Day: July 24, 2009

Blue Dogs’ Yellow Streak Turns Green

First of all for all you students of art……if you combine blue and yellow….what color do you get?  Green……..

I have been a critic, a sharp critic, of the Dems that call themselves Blue Dogs, those supposedly fiscal conservatives in th US House of Representatives.  Anyway, the yellow streak of the Blue Dogs has turned to green….meaning……there stance on holding up health care has turned into cash for the coalition.

This is the complete article written for USA Today by Fredreka Schouten of the papers Congress Team:

The conservative House Democrats known as the Blue Dog Coalition have seen their political clout grow dramatically as they work to shape the health care debate.

So have their campaign coffers — and much of the money has come from industries seeking to influence President Obama’s health care overhaul and other key legislative efforts in Congress, according to reports out today.

The Blue Dog’s political action committee has collected $1.1 million in the first six months of the year — more than any other political action committee, according to CQ. (Subscription required.) Nearly 54% came from the energy, financial services and health care industries, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity. That’s up from 45% in 2004. The center’s reporting appeared in Politico.

The 52-member coalition has demanded changes to health care legislation to rein in spending and address their concerns about disparities in Medicare reimbursement rates between urban and rural communities — slowing action on legislation that Obama and congressional leaders had sought to put on a fast track.

Who says it does not pay to be a coward?  The Blue Dogs have proven that accusation wrong.

Random Thoughts

Once again I have been busy making notes and losing sleep…..these are the ones that did not make it to a post.

1–Repubs say the Dem health care bill is not bi-partisan….but at last count there were 160 Repub amendments….sounds like it is pretty bi=partisan to me.

2–Health care again—notice the guys that are opposition have an excellent health care policy….but they are to decide what the American people will get as far as health care is concerned….that is pretty sick.

3–The American Conservative Union tried to sell its endorsement for $2 million to FedEx….since they would not pay…the ACU endorsed UPS…how much did they pay?

4–Only about 20% of the stim money has actually gone out…but the Repubs are calling it a failure and want the payments to stop.  The really sad part is that the BS is starting to play with the people…..sorry to say that it is another example of the Rational Ignorance Effect (read the page on the RIE) if you have a hard time grasping what is meant.

5–Does anyone give a crap what type of jeans the Prez wears?  If we do….we need to get a flippin’ life!

6–GOP is up to their usual tactics of delaying and lying in Congress…..this time it is for the health care debate…..I guess it is their only option at this point.

7–looks like Palin’s attempt to raise money to pay for the $500,000 in legal fees accured while fight ethic charges….it seems that her attempt may have violate ethics statutes…..No Really!….I cannot make this stuff up!

8–CNN’s Lou Dobbs is back in the news and it is not over immigration.  This from the LA Times:

Lou Dobbs had David from Freeport, N.Y., on the line, the caller musing darkly about President Obama “rushing all these programs through by whatever means,” knowing he will soon be exposed as a fake, a fraud, a . . . Kenyan.

At that point, a scrupulous radio host had three options: (A) hit the kill button (B) laugh and hit the kill button or (C) offer some push-back against the fantastical notion that Barack Obama was born on foreign soil and thus serves — illegally — as the Oval Office’s first resident alien.

Instead, Dobbs chose the maximum complicity-minimum integrity route, or (D): “Certainly your view can’t be discounted,” the host said.

He will be featured in Anal-Ocity.

9–Somewhere on 23 July 2009—Info Ink went over 50,000 hits….a milestone finally achieved.

What Is The Hurry?

Professor’s Classroom

That is the question that the Repubs and the cowardly Dems are asking the prez..Mr. President, why the rush?

In the 90’s Clinton was big on health care and it went the way of the do-do….because the industry was against any change.  Then in the 70’s it was brought up by Sen. Kennedy and once again it sank quicker than the Titanic…the industry was not on board with any change to their status quo.  Harry Truman in 1948 made health care an important issue….and can you guess what happen back then?  Yep….a bomb that was a dud.

Back to the original question….why the hurry?  First of all it has been at least 61 years that health care was a major issue…although it had been considered back in the day when Teddy was running, year 1912.  Why the hurry?  To me at least 61 years in the making is not a rush job by any stretch of the imagination.

Ask again–why the hurry?  This is possibly the first time in 61 years that it is possible to give the American people something they deserve…adequate health care for them and their families.  So why not take adbvantage of the numbers and the times and pass the healthcare issue?

Repubs have made the money, the issue….the truth is we already pay about 14+% of our GDP in health care….I believe that Defense is at about 9%.  The money is a diversion, a talking point, and above all misinformation.

The time is NOW, if not then health care will be once again something that no one wants to talk about and may never get Americans health care.