It is obvious that none of the major Presidential candidates of either the Democratic or Republican Parties are supporting the right approach to providing universal healthcare.
Frankly, all the Republican candidates are going to be major obstacles to achieving this national goal. While the top Democratic candidates (Clinton, Edwards and Obama) do support the concept, they are all offering Band-Aid approaches for a life-threatening economic and health crisis in America.
A bill has already been introduced in The House by Congressman John Conyers that effectively addresses the issue. H.R. 676 expands Medicare to cover all citizens.
Features: Change is about policies-not speeches and symbolism
Change is about policies-not speeches and symbolism
Stephen S. Crockett
Fri, Jan 4th 2008 Features
Edwards has better policies for substantive change than either Clinton or Obama. Symbolism and speeches is not enough.
(1) While I find Obama inspiring especially when giving speeches, he has the worse plan of the top three contenders on healthcare and Edwards has the best. The best approach is expanding Medicare to cover all citizens which none of the top contenders currently support. Edwards comes closer than the other two top Democratic contenders. Edwards has a history of evolving his policy positions when educated by activists and experts with better ideas. Of the top three Democratic candidates, Edwards is the most likely candidate to eventually support Medicare For All. Obama's plan does not get us to universal healthcare and definitely leaves large corporations with excessive control of healthcare policies in America.
(2) While Obama always opposed starting the Iraq War, he would not get us out of Iraq as quickly or completely as Edwards. Clinton has not been a leader on this issue in the past or today.
(3) On trade issues, Obama is far friendlier to the so-called "Free Trade" approach than Edwards. For example, on the recent deal with Peru both Clinton and Obama supported the "Free Trade" deal while Edwards opposed it. These "free trade" deals all serve corporate interests and are devastating the earning power of working class Americans.
(4) Compromising with Bush Republicans on policy sounds good as a sound-bite but is not likely to work. Obama cannot unite all Americans behind a common set of policies and still be an effective agent of change. The Republican in the House and Senate oppose all the change ideas supported by the vast majority of Americans. Over 70 percent of Americans want universal healthcare but the Republicans like our current, inefficient, unfair, corporate-controlled healthcare system.
Any compromises with corporate Republicans on the healthcare issue will mean making the changes more inefficient, unfair and corporate-controlled! The same idea holds with trade policy, media consolidation, campaign financing, environmental protection, energy policy, global warming, taxation, labor laws, etc.
The only effective approach to change will come from confronting corporate Republican forces, fighting them and winning. This is the Edwards approach. It is the FDR approach to real change. It was the path to Social Security under FDR and Medicare under LBJ. It is not the Clinton Approach. It is not the path advocated by Obama.
While Obama would make a good Vice President on an Edwards ticket, he is not the best agent for change on the Democratic Presidential ticket in 2008. It was unfortunate that Senator Lieberman played a mentor role to Obama when Obama was first elected to the U.S. Senate. The independent Senator from Connecticut is out of touch with the core values of the Democratic Party when it comes to change on many issues. The Lieberman influence will need time to fade before Obama will really be ready for the top of the Democratic ticket or to act as the real leader for policy change in America.
Written by Stephen Crockett (Co-host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com )
When it's cold, build a fire in the fireplace, or the woodburning heater, or maybe just light a candle and look in the flames, look deep in the flames for the answers.
I've always believed they are there, and this time of year is a time for questions. It is a time to weigh the events of the past year and toss them around and ask why.
It has been a good year for each of us in some respects, and a bad year in others. Just like every year.
For years now, Herb Collins has been helping Santa by donning the red and the beard and the tassels and waving to passing cars on Christmas Eve out at the Old Fort Road crossing. He takes a bag of candy along, in case anyone cares to stop, and he also takes his daughter Cindy along, because she's always his head elf. Cindy's grown now and has helpers of her own, but this has been a daddy/daughter event for a long time and neither sees any reason to quit.
He had done it a few years and was wondering why he was doing it when one special Christmas Eve, as it snowed, he found his reason.
While he and Cindy stood in full-blown elf gear alongside the road, a pickup pulling a moving trailer pulled up and stopped. Cindy brought the candy over to the truck and Herb reached his hands through the window to shake hands with the young boy and girl who were in there with their dad. Both kids were crying and grinning and grabbing his hands.
Leave it to Janice. She hasn't been the valley's most innovative art teacher since the invention of dirt for nothing, you know.
It seems like every year or so, Janice Thomas comes up with some new idea to get the community involved in the art scene. She's gone to far as to invite several well-known artists from the city to come and give demonstrations here. It didn't do anything for the high school kids who were her actual students, but it did stir the artistic enthusiasm of some older folks who shouldn't be allowed near pigments.
So when Janice once again waltzed into the Mule Barn coffee shop and tacked up a poster, we almost had a foot race to check it out.
