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From this article: http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/05/02/berkeley-author-george-lakoff-says-dont-underestimate-trump/
While Lakoff is an unabashed Berkeley progressive, he said Democrats are decades behind in understanding how to frame issues in a way that can reach swing voters.
“Protection is part of the progressive moral system, but it has not been celebrated enough,” Lakoff writes in Don’t Think of an Elephant. For example, progressives should start calling federal regulations “protections.” If they start re-framing Trump’s promise as “getting rid of two-thirds of federal protections” — and spell out what some of those environmental and health and water quality “protections” are — there might be less support for repealing federal regulations, Lakoff said.
“Every progressive knows that regulations are protections, but they don’t say it,” he added. Similarly, “taxes” are actually “investments in public resources.” Government investment pays for the infrastructure on which private industry and everything else is built, Lakoff said. “Roads, bridges, public education, national banks, the patent office, the judicial system, interstate commerce, basic science for drug development — all of that is financed by government investments.” Yet Democrats allow Republicans to frame the debate in terms of tax “relief,” he said.
A pessimist is an optomist, with experience.
All is read from most posters here is bitching, not a list of how to go about solving the problem that will address the issue and satisfy most of the individuals involved, which just reinforces the point that not all leftie/socialists are ignorant, it's the ignorant ones are so very, very loud.
Murderer and liar, Idaho Teapublican Rep. Raul Labrador, at a town hall may 5th, the very next day after voting for tax cuts for the rich thinly disguised as a healthcare bill for the suckers, er, people: "Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care."
This is your brain on Republicanism. Too bad it's also your healthcare on Republicanism.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/watch-idaho-town-hall-erupts-after-gop-lawmaker-says-no-one-dies-from-lack-of-heath-care/
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/
Romneycare is on its death bed because it's a right-wing for profit insurance scheme. Marco boy helped the death along too.
Trumpcare just takes us back to extreme right-wing/conservative pre-Romneycare. We've already suffered with that crap.....when will the greed end?
If anyone is still willing to vote Teapublican after the House Trumpcare vote, they're a god damn idiot.
Stecoop01, You and I probably agree on nothing EXCEPT your well written, accurate assessment of the US healthcare situation. An excellent post.
Obamacare is on its' death bed, and Trumpcare is in the wings. And neither plan addresses the real problems with American healthcare:
1. The high fees charged by doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, nursing homes, and ambulance services.
2. The high costs of medical and nursing schools.
3. The high cost of malpractice insurance.
4. The outrageous awards in medical malpractice cases.
5. The shortage of doctors and nurses in this country.
American healthcare is headed down the toilet.
The biggest lie ever told and repeated over and over is the Reagan trickle down economic lie. If we give a greedy tiny minority virtually all the money and power it will create a fair and balanced free market economy, one in which we will all thrive.....LMAO. Paul Ryan and his Teapublic Party owe their jobs to maintaining this lie for the Fascists.
I'm shocked that Democratic public servants are not screaming single-payer at the top of their lungs right now....never will be a better time to get voters attention and informed about the economic truth regarding health insurance.
With single-payer eliminating the middleman like the rest of the world has already done in one form or another, we would save 600 billion on current care. This is a 2015 stat. Refer to ...."Go to Decision Data.org" "How much universal healthcare would cost in the US" .......detailed data at this site.
@11
No problem, just tell me how you are going to finance the program. I am on board if you can convince me the existing jobs in the insurance world, the hospitals, doctors, those idiots in congress, and the American public will all be content with your suggestion.
Real numbers not wild guesses based on the babbling of leftie/socialist radio bobbleheads qho make their living keeping you ginned up.
Tom Thank You for your Blog it was absolutely true. One fact that you should have maentioned that very early in his career Joseph Goebbels very honestly admitted that he got his propoganda ideas from Edward Bernays Frueds nephew and from the United States Propoganda campaign around world war one to try and destroy all opponents of World War one. Which immediatly after the war turned into a anti-red campaidn which lasted well into the 90s with the exception of World War 2.
Dianereynolds: deepspace is exactly on target, especially with his comment regarding Medicare for all. The fundamental question is whether healthcare should be provided all citizens, or only those fortunate enough to be able to afford the cost of the huge "for profit" superstructure that currently exisits. Medicare runs 5% or less overhead (as opposed to 20% and more when insurance companies get involved) and would avoid the large hit to our GDP caused when the uninsured are forced to rely on emergency room service, often too late. Your point that your claims are supported by "hundred of links" rings hollow. From the tone of your last post my guess is that you get your information from Fox News and its ilk. I also suspect that you are relatively affluent, have no particular concerns about meeting your personal healthcare premiums and have zero empathy for those less fortunate. If I'm wrong on this last point, I'm forced to question your intelligence.
Just left comment on Trump's tweet that job report reflected Obama admin doings and that he Trump is a vindicfive sadist.
Eric Stone
Well I was shocked that trump won, I would be totally shocked if Democrats we're enthused enough to keep it from happening again!
1. It is a ten year projection with hundreds of links available to verify these projections. Stop complaining and DuckDuckGo.
2. The bill as it stands is meaningless until it gets through the Senate so calm down and douse the flames in your mane.
3. Don't believe all the bobbleheads. They have to keep the panic going. Their jobs depend in it.
4. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2017/05/05/trumpcare-keeps-ob...
First of all, Diane, what is your source material? Some of those numbers seem rather high, unless that's because they are stretched out over several years, maybe even up to a decade, which is a fairly common way to score the overall impact of a bill. Secondly, what is the actual ratio of the tax breaks for the top percentiles compared to middle income brackets? Furthermore, pray tell, how would the AHCA be funded (with other types of taxes on the middle class and with much higher private premiums for individuals and employers???), and how might those numbers offset the repealed ACA taxes on your list? Another huge consequence you failed to mention: How will this bill affect the deficit?
It gets even more complicated: What will be the reaction to this Republican abortion (rammed through right before the recess without being scored and without most of the "yeas" even reading it) by big corporate employers, small-business employers, independent contractors, low-income advocacy groups, union and non-union work forces, daily part-time workers, seasonal part-time workers, the disabled with ongoing medical conditions who can only work part-time, single-parents who must only work part-time to be home for the kids, the temporarily unemployed, medical professionals, hospitals, insurance companies, big pharma, medical equipment suppliers, etc., etc.? Last but not least: How many thousands, if not millions, of children will be adversely affected?
("Who knew healthcare could be so complicated?" --DJT)
* Revealingly, why did the hypocritical Republican Representatives who hurriedly slapped this mess together exempt fellow congressional members and their families from the negative impacts of their own AHCA and retain the goodies from the Democrat's ACA? (Yes, that's been widely reported.)
* Most importantly, how many people will be priced out of insurance coverage, and what percent of those will die each year as a result? You did not even allude to that at all. I wonder why not.
Perhaps, before either freaking out or lavishing praise on Republican efforts to repeal and replace people's healthcare coverage -- potentially, condemning to death millions of defenseless sick people in the upcoming decades -- everyone should probably wait for the CBO to score this latest House version of the AHCA and see what the Senate comes up with, which will also be scored. If the Senate bill passes, then a compromise bill would need to be worked out in a congressional joint committee, scored again, and voted on again by both the House and the Senate.
Plus, expect Democratic Senators to filibuster, if the Republicans' final product ends up being, in effect, just another big fat tax break for the ulta-rich that they don't need, while tens of thousands of less-fortunate fellow citizens die each year as a result, as they did before the ACA. (Just think how Generalissimo Trumpnino and his Republican, war-mongering enablers would react if Muslim terrorists murdered that many of us on our own soil every year!)
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/
https://thinkprogress.org/heres-how-many-people-could-die-every-year-if-obamacare-is-repealed-ae4bf3e100a2
Needless to say, also expect massive protests across the country and raucous crowds at town halls, which will undoubtedly temper politicians going forward. (After all, we are still supposed to be a representative democracy, even if in name only.)
Finally, does not all this unnecessary complication, stress, and heartache for all concerned really speak to adopting a much simpler, much fairer, and very much less expensive Medicare-for-all system, with workable price controls and negotiated unit drug discounts thrown in to reduce sky-rocketing medical costs, which are far outpacing average inflation and which are, in fact, responsible for pushing inflation by leaps and bounds? The low-overhead, streamlined mechanics of one of the best, most-loved healthcare systems in the world -- Medicare -- are already up and running and doing a phenomenal job.
Screw the greedy billionaires who profit on sickness and death, and screw their bloated, top-heavy, overly-bureaucratic, insurance company cash cows with their blizzards of mindless, endless paperwork, designed to confuse and to discourage any contestation or appeal! Medicare-for-all is a no-brainer; but then again, we are dealing with Republicans, who now own the healthcare issue lock, stock, and barrel. Why does that not inspire confidence?
List of Obamacare Taxes Repealed
"The American Health Care Act (HR 1628) passed by the House today reduces taxes on the American people by over $1 trillion. The bill abolishes the following taxes imposed by Obama and the Democrat party in 2010 as part of Obamacare:
-Abolishes the Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax which hits 8 million Americans each year.
-Abolishes the Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax. Together with repeal of the Individual Mandate Tax repeal this is a $270 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s Medicine Cabinet Tax which hits 20 million Americans with Health Savings Accounts and 30 million Americans with Flexible Spending Accounts. This is a $6 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s Flexible Spending Account tax on 30 million Americans. This is a $20 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s Chronic Care Tax on 10 million Americans with high out of pocket medical expenses. This is a $126 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s HSA withdrawal tax. This is a $100 million tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s 10% excise tax on small businesses with indoor tanning services. This is a $600 million tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare health insurance tax. This is a $145 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare 3.8% surtax on investment income. This is a $172 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare medical device tax. This is a $20 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare tax on prescription medicine. This is a $28 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare tax on retiree prescription drug coverage. This is a $2 billion tax cut.
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama had promised repeatedly that he would not raise any tax on any American earning less than $250,000 per year. He broke the promise when he signed Obamacare. With the passage of the House GOP bill, tens of millions of middle income Americans will get tax relief from Obamacare's long list of tax hikes."
REPEAL AND REPLACE EVERY SINGLE ONE of the 217 Benedict Arnolds -- & put them out to sea, never to touch this Land as long as they live! Betrayers of the Lives & Limbs of their FELLOW AMERICAN HUMANS is Evidence that they are UNWORTHY of the Honorable PUBLIC SERVICE position they were entrusted with. REPEAL THEM. REPLACE THEM. DISAVOW THEM. FAILURES, FAILURES, FAILURES, as Humans and as Americans, EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Rich, here's a little math for you: Republicans are to Democrats as Red is to Pink. You're still about two sigma to the right of center, buddy. Capish?
Hi Thom,
4 years ago I first heard your challenge to get off my butt and get involved.
2 years ago I joined the local Democratic Party group. $15
I started attending the monthly meeting and met a lot of fellow travelers. Your show is known to several of the members. I met people who have been progressives for as long as I've been alive so it's hard to see where to make progress except for continued financial and time support.
So a year ago I became a "Precinct Leader" in the local D group.
MATH WARNING!
I put door hangers on ~330 houses. Those houses have ~1100 registered voters and ~760 voted on 11/8. (or by mail earlier)
Those door hanger featured the name of the Dem politician challenging the incumbent GOP State Assembly Person Marie Waldron. Tragically Ms. Waldron won the election, but San Diego County website data shows I flipped a deep red Precinct deep blue.
Here's the Math:
The county website has granular precinct level data for only State Assembly candidates. The GOP candidate consistently wins this precinct with large margins. For the last ten years the worst performance for the GOP candidate was 52%.
Then I hung those door hangers. That guy got 63% of the precinct on 11/8.
I flipped a precinct.
Now this story gets serious. I'm going to the State Democratic Committee Convention in a couple of weeks as a voting member. The elected person (from those local group meetings I started going to) has to miss it because of personal reasons and I now have his proxy.
I'll be one a couple hundred people working out what the power center of Democratic Party power in this country is deciding.
Thanks for the challenge Thom!
Rich
@Ou812 (#46)
Now... you are an employee of "one of the top ten school systems in the USA". Is that supposed to be an indicator of your credibility and knowledge? Is that supposed to somehow make you "special"?
Really! Are you so arrogant to think that people will trust any fact you put forth? I mean it's not like I have to get dressed and go to the library to factcheck what you claim. As it turns out... your claim does reflect on your credibility: Your school district is ranked at #725 nationally. SAD!
You said to Legend, "I could care less what you believe" (#44). Apparently... you somewhat care what Legend believes. I say to you "I couldn't care less what you think".
Seems ultimately to be a Voter Purge bill, and will succeed in eliminating part of the 47% who are regarded by the GOP as nothing but Takers, a drain on the 1%'s profit making systems.
Either get used to this, get your affairs in order, or wise up and vote out the members of the Congressional Death Panel.
The clear choice will be yours in 2018: Death for many "Takers", or 3% more taxes on the 1%.
Holy fracking shit! I had no idea Goebbels was still alive! So let me get this straight: We (The Great Unwashed) are about to roll over for the argument that the retention of any of the GOOD aspects of the ACA are a Republican idea? Sorry. No sale. Not even for this imbicile. (And hey, look, at one point I was a reasonably intelligent guy until, having inadvertently tuned across a Fox news channel when setting up a new TV, was partially lobotomized before I could finger the channel changer button, or whatever thay call that thayng....)
I have argued here in the past that liberals have a major disadvantage in messaging because, and this itself could be a bumper sticker: THE TRUTH DOESN'T FIT ON A BUMPER STICKER. But having said that, here is another bumper sticker idea: FOX news IS GUARDING THE HENHOUSE.