Alan Grayson has been a godsend in a mostly disappointing Democratic Congress. Like John Yarmuth of Kentucky, he has been elected in a district that is not a cakewalk but still fearlessly stands up for what he believes is right. With the Healthcare fight raging on and getting closer to an up or down vote, Grayson is once again trying to speak for the will of the majority of the American people who would like to see at least a public option in the Healthcare bill that will eventually be voted on.
In the race to replace Kentucky's "Crazy Uncle" Jim Bunning in the United States Senate a new poll is out. It has found that Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo and radical eye doctor Rand Paul with significant leads in the Democratic and Republican primaries. Besides the top four of Mongiardo, Conway, Paul and Grayson no other candidate seemed to garner much support.
Ah, we remember the most hilarious civil war that broke out between Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning which toppled the crazy uncle of Kentucky politics and recruited another McConnell "golden boy" akin to disgraced Governor Fletcher in Trey Grayson. But, enter fringe right-winger Rand Paul into the mix and you have the makings of a brand new Republican civil war in Kentucky to laugh at.
One thing we have known in Kentucky for a long time now whatever political stripe you are is quite simply, Jim Bunning is the crazy uncle of Kentucky politics. His antics have been well documented, forcing Mitch McConnell to use his machine to force the walking embarrassment to a disgraced party out of the race in favor of someone he hopes can actually win against either strong candidate the Democrats can field. Well, now we are finding out that if a Repubican is elected in Kentucky we will not only lose a crazy uncle, but gain a crazy nephew.
In what has become a recurrent theme the big banking industry is setting it's site on fleecing yet another group of Americans. As if crashing our economy and being bailed out by the taxpayers for their own greed were not bad enough, banking institutions have set their sites on the fleecing of American students, and are attempting to keep them in recurrent debt for the rest of their natural lives, much less their careers. Well, now it is time to fight back against these crooks who care little for their country and the people within as long as the bottom line is preserved.
After months of leaving it to Congress to come up with the details of the Healthcare Bill the President Obama has released his own plan for healthcare. The only problem is that it widely resembles the plan put foward earlier by the Senate in many regards. While the House plan was far from perfect it was far superior to the Senate plan in many ways. Unfortunately, the President still seems to think that compromising with Corporate Democrats instead of using the bulley-pulpit for forcing real reform is the best route to go.
You know with all the troubles partly caused by the Republicans being the "party of no", America is in a sour mood. Nothing good is getting done in Washington because so many Democrats are wanting to be "bi-partisan" and so many Republicans just think the road to Congressional control is to make Democrats look bad. Now, many of them are predicting Senate control after the 2010 elections. However, even with the toxic environment for incumbents this will be a long road for Republicans.
It is nice that some people are beginning to realize things we have known here for a while. The United States Senate has become a "House of Lords" where legislation that would benefit the unwashed masses goes to die a slow, painful death. There are basically two reasons for this. Rich, powerful, uncaring Senators that have been bought by Corporate America, and the un-Constitutional act of a filibuster.
The loss of the late Ted Kennedy's seat should bring us back to the drawing board on healthcare. After wasting months on trying to negotiate with traitorous Blue Dog and Centrist Democrats it is now time to take them, and the Republicans they serve out of the equation. Yes folks it is time to do what our forefathers envisioned and have a 51 vote majority pass healthcare.
Everyone knows by now that the race for Senator Kennedy's old seat has become very close. Indeed as hard as it is to imagine a Republican in his seat, they may very well happen now. While some Democrats are viewing this as the end of the healthcare bill if it indeed does happen, there could actually be a silver lining behind the storm that would take our sixtieth vote.
With so very little good news coming out of the healthcare deliberations between the House and Senate at least one thing has happened that is good to report. It appears as if 19 Senators have banded together to call for a repeal of health insurers anti-trust exemption. However, as always there appears to be at least one Corporate Democrat standing in the way.
In keeping with the theme of the last couple of decades it appears as if the very rich and Corporate America will not be asked to sacrifice a damn thing to cure the ills of this country. As always, our government is bought and paid for and the working class are the only folks who will be expected to foot any bill. These newest developments have made what was going to be a horrible bill much worse.
Well, they say that cats have nine lives. However, compared to the public option for purchasing healthcare, our feline friends have relatively few lives. Yes, the public option has been killed and reincarnated time and time again by "Blue-Dogs", "Centrists", and "Moderates" all of whom are just code words for Corporate-Whore Democrats. Of course it does not help that "Progressives" in the Senate and our President had not the spine to fight for it. Now, it appears as if it will suffer it's final, long-awaited death.
Looking around the internet it seems as if we see all kinds of folks making their predictions for the coming year and beyond. Here at Hillbilly Report we do not have a crystal ball and are not in tune with our Esoteric voices. However, it is kind of fun to play the game, so here I go. Feel free to add your "predictions" below.
We have been pretty disappointed here for most of the heatlhcare debate. I mean, we lost single-payer before sitting down to bargain, and now barring a Christmas miracle from sixty or so House members we have lost the public option while being mandated to buy coverage. Folks like myself with a pre-existing condition in my case Type 1 Diabetes can still be discriminated against for five long years. Now in retrospect we lost another battle that shows nicely just how bought and paid for our Congress really is.
After months of healthcare debate a bill has been passed in the Senate. A bill that stripped basically all that was good for working Americans out, and has become very unpopular among a majority of Americans. A bill that mandates millions of Americans at the mercy of the insurance industry, and allows them to continue to discriminate against folks with pre-existing conditions. Quite simply, a bill that was written for Corporate Welfare complete with backroom bribes to get it passed. And for many Progressives, the fact that we had not a champion in the Democratic caucus to stand up for us and vote against these junk reforms was painful enough, Harry Reid added insult to injury.
You know, every now and then the time comes around that you see things the way they are. We thought we had fought for and won a great victory in the last two elections. We thought we had given an inspiring Progressive new President a huge mandate and the Congress he needed to bring about real change in this country. Now, we realize we are being stabbed in the back and that many of the Democrats and those that caucus with them in office are no better than the Republican crooks that preceded them. It is time that these folks are exposed for what they are and we realize who really controls our government. No better example of a lying backstabber can be found anywhere than treasonous Joe Lieberman.
You know, every now and then the time comes around that you see things the way they are. We thought we had fought for and won a great victory in the last two elections. We thought we had given an inspiring Progressive new President a huge mandate and the Congress he needed to bring about real change in this country. Now, we realize we are being stabbed in the back and that many of the Democrats in office are no better than the Republican crooks that preceded them. It is time that these folks are exposed for what they are and we realize who really controls our government.
Let us make no mistake about it. The only good things in the healthcare bill have been viciously buried alive in a shallow grave. Single-Payer was the real solution that would have guaranteed fair, across the board coverage for all Americans. It met a slow, and tortured death buried alive. The Public Option was then our only hope to keep insurers honest, and it met with a long, torturous death buried alive with malice while the American people virtually begged for it. The employer mandate, like single-payer appears to have been buried alive. Yes, everything good that could have come from reform seems to be somewhere near Jimmy Hoffa, dead and buried never to be found.
