Thanks from me too. There are few honest voices allowed airspace. The people wanted the Public Option, but what they got is a re-tread of the Insurance Lobby’s own bill. I doubt this flimflam effort will last 15 minutes.

Notwithstanding Democratic control of Congress and the Presidency, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and the Democrats failed to deliver on single payer despite strong public support for it.  The Democrats are weak and cannot govern.  Ralph Nader in 2012!

Don’t vote for democrats this coming election, don’t vote fore republicans. The two party system is a bunch of bull, and neither one is what we need. There are other parties (and not just green)
This link was posted earlier, but I thought I’d help move it up
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/36624

Living in the U.S. is about being an active citizen

You know, this legislation they just passed is
modeled after what they did in Massachusetts a few
years ago.

How’s this working out for Democrats in Massachusetts?

It’s amusing to hear the Dems bring up Ted Kennedy
now when a fellow party member isn’t even occupying
the seat he vacated when he passed away.

I’ve got a better idea than to just keep bringing up
the most knuckle headed criticisms of the bill from
the right. How about contending with the fact that
the overwhelming majority of people who voted for
Obama wanted single payer and they’ve been handed
this steaming turd of a bill instead? They might be
looking for somebody else to vote for in November, or
they might stay at home and not vote at all. If
November ends up being 1994 redux, it will be a
richly earned humiliation, just like the loss of Ted
Kennedy’s seat was.

Under this legislation Medicaid will remain an
underfunded ghetto, while the uninsured working poor
making above 133% percent the federal poverty line
will be forced to buy the snake oil of the health
insurance industry, or be fined on their taxes. About
as highly regressive a tax as anybody could propose.
This is “progressive” legislation?

Don’t answer the criticism. Never mind the wedge this
drives between the working poor who qualify for
Medicaid and those who are going to be forced to buy
something we can’t afford. Just keep bringing up the
idiocy among the Tea Bag Right. Hoist your hero Obama
on your shoulders and declare this a great “victory”
in an election year.

Now why am I supposed to go out an vote for the
Democrats again in November?

@ gerad, prole & ofersince72

All good points on “either or” “lesser of evils.” Unfortunately that IS our system.

IMHO, Hedges is doing Repugnant bidding by invoking emotions, which tends to cloud reason and cause reaction instead of action.

We are all still allowed to vote our conscience and loose but I’ll keep my head not have guilt for voting for the either or lesser of two evils at least for as long as that is the system.

After reading the opposition and the constant whining about the health care bill here, their does not seem much difference from the Tea Party crowd as a previous poster mentioned.  A very slight differences I see, may be the fact Tea Baggers showed their raciest flags Sunday. Posters here are stuffed full of sour grapes, what can I say they are Naderist’s   this could be a new way of defining groundhog week we can call it “Naderist week”? 

Well maybe not every week, like the one week when Hedges went to the Porn Convention to help run a booth? I know, he did not run the booth, but I find the whole thing very funny, like he had a blind fold on the whole time!

Every week a new and better negative article supersedes the previous weeks better article, Hedges surpasses even himself every week, just ask his supporters and Ralph Nader, his weekly crowd makes me feel like I am attending a Rocky Horror Show!

“...the computer you are reading this on and are
about to respond with is the product of for profit,
capitalist production…”

It’s a product of government industrial policy. The
R&D that made the modern home computer and the
Internet possible were the product of huge government
enterprises. That’s why we have four year
universities. They’re a major funnel through which
the tax payer is forced to accept the risks
associated with the R&D of advanced technology. It
works the same with the development of
pharmaceuticals.

I know that the business class in this country likes
to paint itself as a bunch of heroic entrepreneurs,
but they always show up with hats in hand at the
legislature demanding money from the taxpayers.

For those who are horrified that corporate health insurance is being offered to people by the new legislation, a couple points:

The world’s first (1886) universal health plan is based exclusively on corporate insurance that is well regulated and non-profit.  It covers everything and costs now about 10% of gross income.  It is a very good system because it exists in a country that is not slap happy capitalistic.

But America, where I presume you live, is a crazy capitalistic country.  Argue as you will and wish as much as you might, it is going to remain a capitalistic country for many years.

Unless you are a freak of American nature, the computer you are reading this on and are about to respond with is the product of for profit, capitalist production, sold by a capitalist to you who paid for it with money generated through some sort of for profit activity.  The band width you’re surfing on is delivered to you for profit.  Mr Hedges sells his products, thought and books and lectures for profit in a capitalist context. 

I’m not here to defend capitalism, but I am defending reality.  You and Chris Hedges are dangerously untethered from reality if you think that you are going to be able to overthrow capitalism in American in your life times.  Capitalism, however, can be regulated and modified and made less noxious.  But only by wading into the swamp of political compromise. President Obama has done just that and with the new health care legislation made it possible to better real lives in a real way.  A boast Chris Hedges cannot make.

Consider the flaws of the two-party system:  Either/Or.  If Ors vote Either or Eithers vote Or, they are “traitors to the party.”  If Ors are to win Either’s votes for Ors’ legislation, Ors have to make deals to appeal to Eithers. Those deals change—usually weaken—Ors proposals, but the weakened legislation passes.  Ors feel rotten because they “sold out in order to win”.  Eithers feel rotten because they didn’t want Ors’ proposal to succeed in the first place and only voted for it to get something else they do want.

Meantime the money-barons come in behind the scenes offering the Eithers this and the Ors that, so that neither party is free to vote on principles.

This kind of scenario is too simple for complicated legislation where many, many lives are at stake.
The resulting forced simplification prevents adequate understanding and meaningful, honest discussion.  Also, a whole lot of good stuff gets left out because it’s “too hard to get it through.”  Principles are muddied over and die slowly and what is left is “the best we could do under the circumstances.”

In the end everybody is exhausted and frustrated.  They go back home and their constituents (if they have any who care enough) climb all over them with “Why did you?  Why didn’t you?”

As long as the two-party dum/dee system remains bought and sold by money and power, the discussions of legislation will remain corrupted by “what’s in it for me” deals (deceitfully lauded as “bi-partisanship”), false promises and betrayals.

This habitual simple-minded Rep/Dem dichotomy waters everything down with we-need-your-vote or your money, or both, and deals that don’t satisfy either party are inevitable. Then, whatever arcane legislation is passed, fundamentals remain contentious and open to further deals. In the process, the people don’t even figure as puppets.

But media love this simple-minded hassling as “breaking news.” Oh, wow!  Now this. Now that. He’s up! She’s down.  What is getting broken is democracy itself.  So what else is new? 

The one hope is that enough people will wake up to the fact that government is not for sale to the highest bidder.  Nor is it best managed by one party or another. Too many people lose too much.

Life is a both-and-more situation and for every decision made, thousands of other possibilities are left out because of lack of care or imagination.  Maybe things would broaden out some if we gave up on the win/lose mechanics and worked for both/and more. There’s no substitute for honest problem-solving.  Call it realism.

Can we talk?

“The 45,000 Americans who die each year because they cannot afford coverage will not be saved under the federal legislation”...nor will they be saved by The Department of Homeland Security or the FISA or USAPATRIOT Act or the occupation of Afghanistan et.al. “The 45,000 Americans who die each year because they cannot afford coverage” is fully fifteen times as many – every year – as the number who died in the 9/11 incident in ’01, which has been used to justify so much more wanton killing in reprisal, as well as wanton spending in futility. Why worry about so-called foreign terrorists when your own homicidal government will probably kill you first?!!

It’s just amazing how many hold on to the unproven
  “LESSER OF EVILS”  doctrine.  They are as
  responsible as the repug voters for the position
  this country is in right now.
It is because so many “lesser than evil”  voters
have given the green light to democrats through the
years ,  we DO find ourselves in a position that is
imposible to vote ourselves out of now.. You democrat
voters are just as responsible.  But you get your
“FEEL GOOD”  vote.
I will repeat Debs again…...

I would rather vote for something that i believe in
and lose….
then to vote for something i don’t believe in and win >>

@heyletsevolve

Actively demanding (our) party stick to its principles and promises is one thing - abandoning it only strengthens the opposition and I don’t see anything coming from that side except accelerated corporate take over.

Reread carefully! I doubt there will be any divine intervention, at least not on the scale needed. So you advocate revolution instead? Kudos! At least you present an alternative to just pissing and moaning.

BTW, How about a multi-party parliamentarian system? Send me your manifesto. I’ll consider joining the revolution but until it succeeds, I’ll likely continue to vote Democrat instead of issuing protest votes that hand it all to the Repugnants.

“I’d love it if a true Progressive Party fell from heaven tomorrow but that’s not real. For good or bad we have a 2 party system. Of the 2, only the Democrats best represent my personal ideal. So piss and moan all you want. What was the alternative? McCain/Palin?”

Wow. I mean really . . . wow. If you are truly a well meaning person, how can you think like this? Nothing and no one is going to fall from heaven, and no one who is a serious person thinks it will. We have to work hard to make things happen here, but we are railroaded by entrenched corruption every step of the way. Don’t give me that “for good or for bad” b.s.—it’s for bad, and we’re all suffering for it. The alternative is not Palin OBVIOUSLY, the alternative is any number of things from forcing the people in power to do whats right to replacing them completely with a new system. But people like you just sit there spouting nonsense instead of facing what needs to be done.

It drives me nuts.

@ Justice for Kelly:

You sound like someone I’ve met only in my dreams (such as they are).

Calabashe,

Sounds like you were planted here by Republicans trying to convince us that Democrats who actually demand their party stick to their principles and promises are actually anarchists. What a load of absolute crap.

If being progressive means being an anarchist then count me out. A lot of these posts sound like Republic talking points. Maybe that’s the true conspiracy. Republics looking to turn US away from the Left in the hopes we vote Right. I don’t buy it.

  I’d love it if a true Progressive Party fell from heaven tomorrow but that’s not real. For good or bad we have a 2 party system. Of the 2, only the Democrats best represent my personal ideal. So piss and moan all you want. What was the alternative? McCain/Palin?

  So who here is really just serving tea?

“By tmw, March 22 at 12:02 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Has anyone considerd that the republican party may
plant fake “liberals” to devide the progressive
movement with unrealistic expectations over how
progressive policies would actually be passed and
implemented?  This type of writing makes me wonder
what else could possibly be gained.”

tmw sounds like he may have been planted here by the
Democrats. http://theunpeople.blogspot.com/

Blatant fascism (corporations partnering with government) has just taken a gigantic leap forward. Requiring people to fork over billions of dollars to for-profit insurance companies is enough to make Mussolini blush.

Things are now beyond trying to fix with a third party. The new hope now lies with a second government.

Whatever form this alternative governing body takes, Chris Hedges should be included as a valued resource and respected man of principle.

Dennis Kucinich need not apply.

How in heaven’s name is a mandate to buy private insurance in any way, shape, or form “progressive?” Making health care a personal rather than social responsibility is no different in principal than having a Social Security system modeled on individual 401K type plans.

Support this turd of a bill if you like, but there is nothing ‘progressive’ about it. Like a few others who have commented on this article, I’m amazed at how many people who would describe themselves as left-of-center support this thing. As for Kucinich…the less said the better.

Workingman,

People can think for themselves. Hedges is clarifying what those of us who can think already know. Stop attacking people who speak the truth because the truth is so hard on your delicate ears. There’s a pile of sand somewhere that will fit your head very nicely I’m sure.

I think that one of the key motives behind this phony health reform bill is to protect the stock-market bubble that undergirds all the current pretenses of an economic “recovery.” Without that stock-market bubble, the brutal realities of this country’s economic pass could no longer be flim-flammed away by the political/economic/media elites.

So—if there had been a strong health-care bill, the health-care and Big Pharma stocks would have tanked, and the market bubble would have begun to deflate—maybe even burst. And then the stuff would really have hit the fan, necessitating urgent, real, and lasting economic stimulus and jobs programs. For now we have only that bubble. . . .

This stock market bubble is a tenuous one indeed, and will burst soon enough—this bill simply postpones the day of reckoning. Which leads to this thought—after the coming four years of soaring premiums and medical bankruptcies and galloping dysfunction and chaos in the health-care system, with health care devouring up to a quarter of GDP, people will finally wake up—-maybe—and realize that we need single payer; maybe even sections of the elite will realize that the health insurers need to be dumped to save the country (now the elite thinks it needs to prop up the insurers to “save” the country, in their myopic, venal, and dogmatic neoliberal view!). But by then the economy will be so far gone that we probably won’t be able to afford single payer or much else in the way of socially redemptive legislation.

So what lies ahead—barring a miraculous resurgence of an independent left—is a dystopian future of corporate peonage and economic dissolution—courtesy, in large measure, of this pathetic, convoluted, mendacious, cowardly boondoggle of a bill, which blows an opportunity to help salvage this economy of corporate waste and plunder. (And Obama will probably rank as one of this country’s worst presidents—a vacillating tool presiding when we need a courageous visionary.)

According to ITW—if you are not a loyal Dems you are GOP…

According to gerard, all Merkins need is a little more inspiration..and expecting us to catch up with his country is “radical”. The Dems mean well, which is easily said when you dont have to live under them…

According to MSM, the racial epithets screamed by tea baggers make s qall criticism of the bill null and void.

NOne of these things are true. But, they are fun for neoliberals to bloviate about.

Jesus—I prefer Yeshua bar Yosef—was not a Christian, but I guess today he would qualify as a Christian fanatic. What he said about greedheads and missionaries was clear and concise, and you don’t need a theologian or a fundamentalist preacher to understand what he was saying.

So, by those standards, I am happy to be classified as a Christian fanatic. A Christian/Buddhist/panentheist fanatic.

Only a single payer system in competition with for profit insurance should have been considered. Most Americans expected this and did not get it.

Who won- Big for profit Health Care Insurance.
There is no cost control in any of this !

Chris Hedges a Christian fanatic? Is that why he wrote that book attacking radical Christian groups?

LJL says:

“Often over looked is the fact that Chris Hedges is a Christian fanatic.”

Oh gee, really? I heard that he beats his wife and has strange sexual fantasies involving small mammals.

Thanks for the helpful information. That changes everything. Now the health care insurance system is all fixed.

Handyman, I think you and I should get together and go bowling. Thank god some of us can still see clearly. I feel like I’m surrounded by a gang of glassy eyed apologists with Kool Aid all over their chins.

I’ll meet you in that field of flowers . . .

“O the humanity!”

HokaHey!

After reading all the hyperbolic self-congratulatory headlines about what a wonderful job Obama and the Dims did in getting a historic bill giving every American reformed health care I had to drive out to the country side and sit in a field of wildflowers to stop the visions I had of people running through the streets in joy because they had found out that their rulers had decided to kill people by drawing and quartering them instead of the old disembowelment method. And they were ever so grateful that they could now purchase at great cost their own horses to be tied to.

I read some of the posts here and am heartened by their dismay and by Chris’s clear evaluation of this dirty diaper of a bill. And there are others like ITW who aptly prove the old adage of “there are none so blind as those that will not see.” A more enlightened individual would understand that the Dims were paid for their support by the health careless industry to pass the bill which their lobbyists wrote. The Republiwont’s voted against it because to allow the Dims to pass anything is like loosing in Vietnam..again! But ITW is like so many Americans who blindly obey their Party rather than look at the facts.

There are others here who are willing to be betrayed and excuse it as a step in the right direction without realizing that that step is over a precipice. They fail to realize that the only institution we have to protect us from those that would devour us is our Government. But they have neglected their government for so long it is run by the very beasts that would suck our bodies dry for their own benefit.

For those that say this is a great victory for Obama they fail to see the irony in their statements. Yes, the Great American for Hope and Change pushed through something that is worse than nothing, it is horrible. The American Public who got over there racism long enough to vote for a black man who quoted Martin Luther King fooled enough voters to elect him President. They thought they were going to get a Martin Luther King. Instead they got a Don King. They thought they were going to get another Lincoln, instead that got Nixon’s Ford.

If it is true what they say about a people getting the government it deserves, it is also true that many people also get a government they do not deserve. Where are the people of principle? I though Kucinich and Sanders were 2 people who had them. How can they say that they need to sacrifice in their principles so they can get reelected and work to improve this bill? If their principles mean so little, how can anyone trust them to fix anything ever again?

This battle was lost the minute Max Bacaucus had single payer advocates arrested during his hearings. And it went down hill from there. The people who posted all the good things this bill does have been totally duped and I can’t wait to see what kind of excuses and mea culpas they come up with. As for those hoping that this is just a baby step towards true health reform and the only solution, single payer I say, “don’t hold your breath.” If you buy a car that is a lemon, there are laws that protect you. The Law will force you to buy a lemon and there is no incentive to make anyone turn it into lemonaid! Congress will pat themselves on the back and move on to the mext thing they can screw up!

It’s not the corruption of the corporate shills in Washington that upsets me. I don’t expect anything better. It’s the truly horrifying response on the Left—the Democrats, the “People”—as they twist themselves into pretzels trying to defend their chosen team. I can’t fully believe we are this pathetic.

George Bush promises no new taxes, then goes back on his promise, and Left skewers him for years.

Obama promises a public option, then goes back on his promise, and the Left cheers him as though he’s Martin Luther King Jr. all over again.

We are shameless, spineless prisoners who not only cheer their own jailers, but perhaps don’t even realize anymore that we’re trapped.

Gerard: “How can radicals most effectively work in the given situation? What are the implications of these factional differences for a democracy endangered by business corporations who can and do buy power?”

So Gerard, by your definition, the “radicals” are people who expect their elected leaders to actually make good on their promises. Like, Obama promising a public option.

Wow, guess I’m a radical then.

“So we push a little and give a little, argue and listen, find something to celebrate and something to complain about, and just get on with our lives.”

Gosh, that’s so inspiring. Your little self righteous speech has made me feel so much better that the shameless corporate shills in Washington have sold me up the river, and I still don’t have access to health care I can afford, while they are getting their health care with my tax dollars.

This isn’t the nitty-gritty, slow moving tangle of democracy. This is corporate control and corruption, and people like you—deniers, apologists, self-righteous bullshitters—are NOTHING but enablers. You are the most dangerous of all.

For radicals, moderation is “selling out, weak, too slow, chicken-hearted etc.”  For moderates, radicalism is “divisive, too far out, impractical, dangerous, impossible to achieve without some painful “over-turning” action.”
  The causes of radicalism are anger, impatience, a desire for immediate or faster change in their direction.  They show a tendency to use threats (of violence). They are absolutely sure they are right—most of the time, and particularly now—whenever now is.
  The causes of moderation are fear of unleashing unmanageable crowd hysteria, a desire to rely on conciliation, unity, “middle of the road” reasonableness, satisfaction with “gradualism” as progress etc. They are not absolutely sure they are right.
  Radicals and moderates might be brought together temporarily by some crucial question that requires expedient cooperation, but basically is there any way to unite them for long-term goals?
  From the struggle that has already gone on, it appears that adequate health care for all is a long-term goal in this country.  The future struggle will require persistence toward additional reform. How can radicals most effectively work in the given situation? 
  What are the implications of these factional differences for a democracy endangered by business corporations who can and do buy power?

Chris, you’re getting so predictable in your responses.  Enough with the Jeremiads, already!

While I do find a great deal of what you say insightful and incisive, I also am reminded of a line from Jack Gilbert’s “A Brief for the Defense.”  It reads:  “...to make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.”  Enough said!

“Because masturbatory moralizing is equally obnoxious no matter whether it is left wing or right wing since it invariably sacrifices real people to airy fairy perfectionism.”

You’re so right. We should sacrifice real people to corporate corruption instead. And Chris Hedges’ attempt to wake the rest of the sheep like you up should be discredited because of his religious beliefs. Makes perfect sense.

serfs*

So fellow serf, what shall we do now?
sit back and complain, or take action?

For those of you echoing the mindless “It’s a start to build upon” talking points regurgitated endlessly and echoing off every bleating sheep:
  Actually it is a pile of crap engineered by the Insurance & Pharma cartels with the Whitehouse behind closed doors. Any improvements to it were shot down by the Whitehouse who postured and babbled the rhetoric but acted in tandum with the Corps and actually weakened women’s rights while burdening mandatorary tithing to the Corps without oversight or accountability in bad economic times.
  The bill could’ve been better—Obama didn’t want it—but he didn’t have a problem triangulating with the Right to make it worse over the course of the past year. Aside from mindlessly echoing buzzwords—where are the forces that will be receptive to improving this shoddy bill of goods?

Often over looked is the fact that Chris Hedges is a Christian fanatic.  He is, interestingly, a left wing religious zealot and not the more common right wing kind.  But, nonetheless, his other worldly zealotry clouds his real world judgments.  Because masturbatory moralizing is equally obnoxious no matter whether it is left wing or right wing since it invariably sacrifices real people to airy fairy perfectionism.

“thanks democrats, I won’t forget next election.

Vote Green.”

Bad mistake. Our system is not set up for third parties. Democrats should work to get rid of corporatist Democrats in the primary. It wouldn’t take too many corporate Democrats getting pink slips from voters to make the rest toe the progressive line.

Primary them.

My god this is refreshing to get facts.  The entire corporate media has gone berserk in pushing this pile of crap at us, and Medical Mafia stock is going through the sky with this bill passing, as truckloads of money are now headed for those who caused the problem, with no restrictions on how many times they raise the cost of premiums for people forced to buy their snake oil

Ooops

“if only just another”

should be “if only just a little.”

I am a Canadian immigrant to this country I love both countries, but the only public service of Canada I miss is the health care. I don’t miss Canadian health care because the service is better. I miss it because it is much more economical and better serves the long term economic growth of the country.

Certainly, this health care bill does not address all of the problems of the US system, but it does take some steps to address two of the most serious.  First that private insurance companies are dumping the most expensive cases on the government, second it bends the cost curve if only just another.

Obviously a single payer system would be cheaper, and more effective, but with the structure of the Senate as it is it is impossible. Too much power to small states too easy to influence with money to vote for the interests of Big Money. Recall that it was a former Democratic VP candidate who most effectively blocked the public option, Why? Insurance lobby.

Chris, I always respect your opinion. I am willing to over look some of the hyperbole above because of that. I can see that you are exaggerating to make your point. But does it help anyone to say that no one will be helped besides the execs? Come on!

It is a first step.  It is a better first step than I had hoped for. Instead of weeping and gnashing our teeth, let us give some credit where it it due and help these people to press on.

This new legislation depicts the meaning of a Pyrrhic victory——Obama et al won the battle, but lost the war.  This legislation does nothing to fix health care in the USA which is the rising costs of physicians and hospitals which in effect causes insurance premiums to rise.  Other advanced countries have solve this problem by controlling such costs.  One example, in the US., is the Mayo Clinic where costs are closely controlled and physicians and surgeons are salaried.

This bill sucks!  I can say that with full conviction. I can also say with full conviction that the current health care/insurance system sucks.  Which sucks worse is the question to be asked.  In my opinion no change is worse than this bill. 

So we get a lousy bill that doesn’t completely fix the problem.  Is it progress?  Does it start the movement in a certain direction that could lead to something better?  Is it in any way better than what we currently have?  If you don’t think so that’s your opinion to hold, and I respect it.  I disagree but I respect it.

It seem as though a lot of those posting comments to this latest Chris Hedges doom and gloom piece seem to be not asking the above questions, but instead decrying it for not being everything they (and myself) wanted. Is that a realistic position given what we have just seen of our political system in action? 

The way I see it, this half-assed private insurance bill, is not really in the end a very good bill, but it is a slight improvement and opens the door for further progress.  If this bill had been defeated yesterday as many here wish it had, if Kucinich the evil doer stood firm, where would we be?  What would we do?  Start over? 

We just saw that they could barely pull off this weak bill, how much hope was there to start over with all the political capitol spent, and get a single-payer bill?  When would that happen?  Not any time soon I would imagine. 

Do any of you really think a President Nader would have gotten house and senate to deliver a single-payer bill? 

In any case we are where we are now, all the sky is falling rhetoric won’t change that, so the fight for truly comprehensive health care reform goes on.  Write your elected officials, tell them how you are still supportive of a medicare for all type system and ask them to keep working toward that end.  Remind them that this is just a step in the journey and not the goal.

“I admire Chris Hedges, and I take his objections seriously. However, failure to pass this bill would have sabotaged Mr. Obama’s presidency…”

That is what this is about—nothing more. Who cares about the people—just get Obama re-elected. Keep the Dems in power because their policies are SO different..Obamobush.

tdbach, March 22 at 12:22 pm:

‘It is times like these when I realize just how wildly radical and unrealistic so many corners of cyberspace are, including this one.

The difference between the Tea Party mob and this one is…well…not much. At least in terms of temperament - an ideological fervor that renders its victim blind to nuance, revolted by compromise, resentful of middle ground. ...’

It seems to me that Hedges’s present article is rational and fact-based.  If you don’t like “radical and unrealistic” writing and thinking, why don’t you present something rational and based on facts, too?  Name-calling doesn’t get it.

I admire Chris Hedges, and I take his objections seriously. However, failure to pass this bill would have sabotaged Mr. Obama’s presidency, and would have shelved indefinitely any hope of reform. Perhaps our system is broken beyond repair as Mr. Hedges believes, and I my thinking leans that way too. However, our legislators are bound to work within the system, and I think, given the tremendous forces arrayed against them, that they showed a lot of courage, and I am glad they passed the bill. Now I hope they won’t forget that this is only a first step, and we have to struggle to reach the ultimate goal of universal, single payer, health insurance.

Our president has shown he can win a major battle. Now that he is empowered, I hope he embraces his progressive impulses and pushes for climate change legislation, and an end to our foreign occupations.

The first paragraph in this report by C. Hedges is bewildering when you consider
what he says in the rest of the report.  Kucinich deserves respect as a politician
because “he is as good as they get,” it’s just that “he has to placate the
Democratic machine or risk retaliation and defeat.” According to this, the risk of
retaliation or defeat were not in Kucinich’s plans so he decided not to challenge the Democratic machine -and that’s OK?  I then wonder what’s the point of Chris always writing about what has gone terribly wrong with the country and the two parties, and how we need to change things.  It’s very confusing.

tdbach said:
“You’re welcome to put down your pitchforks and torches and join us whenever you want.”

Join you? Join you? Join you in what? Shame?

And you are wrong about the Tea Party types holding crazier views than you. Except for being touted in the media as a perfect normal response to fixing our health care system this bill is a flaming irrational mess. That makes people like you who favor it irrational. You don’t have a leg to stand on calling the Tea Party people nuts.

Join you? It makes more sense for us to join with the Tea Party folks by getting them to join us. They’re less crazy than folks like you. At least they know they are getting screwed over even if they don’t know by who.

“It is times like these when I realize just how
wildly radical and unrealistic so many corners of
cyberspace are, including this one….”

Yes, it’s obviously “wildly unrealistic” for a
wealthier country like the United States to do
exactly what a poorer country Canada did around
four decades ago.

The net result of this is that Canada spends
considerably less on health care than the U.S.
does and is getting better results.

It is times like these when I realize just how wildly radical and unrealistic so many corners of cyberspace are, including this one.

The difference between the Tea Party mob and this one is…well…not much. At least in terms of temperament - an ideological fervor that renders its victim blind to nuance, revolted by compromise, resentful of middle ground.

Just as every new government program doesn’t signal a rush to Soviet-style communism, every concession to business interests doesn’t demonstrate a corporatist, oligarchic stranglehold on our system.

While you and Hedges are screaming about sell-outs to corporate interests and a destruction of democracy in the hands of big money, and while the Tea Partiers are screaming about government take-over and the destruction of democracy in the hands of black Marxists, the rest of us, the great silent and not so silent majority of Americans are doing our best to muddle through, knowing full well that we can’t all agree on anything but we must all get along and function as a society regardless. So we push a little and give a little, argue and listen, find something to celebrate and something to complain about, and just get on with our lives.

You’re welcome to put down your pitchforks and torches and join us whenever you want.

Thanks Chris, corp wins again but isn’t that what we expected. Govt. owned by DC, WS, and now HC how sweet.

Chomsky has often said that if doing something is more
harmful than doing nothing, then do nothing.

If something is broke and needs to be fixed, as health
care in this country surely does, and what you propose to
fix it will make things worse, then it’s better to not fix
it all.

I guess it’s asking too much of people making six digit
salaries, as the people in the Congress do, to think about
how somebody making $30,000 is supposed to pay for the
snake oil garbage the insurance industry wants to sell
them. Or whether or not people who make this much would
even bother to buy health insurance if they could afford
it.

I for one know I certainly wouldn’t be buying private
health insurance if I could afford it.

Chris Hedges expressed the opinions and indignations of many people, including mine, about this fiasco called health care “reform”!!!
This is an excellent article.

Folks, another warning!
Some of the lies told in recent past by the ruling class were s’mwhat churlish or crude.

But the ruling class has ordered better lies. There are now scores of speech writers and new-label-coiners working hard on inventing much better or much subtler lies.

Kids, that’s a certainty! At a right price, of course.tnx

Ralph Nader on the bill just passed (Democracy Now interview):

“First of all, that won’t even begin until 2014, 180,000 dead Americans later.
Second, there’s no guarantee of that. The insurance companies can game this
system. The 2,500 pages is full of opportunities and ambiguities for the
insurance companies to game the system and to make it even worse.

And let’s say there are more people covered, right? Well, they’re being forced to
buy junk insurance policies. There’s no regulation of insurance prices. There’s
no regulation of the antitrust laws on this. Everything went down that Dennis
was fighting for. There’s no regulation that prevents the insurance companies
from taking this papier-mâché bill and lighting a fire to it and making a
mockery of it. There’s no shift of power. There’s no facility to create a national
consumer health organization, which we proposed and the Democrats ignored
years ago, in order to give people a voice so they can have their own non-
profit consumer lobby on Washington.”

But, don’t worry, there’s still hope in Kucinich who vows to keep working for
change. Isn’t it comforting to be able to count on such a “reliable” legislator?

Hulk2008 - Thanks for your comment.

THE fundamental problem in the U.S. today is the myth that we are all pioneers, that we can do everything for ourselves, that we owe nothing to each other and that there are no costs in running an extremely complex society. It is the “all-about-me” syndrome that was popularized by Ronald Reagan in the early 80’s.

It’s the “greedy-is-goody,“free-markety,” “tidy-lifty-uppity-all-boaty,” thingy. How has that worked out for the vast majority of us? Lots of cheap junk that makes us all “feel” wealthy. How’s that working for you all?

I’m truly sorry that Mr. Hedges and many of you aren’t happy about the legislation. I truly am. I choose to look at this as a process of playing chess rather than checkers. I fully expected this to be a long, protracted war against the forces of cynicism (yes, and evil). The battle is not, nor will it be over for a long time. We didn’t get to this point (of becoming the serfs of our employers and insurance companies) over night and it’s completely absurd to believe things would have been “transformed” by a Medicare for all model.

And yes, there are always casualties in war. The truth is always one of the first, but I’d like to remind you all just how difficult the truth is to find when there are so many venal and nasty salesmen of the “greedy-is-goodey” wares so popular in today’s America. It’s easy to sell that garbage when most Americans aren’t educated enough to know truth from fiction.

There’s a good reason why this legislation won’t kick in until 2013.  The Democratic Party leadership knows that once it does, no amount of b.s. from politicians and the corporate media is going to fool the 30 million Americans who will suddenly be faced with the enormous financial burden of government-sponsored extortion by the health insurance industry.  If that were to happen before the next presidential election, Obama would have zero chance of reelection.

But Obama’s sickeningly dishonest demagogy notwithstanding, many Americans have already figured it out, and that’s the irony in Dennis’ cave-in.  Passage of this legislation might easily do more harm to the Democratic Party than its failure would have.

Chris Hedges wrote:
“I respect Kucinich. As politicians go, he is about as good as they get”
__________________________________________________

Kucinich might be, as a politician, and as politicians go, is about as good as they get, but he deserves no respect. He and Sanders sold out, and that is the fact pure and simple, no matter what anyone tries to sugar-coat it.

Please don’t read this if u’r sober ornot on a mind-enhancing-soothing pill!

US [and many countries]is ruled by the greatest criminal minds; governing tho under a criminal system of governance, which functions under an evil constitution.

Expecting any amellioration, such as a timocratic democracy, lawfulness, fairness, by the hands of great and the greatest criminal minds may sooth the nerves, but expect worsening before an betterment.

We have been ruled by greatest criminal minds for at least 10 k yrs. During this time, the ‘nobility’ had led us to countless wars; meanwhile instituting lying, disinformation, slavery, serfdom, and cruel punishment to anyone who dared stand up to them.tnx

I offer my Lenten sacrifices in the hopes that none of the detractors ever are faced with loss of insurance or a life-threatening disease or a pre-existing condition for a child. 
I’ve been fortunate enough (and wealthy enough) to pay those exhorbitant inflated insurance rates for my family for years.  As a veteran of 42 years of health insurance software industry experience, I KNOW up-close-and-personally the shenannigans that insurers do along with the burden of paying them.  We are asked to feel sorry for the insurers because they “only” got $33 Billion in profits last year. 

The IT’S-ALL-ABOUT-ME generation is up in arms.  The poster boy for them is the guy who was flinging dollar bills and spitting epithets at that old man with Parkinsons sitting alone with his pro-reform placard in DC.  A bit like the Pharisees cursing the Christ and challenging Him to come down from the cross on Good Friday.

There are so many selfish folks these days maybe the Constituion needs to be amended to start: “We the Self-Centered People of the United States…..”.

How is it that your right wing republicans can spend trillions on military spending (money down the drain stimulating a false economy) while your biggest capital asset (people) can be ignored and wasted?  Your bill is short of what it could be only because your “freedomn” is freedom for the haves to rip off the have-nots in favor of a phoney Horatio Alger myth. It is your military spending on foolish ventures such as Iraq that will send you downhill for no gain and much pain when your creditors lose confindence in you. While the misbegotten bailouts last year saved unconsciably rich in the short term, they have mortgaged the future for a bunch of greedy unprincipled financiers.  This bill will hopefully help some many people, although structured to get by at the cost of pandering to greedy insurance companies and equally greedy doctors. The boat has left the dock but it is the wrong boat compared to what others (national universal, one-payer options have been developed elsewhere and have worked successfully for 50 years, despite the rubbish your right wing has propagated.

We used to have a saying when we left the shop in the morning with out trucks loaded up, and that was “let’s get out there and do something, even if it’s wrong”.

We were of course, joking.

I guess the democrats weren’t.

When will americans figure out that it is not our government that is evil. Or finge groups from either side. It is the corporations. And we will not figure it out until the “no trespassing” sign goes up on the gulag gate.

Damn, Nader would have voted no.  Well at lest we can still drag Nader out of the I told you so…. I told you so - trunk.

On this Chris Hedges article I agree that the democrats are “as useless as tits on a boar hog” as Hunter Thompson once so aptly put it.
For the politico types who still hold on to the delusional notion that the Democratic party has any concern for the common people… well perhaps they absorb too much of the well-heeled progressive double-talk found at MSNBC and The Huffington Post.
A political party without any principles? Why in heaven would you want to support that?

My feelings toward Kucinich as well. I respect him, but…wrote him to tell him I thought he was going wrong. (Nader told him too on with Kucinich on DN last week. Kucinich’s claim that Obama’s Presidency was at some sort of risk just didn’t play.)

Yep, Congress and a liberal president have struck again on behalf of big capital, once again trying to have it both ways—profits for sponsors, crumbs for electorate, in particular the working-class electorate for whom pols harbor only contempt.

And then backslapping all around while talking of a “historic achievement.” Our government has finally become ridiculous in collusion with prop and pop media. This is one sad day in the ongoing decline of any possibility of social justice.

Hedges supports the only solution to this problem,
and that is to expand Medicare to cover everybody.
They’re simply is no market for mercy and our nation
needs to do what every civilized nation has done with
this issue.

I wish liberal supporters of this awful legislation
would consider what it is they are supporting, which
is nothing more than a highly regressive tax on the
working poor who can’t qualify for means tested
public assistance. I don’t want buy the insurance
industry’s crap. I want to receive benefits from the
Medicare program I am already paying into.

All criticism and no solutions. Preaching to the hardcore choir will never accomplish anything positive. And attacking allies is counterproductive. I wish you could see all this, Mr. Hedges.

Thanks Chris. I like the Hindenburg analogy in the
title of this article.

This is a truly dreadful piece of legislation. A highly
regressive tax on the working poor, who are going to be
forced to buy something they simply can’t afford.

No more pre-existing conditions. Help for small business to ensure their employees. Kids insured by their parents until age 26 (my youngest daughter has lung problems - at least she’ll be covered if she needs more time after college to find a good job with an employer with a good health plan). No more recissions. 32 million insured.No more lifetime caps on coverage.

http://thermocleansereview.blogspot.com/2010/03/thermo-cleanse.html

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Note the company chairman and date of this speech….Bruce Bodaken
Chairman, President & CEO, Blue Shield of California
December 3, 2002

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/02/02-12bodaken-speech.html

“What are the pillars of our plan that guarantees access to health care for all Californians? Universal coverage and universal responsibility. Under the program we propose the health benefits that the vast majority of Californians enjoy today would not be diminished. The universal coverage we’re proposing would build upon the existing system, through which 60 percent of Californians currently receive their health coverage.

First, employers, with the exception of the smallest companies, would be required either to offer coverage or contribute the financial equivalent for an essential benefit package for their employees. Employees would be permitted to opt out and purchase coverage as they do today. Second, every eligible Californian would be enrolled in a Medi-Cal or Healthy Families program. The state needs to work with the private sector on creating an effective outreach strategy to achieve this goal of full enrollment. Third, all other uninsured Californians would be required to purchase coverage in the individual market on a guaranteed basis, with no one denied coverage based on a pre-existing condition. Those who can’t afford that coverage would pay their fair share and be subsidized for the rest. Fourth, an essential benefits package defined by independent medical professionals would specify the minimum level of coverage, which would include preventive care, physician services, hospital care and prescription drugs. Some health plans today offer products that don’t meet this minimum level of care. Those products would be eliminated, either voluntarily or through regulation.”

Rather than diss Hedges, as a certain democratic loyalist, unfortunately blinded by that loyalty, alsways does, one might defend this abomination of a reform bill with particulars, if one can.

I read as far as “I respect Kucinich”. I don’t. He betrays us time and time again, and that actually provides greater reason to hold him in contempt—when he grandstands like he stands for something. Apparently there were other Democrats who voted against it, but Kucinich postured like it all pivoted on his vote. He is little more than a party hack and gatekeeper with his new age babble and trophy wife.
    If Hedges has something to say, say it unapologetically:

“He (Kucinich) asserted, “We have to be very careful” that “President Obama’s presidency not be destroyed by this debate… Even though I have many differences with him on policy, there’s something much bigger at stake here for America.”

The twisted logic here is extraordinary. A bill that is harmful to the American people must be supported because to do otherwise would damage a presidency that is carrying out policies harmful to the American people! The “something much bigger at stake here for America” is…what? Kucinich’s career? The illusion that Obama is a progressive? The threadbare lie that the Democratic Party speaks for “the people?” Probably all three.”

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/kuci-m19.shtml

Who would’ve guessed that one of the most cogent
observations of the night would come from Bart
Stupak?

“This motion is really to politicize life, not to
protect life.”

In saying that, he really nailed what the Republican
“pro-life” effort is all about.

It turns out Bart and liberals have something in
common. He doesn’t want federal funding for abortion.
We don’t the federal government involved at all! Tell
you what, Bart, you keep government COMPLETELY out of
of the matter—let women protect themselves, their
bodies, their lives—and I’ll cut my hair just like
yours.

So what should he have done? Voted against the bill and gotten no change.
At least it’s baby steps towards a better system isn’t it?
Seriously I’m asking. I’m British and I don’t understand how you can live under a healthcare system like the one you have.

Yes, the problem is not kucinich; the problem is americanism.
The problem is constitution and the system of governance.
Kucinich’s or behavior of any pol is just a symptom and not a cause for any unfairness in america and its unfairness towards new indians such as palestinians, iraqis, cubans, pashtuns.

But even hedges does not see this. He had said on this site that constitution doesn’t need changing. I don’t think americans wld in decades yet get a fair medical care for all unless it is guaranteed by law and the constitution.

US wld wage more wars unless the constitution bans wars of aggression. It never banned wars; in fact it demands them; not explicitly, but via specification that US has the right to defend its interests.

And of course, it is in US [ruling class’] interest to grab as much land as it can and simply call it preventive-defensive wars with near 100% politico-media approval for them!

Health care for Americans is not a major concern of
mine.  I live in a country with universal health care. 
What I find interesting is the way so many people like
Inherit The Wind act like these things are party
issues.  Why can’t more Americans see what Mr Hedges
sees, that the two parties are on the same team?  The
problem is not the president or the party.  The problem
is America. http://theunpeople.blogspot.com/

“Thank you, Chris Hedges, for all your hard work on our behalf.”—The Republican Leadership Council

Another call to reality by Hedges.  I actually felt great when I woke this morning and saw the headlines of the Huffington Post. 

‘We did something!’ I thought.  Of course, it only takes a trip to TruthDig on Monday morning to get a dose of hard reality with Chris Hedges.

Thanks, I guess.

You are articulate and your analysis helps one
to grasp the essence of issues. But what is to
be done? It seems that there are several major
issues that deserve to be the foundation for a
new party. War policy, tax policy, environmental
policy,education policy and health policy. A
strong national movement that answered
directly and with the force of your pointed
writing could bring about a - transformative
election. War policy- no more phony wars,
downsize the military by 50 % now. Tax policy-
tax the rich if you need to ask who they are you
are not one. Environment- dump the oil.
Education policy- have teachers be the guides,
just FUND students all the way, then let schools
do their thing. Health this is so obvious- single
payer. A player on the public stage will be tied
to the peoples lobby which will insist on
adherence to the above. We must stop our
representatives from being snakes and
slithering off to the anti- peoples camp.  Let
the bankrupt parties of the past go on cheering
their brands. We the people will just not vote.
STOP BEING A SUCKER. Obama and Kucinich
have snookered the people. Please note their
mode of travel- a large jet maintained- just for
them- by the MILITARY- get it.