The reason we will never get single payer is pretty simple and final:

[cliffordu]

The insurance and drug companies are some of the biggest advertisers in the MSM.

The MSM will NEVER jeopardize that income stream by reporting HONESTLY on public funded health care.

They push the meme of socialism, of Big Government between you and your doctor and rationed care.


******



The first rule of addiction is to protect the supply, which describes the Republican (and DLC) campaign funding position just right.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Still 70% of Americans want a Public Option

at least to keep the insurance companies honest

[grantcart]

2. In addition there is a huge structural problem

Other democracies concentrate power into coalitons who then have the keys to both the executive and legislative branch,


Here we divide power, divide it again and then let the minority have substantial power in slowing down innovation.


It has created a more stable goverment but makes large sweeping changes very difficult to pass.


We also have legalized bribery allowing corporations to pay all of the different groups campaign contributions.

[truedelphi]

4. I think the vote is still out on how stable a form of government we have is.

When Catherine Austin Fitts is saying that the people at her seminars are so upset that she starts suggesting that the inner circle of bankers take real security mesures, it may be that our "stable" form of government is becoming a thing of the past.

We are /have lost our future - for the sake of Goldman Sachs.
And since the internets let people understand just how widespread and deep the corruption is - going from the Clinton administration's economic closet of oddball characters - Summers and Rubin - on to Paulso and Kashkari, and finally to Obama's team of Bernanke and Geithner, the ignorance that shrouded the previous generation's political notions and thus prevented them from taking to the streets is long gone.

The health insurers are the same country club set of faces that we see inside the banking industry. They might be needing safe rooms also.

[grantcart]

7. stable as in 'stuck in cement'

when you compare our form of government with governments around the world you would be hard pressed to find any government that has changed less in the less 100 years.

Small steps, like Social Security, lets admit this was a fairly modest change, required the near collapse of the system before enough power was concentrated in one party to push it through.

Of course once something is part of the establishment it also becomes very hard to eliminate.

[cliffordu]

6. Thinking of an expatriate life.....

My wife just got a small inheritance.....I hear Honduras is really nice this time of year...

:rofl:

[depakid]

8. The US Constitution is an archaic document which dooms the US to dysfunction in the 21st Century

Worse, interpretation by the Supreme Court has actually encouraged (nay- guaranteed) the corrupt state of affairs- and the document cannot feasibly be amended to allow the nation to respond adequately to feedback and changing circumstances with effective public policy.

[Auggie]

3. Health Industry Lobbying Tops $1.4 Million Daily. There's that too.

By Eliza Krigman

In a new report released today, the government watchdog group Common Cause found that major health care interests have spent upwards of $1.4 million a day to lobby Capitol Hill so far this year.

According to the report, entitled 'legislating under the influence,' political spending by the health industries has increased 73 percent since 2000. Health interests contributed $94 million to candidates in Congress during the 2008 election cycle, a $40 million jump from the 2000 election cycle figure.

The top recipients of health industry campaign contributions from 2000 to 2008 are new Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter, Pa., and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., at $7.3 million and $6.3 million respectively. All of the campaign finance data used in the report came from the Center for Responsive Politics.

With the health industry's tremendous financial clout in Washington, Common Cause is concerned that chances for meaningful reform will be stymied. The report concludes that members of Congress face a disheartening conflict of interest: side with their large campaign donors or back reform measures that have support from the public, like the public plan option which would create a publicly-funded health insurance entity to compete with private insurers.

ORIGINAL DU LINK: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5928632

[Psychic Consortium]

5. We have had corrupt leadership.

That is going to change in the next decade.

[caffefwee]

9. Health Kare Kick!

(so it's not all Michael Jackson)