He Knew All The Words

Archive for the ‘health care’ tag

Elizabeth Warren. For EVERYTHING.

comments: 1

This video offered without comment.

Written by David Zaza

October 10th, 2012 at 10:51 pm

Haiti: One Year Later

comments: 0

I had a call yesterday from Doctors Without Borders. I made a donation to them a year ago immediately after the earthquake, and they were following up to ask me to give again. I did, and urge you to do the same. Click below…


Support Doctors Without Borders

UPDATE:
After I posted this I saw this report at GiveWell.org naming Doctors Without Borders among the best places to give. In discussing various organizations to which people might make donations, they say:

With the information we’ve collected so far we feel that Doctors Without Borders, Partners In Health, and Direct Relief International stand out from the rest of the organizations we’ve reviewed, in that they have discussed their activities with unusual clarity (even if not what we consider strong clarity).

Written by David Zaza

January 12th, 2011 at 11:27 am

The Last Time A President Got This Much Done Booze Was Illegal

comments: 2

Rachel lays out just how far we’ve come in less than one-half of one term since Obama’s inauguration. And even with her appropriate nod to some liberal disappointment (raise your hand if you’re still pissed about the public option!), the list of this administration’s accomplishments is staggering.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Written by David Zaza

June 26th, 2010 at 12:31 pm

Mr. Spitzer, please shut up

comments: 2

There is one man who recently elevated the progressive platform to unprecedented heights in the state of New York. One man who made promises that this was our time. He was a leader, an innovator, and a tough-as-nails fighter. He was a man who was finally going to deliver on the promise of progressive politics in the state of New York, to allow us to rival the progressive platforms that have been pushed — and which unfortunately have yet to flower — in California, Washington, Illinois, and other states. We were going to win because of this man.

And then Eliot Spitzer proved he was not up to the job.

Personally, I don’t give a shit about who screws whom, and whether it was paid for, illegal, or what. I have no moral compass when it comes to investigating and prosecuting prostitution rings and then turning around and being a client of them. I simply couldn’t care less about such matters. Except for a little concept called political reality. Eliot Spitzer made a lot of promises, and he broke every single fucking one of them by self-destructing while in the office of governor.

And now he wants to speak up and try to cast doubt on the abilities of the next best possible hope for any kind of real liberal governance of the state, his successor in the Attorney General’s office, Andrew Cuomo. Mr. Spitzer, would you do us all a favor, and shut the hell up?

Spitzer was going to get a lot of work done. He was going to change the tone of Albany. He was going to run roughshod over the status quo of power and corruption. And instead, shortly after a year of his swearing in, he was resigning from a scandal that not only painted him as inconsistent and power-hungry, but a scandal which showed him to be breaking the law.

And since then the economy has turned to shit, the culture of Albany turned even more sour than it was, the Democrats lost control of their own legislature due to lack of discipline and the powers of corruption, and every major issue dear to the hearts of New York progressives — from education to labor to gay rights — has suffered a breakdown or loss or inevitable backtracking due to the fact that Spitzer became the posterboy for all that is wrong with the state.

So when I — who still lacks the basic civil right to get married in my own state — read the bitter crocodile tears of a man who not only broke a law that is very simple to abide by but let his own actions cause his own political destruction and derail progressive politics in the state for another decade, forgive me if I sound harsh in saying:

ELIOT SPITZER, PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO CRAWL INTO A HOLE AND DIE. ASSHOLE.

Written by David Zaza

April 25th, 2010 at 12:35 am

Alternate Liberal Universe?

comments: 1

Just went to the NY Times website to see what was going on in the world and I thought for a second I had been transported to some alternate liberal universe.

Student loans to be paid directly to students instead of to students through banks as a free money giveaway to banks? Yowsah!

Senate passes reconciliation bill to fix some of the biggest problems in its own health care law? Wowsah!

The military is going to (for the most part) stop enforcement of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell while waiting for the law to be repealed? Zonkers!

If passing Health Reform is going to give the Dems some spine to actually start doing some of the things they’ve promised, I may faint. I’ll faint happy, but faint nonetheless. The cynic in me says this will be short-lived, but at least for today I can be stunned and happy to see three such bits of news right at the top of the paper.

Written by David Zaza

March 25th, 2010 at 4:26 pm

Accepting the Affordable Health Care for America Act

comments: 1

Despite my deeply held feelings that single-payer is the only way to get true, affordable, universal, quality health care to every single American, and despite my serious annoyance that to pass what they passed the Dems gave up on a public option, gave way too much to the insurance and drug industries, and caved on women’s rights, I cannot see the signing of this bill as anything but a very large net gain. And I’m speaking as a small-business owner who basically doesn’t see this bill affecting my own bottom line in any significant way (best I can hope for, I think, is a gradual slow-down of premium increases).

I’d like to focus my positive remarks on a couple of specifics: 1. Nancy Pelosi; and 2. the best changes that this new law brings.

For the last two years of G.W. Bush’s presidency I thought Nancy Pelosi was wimpy and ineffectual. But boy did she find her feet under the new Democratic Whitehouse. She has moved a ton of good legislation through the House — including 290 bills that have gone nowhere in the do-nothing Senate. And I previously sang her praises when she declared the House health bill would have a public option or it wouldn’t be passed. (She did accomplish that, too, though of course the bill that became law was the public-option-less Senate bill). And in the days after the special Massachusetts Senate election, when everyone was declaring health reform dead, she relentlessly insisted it would get done. If you do a search of this very blog, you’ll also find that unlike the leader of the Senate, I have never called Nancy Pelosi an asshole. Plus, the Republicans absolutely detest her and have called for her head after this great Democratic victory. If they hate her that much, I love her all the more. Kudos, Madame Speaker, you’ve done a great job so far this Congress. Please keep pushing.

And now, let’s just assume that we all agree that there are many areas in which we need to continue to reform health care. Some great people in Congress are working on that. And let’s assume the Reconciliation bill passes the Senate and the President signs that into law shortly. And let’s turn away from the crappy parts of the new law, and take a look at some basic major changes that this reform accomplishes.

First of all, in the pie-charts of how health coverage is divided among the American people, the uninsured go from being the second-largest group (after those insured by their employers) to the second-to-last biggest group, as outlined in this excellent article by Ezra Klein. As Klein compares where we’ll be coverage-wise in 10 years compared to where we would have been without the reform, that alone seems to be argument enough to applaud this new law.

I’ve found this easy-to-navigate interactive feature in The New York Times very helpful. It shows what the current law does, and what the Reconciliation bill will do to change it. Just take a look at some of those figures: expands Medicaid to 16 million more poor people, eventually closes the Medicare Part D doughnut hole, creates the marketplace “exchanges” where individuals can buy insurance as part of a large group, regulates insurance companies as to minimum benefits, forces insurance companies to accept everyone, reduces the federal deficit by $138 billion. As Vice-President Biden said today at the signing, and I quote, “This is a big fuckin’ deal!”

And two more quick shout-outs.

First of all, knowing that a few of you who read this blog were big Clinton supporters in the primary, a nod of thanks does go to her. First of all, she worked hard to do this in the 1990s. She failed, but she provided mistakes for Obama and the current Congress to learn from. And actually, the plan that has passed is actually a bit closer to her campaign proposal than to Obama’s, though to be fair, there wasn’t that much difference between them.

And finally, well, come on — I’ve been hard on the guy, and I’m still pissed he didn’t force a public option into this thing — but he’s done something that other presidents have been trying to do for about a century. Pretty sweet. Thanks, Mr. President. A year and three months into this, I’m still delighted that the adults are in control again!

Written by David Zaza

March 23rd, 2010 at 6:01 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with

Perhaps a Donation to Doctors Without Borders?

comments: 0


People gather outside a damaged MSF office in Port-au-Prince to receive help after a 7-magnitude earthquake
hit the capital city on January 12. [Haiti 2010 © MSF]

Medecins Sans Frontieres — known in the States as Doctors Without Borders — is a wonderful organization, and they’d be a great place to donate if you are moved to make a donation to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Written by David Zaza

January 13th, 2010 at 7:32 pm

Health Care Debate in the US Senate

comments: 2

UPDATED TO ADD: And here’s another asshole — from the House, not the Senate– nominated for asshole status by my mother. Congressman McIntyre voted for the Stupid Stupak amendment which is the biggest rollback of abortion rights in a generation yet voted against the health care bill anyway. This is an example of the kind of Democrat I can live without, and another example of a Washington Asshole:
Con. Mike McIntyre (Asshole-NC-7)

Over the years of writing this blog, I’ve called many a United States Senator an asshole. And deservedly so. Let’s add three more to the pile, uh?

Please say Hello to enemies of the people Sen. Mary Landrieu (Asshole-LA), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Asshole-AR), and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Asshole-CT):
Sen. Mary Landrieu, Asshole Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Asshole Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Asshole

We have enough Democrats in the Senate, now we just need to get some real ones.

UPDATED: Not only an asshole, but a lying asshole.

Written by David Zaza

November 21st, 2009 at 5:57 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with

I’ll Believe It When I see It

comments: 1

Harry Reid (Asshole-Nevada) says there will be a public option in the final Senate bill. From the article:

“I believe the public option is so vitally important to create a level playing field and prevent the insurance companies from taking advantage of us,” he said.

Are the Dems coming together? Are they realizing that the American people want the public option by a large majority? Are they running scared? Are they finally taking the ball away from Baucaus? Color me skeptical, but I don’t trust Harry Reid one teensy weensy bit.

Written by David Zaza

October 1st, 2009 at 8:05 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ,

Some Good Arguments for a Trigger-Free Public Option

comments: 0

Some netroots activists have compiled a solid video showing lots of good reasons for this country to include a public option in its healthcare reforms. And yes, it must be a trigger-free option — the insurance companies have already proven their failure to help. Waiting for further proof is idiotic.

Anyway, watch for me at about the 40-second mark. I’m doing my usual bellyaching about my small business woes.

[nonmobile][/nonmobile]
[mobile]YouTube video link[/mobile]

Written by David Zaza

September 25th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ,

And I’m not being sarcastic. At all.

comments: 1

[nonmobile]

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

[/nonmobile]
[mobile]Sorry. It’s a Flash video which won’t work on your mobile device.[/mobile]

Written by David Zaza

September 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 am

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ,

No shit.

comments: 0

I keep getting emails from Organizing for America, formerly known as Obama for America, aka the Obama campaign. They keep sending messages about how I have to be the one to get health care reform pushed through Congress. Sorry, but that’s the president’s job. I mean, we all have to play a part, and lord knows I’ve been dialing my fingers to the bone and asking you all to as well. And I feel strongly the President needs to start some serious arm-twisting on our behalf, not the other way around.

Today’s email from Organizing for America really takes the cake:

[nonmobile]Big (Bowel) Movement In Congress[/nonmobile]
[mobile]Big (Bowel) Movement In Congress[/mobile]
Let’s start with the subject line and first sentence of the email:

Subject: Movement in Congress
There’s big movement in Congress: Just a week after President Obama laid out a comprehensive plan for reform, the fifth and final congressional committee has unveiled its health reform legislation.

Um, that “final congressional committee”? That would be the the Senate Finance Committee. I cannot but help to find the missing word in the subject line: BOWEL Movement in Congress. Yes, it’s Max Baucus, that asshole, taking a big steaming dump on the people who put this Democratic president in the White House and gave him humongous majorities in both houses of Congress. His idea of health care reform is to create individual mandates forcing almost every American to buy shitty insurance from private companies, without providing a public option that will actually help to lower costs. Oh sure, he’s put in nonprofit co-ops — but that is a fake solution. And it does not fit in with either the President’s campaign promise (public option) or with the President’s stated goal of a public option or other alternative that provides real competition to insurance companies and “keeps them honest.”

So as part of my own activism on this issue, I’ve taken to answering all these emails I get from the White House, anyone in Congress, or Organizing for America. My reply to the above email is pretty straight to the point:

Dear Organizing for America,

I am already calling my senators on a weekly basis. And the White House too. How about the President stop tiptoeing around the public option issue and DEMAND that Congress include it in the final bill FROM BOTH HOUSES?! We cannot do his work for him. He needs to stop the nice talk and start twisting some arms. I know he doesn’t like to be “disagreeable” but why is it okay to break his campaign promise for a public option but not okay to break his promise on disagreeing without being disagreeable? The Senate Finance bill is crap. Stop emailing me about how I should get my Senators to support the President’s plan, when what’s actually being considered is totally different from the plan the president laid out during the campaign.

The President needs to hear this message loud and clear: NO PUBLIC OPTION=NO REELECTION DONATIONS. Period.

David Zaza

I suggest you join me in this effort if you too are on the receiving end of Democrats’ solicitous emails.

Written by David Zaza

September 17th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ,

NYT headline: In Speech, Obama Will Not Insist on Public Option

comments: 0

Well at least he’s taking it lying down.

Written by David Zaza

September 9th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ,

More Reich, more Public Option, less Trigger

comments: 1

Over at Salon.com, Robert Reich explains why all a trigger does is kill the public option, not enable it:

The problem is twofold. First, it’s impossible to design airtight goals for coverage and cost reductions that won’t be picked over by 5,000 lobbyists and as many lawyers and litigators even if, at the end of the grace period, it’s apparent to everyone else that the goals aren’t met. Washington is a vast cesspool of well-paid specialists who know how to stop anything resembling a “trigger.” Believe me, they will.

Second, any controversial proposal with some powerful support behind it that gets delayed — for five years or three years or whenever — is politically dead. Supporters lose interest. Public attention wanders. The media are on to other issues. Right now the public option is very much alive because so many Democrats care deeply about it, with good reason. But put it off for years, and assign it to the lawyers and lobbyists I just mentioned, and you can kiss it goodbye forever.

If the idea is to have a public option waiting in the wings in case private insurers blow it, why wait for it at all? If it gets lower costs and wider coverage, it should be included right from the start.

May I please ask the president what part of reality he doesn’t understand??

There are two other helpful articles right now at Salon to help us prepare for tomorrow night’s speech:

First, Jacob Hacker, who is basically responsible for the public option idea being part of the current conversation, explains in an interview why the public option is key, and why co-ops are wrong (he says they are “a political solution to a political problem, rather than a policy solution to a real world problem.”). Exactly.

Then we also have Mike Madden writing about the politics of all this, and the what-if? scenario of just passing anything in order for Obama to claim victory. Needless to say, I think that will do more to disenfranchise all those new voters Obama brought into the system than anything else.

And to that last point, if you gave any money or time to Obama’s campaign, please take a minute to sign the petition that his supporters are circulating to put press on him to hold fast to the public option.

Written by David Zaza

September 9th, 2009 at 12:25 am

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ,

Robert Reich makes it simpler and succinct

comments: 2

I’ll write more about this and next steps later from home.

Written by David Zaza

September 8th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ,