Disqus - Latest Comments for SallyB423

Re: http://www.barackobama.com/news-secure/entry/runway-to-win-first-access

SallyB423 — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:25:42 -0000

Is this such a good idea? I mean, at a time when so many of us barely have enough pocket change at the end of the month to maybe order a pizza or maybe go out to dinner, is it wise to cater to the 1% who have the money to be able to afford to wear expensive designer clothes when the rest of us are shopping at thrift stores for bargains in order to stretch our already badly strained budgets? I question the wisdom of this move right now at a time when the economy has ravaged so many of us and has left a wide swath of economic misery across our country. It seems so disengenuous to do something like this right now at a time when the President is trying to cast himself as a populist fighter for the economically struggling former middle class that now finds itself on life support. I advise pulling the plug on this idea before the Republicans find out and use it as a bludgeon with which to attack the President on the campaign trail. And use it they will, I guarantee that. Don't hand them this kind of easy ammo. Bad, terrible, awful and boneheaded idea. Dump it now before it's too late, please.

Re: Why Doesn’t MoveOn and Democracy for America Support Single-Payer Healthcare?

SallyB423 — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:23:14 -0000

I agree that health care is a right, not a privilege. It's a basic human right and it's a shame that we don't have a single payer option in the richest country in America.

Re: Why Doesn’t MoveOn and Democracy for America Support Single-Payer Healthcare?

SallyB423 — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:18:16 -0000

I'm terribly disappointed in the health care proposals being floated around Congress and the White House. For those of us already covered by a private health care plan, nothing will change. Sure, we'll still keep our same doctors and hospitals, but we'll still be stuck with high co-pays, high deductibles and fine print denying care. Only the uninsured will benefit from a public plan, so they'll end up in better shape than those of us covered by our employers because they'll have the gold plated plan that Congress has currently.

Well, I say, divorce health care from employment. It's unsustainable in the long term. I don't care if they lower premiums for employers, it still doesn't work and puts an undue burden on employers to provide health care for their employees. My workplace is aging, our average age being 45, and 56% of our employees are considered to be morbidly obese, meaning all we can get is a high risk plan that, while cheap for my employer to pay for, is expensive for the employees due to very high co-pays and deductibles. Why would I want to keep a plan like that if my employer decides not to go with a public plan (which they won't if it's too expensive)?

No, the only answer here is single payer, period. It will stimulate investment in business because employers will no longer have to add health care for their employees to their bottom line and it will create a healthier and more productive workplace because with full access to medical care, people won't wait until they are desperately ill before going to their doctor for treatment. They will focus more on preventive care instead of "sick care", which is what we have now. If my insurance would pay for some of the necessary screenings I need now that I am over 50, I'd take advantage of them and would be able to catch things BEFORE they become expensive and major medical problems to treat. And I'm sure that I am not alone in thinking this, either.

The majority of Americans and health care professionals support single payer. If our government won't heed our voices and listen to us, then we'll just have to make it happen on our own and start on the state level and go from there.

Re: Excuse me, but has anyone seen the Democratic party?

SallyB423 — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 15:47:17 -0000

I'm glad that I am not the only one who has noticed the deafening silence coming from the Democratic Party. Have they been so inundated with fear by the opposition party that they choose to remain cowed and silent when the hour of our deliverance from the BushCo NeoCons is at hand? We've already seen how the disastrous policies of this failed administration have caused so many problems that will take decades to undo the damage from, but the Democrats choose to say and do nothing.

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil - they are like the three monkeys with their hands over their ears, mouths and eyes, not willing to get up and point the way to the future. This country cannot afford to shred the social contract that means that you are your brother's keeper, you look out for one another, take care of one another, do unto others as you would have them do unto you - all that stuff your mom and teachers taught you growing up about good behaviour and basic socialisation skills.

I urge ALL of you to read "Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America" by Garrison Keillor. This book speaks so clearly about the plain, basic homegrown values we all share and how this administration seems to have forgotten those basic social niceties in favour of rampant robbery of the National Treasury to build their Global Oil Empire via corporate welfare and subsidizing the rich at the expense of the rest of us on the lower ends of the income scale.

Mr. Keillor is kind of a modern day Mark Twain, and his words should be read by anyone who cares about and understands the social contract and how its fraying is doing nearly irreparable damage to this country. It's not too late to end the hemorraging, but we've got three long years left of the failed BushCo administration, and until and unless we replace these bungling Empire builders with truly compassionate people, we will be facing a very long, dark three years, by which time the damage will be done and we will be hard pressed to repair it.

We will be paying for their Middle East misadventures long after we're all gone, and our children and grandchildren will pick up the tab for this sorry escapade. Our generation retire? Not on your life - I figure I will be forced to work until they have to scrape me off the floor. No retirement for us Baby Boomers. Our retirement savings were spent on this whole fiasco "War on Terrorism". Why not spend the money more wisely and identify what causes terrorism in the first place - rampant poverty and despair - and do something constructive about it?

Please support the efforts toward a Cabinet level Department of Peace. You can find more information on this web site: http://www.dopcampaign.org/ Please ask your Senators and Congressmen to support the creation of this office, whose function would be to find alternatives to waging war, such as addressing poverty and despair in countries where terrorism could very easily be fostered and grow. We can end war, it will take work, but I know we can do it. Support the Department of Peace and look for local DoP groups in your area who are working toward seeing to it that this office is created. Think globally, act locally. Do it now, for our future and that of our descendents future.

And Democrats - WAKE THE HELL UP, ALREADY!!!!! You're blowing your chances now that the Republican ship is sinking! Please deliver us from the Bush regime! Your hour is at hand - seize the day! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!!!! Oh, and thanks Progressive Democrats of America, for trying to put the kick back in the Democratic donkey. Your efforts are valiant, and I applaud your work in trying to do something about this party's silence. You've got a real uphill battle ahead, while everyone else calls for the party to reclaim the center ground and be Republican Lite instead of real Democrats.

The "L" word is not dead. I am a liberal, unashamed and proud of it.