December 17, 2007
If you don't read Paul Krugman's twice a week column, you should. His distrust of Obama mirrors mine, but he articulates why in a way better than I could.
I'm not particularly enamored of John Edwards, but he really does seem the best realistic option at this point, though it's anybne's guess whether a win in Iowa is enough to recussitate his campaign.
In other news, Chris Dodd is going to filibuster the bullshit warrantless wiretapping law that our lovely Democratic Senate majority wants passed. Russ Feingold is going to support him. Fire Dog Lake, who have several lawyers writing for them, is following the story.
Russ Feingold talks about the filibuster.
And apparently I overreacted. Harry Reid just pulled the old, shitty bill.
Honestly, when I read that it's Edwards who comes off as naive. Of course you have to involve the drug and insurance companies; they're stakeholders in any current or future system. They will bitterly fight a lot of reasonable changes, whether or not they're involved in engineering a new system. But refusing to involve them -- and thinking that this is a fair or prudent negotiating strategy, or one that will stand up in court -- is foolish and naive.
but history contradicts that. In 1993, the insurance compaines got a prime seat at the table. They proceeded to needlessly complicate the insane behemoth that the Clinton team gave congress, and then also proceeded to launch one of the nastiest ad campaigns ever against the plan in public.
and that's not even mentioning the monstrosity of a medicare prescription drug plan that got passed with industry approval. They are not good faith negotiators. They are the reason that our health care system is as fucked as it is. And they will poison any UHC to the greatest extent that they can. They'll exert plenty of influence whether or not you make concessions to them at the getgo.
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By the way, I love this summary of the primary messaging:
Obama: The system sucks, but I'm so awesome that it'll melt away before me.
Edwards: The system sucks, and we're gonna have to fight like hell to destroy it.
Clinton: The system sucks, and I know how to work within it more than anyone.
posted by Valatan at 10:12AM CST on December 17