Obama ad buy troubling but necessary
in time of corporate dominance
Posted by Chuck on July 16, 2009
In : Health Care Reform,
Organizing for America, the campaign arm of the Obama machine, is targeting constituents of moderate Senators in both parties with a cable TV ad buy.
We have no quarrel with the content of the ad, shown below. The stories of the people featured ring true, and this campaign serves a noble purpose in letting their stories be heard and encouraging constituents to make their wishes known to their senators.
But an ad buy by the campaign arm of a sitting president is not business as usual. It’s a new tactic we’d prefer not to see.
Most of the current problems the United States is in, including the financial crisis, can be tracked back to Supreme Court decisions that have granted corporations the same rights as individuals. But those corporations’ nearly unlimited budgets to buy the results they want have seriously knocked our country’s scales of justice out of balance. Instead of giving corporations an equal voice with individuals – a concept that is nothing short of bizarre to start with – it actually has the effect of neutering individual opinion.
The health care industry – private insurers, pharmaceutical corporations, hospitals, doctors, nurses and thousands of lobbyists – is currently spending around $1.4 million a day lobbying the 535 members of Congress to defeat a public option. More yet in advertising falsely warning of the dangers of “socialized” medicine. That is an insane amount of money, and a corrupting one. (Read the Transcript of Capital Eye Blog’s Web Chat on Money and Lobbying in Heath Care Reform.)
The much smaller ad buy by Organizing for America is a David vs. Goliath effort. Beyond health care, we need to work to lessen the influence of corporations in our legislative processes.
Read “The Health Care Crisis: Letters from Vermont and America” telling stories of real people at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) site.
in time of corporate dominance"
July 16, 2009
THIS IS IT!
The healthcare reform bill released by the House Of Representatives is an excellent bill as I understand it. It is carefully written, and thoughtfully constructed, informed, prudent and wise. This bill will save trillions of dollars, and millions of your lives.
This is the type of bill that all Americans can feel good about. And this is the type of bill that has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of healthcare for all Americans. Rich, middle class and poor a like. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and all other party affiliations. This bill has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life of every American.
The house healthcare bill should be viewed as the minimum GOLD STANDARD by which all other proposed healthcare legislation should be judged. All supporters of true high quality healthcare reform should now place all your support behind this healthcare reform bill released by the United States House Of Representatives, as the minimum Gold standard for healthcare reform in America.
You should all now support this bill with all your might, and all of your unrelenting tenacity. This healthcare bill is a VERY, VERY GOOD! bill for all of the American people. Fight tooth, and nail for every bit of this bill if you have too. Be aggressive, creative, and relentless for this bill.
AND FIGHT!! like your life and the lives of your loved ones depends on it. BECAUSE IT DOES!
SPREAD THE WORD
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk&feature=player_embedded)
God Bless You
Jack Smith — Working Class
July 22, 2009
We have a single payer system in place already – it’s called the Veterans Health Administration. It’s NOT a great system, it’s not even a good system. While there are examples of good care at some locales, the VHA is an example of a relatively “small” (relative to the entire U.S. population) health program that is stifled by bureaucracy and inefficiency. We it not a fertile and often required training ground for medical students, the doctor patient ratio would parallel 3rd world nations.
No, government takeover is not the answer to any problem. There are hundreds of studies highlighting the issues, motivators, and problems behind rising health care costs. Among them are needs for tort reform, transparency in pricing (so how much is the actual price for an MRI if one pays out of pocket vs. billed to insurance or Medicare) and instituting a responsibility on the consumer to make choices. As a patient I may be required to undergo un-necessary diagnostic testing because the doctor is afraid of being sued but I don’t have a compelling need to argue if ’somebody else is gonna pay for it’.
Obama, Pelosi and the rest simply show they believe they know best, and are wrestling individual liberties away at a rate that would have made Chavez or Musolini nervous.