The Democrats are better but not by much.

Politics--
back on the deck, while we wait for dinner to cook, sip more wine, a cold beer, or iced tea if you don't drink, and continue the conversation. Blackie wants to join in.

So there have to be good guys in all this, right? When you find fault with something, you want to offer a reasonable alternative. What would that be today? I am as disgusted with Democrats as I have been with Republicans. Well actually not as disgusted as nobody can go as low as the Republicans have gone but still that doesn't leave Democrats winning prizes. Our options are fascism (Republicans) or socialism (Democrats)? Isn't there an option C?

What happened to a reasonable approach to the budget, to health care, to wars, to torture, to pretty much anything out there? Is there no party who is not bought and paid for by corporate interests? What makes Democrats into such wimps that they can't make decisions if Republicans (at least one or two) don't agree? Is this the party of-- I want you to like me-- or the one of Franklin Roosevelt? Democrats too often have become the party of yes we can without thinking how they can or what happens after we can.

And they have their own no we can't where it comes to letting insurance companies compete wherever they wish. It makes no sense to me why competition has been blocked by regulation. I don't think it would help a lot as they tried trial states (California and Texas) where they had tort reform and it didn't bring down insurance rates. So Republicans say not enough limits on the lawsuits.

[A brief aside: The problem with tort reform is making doctors or hospitals who commit egregious errors pay for them without holding doctors or hospitals accountable for all mistakes. This isn't easy. A lot of medical science is trial and error and everyone's body is different. An all-is-well physical where the patient drops dead of a heart attack the day after didn't mean the doctor or testing goofed. It means medical science is not one where all results can be guaranteed. But to remove the wrong organ, to leave equipment in a patient after surgery, to use unclean practices, to ignore well known symptoms, there are things that should be punished financially. If doctors though, who do these things, can buy insurance that protects them, than the patient pays and the doctor is never penalized anyway; so tort reform is complex.

Actually the very issue of insurance is a question of socialism but in a corporate setting. Insurance doesn't help our medical care get better. It doesn't find new and better ways of treating disease. What insurance does is take money from us to pay for our medical care if we should need it. For this they have costs. If they were government, they would have 5.5% overhead; if they were non-profit, they would have just under 10% overhead; but if they are for profit, they consider it necessary to have 31% overhead which means 20% is for profit or higher salaries than government or non-profit would pay.]

One of my first disappointments with Obama was who he appointed to the Treasury positions. It didn't look good and still does not. Gaming the system? We can ask if it's true but the fact is that big players like Goldman Sachs didn't get hurt by the downturn like ordinary people. The question might be why.

Then he let Congress (Democrats in control) run the stimulus package spending. It was not an encouraging sign for what would come with health care. A typical democrat, he believes in working together to solve problems. (Democrats aren't so prone to want divine leaders as Republicans.) That put the so-called recovery spending into the hands of those who have never shown much control over spending. Well they aren't rewarded when they do because somebody else (who might as well be Republican) jumps in and gets the pork.

In a lot of cases with the stimulus/recovery money, it counted on each state being responsible for what would create shovel ready jobs. The party, who wants to control everything-- according to the right-- passed the buck to the states. The worst part was they didn't have the buck to pass and who knows how a lot of this will be funded. Promissory notes? You can only borrow for so long and Bush pretty much got most of it for a sinkhole war and tax cuts (thanks to the Republicans who could care less about bipartisanship unless they must).

When the right attacks the left by saying privatization is good and publicly run is bad, does the left come back with so you want to hire mercenaries to be your local police force? That's worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan, hasn't it (if you have followed the investigations over there)? Every time I hear them say this will be socialism, I want to scream. First they don't understand what socialism is (means of production is in the hands of the government) and secondly we have government doing a lot of important jobs already and for good reason. Privatization isn't always good.

Did you read the articles about how fire departments used to be privately run and their failures and corruption led to the excellent system we have today which we all count upon-- public.

Yes, police and fire departments are different than health care. The first two we might need. The last one we know we will need but it's supposed to be better run privately. Tell that to those who can't afford their co-pays for a catastrophic illness, got fired, had their insurance company drop them over some pre-existing condition (which often didn't even relate to the current illness), overran the limits, or couldn't afford the premium from the get-go. These problems are real and the solutions aren't going to happen by magic.

Okay-- here's the hard truth. There is no tooth fairy. There is no angel waiting for the right words and then providing a magical solution. We are a people, left and right, who expect magical solutions. Too fat-- get a pill or have surgery. It's no wonder we think that we can spend all that money and not worry about from where it will come. Cut taxes during a war, don't worry there's plenty more from where that came. Propose new programs with no way to pay for them, it'll work out.

Too often, the tough issues are not being faced by either party. Try reading David Brooks for a reminder of how difficult this is, how partisanship (on both sides) is blocking any real change.

[Bloody Crossroads].

Although I very much liked Obama's speech on health care to Congress, I am still looking at him skeptically. I have never heard a satisfactory explanation for the deal with the pharmaceuticals.

There were some easy ways to get the price of prescription drugs down without a sell out. Let Medicare bargain for lower prices like the VA. Let Americans buy them (without using their insurance) through the Internet from other countries. We could get ours for the same price of our co-pay or sometimes less.

I learned that the block on our purchasing our drugs from say Canada was due to a 'trigger' that Congress put into the bill when they voted on it. The trigger would be pulled under certain circumstances they all know will never happen. Triggers, such as Obama and the Democrats seem ready to accept on the Public Option, are only ways to make it look like you did something but you know you didn't.

Have Democrats forgotten how to fight for what they want? Did they ever know? they not only got the presidency but a 60 vote majority in the Senate and even more in the House. That wasn't enough? What! They want god's light to shine down from heaven as proof it's okay? They seem unable to make hard choices if they can't get Republicans to go along. Are they the party of no responsibility?

Ted Kennedy may have done good things (the No Child left Behind bill has me suspicious about that), but this idea of compromise always being the right idea to me is just plain wrong.

Isn't it possible that sometimes when you get half a bill, it'd have been better to have gotten nothing? How many times has a good idea been sabotaged by half an idea that sounds good, makes people think they did something, but in reality nothing good came from it?

Senator Kennedy and No Child Left Behind

Too often, with Democrats, whenever they have had power (which it evidently takes more than the presidency and a majority to get), there has been a rush to do something, like the poverty programs which we can easily see the failure but more recently the carbon tax credits which may not do anything except once again make money for some special interest. Wait, do we really have a two party system?

On the highest level, we Democrats talk good. We want to see a world where we all help each other, solve suffering, work for world peace, fix environmental problems, and we too often ignore how we pay for it or even where our results lead. We start programs and then don't evaluate their success. Gore did a lot of talk about sunsetting programs; but how long before they sprang back up if they were some Congressperson's pet project? Farm subsidies is a good example. They get tweaked now and then but soon are back where they were-- hiding the true cost of our food.

Today, I think a good start for Democrats is to learn to fight as effectively as Republicans but not as nastily. Good grief, I hope never as nastily. We need to keep our eye on the ball and one of those balls needs to be the deficit. What about going back to the tax rates before Bush cut them during the war (had to get that in there) but let's be sure they are put back on those who got the original cuts. Whenever you hear taxes being whispered, it's quickly shushed by both parties. Raising taxes is too unpopular. Somehow miraculously everything will work out on the deficit. Yeah right. Heard that before.

I could go on and on with my disappointments with the Democratic party right now (Iraq, rendition, Afghanistan, secret prisons, investigations of crimes committed by the Bush administration, pork spending, weakly presented health care plans, can't do anything without Republican agreement, etc.).

The astrologer Lynn Hayes (linked in the blog list) says that we are in a time of tug of war between Saturn and Uranus which fits with the tug of war we see in the US with those who want to stay with the status quo-- Saturn-- and those who want new ideas tried-- Uranus.

Unlike the right wing nuts, I don't want a revolution. If the Democrats bow before the same corporate masters as the Republicans, then I will want a viable third party that is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I want reasonable leaders who can quit applying an antiquated religion to things like full gay rights, who will stand up to those who do. Maybe some Democrat and Republican leaders would even like to join that new party.

It's not like there aren't good people in each party-- just not enough. Listen to [Representative Anthony Weiner] discuss health care. I saw him on Bill Maher really laying out the facts. We need more like him in both parties. Where are they?

So many things are simply common sense but not being applied. I mentioned earlier ways that prescription drugs could be brought down. Here's another. How about blocking them from advertising on television? It used to be against the law for them to do that. Isn't it the doctor's job to know what antihistamine I should take? It would also spare me from ever seeing again that stupid bathtub scene, which is advertised frequently during my evening news entertainment program, about fixing sexual dysfunction. Incidentally... shouldn't that be one bathtub if they really want to imply it's fixed?

Oh and I think our problems won't really be fixed until we find a new way of funding campaigns. The McCain-Feingold Act made a stab at dealing with this but more has to be done. I hear the right wingers yelping now about freedom of speech. This isn't about freedom of speech. It's about unions, banks, corporations, buying elections. A bought and paid for Congress is not likely to worry first and foremost about wise choices.

Is all of that asking too much? I think it is right now; but when the next sensible, viable (see above) third party candidates present themselves, I'm signing on. What's Jesse Ventura doing these days?

(This was my last tirade for awhile-- I hope. I am as sick of writing about politics as most everybody else probably is of reading about it. I will still be reading and keep up on what's going on but hope for awhile to get away from writing about it. There is more to life. There has to be. I hope for the best for our country but having young grandchildren, I am very concerned about our future if we don't deal with things better.)