Reply #63: don't overlook this... [View All]

[yankee2]

The problem is that the same power structure which spent our money lavishly on luxurious offices, perks and comforts, paid itself huge salaries and bonuses, then cheated us wherever it could, all the while denying health care to as many who actually needed it as possible, and 40 million Americans who couldn't afford it, has been preserved. Our health care is still in the hands of corporations which place profits WAY ahead of health care!

YES, we DO object to being forced to support private profits in our quest for affordable, quality health care, when we, as a nation, are perfectly capable of providing our own, via a centralized single-payer system. And WHAT is going to drive costs down and keep them down, while keeping quality high? Every other nation succeeds in this at half the price. Will we? I have very serious doubts!

And YES, we do object simply to being FORCED to buy a commercial product! What's next? Will we be forced to buy Chevys and McDonald's hamburgers, just to support corporate profits? THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT HERE WITH HEALTH CARE! I know its definition is fuzzy, but when our government conspires with business to serve corporate profit interests, ahead of those of other Americans, and indeed wholly at citizen's expense, THAT is an essential form of FASCISM.

Joe, I want to believe in Pres. Obama, but my trust is seriously tested. WHO has our president and our Congress been talking to these last 11 months? If I'm not mistaken, he (and THEY) have met with hundreds if not thousands of medical and health care executives and lobbyists, but to my knowledge not a single average American with health care issues! I think that tells us a LOT about what and whose thoughts and concerns are on his mind, and thus, who he really represents.

It really LOOKS like the Congress, and perhaps even Mr. Obama himself, have been subject to intense lobbying pressure from the corporate side, while being exposed to very little influence from the citizen side. Corporations and citizens have different and often conflicting interests. With corporate concerns freshest and foremost in his mind, and those of ordinary Americans scarcely even heard, who is Mr. Obama (and Congress) responding to?

It certainly LOOKS from the result that the president and Congress represent the corporations well ahead of the people. It appears that the companies will get some 30-40 million additional customers, all at full price, legally enforced by the state! Why force Americans to buy a commercial product, at full corporate asking prices, when we could certainly do a much better job for ourselves at much lower cost? To preserve a HUGE corporate cash cow?

It was pretty clear that a majority of Americans wanted (and want) an efficient, powerful, economical and effective single-payer system. If America is truly a democracy, why are the interests of 300 million Americans being subjugated to the private profit interests of a handful of corporations?

Fascism and Corporatism aside, the acid test will be whether, under this so-called reform, our health care costs are reduced to a level as low as those of Canadians and Europeans, while maintaining the same or better quality of service. If our program performs as well as theirs, this may be a successful program; if not, it is an abject failure, compared with what it could and should have been.

Sure, we get some helpful table scraps with these bills, but the feast went to private special interests, at EVERY AMERICAN'S EXPENSE.