Tag: Progressive Caucus

Apr 08 2010

Finally. (updated)

I really don’t have the time to write this up, but I wanted to draw your attention to this series on HuffPo.  In is quite an indepth, inside look and well worth the whole read.  Despite the cheerleading, there are pissed-off liberals.  We are not alone.  Enjoy.

Power Struggle: Inside The Battle For The Soul Of The Democratic Party

Doug Kahn, a big Democratic donor and heir to the Annenberg fortune, is not giving any money to candidates running for office this year even though he has donated more than $200,000 to candidates in past election cycles.

“The people who are really liberal, like me, are disgusted. And the ones I’ve talked to are just saying, forget this. They’re throwing their hands up. They’re not going to give money,” says Kahn.

In 2008, says Kahn, he asked the DCCC to list candidates who had an outside shot of beating a Republican and weren’t currently getting much party backing. He jumped in and gave the maximum contributions, donating to several of the 34 Democrats who voted against health care reform. In 2010, he says, he’ll spend his money in a different way. “Anger is a real motivator,” says Kahn.

The Florida donor plans to spend $100,000 between two districts currently held by Blue Dogs. He’ll come in during the last few weeks and spend money educating Democratic voters about the Blue Dogs’ record. “I’m convinced that if they know what the voting records of some of these people are — that is, Blue Dogs — a significant percentage, a percentage that could beat the Blue Dog, will simply not vote. I might be wrong about that, but I’m going to try it out,” says Kahn.

Kahn says he doesn’t yet know which districts he’ll attack and has no interest working to defeat a Blue Dog who is already going to lose. He wants Blue Dogs on the edge and he wants to push them off. The purpose, he says, is not to teach those particular dogs a lesson, but “to move the Blue Dogs who are in the House to have some fear of Democratic voters.”

Pelosi worked to muzzle progressives who said they could never vote for the watered-down Senate version. “I told the members, the members who said, ‘I’m never voting the Senate bill,’ I said, ‘Fine. Let me take care of that, but to the extent that you go out and say that, you are empowering the insurance industry and those who are trying to say just do a small bill,” she said. “That empowered them: ‘See, she’s never going to be able to pass the bill, so why don’t we just go for this thing, which happens to be what the insurance company is advocating.’ So we’re saying, ‘No, you have to have the courage to go for it, and what is it that we can put over the finish line that is strong and tough as possible, giving the president his opportunity to strive for bipartisanship?”

There’s a whole lot more.  

Sep 13 2009

Baucus’s proposal … an Insider Trader move to protect an Industry

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, interviews Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, regarding a Robust Public Option:

AMY GOODMAN: Congress member Grijalva, I also want to ask you about Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus and his close ties to the healthcare industry. […]

REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: I think the product that has come out from his committee and himself, I really believe that it has no legitimacy in this debate. It’s an insider product. It’s there to protect the industry. It is not there to try to look for that middle ground. He is key in holding up deliberations, has been key in trying to work on a consensus, but everything you see in his legislation had to be approved by the industry before it became part of the plan. So I don’t think it’s legitimate.

[…] I consider Senator Baucus’s proposal to be essentially an insider trader move to protect an industry and really doesn’t have validity at all, both political validity or content validity.

Sep 11 2009

THIS was intended to be a response to buhdy’s “Progressive Caucus Becomes a Political Force “

but, my response became so longgg, I decided to post it, instead.

Yesterday — in a late posting in buhdy’s thread, I stated some afterthoughts — see here, as well as having expressed some thoughts earlier here.

I called nine Congressional reps, basically, to see where they were at on single-payer [deliberately] and a “what if” there is no public option — and I stated how I felt about the WHOLE thing and what, I assumed, were the sentiments of not just me, but many, many Americans.  The true, true, “progressives” were unabashed at stating their positions, i.e., would not vote for any bill without a strong public option and, in addition, are strongly in support of H.R. 676 (Conyers & Kucinich single-payer plan).  Then, there were those that simply wanted to wait until they heard what Obama had to say, some even saying they’d go “his way,” and, then, there were those who stated they wanted a “strong public option” but would not commit to a “what if.”  One or two were not “progressives,” as I was trying to get a kind of “sampling,” so to speak.  (FYI, calls I made were to Congresspersons, Jackson (IL), Rush (IL), Markey, Matsui, Thompson, Davis (IL), Wexler (FL), Schakowsky (IL) and I kept notes.)

Please note:  That in my approach to these “critters,” I simply stated that I wanted to know the view of the Congressman on this and that — after I heard whatever I heard is when I laid out my sentiments and facts.  

Please note, too: I think there may be some in the Progressive Caucus who merely want to “appear” as being progressive, but not much stronger than a regular Dem.

So, thanks, budhy, for bringing this up — I REALLY THINK IT IS ENTIRELY UP TO US.  And I think the “Mad as Hell Doctors” are leading US into a good thing, as well — they have launched and are now reporting.  They are receiving around 500 or more visitors at each place they’ve stopped at so far — and that’s only about three right now, and they’re receiving very good newspaper coverage.

I think we all know that the healthcare reform is a “pivotal” point in our society and it’s history.  So far, I would imagine we are a laughing stock among those Western industrialized nations who have had government healthcare for many, many years — but, I would imagine that they cry for us at the same time.  I’m sure it’s very hard for them to imagine a society so calloused as to let people DIE, literally, for want of no healthcare coverage, or being cut off for being VERY ill.

Reflecting! I think it’s this kind of social lack of morality in our society that is the core reason for the basic unhappiness (and illness) in Americans, despite all their material goods that they may have — feeling never satisfied.  And, of course, now most of us are down to the basics of life.  But it’s that “lack” socially that also creates numerous illnesses, not just physical:  rampant crime from the top on down, an indescribable “aching” in our hearts, which, in turn, creates “illness” and a kind of “senselessness” created thereby, IOW, if you run out of money, you’re the same as dead.  Having to be watchful of what our government does with our monies and our wishes also contributes to varying types of illnesses.  These are the kinds of things that “gnaw” at us as human beings/Americans.  All of these sub-conscience “workings” play havoc with us.  We do not have happy lives, despite our “trappings.” Americans have even reached the point that they’re afraid to take “real” vacations, and most only taking a few days here or there.  Why?  Fear of losing their jobs!  Fear of depleting what little money they may have garnered and so on.  Sad, sad, sad.  So, I think each of us try to find little “tiny” ways to carve out a measure of “happiness” — that which no one can take away from us.

Where is the LOVE?

Sep 07 2009

Is Health Care a Commodity, or a basic Human Right? with Poll

Well according to this former HMO Medical Director, she traded Necessary Patients Care, for Career Advancement and a 6-figure Salary:

Linda Peeno MD, testifies



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Question: Are the Patients, who are Denied Care, to save the Insurance Companies Money — DO those Patients have a RIGHT to their Health Care?

Or are Those Patients simply a Commodity — a “Cost Center” — that must be constantly constrained?  

Jul 31 2009

Progressive Anthony Weiner calls for “The End” of Publicly Run Medicare

as reported on Rachel Maddow’s Thursday show:

Congressman Weiner’s bluff-calling, put-up-or-shut-up amendment to the House health care bill (H.R. 3200):

Really Republicans, don’t like Publicly run Health Care?

Would you care to put your Vote where your rhetoric is,

to eliminate a very successful Public Health Care Program — Medicare?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26…



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

So what happened?

Will Medicare be relegated to the “junk heap of history” as another “failed idea” of the Liberal Agenda? … well in a word, HARDLY!