I learn more about raw "leftist thought" from these two sources than I do in debating outright Democrats who are bipolar between their party loyalties and their progressive-fundamentalism. (I have more respect for Amy Goodman in her straightforward presentation of her perspective than I do any other left biased television journalist - Rachel Maddow, Roland Martin, Keith Olbermann, etc).
Today various left-wing sources are angered because the final Health Care Reform bill in the US Senate does not include a "public option". Instead we hear that this bill is merely a big pay off for the private insurance companies.
As I listen to these claims I am stunned that few people have plotted out the left-wing progressive argument, made note of the reasons why they have not taken certain actions in response to their grievances and tried to make sense of it.
This is my attempted to do so.
Executive Summary - Since you are more focused upon being SERVICED than funding the Health Care Standard that you claim are part of your 'Social Justice' RIGHTS as an American - Why do you worry about the WHEELING AND DEALING that others who negotiated the financial terms about the treatment of your body had to do to reach a deal for your SERVICE?
The Funding Of This Health Care Bill
In addition to the mandated insurance policies upon all Americans which will flow into private insurance - this bill represents a $520 billion tax increase over 10 years. At this point I am unclear how much this $52 billion is loaded upon the "rich" thus allowing Obama to maintain his promise to not raise taxes upon 95% of the tax payers.
This establishes one clear point - the balance of the money that anyone without insurance right now will come from someone OTHER THAN THEMSELVES. This $52 billion is the balance of the estimated $90 billion per year increase in health care spending that this bill represents.
How Owners Behave
Do you ever notice that the people who demand the "Public Option" key upon the gross profits made by the Health Care Insurance Industry as their key justification for stopping this raise on THEIR money?
Now that this has been stripped out of the government plan the truth is obvious based on the reactions to those who are grieving. IF this was only about undue health insurance profits those people who are now angry would talk about the need for grass roots economic organizing to form something akin to "micro-loans" (micro-health care policies?) which would allow people of conscious to pool their own money and negotiate favorable rates of pay for physicians who provide service in support of their cause for low cost health care services. I can think of no better organization to provide this than the American Medical Association since they favored this legislation.
The main reason why this non-government channel has never come up is because those driving the agenda from the left know full well that absent REDISTRIBUTION via government force - their individual contributions would not afford them the state of "SERVICE" that they desire. The Insurance companies merely make good whipping boys.
I have documented from several sources that the entire Health Care Insurance industry makes $16 billion in profits each year. For some the idea of profits from health care is contemptible. What they fail to mention is that of the planned $90 billion expansion in spending on health care this $16 billion is a mere pittance. Shut these companies down and do nothing else and you STILL have fallen fall short of the needed funds. It is my view that over time we will see the real consequences of having used people's individual grievances against health care insurance firms as the basis for public policy while dismissing hard economic fact.
The claims of "cost controls" being met IF the private insurance companies are disembowelled is laughable. This $16 billion represents the money that you have to work with. Even if we added the salaries of every single high paid health care executive - you still only added about $3 billion more (this is a WAG on my part). The truth is that this angst against the Insurance companies was little more than an attempt to find a target for lynching.
How Those Who Are "In Receipt Of A Benefit" With Only The Currency Of Their Ballot Behave
The wild promises of massive cost savings via centralized government control of the health care industry brought us to this present place. Sadly the fact that the left did not get all that they wanted and thus in the future once the cost control claims fail in the future (as they would have anyway) - you can be sure that the primary blame will revert, once again, to the Insurance companies and other corporations that influenced the government. Nothing short of their goal of a vertical government control over the health care system will placate them and their activism.
The same program that they refer to as the "existing PUBLIC OPTION" - Medicare - is streaming toward INSOLVENCY in 8 years.
Let's be honest. This is not about "cost control" or "efficiency" this is ONLY about shifting the issue of health care over to the LEGISLATIVE CONTROL of the CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. Period. End of sentence.
The present Senate bill forces states to expand their Medicare expenditures with the federal government picking up the tab for 3 years and then shifting the costs to the states afterward.
In The Recent Past The Fix For Medicare Was To Raise The Age Of Eligibility. Today The Plan Was To Lower The Age Of To 55
Unless someone aggregates the ironies and financial hi-jinx that litters this bill people are going to celebrate what amounts to an empty victory. The signature of the labor contract with General Motors just prior to their bankruptcy comes to mind. The agreement on paper was not worth the toner used to print it in the end.
- NY Times: Democrats Work To Expand Medicare and Medicaid Spending
- Before: Feb 2009: Physician payment cuts in 2010 will help curb Medicare spending
- After: Dec 2009: Bill passed to halt medicare physician payment cut
Addendum - Where Is Your Compassion?
After a good nights rest and a calmed set of nerves (I typed the bulk of this message upon watching Rachel Maddow and then Democracy Now back to back) I would like to append this message as follows.
Some will read my words above and ask "Where is your compassion for those who are in need of health care but the present system has shut out?"
My answer is "Right back at you!!!"
"Economic destruction" is not only at the hands of the Wall Street Bankers or the Mortgage Lenders. Many of the people struggling are disconnected from jobs and thus health care benefits as a result of the economic policies that the people that they favor have promoted. These policies have made their areas "high cost of production" areas and as a result the "consumers of labor" chose to vacate. This is no different than what you'd do if "Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway or HEB" chose to punitively raise their prices upon YOU - their consumer.
This present focus upon the government taking over health care is due to the fact that the previous organized efforts to have the employer do the same was successful yet the aggregate demands upon these entities proved to great. WHY do you think the same demands upon the central government will be any different in the long run?
My call of "Where is your compassion" comes from my observation that this bill "ASKS FROM" more than it "GIVES TO". In the name of social justice the focus has been upon those who NEED. They have glossed over far too many painful financial truths that will hit us in the long run. The key strategic flaw is that is places a heavier burden upon the central government while PERVERTEDLY hardly mentioning the need to build up competency in the provision of HEALTH CARE within the communities that are in need.
Yes Bernie Sanders got $3 billion more inserted for Community Health Care Clinics. These are SERVICE CENTERS for the people though. Where is the $3 billion for the quadrupling of medical education for "underserved" populations so that the service agents from these people will provide more adequate care at the PERIPHERY?
This is nothing more than an ideological battle that follows the same model that I have identified.
Some seek to have their constituents "In Receipt Of Benefit", not worried about where the money comes from BUT with the audacity to command that this money TAXED AWAY from the rich NOT GO into the hands of the Private Drug Companies.
In summary PROFITS are evil yet DEFICITS are proof that one's commitment to the poor is in line with American values. We will soon see the correctness of this claim.
If there is any face to be saved - go back and demand that your people get advanced training and expertise. When the central authority first makes massive cut backs due to financial constraints and then possibly collapses under the strain - at least you will still have the education resident within your communities.
Today you only have a 'SERVICE CONTRACT' for the treatment of your body.
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