Seriously. Health care reform is Dennis Kucinich’s fucking fault. It has nothing to do with Obama, Durbin, and Pelosi. Don’tcha know.
Barack Obama says he supports a public option but claims there aren’t 51 votes in the Senate to pass it in reconciliation. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin says he would aggressively whip the 51 votes for the public option if Nancy Pelosi would send him a House reconciliation bill that includes a public option. Nancy Pelosi says she won’t include a public option in House reconciliation bill because there aren’t enough votes in the Senate to pass it. It’s looking more and more like a game of 3-Card Monty.
Damn you, Dennis!
Meanwhile, Edward Harrison is harshing my “green shoots” buzz:
This past week’s posts marked a turn for me on a few levels. It is apparent that most market reform efforts are mere tweaks of the existing system. I am being to conclude that no meaningful financial reform can occur absent an absolute collapse in the global economy and the financial system.
I wish Dennis Kucinich would knock this bullshit off and just reform the financial system.
And while he’s at it, Dennis Kucinich should stop making the rest of our ruling elites fail miserably.
In the past decade, nearly every pillar institution in American society – whether it’s General Motors, Congress, Wall Street, Major League Baseball, the Catholic Church or the mainstream media – has revealed itself to be corrupt, incompetent or both. And at the root of these failures are the people who run these institutions, the bright and industrious minds who occupy the commanding heights of our meritocratic order. In exchange for their power, status and remuneration, they are supposed to make sure everything operates smoothly. But after a cascade of scandals and catastrophes, that implicit social contract lies in ruins, replaced by mass skepticism, contempt and disillusionment.
In the wake of the implosion of nearly all sources of American authority, this new decade will have to be about reforming our institutions to reconstitute a more reliable and democratic form of authority. Scholarly research shows a firm correlation between strong institutions, accountable élites and highly functional economies; mistrust and corruption, meanwhile, feed each other in a vicious circle. If our current crisis continues, we risk a long, ugly process of de-development: higher levels of corruption and tax evasion and an increasingly fractured public sphere, in which both public consensus and reform become all but impossible.
Oh, and one more thing, Dennis: Could you please, please, please stop Ralph Nader from stealing our elections?