Rest in peace Senator Ted Kennedy

Just wanted to send my condolences out to the family, and express the great admiration I have for him. The country will be worse off not having him in the Senate fighting for us all. I hope that our Congress members work towards a health care reform in Teddy's memory, for it was his life's work that he never was able to see to fruition. Sphere: Related Content

State of Politics

I have found myself as of late being fairly distraught with the entire debate encircling health care reform. While being intimately involved in politics for the past 12 years (I'm only 28), this is the first time I feel like I am truly loosing faith in the system. While there have been instances in the past where certain members of congress or even the President (i.e. Bush) have given the impression that they are operating for corporate interests over the interests of the people, I have never felt that the majority of the government cared more for corporate interests and/or profit over the well being of the people. Call me naive, maybe I saw the world through rose-colored glasses, but these glasses have been beginning to cloud over as of late.

I (for reasons previously mentioned in this blog) have a personal stake in this debate and I would have greatly preferred a single payer system to be proposed by congress. I accepted the compromise, the went along with the so called "public option", believing the President when he said it would increase competition and keep the insurance companies honest. But now, the public option seems to be in the very least in deep trouble and there is now talk of co-ops - which are widely considered to not be an effective solution.

I recommend reading the "So What’s a Health Insurance Co-op, Anyway?" article by Anne Underwood of the New York Times @ http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/so-whats-a-health-insurance-coop-anyway/?hpw
She gives a great overview of what exactly a co-op is, an why in her opinion they won't be effective in lowering costs.

In the end, I am really upset with the special interests and how they are spinning the debate and putting out utter false statements. I am also disappointed in the American people that blindly take these falsehoods and accept them as fact. The protesters in the town halls across the country over the last couple weeks are a prime example of this. I applaud Barney Frank for his handling of the protester who compared the "Obama's Health care plan" to a Nazi policy. I don't even know where to begin with this, and I think Rep. Frank had it right when he asked her, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Sphere: Related Content