Health Care is at Heart of Long-Term Debt Problem

Germany--Appearance and Reality

Germany's Green party (Buendnis 90/Die Gruenen) parliamentary group co-leader Renate Kuenast stands next to a poster of herself at a Environment Festival in central Berlin, June 5, 2011. Kuenast will run for mayor in the Berlin state election later this year. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

By Norman Birnbaum

The Nation

June 7, 2011

Excerpts from commentary:

Everywhere in Western Europe, the political agents of capital are reclaiming for the market the ground they lost to the state over the past half-century.

...

As in the other industrial democracies, Germany has for four decades experienced a very organized counter-offensive by the proponents of the market. But singular alliance of churches and trade unions and the acquired political instincts of much of the nation prevented an assault as brutal as those of Reagan and Thatcher.

(click here to view entire commentary)

Despite House Passage, Feingold Maintains Opposition to Financial Reform Bill as "Too Weak" in Face of Wall St. Recklessness

Democracy Now!

July 2, 2010

Democrats may still be one vote short of approving an overhaul of financial regulation with Senator Russ Feingold vowing to vote against the measure again. The House approved the measure this week following over three weeks of conference committee negotiations. We speak to former investment banker turned journalist Nomi Prins, author of several books including "It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street."[includes rush transcript]

Frontline's "The Warning" documents how the whole political establishment is implicated in the lack of financial regulation that led to the crisis

Check out The Warning on PBS' Frontline.

Obama’s Engine For Healthcare Reform: Can It Work?

GRITtv

June 11, 2009

The battle over healthcare reform continues to play out on the Capitol, where Congress is preparing to review Sen. Kennedy's long-anticipated bill. President Obama recently presented the economic imperative of reforming our current system before everyone's healthcare is 'put in jeopardy'.

To sort through the political quagmire, we're joined by Leonard Rodberg, Professor of Urban and Health Policy at Queens College CUNY, Dr Laura Boylan of Physicians for a National Health Program, Karen Davenport, Director of Health Policy for the Center for American Progress and Rep. Mary Caferro, recipient of the 2008 Families USA Consumer Health Advocate award.

The Struggle for Single-Payer

GRITtv

June 11, 2009

Last month, Sen Baucus declared that single-payer healthcare was "off the table". Doctors, nurses and single-payer advocates responded by disrupting the Senator's congressional hearings. A small victory was earned in the announcement that Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program was invited to testify at Sen. Kennedy's Committee hearing this Thursday.

Geri Jenkins, Co-President of the California Nurses Association just participated in Congress' first ever hearing to examine the single-payer option. She reports back on the hearing from Washington, D.C.

Time Magazine’s Convenient Omission: The Silencing of Single-Payer Continues

GRITtv

June 11, 2009

The US has much to learn and less than it thinks to fear from studying the European provision of healthcare. A May 20th feature in Time Magazine started out upbeat enough.

But interestingly, in a piece intended to inform Americans wading into the healthcare debate, Time left out some key details...

(click here to view entire report)