Humor in a Time of Insanity: MoveOn Socks Lieberman

Franken Defends Progressive Funding Amendment for Healthcare

In this video, it's good to see the Progressive Senators Frankin, Sanders and Brown fired up on all cylinders.

Republicans, who have driven the conversation regarding just how the healthcare bill will be payed for, have also pushed for rules that would lay the burden of the costs on moderate to middle income earners receiving employer based health care, presumably in an attempt to inspire public fury to help defeat the bill or to insulate the wealthy from a progressive tax, all the while protecting the escalating profit margins of healthcare insurance providers.

Senator Al Frankin (D-MN), along with Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are sponsoring an amendment that would remove the 40 per cent excise tax on employer based healthcare insurance currently written into the Senate bill and replace it with a progressive tax, aligning it closer to the House bill.

A letter which the three Progressive Senators are circulating in the Halls states, "While we are in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the last thing the American middle class need right now is a tax on their health benefits." The letter also said: "99.98% of individuals and 99.92% of families would not see their taxes go up by one dime under the Sanders-Brown-Franken Amendment."

In an attempt to derail the progressive Senators' agenda, Senator Thune (R-SouthDakota) had declared that Americans would see no benefits until 2016 while taxes would begin immediately, fueling the image of a bureaucracy unable to deliver. Frankin called out Thune, his "friend from across the aisle" for either not reading the healthcare bill or purposefully misrepresenting facts about when the benefits will begin.

"Let's have an honest debate, for goodness sakes. Let's not put up charts that contend one thing that are just not true.” said Frankin. “We are entitled to our own opinions. We are not entitled to our own facts.”

The Senators claim their amendment would raise $151 billion over ten years -- two billion dollars more than the estimated revenue from the excise tax.


Other healthcare bill fights Progressive Lions are leading include:
Sanders prescription drug importation rights
Frankin on Women’s Reproduction Rights

Congressman Cao Breaks from Republican Ranks Even Before Election

Polidoc interviewed Representative Cao (R-LA) on the day of his election last December and snatched a quick interview with him in this video. (this is a revised video from one posted earlier today)

Joseph Cao, Congressional Representative from Louisiana has an independent streak and won't buckle down to Republican Party rhetoric. As seen in this video on the day of his landmark election in December 2008, this lawyer hopes to represent his community even in areas that aren't considered Republican today.

On November 7, 2009, Cao, a lawyer and the first Vietnamese Representative in the history of the United States, demonstrated his willingness to break from the Republican Party rhetoric by voting for a landmark healthcare reform bill. While progressives suspect the bill will be a boon to the healthcare industry rather than the reform it had hoped, Cao's break sharpens points of difference between the teabagging Constitutionalist Party leaning Republicans from more moderate voices who might be willing to consider a different definition of conservative.

Cao, who ran as independent in a previous election, was the first Republican to win this district since Reconstruction. As the Representative of a majority black community, Cao had asked to join the Black Caucus but was denied.

Waiting for the Elephant: Healthcare

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Progressive Talk Show Host Ed Schultz says that President Obama's backroom deals are leading to a trigger and denying a public option in which real competition can be created, all in the hopes of attaching a Republican or two to the healthcare reform bill in this video.

Senate Moves Ahead with Co-op & State's Opt-Out Rights

Creative Sprint Inspires Insurers to Embrace Competition

Heather Graham embodies an energized and healthy government sponsored public health insurance option in a race with health care insurance company execs who seem to have forgotten the benefits of competition. It's a very hopeful and funny ad campaign for public option.

Pelosi Goes Back to the Matresses for Public Option

From THE HILL:

“I don't even want to talk about a trigger,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. She said the “attitude” of her fellow Democrats is that “a trigger is an excuse for not doing anything.”

read more

President Half Pregnant with Insurance Companies

Congressman Anthony Weiner (NY- 9) discusses the healthcare system with Bill Maher on Real Time and takes a bold stand on Obama's centrist style that has contributed to the confusing conversation on healthcare.

"The President has tried to be half pregnant with the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies....The healthcare insurance company shouldn't exist at all...It's not to say that they are venal. I'm sure there were some very good people in the '80s making $800 toilets for the Dept. of Defense. I'm not sure that's an argument for keeping them around."

-Anthony Weiner