The final push for a midterm wake-up call.

The AP recently released poll results on how people feel about the health care reform bill. Commenting on it, Kevin Drum says:

Earlier this month, Thomas Geoghegan wrote a piece for The Nation telling the Democrats the ten things they could do to really get the base excited, and at the same time do good things for the country. Here’s his list.

This is a reply I wrote to Bryce Covert, MJ, and Richard Kirsch, formerly of HCAN, at the New Deal 2.0 (ND20) site.

MJ expressed the view that both the private sector and Government are corrupt these days and that neither can be trusted. I agree with MJ about corruption in Government these days, but I think one has to distinguish among the branches of Government when it comes to corruption, and also the kind of corruption involved. The most corrupt branch of Government is Congress, because its members need huge contributions for re-election,and the sources of those funds are now drafting legislation in many cases.

Some executive departments such as The Defense Department appear to be more corrupt than others, because they are subject to influence from powerful defense contractor lobbyists. The electoral system has been corrupted over time to create a bias against the success of third parties. When combined with the development of a Supreme Court that is not defending individual liberty, there a great danger of the development of a plutocracy whose hard shell we won’t be able to crack to allow democracy to emerge from below. Perhaps the development of Information technology can provide a way around the institutions by giving people a way to self-organize that gets around the need for large quantities of money.

Polls that tell us the people are happily being duped once more have proved false throughout the election that brought back control of both houses of Congress and the White House. Medicare for all is universally derided by a press that has been wrong throughout the past ten years. Maybe this is under unprecedented attack, but that’s all the more proof that the country needs it, desperately.

To get America back on the right track, we need an ambitious program to create economic prosperity together with ecological sustainability. It’s time for a Green New Deal.

further examination of HIR

Green candidates and party leaders said today that the passage of the Democratic health care bill, with its increased financial burdens on millions of Americans, should not slow the movement for Medicare For All.

I listened in on a conference call earlier this evening hosted by Healthcare-Now to discuss the health insurance reform passed last night. For anyone interested, a recording of the call will be posted to the Healthcare-Now website by tomorrow night.

Another argument for single payer