they can play basketball like Michael Jordan, because nothing they do ever comes close to hitting the basket. ,
But that is the whole point. Fundamental change... the whole thing needs a make-over. It will implode in just a few short decades if it isn't done.
But that means ALL of it needs to be looked at. Hospitals, doctors, drugs, insurance.... straight on down the line.
The care isn't the issue, it is the coverage. I have family in health care, and we get floods of people coming from Canada to get care here. We have great care, just goofy laws and regulations, and a bureacracy that is like a maze we have to navigate before we get to a Doctor.
If you really think that "fundamental change" is the solution, be careful about what you ask for, as in politics, any "change" just becomes another "layer", not a replacement or a repair, and a "fix" is always only temporary. Only the private sector holds their systems accountable, as the partners and stockholders demand results, and the government acts as referee. Who is going to referee the government? Who will be held accountable when Barak or Nancy Pelosi retires?
Be very careful what you ask for.
It is the care. (Or at least the cost of it.) The cost will be so high within the next two decades that it will bankrupt the country. Change isn't a choice. It's just the numbers. We spend much more then anyone else and don't live as long. Somethin' gotta give...
ConstitutionalRights said: "Only the private sector holds their systems accountable, as the partners and stockholders demand results, and the government acts as referee."
This is the major source of our problem. First, the best way to get profits is to reduce the quality (and quantity) of health care. Insurance companies are notorious for dropping people, refusing to pay claims, and refusing to add people with pre-existing conditions, to mention just a few. Second, the health care industry has bought so many members of congress that government oversight is a joke.
The referees of the government will be, as always, the people who vote. I am very careful what I ask for, and I am asking for (but not going to get) single-payer.
I agree with you totally, I hope that the one thing they absolutely require is that everyone, including those on welfare and social security and disability have to pay for their basic coverage. That is the only way this will work and we keep costs down. Not one soul is exempt from having to pay, period. That will lower costs for everyone. The gov't is set up for coverage for anyone with a catastrophic accident anyhow so everyone should have to pay! The more kids you have the more you pay. The more coverage you want the more you pay! Until everyone puts health care costs into personal perspective there will be no decrease in costs, period. Get ready for less trained people, though still trained and licensed, to be providers of basic care. Be ready for a buyer beware kind of system and beware that liability for malpractice will be limited by this kind of program. Be ready to pay more for the chance to sue someone with a bigger license and be ready for ignorance to cost lives and money. I hope people realize that this is being done in response to irresponsible gov't spending of medicare and social security funds, a ponzi scheme gone dry, and know it is the people who are going to suffer for it.
Your Conventional Wisdom is wrong, as most CW is.
FEMA, when headed by James Lee Witt under Clinton, was an organization of emergency professionals that was considered an honor to work for. It was gutted and made a haven for political hacks by George W, as Katrina showed us.
Social Security has worked very well. I contributed to it for over 40 years, and I'm getting the payback now as a retiree. Yes, there's a problem in absorbing Boomers and their children when they reach retirement age, but insolvency is not forecasted until 2038.
Medicare has saved me from financial ruin many years ago, when my parents had severe illnesses associated with aging. And now that I'm retired, I'm covered with a preexisting condition. When I was in my early 60's I was an entrepreneur and nobody would insure me for any amount of money.
Do you know what the G&A (General & Administrative) expenses are for Medicare? About 7%. Do you know what they are for the usual insurance company? About 23%.
So the Republican mantra of 'the free market" is not necessarily better, and many of our programs show it. Student Loans, GI Bill, The Marshall Plan, etc. The list is "endless."
The 'Free Market'
Concept is total crap
When you look at the degree
To which we subsidize corporations.
The only acceptable socialism
Is socialism for the rich.
Well, this article isn't a surprise.....when have the republicans ever backed anything that would benefit the people? The GOP is so very clearly in the pocket of the big corporations that voting against those who have the reins would run the well dry.
It is up to our President and his party to craft and impliment a new healthcare program that will give be cost effective, quality care for us all. It is now or never because we really are at the crossroad between just letting our citizens die for lack of care or getting the job of reform done. If other countries can figure this out, then why can't we? Or is it more a case of not wanting to let go of all those "contributions? Once again, it seems as though greed will win the day if the GOP has anything to do with it.
The "GOP"= WHITE WASHED WALL"S
This is all bad news. Obama and the Democrats should just say goodbye to bipartisanship.
I personally am not only for a public option--but totally for universal health care. I would say goodbye to the insurance companies.
Obama stated it well when he said why "no" to a public option if they think public option wouldn't even work. The Republicans understand how greedy the insurance companies are. Also, when something like health care or education is acquired by all citizens regardless of income, redistribution of income must happen. But to me that is showing a social conscience and a social responsibility--it is morally the right thing to do. Ultimately, the Republicans believe only in sink or swim. They do not care about the greater good.
Gosh!!!! my head is swimming--one day it's climate change, next it's health care, next immigration reform--all MAJOR legislation, but Obama is trying to push these reforms on us, before we even know what hit us. It's best to do nothing if you do not do it right. We need some people with "spines" in Congress and the Senate to look out for us, but since there doesn't seem to be any, we need to makes a lot of changes-on both sides, on election day.
If you are driving off a cliff,
doing nothing is not an option.
Even an imperfect plan
reduces the odds of dying.
Mary, you say that Obama is "trying to push these reforms on us," but these are serious problems that existed way before he came into office. George W Bush also discussed them, but he wouldn't make a damn decision to DO something. BHO has done more work in 5 1/2 months than Bush did in 8 years.
As to your comment about election day, we just did that. We threw the Repubs out of office because they, led by Bush/Cheney, made a total shambles out of our economy, our military strength, and our standing in the world.
So if you don't like or understand what Obama is doing, then tell your congressman and Senator, but let BHO do what he was elected to do, then vote him out. Republican obstructionism is not helping the solution to our problems.
Agree totally.
Thanks Roger.
Very succinct.
Doing nothing, is not an option, and it is a long time till election day. We need healthcare NOW.
It is beyond my comprehension that all the major news channels would have spent the whole day(that M. Jackson died)talking about that, instead of spending some time informing their viewers about the Climate Change bill, and it's consequences. Even the evening and world news only talked about Jackson--even though this was the day that the house was going to vote on the legislation. If ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC would inform their viewers of the facts about the bill, I feel certain that there would be no chance of it getting passed. The media are definitely letting us all down.
I agree. I read the question, why did Michael die? Because he lived a life of bad eating habits, and drug addiction. No one is ever surprised when a street level person dies of drugs, just those who make it seem like a wowsie thing to do for our children and young people to try to be like these "icons". I feel sad for anyone who is so sad and lonely they use drugs, but for those that hold themselves out as the role models for our youth, they need to stop thinking they are "Norma Jean". I know another star who is just the same. Norma Jean grew up with a mentally ill mother, left with relatives and sold herself to the cheesecake industry. Michael and others have had parents who managed to get them out of the ghetto, or whatever. One I know was raised going to school in a limo, yet he used to say "me and Marilyn".
Environmental issues are much more important than any one person. Ed McMahon died, he did not get all day, every channel day after day. Farah died of cancer, she raised money for cancer victims, she tried to understand her son's drug addiction and help him and other youth with drug problems. Where was her day after day?
I feel that every entertainment channel and gossip show should spend at least a minute telling their viewers about reality. They are going to have to live with the problems of their not being part of the solution. Entertainment is great, but it is not everything.
I for one also would have liked to see the whole of the President's father program, and see the whole country involved in schools, churches, and community centers. We need fathers that take care of their children, that was an issue worth a lot more than a few minutes of the speeches and then a few "what they said" minutes and then on to the next thing.
I think the thousands who went out in support of the parks systems not being closed in California deserved at least as much coverage as those who went to see the hospital, home or coroner's office where MJ died. Poor man, I am sure public hounding is part of what bothered him, but, as I told my friend, then quit! And he did.
Definitely nothing new here. If the GOP started actually backing what the majority of Americans want, I would become religious and start looking for the RAPTURE. Ain't gonna happen..the only prayer thinking people have is to outnumber these knuckleheads.
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Compromise is not necessary
when you have a majority.
Live with it.
Or perhaps the Dems
Should compromise in the same way
The Republicans did when they owned
Everything for 6 years
And made Democrats hold meetings
In basement facilities.
And that's not meant to be funny
It was for real!
We will all be in trouble if health care gets "improved" under the Democratic plan. Nothing is better than what they have in mind. What good are promises made when they are not KEPT?????? Ask yourself this question: Has Obama kept his promises to us?? The answer is no. Just one ex. is the promise that he would NOT SIGN
As a Native American who with as part of an amazing team designed a privatized program that would still give every single person health care necessary which in two years would begin to repay the initial costs, and after four years be completely debt free and making money, as well as working with Medicare/Medicaid and private insurance companies, and within two years make sure every single person had been screened and those with immediate health problems were being taken care of, I feel Congress and the President can do better.
I feel that in starting something such as this the main issue is the lives of those at risk. I would start with all those millions spent in Homeland Security preparedness projects and declare a national disaster day. Put up all the military styled field hospitals, and get everyone screened and in to treatment.
When I had cancer and my lovely insurance company canceled me and it took FOUR YEARS to lose every single penny I had except the minimum allowed in my pension plan so I could rebuild it if I should survive ($2000 big bucks, that thanks to the investment scams is not $1200 even though one of the most prestigious of plans) I was shocked to find women with serious cancers working and trying to survive their cancer treatments without telling their employers, because they would be "laid off" as I was, but had to wait hours and hours for treatment while unemployed women, often from other countries illegally, got fertility treatments in the same clinic.
I also was shocked when I went to the pharmacy that had the cancer patients who could not be around anyone, let alone children who "might" be sick had their pharmacy in the same trailer as the children's pharmacy. AND of course had to wait with little very sick kids coming up to them and sneezing and coughing.
We have to do something, there is no doubt about it. My high risk insurance, as I get ready to go back to work on a Ticket to Work and PASS program is going to be $750 a month!
We need a category of Medicare and Medicaid that is "disabled but working", and leave IRS to watchdog how much money the person has, because I can tell you, those with lawyers have the trusts to avoid the law, and are getting the free treatment while those who have worked and paid the taxes for these programs are not getting help when they desperately need it, because they cannot afford the lawyers to do the work.
The biggest problem in all of this is that stockholders want money, there is no money in being sick. We as a nation need to either give stockholders a tax break on other stocks or figure out something else, to reduce the costs of medicine. Doctors are NOT getting the money, I have friends who are doctors who have said if their landlords in their office buildings did not have to pay insurance, and they did not have to pay outrageous workers comp, and malpractice insurance, and so much for paperwork to get done, they could charge $12 per visit.
Most hospitals are on donated land, have been built by donations, we need to straighten that all out, stockholders should not get dividends on money made in donated buildings.
There has to be a better way.
Insurance lobbies have caused a lot of this mess.
We as a nation need to look at that reality and fix it as well.
Healthcare reform is not as easy as just forcing everyone to pay for insurance they cannot afford. I overheard a woman the other day saying that $400 a month per person is a good amount, and she would be happy with that.
There are millions of uninsured working Americans, especially those with families who make enough to not be eligible for healthy children programs, that cannot afford $400 a person, their take home pay from two jobs is not even enough to live in a safe neighborhood as it is.
America needs to get a reality check. We are allowing our citizens to die, and many of those dying are the families of those who have come back from this war disabled enough not to be able to support their families, but not disabled enough to get cost of living benefits for themselves or their families.
I volunteer in a community center, and see this each time I go in, and it is a shame on our American face.
What is the answer, it is there, but we all are going to have to get off our idealogy behinds and get the problems addressed and taken care of.
If not because that is the American caring way, because you might be the next person with a serious illness that your insurance company says "nope, denied". I can attest to the reality, that deadly ill is not the time to have to take on not just your insurance company, but the government that does not care. With a letter from the White House to expedite my case after I called them and told them what was going on, it took a lawyer (a friend asked her friend to help me) who is now a commissioner, and six months in hearings in court, while one of the surgeons said, "maybe you need to see a psychiatrist, how come you cannot get this paperwork done" I kindly suggested that I do the cancer surgery and HE get the paper done, I would have a better chance of success than he.
Most Republicans are so afraid of their conservative base right now, they won't vote for anything Obama proposes. On the Internet, the right has simply gone nuts, and keep calling Obama a socialist-communist-Nazi, anything but what he really is: a moderate, pragmatic reformer who represents certain "advanced" sectors of capitalism, and also came to power in the first reform wave since the 1960s and the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
Of course, all throughout history, the idea of change has terrified conservatives, and often brought out hysterical, paranoid reactions from them This was true for Lincoln, for FDR, and for the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King in the 1960s, or even Clinton in the 1990s--the mildest and most conservative of Democrats imaginable.
The Right always has this paranoid and hysterical style, long before the days of Father Coughlin and Joe McCarthy. It is impervious to reason or rational discussion and debate, so it is best to just dismiss it out of had as demented propaganda than attempt to engage with it.
In my experience attempting to discuss anything with people like these is a pure waste of time, for you can make the same points repeatedly, backed up with all kinds of evidence that what they are saying is false, and they just keep coming back with the same points day after day. It's like arguing with fundamentalists and cultists. They won't listen to anything that contradicts their ideology: they can't even hear it. And no amount of evidence will change their minds in the slightest.
What's really scary about this is that the unreasoning Right now has a mass medium that panders to their fears and prejudices, further supporting their refusal to critically think. Fox News occasionally tosses out a "fair & balanced" slogan, but it really doesn't pretend to be anything but an outlet for Republican propaganda now.
The only hope for keeping this mindless cult out of the majority is to try to explain to the swing voter what the issues are, with facts, not cheap slogans. But of course, this puts the left at a disadvantage, because facts can get complicated, and cries of "Socialist" can drown them out.
I believe, possibly wishfully, that posting on blogs like this might help to strengthen the forces of "reasonableness" with fact-based, reasoned argument. But I have to admit that frustration occasionally makes me too damn sarcastic.
Well, at least the GOP has their new 2010 campaign slogan: "The Republican Party -- status quo you can believe in".
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The GOP has been bought and paid for for decades by Big Pharma and the insurance companies that exist to not pay off legitimate claims. It is a Party that is concerned for the rich and for big business, and it really makes no bones about that.
As for putting up for a vote a bill that nobody has read, the GOP did that for eight years under Bush. Most members of Congress never read bills (even those that can read) though somtimes their staff does read part of such. The GOP as I say did this habitually, and when it came time for House-Senate conferences would not only not invite any Dems, but would not tell the Dems where the conferences were being held.
So all of this "oh so wounded " tears from the Publicans and Sinners is just, as usual, baloney. They are the Party of No for anything that benefits the average American, and the Party of Yes to anything that benefits the rich and big business.
And Obama's major omission of tort reform as part of his health care program of course had nothing to do with the money trial lawyers pore into the Democratic Party?
Debatable. If I remember correctly, the organization that wants tort reform wants to limit pain & suffering awards to $250K, which amounts to a minor fine in today's economy. That would defeat the effect of tort action making sellers and manufacturers of goods and services careful of what they are selling.
And I am not aware of any of this being part of a healthcare plan.
I will only support a plan that requires members of the House and Senate to join. If it's not good enough for them, why should it be good enough for us?
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What a shock that is, I thought the whole bunch of Confederate republicans would join in & do something for the people of this country rather than forthe rich white men who support them...
Now if the Democrat's can all just get on the same track & go along with what Obama & the nation needs we will have a better bill... If the Confederate's would have signed on it would just have cost the American people something in the end, meaning a lesser bill for the people... Sooooo as far as I am concerned the country is better off with every Confederate republican not even showing up for the vote, let them all go on strike & stand on the steps of the Capitol building & belly ache about tea bags & bull pucky....
This nation needs a government option not only for the lower & middle income people but for small business's across the land... We all need to remember that small folks employing 5 or 6 or 10 people are being butchered by the Blue Cross's & Health Nets of the world.....
Thank you.
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