Know your place

I realize it was unseemly for irascible congressman Alan Grayson to openly lobby for a seat on John Boehner's select committee to "investigate" the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!, and no doubt speaker-in-exile Nancy Pelosi saw it as a test of her authority (what isn't?), but it's counterproductive not appoint the aggressive former prosecutor to challenge what he called the GOP's "dredging up one fake scandal after another fake scandal"? Pelosi's selection of Elijah Cummings, the ranking member on Darrell Issa's out-of-control and off-the-wall House Oversight Committee, was probably unavoidable, but the rest of the choices -- Adam Smith, Adam Schiff, Linda Sanchez and Tammy Duckworth -- are reliable backbenchers who can be trusted not to make too much of a fuss over GOP bullshit.

Occupy 2011: They have no message

Says who?

Bill Maher, having celebrated the assassination of an American citizen earlier in the week, last night joined conservative humorist P.J. O'Rourke in ridiculing Occupy Wall Street. But neither smugster had accounted for the presence of the indomitable Alan Grayson:

Change Watch: Excuses, excuses.

President Obama's defenders claim that his administration's failure to turn his campaign promises into policy should be laid at the door of  an obstructionist legislature and "the party of no." Jane Hamsher has been asking what actions Obama can and should take now as chief executive that require no action by Congress. Responses: Glenn Greenwald here; Alan Grayson here; James Galbraith here; Bill Black here.

The Long War: The "War Is Making You Poor" Act

The Republicans are very good at repackaging horseshit as fertilizer. Want to permit power plants to pollute?: Promote the "Clear Skies Initiative." Want to mow down trees?: Pass "Healthy Forests." Think defunding public education is nifty?: Trot out "No Child Left Behind." Planning on eviscerating the Bill of Rights?: Call it "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism," i.e., the "U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act."

Democrats tend to be more forthcoming, if less imaginative. When they're running things we get bills like the “Restoring American Financial Stability Act” and the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." However, at least one Democratic Congressman understands that good ideas are made better by proper marketing:

Today, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced bipartisan legislation called the “War Is Making You Poor Act,” which aims to call attention to a) how much money is being spent to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and b) how budget gimmicks are used to pay for them. Grayson’s legislation would slash the $159 billion request for supplemental war funding and use that money to deliver a tax break for all Americans. Grayson demands the Pentagon use its currently existing $549 billion defense budget to fight the wars. Speaking on the House floor today, Grayson underscored that the point of his legislation is to highlight the costs of the wars:

GRAYSON: So I believe that the thing we need to do is to take that $159 billion that the President has set aside – we’re not saying he has to stop the war, we’re not giving a cut-off date for the war – we’re simply saying you need to fund that out of the base budget of $549 billion. And we take 90 percent of that and give it back to the American people.

And I think most people would be surprised to learn that that is so much money that we’ve been spending on the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq that every single taxpayer in America will be get his first or her first $35,000 of income completely tax free.

Watch it:


Grayson’s bill, which is currently being co-sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Barbara Lee (D-CA), John Conyers (D-MI) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), would also cut the federal deficit by $15.9 billion. “There is no longer any need to go beyond the exorbitant base defense budget,” Grayson said. “It is not necessary. Enough is enough.”

(From Think Progress)

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: 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.

Health Care: Rep. Alan Grayson keeps up the pressure for real health care reform

Speaking for the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, Florida Democrat Alan Grayson reminds his colleagues of the life-and-death urgency of reforming health care insurance to make it universal, portable, affordable and cost-saving.
He appeared Friday on MSNBC's Countdown.
In an aside, as the White House and the Democratic House and Senate election committees begin their biennial search for Blue Dogs like Kirsten Gillibrand to run against progressives in the primaries, Grayson offers the reminder, too often ignored by party moderates, that "You can NOT beat a Republican by being one."

Grayson Watch:
Health Care: Something needs to be done about Alan Grayson (Impractical Proposals 2009-10-01)
Health Care: Democrat feeds the GOP a bitter pill (Impractical Proposals 2009-09-30)
The Fed: Geithner wants to let the foxes run the chicken coop (Impractical Proposals 2009-09-11)

Health Care: Democrat feeds the GOP a bitter pill

In his short career in Congress, Florida Democratic freshman Alan Grayson has become one of my political heroes. You remember those pages Republicans kept waving during Pres. Obama's health care address to Congress? Rep. Grayson found out what is in those pages -- the Republican health care plan: "1. Don't get sick. 2. If you do get sick... 3. Die quickly!"
Naturally, the Republicans, who can dish it out but oh so can't take it, started whining and puling, demanding an apology. And they got it:
Grayson, by the way, is the member of Congress who used a little-known parliamentary maneuver called “extension of remarks” to expand the impact of the House's opportunistic bill to defund ACORN (HR 3221) to every contractor who has ever submitted a fraudulent form of any kind to the Government.

House rules allow a short period for members to offer a "legislative history," instructing the courts and the executive branch on how to interpret a law. According to "Thomas," Congress’s website on legislation, Grayson is the only member of Congress to provide such instruction on this bill. His extension of remarks now becomes the official interpretation of what the bill means:

"The purpose of this bill is to cleanse federal contracting and grant-making, completely and permanently. The purpose of this bill is to put an end to the invidious practice of rewarding those who steal taxpayer money by giving them more taxpayer money. The bill imposes, and is intended to impose, a corporate death penalty on contractors who fall within the scope of its prohibitions," Rep. Grayson wrote in his extension of remarks. So long, Halliburton. Bye bye, Blackwater.

At last, a fighting liberal (just for the fun of it, watch Grayson take on Fed chair Bernanke), a Democrat worth supporting. And you can support him by sending contributions to his office. And you'd better support him, because you can bet the long knives are out for him now.