GOP on the Wrong Side of History Again?!?

The Republican Party tried again yesterday evening to derail health care reform, and thankfully they failed. All 178 Republican Congressmen, together with 34 spineless fuckwits from the Dems, were not enough to beat the 219 vote majority supporting health care reform in this country.

The merits of this specific health care bill are not the issue I'd like to discuss this evening. It's clearly a compromise bill that does not contain the entire liberal wish list, but it is at its heart a sincere effort to being the much needed first steps of health care reform. With luck and time improvements can be made to bring comprehensive health care reform to the United States.

What I'd really like to talk about this evening is the role of the Republicans who are again standing on the side lines of history yelling NO in as loud a voice as possible. It should come as no surprise to students of history, but it is something worth repeating. Because there are still idiots out there who like to vote Republican, and perhaps they need to think long and hard about what these people stand for.

Here are some Republican positions in the recent past that tells you a lot about what they stand for:

• Civil Rights - Anti-lynching bills, and various civil rights bills of the 1950s and 60s were largely opposed by Republicans, hiding behind the rights of individual states as an excuse for not supporting bills to protect minority groups.
• Environmental Policy - Beginning with Nixon's Clean Air act of 1970, pretty much every effort to protect the environment has been opposed by the GOP.
• Abortion - The GOP have repeatedly taken steps to trample the rights of women, even though a clear majority of Americans do not believe that abortion should be outlawed or criminalized.
• Gay Rights - Although there have been many Republican politicians found 'researching' homosexual practices, you won't find many voting for equality for gay people.
• Tax - Cut taxes the GOP say, but whenever they are in office they won't cut spending. They just cut taxes for the rich, and keep up their stupid spending policies until will owe trillions to China. Then they point the finger of blame elsewhere.
  

It's pretty clear that history is littered with nasty old Republicans stamping their feet and pushing their self interest, and those of the rich lobbyists who line their pockets.

Here we are on a historic night of health care reform and a promise of extending coverage to uninsured Americans, and not a single one of them broke ranks to vote for what is right.

In any two party system the pendulum will ultimately swing both ways over time, but never forget the history of the GOP and their opposition to social justice and rights for the people.

Universal Healthcare

Are you one of those Fox News viewers that still doesn't get it when it comes to universal health care? We'll it's time to wake the fuck up and sniff the American infant mortality rate (among the many other indicators that our system is broken).

I had the good fortune to see Sicko again for the first time since it came out. Watching this movie seemed to drive home some of the serious problems in our system. It was also interesting to compare the bullshit arguments the right used to shut down Hillary Clinton's health care initiatives during the 90's. The same old white right telling us that universal health care cannot work, despite the reality that it does in the rest of the western world.

So if you haven't seen this powerful movie, might I suggest you do so now. Your life could depend on it; and hey, it's less than $10 now.

Dead Baby Update

Just over two years ago, I posted an article on this blog about the infant mortality rate in the United States.

It came back into my mind because of the election and because of a new report out this month.

Every time we have an election, the Republican party trot out the issue of abortion specifically to rouse their base, and the talk turns to killing babies. Extremists even talk about how Obama wants to 'kill babies' because of his pro-choice stance. Or some intellectually dishonest argument about votes he's made as a politician.

Then you have the likes of Sarah Palin who believe that abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape and incest. A woman who went on record the other day as stating that people who bomb abortion clinics are not 'technically' terrorists.

But what I'd like to know is why Americas are ignoring the real issue: infant mortality.

In the recent CDC report it was discovered that America, the richest and most powerful nation on the planet, is 29th in the world for infant mortality figures!

28,000 babies die each year in America before their first birthday.

That's about 7 in 1000. And if you are African American, sorry, but that figure is more than double, at a staggering 13.63 per 1,000. Which is up from the last time I reported on this issue.

We are currently in the company of such countries as, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungry. We are getting beaten by Cuba, New Zealand, Israel and Canada.

And we are being blown out of the water by top countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Britain and Italy.

It's time that as a nation we woke up to the fact that our health care system is broken. 47,000,000 Americans are without proper coverage. Millions more are simply unable to afford health care costs even with with insurance.

And the trends are scary too. By 2012 if things continue the way they are going the per capita cost of health care will reach $10,000 in America. More than any other country in the world. Yet by then an estimated 54 million people will be uninsured. Businesses costs will rise by 55%.

The issue of broken health care and infant mortality rates is one of the most important issues facing America today.

If we can fix the health care system it is good for everyone. And the only candidate in this election who is trying to do that is Barack Obama. He wants to take steps to stop insurance companies ripping people off. He wants to make health care less of a luxury and more of a right. I don't think his ideas go far enough, but in America we have to take it slow.

Oddly, despite our horrible infant mortality figures, our bad longevity, and our preventable death statistics, many Americans still don't get it. They have seemingly been brainwashed into distrusting any intervention to fix the current broken health care system. And I think this brainwashing has been a clever con trick perpetrated the corporations that make billions from the sick and suffering each year. They love the way things are: Lots of money and very little regulation.

Perhaps once President Obama begins to reform the health care system, to make health care a right and not a privilege of the rich, Americans will finally begin to accept that the 28 countries in the world who are kicking our ass in health care do it cheaper than we do, and save more lives.

So for all the talk about 'pro-life' issues in this election; the reality is very clear. Barack Obama is the pro-life candidate here. He is trying to reach out to ordinary Americans and protect their lives and the lives of their babies.

Let's keep that in mind on election day.