Can we have less "lesser"

Good candidates are running across the country, and pretty much every Democrat is better than his or her opponent. But the national leadership has not crafted a compelling program comparable to the New Deal or the Great Society (to say nothing of MAGA). They haven't even tried, the closest thing being the proposal to use the tax cut to pay teachers, a pr stunt not a program.

Many of the most compelling candidates (in Texas, Florida and Georgia, for example) owe little or nothing to the national party. In many cases, the "great candidates" the DNC and DCCC did recruit are ex-military and veterans of the security state apparatus, which means they will not be of great help in turning swords into plowshares, an essential project if we are to find solutions to our festering problems in such areas as poverty, infrastructure, housing, education, and health care.

When Republicans got the polls, they know what they're going to get, as awful as that is. The same cannot be said for Democrats, who once again are being asked to vote against rather than for something. Will the Democrats as a party fight for infrastructure spending, progressive taxes, Medicare for All, a living wage and universal basic income? Who can say? Are they going to take on the military-industrial giants and the security state? Not likely, but who really knows.

The House and maybe the Senate are at stake; it would be helpful to know what the stakes really are.

And, parenthetically, in a census year, the outcomes in races for governor mansions and state legislatures will determine the makeup of the House for at least a decade.

I care, you care, we all care for Obamacare

Except for two Democratic members of the House.

The House Budget Committee yesterday approved 19-17 a motion to send GOP legislation to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law to the full House w/o the support of three Republicans: Reps. Mark Sanford, Dave Brat and Gary Palmer, all Freedom Caucus members. Two Democrats, NY Rep. John Faso and MN Rep. Jason Lewis, voted to move the bill out of committee. Without the Democratic votes, the bill would have failed in committee.

Democratic voters in the NY-19 and MN-02 congressional districts may want to start looking at primary challengers.

Watch the feet not the mouth

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Return of Medicare For All

Single-payer national health insurance is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains largely private.

Although Obamacare is an improvement over what existed before, it was clear from the beginning of the health care debate that the compromised plan would deliver neither truly universal nor truly affordable access to health care. The greatest fear of liberals who opposed it was that, by embedding the insurance industry in the health care infrastructure, it would prevent either of these goals from ever being achieved. As the deficiencies of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have become more recognized, however, a new opportunity has opened up for Congress to do what should have been done in the first place: establish a single-payer system.

The insurance industry will oppose single-payer with scalpels and skull saws, of course, but the fight will be somewhat fairer because the industry's reputation is even lower than that of Congress. Still, with little or no help to be expected from the White House, it promises to be a hell of a battle, one that will be won only if ordinary citizens are mobilized. You can help right

from the start by asking your representative today to become an original cosponsor of H.R. 676: "The Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act" (Capitol switchboard: 866-220-0044).

Rep. John Conyers will reintroduce national, single-payer healthcare legislation sometime this week. Before he introduces the bill, Conyers would like to have as many original cosponsors as possible. Please call your rep today and let them know you want them to cosponsor H.R. 676. Help them out by mentioning that in order to become an original cosponsor of H.R. 676 your member will need to contact Michael Darner from Rep. Conyers' office at michael.darner@mail.house.gov or 202-225-5126.

Already on board (thank them if you're in their district): Nadler, Schakowsky, Pingree, Grijalva, Ellison, Hank Johnson, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Takano, Holmes-Norton, Lofgren, Rangel, Moore, Chu, Al Green, Farr, McGovern, Welch, Clarke, Lee, Nolan, Pocan, Doyle, Engel, Gutierrez, Frederica Wilson, Cohen, Edwards, McDermott, Clay, Huffman, Roybal-Allard, Cummings, Yarmuth, George Miller, Honda, Christensen, Rush.

If you live on the liberal west side of Los Angeles, note the following absences from this list: Waxman, Hahn, Sherman and Bass (Capitol switchboard: 866-220-0044).

Resources: PNHP.org: Physicians for a National Health Program is a non-profit research and education organization of 18,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance
Healthcare-Now!: Organizing for a National Single-Payer Healthcare System
PublicCitizen: the Health Research Group of one of the country's most effective citizen's organizations

Saturday Catchup: Must reads (and sees) from the past week

Taxing Cannabis: This Time, Pot Really Might Become Legal by Kevin Drum (Mother Jones 2010-03-26) -- The only thing that can stop legalization in California is massive spending by the prison guards union.

War Crimes: State Department Declares Illegal Drone Attacks to Be Legal as Part of Eternal Global War by David Swanson (AfterDowningStreet 2010-03-26) -- Because they say so, that's why.

Change Watch: The horrible prospect of Supreme Court Justice Cass Sunstein by Glenn Greenwald (Salon 2010-03-26) -- or Elena Kagan, for that matter. Will Obama move SCOTUS to the right?'

The influence of the Israel Lobby on America's Iran policy (Obama continues Bush's Iran policy 3) by Daan de Wit, translated by Ben Kearney (Deep Journal 2010-03-23) -- Why Washington lives in fear the lobby's long reach. Also, see Obama continues Bush's Iran policy 1 and 2.

Jon Stewart does (in) Glenn Beck:

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Is this the Birth of a Nation? by Melissa Harris-Lacewell (The Nation 2010-03-22) -- The return of Jim Crow.

Health Reform Bill Summary: The Top 18 Immediate Effects by Jeremy Binckes and Nick Wing (Huntington Post 2010-03-23) | It's not affordable or universal, but it's a damn sight better than what was there before.

The real hero of health care reform: Nancy Pelosi by Mark Greenbaum (Christian Science Monitor 2010-03-22) -- Whatever you think of the outcome, leadership came from the House not the White House.

If you want to see why Carly Fiorina will never be US Senator you have only to watch this wacko ad for Carly Fiorina:

Secrets of the Tea Party: The troubling history of Tea Party leader Dick Armey by Beau Hodai (In These Times 2010-03-21)

Two Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit by Jim Hightower (AlterNet 2010-03-19) -- The Moneybags behind the corporate coup d'état.

Health Care: The Unbearable Lightness of Reform

by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

That wickedly satirical Ambrose Bierce described politics as "the conduct of public affairs for private advantage."

Bierce vanished to Mexico nearly a hundred years ago -- to the relief of the American political class of his day, one assumes -- but in an eerie way he was forecasting America's political culture today. It seems like most efforts to reform a system that's gone awry -- to clean house and make a fresh start -- end up benefiting the very people who wrecked it in the first place.

Which is why Bierce, in his classic little book, The Devil's Dictionary, defined reform as "a thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to reformation."

So we got health care reform this week -- but it's a far cry from reformation. You can't blame President Obama for celebrating what he did get -- he and the Democrats needed some political points on the scoreboard. And imagine the mood in the White House if the vote had gone the other way; they would have been cutting wrists instead of cake.

Give the victors their due: the bill Obama signed expands coverage to many more people, stops some very ugly and immoral practices by the health insurance industry that should have been stopped long ago, and offers a framework for more change down the road, if there's any heart or will left to fight for it.

But reformation? Hardly. For all their screaming and gnashing of teeth, the insurance companies still make out like bandits. Millions of new customers, under penalty of law, will be required to buy the companies' policies, feeding the insatiable greed of their CEO's and filling the campaign coffers of the politicians they wine and dine. Profits are secure; they don't have to worry about competition from a public alternative to their cartel, and they can continue to scam us without fear of antitrust action.

The big drug companies bought their protection before the fight even began, when the White House agreed that if they supported Obama's brand of health care reform -- not reformation -- they could hold onto their monopoly. No imports of cheaper drugs from abroad, no prescriptions filled at a lower price by our friendly Canadian neighbors to the north.

And let's not forget another, gigantic health care winner: a new report from the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity says the battle for reform has been "a bonanza" for the lobbying industry. According to the Center's analysis, "About 1,750 businesses and organizations hired about 4,525 lobbyists, total -- eight for each member of Congress -- and spent at least $1.2 billion to influence health care bills and other issues."

But while we're at it, a cheer for the federal student loan overhaul -- Democrats managed to pass that reform with an end run around powerful lobbyists, cleverly nestling it in the health care reconciliation package.

Nonetheless, under pressure from the lending industry, it, too, was watered down from its original intent. The three Democratic senators who voted against -- Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor -- have all received campaign contributions from Nelnet, the student loan company based in Nelson's home state of Nebraska, or its lobbyists.

(And would you be amazed to learn that one of the student loan industry's lobbyists used to be Blanche Lincoln's chief of staff? The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call described Kelly Bingel as Lincoln's "alter ego," and cited a former colleague saying Bingel was "first on the list of the Senator's callbacks," words that would sound like heaven to any Washington lobbyist's ears.)

Another case of reform gone off track: this week, a year and a half after Wall Street brought us so close to fiscal hell we could smell the brimstone, a crippled little financial regulation bill seems to be hobbling out of the wreckage, but still faces an array of well-armed forces gunning for it.

No wonder. In the 2008 and 2010 election cycles, members of the Senate Banking Committee -- which sent the bill to Congress this week -- received more than $39 million from Wall Street and the banks; members of the House Financial Services Committee raked in more than $21 million -- so far. Just how serious do you think they're going to be about true reform?

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut has sounded like a champion of reform ever since he announced he will not run for reelection. It's about time. Since 2005, his top ten campaign contributors have included Citigroup, AIG, Merrill Lynch and the now deceased Bear Stearns, all front-line players in bringing on the financial calamity.

Then there are the Republicans, shamelessly hawking their favors en masse to the highest bidder. The website Politico.com reports that the reelection campaign of Tennessee Senator Bob Corker -- who's one of the key negotiators on financial reform -- sent an e-mail to Wall Street lobbyists and others soliciting contributions of up to $10,000 for a chance to meet or grab a meal with the senator.

Informed of the e-mail, Corker was shocked -- shocked! -- saying the e-mail was "grotesque and inappropriate." But did House Republican leader John Boehner think it was inappropriate last week when he advised the American Bankers Association to fight back against the proposed rules and regulations?

This is, of course, the same John Boehner who in the summer of 1995 walked around the floor of the House of Representatives handing out checks to his fellow Republicans -- checks from a tobacco company. And the same John Boehner who was the grateful recipient of campaign contributions from the four Native American tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, the corrupt lobbyist currently cooling his heels in a Federal corrections facility.

So wouldn't it have been fascinating to have been a fly on the wall earlier this year when Boehner sat down for drinks with Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase? Reportedly, he invited Dimon and the rest of the financial community to pony up the cash and see what good things follow.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Republicans already were receiving an increasing share of campaign contributions from the Street. In the game of reform, it's the political version of loading the dice.

We can't know for sure what Ambrose Bierce would have made of all this; what The Devil's Dictionary author would say about the current DC scams. But he might have agreed that the only answer to organized money is organized people. That would be one hell of a reformation.

Bill Moyers is managing editor and Michael Winship is senior writer of the weekly public affairs program Bill Moyers Journal, which airs Friday night on PBS. Check local airtimes or comment at The Moyers Blog.

This article originally appeared on CommonDreams.Org.

Press Release O' the Day: Real Socialists Don't Heart Obamacare

Reality check:

Socialist Party USA Co-Chair Opposes Obama Healthcare Bill

March 22, 2009- Co-chair of the Socialist Party USA, Billy Wharton, opposes the healthcare bill passed yesterday by the House of Representatives and scheduled to be signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday. Wharton’s opposition is based on the belief that this bill is not a reform. Instead, it is a corporate restructuring of the health insurance industry created to protect the profit margins of private insurance companies.

The bill passed by the House yesterday would mandate all Americans to purchase health insurance coverage or face a fine. It would also create health insurance exchanges, an idea crafted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, where people would purchase insurance from private companies. Those not eligible for Medicaid but who still could not afford to purchase insurance would receive public funds from the federal government to purchase bare bones coverage insurance plans from private insurers.

Wharton opposes this restructuring on the grounds that the mandates allow private insurers to use the coercive power of the state to enhance their private profits. Insurance credits will serve as a public subsidy to private companies. It is yet another case of public money that could be used for necessary social programs being funneled towards companies that engage in practices that are abusive and detrimental to the overall society. He believes the bill is also a demonstration of how deeply corporate lobbyists and campaign contributions have infected the country’s political system.

“This is not a healthcare reform bill,” says Wharton, “It is instead a corporate restructuring of the American healthcare system designed to enhance the profits of private health insurance companies disguised with the language of reform”

Instead, Wharton believes that public funds would be better spent in creating a national single-payer system. Democratic socialists see such a system of open access to care as one part of a larger transition toward making healthcare a guaranteed human right for all. Wharton calls for people to take power into their own hands by supporting the demand for single-payer health insurance and by conducting a red and green rebellion at the voting booth and in the streets to claim our human rights.

Wharton encourages people to visit the website of the Socialist Party USA to gain more information about the struggle for healthcare and the organization’s broader vision of a democratic socialist society. -- Socialist Party USA

There you go. Word's still out on whether he's the Antichrist, but at least Obama is not a socialist.

Health Care Reform: Mr. Weiner kicks butt

If health care reform had been left in the hands of Anthony Weiner (and Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers and Alan Grayson and Sheldon Whitehouse and Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders), the bill would deliver real affordable universal care and ass would have been kicked to get it done. Watch how Weiner does it:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Despite lukewarm expressions of support from the president, it was never intended by the White House that a public option would be part of the final plan. Now, however, a majority of senators is on record in support of a public option to create competition for the private insurers and thus lower costs. When the dust settles and the Senate bill has been passed and amended, will a public option survive, or did the senators who indicated support for competition -- the 43 who signed the pledge and the eight others who said they were "open" to it -- do so only because it seemed a safe bet at the time that they'd never have to make good on it?

Health Care: Is that all there is?

“We are on the verge of taking a decisive step to providing access to all Americans, to affordable quality health care. If we do nothing, the system will go bankrupt, premiums will keep skyrocketing and benefits will keep getting slashed.” -- California Democratic Rep. Henry A. Waxman, a steward of the leadership's version health care reform in the House.

While this is true as far as it goes, if the Congress doesn't do enough, the system also will go bankrupt, premiums will keep skyrocketing and benefits will keep getting slashed. Although Obamacare delivers improvements over the current system, it doesn't do nearly enough to cut costs. The irony is that instead of shutting down the rapacious, corrupt and inefficient private insurance industry, the current plan expands it and cements it in place. The industry already has undo influence on policy; after the "reform" delivers 35 million more policy holders and $500 billion in public money into its pockets over the next decade, real reform will become impossible. The Democrats are about to force people to buy health insurance products no matter how substandard they are or how much they cost. This is not what people think they're going to get when they vote for Democrats. In addition, some of the public funds that will go to subsidize the private insurance industry will be taken from Medicare. The most popular, effective and necessary social welfare program in American history will be weakened to strengthen the private insurance giants. This is not what people think they're going to get when they vote for Democrats. As Harvard Department of Social Medicine professor Marcia Angell MD told Bill Moyers, "we have chosen, alone among all advanced countries, to leave health care to for-profit industries, to leave health care to businesses that then distribute health care as a market commodity according to the ability to pay and not according to medical need." Nor is this what people thought they were getting when they gave Democrats control of the legislature and the White House.

The rest of the story: Bill Moyers' Journal (2010-03-05)

Health Care Reform: Medicare For All

It's still the best option, as Florida Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) blogged yesterday on The Hill:

Health care reform -- here's where we are. The House of Representatives is about to vote on a Senate bill without a public option. It looks like the reconciliation amendment will not have a public option. The House bill had a public option, but once the House passes the Senate bill, that's history.

Which is why I introduced H.R. 4789, the Public Option Act. This simple four-page bill lets any American buy into Medicare at cost. You want it, you pay for it, you're in. It adds nothing to the deficit; you pay what it costs.

Let's face it. Health insurance companies charge as much money as possible, and they provide as little care as possible. The difference is called profit. You can't blame them for it; that's what a corporation does. Birds got to fly, fish got to swim, health insurers got to rip you off. And if you get really expensive, they've got to pull the plug on you. So for those of us who would like to stay alive, we need a public option.

In many areas of the country, one or two insurers have over 80% of the market. They can charge anything they want. And when you get sick, they can flip the bird at you. So we need a public option.

And they face no real competition because it costs billions of dollars just to set up a national health care network. In fact, the only one that's nationwide is . . . Medicare. And we limit that to one-eight of the population. It's like saying that only seniors can drive on federal highways. We really need a public option.

And to the right-wing loons who call it socialism, we say, "if you want to be a slave to the insurance companies, that's fine. If you want 30% of your premiums to go to 'administrative costs' and billion-dollar bonuses for insurance CEOs who figure out new and creative ways to deny you the care you need to stay healthy and alive, that's fine. But don't you try to dictate to me that I can't have a public option!"

And there is a way left to get it. By insisting on a vote on H.R. 4789. Three votes on health care, not two. The Senate bill, the reconciliation amendments, and the Public Option Act.

We got 50 co-sponsors for this bill in two days. Including five powerful committee chairman. But we need more.

Sign our Petition at WeWantMedicare.com.

Call. Write. Visit. Do whatever you can do to get you Congressman to co-sponsor this bill, and push it to a vote. Right now, before it's too late.

Let's do it!

In the Senate-Obama plan, universality is achieved at the expense of affordability. Regardless of what happens in the House on Sunday, H.R. 4789 should be voted up as soon as possible.

Health Care Reform: House Democrats are sacrificing their seats for a plan they don't believe in

The House of Representatives will vote Sunday for a bill nobody wants. Partly as a result, 2010 will be a Democratic massacree. It doesn't have to be that way.

The House Democrats don’t need to vote for a bill with the “Cornhusker kickback,” the “Louisiana Purchase,” the publicly toxic excise tax, the hated individual mandate to buy private insurance, or the special Medicare Advantage deal for Florida, and they would still be able to pass comprehensive health care reform. All it would take is for Joe Biden plus 50 Senate Democrats, willing, as a result of unprecedented Republican obstructionism, to exploit the existing rules to the maximum extent possible. Heck, House Democrats should proceed with the strategy anyway and drop the burden for passing health care reform squarely on the Senate Democrats instead.

The rest of the story: Why Do House Democrats Care More about Protecting Weird Senate Rules than Protecting Their Seats? by Jon Walker (FireDogLake 2010-03-16)

Health Care Reform: In one day, Grayson piles up another 40 co-sponsors for Medicare buy-in bill

by Chris Bowers (Open Left 2010-03-11)

In just two days, Alan Grayson has piled up 50 co-sponsors to his Medicare buy-in bill, which is designed as a stand-alone bill rather than as an amendment to the health reform bill. Here is the complete list of 50 co-sponsors:

50 CURRENT COSPONSORS : Bob Filner, Jan Schakowsky, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Donna Edwards, Jared Polis, Chellie Pingree, Sheila Jackson Lee, Carol Shea-Porter, Diane Watson, John Lewis, Anthony Weiner, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez, Keith Ellison, Loretta Sanchez, Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters, Luis Gutierrez, Lynn Woolsey, Marcy Kaptur, Charles Rangel, Patrick Kennedy, Raul Grijalva, Donna Christian-Christensen, John Olver, Corrine Brown, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcia L. Fudge, Danny K. Davis, Pedro Pierluisi, Grace Napolitano, Alcee Hastings, John Hall, Shelley Berkley, John Conyers, Jim McGovern, Phil Hare, Betty Sutton, Jim McDermott, Gregorio Sablan, Maurice Hinchey, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Lee, Elijah Cummings, Gregory Meeks, Edolphus Towns, Al Green, David Wu, and Rush Holt.

Every indication has always been that there is overwhelming support for a Medicare buy-in among Congressional Democrats. This could very well pass as a stand-alone bill, especially in 2011 once filibuster reform has taken place. This is definitely one of the ways that progressives can viably continue the fight for real health reform no matter what happens to the current bill.

Fights Worth Fighting: Stupak Gets A Primary Challenge From The Left

From Talking Points Memo:

A former teacher and county commissioner will challenge Rep. Bart Stupak in the Aug. 3 Democratic primary in Michigan, the Detroit Free Press reported this afternoon.

Connie Saltonstall, a former commissioner in Charlevoix County, told me this evening she's challenging Stupak over his refusal to allow health care reform to move forward without abortion language attached.

Saltonstall told me her "two passions" are health care reform and choice. And after spending the last 20 years voting for Stupak, Saltonstall said he managed to run afoul of both of them.

The rest of the story: Stupak Gets A Primary Challenge From The Left by Evan McMorris-Santoro (TalkingPointsMemo 2010-03-09)

Health Care Reform: With friends like this...

Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California wrote an op-ed in Roll Call Monday pandering to liberals about her commitment to a public option.  It comes on the heels of her public announcement that she will break every single pledge she’s ever made to vote against a health care bill without a public option. (Woolsey is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In addition to abandoning her promise to support affordable, universal health care, she has endorsed Rep. Jane Harman, the leading Democratic proponent of the security state in the House of Representatives, over her liberal anti-war challenger Marcy Winograd, further evidence that progressives must build alternatives, including third party and independent candidacies, to their codependent relationship with the Democrats.)

The rest of the story: Lynn Woolsey: Closing Barn Doors Since 1993 by Jane Hamsher (FireDogLake 2010-03-09)

Lies, damned lies & statistics: Reconciling reconciliation

The Republicans will say anything, no matter how unencumbered by fact, if they think it will hurt their opponents and return the GOP to power. Currently, they are shocked --shocked -- that to pass health care reform the Democratic majority plans to use "reconciliation," a wonky term for a legislative process that allows a bill to be adopted by a simple majority, as if the Republicans had never employed the mechanism themselves when they controlled Congress.

"Consider three bills -- two of them passed under budget reconciliation, the third heading for budget reconciliation. Each had an effect on the fiscal health of the nation, calculated by the Congressional Budget Office. The first two, the tax cuts pushed by President George W. Bush, blew a hole in the budget.

The third, the Senate's health reform bill? As you can see from the CBO projection, that's a different story." -- from The Rachel Maddow Show blog, based on a graph originally prepared by Econbrowser.

Health Care Reform: The elephant in the room

"Distinguished leaders went round and round on Thursday debating the problems of delivering and paying for health care for the American people without finding actionable agreement. Not one mentioned a simple known model to cut costs dramatically and deliver care efficiently to everyone -- Medicare for all.

"No one dared to recommend this common-sense way to extract the poisons of useless costs and unnecessary complexity from the system." -- Connell J. Maguire, Riviera Beach, Fla., Letter to the Editor (New York Times 2010-02-27).

Of course that just might be because no senator or representative who supports single-payer -- Medicare for All -- was allowed in the room; neither the president nor the health care industry's paid representatives in Congress want to talk about it. Ever since the House leadership took single-payer "off the table" at the insistence of the Obama White House, discussion of the only system that reliably can deliver affordable, universal health care has been verboten. As the senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas put it the other day, "In my opinion, Obama blew it big time when he refused to fight for a single payer program." You think?

Health Care Reform: National Single-Payer Conference Call Tomorrow

Improved Medicare for All: Still the One

Join leading single-payer advocates on a national conference call at 8pm (EST) tomorrow Monday, February 15th for a discussion of the rise and fall of the public option and why improved Medicare for All is still the leading policy solution to our health care crisis.

Featured speakers include:
Kip Sullivan, steering committee, MN chapter of PNHP
Kay Tillow, All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
Andy Coates MD, Capital District chapter of PNHP
Moderator: Katie Robbins, National Organizer, Healthcare-NOW!

Action: Register for single-payer health care national conference call.

Health Care Reform: Where it's at

"Is health care reform dead, clinging to life, or simply pining for the fjords? Brian Beutler and Peter Suderman explain how the undead bill could rise again through the mindboggling process of pre-amendment. Bill Scher and Conn Carroll debate whether liberals are too divided to pass a bill. Jonathan Cohn and Timothy Noah examine how abortion could throw a wrench into any House-Senate compromise. Taking a larger view, Mark Schmitt and Brink Lindsey wonder whether Washington can still accomplish big things:
."
-- From bloggingheads.tv

Reform: Kucinich shreds Democrats for betraying the promise of change

Slams health bill 'madness'

"Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Wednesday said the Massachusetts election was a 'wake up call' for Democrats and that his party had better change course or it could suffer devastating losses come November.

"'People elected Democrats in 2008 to change the country's direction,' he told Raw Story in a nearly hour-long interview.

"'And the same entrenched interests that George Bush could not shake, this current White House is having great difficulty in shaking. One could suggest they might be more entrenched than ever.'

Kucinich staunchly defended liberalism but alleged that Democrats are not behaving like liberals.

"'There's nothing liberal about the bailouts. There's nothing liberal about standing by and watching banks use public money to get their executive bonuses. There's nothing liberal about giving insurance companies carte blanche to charge anything they want for health care...Since when did that become liberal?'"

The rest of the story: Kucinich shreds Democrats for betraying the promise of change by Sahil Kapur (The Raw Story 2010-01-21)

Politics: Ted Kennedy's seat. Ironic, huh?

Of course, sending Scott Brown to the Senate will do nothing to create jobs or end the war in Afghanistan or secure universal, affordable health care. But then neither would have electing a middle-of-the-road party hack like Martha Coakley. The Democrats have an 18-vote majority in the Senate. If they can't pass a jobs program or genuine health care reform, it won't be the fault of Senator Brown. But don't set your expectations too high. As Jon Stewart says, if the Democrats set the bar on the ground, they'd still manage to trip over it.

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