Franken on health care reform: “We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the very good.”

[jefferson_dem]

Senator Al Franken speaks at rally for health reform

By Matt Johnson

U.S. Senator Al Franken spoke Sunday afternoon at a rally for health care reform. Franken told the hall at Minneapolis United Labor Center “We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the very good.”

VIDEO at LINK - http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/videogalleryView/id/2808/

[Schema Thing]

1. You can if you're a DUer!

:evilgrin:

[seattle_blue]

18. Funny

It went over my head for a second there, but funny!

[duhneece]

21. Fundamentalist progressives, what can I say?

Where is that line between too pure and _______? (too tired, sorry)

[HughMoran]

26. I hadn't noticed

:evilgrin:

[vaberella]

30. Totally. n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

42. We will find Franken under the bus very soon

It's getting awfully crowded under there.

[Pisces]

2. They need to pass something. Our insurance has gone up twice in the last 6 months

and we were just notified that is going to increase again?? My daughter has a preexisting condition that will never be covered if reform is not passed. I hope they can get it together to use
reconciliation or have the House pass the Senate version now.

Common sense is sorely lacking in Washington right now.

[eridani]

4. The Senate bill will leave you just as you are n/t

[jefferson_dem]

6. Of course, you are correct.

I hope you get some much needed support. The industry vultures are the worst of the worst.

[bluestateguy]

3. "Traitor! Sell out! DLC Blue Dog Whore!!!!!"

:sarcasm:

My special interest group is FURIOUS!!!!!

[HughMoran]

27. tsk tsk

You used the word "whore" :P

[eridani]

5. "Very good" = excise taxes and no regulation except by states?

On what planet?

[jefferson_dem]

7. So you know that the final bill will look like?

Really? What planet indeed.

[flyarm]

12. AREN'T YOU ONE OF THOSE THAT TOLD US THIS WAS A WONDERFUL CHESS GAME AND NOT TO QUESTION the public

option that has now dissapeared..

gee i think i am going to have to take a stoll through the archives..your game no longer works..

the dog and pony show is over..it is put up or stfu time now..

[jefferson_dem]

13. Dude, chill.

Don't make an ass out of yourself.

Besided, I recommend you direct your "caps lock" outrage toward Senator Franken. He's the topic of the OP. Deal.

[eridani]

17. Great. Just ignore calling for anything different and trust the Senate

--because that has worked so well for us lately.

[Cleita]

8. What is perfect?

I like the workable that has a proven track record, but apparently in our country that is perfect.

[flyarm]

9. Just the exact reason i could not stand Franken on Air America..he is a settler

he would never fight for what was right..he settled for everything in the middle or less than middle..he is an enabler type..or call it wishy - washy..I call it gutless or a sell out!

Well Al ..now you are discussing my health care and my children and grandchildrens health care and enabling and being wishy washy or gutless or selling them out over the kind of health care that is on the table that my kids will be stuck with and mandated or cadillac taxed....just is NOT FUCKING GOOD ENOUGH and over this I will tell You Al..stick this shit on a shingle up your ass...I will not sit back and let you SELL OUT my kids or leave my husband and myself and those i love in this world FOR BIG pHARMA AND THE CORPORATE WHORES WE ARE BEING SOLD OUT TO.. because you are too gutless to stand up for what is right and what is Care..not health insurance care..but Health care!

[trumad]

10. Jesus F'ing Christ...

Get a grip.

[flyarm]

22. my grip is trying to hang onto real health "Care" ..I have that but I won't under the senate bill!

My grip is to try to assure my family will have real Health "care" when or if they need it!

My grip is trying to keep what my husband and I have worked a lifetime for through our unions that is now being called a cadillac plan..and will now see it taxed after we have already worked for it and been taxed on the income that paid for it! And paid for it with strikes and lock outs and a lifetime of blood sweat and tears!

you get a grip..

My grip is very firm..and since my hubby was VP of his union for 11 years, I know damn well what is being put forth..since my hubby sat at union collective bargaining negotiating tables and fought for good health care for all the union employees and I know damn well what was given up for our health care ..

I have spent a lifetime working hard with and in the democratic party for others to have the Care we have to only now see people i have worked for want to so easily sell themselves and others out on Health "care" reform..what is being put forth is not Health Care reform..it is an insurance corporation care profit package !

Sell yourself out..I will not sit back quietly while you or anyone else wants to sell my family out or the workers we have worked with and worked for get sold out!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


see this thread..record profits announced this week by the five largest insurers


For SOME reason, the record profits announced this week by the five largest insurers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7762772#7762858


and these links posted by other du'ers in that thread......
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington...

WASHINGTON -- In the midst of a deep economic recession, America's health insurance companies increased their profits by 56% in 2009, a year that saw 2.7 million people lose their private coverage.

The nation's five largest for-profit insurers closed 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion, according to a report by the advocacy group Health Care for American Now (HCAN).



<http://www.nj.com/opinion/times/editorials/index.ssf?/b... >

snip:

In the meantime, President Barack Obama is framing a health-care proposal that includes the primary objectives of requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance or face financial penalties; barring insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions; and providing tax subsidies to help moderate-income people buy private insurance.



snip:
The system's inequities are all the more glaring in light of a report last week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that profits for the country's 10 largest insurance companies jumped 250 percent between 2000 and 2009. The report found that the five biggest insurance companies -- WellPoint, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, Aetna and Humana -- realized a profit increase of 56 percent in 2009, a year in which 2.7 million people lost their private coverage.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
as BVAR22 has posted :

* Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of a government administered health insurance plan — something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get — that would compete with private health insurance plans?

Favor 82%

Oppose 14%

Not Sure 4%
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010010320/poll-sho...


We the People want real Health "Care" reform..not insurance corp give aways or mandated shit on a shingle!

[FrenchieCat]

11. Under the bus he goes, along with Sen. Sanders and everyone else....

:rofl:

[dflprincess]

14. I don't find a lot of humor in "reform" being defined as

continued reliance on for profit insurers with no guarantee of access to health care.

Someone close to me was diagnosed with a very serious illness this week. They will need to go out on leave so, in addition to worrying about their illness, they get to worry about how they will manage to pay their bills. Disability insurance would cover the monthly bills, but it can't be stretched to cover the insurance premium as well Apparently you're only eligible for the COBRA subsidy if you're unemployed, not because you're sick. So now this person will have to choose between paying rent or paying for their "coverage". All this while dealing with a condition that could be terminal.

As you seem to think it's funny that anyone would get upset over the faux reform Obama and Congress are trying to foist on us and you support mandated premiums with no guarantee of care, maybe you'd like to pick up the tab?

[Jakes Progress]

16. They only get upset

when you suggest that the things might be done better than they are. Their only scale for measuring what is good is whatever the adm. lets happen.

This is the first time I've had a beef with Franken. I really like what he does most of the time and supported him. That doesn't mean that I think he is God. I supported Obama, but I don't think he is perfect either. When someone I hired (any elected public servant) screws up, I have the right to say so.

Some here seem to have wonderful insurance and good health and not care about others. I have both, but know that most don't.

I don't mind if they pass the little dribbles in this very flawed bill, this wet kiss for the insurance CEOs. But just don't call it a victory. Just don't call it reform. If it is the best they can do, so be it, but they should hang their heads in shame instead of crowing about it.

[flyarm]

24. well the American people have already been thrown under the bus ..so he will have alot of company!

it is very crowded down here..and if someone gets sick down here under the bus..he damn well better hold onto his good insurance that we the people have paid for for him....the rest of us will die trying to get Health care for our illnesses!

[WhiteTara]

15. I hope you are checking your blood pressure

your rage is going to make you sick.

[flyarm]

25. sorry I don't have rage..just disgust! eom

[bertman]

19. This is part of the build-up to protect President Obama when he announces he is NOT

going to "compromise" on healthcare because it's essential to the well-being of the American people. Of course, he has already compromised on it to the point it is next to worthless to anyone other than the insurance cartel.

The Democrats cannot get the 51 votes needed to get a public option so they're going to call this lemon a pomegranate in hopes of fooling the public.

It was amazing to me that Anthem and the other big dawgs decided to start jacking up their rates so blatantly just as the healthcare debate seemed to be stuck in the mud. Now I see that it was just a ploy to make ANY healthcare bill look like it's going to save us all from the bad old insurance companies. Those guys are masters at the multi-dimensional chess.

[flyarm]

23. the only people that will be fooled are people who "want" to be fooled.

or are on someone's payroll to sell this piece of shit with propaganda!

[w4rma]

20. He just had better make sure there is a public option in it. (nt)

[FrenchieCat]

28. It won't matter what he does,

you'll still find reasons to not like whatever it is.

[TheKentuckian]

29. Another don't let the crappy be the enemy of the unacceptable

campaign?

Names don't buy much, its best to have one's own beliefs rather than to have them handed down by a "trusted source". I don't give too much of a shit who says what when I am called upon to not trust my lying eyes.

[rug]

31. We can't let the insurance companies be the friends of a pretty shitty bill.

[MadHound]

32. Sorry, but I don't consider a bill to be "pretty good" when it

Hands a mandated monopoly over to the insurance industry, when it threatens to destroy the middle and working class, and when it takes away any part of a woman's right to choose. In my definition that makes the bill pretty shitty, something to be killed before it sees the light of day. Kill these bills and start over with something that is truly progressive. That would mean including a strong public option, at the least.

[GreenArrow]

33. You can't let the bad or mediocre be the enemy of the good, either,

.

[Phx_Dem]

34. Sounds familiar . . .

:think:

[freddie mertz]

35. I like Al, but don't agree with him after seeing the prez's proposal.

The only way I could ever vote for it, if I had a vote, was if an agreement was made to push the PO through on reconciliation.

That or no deal.

[kenny blankenship]

36. We can't let cliché slogans blind us to the fact that proposals under consideration AREN'T good

For the "good" to become the enemy of the perfect, the thing has to first actually be good. We haven't met that condition here at all.

[ibegurpard]

39. yup

haven't seen the acceptable yet, let alone the "very good"

[Raineyb]

37. I'm still waiting for the "very good"

So far I haven't seen it.

[Sebastian Doyle]

38. I would ask Al there's any "very good" here, let alone "perfect".

Single Payer would be the closest thing to "perfect", and the corporatists would never even allow that on the table. A true public option open to everyone would be "very good". Mandatory corporate insurance is NEITHER.

So yeah, Senator Al. I can settle for the "very good". But all I'm seeing right now is the crappy status quo being presented as the enemy of the completely shitty national Romneycare "solution".

[Rosco T.]

40. Little plaque I have on my desk....

You can have it RIGHT,
Or you can have it NOW,
But you can't have it RIGHT NOW.

or better maybe...

You are given the options of Fast, Good and Cheap, and told to pick any two. Here Fast refers to the time required to deliver the product, Good is the quality of the final product, and Cheap refers to the total cost of designing and building the product. This triangle reflects the fact that the three properties of a project are interrelated, and it is not possible to optimise all three – one will always suffer. In other words you have three options:

* Design something quickly and to a high standard, but then it will not be cheap.
* Design something quickly and cheaply, but it will not be of high quality.
* Design something with high quality and cheaply, but it will take a long time.

[IndianaGreen]

41. Are you prepared to face the voters after passing this middle class tax increase?

No wonder we are losing support from the same independent voters that voted Democratic in 06 and 08!