[Peace-discuss] why a substantive change in health care is unlikely

[C. G. Estabrook]

[1] By "administration" I meant the button-men, rather than the godfather.

[2] It's a fairly central point of modern society that the people who do the 
work (even health-care providers) are often different from the people who 
profit.  But it is true that the nature of the work can be corrupted by the 
'needs' of profit.

[3] I agree with your analysis, but the solution I would propose would not be to 
remove the government from the picture.  Rather get the government, ostensibly 
run by and working for the majority, to be/do so in fact. And that takes a 
political movement (probably not the Republicans or Democrats).

[4] Democracy "means that the central institutions of society have to be under 
popular control. Now, under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. 
Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in 
principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we 
were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control 
at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level -- there's 
little bargaining, a little give and take, but the line of authority is 
perfectly straightforward. Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed 
to economic fascism. I think that until the major institutions of society are 
under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to 
talk about democracy." (Noam Chomsky)


E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
> For "administration" I would put "entrenched oligarchy that runs the 
> country".
> 
> I perceive the health care providers themselves to be a part of the
> health insurance "industry" - the medical-industrial complex.
> 
> ***
> 
> I would agree that the forces of the medical-industrial complex have 
> taken great advantage of the groundswell of anti-government and 
> anti-Obama sentiment and to some extent astroturfed and played the tea 
> party-ers. Outfits like the Newt Gingrich crowd and Americans for 
> Prosperity, Pajamas TV, Michelle Malkin, Fred Thompson and the 
> quasi-faux-libertarians like GlennBeck have all tried to get some spin 
> from the tea parties, but in general, the original grassroots are wise 
> to those cats as being establishment GOP neocons who are trying to con 
> the teaparties.
> 
> The Orwellian line that those neocons would never use but seems 
> attractive to me is "Federal Government Run Health Care - from the 
> people who brought you Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkan War, Vietnam, the 
> FDA and the IRS.  We're the Government.  We're here to help you.  Trust 
> US."
> 
> I think the fundamental problem is that the government institutions are 
> truly not worthy of trust because they do represent the interests of the 
> elitist oligarchy and certainly not the interests of the people (at all).
> 
> I think that Chomsky's observations from the Bedeutung article are 
> significant:
> "...the majority of American people today don’t accept the assumption 
> that it is they who create their institutions and who run their country. 
> The last time I looked at the polls, about 80% of the population felt 
> that the government is made up of a few big interests looking out for 
> themselves and not for the people...Although I don’t have the exact 
> figures at hand, there’s a very striking fact: opinions of Congress are 
> extremely low – in the teens. Nevertheless, probably 98% of incumbents 
> get re-elected. What this tells you is that, essentially, people are 
> aware that they don’t have a choice and that they’re not taking part in 
> running the country. ...take April 15th, the day when taxes are paid. In 
> a democratic society, where people would feel that they are shaping 
> their own lives, this would be a day of celebration. The spirit would be 
> “We’re getting together as a community to put our resources into 
> implementing policies that we have chosen”. What could be better than 
> that? Well, that’s not the way it is here. Instead, it’s a day of 
> mourning when some alien force which has nothing to do with us comes to 
> steal our hard-earned money.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook" 
> <galliher at illinois.edu>
> To: "E.Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>
> Cc: "peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 9:01 AM
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] why a substantive change in health care 
> isunlikely
> 
> 
>> The reason that "a substantive change in health care is unlikely" is 
>> that the administration is unwilling to do anything in anyway to harm 
>> the profits of the health insurance "industry."  If they were, they 
>> could do so with their political and propaganda resources.
>>
>> That's what they've done in regard to to the AfPak war.  The polls 
>> showed about the same division on that as on healthcare when Obama 
>> began selling escalation -- 40% in favor of the war, 56% opposed to it.
>>
>>
>> E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
>>> I really think that the reason that we are not going to get 
>>> substantive change in health care is that the limited debate has not 
>>> included the necessary questions.  I think the health care system in 
>>> the US is very bad indeed, but change will be slow in coming.
>>>  Whether Rasmussen is right or not, the health care reform project 
>>> lacks support and is likely to incite significant resistance.
>>>  *********
>>>  ...47% trust the private sector more than government to keep health 
>>> care costs down and the quality of care up. Two-thirds (66%) say an 
>>> increase in free market competition will do more than government 
>>> regulation to reduce health care costs.  ... 71% of voters nationwide 
>>> say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the 
>>> federal government. That’s up five points from September. The overall 
>>> figure includes 46% who are Very Angry.
>>>
>>> Rasmussen Poll - Health Care Reform
>>> 40% Support Health Care Plan, 56% Oppose It
>>> Monday, December 14, 2009
>>>  Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters now oppose the health care 
>>> plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s 
>>> the highest level of opposition found - reached three times before - 
>>> in six months of polling.
>>>  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 
>>> just 40% of voters favor the health care plan...