Recently in Politics Category

It is frustrating to hear that the flexibility required to come to agreement is caricatured as duplicity.

9:20: A man tells a compelling story about his wife who needed a heart transplant when they had no money. They prayed on it and God answered: his VA benefits came through and she had the operation and is now healthy. 

The lesson he takes from this: government is evil, prayer is the answer.

He is against healthcare reform because he does not want government to decide to kill his wife!??

Specter makes the obvious point that the VA is a government program.

Watch the video here.

Oh, and by the way, there seems to be an Obama goon squad somewhere around here. People are worried about it, but I only see a bunch of idealistic looking Specter staffers dressed in coat and tie ... and I see John Eich.

9:13:  Apparently Specter is trying to kill us when he advocates for exercise, healthy eating, and regular checkups.  Not sure how that follows, but there it is...

9:10: It seems that the lawyers are causing all the problems in America.  Here is a sign that suggests the lawyers be killed!

This civil discourse indeed!

Specter says that he decided not to shave his head and become a sex symbol after his cancer treatment. Good choice.

9:05: There are now a few more pro reform questions being asked thoughtfully. Specter restates that the single payer plan should be on the table.  He has retained his sense of humor and recognizes that when he advocates for the rights of states, he gets a lot cheers. He predicts it before he says it.

8:55: Watching this, I am increasingly aware of the anger and fear that is animating some people in the country. These are people who genuinely feel threatened by a changing world. I hear it in the loud opposition to the very idea of global warming and any intervention by the government in the lives of individuals.

8:45: Question about public leader's arrogance, we are apparently on the road to socialism.  The war is allegedly for American freedom. Specter says that we are not moving to socialism, the boisterous people are booing because they don't believe him.

Specter says he favors a public option.  Says he is here to listen, but I wonder what the impression he is getting about the position of the "American people" from this meeting.  There are just a lot of angry people in this room.

8:40: Second question is from a young man whose father is a plumber without insurance. Asks what they are going to do to help him. He is clearly in favor of insurance reform. Specter says that they are working for universal health insurance (claps and boos combined) and he speaks of a co-operative program.

Specter is talking about changing parties because the Republicans were not willing to engage in a discussion about the stimulus.  He says that when he voted for the stimulus, the Republicans censored him.  He is glad to be able to vote his conscience, not on a partisan label.

8:35: Specter says that your right to free speech ends when you interrupt others trying to exercise the right to free speech. The first question is more of a filibuster than question.  The questioner wants to know "why aren't you taking more time?" Specter says that they are taking the time to get it right.

Specter is angry and feisty.  There is a strong anger in the hall, but Specter is firm. 

8:25: Waiting for Specter, here are some pictures of the line outside the hall.  It is hard to tell who is for what, but it feels like there are a number of people here early who are against reform.  They have signs, which were not permitted into the hall.  The first 30 people were given cards to ask questions.

Specter comes enters and is talking about the anger he has seen over the past few days as he goes through PA.

8:15: I am in the hall after waiting in line for about an hour.  I had a nice talk with Joyce Luzier (shown here on right) from Phillipsburg who is supporting health insurance reform. We had a nice discussion about the importance of reform and sighed as we saw the bus of anti-reformers arrive.

I outline three basic goals the bill should achieve: to cover all Americans, to reduce costs as it increases the quality of care and to avoid increasing the federal deficit.

I am relieved to see that Twitter itself has recognized the important role their service is playing in Iran.  They have accordingly rescheduled a service maintenance that would have brought their servers offline during a 90 minute period at 9:45pm Pacific time, which would have been around 9:15am in Iran. If the plan to have a nationwide strike tomorrow is to succeed, communication via Twitter is critical for its organization.  I am impressed by Twitter's sensitivity to the political significance of what is happening and by its ability to alter what was surely a logistically complex undertaking even in normal circumstances.

I am impressed also by all the people around the world who have published addresses to proxy servers that allow the tweets from Iran to bypass the government filters seeking to suppress grassroots communication.

Whatever the ultimate outcome of this struggle is, and my hopes and thoughts are with those in the streets trying to be heard--may they be untouched by violence, the manner in which this political process has unfolded has transformed my understanding of Iran, of the power of social media and of the possibilities that open when communities of communication emerge committed to a noble purpose. 

Check out the protests themselves from grassroots video like these:

In his recent New Yorker article, Atul Gawande shows the degree to which the practices of physicians and other medical professionals in certain areas drive the costs of healthcare up by prescribing unnecessary procedures and otherwise over treating patients in order to maximize profits.  This report shows the extent to which the medical profession, to say nothing of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, "took profit growth to be a legitimate ethic in the practice of medicine."

It has become increasingly clear that whatever fears people have about a government run healthcare option, it will at least have the benefit of not being at its very core driven by the ethic of profit maximization.  Joe Conason has nicely shown the benefits of a strong publicly funded option, emphasizing the fact that a government program would cut costs right off the top by eliminating price increases associated with maximizing profits for shareholders.

Patients should profit from the healthcare system by receiving better care, not the medical-industrial complex by generating more money.  Aside from a strong belief that everyone has the right to basic health care, the main reason I support a strong public option is to undermine the ethic of profit maximization that has perverted the healthcare system in the United States for too long.