|
 I think that when most people (including people who read the dictionary) think of compromise or negotiation, they assume that each side gets something and gives something up in exchange. Like your mother taught you - share your toys. Those fond memories have nothing to do with what currently goes on in our Senate.
Hate them or love them, the first column is a list of the things Democrats wished to have in the health reform legislation. Both parties say that some kind of reform is necessary as our current system is not sustainable. The second column is the results of the negotiations:
Single payer ---------------------------------------gone
Universal coverage ---------------------------------gone
Medical records keeping ----------------------------gone
Extension of Medicare to those 55+ ----------------gone
No rescission ---------------------------------------gone
No pre-existing condition exclusion ----------------gone
Require large employers to cover ------------------gone
No lifetime cap on coverage -----------------------gone
SCHIP - coverage for children ---------------------gone
Assistance for those unable to afford it -----------gone
No insurance across state lines --------------------gone
Trim Medicare to cover some expenses ----------kept
Mandate coverage for 30 million -------------------kept
Fines for not buying coverage ----------------------kept
How did this happen? Was the filibuster a favorite tool? Its purpose is to make sure of the protection of the rights of the minority all the way down to one Senator.
1962 Dem Senate, Democratic president --------------- 7 (Kennedy)
1989 Dem Senate, Republicanic president ------------- 11 (Reagan)
1996 Rep Senate, Democratic president --------------- 90 (Clinton)
2003 Rep Senate, Republicant president --------------- 65 (Bush II)
2009 Dem Senate, Democratic president -------------- 140 (Obama)
So as a result of these "negotiations," the bill coming out of the Senate, gets rid of all the Democrat's desired items, which were intended to enable you to be covered by health insurance, and keeps items that increase by some 30 million those forced to be new customers of the health insurance industry at whatever price they would like to charge. Threatened with fines for noncompliance. It gets rid of SCHIP (poor children's coverage). Makes cuts to Medicare in the future which were predicated upon the increasing efficiency of electronic data and improved health as some 45 thousand people wouldn't be dying each year due to lack of coverage (so now there will be the cuts to Medicare without the improvements which might have resulted).
This has been a clearly brilliant parliamentary maneuver by Republicants including the ones in the Democratic Party. Perhaps you don't realize that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, FDIC, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Rural Electrification, FEMA, Wagner Act, creation of week ends, 40 hour week, overtime pay, elimination of child labor, and on and on were Democratic programs, and started out just like this Health Care reform. Oddly though, at that time we had a different Democratic Party or country or something because those things, upon which you depend now, were passed into law though the objections of Cantservatives were the same as they are now. Perhaps the memory of the Depression was more fresh, or the lying hadn't reached fever pitch.
The experience in Massachusetts is indicative. Though started by governor Romney (R), our southern neighbor is achieving universal health care, much like what started out in the Senate. It is a mess, costs are huge etc. Strangely enough, though, about 60% of Mass residents now rely on it and want it to be improved and continued according to a Harvard Medical School study. Very much like Canada, France, Britain, Switzerland and on and on, where costs are half or less than are ours, people are quite satisfied that government can do this - just as they are with Medicare and Medicaid.
So I guess the lesson is that you will be harmed if you let Democrats do what is currently thought of as "negotiating." With the Petersen foundation spending about one billion dollars to get rid of Social Security, if you want to continue to have a middle class without your parents living in your basement keep important things away from the current group of Democratic negotiators - nice guys finish last.
|
Drop the mandates and the fines and we've almost accomplished
something. : )