McClatchy’s Joseph Galloway is a journalist who writes books with generals, and features this compliment from Norman Schwarzkopf in his bio: “The finest combat correspondent of our generation — a soldier’s reporter and a soldier’s friend.”
So it’s always interesting to see how far left many of his opinions are. For example, he’s underwhelmed by the Senate’s health-care bill.
Absent from the legislation now is anything that even remotely threatens the profits and the big bonuses and the private jets and the gold-and-marble office towers of the health care and insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.[…]
The pirates of Wall Street and the political charlatans have won.
The American people, especially those who are sick and poor or sick and middle class or just poor and middle class and afraid that one day they will get sick, have just lost.
What we needed was principled and determined leadership in the White House and on Capitol Hill. What we got from the people whom we elected and sent to Washington to clean house and shape up a corrupt system was much ado, and then nothing.
Well, I wouldn't mind a non rough riding Teddy Roosevelt trust buster from the Republicans if the bill is so bad, but I don't think we're going to get anything like that from the Republicans for a long time coming. Maybe it's time to turn them all out and start fresh but the people won't do that yet.
Unfortunately, Naomi Klein seems to have been right and we're in for a rough time of it for quite a while. We're just in for a dose of what we've been giving the world for a long time and I think we probably deserve it the way we've been voting, "we" meaning the other guy of course, although I don't know if that's the way to look at it. None of us did enough, me especially.
The Real News Network is running a series right now asking if a permanent war industry is necessary for economic growth (worth watching) and of course, as we've known here at Bad Attitudes for a while, it's not done what it was supposed to do - ever. Much more change is on the way and a lot of it is probably going to be painful to many people.
Sorry I didn't speak to the issue at hand, Krugman thinks he's wrong but the people will surely know where to protest if the thing is overly costly. But we'll just have to see, won't we.
Posted by: Buck on December 27, 2009 9:00 AMYes Buck, it is time to turn them all out. And a mild form of that is just what voters thought they were doing when they elected Obama. His campaign of "change" resonated with citizens who didn't want to destroy the underpinnings of our Constitutional system but knew America's "public servants" are now only serving the plutocrats. And his sell-out to the plutocrats and war machine betrayed their trust. Most of them won't vote Democrat again and they already know the Republicans are nuts, so they are ripe for a third party.
Over the next few years, the cost of forced insurance purchase will destroy many a family's budget. Those who are already financially sinking will drown and those who are barely keeping their heads above water will sink. As most anyone who has really had to ask for government help can tell you, the reassurances that there will be gov't help paying for insurance cost will turn-out to be an off-putting maze of bullshit that will amount to near zero help. In the end, millions of Americans will have to choose between buying insurance to avoid fines or paying for their rent, groceries, and utilities. And all the while America's "leaders" will continue to pour unimaginable money down the rat-hole of endless wars and more tax breaks for the ultra-rich.
I believe there is a very good chance this healthcare "reform" (which isn't) may become the issue that will finally ignite a citizens rebellion.
Posted by: colonelgirdle on December 27, 2009 7:19 PM