Legislation Delivery System Patient: There was only so much I could do. Health Care Delivery System Patient: That will be reflected in the bill I send you.
Democrate or Republican, conservative or liberal, one thing we all learned in this past year is that we are not FIRST in the hearts of our elected offical – money talks, the sad thing is that Heath Care Industry is using the money we gave them to help us if we get sick.
Well as the great philosopher Jimmy Durante use to say “Thems The Conditions That Prevail!”
This was a monumental opportunity, squandered by the Republicans’ Party-of-NO approach, whose only motive was to sabotage anything good so that in the next election they can say that the Democrats didn’t accomplish anything, and by the Democrats who made too many compromises.
Anthony, you are so right, it is sad. And the average person is stupid enough to believe it too. This is why a two party system doesnt work when the country is too evenly divided. One group just sabotages the other in order to get into power and vise versa.
The sad thing, a.c.d., is that the country was not evenly divided on this; properly phrased polls (as in “would you like a nonprofit alternative insurance plan as an additional option” rather than “do you want socialized medicine to take over one sixth of the government”), more than two-thirds of Americans favored a public option.
Furthermore, the Republicans were distinctly in the minority, and the Democrats were unable (1) to hold themselves together, or (2) vote against their corporate sponsors. Even Obama managed to forget that he DID run on the public option, or something that sounded a lot like it.
Meanwhile, Americans are dying unnecessarily because they lack health insurance (44,000 a year). Another funny, sad, brilliant, thought-provoking cartoon by Tom Toles.
One result of this whole mess has been to show the problems in the legislative process. What a mess! I still think it would be worse to defeat the bill at this point – there would be no hope for a bill for another generation. Let’s hope that once there is something in place it can be improved.
BTW: it’s not just the ‘two’ party system that has faults. There are several other nations whose parlimentary governments are being held hostage by a small third(or fourth) party they need to keep their government functioning and avoid new elections. At least the Republicans represent more than 5-10% of the voters.
We do NOT have a “two party system”- it has merely become that through “choice” and the inability of folks to see argument with more than two sides, which actually of late has become nearly a one-sided argument- doing the bidding of “contributors”.
Even our alternatives seem merely more extreme forms of the status quo.
Maybe if we brought back dueling it would get more interesting? At least that WOULD serve as “term limits”.
If anything but this 2000 page monstrocity of a power grab had been introduced mabe conservatives would have been more likely to have signed on. All this peice of bleeep does is give more of our freedoms over to an allready bloated federal government. It does nothing to improve health care and was never intended to.
Held hostage or compromise depends on whether you admire a party or dislike it. It also varies depending on which country you are discussing. I specifically avoided naming a country because of this. I do admit I could have used a less biased phrase than held hostage.
‘nother way of looking at it is that we do have a third party, and it is the dominant party. It’s called SIP — Special Interests Party.
it won the healthcare debate. And after reading davesmith’s post, I’m too discouraged to even try to describe the in and outs of how it won. But that post exemplifies the why.
kennethcwarren64 over 14 years ago
Democrate or Republican, conservative or liberal, one thing we all learned in this past year is that we are not FIRST in the hearts of our elected offical – money talks, the sad thing is that Heath Care Industry is using the money we gave them to help us if we get sick.
Well as the great philosopher Jimmy Durante use to say “Thems The Conditions That Prevail!”
riley05 over 14 years ago
So true.
This was a monumental opportunity, squandered by the Republicans’ Party-of-NO approach, whose only motive was to sabotage anything good so that in the next election they can say that the Democrats didn’t accomplish anything, and by the Democrats who made too many compromises.
a.c.d over 14 years ago
Anthony, you are so right, it is sad. And the average person is stupid enough to believe it too. This is why a two party system doesnt work when the country is too evenly divided. One group just sabotages the other in order to get into power and vise versa.
Motivemagus over 14 years ago
The sad thing, a.c.d., is that the country was not evenly divided on this; properly phrased polls (as in “would you like a nonprofit alternative insurance plan as an additional option” rather than “do you want socialized medicine to take over one sixth of the government”), more than two-thirds of Americans favored a public option. Furthermore, the Republicans were distinctly in the minority, and the Democrats were unable (1) to hold themselves together, or (2) vote against their corporate sponsors. Even Obama managed to forget that he DID run on the public option, or something that sounded a lot like it.
aardvarkseyes over 14 years ago
Meanwhile, Americans are dying unnecessarily because they lack health insurance (44,000 a year). Another funny, sad, brilliant, thought-provoking cartoon by Tom Toles.
lonecat over 14 years ago
One result of this whole mess has been to show the problems in the legislative process. What a mess! I still think it would be worse to defeat the bill at this point – there would be no hope for a bill for another generation. Let’s hope that once there is something in place it can be improved.
Gladius over 14 years ago
BTW: it’s not just the ‘two’ party system that has faults. There are several other nations whose parlimentary governments are being held hostage by a small third(or fourth) party they need to keep their government functioning and avoid new elections. At least the Republicans represent more than 5-10% of the voters.
Dtroutma over 14 years ago
We do NOT have a “two party system”- it has merely become that through “choice” and the inability of folks to see argument with more than two sides, which actually of late has become nearly a one-sided argument- doing the bidding of “contributors”.
Even our alternatives seem merely more extreme forms of the status quo.
Maybe if we brought back dueling it would get more interesting? At least that WOULD serve as “term limits”.
davesmithsit over 14 years ago
If anything but this 2000 page monstrocity of a power grab had been introduced mabe conservatives would have been more likely to have signed on. All this peice of bleeep does is give more of our freedoms over to an allready bloated federal government. It does nothing to improve health care and was never intended to.
Gladius over 14 years ago
Held hostage or compromise depends on whether you admire a party or dislike it. It also varies depending on which country you are discussing. I specifically avoided naming a country because of this. I do admit I could have used a less biased phrase than held hostage.
believecommonsense over 14 years ago
‘nother way of looking at it is that we do have a third party, and it is the dominant party. It’s called SIP — Special Interests Party.
it won the healthcare debate. And after reading davesmith’s post, I’m too discouraged to even try to describe the in and outs of how it won. But that post exemplifies the why.