As is generally the case when sweeping legislative reform is debated, the states which need it most are the states where opposition is the loudest.
Healthcare reform measures are no exception.
Recently, I read two interesting Gallup Poll surveys which bear this out:
Among states with “basic access to well-being” – "basic needs optimal for a healthy life such as access to healthcare, safe places to exercise, affordable fruits and vegetables" – Mississippi and West Virginia have the least access. (LINK)
Mississippi, Texas and New Mexico have more citizens without health insurance than any other states in the country. (LINK)
Today's edition of the Los Angeles Times has an excellent analysis of this enigma. (LINK) Here are the headline and sub-head of the analysis:
"States most likely to win under healthcare overhaul are home to its biggest foes"
“Rural states have more uninsured and lower-income people who stand to benefit from legislation, but it's there where the effort faces the most vocal resistance. It's a factor that stymies legislators.”
A senator from one of these states, Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) can’t seem to grasp the needs of his people. That’s because they can’t seem to understand their own needs.
What else can we call this if not stupid.
Republicans are scared to death of a maneuver called, ironically enough, “reconciliation.”
According to CNN’s Political Ticker: ““Under reconciliation, which applies to bills affecting the federal budget and deficit, a measure requires a simple majority of 51 votes to pass in the Senate, rather than the super majority of 60 votes needed to overcome an opposition filibuster.”
In a CNN report this morning (LINK), Sen. Alexander warns of such a vote, “This will wreck our healthcare system and wreck the Democratic Party.” Tennessee's town hall meetings led Alexander to conclude Americans are “scared to death” of healthcare reform and its passage will lead to “a minor revolution in this country.” (Read "Be afraid, be very afraid.")
Is this responsible representation of an area which would benefit from reform? Well, yeah, if his people are too stupid (there’s that word again) to understand their own needs.
In what is one of the most hypocritical statements concerning this issue, Alexander said of Democrats:
"Either they don't know how to operate in a bipartisan way or they don't want to operate in a bipartisan way."
And, that claim, Sir, is, well, stupid.
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demwit
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12 comments:
Frodo believes, if you'll pardon the expression, in calling a "spade a spade." Change the question asked to inquire as to which states benefit most from, let's just for example, voting rights legislation, and see if there is any correlation. View also the membership of those who appear in public to demonstrate their opposition to voting rights legislation, or did so in the 1950's.
Different lines, same actors.
Lamar Alexander does not give a rat's ass about anybody who would truly benefit from healthcare legislation in the State of Tennessee. How much are those people going to contribute to his next election?
This is all about race, and poverty, and "two Americas."
Want an idea on how to make money in our new economy? Sell sheets at the next Healthcare Town Hall Meeting in any of those states you mentioned, and include Georgia.
Hobbit, you are absolutely right. I would assert, however, that many of the uncared for and uninsured fall within the middle class. And, many of those are in the mentioned states. BJ
Not just ethnic problems in access. The fastes growing companies are Job Shops. We temp workers can buy insurance at about the same price as any individual can. That's unaffordable for anyone under $80,000 per year of income.
Where I work no temp worker has healthcare unles they are old enough to have Medicare.
If the majority are poor and non-white it still includes a vast number of minority white middle class working adults. As individuals we do not contribute much to bribe congress. So what? Do what's right for human beings. Let's not forget the constitutional right to life.
BJ I put your song request up! Enjoy!
My computer is about to crash TTYL!
It's horribly sad to me that the folks who have the most to gain are listening to the idiots that do not have their best interests at heart.
Fearmongering is a powerful tool the Rethugs have learned to use. We all lose when this kinda crap happens.
It's class warfare at it's worst. Like Frodo says: Two America's.
I believe it's the folks below the middle class, who usually have little if any education past highschool, that need health insurance. The jobs they have very seldom provide amenities like health insurance.
Middle class folks usually have more education and better jobs with decent benefits.
I have been in both groups in my life.
Tiny thinks the middle class has been eradicated by being forced, via the Bush administration, into the poverty class, hence Frodo's two Americas.
In Maryville, TN is a highway bearing Lamar Alexander's name, probably paid for with oink-oink and lobbyist money from the coal company that dumped all the toxic coal ash into the Tennessee River. This has TN residents up in arms about all the illnesses they are suddenly experiencing.
What insurance company will insure those pre-existing conditions? None, of course! But, God forbid anyone should explain to these people how a "public option health care insurance choice" would be to their benefit.
Former Sen. Dr. Bill Frist, who diagnosed Teri Schiavo in So. FL via a 15 second video he viewedd in DC, will no doubt do the same dianostics with these folks and declare them healthy as a horse.
As BJ said, "Be afraid, be very afraid." This is the only message they will hear from the Repugs who scream the loudest in order to protect their own bank accounts.
Where is the promised list of those with Swiss bank accounts the IRS promised to release to let the world know who owed income tax on those accounts? Do we have to
sign hundreds of thousands of petitions to get those released also? If yes, pass the petitions, please.
I am always shocked the way people vote against their own best interests. I understand some have this blind desire to keep government costs in check, but then I ask where were they over the past eight years (or even thirty)? They are either inconsistent or full of it - hiding their real motives. The really strange thing is that health care reform is designed to LOWER costs.
The whole thing makes me wonder what's next. If they can be brainwashed to ignore human suffering in favor of protecting an abusive and highly profitable trillion dollar a year insurance industry , what else are they capable of? Really, what's next? Social Security and Medicare? Armed conflict? I think anything's possible, since their weak minds are so easily led. It's just a question of where?
Ok Michael Boh, you are scaring the mierda out of me!
Democrates have playing the good cop to the Republicans bad cop for too long. The two party system failed decades ago. If the public option is off the table I know I shoulda voted for Raph Nader.
The two embattled parties have managed to work in unison to the detriment of this country. The driving down of wagers and education has furtilized the populic for Jerry Springer freak shows to take root.
The dumbing down of the public benefits politicians emensly. Faux sound byte tactics in Washington and on the News results in real gains for the opposition. Jurking back and forth from one party to the other with never a morsel of benefit to the public is where they have us and exactly where they want us.
Dusty: BJ here. I’m leaving this comment in hopes you will see it. Thanks to you and the other person who responded to my comment on your site. When I left the comment, it took me about 20 tries before I finally got the CODE right as I cannot see to read those darn things. I tried the audio version of the code, but was prompted to download a new audio program which probably would screw up my computer. So opted not to do that. I won’t be able to leave further comments. Those CODES are barriers to persons with vision problems, and I encounter so many which don’t have an audio version! Again, thanks for the responses.
I only put the spam guard up to hold the spammers at bay.
It's not working..so therefore I will remove it.
Please feel free to visit Sirens Chronicles again..it will NOT have that nasty code thing up.
Oh, Dusty, don’t feel like you have to remove the code because of me. I encounter them on a lot of sites, and I understand their purpose. You are very thoughtful to remove it. If spamming occurs, slap it back on, by all means.
I will visit Sirens Chronicles again, and I hope you can check DemWit when you have time.
I appreciated the two messages you and one other left about my comment re. “Hunger in the Heartland.”
Thanks, BJ
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