Now is the time to improve health care insurance reform

Now that the U.S. House Republicans have placated their extreme base with a purely symbolic repeal of health care insurance reform, they are being urged to stop wasting time and really try to improve health care insurance.

Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is also a medical doctor, said it was important to consider the bill the "law of the land" and move on from there. Now, I don’t agree with Frist on much, especially after the Terry Schiavo fiasco in 2005, but this is a great opportunity to improve the law.

Getting this historic, ground-breaking legislation through was a major and difficult task, but now that President Obama has accomplished something that U.S. Presidents since TR Roosevelt have tried to accomplish, now is the time to make a compromise bill even better. The Social Security Act was improved over the years to make it as popular and useful as it is now, and this should be no different.

One way would to make it better would be with a public option or better yet, a universal single-payer system like Medicare for all. Medicare is the most popular health insurance program in the U.S., based on patient surveys, and the program operates with less than 3 percent overhead compared to 15-30 percent by for profit providers, meaning that more money goes to actual patient care.

It would allow small business, which is the backbone of the U.S. economy, to compete with huge corporations, and it would allow U.S. corporations to compete with foreign corporations. Health care costs adds hundreds of dollars to the price of a U.S. auto, compared to Japanese, Korean or German made cars that do not have to factor that in because they have universal health care.

The good news is we are not going backward, and the U.S. Senate is not going to waste time and energy to take up something that does not have enough votes to pass and the President has made clear he will veto. However, that has not stopped Republicans from playing politics with it, which is what they do instead of actually governing.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA., has been taunting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to waste more time and bring up the bill for a vote.

Even more ridiculous were the comments of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who pledged the Senate would vote on a repeal health care insurance reform. Good luck.

McConnell said “he's "perplexed" Democrats wouldn't want to hold a vote on one of their signature legislative agenda items.” Is he that stupid? I can answer that one, as can anyone with a brain: because they already held a vote and won after enduring threats, violence and lots of hard work. Why would they vote on something they have already won, unless Senate Republicans offer something better, like a public option or Medicare for all?

To quote an alleged Republican leader, health care insurance reform is the "law of the land" and we need to move on from there

Coulter wannabe highlights speaker series

Here’s no surprise; Cleary University’s Economic Club Speakers Luncheon Series has brought in more right-wingers.

As I have said numerous times, the stated mission of the series is to “enrich the Livingston County community by hosting speakers who can share a broad spectrum of social, political, intellectual and cultural experiences,” but they continue to bring in some of the most inflammatory right-wingers you can imagine, such as Anne Coulter, Dick Morris, Steve Emerson and Michael Reagan. This time they are doubling down on the hate for the 2011 series, and bringing in Coulter waannabe Michelle Malkin and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R- Tennessee.

The good news is they are bringing in a semi-Democrat in Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards. She has been in the news lately because her husband was involved in a sex scandal, and I’m sure every mention of her appearance will also mention that.

The series is actually bringing in some non-right-wingers like Olympic swimmer Peter VanderKaay and sports agent David Arluck. But the fact remains that the school brings in the most vile and partisan right-wingers it can find.

Columnist and blogger Malkin isn’t as racist as Coulter, but she is just as hateful. It seems like the most disgusting and outrageous things people like Malkin and Coulter say, the fatter their bank account gets. Coulter’s star seems to be in decline, so she needs to produce more outrageous and hateful sound bites to get back on faux “news” more.

During the 2004 Presidential election, Malkin said Democratic Presidential nominee and decorated Vietnam War hero John Kerry shot himself to earn his Purple Hearts, insulting Kerry and every single veteran who ever won a medal or decoration. She shouldn’t be very popular in Michigan after saying those people who are unemployed want to be out of a job and are lazy.

During an appearance on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos last year, Malkin suggested that extending unemployment benefits was a cause of the high unemployment rates of 2009. She said she opposed another 13-week extension of unemployment benefits because "if you put enough government cheese in front of people they are going to just keep eating it and kicking the can down the road.”

We must have a lot of government cheese eaters in Michigan.

Frist, a physician, served two terms as a Republican U.S. Senator representing Tennessee, and his most highly publicized action was during the Terri Schiavo fiasco in 2005. After just reviewing videotapes of Schiavo, he floated the diagnosis that Schiavo was not someone who is in persistent vegetative state. After she passed away later in the year the autopsy confirmed she had indeed suffered devastating brain damage and was in a persistent vegetative state.