Arkansas Blog

Sent to Lincoln & Pryor via webform:

Re health care and a "public" option: what is it that the senator doesn't get? The only thing that parallels the SINKING healthfulness of Americans is the INCREASING cost of their poor health. We have been "piece-mealing" health care reform in this country for over 40 years, and the results are numbingly the same. The GREAT senators from Arkansas reached that greatness not by 'going along with the great unwashed' (like YOU repeatedly do!), but by boldly stepping out and showing LEADERSHIP, the "feelings" of racist Morons in Arkansas be damned!! You could start by assessing the profiles of care in various providers detailed in the TIME magazine article "More Data + Less Care = Lower Cost + Better Health," in the June 29th issue!!!

Your "solutions" are thinly-disguised capitulations to the insurance/pharmaceutical lobby, noting more. While drowned out by chest-thumping "Greatest Country in the World" claptrap, actual American families are hurting and crying out for affordable, accessible health care. LISTEN to them, not your corporate contributors!!!! The Constitution doesn't give corporations the privilege of setting public policy.

"...nothing more."

One only has to read Max's blurb at the opening of this thread to see what's wrong with America. That an undistinguished, barely known, mostly silent, fairly useless, Senator from the 48th in everything state would rank 32nd out of the entire Congress in contributions from the evil health care industry tells it all.

No wonder we don't hear from Blanche, she's too busy talking to the giants who are killing Granny. The industry that bleeds us dry, feeds Blanche very very very well. And not only will Blanche make sure I'll never get the health care I need, she's already made sure I'll lose my house when I do get sick. Let me add this up. Osama killed a bunch of people in NYC & DC & Pennslyvania in September, 2001. Do I like it? NO! Did it personally hurt my family? NO!

But Blanche Lincoln's tenure in the Senate has royally hurt my family...so I should hate Blanche Lincoln more than I hate Osama bin Laden? Seems so.......Osama never called me ni*ger, but Blanche's constant sucking of Big Medical's tit has impacted my life forever. These years of missing treatments will no doubt shorten my life, thanks Blanche. And when my final illness comes I have 3 choices. 1. Kill myself quick. 2. Try to tough it out at home until nature takes its course. 3. Get medical care I can't afford and let my wife and kids be thrown out in the street after I'm dead.

Tell me again how evil Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is.......he'd probably do less damage than Blanche if he represented Arkansas in Congress. PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE.......our 2 Senators are in the Senate representing the state of THEM. We're getting nothing except the honor of paying them to go to DC to feather their own nests.

The voters of the state of Arkansas MUST BE SMARTER! We must elect someone who will work for us...not themselves. This single blog thread is all anyone needs to know in order to never vote for Blanche Lincoln again. Tell your friends and neighbors....print this thread out and mail it to every Arkansas voter you know. Blanche Lincoln is bad for Arkansas, a Republican couldn't be worse.

Do you think we can afford to "do nothing" about health care?
***********
You're damn right we can do nothing if the alternative is more government welfare for the Health Insurance Industry.

Oh hell no...not one penny to the corporate/Republican enabling pretend Democrats, such as our Judas Senators Blanche/Mark.

Well it was a nice two-second dream that my country would choose to take care of ALL its sick folk. Sadly, however, I didn't think for one second that Blanche/Mark would side with what most of their constituents want, healthcare wise. And, if Blanche can't get enough blood money out of the pharmaceuticals/insurance leeches then she's as dumb as she is bought/sold. She should be set for life after the last 8+ years of doing their bidding....the bankers' bidding, WM's bidding, Military Industrial Complex's bidding, Repubublicans' bidding, etc etc etc! It's not our responsibility that she 'hired out wrong.' Stupid and greedy is an ugly combination.

You are SO correct, henrys...doing NOTHING is better than the insane alternatives that are being tossed around. Hubby works for a small business that has managed to provide healthcare to its workers for decades. And, though we're are FAR from rich, we've managed to keep healthcare (at great expense since we have to pay for my coverage) even when we didn't have a dime for much else. But if they dump a new healthcare tax on his company and us...it's almost a sure thing that their company will be tipped to the side of 'no employee' coverage. As for us...we've known for the last eight+ years that we were financially screwed. We've had NO salary increases yet the cost-of-living has steadily grown. (His company typically gives him a raise every time their insurer jacks up their already ungodly prices...technically a raise, but...hell no it's not.)

Every middle-class working person I know, has taken a pay cut, in one way or another. (Except government workers...they gotta have their promised cost-of-living increases.)

But why should health care "income" to an employee be tax-free? Or rather, why should payments to the insurance companies, total leeches on society, essentially be subsidized by the government? It's a lot like how the mortgage interest tax deduction helped get us to where we are in the real estate market.

Additionally, it helps concentrate wealth; if you're wealthy enough to buy a house, or have a good enough job to get health insurance, you get treated more favorably by the government than if you're a poor working mother at minimum wage.

Anyway, the sooner we break the tie between health care coverage and employment, the better off we'll be. It was a mistake to do it in the first place, but a good example of the law of unintended consequences.

Oh please...there are volumes of tax breaks for corporations/millionaires. Yet it always comes down to taking away what relatively few breaks working folks get. It makes no fiscal sense to throw more folks into the uninsured pile BEFORE ensuring healthcare for everyone. But screwing more working folks while pretending to help them makes perfect sense given our Senators and the last eight years. Bush was great, too...and he really was gonna have a beer with his 'average' buds.

Ronald Reagan would be so proud to know what a fine job he did of manipulating so many Americans into voting against their own self interests. One day they might be one of the insured billionaires, after all; and then they get to lecture down to us whiny ungodly poor folks

>>I've built a career fighting for those who need it most: kids, vets, seniors and families. I'm not about to back down now.

Soaring health care costs are hurting our economy. Working families and small business owners must have health care security in order for our economic recovery to be complete. We simply cannot afford to do nothing!<<

Did you not the excessive use of exclamation marks in the recent con-letter?

As usual, Mz Blanche is ALWAYS...........FIGHTING....
Personally, I've never seen a woman FIGHT as much as Blanche.
Someone of the fairer sex please tell me..is that how a woman can be seen as effective...
IF SHE IS "FIGHTING?" Do it give her credibily...the FIGHTING?

SEE BLANCHE FIGHT FOR CREDIT CARD COMPANIES!

SEE BLANCHE FIGHT FOR BIGGER PAYMENTS TO WELFARE FARMERS

Blanche, honey, there is a difference between fighting and SELLING OUT, of which you do a lovely job.

And just remember fellow Travelers, the only way there is strength these days is in numbers.
If you're in doubt look over that wonderful compilation Max provided on how cheaply it is to get them to sell out America's health care concerns. That's because the whores are all in one place and one trip does it all.

That;s why they run scared against workers uniting in numbers.

Our Congressmen now represent, on average, 630,000 constituents each. Guess who gets their ear? The path to their ear is right on top of their butts, in the wallet. MoMoney Blanche, MoMoney America.

Did you know that a short 65-70 years ago Ark had SEVEN Congressmen?

"with a measly $267,000, John Boozman."
AND WHY SHOULD THEY PAY JOHN?...He is the least effective Congressman on Capital Hill. USELESS!

>>Our Congressmen now represent...Oops. Our U.S. Representatives...

Today's DoG has an article in which Sen. Lincoln brags about getting money for a nursing school in Pine Bluff. The school is not named, and neither is the hospital with which it is apparently associated. Shoddy reporting? I know which nursing school and which hospital, but not from reading the article in the issue of the DoG that was delivered to my door this morning.

It's the working man who gets screwed, because he or she isn't getting health insurance
from their employer. They're having to buy it with after-tax (probably) income, if
they can afford it at all.

I fail to see why people making, say, $100K a year should get more favorable
tax treatment - especially for something as important as health care - than
people making the minimum wage.

If you want to call that a Bush/Republican viewpoint, go for it.

All of the responses are great, but I suspect the result will be the same as Mark Pryor's...a big W.

Pavel,

The reporter probably knows also, but there are long odds against the demozette editor having read the names or comprehending taht the names should be verified and published..