Health Care Reform Passes.

I wanted to write and share the great news I am sure you have already heard. Health care reform is law. This is a historical day for our country. No longer can the insurance companies abuse the citizens of this nation for profit. This has essentially been the point of the entire health care battle.

For far too long have the Insurance companies been allowed to drop coverage for getting sick. For far too long they have been able to exclude people from coverage for being born sick. 32 million more people will have insurance coverage. This is not a government take over of health care. It is a government fix to a huge budgetary and public health problem facing the people of this nation. This reform saves the government 138 billion dollars over ten years, and $1.2 trillion over 20 years according to the non partisan Congressional Budgeting Office. This bill also helps seniors on Medicare who will now pay less for prescriptions with the closing of the donut hole gap in coverage. Seniors will now have preventative care at no cost to them with Medicare. This bill provides significant tax breaks for small businesses that provide health insurance for their employees. This reform is expected to create 2.5 million jobs over ten years due to reduction of health care costs to businesses.

This battle for health care has shown just how dysfunctional and powerful the special interest have become, and how entrenched they have become in Washington. The Republicans and some Democrats have been absolute obstructionists simply for political purposes. Many are well paid by health insurance and other special interests. They were elected to do the work of the people. Yet they chose to vote no. They chose to let another 45,000 people die this year due to a lack of health coverage. The chose to let millions more live one illness away from bankruptcy. They chose to support insurance company profits over their constituents well being. Fortunately 60 Senators and 219 Representatives had the courage to pass this reform.

The Republicans continued to drag their feet in the Senate, using more stall tactics to slow the reconciliation bill of fixes that the House of Representatives demanded from the Senate in order to pass the Senates bill. It is an exercise in futility. Many are now vowing repeal. There are several state attorney generals that are suing merely to score political points from their far right base. Again an exercise in futility. By some accounts, this bill that passed is more conservative than the compromise bill the Republicans offered in 1994 during Bill Clinton's try at health care reform, and the one that Nixon tried to get passed in his first term. My thought is that if one has an employee that refuses to do their job, one fires them. It is time for these obstructionists to be voted out of office.

There is a small minority on the far right fringe of American politics, who is being extremely vocal and violent and they are being whipped up by these same far right politicians as well as media personalities like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Since health care reform passed a number of offices of Democrats around the country have been vandalized by wing nuts who think they speak for the rest of us. Things are likely to get ugly over the next few months as these wing-nuts gear up for their "revolution." It is my belief that we will see more acts of domestic terrorism over the next few months. April 19th is especially significant in American history. April 19, 1775 beheld the battle of Lexington and Concord, the first battle of the American Revolution. This also the day of the tragedy in Waco in 1993. It was also April 19, 1995 when Timothy McVey bombed The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

I ask my friends who are on the right of the political spectrum, please do not endorse this insanity. Form a new party. Those who are left in Washington want only one thing. Absolute dictatorial theocratic power. They care not for the American people nor those of you who voted for them. They care about the hundreds of thousands of dollars they get from special interests. They care about holding on to power, despite scandal, and criminal behavior. The entire Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has been subpoenaed in a possible election fraud case involving Nevada Senator John Ensign and possibly others. The Republican Party is dying. We need those on the right in the dialog of American politics. What we don't need are those who would seek violence for dislike of our president. We don't need those who would seek violence because their narrow vision for America includes only them. We don't need those who rail against a mostly successful stimulus package and voted against it, but get excited for a campaign photo op at a project in their district funded by stimulus money. It is time for the hypocrisy to leave Washington. Please get involved and bring some moderation to the politics. As an independent voter, a post I saw on Twitter says it best, "Democrats, the party that gets s@%t done."

Next up on the list of Congress-Do's for the American people is financial and corporate reform. It is time to reign in the to big to fail banks and the wall street firms that drove our economy to the brink of depression. Anybody in Congress or other political office needs to hear that you support strong financial regulation and bank reform. It is time they heard from you about supporting the public financing of elections. If we want fair elections we have to pay for them. If we continue we will lose more and more freedom to those who have the money to buy the power. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the right of free speech and effectively said that they may spend as much as they like in elections. The corporations do not have our interests in mind. They care only for shareholder profit at whatever expense to people and the environment.

We still have much work to do to take back this country from lobbyist and special interests. We have much work to do to rebuild our infrastructure and refresh our military strength. Our country has been mismanaged by politics for far too long. Health care reform is what the change we voted for looks like. Hopefully we won't have to fight so hard for it on every thing that needs to be done.

Follow this link to read:

10 THINGS EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM



Pass it on.

Have a great day.

For Sale: The American People!

Wow, the Supreme Court just stuck it to the American People today when they ruled that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money in election campaigns.  The 5-4 decision effectively gave corporations the power to buy Congress.  The court ruled that corporations have the same free speech rights as citizens.  We should all be concerned by this.  The people have been sold to the corporations.  Welcome back feudalism.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Keith Olbermann Special Comment On Health Care Reform

Please take the time to watch this very important piece by Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. I have written an open letter to the President which is in the following post. Please take the time to write your elected officials and express your thoughts about meaningful health care reform and other much needed reform.

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

To see how much money your elected officials take in from special interests, please visit OpenSecrets.org and follow the links to find your elected officials. You might be surprised at what you find.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

An Open Letter To President Obama

Mr President,

I am writing to urge you to speak out publicly against the current form of the Senate health care reform bill. I cannot support a health care bill that provides a mandate without an affordable option such as the much promised public option, a Medicare buy in, or being single payer. With that said I also cannot support candidates who have helped to sell this country out to the corporate interests, and the health insurance industry.

Please sir do the right thing and push for meaningful reform and let the fools in congress who wish to kill health care reform do so and then put it squarely on their shoulders. You were elected on a promise of meaningful change, and I am starting to lose hope, but I will continue to support those who stand strong in the face of corporate and political interests to do what is right for the United States of America and its people. Please do not simply accept a bill for the sake of passing a bill. If it takes time to do what is right that is fine, but please do not accept mediocrity in health care reform.

Respectfully,

Rev. Jeremy Cook

Sent To President Obama via http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ on 16 December 2009.

Rep. Doug Lamborn Has Health Care Town Hall Meeting in Colorado Springs.

I went to a health care centered town hall by tea bagging Colorado 5th district Rep. Doug Lamborn(R). As promised by Mr. Lamborn's congressional website, the town hall meeting was a spirited mix of scared seniors ready to be scared some more, and the more vocal progressives, ready to call Mr. Lamborn out for his lies.

I was fortunate enough to be called to ask representative Lamborn a question. So I asked a two part question: A. Why does he continue to quote the now discredited Price Waterhouse Coopers report, and B. How much money has he taken from health industry & insurance lobbyist. Rep Lamborn answered that he didn't know that the PWC report was discredited. Secondly he said he didn't think that he had taken that much from health and insurance interests, " maybe a few thousand dollars."

I think Mr. Lamborn would be interested to know that he has taken more than $200,000 in money from health and insurance industries. The health sector has donated $44,000 to Mr. Lamborn during his political career. The finance, insurance, and real estate sector has given $159,000 during Mr. Lamborn's political career. It is no wonder Mr Lamborn that you are against reform. You have been paid for by the big industry.

One thing I can say for sure is that it is going to be a long day at the Country Buffet. The large majority of the audience was seniors who couldn't believe that free speech should apply to people like me because I was calling out the lies they were being told by an elected leader, who has been paid to tell these lies.

It is time to call out the traitors in Washington, whether they be Republican or Democrat. If you take money from the health and insurance lobby to derail and lie about health reform, then you work for the insurance companies and not the American people. It is time Mr. Lamborn for you to step down. You have refused to call down the violent rhetoric of the tea baggers. You refuse to call down the violent rhetoric of Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

It is time for a health care reform for the American people, with a strong and robust public option that provides competition to Mr. Lamborn's insurance bosses. It is time for Mr Lamborn and his colleagues to do what is best for America and resign. By your lies you have shown your intent toward serving the American people. You will rule by who pays you the most. It is ironic that your views and your donors coincide Mr. Lamborn.