and Social Security too, a fact that may upset some GOP activists
because they have to deal with that reality in the trenches and this is not something most of them want to talk to voters about leading up to the next round of elections. And given the fact that I am just a moderate little "i" indy with no party affiliation - I
just play nicer on the left/Democratic party side of the Blogosphere
because, much like myself and for the most part, they deal from the
reality deck - I thought I would point to a story in The New
Haven Independent covering CT-05's Rep. Chris Murphy discussing the
issue of Healthcare Reform with activists that understand the problems
we are all trying to deal with.

To be blunt, Murphy thinks the Democratic party needs to come out swinging and drive reform through.

Instead
of running from health care reform, Democrats need to swing back, and
not dumb it down in reaction to right-wing talking points.

Myself,
personally? I agree. Healthcare reform has been one of my pet issues
for years. I have written about the fact that it is quickly becoming
the anchor that will sink the entire US economy. And it is precisely
because of the fact that the for-profit driven insurance madness
currently sucks up about 16 to 17% of the USA's GDP, an astronomical
number compared to almost every other nation that we have to compete
with in the global market.

In
2007 I wrote about the fact that "each vehicle assembled in the United
States cost GM $1,525 for health care; those made in Canada cost GM
$197."

But it is not just applicable to the
auto industry. The competitive disadvantage this puts us at in the
global market and in every industry is mind boggling. Meanwhile, while
we suffer the consequences of not only being at a severe competitive
disadvantage, the for-profit insurers deny care to an ever growing number
of people.

Because of our dysfunctional system pitting
profits against the value of a real person's life or a real person's health, the uninsured have
zero access to basic primary and preventative care, the only care they
may have access to is costly hospital emergency room care, and a
growing number of people are seeing their private plans disintegrate in
value or being dropped completely by their employers. And the insured
still have to deal with ever rising co-pays that literally put access
to actually using their insurance out of their financial reach and have
to deal with insurance companies that pay bonuses to a herd of people
hired to do nothing but deny you care you already paid for in your
policy.

There are better answers. 

And these better answers come from the reality side of the aisle I was talking about earlier in the post. While not all in the left nor on the Democratic side agree with this action, it is an action that they all admit would work:

Yes, it fits onto a bumper sticker:

And it's pointedly accurate...the last thing the GOP would ever want to see.

Hat-tip dmhlt 66 of DailyKos, from the diary by ericlewis0.

Originally posted 2009-03-25 12:16:37 -0500, bumped by carol.

I feel wiped out. And it’s not from the flu. It’s from the financial news. Several people I know lost their families’ life savings that were invested with Wall Street wizard Bernie Madoff. My bank, which has been on a buying spree of failing financial firms, was insured by AIG. Not long ago, the president of the United States—the one with a Harvard MBA degree—was urging Americans to switch from Social Security to private investment accounts. Yeah, sure. The only reliable income I have right now is a Social Security check.

Progressives have been expressing some concern that Pres. Obama will be caught in a conservative frame simply by holding this conference. To counter this apprehensive and define the progressive position on so-called entitlements, Campaign for America's Future hosted a conference call for media, including representatives from various blogs. Unfortunately by an oversight we were not included; however the report below with links is a useful summary of the discussion. I would urge folks to listen to the full audio of the conference.

ENTITLEMENTS: Social Security and Medicare Programs

they used to call the "3rd Rail of Politic" --

Touch it and your Political career was dead!

I would assert NOW is the perfect time to Reframe those tired old Talking Points, since Congress and all the Media Pundits, all seem to be in such a "charitable" mood lately.

Josh Marshall has the goods on McCain's absolute blunder on Social Security, absolutely humiliating McCain as uninformed and contradictory.

At a campaign event, McCain blasted the set-up of the Social Security system as a "disgrace," and demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of Social Security, in place since the 1930s.

I recommend a post by Jared Bernstein I came upon which links to McCain's proposed tax program.

It is a table constructed by the Tax Policy Center's steely-eyed tax analysts, and it reveals nothing less than McCain's secret plan to diminish the US government beyond recognition. If he gets his way, conservatives will finally be able to say they've achieved the goal set out by Grover Norquist: to get government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

The numbers in the table show the revenue loss to the Federal government from McCain's proposed tax cuts. In the far right corner is the 10-year total: -$5.7 trillion.

People deride the Republican candidate as "McSame," implying a continuation of Bushonomics as well as the president's foreign policy. But from the perspective of domestic policy, it's much worse. Sure, McCain extends the Bush tax cuts but that's the least of it. At $1.7 trillion they amount to less than a third of the damage.

Note also that the big ticket tax cuts-eliminating the alternative minimum tax and lowering the corporate tax-both follow on another Bush tradition of exacerbating market-driven (i.e., pre-tax) inequalities by cutting high-end taxes the most.

Our Country needs, Hope ... yes very much so.

Our Country also needs Competence in SO many Government Positions of power ... NO more 'Heck of Job -- Brownies' PLEASE!

But the one thing America needs even more than Hope and Competence -- it's Real Leadership!

What is Real Leadership made up of?

More Compromise and Committee meetings? (I hope not)

Media Fanfare and soaring rhetoric? (nice, but ...)