So here we are, screwn, or about to be.

[Jackpine Radical]

Rahm has won, or thinks he has. It worked. Ignoring the fucking retards (yeah, I know that isn't the exact quote, but...) worked. We're getting a health insurance bill that is slightly, marginally, almost imperceptibly, better than nothing, but which entrenches all the existing problems while generating new ones, shutting off some avenues of profit for the insurance companies while opening larger and easier ones in their place. Cadillac plans, bullshit. No small company will be buying insurance for their employees, the whole burden will transfer onto the shoulders of the workers--and in today's labor market, they needn't expect their wages to go up to help defray the new costs. Even Kucinich, in the end, had noplace else to go.

I think things will look very different in November, though. Liberals and progressives aren't going to vote for Republicans. They're just going to stay home. The Republicans won't even need all those People United bucks from the corporations. The Democratic gravy train is about to dry up. The DCCC (Democrats Continuously Craving Cash) is going to be hurting very badly. It's going to be a royal stomping. And, shit, so what? We have a party that, according to widespread rumor, is about to privatize Social Security and Medicare. They're already dismantling public education. The latest supposed breakthroughs in Afghanistan will turn out to be a fart in a hurricane. Climate & environmental legislation is dead. So is our industrial base. Welcome to a nation of people occupied with flipping burgers for each other.

[mdmc]

1. it is time for all of us to come together

including those of us that know better..

[Atticus]

7. Past time, but now will do just fine. nt

[readmoreoften]

9. Not all of us. There are those we can't reconcile with without losing any hope of reform.

Avowed Republicans and DLC supporters have no place at the table. But anyone in solidarity with a strong demand for social justice ought to be included. My two cents.

[high density]

2. I'm not staying home NM

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Neither am I.

[Grand Taurean]

3. Would you prefer Linda McMahon or Richard Blumenthal in CT?

Meg Whitman or Jerry Brown in California?
Corbett or Onorato in Pennsylvania?
Elrich or O'Malley in Maryland?
Lincoln or Halter in Arkansas?

Scott Brown is a Neo-Con. Many told me that there was no difference between he and Martha Coakley.
Remember that!

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I'm lucky. I get to vote for Feingold & Dave Obey.

I'm happy to support both of them, and will do so.

[Grand Taurean]

6. The candidates on the left list are the Republicans.

The right side of the list are the Democrats.

[Cerridwen]

8. Ah, Jackpine.

Just lay back and think of the empire US of A.

This won't hurt a bit. <----oh wait, that was for your other thread.

:D

[leftstreet]

10. A massive transfer of wealth is going on and both parties are complicit

The Ruling Elite are tired of it just Trickling Up from the Serfs, they want it faster!

Kiss lots of things goodbye - Medicare and Social Security are next

[readmoreoften]

11. +1

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Screwn would be another 17 years of nothing.

The celebrations on the right if this bill fails will be long and ecstatic. Why is that?

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Because they can use the failure to beat the Democrats to death with.

Regardless of how bad the bill is, the Dems see themselves (rightly) as losing major face if they lose this super-big initiative they've been trumpeting.

The insurance companies are ecstatic at how it's turning out for them.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. BTW, did you catch this headline, Warren?

Insurance-rate regulation dropped from latest health bill
BY STEVEN THOMMA
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

[BeFree]

15. You want lemonade with your burger?

If it all comes to pass this year, and you may be right, the pubbies will be satiated and they won't turn out either.

And if it all works out as you say over the years, no party will last, as it looks like we're just gonna fall flat. Empire will be over, and that will be a good thing, eh?

Local, local, local, will be the best survival mode. It is something I have been seeing for years. Local food, local energy and locally found building materials.

Nothing wrong with that, is there?

[MellowDem]

16. What a Debbie Downer...

I think you've been spending a bit too much time in the "woe is me" echo chamber. It's not as bad as you make it out to be, and not all hope is lost. We will see what the passage of this bill does for the Dems, but I think it will help them politically. Of course, none of that will matter if the economy is in the toilet, then the Dems will get stomped no matter what.

But let's think of the best case scenario. The Dems somehow pass single payer, but with passing that, there will be a LOT of cost cutting in healthcare, and HUGE change from our present system. Most Americans don't understand and are scared of such change when they already have healthcare, and the Republicans could pick up even more seats in a bad economy like this plus the huge healthcare cuts everyone would have to endure. And if it was widely unpopular enough, single payer could easily be phased out as quickly as it was phased in.

This is a gradual step process, and it may prove to be more effective.

But now let's think of the realistic alternative to this bill, the status quo. That would hurt the Dems IMHO much more than passing the bill would. At least with the bill passed, some action will be taken, and you may turn out to be quite wrong in your opinion of how the bill will work out. There are many many experts out there who disagree with you about the effects of the bill, and they're not DLC stooges.