If you're going to hear the truth, then you might as well hear it from me

Some progressives and liberals are claiming the health insurance reform that was passed recently by the House of Representatives is a 'sell out' and/or an insult to working people, a slap in the face of women, the worst thing ever, and possibly the end of western civilization as we know it. They site the Stupak amendment, the fact that the bill is not single payer national health insurance, or that it didn't include something they thought it should, or that it included too much stuff they didn't want in it.

To those people I have this to say: get over it. Modern politics is all about compromise. And compromise means that you get some of what you want and some of what you don't want. In this age of hyper partisan politics we constantly expect that if our political party is in the majority then we get all of what we want enacted into law. Ummm, sorry to burst your bubbles but it doesn't work that way. In order to pass a bill you give away some things in order to get others. You and I may not like it, and I know I don't because I want European style single payer health insurance for all, but that's the way it is.

And you know what else? It's going to stay that way until you organize enough to oust the people you don't like and then you organize some more to elect the people you do like. But even if you do that then you still have to contend with the power of corporate money in our political system. Until we get rid of the tidal wave of corporate money that floods our political system and we go to 100% public financing for our elections then things will always be the way they are now. So what you people who want things changed need to do is to organize and work to oust politicians and judges who favor keeping the legal fiction that corporations are persons and have the same rights as you and I. And you also need to work to oust judges and politicians who say that political donations are a form of speech and therefore protected under the First Amendment.

There's another group of folks on the left who need to get over themselves too and that's those who say that the Democrats who voted against the health care bill aren't real Democrats and they should leave the party. One quick word to those that say that, and that word is, NO. You folks are sounding like Republicans. See folks, political parties are made up of all kinds of folks and some of those people are more conservative or more liberal than you. Do I like it that so many Democrats voted against the bill? No. But are they had their reasons, some like my man Dennis Kucinich voted against it because it's not single payer, and some like Heath Schuler and Rick Boucher voted against it because they represent heavily Republican districts and they want to be seen as 'tough' and 'standing up to' Nancy Pelosi. I guarantee you that those men would have voted for the bill if their votes meant passage or failure for the bill.

What those of you on the left who oppose this bill need to understand is that it is real reform, reform that we've needed for many many years. And like I and many others have said, it's a good start. Now please, before you leave me any long winded comments or write me off all together, go back and re read the previous sentence. This bill is JUST A START. And a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I want single payer, but I am supporting this bill. And I know that if I really want single payer health insurance in this country then I need to get out and organize my neighbors, go door to door and explain why it will bring down the cost of health care and actually save small business, I could care less about big business and in fact, I hope big business fails and takes the corrupt financial system with it.

And to those disaffected Hillary supports out there who want all attempts at health insurance reform to fail because Obama is President and not Hillary, I say, kiss my ass. You people are lower than pond scum. You'd gladly see millions of your fellow citizens go without health insurance just so you can gloat about breaking President Obama. And if you idiots think that Hillary wouldn't have made the same concessions that President Obama has in this fight then think again. She'd have made the same ones and possibly even more. After all Hillary enriched herself while sitting on the board of directors of Wal Mart while it put hundreds of thousands of small businesses out of business.

Sense and nonsense

Let's talk about health insurance reform. Well, okay, to be honest, I'll talk and you can listen. There's a lot of misinformation and outright lies going around in the latest struggle to reform our health care system and I'm going to cut through some of it and put out some salient facts you need to know.

• The best way to cut costs and cover every citizen in this country is to go to a single payer not for profit system but the conservatives and some incumbents in Washington DC don't want everyone covered, they only want to cover the backsides of their big donors in the health care industry.
• The money people are spending on the shitty insurance, and most private for profit insurance out there is shitty and you and I both know it, would be spent on other things thereby stimulating other parts of our economy if we had single payer not for profit health insurance for all.
• The only people for profit health care helps is the health insurance companies.
• Most personal bankruptcies in this country are due to crushing medical debt. Most people who take a bankruptcy for this reason have for profit insurance.
• Medicare, the Veterans Administration hospitals, and the insurance that Congressmen and women and their staffs get is government run health care. If you claim to hate socialism and do not want others to have government run health care and you partake in any of these named programs, then you need to stop being a hypocrite and opt out of them.
• It's clear why Republicans want to stop health insurance reform, they want to protect their corporate donors and they don't want President Obama to have any legislative victories. What is unconscionable is that there are members of the Democratic party who will not stand up and fight for health insurance reform. What's even worse than that however is the fact that there are people who want health insurance reform but who don't want President Obama to be the Democratic President who gets it done.
  
• Single payer not for profit government funded health insurance for all would be a blessing to businesses all over this country. Companies in Sweden, Germany, France, and Canada are competitive because they do no have foot the huge expenses of employee health insurance plans.
  
• Morally, single payer health care for all is the only way to go. Since this is a Christian nation, he said rolling his eyes, I'm sure all you good Christians will remember that Jesus said something along the lines of what you do for the poorest folks you do for him. So by denying the poor, the working poor, and everyone else health insurance, we're denying Jesus health care. Way to go Christians, way to deny your savior his medical care. You bastards!
• People of intelligence and goodwill can disagree on this issue but if you resort to calling the President a Nazi, which he can't be if he's also a socialist, or by saying that he's out to kill white or old folks, then you automatically should be shut out of the debate because you bring nothing to the debate but a big bowl of steaming hot stupid.