Montana Maven's
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I can't tell you how pissed I am that I have to keep writing letters to Tester.  Voting against usury ceilings.  Voting against adjusting mortgages for home owners.  And now health care.  William Greider is right.  "'Bi partisan compromise' usually means the people are about to get screwed."  Greider explains in his new book "Come Home, America" how "reform" works. 

"If the political parties hold hands and act together, neither party can be blamed by injured citizens.  The press takes little interest in this alliance since it involves no fight between the two major parties.  Perhaps a blue ribbon commission of "wise men" can be assembled to work out the compromise details."

This is what Sheldon Wolin in Democracy Inc. calls managed democracy in what he thinks we are in now--inverted totalitarianism.

"The aim is to control politics by settling the terms of competition in the spirit of Archer Daniels Midland's watch word, 'the competitor is our friend, and the customer is our enemy': substitute 'the other party' for 'competitor' and 'active citizen ' for 'customer' to get the inverted version of totalitarian politics."

This is different than the one party Stalinist or Nazi state, says Wolin.  Inverted totalitarianism encourages divisiveness instead of unanimity.

Chris Bowers is right when he writes today that we must focus like lasers on the Democrats and make them stop the Kabuki theater and do what the majority of Americans want, a real national health care program and not some weenie "reform".

But Glen Ford is also right in not letting President Obama and his troop off the hook.  Obama Charges Backward on Health Care
My letter:

June 10, 2009

To:  Senator Jon Tester
Re:  Health care for All aka Single Payer and the Problem is the Democrats not the Republicans.  We the people are going to focus like a laser on you guys, not the Tancredos and the Limbaughs.

"The devil's in the detail on all this stuff. My key is accessibility and affordability. Those are the two things, but I think everything should be on the table," said Tester.

Jon, you got conventional bad advice when you voted against  Durbin’s bill that would help people rather than the mortgage lenders. "The cram-down provision, if it became law, would raise the costs of all mortgages for everyone," Edward L. Yingling, president and chief executive of the American Bankers Association, told the Washington Times.  Bull –oney.  Congress can set interest rates and stop banks from ripping people off.   Wealthy people can have their second home mortgages “crammed down” (a business word for “adjusted”), but now people with only one home can’t have their rates adjusted. Over a 1.5 million people will lose their homes because of your vote.  This is such obvious class warfare.  Your remark that “ a deal’s a deal” should also apply to contracts with workers, not just bankers.  “A deal’s a deal should also apply to military contracts that make someone go back to Iraq even though his contract has expired.  And how about discharged military who can’t get into the VA because of a “backlog” aka cynical way of not having to pay for their medical?  And don't get me started on your vote against a limit to usury.  That needs a whole other letter.

So please do not get the conventional old advice on a universal single payer national health care plan.  Take the time to watch the Bill Moyer’s Journal with Dr. David Himelstein.  Take the time to listen and not repeat clichés like “it’s too far along in the process” or “it isn’t politically feasible” or the worst stupidity “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”   We had Montana Dr. Bob Putsch on our radio show last week and you can listen to Dr. Putsch on my website at montanamaven.com/

A lot more of us than you think know what is going down.  The trigger is a non-starter.  Insurance companies will never reform.  So the next trick is to embrace a pubic plan and then screw it. Like the outrageous Medicare Plan D and the current Medicare, they will really deliver death by a hundred paper cuts.  They will say that the public plan will pay up to $15,000 for a hospital stay and then have a doughnut hole and then kick in again at $30,000 or some such formula.  Then...ta...da...you will have to buy supplemental insurance for the hole.  Just like having to buy supplemental insurance in Medicare, this is such a crock bought and paid for by an industry that should not even exist. 

Every wealthy country except us has a universal health and mostly single payer plan, so we have many models to choose from Taiwan to Germany to France to Norway, and yes, to Canada.  We don’t have to start from scratch.

During WWII, wages were frozen so employers offered health insurance as an extra incentive.  After the war most nations went with a universal government plan instead of

Page Two:  Letter from Diane Kamp Clayton, Big Timber

the employer based plan.  It’s time we join the rest of the civilized world and take decision making about our health away from the greedheads. We can’t compete against China, Germany and the rest without a national plan.  Accessibility is everybody in and nobody out.  Affordability is done through a Medicare for All with no copays and no deductibles and no pre existing conditions. It’ really not that complicated, Jon, if you listen to the right people.

Have you staffer talk to Dick Christ here in Big Timber.  He’s an electrician who wrote a letter to the editor accusing Obama of being a secret Muslim who is unpatriotic.  Last night he walked up to me and said “I liked your letter about single payer.  I’m for it.”
Can’t get more non-partisan than that.

The majority of the people in this country want a single payer sensible plan.  Do it.

    

 

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