Tag: U.S. Senate

If I lived in Massachusetts, I wouldn’t vote for Martha Coakley either

Today voters in Massachusetts go to the polls in a special election to decide who fills Senator Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat.  Voters must decide between Democrat Martha Coakley or Republican Scott Brown.  The election is important because even though the Republicans seemed to have no problem getting things done in the U.S. Senate when they held only a 50 seat majority (with Dick Cheney breaking all ties), the Democrats claim they need 60 votes to get anything done.

Not that they’ve been able to get anything done even with 60 votes.

If Coakley wins tomorrow, she will represent a continued 60 votes for the Democrats.  If Brown wins, he will represent 41 votes for the Republicans.  With 41 votes in the Senate, the Republicans will be able to stop the Democrats from doing anything.

This begs to question why the Democrats were not able to stop the Republicans when they represented the minority party in the Senate.

I’m at the point now where I just don’t care about the Democrats having 60 votes in the Senate.  They’ve enjoyed a 60 vote, filibuster proof majority for nearly a year now, yet they haven’t been able to get much done, unless you count a military escalation in Afghanistan.

I sure don’t.

The health care reform bill coming out of the Senate looks like it’s something the Republicans would have crafted if they were in control.  President Obama promised that any health care bill he signed must contain a public option.  He has since backtracked on that promise.  In fact, he even claims now that he never said that.

If I lived in Massachusetts, I’d stay home today.

by Rick  /  January 19, 2010  /  Posted in: Politics
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Is this as good as it gets?

The fight for health care reform has really made me think about things.  When I look at this joke of a bill coming out of the Senate, I have to wonder what being a Democrat really means.

Democrats control the White House, the Senate, and the House.  If there was ever a time that we could get substantial health care reform in this country, it’s now.  If there was ever a time we could make sure that every American has access to quality, affordable health care, it’s now.

Instead, we get a health care reform bill that the Republicans could have written.  It does not have a public option.  It does not expand Medicare.  It requires all Americans to purchase health insurance from the for-profit health insurance cartel.

That last part is the real kicker for me.  I can see requiring Americans to purchase health insurance if there was a not-for-profit alternative.  Because this bill lacks a public option, this is not the case.  This is requiring Americans to purchase a product that’s purpose is not to improve health, but to make a profit for the health insurance company.

I cannot help but thing the Democratic party is a lot like a dog chasing a car that doesn’t quite know what to do when it catches the car.  The Democrats are in position to enact a good health care reform bill.  They are choosing not to do that.

I have a real problem with that.

10 Comments by Rick  /  December 22, 2009  /  Posted in: Health Care Reform
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This is the best they can do?

It looks as though health care reform will pass, but that’s only if you choose to label the bill coming out of the Senate as health care reform.  The key points:

  • No public option.
  • No Medicare buy in.
  • Penalize those that do not have health insurance.
  • No tax on cosmetic procedures.
  • A 10% tax on tanning.

What a joke.  This makes me feel embarrassment to be a Democrat.  Seriously, this is what you get when the House, the Senate, and the White House are all under Democratic control?  We get 30,000 more combat troops in Afghanistan and a piece of crap bill pretending to be health care reform.

Is this what Change looks like?

The fact that people will be penalized if they don’t buy health insurance, coupled with the fact that there is no public option, means that the health insurance cartel is getting a heck of a Christmas present this year.  I wish I sold a product that the government forced people to buy.

by Rick  /  December 19, 2009  /  Posted in: Health Care Reform
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Al Franken points out we are entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts

Senator John Thune, Republican from South Dakota, spoke on the Senate floor Monday and said that the benefits of the proposed health care bill don’t kick in till 2014. I’m told he even had a chart. Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota, openly challenged that assertion saying that it was not true.

Franken went on to say that though we are entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts.

If you were a listener on Franken’s former radio show on Air America, you probably remember the phrase. Franken also pointed out that many of his Republican colleagues have not read the bill and that if they want to debate the bill, they really need to read the bill.

by Rick  /  December 16, 2009  /  Posted in: Health Care Reform
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Ted Kennedy 1932 – 2009

ted-kennedy
Senator Ted Kennedy has died from brain cancer. He was 77 years old.

He served an astounding 46 years in the U.S. Senate. What I found to be the most impressive thing about Senator Ted Kennedy was that though he was born into one of the most richest and powerful families in America, he worked tirelessly in the U.S. Senate on the behalf of the less fortunate. He was an unashamed liberal to his very core.

He will be greatly missed.

1 Comment by Rick  /  August 26, 2009  /  Posted in: Circle of Life
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Jesse Helms is finally dead

Finally there is justice in the world. Jesse Helms, that racist old coot from North Carolina is finally not breathing the same air as the rest of us.

His hometown newspaper, The News & Observer, published a joke of an obituary that failed to truly capture the level of absolute racism this man practiced. They described him as “cantankerous” and wrote that “Helms could be the picture of the courtly Southern gentleman“. As if there is anything cantankerous or gentlemanly about hating folks because of the color of their skin.

Not that they failed to mention the Helms’ racism. They wrote:

Although Helms denied he was a racist, his work in the Senate often seemed at odds with the interests of blacks.

Well now, isn’t that putting it rather nicely. Helms was one of two senators for the state of North Carolina, Helms represented many black people. So when his work in the Senate was “at odds with the interests of blacks”, it was at odds with a good many of his own electorate. The very people he should have been representing.

That’s not democracy.

22 Comments by Rick  /  July 5, 2008  /  Posted in: Politics
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