Several restaurants are laying off employees, needlessly, as a form of passive aggressive snit in objection to Obamacare. They don’t want to have to give their employees health insurance. I think some of these companies are also known for having opposed Obama in the election, which is their right (corporations are people too, after all!) but this is actually, in my view, a form of voter intimidation large scale. If the mainly fast and medium-speed food industry collaborates tacitly or not to make a certain voting pattern hurt all of their employees, they are creating a class of people who may fee forced to vote against their own interest.

So, you know what to do. You will have to avoid eating in those establishments. Here is a graphic that lists the currently known offenders:

That is from here.

According to Fat Chick in LA, there are some companies that are “good” (for now). They are:

<ul>

<li>Starbucks</li>

<li>California Pizza Kitchen</li>

<li>PF Changs</li>

<li>T.G.I. Fridays</li></ul>

Click through to FCILA’s tumbler to read the details on the benefits offered by the “good” (for now) companies.

Romney would replace Obamacare with a law that would require insurers to do what they were already doing before Obamacare, but makes it sound better than it is:

The key phrase here is “continuously insured.”

As pointed out by Jonathan Cohn via Think Progress:

the federal government already forbids insurers from denying coverage to the continuously covered through the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But the measure has been seen as a failure because “there is no limit on what insurers can charge under HIPAA” and the law does “little to regulate the content of coverage, leaving the door open to insurers to offer bare-bones policies. In addition, HIPAA notice requirements are weak, making it hard for people to know about this protection.”

… the hazzards of sickness … should be provided for through insurance. This should be [charged to] the industries the employer, the employee, and perhaps the people at large … Wherever such standards are not met by given establishments, by given industries, are unprovided for by a legislature, or are balked by unenlightened courts, the workers are in jeopardy, the progressive employer is penalized, and the community pays a heavy cost in lessened efficiency and in misery. What [European country] has done in the way of old age pensions or insurance should be studied by us, and the system adapted to our uses, with whatever modifications are rendered necessary by our different ways of life and habits of thought.

That was Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.

What’s the difference between Teddy Roosevelt’s health care plan and Obama’s health care plan? There is only one important difference. Obama got it done.

People are complaining that the health care bill that is currently on the verge of being law is flawed.

Well, duh. People who actually claim that this bill should not become law because it is flawed come in two flavors:

1) Those who are simply against all health care reform and are just blowing this out of one orifice or another. Birthers, teabaggers, Republicans, heatlh care lobbyists, other undesirables.

2) People who have little knowledge of how these things work and just woke up to find that reality is not what they assumed, in their ignorance it to be. Have you ever heard of the EPA and environmental regulation? The “Great Society” and legal protections for disadvantaged groups? The New Deal and banking regulation?

All three of those major shifts if the interrelationship between society and government, all of which progressives look back on and can justifiably claim to be good things, started out as sucky law. This is how it is done. You propose some good law, the yahoos show up and delay, damage, mess with the process until you finally have something that can’t pass. Then you give up.

Then you come back and do it again. And again. And again. And finally, you get the law passed.

Then you have this law that is not what you wanted, but you DO have a bill. You are now, finally, at the table. The basic idea of having laws of some kind dealing with a basic issue … racial discrimination, environmental protection, banking regulation, or people- and health-oriented health care insurance regulation … is then a reality, and further negotiations must start from that point, in stead of the perspective that the notion of reform is alien.

If you look a those early versions for these other, earlier efforts they were much less developed and probably much less effective than the current health care bill is. And to demonstrate that, I give you the recently posted list of ten good things about this bill from Moveon.org:

Continue reading Moveon.org’s 10 Things Every American Should Know About Health Care Reform →

The current health care bill, which we DO need to pass (Stop whinging that is not perfect. Neither are you. We let you pass.) has two more steps to go through. Reconciliation and signing by the President. Barack will take care of that second part, but we need to pressure congress to take care of that first part.

Harry Reid has a petition for you to sign to help develop this support.

Click Here to Sign

… is doomed.

This is what happens when you (and by “you” I mean the insurance industry”) go one step to far in bullying Congress. Even the Republicans turn on you. A little.

Details from Rachel:
Continue reading The Health Insurance Industry’s Anti Trust Exemption →

He’s too big.

I did not let Amanda see this story. I just turned the TV off and said “Oh, I think the fuse blew, honey.”