T-4-2m:
There have been two important Dairies here concerning head winds being generated by those opposing the public's desire for health care reform.
Maybe it's time we take it to the streets for peaceful public demonstration of the public's desire for Health Care reform.
This issue is vitally important for all of us.
Demand is collapsing. The economy is in the tank. More and more people are without health care.
Our massively inefficient health care system has helped to sink our automobile industry and contributed to the problem. Moreover, there's no sign of demand being restored soon. Health care reform can restore demand and salvage our economy and save lives. It's time we did something about it.
Thanks to Fox News, we now no how.
Our existing health care system is so massively inefficient that health care reform alone, could release purchasing power necessary to help improve demand in the over all economy and end the depression.
What I'm proposing we do is "hijack" Fox News idea of Tea Party public demonstrations and put it to use for progressive issues that are in demand by the majority of our fellow citizens.
We can "out tea party" the right.
We can do it without the reactionary drama and it's implied hate.
Think of it as a pleasant gathering of millions of friends and fellow travelers for tea, crumpets, and polite conversation with your fellow progressives in a public place.
If there are millions of us out there "tea bagging for health care reform", congress cannot ignore us.
There are several big progressive issues coming up in congress. Big Business and special interests are gathering their forces together to stop these issues from ever seeing the light of day.
Front and center is the issue of health care reform. As you by now know, congressional hearings have "denied" single payer advocates a seat at the table.
It's time for the majority to be heard.
We need to take it to the streets - in a peaceful but productive way.
Thanks to Fox news, we now know how to do just that. A giant national Tea Party for progressive issues.
It's time we started to vote with our feet and our bodies, and use our constitutional right to peacefully gather in public venues.
Health care reform is THE issue.
Health care reform is a two fer - because in one stroke it can solve two huge problems: END THE RECESSION by lowering the over all cost of health care on our society and provide tens of millions of Americans who have no health care with some insurance.
Here's how Health Care Reform can help end the depression - and is so important.
The Media, when they talk about the depression, avoid the real issue: the collapse of demand.
Economics is dominated by the law of supply and demand. That's it. There is no 3rd dimension. Governmental policy can either have a supply-side bias or a demand side bias. When you have too much demand you get inflation and/or stagflation - in which case supply side bias is justified. When you have too much supply you get investment bubbles, deflationary recessions and financial deviancy manifested through deregulation in which case demand-side bias is justified.
More than justified, because 2/3rds of the economy is based upon consumption (demand), demand side bias should both be the norm and during supply-side crisis is imperative.
Since 1980 we've had nothing but supply-side biased policies. Supply side policies could be argued as correct for 1980 conditions, but they should have lasted no more than four years, five at the outside. By 1987 we had junk bond scandals, savings and loans scandals and black friday - all signs of 'supply-side' saturation.
Despite 'supply-side' saturation, for 28 years we've had nothing but supply-side economics. It is destroying our country.
The median wage hasn't gone up since 1974, but in that time, the GNP has gone up 150%.
What that means is that trillions and trillions of dollars have flowed to the 'supply-side' '1%er' 'uber-rich' year-in and year-out, for decades. It means that for 35 years the median worker got nothing.
If you can increase purchasing power to the median worker, you increase demand. If you increase demand, asset prices will go up. If asset prices go up, the crisis for the banks will end.
(This should by no means mean that we don't have to reform our financial sector for regulation - and it may very well mean another Tea Party to get the government to do that as well).
There's too much supply relative to demand. To get out of the depression we have to create demand. Health Care Reform will deliver such massive efficiency to our society that it will release massive amounts of purchasing power to hundreds of millions of Americans, generating the demand we need to help get us out of the depression.
To get an idea of how massively inefficient the current system is, consider that the amount of money the government already spends, per capita, on public health is nearly equal to what the government in France spends for arguably the best health system in the world.
What that means is that our government could introduce something like Medicare-For-All tomorrow and the public expenditure on health care MIGHT ACTUALLY GO DOWN!
What that means is the current Health Care System is really a welfare system for private health care companies at the expense of the public.
Nobody it talking about it, but the only way to end the depression is to generate demand. Most economist don't see the depression ending soon, because they don't see where the demand is coming from.
Health care reform is perhaps the only policy issue big enough to generate the necessary efficiency and growth in purchasing power to increase demand on the kind of scale necessary to end the depression.
The Depression won't end until demand, puchasing power for the average consumer, goes up.
Health care reform can help in other ways too.
- Millions will have health care that didn't have it before.
- The auto and manufacturing industries will no longer be weighed down by the burden of a massively inefficient health care system. Shed of the unfair burden of a health care tax, our industry will gain competitiveness preserving and creating jobs for more Americans.
- Millions of budding entrepreneurs and would be risk takers, the generators of wealth, technology and job growth for our society, will no longer be chained to jobs solely for the purpose of providing health care for their families. Health Care Reform should also be considered an Entrepreneur Liberation act.
- Most of the Bankruptcies in this nation are a result of excessive health care costs. This will also help our banking and financial sectors.
- Health Care is the real death tax in this country. Most of the estates left behind by the deceased are consumed by the health bills they leave behind. 90% of what you spend on health care will be spent in the last year of your life. Most likely it will far exceed the estate you left behind.
Once we are done with Health Care Reform, we can 'tea party' for card check. Card check is the second leg in the structural reform we need to get more purchasing power out to the masses.
Then we can work our way down the list of progressive causes.
Tea Party. It's not just for breakfast any more.
And It's not just for wingnut conservatives any more.
And it's a great way to get together with our fellow progressives.
Later on, when you grand children ask what you did to end our regressive politics, you can say you hit the streets and drank a coup of tea with several million of you fellow friends.
Is memorial day weekend too soon?
Kossacks can get together, have a cup of tea, get us some health insurance, and end the depression all in one swoop.
P.s. Ed, if you're reading this, give it a call out on your show. You and some of your cohorts could get this ball rolling.
There's tens of millions of Americans without health insurance (or worried about their existing coverage's cost or limitations), who won't mind the loss of a single afternoon out with several million friends, at the cost of a cup of tea, which last I checked was about one half cent a tea bag at Costco.
And when your done with this, you can do it again for card check.