billw8017's Comments (1091)

“I only wish China, Saudi Arabia and Goldman Sachs were competing for America's favor. Then, SOMEBODY would favor Americans! I wish Americans would favor themselves and discriminate on the basis of the small distinctions that politics revolve around, even go into the primaries and truly favor themselves.

In fact, we run with the lemmings, arguing about endive and parsley, carried along with no concern for topography. Half the time we only see that there is more sky over the cliffs.”

“Right -- and, bring in Republican strategists like Frank Luntz to speak on behalf of the common sensible average American to promote reform that works, e.i., no reform at all.”

“It's fun to rip successful corporations, an easy way to show a preference for democracy. Yet, re importation, considered as a national policy, is another of those bad ideas with a mere surface appeal. Basically, Canada has been able to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies as a subsidiary or secondary market. Going into Canada to re import the drugs will undermine the Canadian understanding with pharma leading to a rise in the prices of drugs for Canadians. The more logical procedure is for the United States to negotiate prices directly with pharma, particularly on behalf of Medicare.

The key to a successful negotiation is the ability to walk away and do without. This can be done since older generic drugs are often as effective as the newer drugs and probably safer. In this instance, it might also be good for the consumer to go into the Asian market as producers there do seem to be as capable and cheaper. Supposing a fair deal with American producers, it should be far better to go American. As well as quality oversight, we can also keep American jobs and be a model of decent working place conditions. This matters.

Selfish, short sighted conduct that assumes gouging the consumer has to be bad both for the industry and the consumer.”

“You could not possibly elect your "worst" enemy since that would make you your own worst enemy. You should re examine your premises; you may be planning more dirt to do to yourself.”

“Cooperation between the federal government and pharma dates to the Bay of Pigs. The Kennedy administration traded medical drugs for POWs. Pharma was allowed to patent drugs derived from federally sponsored research to pay for their "voluntary" donation of drugs to Cuba. At the time, this seemed a fair trade-off.”

“Don't tell me, you don't put in a little pepper!”

“This, of course, is another alternative.

We can accept the status quo and mark it up as a cost of sustaining American industry and research. Progressives -- just by the definition of the noun -- will oppose this. Their opposition should be informed and deliberate though a little passion never hurts.

Go, Margaretpoa, go!”

“Re importation, considered as a national policy, is another of those bad ideas with a surface appeal. Basically, Canada has been able to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies as a subsidiary or secondary market. Going into Canada to re import the drugs will undermine the Canadian understanding with pharma leading to a rise in the prices of drugs for Canadians. The more logical procedure is for the United States to negotiate prices directly with pharma, particularly on behalf of Medicare.

The key to a successful negotiation is the ability to walk away and do without. This can be done since older generic drugs are often as effective as the newer drugs and probably safer. In this instance, it might also be good for the consumer to go into the Asian market as producers there do seem to be as capable and cheaper. Supposing a fair deal with American producers, it should be far better to go American. As well as quality oversight, we can also keep American jobs and be a model of decent working place conditions. This matters.

Selfish, short sighted conduct that assumes gouging the consumer has to be bad both for the industry and the consumer.”

“Right. Clinton was there for the better years, actually increased the income of people other than the rich for the first time since the inauguration of Nixon forty years ago.

Even the animals will be charitable among their kind though when the need of all is greatest, the support tightens up. Dickens wrote about charities. Personal responsibility is the only reliable thing, so we might prudently practice our robbery skills.”

“You guys really got to sit down and have a beer together. Go some place where you are known and put it on the tab.”

“I do feel that the federal deficit is poor monetary policy over all, but it can be used to pump money into the system when a recession causes deflation; that is, the deficit is a workable monetary policy in specific instances.

The deficit is associated with inflation since the government covers the deficit by printing money. Inflation is one direction of monetary instability: It complicates wages, prices, and business decisions and contracts. Inflation breeds a popular contempt for the money so people lose their satisfaction with what they have. It can run uncontrolled, effectively reducing the total value of money in circulation, and causing a kind of "deflation" or fall off in business activity. The "stagflation" of the 70s is an example; the Phillips curve became meaningless.

The proposed commission is anti democratic, meant to bring about unpopular and possibly unwise policies. It is not so much that it is simple minded but it undermines the authority of Congress, an institution already weaker in these days of the Imperial Presidency than the founding fathers had hoped for.”

“On the one hand, some polls had indicated a Republican majority in favor of a public option in the health reform laws; on the other, 80% feel Obama is a bad President. What the Republicans stand for is not clear except for the partisanship. The partisanship is very clear and it is not based in any principles or theory of government. We speak of Conservatives and Progressives, but the Conservatives are not so conservative while progressives may be mostly progressive in their own minds. I doubt the last, but I am biased. There is a "small is beautiful" and roll back the industrial age proclivity among some progressives, so a case can be made.

The Tea Party movement started on Astroturf, but it may have tapped into something real and ugly. I hope they die from their own venom.”

“At times those people full of scorn for government programs log on, but the Huff is so progressive that they seem the odd ones out. I'm with Raccoon1, myself.

I think of after California legislated term limits and got an energy bill written by lobbyists for California P& G in 2000. The legislators, green in every sense, got competition, sustainable energy sources, etc, etc. Then Enron gamed their system which turned out to have no defenses to unprincipled business and raised monthly energy rates to ludicrous levels.

It could have been worse except for municipal utilities which turned out to be immune to such "market forces" (as the Bush administration called them). The muni's even made some money in the fiasco.”

“I am on Medicare. My doctor told me to have my eyes checked, and I kept putting it off until shortly before our next session. I came across a place that advertised the examination at $50. When I said, the doctor had advised the exam, they submitted a bill to Medicare.

They asked for $90, got $46, and I saved six dollars. It was nice of them to split the swag with me.

This is how drugs cost half as much in Canada.”

“Medical care is big; it commands a larger share of our national economy than manufacturing does. Medicare is comprehensive; it would have to funnel every penny of health care provisioning if extended over all. Altogether, this would be a tremendous step. To leave anybody without essential care is a moral outrage, but it's too late to worry about that. This is where we are right now.

Proceeding in steps is the right way to put in a plan that sticks.

I hope the Medicare extension is made effective in 2010. I always thought setting 2013-13 as the effective date was a concession to the Republicans because it made the plan less political. In view of their obduracy, they don't deserve that much mercy.”

“Hey! Republicans do not have Jesus.

They have the little old Christian who said, he didn't like the revised Bible but preferred the King James for being written in Jesus' language.

Jesus may be a mythical character, but he was a Democrat. Jesus said, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and house the homeless. He advised that people should pay their taxes. He freely healed the ill.

He also said, that this day the thief would sit on his right hand side in heaven; that is, get a position of rank as he took over his administration. This one the Republicans have down cold.”

“Abbey4ever

Regulating the insurance companies is a separate problem. They will defend themselves and have allies to make it stick -- for now. The mandate provides against pre existing conditions and a requirement to take all comers will make recession harder. You can't easily stop them from going after more profits by raising their rates and a government subsidy will make it easier for rate raises to stick. The insurance companies and HMOs do provide care, surprisingly good care but this is a credit to the doctors. The companies are not about care but profits.

The public option was always meant to be self supporting; that is, with premiums. it merely exploits the lower overhead possible in the government. Extending Medicare should actually be the better idea even while it suggests a path of future progress.

Health care reform is not a ruse. It may be timid or inadequate, but political risks have been taken, contributions have been ignored and the intent is noble: To bring the United States into the 21 century community of nations by providing care as other advanced nations (like Costa Rico) do.

Nobody KNOWS the future. The implementation of a law defines the law. We have to hope.”

“People over 50 have a problem getting work after anything happens to them. They may also have a package of pre existing conditions like the woman whose youthful acne pre conditioned her out of cancer treatments. It is not, however, necessarily true that people over 50 have the most pregnancies, sports injuries, STDs, fights or gun woundings.

There is a certain weakness, aches and pains, that attend the elderly but typically, an older person is mostly healthy and when death comes, one is well on Monday, under the weather on Tuesday and dead on Thursday, funeral Saturday. It's the lingering deaths that horrify us, but the quick death is surprisingly common. Your 80 year old is as likely as a 40 year old to have a stroke and either will go quickly if they don't recover.

You must be a young person to think the likes of you are never ill or injured.”

“Some Brazilian merchants hired off duty cops to go after the street kids in the spirit of pest control. Ten years ago, almost a thousand kids were reported dead in the streets each year; the same or a larger number were figured to have been thrown in the rivers. The more liberal government has been prosecuting some such cases lately.

Even in the United States, there is reason to suppose some killings by police are unreasonable force.”

“It would be educational, and some Republicans may switch after the primaries next year. You do understand, that is what the amendments are all about: They are an easy filibuster that can go on and on without speakers who have to wear adult diapers to keep their place.”

“The Clinton plan went down because of its specificity. In a multi city tour, appealing for support, Clinton said he would accept anything and mentioned support of the Canadian plan. Robert Dole, speaking with him, said the Republicans would come up with their own better plan.

If you want to blame somebody, why not blame the people who wrecked Clinton's plan and hung around to wreck this one. That way, you don't need to reverse arguments or change your villains.”

“Trumka was on the Ed Show, the only time I can remember in my whole life that I saw a union leader got respect on a TV news program.

In the middle 1940s when NBC was obliged to spin off one of its two networks, the buyer of what became ABC was summoned before Congress and one Congressman asked if his network would accept union advertising.

"Of course not," he replied. Broadcasting at that time blacklisted all unions. Some as in Chicago established their own union station. The Congressman asked him , "Why not?" and he got the idea. ABC became the only network that accepted union advertising.”

“Feeling as I do that a dollar revaluation is essential for the recovery of manufacturing in the United States, I feel anything -- such as unions -- that increases the ability of labor to be represented in the shake out is also vital. According to David H. Fischer, The Great Wave, periods of inflation are bad for the working class as their wages lag behind the rising prices. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776, remarks that none suffer so harshly in bad times as the workers.

The lesson of the military is that providing for the trooper is best for the whole system.

Uniformity in a tax system is less significant than consistency. Society adjusts to spread the pain according to community standards. paying more and less to cover taxes and their lack.”

“This seems to be an under estimated plague coming out of our prisons. When the prison care is privatized, it is exactly this kind of serious and chronic disease that gets neglected.”

“Two pretty ladies who do the GOP talking points. They need Ann Coulter to make a threesome.

Their main trouble is that discussing them is a slight on the minds of attractive womanhood.”