RE: "Apparently, Baucus is “frustrating” Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania AV because he hasn’t reached an agreement with Grassley yet (even tho Harry Reid told him he didn’t need to do that.)"

Please excuse me. I didn't word this correctly. Dems. are upset because Baucus holding up healthcare legislation because he has not issued any report on it from his committee. (Grassley is the reason why.)

Senator Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley (R-ND) has never shown the ability to make sense on healthcare . . . High fructose corn syrup has a good friend in Senator Grassley.

Senator Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) has never shown the ability to make sense on healthcare . . . BUT happily provides tubal ligations to patients without consent and demands payment for services rendered.

Every Single Republican Congress Member Has Now Co-Sponsored Bill to Audit the Fed... Democrats, Its Up To You

Ron Paul announced today:

All 178 Republican members of the House have now signed on as cosponsors of [the] Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207.
With a total of 271 cosponsors, Democrats must put pressure on another 19 Democratic co-sponsors in order to bring it to the magic number of 290 ... so that it will be veto-proof by Obama.

Please call your Democratic and Independent representatives and urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 1207!

And everyone, please call your senator and ask them to support S. 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009.

There is a huge campaign to keep the Fed's shenanigans hidden (and see this). It will take every single one of us calling congress to make it happen.

This is not a partisan issue - every single Democrat and Independent should support Fed transparency.

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/

Im' trying to sort out the excuses against single payer health insurance:

People like to pay four to six times more per capita for ever diminishing longevity while single-payer and socialized enjoy increasing longevity (USAians down from number two or three to #35 since Harold and Louise).

People like paying four to six times more per capita for ever increasing infant mortality rates (in 2007, USAian actually born babies died more often than at least one African nation . . . ).

Having a for profit corporation denying my medically necessary procedures so the company can annually pay their corporate officers more than the GNP of 30% of the nations on the face of the planet, rather than just having the government pay for the procedure, is good for me and our nation.

Forcing people choosing to buy bread to attempt to culture penicillin to treat infections is an adequate healthcare plan.

The health insurance providers that suck off 10 to 18% of every healthcare dollar just to maintain administrations to deny providing said health care (BEFORE their profit margin and executive pay packages are slathered on top of even that) can't compete with an ineffectual government program so we need to avoid implementing the government program to keep healthcare costs at their utter maximum.

Popping the FICA cap would pay for single payer AND make Social Security solvent forever but we can't ask filthy rich folk to pay their fair share because it would make sense.

People who have been successfully kept ignorant for three decades about economics through defunding education and bloviating corporate media spiel might come to know that there are more effective and efficient methodologies to deliver goods and services than privatizing our nation's entire commons to corporate entities who economically rape and mercilessly pillage them . . . And this would be bad.

People might come to understand that communal action supports societies and that individualism is antithetical to societies AND that humans are social animals . . . and that would be bad.

By caring for people, people might recognize that caring for others might be in their best interests . . . and that would be bad.

Jesus healed the sick so we don't have to . . . (Frankly, I laugh so hard at the guy who said this that he left the room. Apparently, he was serious and still won't talk to me).

It is a good thing that 62% of all bankruptcies are caused by medical costs.

Blaming folk from other places is more important than acknowledging that the sum total of the effects of illegal and undocumented folk on healthcare is relatively small overall impact on the healthcare system and rather than excluding the illegal and undocumented from healthcare which decreases our national security by increasing the chance that all citizens and residents in our country of becoming victims to untreated disease vectors (I believe that a better choice is to apply maximum enforcement towards the employers of said illegal and undocumented workers . . . Zero supply of jobs = Zero reason for illegal entry).

What have I missed?

Prior to reading this, I was fully opposed to protectionism. I believed that the division of labor is an engine of prosperity. I believed that consumers benefit when they can purchase their goods from the most efficient producers, and that government force to prevent this voluntary, mutually beneficial exchange was morally wrong, effectively penalizing the consumer to benefit less efficient producers.

But now I see that the only way to become an economic powerhouse is to nurture local industries. It makes sense, actually. Why should we send jobs thousands, hundreds, or even dozens of miles away when workers right here needs jobs. I'm so convinced of the need to foster local industry that I'm actually thinking even more progressively than Thom on this. I think that three should be some sort of local tariff, perhaps at the state or county level. If only we were able to erect tariff barriers between every single county in the U.S., it would be a HUGE shot in the arm to local business.

For instance, I live in Chester County,PA, and we have no orange juice industry to speak of. Think of what a Chester county tariff would be able to do for our fledgling orange juice industry. Of course, it would be more effective with a program to report consumption of imported orange juice, so I'd be all for that too.

Sure, orange juice would cost fifty dollars a gallon, what with the greenhouses, electric heaters, and all, but we can probably get the county to subsidize it to keep the price down. Heck if we subsidize it enough, we could actually export it to other counties, maybe even out of state, like to Florida or something.

I can hardly imagine the ensuing prosperity.

Regarding the segment on socialism and that people are not actually BEST motivated by "rewards" as the Pubs like to claim (e.g. "if we don't pay CEO Mr. GREED 10 bizillion $$ he won't perform") , but instead actually perform best when they are intrinsically motivated to learn and to do well. There is a great body of work out there that supports this done by Alfie Kohn. His work really focuses on children/ schools but also applies to the workplace, parenting, etc. One of my favorite books of his that explains this well is "Punished by Rewards" - http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.html.

Thom,
Terrific article. I agree with your viewpoint.
I'm posting it in my blog The Communitarians.
Thank you.
Jim G.

In an universe, split between communal/social and individualistic . . . Evil is the other side.

fu reagan

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was EVIL

Buddhism talks about the interconnection of all life

George w bush was a inerrant small person. way over his head, Carl rove and Cheney i will say where evil he would do anything to reach their goals