UPDATED: Progressives Are Raising the Temperature on Healthcare Reform, and it Seems to Be Working
OPS_admin | Aug 26, 2009 | Comments 0
UPDATED: Progressives Are Raising the Temperature on Healthcare Reform, and it Seems to Be Working
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS – by Meg White
While conservative operatives blew their anger wad on a few screaming matches at a week or two’s worth of town halls, the simmering frustration of progressives over the hijacking of the healthcare debate may matter more in the end.
As I wrote at the beginning of this month, one path of resistance to Big Pharma, the insurance industry and GOP obstructionists on healthcare is the reconciliation process. By making the fiscal elements of a healthcare package — generally the most controversial parts of such legislation anyway — part of a budget reconciliation process, Democrats would only need to rally 51 votes to pass it.
The elements of reform that most reasonable people can agree on, but that do not contain specifically fiscal measures (such as eliminating pre-existing conditions as a reason for insurance companies to deny coverage or the controversial process of rescissions) could be passed in a bipartisan manner in the Senate.
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
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