So, 435 wealthy people with free premium health care voting on what the rest of us get???

[NYC_SKP]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have I got that right???

:nuke:

[mmonk]

1. Yes.

[datasuspect]

2. they eat better than you too. for free.

yep.

[dana_b]

33. it's always made me sick to my stomach

that the well off get all the perks like free meals, free parking, bonuses, etc. while the poor working folks (like most of us here) get nothing extra.

At our hospital the MDs, administrators, and higher ups get cheap to free parking, free lunches, etc. and the poor janitors, nurses aides, every day people either have to pay $24/day for parking (or take public transportation), bring a sack lunch, etc. Makes no sense to me.

[Eric J in MN]

3. +100 in the Senate for 535. NT

NT

[imdjh]

17. + 5000 aides flunkies and concubines nt

[NYC_SKP]

36. I wish I had flunkies...

or concubines... :P

[demwing]

43. I'd settle for a flunkubine.

As long as I get healthcare.

[Ninga]

4. Yes. Great bumper sticker. Our elected officals think they are privildged and above the rest of

us.....

Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio, pays for his own healthcare and vowed not to take the free health care until health care reform is passed.


I suggest that ALL elected Senators and Congressmen give up their free health care NOW, and not get it back until this gets done.

[followthemoney]

25. The people vote for show. Congress votes for Dough. nt

[MarjorieG]

5. Disgustingly true, and an ever more august Senate body less empathetic.

[Wickerman]

6. And, they get paid by the lobbyist, to boot. n/t

[The2ndWheel]

7. I'm surprised it isn't fewer people

In the name of efficiency.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. They get more vacation days, too.

[NYC_SKP]

13. No shit! That feature alone makes me go....

:nuke:

And their heads are so far up their asses I just want to scream.

[ejpoeta]

9. too bad we can't get the people like my family members who go around

spouting the talking points about how awful all other healthcare in the world is and how jealous they are of us to see the idiocy of this system.... unfortunately, they seem to have locked their brains and refuse to accept any logic.

[NYC_SKP]

30. One oft heard stupid talking point: People come from around the world...

Kings and prime ministers.. yada yada yada.

Well, yes, we may have the finest facilities and technologies, but these do not constitute "Health Care" as in plans or programs available to all.

It's an rant that only really applies to the top echelon of earners.

[ejpoeta]

34. the funniest part of that is who is making that assertion.... people who

are two paychecks away from living on the street.... and one illness away from having no job and no insurance.

[robinlynne]

10. you sure do. government paid-for healthcare.

[Dawgs]

11. People that we elected. You do understand how a democracy works, right?

I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's not like these are a bunch of health insurance execs appointed by a king.

[Orsino]

15. People that we chose...

...from among a pool of candidates qualified by their ability to gather money together in piles.

[NYC_SKP]

20. Exactly. It's not like we really have the broad choices we would with reform.

Hmmm, do I want this mega-wealthy DINO or that one?

[followthemoney]

27. They are preselected by the oligarchy, like in Iran.

The government of Iran is more transparent, in one respect, than that of the United States in that there is a specified and named Guardian Council that the Iranian public is aware of.

In the U.S. we can only observe the cause and effect of our own ‘Guardian Council’ without a general acknowledgment of its existence much less have a name this group can be commonly referred to as we would, say, refer to the Senate.

On Democracy Now! Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi Joins Defense Team of Jailed Iranian American Journalist Roxana Saberi, Shirin Ebadi says, "Elections are not free in Iran. Every candidate must be pre-qualified by the Guardian Council before they can receive votes."

When can the United States back away from its claims of being a democracy and present to its people the reality of its own as yet unnamed oligarchy and the power it wields over this country's elections and economy?

As long as Americans fail to understand the system in which we live there is no chance of changing it.

But then, the oligarchy understands this only too well.

[riderinthestorm]

38. I have an interesting, first hand story about that kind of "hand selection" of candidates by PTB

I tried to take photographs of the license plates of people meeting at the Danada Forest Preserve in Wheaton, IL who were meeting to get Pete Roskam elected (over Tammy Duckworth, one of the DLC's favorites if you can recall) in IL 6. This is Henry Hyde's district -heavily religious, heavily conservative - a Rethug stronghold in year's past but in 2006, nobody was assuming anything.

And they blocked me! Physically stood in front of the license plates as I tried to identify who was there!! Threatened to call the police!

A public forest preserve!

Anyone who doesn't understand how deeply entrenched the PTB are, and how hard they will fight to place "their" candidates, has no idea of the depth of power they have to ensure their "victory".

This is a well-oiled machine, and anyone who thinks otherwise is disturbingly naive.

[followthemoney]

46. I have no doubt about the truth of your statement.

Thanks for nothing, Rahm Emanuel.

Christine Cegalis, who made an impressive showing against Hyde was also shoved aside. The two party tyranny must have learned all of these undemocratic moves in their foreign occupations.

[City Lights]

12. Spot on!

Infuriating, eh?

:nuke:

I say Congress' health care needs to up for a public vote. Ditto for their salaries.

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. +1

:thumbsup:

[global1]

14. Don't Complain - We Elected Them.......nt

[Obamanaut]

32. And nearly all of the ones who seek reelection will be successful,

and they know it.

That's perhaps part of the reason they don't care.

[Echo In Light]

16. Oligarchy

[HughBeaumont]

18. Bewshbot leftover Stephen Koff of the Right Wing PD doesn't seem to think so . . .

http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/idea_that_members_of_congress.html

Problem is, the belief that Congress gets cheap-but-Cadillac-quality health benefits is a myth. Some members of Congress, in fact, pay higher premiums for their health plans than they would if privately employed.

snip

On average, the government picks up 72 percent of the premiums while the employees, including members of Congress, pay 28 percent, Orenstein said. That matches almost exactly the average share that private-sector workers pay, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data.

There is one big advantage, however, that federal employees have over the civilian work force: The government offers dozens of insurance plans. Many are restricted to geographic areas or reserved for certain employees like postal workers, but that still leaves most civil servants with a variety of choices, including low-cost plans that limit coverage -- which are popular among young employees who want to keep their premiums low.

The Blue Cross plan that covers LaTourette, Sutton and Kaptur is considered good -- it's like many plans that individuals employed by Fortune 500-style companies would be in -- but it is in no way extraordinary, experts say. And it requires participants to pick up a larger share of premiums than many other plans.

"Whatever else is going on, the federal employee plans are not Cadillac plans," Francis said. "They're good plans, but they're not Cadillac plans."

[FLDCVADem]

19. Nope

It's not free.

[me b zola]

24. Please explain

[ThomWV]

21. It is not free and it is not premimum health care

What they get is affordable insurance but in the end it is still insurnace with all the failings that anyone else's policy had - should they be fortunate enough to have insurnace in the firat place.

[NYC_SKP]

22. Oh yes it is. It is employer provided, has choices, and compared to most of us it IS Premium.

I suppose one could argue that no plan is free because we could choose to take that benefit as cold hard cash in the paycheck.

But compared to most of us, who I gather are provided with only a bare bones plan with high deductibles (if offered anything at all), their plan is Premium.

No doubt about that.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/index.aspx

:donut:

[marybourg]

23. It's not free-they contribute just like any federal employee-and

it's not premium. This is exactly the kind of demagoguery we rightly accuse the publiban of

[FLDCVADem]

41. They pay premiums

It isn't free.

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. Disgusting, isn't it?x(

[newtothegame]

29. Most people with fulltime jobs, including Senators & Congresspersons, have health care.

Ain't exactly a shocker.

[earth mom]

31. Don't worry, they'll throw everyone some high priced crumbs.

The Bastards! :grr:

[proud patriot]

35. sums it up nicely

[SeattleGirl]

37. Yep. Unfortunately.

[goclark]

39. You have it right and most of America has heard more

about Obama's LEGAL BC than the merits of the Plan!

It is criminal and Congress should be arrested instead of having a summer break.

Why do they deserve a break? That process was designed before emails and Twitter and cell phones.

They don't need any more time off to " talk with their constituents"
We know how to leave a voice mail.

Ask Sanford! :puke:

[spanone]

40. i wouldn't call all the reps 'wealthy' by a long stretch

[NYC_SKP]

42. The top Rep is worth $225,000,000.

http://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2008/guide/28506-1.html?type=printer_friendly

Poor babies.

[FLDCVADem]

44. Many are wealthy

But many is not all, the health care isn't premium and it isn't free.

[Xenotime]

45. You are missing the bigger picture. They are doing what the GOP could not.