The White House should produce a half-hour TV documentary about reform.

[grytpype]

Just get the real facts out there in a professional manner.

[Clio the Leo]

1. I was thinking the same thing..........

....... like they did at the end of the election, try to get it aired on the major netoworks. ........ I guess it would cost too much ....... or it's too much of a gamble for a one shot deal (as opposed to weeks worth of commercials like they're planning.)

Either that or just stick the man behind his desk, put a camera in his face and let him start talking.

[dflprincess]

2. Better we find a way to get people to watch "Sicko"

and more would figure out that single payer might not be such a bad idea after all.

[cleveramerican]

7. who is out there advocating single payer?

is anybody even calling for that by now?
it seems deader than Micheal Jackson.
Am I wrong?

[dflprincess]

9. Read H.R. 676

it's the single payer bill in the House (and only 16 pages, written in a way anyone can understand). Supposedly the CBO is going to cost it. It will be interesting what happens if (and when) it comes out to be cheaper than any of the faux reform plans that Congress and Obama are trying to force on us.

True, there aren't many in Congress and no one in the Executive branch backing single payer. They keep telling us it couldn't pass, though if all those who claim they'd like to support it, but it's "not the right time" got behind it - we might get somewhere. The truth is, they just don't want to lose those "contributions" they get from pharma and the insurance companies.

It has never been the "right time" for progessive change - we have always had to fight for it and I'm not ready to roll over and surrender to the insurance companies.

[grytpype]

3. ?

[Orsino]

4. The White House should make up its goddamned collective mind about what needs reforming...

...and stop appearing so goddamned cozy with industry.

Single-payer can be much cheaper, and can guarantee universal coverage. Medicare already exists, and could be extended to all of the uninsured, just for a start.

[ksoze]

5. The people who need to see it watch networks that would not carry it

[cleveramerican]

6. 100,000 30 second spots would have more impact.

not one in ten voters would tune in for an entire half hour

[lunatica]

8. I'm not falling for the idea that they haven't thought of this

I respect Obama, and I voted for him although I was very aware that he was quite moderate. But after years of believing that the Democrats really care and all they needed was to 'get it', I'm not so gullible anymore. Pelosi and Reid were the final nails that did it for me. They acted as if they just didn't get it and we agonized, wrote letters, sent emails, signed petitions, moaned and groaned and had our hearts broken believing that if they would just understand what was happening that they would turn around and smash all the bad things to smithereens and restore our country's glory. Well, most of us finally woke up to the facts. We are the one's who 'don't get it'. Corporations rule us.

So maybe Obama is one of the good guys or maybe not, but the fact is he's the President of a broken and a failed Democracy because the insurance companies can spend a tiny drop of their profits to destroy him. I was listening to Thom Hartman who was in a rare irritated and angry state yesterday because he had been awake most of the night before realizing just how fucked up this country is because of the power of the corporations. He said that the insurance corporations have outspent both the Obama and McCain campaigns of two years spreading money around just in Washington DC to defeat the health care reform. This is money going into the pockets of politicians. And that this money is in the millions but that if they win they can make many tens or hundreds of billions more. They are outspending everyone else with a tiny fraction of the money they're using to prime the pump for thousands of times more profit. They can sit back and outlast and outspend everyone and anything.

Obama could be the fucking messiah but the insurance companies will just crucify him all over again. And Dick Armey's lobbying machine is already moving on to other issues after this. Primed and ready to channel money from other corporations to defeat Obama on anything that comes up. Anything