Breaking News: YES WE DID! Healthcare Bill Passes House!

Thanks to the support of President Obama the Democrats in Congress approved legislation tonight extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses. Nancy Pelosi just announced this Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 220-211 vote. The Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 33 Democrats. President Obama watched the vote in the White House's Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. A rejoicing president exchanged high-fives with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

The bill will now go to the Senate, where Democratic leaders said they have the votes to pass it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the legislation awaiting the president's approval will extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade. The expansion of coverage will include 95 percent of all eligible individuals under age 65.


This is a historic success for the American People! Thank you Mr. President! Thank you Speaker Pelosi! Thank you Democratic Congress! You showed your Courage, your Bravery and your support for the American People!


Meanwhile, Republicans and many Teaparty members are angry, crying, swearing, blustering and upset that the bill has passed. It is time for them to get over their wish for our President and our Country to fail. It is time for them to show respect for our President and our Country and once and for all STOP the racial epithets, threatening violence (on their signs) and spitting on our Congressmen! Minority Leader John Boehner has asked all GOP members to "Behave Like Grown-Ups" now that the bill has passed. For the sake of all of America, I hope they take his advice!

Republicans LIE about Reconciliation! They've Used it 13 Times!

The Republicans are LYING again! They are calling "Reconciliation" the "Nuclear Option." Sen. Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) and other republicans refer to the use of the reconciliation process as "an unprecedented power grab," and the "politics" of Hugo Chavez. They are using these terms to scare the American Public and demonize the passing of Healthcare Reform. These Republicans are puppets for the Healthcare Industry.


Sen. Gregg has a short memory. He forgets that the Republicans have used Reconciliation 13 times. Examples include: They used it in 2001 and 2003 to pass the GIANT Bush Tax Cuts (especially to the rich/big business which has led us into our current economic tsunami!). They used it again in 2005 to permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.


In fact, Sen. Gregg spoke on the floor of the Senate in 2005 to support the use of Reconciliation by the Republicans. He said it was "in the Senate Rules" and it was fine for "Majority to Rule." He said, “The president asked for it, and we’re trying to do what the president asked for.”

If the President and the Democrats decide to use Budget Reconciliation, they need only 51 Votes. There are 58 Senators. This is good news for the American People. Healthcare Reform can pass afterall. The Republicans who are long time supporters of the Healthcare Lobby and the party of NO do not even have to participate.

Remember...You Must Die -- What will happen as all the Baby Boomers enter their Golden Years?

I haven't written a blog for a few days because I am out of town visiting my brother. He is in the last stages of ALS and is dying. We don't know if he has a few days or weeks to live, but the doctors tell us he doesn't have much time. ALS is a particularly cruel disease. You may know it as Lou Gehrig's disease. From a layman's point of view, you continue to lose muscle control over your own body until you die.

About a year and a half ago my brother was perfectly healthy. He had retired and he and his companion were living the typical retiree's American Dream of traveling around the country in a 5th wheel and travel trailer. Out of nowhere he started seeing some symptoms. He started dropping things, then tripping or falling. He is a widower with four daughters. At his daughters' insistence, he underwent a complete physical. He is a veteran and went to the VA for his physical. They diagnosed ALS. As the disease progressed, he began losing more muscle control. He stopped traveling. Soon, he couldn't lift things and stopped walking and became confined to a wheel chair. At the insistence of his daughters, he moved in with his oldest daughter so she and her son could care for him. He lost more and more control over his body. He went on a breathing ventilator. Soon he was bed ridden and relied on machines not only for breathing but for eating and for urinary and bowel movements.

He was fortunate that he had proper insurance and was well covered. Not only the VA, but Medicare and supplemental. I shudder to think what he would have done without his medical coverage. He is on home care and his bedroom/bath were updated to care for his needs. His only joy now, besides seeing his family, is watching television on a big screen TV with surround sound. He stopped using a computer months ago.

It is difficult visiting him. He can barely talk. He has tubes in his arms, across his body and in several orifices. He has to have air pumped into his lungs to help him talk. His daughter has to come in, pump him with air, and he is able to speak in short gasps. He says it hurts him to talk because he can't breathe when he talks.
Before he became so disabled, he used to say, "I'm not sick, I am disabled." You see, he has full mental capacity. It is just his body giving out.

I used to think that my father and mother had it rough at the end. My dad, at 79, had a stroke a few years prior to his death. Afterwards, he had the mind of a 3 year old. However his body was fully functional and he was able to walk and feed himself his last few years, though my mother had to change and bathe him. My mother died last year at 93. She had those tiny mini-strokes six months prior to her death and had trouble with her memory and she became bedridden then died. I also had 2 older brothers who died. One died at 66, though he had just been diagnosed with leukemia, he actually died from an aneurysm that burst. His death was sudden. I had another brother who died from years of lost hope. His death was also short in coming. We were shocked by both brothers' deaths.

Today, thinking about all of these deaths in my family over the last several years has caused me to be very contemplative. Death is inevitable. Sometimes, I think we in the U.S. don't think about it enough. We are all going to die. If death is a natural part of life, then we should stop to consider our future destiny and document our wishes. The use of the term "death panels" is absolutely ridiculous. The doctors and nurses have talked to my brother's family extensively about my brother's last days, hospice, nursing, making choices about life and death. They have spent much time talking about his options. You have to be able to discuss your options at his point in his life.

In meeting with many family members here this week, I also find that three more of my nephews are heading off to war. One is currently in Iraq - his 3rd tour, another is on on his way to Afghanistan - after 2 tours in Iraq, and one who is in training is going overseas in a few weeks. Additionally, I spoke with some of their younger brothers and sisters who are planning on enlisting or going into ROTC. Many are planning careers in the military. Service to our country and the economy are major factors in their decisions.

Watching the news, I see that so many national/global issues personally impact my family and most families across America. In thinking about this all week, it is absolutely clear to me that we should all be supportive of:
1. Universal Health care with a Public Option so that Insurance is affordable and provided to all Americans. Pre-existing conditions should NEVER be a factor.
2. The Wars in the Middle East and the Economy: the state of the economy is causing more and more young people to go into the military, not only for their service to our country, but for economic reasons.

Readers: We need to talk about life and death. Death is part of the natural order of things. Tell me your thoughts of death. I grieve for my brother's illness and pain, not for the natural order of life and death. I grieve for those who do not have enough health care coverage. I grieve for those who do not have enough care in their hearts to want others to receive proper health care. I grieve for our young people going off to war whose lives are being cut short. While I support our President in sending more troops to Afghanistan, I continue to believe our involvement in Iraq was wrong. However, I still grieve for the soldiers who are dying every, every day and pray for the safety of my nephews.

And readers, please do not send condolences or say you are sorry to hear about the illnesses and deaths in my family. I received several nice messages from you when my mother and brother passed away. I ask instead for your ideas on how we can talk about the inevitability of death and how on earth are we going to be able to cope with the needs of all of the Baby Boomers as they (including me and mine) approach our Golden Years. Yes. We are all going to die. Yes, many of us will need extensive health care in our Golden Years. This care will range from days to months to years; from occasional to daily on-hands care by medical professionals. This is the reality. We all need to be thinking and planning for our own futures and do each of us want our children to go through what my brother's daughters are going through right now? Or do you want to go to a nursing home? Are you prepared to give up all of your worldly goods for hospice care? Or, instead will you live in denial and say "No! That will not happen to me."

When I was a child I thought as a child: "Only old people die. They close their eyes and go to sleep."

Today: "The Boomers will all die. Some will require years of hands-on medical treatment by family and medical care providers."

Last Night, the House Passed the Health Care Reform Bill. Here is the Summary.

The House passed H.R. 3962, called the "Affordable Health Care for America Act," in a 220 to 215 vote on Saturday night.
CBSNews.com has provided these Key Provisions of the Healthcare Bill. They are an unbiased, neutral source - moreso than any other we've seen so far:

• Creates a public health insurance option and a national exchange for the uninsured and small businesses to purchase health insurance. The Secretary of Health and Human Services would negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals on reimbursement rates.
• The bill includes mandates for individuals to purchase and businesses to provide health insurance or pay a fine. Individual penalty is 2.5 percent of gross income unless they get a waiver. Businesses that don't offer insurance pay a fine equal to 8 percent of their payroll. Businesses with a payroll of less than $500,000 are exempt from the mandate.
• Insurance companies are prohibited from denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition. There are caps on deductibles and annual out of pocket spending is capped at $5000.
• Eliminates the Medicare doughnut hole over ten years. (Note: The Medicare Part D coverage gap (also known as the Medicare doughnut hole) is the difference of the initial coverage limit and the catastrophic coverage threshold, as described in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program of the United States.)
• Allows individuals up to 27-years-old to stay on their parent’s health insurance
• Expands Medicaid from 100 percent to 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
• Provides tax subsidies for individuals between 150 and 400 percent (sliding scale) of the Federal Poverty Level. There are also tax subsidies for small businesses.
• As amended, it prohibits federal funds from covering abortions. Women would need to purchase riders to insurance purchased on the exchange if they wanted that coverage.
• The bill taxes individuals making more than $500,000 and $1 million for couples. It is a 5.4 percent tax.
• Reduces overpayments to doctors who treat Medicare Advantage patients. It is estimated they are paid 14 percent more than doctors who treat Medicare patients.

Who is REALLY PAYING to Kill Health Reform?

From OurFuture.org: (click to enlarge)

From AHIP (Americas Health Insurance Providers), to Big Pharmaceuticals, to Conservative Groups like Freedom Works, Americans for Prosperity, to Hospital Systems -- ALL GROUPS that are profiting from the current Broken Healthcare System, are REALLY PAYING the right wing pundits (e.g. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck) and supporting the so called teabaggers and 912s who are disrupting the Town Hall Meetings and stopping constructive dialogue.

Sleeping Giant Awakens: PRO Healthcare Reformers Outnumber the Beck-Deathers at Rallies

The Democratic Majority has AWAKENED!! PRO Healthcare Reform supporters are outnumbering the opposition: the birthers, deathers and teabaggers. This is occurring in Town Hall meeting after Town Hall meeting, in Phoenix, to Boulder, to the East Coast.

Sure the Beck instigated 912 nutcase Deathers, Birthers and Teabaggers had their moment of glory in the TV and YouTube spotlights. However, I say to all of you nutcases: go back to your closets. WE THE PEOPLE have Spoken! WE THE PEOPLE support Universal Healthcare Reform with the Public Option.

Take Heart Mr. President! We support YOU and the Public Option!!

God Bless America!
God Bless President Obama!
Reference:
Reform Supporters Outnumber Critics At Town Halls

Open Letter to President Obama: Patriotic Americans Want the Public Option!

Dear President Obama!

We Liberals and Progressives support you! We voted for you! However, we want the Public Option. DO NOT CAVE IN TO THE Republicans and Right Wing Extremists! They will NEVER, EVER Support you! Do not listen to the Co-Op rhetoric. That is not a viable option for either side!! The Republicans will NEVER accept the Co-Op option. Why even consider it!

WE TRUE AMERICANS, WE TRUE AMERICANS THAT SUPPORT YOU... WE WANT... WE WANT: the PUBLIC OPTION!!!

YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! YOU HAVE THE VOTES IN SEPTEMBER. Stop listening to Republicans LIES and RHETORIC!!! YOU HAVE THE VOTES!!! Vote Healthcare Reform! Include a Public Option!

God Bless America!

God Bless our President Obama!

(Mr. President: Remember, we Latinos are on your side)

American Patriots: It is Time to Stand Up for Healthcare, America and President Obama! Don't Allow Republican Naysayers to Stop Healthcare Reform!

It is time for the American Public to stand up and support Healthcare Reform. Health Care problems will not go away if the current policies remain status quo. The 46M uninsured and countless under-insured Americans will not magically disappear. How many of you know if you will be covered if a disastrous costly emergency occurs tomorrow? How many of you know whether your employer will discontinue your coverage or increase your costs or whether you will be covered at all if you become unemployed?

The healthcare bill the President is recommending will cover the majority of all Americans. It will also reduce two thirds of many of the current costs by improving/automating many of the current broken processes. The other third will be covered by taxing only those with annual incomes of +$250,000.00.

The Republican Party, the Party of NO, had 8 years to create a viable plan and instead they did nothing...nothing but let the Pharmaceuticals and Insurance Companies receive outrageous profits. It has become abundantly clear that for the Republicans, the Healthcare Debate is Not About Healthcare at all. In reality, it is the Republican/Conservative Base Taking a Stand Against Obama and Minorities!

Republican Dick Armey was on Meet the Press this morning. He is the head of "Freedom Works", one of the groups providing the Healthcare Deathers, Birthers and the Teabaggers their talking points. Armey was a Congressman from Texas until 2003 and the Republican House Minority Leader. He is a master of dirty tricks and was the architect of the "Republican Revolution" of the 1990s.

Now, Armey and many Republicans have developed a new strategy, a new "Dirty Trick." Their strategy is to LIE to the American Public and SCARE them to death. They are instilling Fear and Anger, NOT ABOUT THE ISSUES, BUT ON PURE LIES. THESE LIES ABOUT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION include:
1. Planning Death Panels for the elderly in the Healthcare bill and is socializing medicine.
2. Obama is the Evil Black Muslim Messiah, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, non-citizen or the Joker from Batman attempting to "steal their country" and turning it into some Socialist Compound.
3. Detention Camps are being built to imprison "Real Americans"

The SAD thing is, some gullible and naive Americans are believing their LIES. They are believing their LIES and showing up at the Town Meetings.

Armey is partners with Beck, Limbaugh, Malkin in delivering these LIES to the Deathers, Teabaggers and Birthers. They are deliberately instigating this madness to energize their base to:
1. Disrupt and shut down the August 2009 Town Hall congressional meetings on health care reform, threatening Congressmen with violence. Goal: No Reform At All!
2. Win back as many Republican seats as possible in the 2010 elections.
3. Win back the Whitehouse in 2012.

It doesn't matter to Armey or the Right Wing pundits that their agenda is based on LIES.


It is time for ALL Patriotic Americans to stand up against right wing zealots like Armey, Limbaugh, Beck, Malkin and Hannity. Stand up for America! Stand up for our President! Stand up for Universal Healthcare Reform!

Background on Dick Armey: a policy advisor at DLA Piper Law Firm in DC that received $1.2million from the Pharmaceutical industry; counsel to Bristol-Myers, Squibb, and private healthcare providers Metropolitan Health Networks and the American Council of Healthcare Providers.
Several former female economics students said he sexually harrassed them — harassment allegedly so severe that at least one student transferred to another school. He would later divorce his wife and marry one of his students.
Partnered with Cheney in saying about Iraq: "They're going to welcome us. It'll be like the American army going through the streets of Paris. They're sitting there ready to form a new government. The people will be so happy with their freedoms that we'll probably back ourselves out of there within a month or two."

For True Insights on Healthcare Reform, Watch Meet the Press Sunday Morning: 10 am ET, 9am CT

I am asking all of my readers to watch Meet the Press on Sunday morning (9/16/09). They are having a healthy debate about Healthcare Reform. Guests this Sunday will be: Dick Armey, Tom Coburn, Tom Daschle and Rachel Maddow.
Please watch the show and decide for yourselves: Who is telling the truth! Who is trying to scare the American Public with Lies!
Watch the show and decide for yourselves!
Meet the Press.com Reports:
A Special Edition of Meet the Press: As anger reaches a boiling point at town halls across the country, health care reform takes center stage. We'll take an in-depth look at the debate with some leading voices: Fmr. House Majority Leader Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX), now the head of FreedomWorks, an organizer of protesters at town hall meetings; Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Fmr. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), an informal adviser to the White House and author of "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis"; & Rachel Maddow, Host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show. Plus we'll get perspectives from around the country with Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY); Bruce Josten, Executive Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce; and Gov. Bill Ritter (D-CO).

America Psycho Glenn Beck LIES - says Nazi and Eugenics References are in Healthcare Bill!

American Psycho and extreme right wingnut Glenn Beck has gone beyond the pale, even for him. He is now comparing the current Healthcare bill with Nazi eugenics which ultimately culminated in the holocaust. Beck is a LIAR when he claims the bill contains verbiage which says the government will decide who will live or who will die. He is attempting to scare only the most gullible when he spews his insanity saying the bill will kill old people, the insane and those deemed "not worthy of living." There is NO LANGUAGE like that in the bill. Beck is just making it up in his sick, demented, racist mind.

Beck also doesn't tell you anything about how broken the current healthcare system is. He doesn't say it is going bankrupt. He doesn't say for those who are currently insured today, the cost of co-pay is rising by leaps and bounds while the coverages are diminishing to nearly nothing. If he truly cared about people, why doesn't he talk about this? Why doesn't he talk about how many people are NOT covered by any type of health insurance coverage? Why doesn't he talk about how many people are dying due to limited or no healthcare coverage? The truth is, he DOES NOT CARE about people. He only cares about his RATINGS. I wonder how much the Pharmaceutical and Insurance lobbies are paying him to spit out this JUNK!

Beck is the demented woosy of a perverted goon. He is scaring the weak minded with his junk. He is motivating them to anger and violence. The worst part - that the weak minded actually believe this goon! It is all very sad!

I ask all readers to support our President, the Admininstration and Congress in passing the Universal Healthcare bill. Our current Healthcare system is in crisis. Today we have a monopoly by Private Insurance. We have the costliest healthcare in the World, yet the World Healthcare Organization rates the USA number 37 on the list. I ask all readers to check into their own healthcare, look at your own co-pays, look at your own coverages. Do you pray for no serious illness because you don't know what your insurance will cover in case of a major illness? It should not be this way! We need Universal Healthcare Reform this year!!!!

UPDATE:

In this video, Beck jokes about poisoning Nancy Pelosi.

Richard Poplawski, the policemen murderer in PA, was a big fan of Beck.

Doesn't Beck understand that his audience is loaded with the weak minded and they are receptive to his calls for violence and murders?? Shameful!!