Thursday, October 8, 2009
Politics Listen to Him, He's a Doctor
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 2:00 PM
But [Dean] also warned that the public option may hurt Democrats politically next year. "If the Democrats want to hold on to their majority, you're going to have a problem," he said. That's because the public option wouldn't be up and running until 2013, long after the 2010 elections, meaning voters won't really see any benefits until long after the election.To address that problem, Dean said Democrats need to do something that will have tangible results by next summer. His proposal: opening up Medicare to people over the age of 50 so that a "certain mass" of people will already have benefited from health reform by the elections. "You need to have people sign up for this program by July 2010," Dean said.
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1
It's slipping away.
The SuperMajority (that shiny new wonder- all we have used it for so far was to chide Joe Wilson and in a few months we have to turn it back in to the dealer :( ....).
Obama's presidency- prematurely tired and old and disappointing at 9 months...
There was/is no vision for health care.
No plan.
Just a lot of unworkable platitudes.
The enthusiasm following the election is gone but nothing was purchased with it.
Health care is now a grim debate about money and the figures don't add up and we've borrowed $2 Trillion already this year (five times Bush's biggest deficit...) and the Chinese won't let us have anymore anytime soon...
Dean is scrambling for a scheme or a gimmick to save a few seats in 2010 but it is a sad shadow of what could have been.
2010 is here.
2012 is right around the corner.
The SuperMajority (that shiny new wonder- all we have used it for so far was to chide Joe Wilson and in a few months we have to turn it back in to the dealer :( ....).
Obama's presidency- prematurely tired and old and disappointing at 9 months...
There was/is no vision for health care.
No plan.
Just a lot of unworkable platitudes.
The enthusiasm following the election is gone but nothing was purchased with it.
Health care is now a grim debate about money and the figures don't add up and we've borrowed $2 Trillion already this year (five times Bush's biggest deficit...) and the Chinese won't let us have anymore anytime soon...
Dean is scrambling for a scheme or a gimmick to save a few seats in 2010 but it is a sad shadow of what could have been.
2010 is here.
2012 is right around the corner.
2
You could just open up Medicare to everyone from Birth to Grave and just be done with it. And put everyone over 50 and everyone under 21 into the program in 2010. Then phase everyone else in over a couple of years.
4
There's been a recent study showing that extending medicare to those age 50 sves money, because right now those age 50+ not yet on medicare defer and delay treatment until they are on medicare .... worsening their health....till medicare pays for their now-more-expensive care.
IOW we've already got socialized medicine, we just run it in a totally crazy way.
And yes, Medicare at 50, or Medicare for All, all that is WAY more easy to sell than a public option.
I mean, I have a public option to go to Deception pass instead of my uncle's cabin on whidbey, is that the public option we're talking about?
Words that are meaningless never win political fights.
IOW we've already got socialized medicine, we just run it in a totally crazy way.
And yes, Medicare at 50, or Medicare for All, all that is WAY more easy to sell than a public option.
I mean, I have a public option to go to Deception pass instead of my uncle's cabin on whidbey, is that the public option we're talking about?
Words that are meaningless never win political fights.
7
At this point I don't see how we benefit from keeping the Democratic "supermajority" anyway. What have they accomplished with it? The Democrats are a bunch of useless pussies and the only thing they're accomplishing is taking up space. The only benefit I've seen from them is that they're holding seats so Republicans aren't in them. For Fucks sake Democrats! Do something! Who cares if you lose seats? If you do nothing you're going to lose them anyway and will have accomplished nothing with them!
8
All this wouldn't be a problem if we just drafted the old white Birthers and shipped them overseas to die in Iran.
9
We heard Root's arguments before when greens said there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush. Plain wrong. The Dems are changing our foreign policy, our policy on science education, on trade, and banking. They are in the process of changing many things that take time. But moving forward nonetheless. And Medicare should be made the public option.
10
Democrats should open up Medicare to everyone age 50+ and open up Medicare to all minors (most states have programs in place for low income children already) by the end of this year...and then in 2009 add in age 50+, and in 2011 age 35+, until 2013 age 18+.
They won't do it. They're chicken-shits. They'll lose the supermajority and nothing will get done. Obama will end up being a one-term president.
Democrats: Snatching failure from the jaws of victory since 1828.
They won't do it. They're chicken-shits. They'll lose the supermajority and nothing will get done. Obama will end up being a one-term president.
Democrats: Snatching failure from the jaws of victory since 1828.
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