Enough$%# !!

Enough already!

When the Senate passed their Christmas Eve health insurance bill I went ballistic. This was the last straw. The Senate had passed a bill which funded their health insurance disaster by taxing so called "Cadillac Plans": "Cadillac Plan" is of course is a euphemism for union bargained health insurance. "Rich Off the Hook, Workers pay for all!" What a deal. Thanks Harry, thanks Nancy, thanks Barack. Next time voting for leadership comes up, I'll buy a pack of razor blades instead.

Personally, I must have negotiated around 100 labor contracts between the early 1980s to 2003. This is no exaggeration; there was not one of these contracts where health insurance was not a major issue if not the major issue. Workers were universally clear across the board and across time. Health insurance was key. The objective was maintenance of health insurance and good health care for workers and their families no matter what the cost. In an era of eroded labor militancy, health care was the one issue which could lead to a strike.

After 25 years and a million of these tough fights it can easily be argued that unionized workers are the only people outside of the wealthy who have adequate health care. And this could all come to the end with the stroke of a pen; the pen of of Harry Reid, Jim Baucus, a rogues gallery of elected chumps, Barack Obama... The whole lot of em'.

So, workers making $12, $15, $20 per hour are now looking at 40% taxes... nine, ten thousand dollars in taxes per year if they dare continue to fight for good health care. This is the Democrats' recipe for meaningful health care reform?

Don't blame this on the Republicans. Here, the Democrats are 100% responsible for their own shame. Here, the Democrats have made a clear choice by passing a bill which fails in just about every respect as far as solving real national health care, that represents a burden rather than a hope for millions who have had nothing. And then, the final walk on the backs of union workers... And for what? So Obama and the Democrats can have a "legislative victory"? A victory which looks to dismantle decent health care in the one area where it does exist? A victory which will offer the rest of us private market limited catastrophic coverages for exorbitant premiums, or fines? A victory which leaves intact and healthy the kind of practices which lead to 17% premium hikes per year? A victory which knowingly sacrifices the nations' over all health in the interests of a profitably solvent health insurance and health provider industry?

You can take this victory and shove it.