IT
REALLY WAS A HOLIDAY
Thanks
for the day off.
Bill A.: “Here in California, Governor
Scwharzenegger proclaimed
June 19 ‘Juneteenth’”
Andy Krauss: “In the Nordic countries, it is
called ‘Midsommar,’ and it is their favorite holiday because it
comes at the time of the summer solstice. After all the darkness of
winter, they revel in the long hours of daylight. If you participate in
true Scandinavian fashion, you really will need the entire weekend to recover .
. .”
Jay
Glynn:
“It is National Martini Day. Enjoy. It is also Independence Day in
Kuwait and in Laos.”
☞
Ah, but it is Independence Day in Kuwait and Laos only once a year. According
to this,
it’s always National Martini Day.
Which
reminds me of a story. Once upon a time, I got to go to a fundraiser at Jerry
Herman’s house on Fire Island. Jerry Herman wrote Hello, Dolly! and Mame
and the wonderful Mack & Mabel, among others. And seated at his piano he
told us how he came home from school one day to find his mother throwing a party.
And he was confused. What’s going on, he asked – is it
somebody’s birthday? A holiday they don’t give off from school
for? And his mother apparently grabbed him by the shoulders (I may be
embellishing this a little) and beamed at him, with her trademark enthusiasm:
“No, Jerry – it’s TODAY!”
Music,
please . . . strike
the band up . . . we have hot water! . . . it’s TODAY!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. (I was out
imagining what it would be like to paint our driveway white. If we had a
driveway. Stay tuned.)
HEALTH
CARE
Ralph Sierra: “Please
note this
message from Robert Reich.”
Memo to the President:
What You Must Do To Save Universal Health Care
June 19, 2009, 6:39PM
Mr. President:
Momentum for universal health care is slowing dramatically on Capitol
Hill. Moderates are worried, Republicans are digging in, and the
medical-industrial complex is firing up its lobbying and propaganda machine.
But, as you know, the worst news came days ago when
the Congressional Budget Office weighed in with awful projections about how
much the leading healthcare plans would cost and how many Americans would still
be left out in the cold. Yet these projections didn't include the savings that
a public option would generate by negotiating lower drug prices, doctor fees,
and hospital costs, and forcing private insurers to be more competitive.
Projecting the future costs of universal health care without including the
public option is like predicting the number of people who will get sunburns
this summer if nobody is allowed to buy sun lotion. Of course the
costs of universal health care will be huge if the most important way of
controlling them is left out of the calculation.
If you want to save universal health care, you must do several things, and
soon:
1. Go to the nation.
You must build public support by forcefully making the case for universal
health care everywhere around the country. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC
poll shows that three out of four Americans want universal health care. But the
vast majority don't know what's happening on the Hill, don't know how much
money the medical-industrial lobbies are spending to defeat it, and have no
idea how much demagoguery they're about to be exposed to. You must tell them.
And don't be reluctant to take on those vested interests directly. Name names.
They've decided to fight you. You must fight them.
2. Be LBJ. So far, Lyndon Johnson has been the only president to defeat
American Medical Association and the rest of the medical-industrial complex. He
got Medicare and Medicaid enacted despite their cries of "socialized
medicine" because he knocked heads on the Hill. He told Congress exactly
what he wanted, cajoled and threatened those who resisted, and counted noses
every hour until he had the votes he needed. When you're not on the road, you
need to be twisting congressional arms and drawing a line in the sand. Be
tough.
3. Forget the Republicans. Forget bipartisanship. Universal health care
can pass with 51 votes. You can get 51 votes if you give up on trying to
persuade a handful of Republicans to cross over. Eight year ago George W. Bush
passed his huge tax cut, mostly for the wealthy, by wrapping it in an
all-or-nothing reconciliation measure and daring Democrats to vote against it.
You should do the same with health care.
4. Insist on a real public option. It's the lynchpin of universal health
care. Don't accept Kent Conrad's ersatz public option masquerading as a
"healthcare cooperative." Cooperatives won't have the authority,
scale, or leverage to negotiate low prices and keep private insurers honest.
5. Demand that taxes be raised on the wealthy to ensure that all Americans
get affordable health care. At the rate healthcare costs are rising, not
even a real public option will hold down costs enough to make health care
affordable to most American families in years to come. So you'll need to tax
the wealthy. Don't back down on your original proposal to limit their
deductions. And support a cap on how much employee-provided health care can be
provided tax free. (Yes, you opposed this during your campaign. But you have no
choice but to reverse yourself on this.) These are the only two big pots of
money.
6. Put everything else on hold. As important as they are, your other
agenda items -- financial reform, home mortgage mitigation, cap-and-trade
legislation -- pale in significance relative to universal health care. By
pushing everything at once, you take the public's mind off the biggest goal,
diffuse your energies, blur your public message, and fuel the demagogues who
say you're trying to take over the private sector.
You have to win this.
Your obedient servant, RBR
COOL
LINK
Chris
McMahon:
“Have you seen these?
I just read about them in Popular Science. I hope they turn out to
be viable, I want one on my house right now. It would be great to have
one on top of every light pole in the world.”
☞
Your own itty-bitty windmill (not yet on the market) for, eventually, $199.
Well, maybe. But it’s not so itty-bitty, and I’d guess the cost to
install it firmly without causing the roof to rip off or leak, could be quite a
bit more. And maybe it’s as simple as a ceiling fan, but this
would be an outdoor ceiling fan, in rain and snow and extreme temperatures,
so it might not have as long and trouble free a life as the one out on your
screen porch. But what do I know? It’s fun to contemplate.