What I Didn't Hear

[Alan Grayson]

In the run-up to yesterday's Republican House vote to repeal health care reform, I listened to the "debate."

Admittedly, at a somewhat greater distance than last time. But with C-SPAN, four 24-hour news networks and the internet, it's not hard to follow what our elected representatives are saying.

Much like last time, the "debate" has seemed rather one-sided to me.

We still have over 30 million Americans who cannot see a doctor when they are sick. According to this Harvard study, adjusting for gender, race, smoking, weight, and just about everything else that you can think of, in any given year, the uninsured are 40% more likely to die than the insured are. That results in 44,789 additional deaths in America each year. All of which are avoidable.

This is more than twice the number of homicides in America.

It is more than ten times the number of deaths on 9/11. And it happens every year.

Do you think that we should solve this problem? I do.

And the Democratic Party does. Which is why we passed health care reform. And why we brought the wrath of lobbyists and their sewer money down on our heads in the last election - over $65 million by the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's "American Crossroads" alone.

I see one party taking on the special interests and enacting laws to keep Americans alive, and assure that you can see a doctor when you are sick. Like in every other industrialized country in the world.

And the other party's health care plan? "Don't get sick." They keep pushing this ridiculous notion that people are uninsured because they don't want insurance, when polling has showed that up to 90% of the uninsured are uninsured because they can't afford insurance.

I have heard all of the other party's talking points about "tort reform" and interstate licensing of insurance companies. They want them because the lobbyists want them. They want tort reform because the insurance companies want tort reform. They want interstate licensing because the insurance companies want interstate licensing. If the insurance companies wanted a pony, the Republican leaders would try to give them a pony.

We have had "tort reform" in Florida for 12 years. And we have the second-highest percentage of the uninsured in the entire country. (Number one is Texas, which is the home of tort reform.) Despite the fact that every American senior has health coverage through Medicare, 20% of Floridians have no health insurance. Including 40% of Florida's Latinos.

We have 14 million officially unemployed Americans, and another 14 million who can work only part-time or have just given up. Over one million American families lost their homes last year. And yet the first order of business for the new Republican majority in the House is to see to it that 30 million Americans cannot see a doctor when they are sick. Even with cancer.

You can call me partisan, if you want. But I see one party's leadership trying hard to solve this nation's problems. And the other party's leadership showing its true colors. They are callous sellouts. Always have been, always will be.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

[Frustratedlady]

1. Maybe they should refer to lost 44,789 lost....

as voters. That seems to be the only word that gets their attention.

Maybe they won't all vote in the next election, but those counts will eventually turn into potential votes lost. Can't have that!

[saras]

10. What makes you think that 44, 789 won't all vote Republican?

[Demeter]

2. Thank you for your continuing service, Sir

I hope you are able to keep up the good fight, in or out of office.

[pacalo]

3. The saddest part is that our letters to Washington are ignored.

Until something is done about lobbyists & their strong-arm tactics, & the "Citizens United" decision is remedied, we voters seem to have no say, other than election days. Our system is ruled by corporate money &, thanks to SCOTUS, corporations are considered "citizens" who have a higher, stronger "say" in who leads this country.

All we can do is continue to call & write to our senators to reject the House's unwise decision. I'll get no response from Landrieu & a form letter from Republican-rubberstamper Vitter.

Thanks so much for your post today, Rep. Grayson! (I'm still not convinced that you lost your election fair & square.)

[druidity33]

4. Everything you say is true...

and thank you for stopping by DU!

We support you!

K&R.

[wryter2000]

5. Hey, they...didn't I used to hear you on the radio in the morning?

Thanks for posting here. Don't be a stranger. :yourock:

[felix_numinous]

6. The RW try to make human rights issues into partisan issues

and this is where they pull the big wool over everyone's eyes. What happened that made the Health, Education and Welfare of this country a progressive issue? It is not. This is where we have to begin, at the roots of who we are as a society. The many other issues crippling our country right now, the funneling of money and jobs overseas have nothing to do with partisan politics. It has to do with corporate powers having more say in what laws are passed than American citizens.

Those calling themselves Republican do not demonstrate any interest in the welfare of the American people. Their money goes toward extremist groups, international corporations and their own private interests and reelection. They have used propaganda to brainwash their constituents to vote against their own interests, and entice them into violently turning against their fellow Americans. This is not a traditional Republican party that values fiscal responsibility and the preservation of our natural resources. They wish to undermine the structure of our government.

Traditional Republicans who would sit across from Democratic representatives at a bargaining table have virtually disappeared. There is no sane debate. What sane person would say, "Just don't get sick." I am so tired of this charade. To have to beg for our very survival, to have our human rights being frittered away by sociopathic groups of people not beholden to the American people, but to international powers, leaves many of us confounded. We are not even debating with real Republicans here, they are truly something else. How can representatives who betray us so profoundly call themselves Americans?

[Gin Blossom]

50. Very well said. n/t

[femrap]

7. If one is extremely ill w/o

insurance, committing a crime is a logical response. One can go to jail and get some type of health care.

Trying to find someone who has health insurance to marry you is another logical response.

Sometimes, I think suicide is a logical response. If faced with a Stage 3 or 4 ovarian cancer, why bankrupt oneself and family? Who wants their last penny to go to Big Med and Big Pharma?

I wish I had been born in France. I'm ashamed of this country. It has become a most cruel nation.

[Kurovski]

8. K&R. (nt)

[Lorien]

9. I'm one of the 90%, trying my best to get by here in Orlando without

treatment for my thyroid disease or fibromyalgia. I have a part time teaching position and pull in a bit of freelance on the side, but I'm forever sick and tired. Having access to affordable health care would not only improve my quality of life, but would help me to be considerably more productive...which means that I would contribute far more in taxes. Sickness=poverty. If we don't want to become a poorer Nation we will find a way to make health care (not just health INSURANCE-which I can't afford with all of my pre-existing conditions, which it would never cover anyway) affordable for all, as it is in the civilized nations of the world.

[Enthusiast]

18. Very sorry to hear of your illness.

You always make some terrific points.

[NMDemDist2]

11. Mr. Grayson, thank you for your service and your continued service to

our nation

:patriot:

and yeah, it's a damned shame

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. Courage.

Action.

Thank you, sir.

[LittleGirl]

13. Thank you Rep Grayson

What can I do to help? I'm in Indiana but have followed you for some time now. Good Luck and let me know if I can help.

[tclambert]

14. Where is the outcry about dead Americans?

Tens of thousands every year die from lack of medical insurance, or insufficient medical insurance. Every day, every day, Americans die because we don't have universal health care. How many in Canada? Zero. How many in England? Zero. How many in Brazil? ZERO!

[Zoeisright]

15. Thank you so much for speaking truth to power.

You, sir, are a national treasure.

[Enthusiast]

16. K&R! Thank you for your service to

the American people. We really do appreciate you.

[PhillySane]

17. Defense of Life

Just as defending the lives of our citizens on a daily basis from attack by terrorists or foreign countries should not be a partisan issue, neither should the defense of their lives from sickness. The only difference is money. It is clear that the republicans only problem with healthcare reform is the money their supporters might possibly lose. There is no other argument from their side and democrats need to make that clear to America. This is an insurance money issue and nothing else. Americans deserve better from their elected officials. This stinks rotten and needs to be portrayed for what it really is, loud and clear.

[Swagman]

19. well put Mr Grayson. Every other industrialised country does have health care for

ALL citizens no matter whether they are wealthy or poor and the sky hasn't fallen in.

The reason drug and insurance companies fight to oppose it is because once in-the people will never want it to go.

[Javaman]

20. Thank you Rep Grayson.

Alas, we need more like you.

Please stay in the game and keep swinging. You will always have my support.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. K&R

Tell it! :applause:

[grahamhgreen]

22. Please run for President in 2012. This will bring progressive solutions back to the national stage

and set you up for a 2016 run.

Let's face it, Obama can not win without the progressive vote, and after two more years of Bush lite, he will
Most likely face another shellacking.

Most Americans, not just Dems or progressives, want the following solutions, yet they are never spoken of o. The national level:

1) Out of Iraqistan
2) end "free trade"
3) Tax the rich at the Greatest Generations tax rates (70+%)
4) raise the FICA cap
5) Medicare fo All

Only a primary challenge can force Obama to adopt these real solutions, IMHO.

[varelse]

23. K&R

[obxhead]

24. I love you Grayson, but

I won't give the entire party credit for fighting for us. Some absolutely do, but that is a small group that gets very little floor time.

[dflprincess]

38. I agree - he's giving the Democrats in Congress way more credit than they deserve

and he's also ignoring that having insurance doesn't necessarily mean you can afford to access care. That depends on how big a premium you or your employer can afford to make to a middle man that contributes nothing to your health or well being.

[DirkGently]

25. Well said. Dems should focus on countering the blatant false information put foward by the GOP.

The "deficit" issue is go-to smokescreen for Republicans when they want to decrease anything that benefits the common good. We need to clarify loudly and often that if "spending" is such a problem, America's beyond-the-pale military and war spending, which kill and cripple Americans, belongs on the top of the "To Do" list, while Social Security benefits, which its beneficiaries have paid for, is not on the list of deficit spending AT ALL.

[fascisthunter]

26. the GOP are Lobbyists for Wall Street

whatever big money wants, they get it for them. And the idiots vote for them thinking they give a damn about their rights, freedoms, and well being. They don't give a F*CK about any of them.

[Bluenorthwest]

27. When the President looks at callous sellouts and tells me they

are honest brokers I count him as a callous sellout as well.
So Alan, sure, the GOP is worse, but worse to our bad, not bad to our good. This reform does-listen please- nothing good for my family. Nothing. Seems it will make it worse in fact. My partner has no insurance. Subsidies go to families, by which y'all mean 'some families, our kind only'. We will pay for his premiums, and also get no tax subsidy. Apparently. Not one person in Congress can state what we are and are not going to be responsible for, not one of your former peers gives a flying fuck. Not one. They are all rich, well covered and they have no ability to empathize or to investigate or to understand.
This law you love, it is discriminatory. Deal with that fact. Cut out the denial. Own it.

[dotymed]

28. Mr. Grayson,

I enormously respect you and your principles. Likewise Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist).
However, on this point, I disagree.
Yes, there are some members of our Congress (like the people I mentioned) who have consistently voted to improve the plight of the majority of Americans, not the small percentage of uber wealthy and corporate whores.
Unfortunately, I can no longer personally say that your values are that of the Democratic party. God, I wish I could.
IMO, Americans increasingly have no party choice ( with your political defeat it is even more apparent), when it comes time to protect the interests of the people.
I have been a lifelong Democrat (and I still am, even though I feel disenfranchised) and the party that I believed was the "party of the people", who championed civil and economic rights for the masses, seemingly, no longer exists. Currently, both "parties" in our two party system are more concerned with their own wealth (and health), than that of the people that they are supposed to represent.
There are still a few (one less now) politicians in federal office that do try (ineffective in small numbers) to better the lives of common people.
Especially since the passage of "Citizens United", I do not see this ever changing. Which will have increasingly bad results for most Americans.
I know I am not alone in this observation.
At the risk of being censored, I will ask you if you have considered uniting people (politicians) that have the same sense of purpose as you and the two other politicians I named, and forming either a separate wing of the Democratic party or another (viable) party altogether.
Most of the people who would support this idea are not very wealthy. Therefore, competing financially would be a huge disadvantage.
Alan, I do not have the answers, I am not a recognized leader. I only know that I feel like I am watching the end of "The Great Experiment" and many others, on both sides of the aisle, feel the same way.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

34. +1,000,000,000

Well said, with dignity and respect. Thank you!

You are not alone.

[avaistheone1]

29. k&r

[mstinamotorcity]

30. Thank you Mr. Grayson

For giving us your thoughts on this subject. The republican party has been up to no good for quite a while now. I don't see it stopping in rhetoric or deed. The people deserve a Congress who isn't self serving. And there are members of the Democratic party who believe as some republicans do. They look at there polls and statistics and forget these are not numbers but people's lives. To me I think we need to get rid of the bs and get everyone health care. And I feel if the average American cannot have access to health care coverage from a country that has taken generations of our blood, sweat, and tears, then Congress should be forced to give up there Health care. Why should taxpaying Americans support a Health care package for people who can surly afford it.

[Mnemosyne]

31. "Just get a job with insurance!" - inanity uttered by my reich-wing sister, that never

had a job with insurance in her life, bartender and model. My parents paid all of her anorexic medical bills. Now she has wonderful health care thanks to the taxpayers; her husband is border patrol.

I have no insurance and owe almost $10,000 from ER visits in Sept. and Oct. for a very serious infection which required minor surgery. I am afraid it may end up killing me, it just won't go away.

These people are sick and depraved; and not in a fun way! :evilgrin:

Thanks for this, Alan! :hi:

[emulatorloo]

32. Thanks, Mr Grayson. K&R

[bleever]

33. "If you do get sick, die quickly."

:patriot:

Thank you for your courage and forthrightness, Mr. Grayson.

[sabrina 1]

35. Lack of access to Health Care is a National Security Issue.

Republicans claim we are at war to save American lives.

Republicans claim that saving lives is a National Security issue.

Over half a million Americans have died since 9/11 because they will not provide care to sick Americans.

What conclusion can be reached about Republicans when they are willing to deprive Americans of life-saving Health Care?

I think the answer is obvious.

Thank you for all you do, Rep. Grayson.

[patrice]

36. K&R

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

37. Mr. Grayson, with all due respect.

You sign off with the word "Courage" .

You may say Courage, that is everyday. That is life. That is all we have.

The struggle to get by and smile, to love one another, to have compassion;
that is everyday living in America. It may be all we have.

To have nothing, then give from that, is where we are.

To see nothing in the future, but each other just existing,
living one more day, that is where we are.

We try to help one another but the resources grow thin.

What you did not hear were the screams of Americans, crying out for more, crying
because there is no more. Crying because we are just flotsam in the ocean of corporate strength.

What you did not hear was the why. Why is it like this now? Why am I not heard? Why is this not fixed?
Why am I being lied to? and more..... always more.

What you did not hear were the sighs, the resignation, the untold belief; We do not matter, this is just all a game.
A game of the powerful to extract more and more from us. The New America, the new world.
Close your eyes, do what you're told, everything is ok.

No one hears the despair, it is an unwanted sound.

Mr Grayson, This is not a personal attack. Forgive me if I sounded that way. I realize I was off topic.

This is just middle-class America.

[tpsbmam]

40. While i agree with your viewpoint of all of the Republicans in Congress and

too many Democrats, Alan Grayson is not one of the ones who didn't listen and didn't represent us. He represented us vociferously and with great cost to him. He was one of the few with the courage to call out representatives who voted for corporate interests and against our interests. Your viewpoint is shared but it is misdirected at Alan Grayson.

[shireen]

44. +1

And maybe he signs off with "Courage" because that's what it takes for us to get though each day.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

46. Did not disagree

just gave a definition.

Courage to one is everyday to another.

on edit..
What you said is what I said.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

45. I Thank you..

for your reply. I did apologize in my response.

I feel the viewpoint, no matter where directed, needs to be
told time and time again, to friend or foe.

At least friends get it. We all need reminders, heck that's why they make calenders. lol

[Fuddnik]

39. Has anyone ever told you that you'd make a great Senator?

Hint, hint.

[sabrina 1]

41. Yes, he would and if he has any friends or brothers or sisters

just like him, that would be great also. We need more than one fighter in Congress. If there are only a few, they get defeated by the overwhelming number of corporatists.

[tpsbmam]

42. I agree, to an extent.

And thanks for continuing to post here and stay involved. I see great things for you -- maybe even more than before. The left needs energizing and organizing to protest our diseased Washington. Your voice has the ability to propel people to action. (hint, hint)

The agreeing to an extent is my refusal to give Democrats a total pass on taking on special interests. Our Democratic President met behind closed doors with the very industries that have caused our health care fiasco: insurance company honchos, big Pharma, and private hospitals. At the same time, he refused to meet with those advocating single payer. It went as far as physicians advocating single payer being arrested when they tried to deliver a letter to the president. And I believe that he never really intended to include the public option -- too many of his actions belied the statements he made about its inclusion. As so often happens with this president, the rhetoric sounds great but the ensuing actions point to the erudite communications placating the left but ultimately ringing hollow.


The same is true for enough Democratic members of the legislature to undermine any chance of truly progressive (and sensible) bills passing. Too many on both sides are beholden to their corporate sponsors.

And too many don't have the courage to speak out and to fight. Present company most definitely excepted!!

:yourock:

[undergroundpanther]

43. Rep Grayson

This problem goes much deeper than bully tactics, it points to the misuse of our very biology.

Being higher in status means that a person can achieve and maintain security,healthy homeostasis or thriving as a living organism much,much easier,and they are well respected by others,more easily believed as telling the truth,perceived as being better ,wiser,more worthy,and always have people that are seeking a boost in status that the high status person can go to for help or exploitation without fear of repercussions or responsibility.High status people are treated like they MATTER more to everyone else than they really do,so they tend to believe their own bullshit philosophies that reinforce and keep them in their own high place of STATUS.

The ABUSERS of the biological function of Status seeking itself have inverted the means of achieving status and have corrupted it and inverted it.It has become a self propelled destructive system of reward for those who reinforce this status inversion.It punishes those who do not reinforce it. abuse DO deserve to be blamed, shamed & raked over the coals for their schemes,but to do that with any kind of effect one must know shit from shine-ola and present it in a way both elitist psychopaths ,the two faced pwned Dem's,and joe stupid out there can grasp what and who gave the country this status based mind-rot that is hurting the poor and working poor the most. There has to be a change in what gives a person STATUS in this world.


There is a physical phenomena of REWARD the brain sends people when they screw over others...I think the author of the link below is stupid in how he frames the facts,because this STATUS problem affects everyone not just politicians or right wing fuck-wads or dem fuck-wads,it effects all people..and the only way to overcome status is to destroy the abuse and beliefs underpinning it and offer a BIGGER emotional reward which is FREEDOM from the fears and other evils that come from the pursuit of STATUS found only in an egalitarian close knit abuse free community of equals who openly & fearlessly share ourselves without profit motive that is FREE of abuse and psychopathy,authoritarians and narcissism..

Whatever framework you think is important, when your perceived sense of status goes up, or down, an intense emotional response results. As a result,people go to tremendous extremes to increase or protect their status.
"What we found is that when people were excluded, you see activity in the dorsal portion of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is the neural region that's also involved in the distressing component of pain, or what sometimes people call the "suffering component" of pain. Those people who felt the most rejected had the highest levels of activity in this region." Exclusion and rejection is physiologically painful. A feeling of being less than other people activates the same brain regions as physical pain.
http://hubpages.com/hub/This-is-The-Proble...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/undergroundpanther

Lastly please do not let Obama cut social security! I am disabled and I can barely afford to live.I get around $600 bucks a month and the prices of everything have gotten much higher. I don't think it can be cut anymore sir,if you want us to live.Right now,I am broke.Been broke since I got bills paid and groceries. It is very difficult to live on disability. If I didn't have medicaid,and SSI I'd be dead.Republicans and corporate Dem's know this and because of their beliefs and inverted stats seeking,they want be to shut up and die.It does not help me having millionaires deciding if I can eat or not,live or die.Don't let them get away with it.

Thank you
underground panther in the sky.

[FarLeftFist]

47. RUN FOR PRESIDENT!

And you will win because the FACTS are on your side.

[LiberalLovinLug]

48. In the age of information, why is there none about this bill?

Sure if you hunt for it on the internet, but if your party wants to win over the populace on this bill, the flaws of which are for another argument, then the benefits must be fully and easily explained, and in prime time to a national audience. The networks should donate time, but if not it must be purchased on the "people's airwaves". Improved health care access for citizens, and the time to explain this new bill properly, must be framed as a national security issue, a national economic issue, and a national health issue, at the risk of overstating. If the Republicans their puppet masters scream about unfair airtime and bias, give them equal time, but never veer from moving forward with plans to take the time to make Americans aware of what they stand to gain. Things like the elimination of "pre-existing condition" clauses etc..

Yes you'll still have to deal with FAUX News and the overwhelming conservative component on the other networks and their pre and post spin, but I firmly believe that if progressive legislation (or even the small social benefits within a moderate-right bill like this) and its benefits are properly explained, most will see the light.
Sometimes it seems like the Democrats are secretly ashamed of a lot of their compromises they make and don't even want to expose themselves, but I think it is more important to be visible and be then criticized for the deficiencies, in order to publicize the benefits. Especially when the deficiencies can be easily explained by putting the blame for the corporate givaway parts of the bill at the feet of the GOP.

An example of where the Democrats missed the boat, as usual, is with the extension of the the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy. Why for the love of gawd didn't the Democrats take advantage politically of the terrible optics of the Republicans holding up tax cuts to the middle class until they got their tax cuts for them and their wealthy friends? And the fact that it adds another $850 billion to the national debt? That W Bush actually had the expiration planned in the original bill?

Anyways I think its important to have this bill be successful and accepted now, even with huge flaws like no public option, in order to open the door for true reform on some future date. Obama didn't seize the opportunity, but hopefully one day we will have a more courageous leader, in the cut of yourself, that will push forward so that USA citizens will enjoy similar health coverage that every other democracy does.

[The Wizard]

49. Although Republicans don't believe in evolution,

they adhere to Social Darwinism like a fly on a lump of shit. The Social Darwinist, predatory capitalism approach will only serve to bring about America's downfall sooner rather than later.
That Republicans have turned promoting the general welfare, as prescribed in the Constitution, into some kind of treasonous act speaks volumes as to their so called respect for the document that stands as the foundation of all of our laws.
These hypocritical swine will do anything that helps lobbyists to fill their secret off shore accounts.
How low will living standards drop before a radical solution is required to make the American dream a reality again?
Glad to see Congressman Grayson sharing his wisdom and passion here.

[Lasher]

51. You give me hope.

I wish you would run for president.