It’s Labor Day

Ever wonder how America got a holiday like Labor Day? After all, Labor, in America has been very much the underdog even in its heyday.

Labor unions, while still important in urban centers, have waned in strength nearly everywhere else.

So how did such a day become a holiday celebrated in 50 states?

It all started in Canada.

During a particularly difficult time in their history in 1872, known as the “Nine-hour movement,” an effort to limit the workday to nine hours, Canadian unionists fought hard to gain concessions from capitalists. The movement itself was a failure in that it did not attain its goals, but it did result in the passage of the Canadian Trade Union Act which legitimized unions and protected union activity.

Parades that were once protests against ill-treatment by management became parades in celebration of passage of the Trade Union Act.

And they became an annual thing.

These parades spread to New York, which held its first labor parade on September 5^th 1882.

A short 2 years later, in the aftermath of the deaths of workers at the hands of federal soldiers and US Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland took a page from the Canadian government playbook and pushed through a law proclaiming the first Monday in September as Labor Day. The bill passed 6 days after the end of the strike.

The 1884 Labor Day proclamation bill then, was literally written with the blood of Canadian and American workers.

And I find it particularly poignant, at this moment in history, that we Americans are again poised to adopt another Canadian tradition, something that they hold very near and dear to their hearts, despite what the healthcare and pharmaceutical lobby directed rightwing shrieking handwringers will tell you.

Yet another good idea from our neighbors to the north: Universal Health Care.

Leading me to wonder, for the umpteenth time, what is it in our history that has us so diverged from our Canadian neighbors?

I suspect you could write an entire book on that one.

No Public Option Option Is Not an Option

Politico has the story here that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has opined that “The Public Option” may have to go in order to get a health care reform bill passed.

Offering this opinion, mind you, a day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a health bill will not be passed without “The Public Option.”

Now opinions are like navels in that we all have them, but in this case there is a correct opinion and an incorrect one. “The Public Option” must never be eliminated from the bill.

Never.

And so why?

The whole idea of going after health care reform at this particular point in our history is to help to get us out of our economic morass: as health care costs keep going up and up health care insurance premiums go likewise. Driving up health care costs. An endless spiral. The whole idea here, is to reduce the cost of health care premiums.

If you put the federal government in a position to sell health insurance to its citizens, health care insurance firms will have to reduce their premiums to compete.

Because the Feds aren’t going to be in it for a profit. As a matter of fact, they will be in it for a loss.

The end game, in my opinion, is Single Payer Universal Health Care and that is why opponents are so shrill. The end game will take down a multi-billion dollar industry.

And it’s about time.

But short of the end game, when we are engaged in simply driving down health care premium rates, it becomes clear why “The Public Option” should be preferred over “Health care co-ops.”

The Co-op Option is not an option.

Simply because it doesn’t get the job done. If the job is to drive down health care premiums having a bill with only health care co-ops won’t reduce premiums.

Don’t believe me? The GAO, at the request of former congressman Thomas Bliley of Virginia, issued this 2000 report on the effectiveness of health care co-ops. The study looked at five separate “Healthmarts” that were created to serve as clearinghouses for small businesses seeking to get health insurance for their employees.

Their conclusion? Scroll down to the bottom of page 6. Here is what it says:

“The experiences to date of small employer purchasing cooperatives typically have not resulted in a third advantage, which is available to large employers: leverage in negotiating lower premiums. Officials of the purchasing cooperatives and participating insurers as well as several recent studies reported that cooperatives typically offer plans at market prices for plans with similar benefits offered to small employers outside the cooperative. This similarity in premiums is also reflected by rate quotations we obtained from several insurers. The cooperatives’ potential to reduce overall premiums is limited because (1) they lack sufficient leverage as a result of their limited market share; (2) the cooperatives have not been able to produce administrative cost savings for insurers; or (3) their state laws and regulations already restrict to differing degrees the amount insurerscan vary the premiums charged different groups purchasing the same health plan.”

So the question is, why pass a bill that doesn’t do what it was intended to do, and that is drive down health insurance premiums.

The GAO report revealed that co-ops won’t work.

Yes they enable small businesses to get health insurance for their employees, but at no cost savings at all. Not on the scale of what big businesses can negotiate for their employees.

No, the “No Public Option” option is not an option.

Without “The Public Option,” this bill, and any one like it, should be killed.

Maybe President Melia Obama will have better luck.

“Sicko” Needs to Be Seen on Public Airwaves

It has been two years since Michael Moore debuted Sicko, his outstanding documentary on how health care is so broken in America. I had a hard time finding a theater here in Red Texas where I could go and see it. I finally found one in Houston. I got there just before the movie started after driving through a blinding rain that slowed freeway traffic to a crawl.

The theater was about a third full. I found myself sitting in front of someone who saw universal health care as nothing short of out and out socialism and was so vocal about it that I was considering moving. But my seat was a good one and the guy did finally shut up when the previews ended and the movie began.

Moore did a masterful job of explaining the problem and showing how France, Canada and the UK have it all solved. After it ended I came across the same guy who sat behind me coming out of the restroom. He was so critical of universal health care at the beginning of the movie, but he came out a changed man. “We have to do something about this. We have to tell people to see this movie,” is what he was saying.

This convinced me that Michael Moore’s Sicko could become more than a theater blockbuster, it could also be a colossal secret weapon that could help turn the tide and get the Blue Dogs to stand in line and support passage of meaningful universal health care legislation.

And now it appears we have our best chance to get it done this year. But we still need a final nudge to get America talking about universal health care. We need to start a conversation.

We need Michael Moore to release his movie to the public airwaves.

We need as many people as we can get to see this movie so that what happened to that one guy in that Houston theater 2 years ago can happen in television-watching households across the nation.

I checked.

Michael Moore’s Sicko is still being aired on premium cable channels. The next time it will air in the next two weeks is at 8 PM on Thursday, July 16^th.

On The Movie Channel.

Now, it’s none of my business what Michael Moore wants to do with his property. That is his concern. All I am saying is that if he wants his film to do more than enrich him, if he wants it to actually be a force for positive change, he needs to release Sicko to the public airwaves and let those who haven’t seen this very persuasive movie, see it.

And he needs to do it soon.

Where To Begin?

Where do I begin today? Well, obviously the loss of a truly critical person in the Obama cabinet. It looked like Tom Daschle was going to weather the storm of the news of his failure to pay taxes on free transportation that he received for years. $146,000 in taxes over a 3-year period.

But in the end, it just wasn't going to work.

This is a huge loss despite what Republicans are going to say about the seriousness of the offense.

Tom Daschle, a former Senate Majority Leader, would have wielded serious amount of influence in the Senate, and would have been just the right person to spearhead our country’s final trip down the road to the sanity of universal health care.

Daschle, author of the recently published encyclopedia on how America can transition to a system of universal health care, was uniquely qualified to spearhead this effort.

But with the double trouble that came this morning by the New York Times editorial demanding that he step aside, and with the new revelation that Obama nominee for chief performance officer, Nancy Killifer, had failed to pay $946 in unemployment tax, and was stepping down from her nomination, the inertia was too much to overcome.

If Killifer was going to step aside for failure to pay $946, how was Daschle going to survive not stepping aside for failure to pay a sum that was 15,000% higher?

So it’s our loss. Universal health care has suffered a huge setback.

I’m sure the right wingers who were screaming socialized medicine are toasting each other many times today.

Hopefully they won’t contract Cirrhoses of the liver.

Then there’s the news that in the vote to confirm Eric Holder as the first African-American to be appointed United States Attorney General, Texas voted No.

Unanimously.

Yes, both Texas Republican senators voted no with 19 of their colleagues, while 19 Republicans joined the Democratic majority and voted aye.

I continue to be amazed at how polarized the Republican Party has become.

But finally, something came in the email this morning that I simply must share. I have to edit out some of the content to maintain my PG rating, but you’ll get the idea anyway.

Apparently Ben and Jerry have a new flavor of ice cream that they have named honoring Barack Obama’s presidency.

They call it “Yes Pecan.”

The email went on to say that there is a competition to come up with another ice cream flavor, honoring the departure of George Bush. Here is the very slightly edited list of submissions:

1. Grape Depression
2. The Housing Crunch
3. Abu Grape
4. Cluster Fudge
5. Nut'n Accomplished
6. Good Riddance You Lousy Mother%#$*@r... Swirl
7. Iraqi Road
8. Chock 'n Awe
9. WireTapioca
10. Impeach Cobbler
11. Guantanmallow
12. imPeachmint
13. Heck of a Job, Brownie!
14. Neocon Politan
15. RockyRoad to Fascism
16. The Reese's-cession
17. Cookie D'oh!
18. Nougalar Proliferation
19. Death by Chocolate... and Torture
20. Freedom Vanilla Ice Cream
21. Chocolate Chip On My Shoulder
22. Credit Crunch
23. Mission Pecanplished
24. Country Pumpkin
25. Chunky Monkey in Chief
26. WMDelicious
27. Chocolate Chimp
28. Bloody Sundae
29. Caramel Preemptive Stripe
30. I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands...with nuts

I tried, and I can’t pick a favorite.

Universal Health Care: It’s About That Job You Hate

Senator Ron Wyden (D - Oregon) is hyping his universal health care bill in a big way. He has it highlighted on his website StandTallForAmerica.com. His bill, S. 334, The Healthy Americans Act, is co-sponsored by 14 fellow senators, will guarantee that every American has health insurance. The angle Sen. Wyden is plugging is that too many Americans stay in jobs that they don’t want, live lives that they hate, and all because they are afraid of going without the health insurance that their employers provide.

It’s a good angle. Not because it is the most important consideration in all of this - there are, after all, millions of Americans without health insurance – but it is a fair point.

A point that Wyden has exploited in this hilarious video that you can find on his website, or just click on the embed below.



Wyden filed this bill on practically day one of the current session, on January 18, 2007. It hasn’t gone very far, nor has its related bill in the House, HR 3163 by Baird Ryan (WA - 3). Taking a look at it, it looks like we the people would fund the insurance from payroll deductions, the richer pay more, the poorer pay less. But most importantly, it appears to be self-funding, that is, tobacco companies can keep their ill-gotten lucre; they won’t have to pay into this, so they don’t have to worry about lobbying against it. The big loser appears to be the health insurance industry. Yes they can compete but under new rules.

And still, I hold very little hope for this bill this year. Universal Health Insurance is something for next year. It is something for next year, when Democrats will have a supermajority in the House and Senate, and a Democrat will be holding the veto stamp.

It’s for next year . . . unless the Democrats blow themselves out of the water. And if that’s the case, then I guess we’ll all have to keep our sorry jobs for a little while longer.

You Have GOT to See SiCKO

I don’t do movie reviews so don’t expect one here. What this is, is a chronology of what I had to go through to see Michael Moore’s new production of SiCKO. And a recommendation that you also jump through those hoops, well, hopefully fewer ones than I had.

I live in what was once aptly called DeLay Country. Aptly named, because up until last year, voters in my area were wildly enthusiastic about returning to congress every two years one of the meanest, self-aggrandizing, disingenuous, and corrupt politicians in recent memory.

So when I looked up the start times for Michael Moore’s SiCKO at my local AMC I was startled to learn that it wasn’t playing there. Nor anywhere else within 25 miles. I was amazed to discover that it was only playing in a handful of theaters, all within the confines of the City of Houston. You have to hand it to AMC, they really know their local market. Three screens to show Ratatouille, none for SiCKO.

My daughter had an unexpected day off yesterday, so we decided that we needed to make the trek to Houston. The matinee was at 3:25 so we left the house an hour before that, reasoning that we could kill the extra time some way. It had been raining off and on that afternoon, but just as we exited the door, the sky opened up and we were both drenched in a downpour.

As we drove down the street, I noted that the water piling up on each side of the road was creeping toward each other. The downpour abated and we made it to the freeway unscathed. The drive into the city was marred by only a few slow downs, traffic was light but moving slowly due to the weather. As we passed inside “the Loop” I noted that we probably wouldn’t have to worry too much about how to kill time once we got there.

There was no parking lot next to the downtown theater and the street curbs were absolutely jammed with parked cars. The adjacent parking structure pointed to a “theater entrance” so I figured they had a section for theater patrons. They did. For 3 bucks.

Ten minutes later we were in our seats. The movie started immediately. No kidding. We didn’t see one trailer.

What I will say about Michael Moore’s latest production is that Moore has done it again. His sense of timing is exquisite, and when you think he has proved his point he goes on to new heights and proves it with new authority.

Staying for the credits, you are treated to some quotes, and a recommended website that caused me to burst out laughing: http://www.hook-a-canuck.com

Go to the website and you get the gist of the point, but in order to really appreciate it, you need to see this film.