Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “health insurance”

More Reasons Not to Support Hillary’s Bid for the Nomination

Hillary ClintonIf Hillary’s connections with Wall Street bankers and her vote to help Bush find the phantom “weapons of mass destruction” isn’t enough to dissuade you from supporting her in the primary race, then here are some more reasons buried in her history.

We’ll start with her years as First Lady.

During her husband’s run for the White House back in ’92, a central campaign issue was healthcare reform. Indeed, during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention that year, he brought up healthcare reform at least three times:

  • Less than ten minutes into the 53 minute speech, he said when talking about his mother, “That’s why I’m so committed to make sure that every American gets the health care that saved my mother’s life, and that women’s health care gets the same attention as men’s.”

  • Later, when ragging on H.W. Bush’s ineptitude, he brought the subject up again, as an example of a Bush and Republican failing: “He won’t take on the big insurance companies and bureaucracy to control health costs and give us affordable health care for all Americans, but I will.”

What’s Wrong With Walmart Is What’s Wrong With America

A protest in Utah against Walmart. Photo by Joey Caputo
Today I ran across an old article, originally posted in 2010, 16 Facts About Walmart That Will Blow Your Mind by Ujala Sehgal on Business Insider. Actually, the piece was more slide show than article, but it succinctly explained some rather scary facts about this giant retailer. I thought I’d take this opportunity to go over some of the facts laid out in the article, with my own observations thrown in for good measure.

1. Walmart has more full-time employees — 2.1 million — than seven times the population of Iceland.

My first thought when I read this was about the irony of comparing any aspect of Iceland with Walmart.

Iceland was hit hard by the so-called “great recession” of 2007–2008. Prices on their local stock market dropped by 90 percent, inflation rose 18%, while unemployment increased by a factor of nine. Oh, at the same time all of the country’s biggest banks failed. However, Iceland has recovered nicely, not by bailing out the banks and leaving their private citizens to sink or swim. Instead, they concentrated their efforts on helping people get out from under crippling mortgages and prosecuted the bankers.

Guess what? It worked. According to Bloomberg their economy is now a shining example for the rest of us:

Who’s Money Is It Anyway?

Ever since the laissez-faire capitalist all but completely took over our economy, we’ve been told that we have absolutely no right to regulate business. If the Enrons of the world want to keep their houses of cards propped-up by breaking the back of Californians, we’re supposed to be perfectly fine with that – after all, it’s a free country and they should be allowed to do whatever they want. Likewise, if Walmart wants to employ practices that force their suppliers to move their factories overseas in order to stay in business, who are we to complain? After all, what’s the lifeblood of American towns and cites compared to the Walton’s or the Koch clan’s right to do whatever they like?

After all, it is their money.

The Emperor’s New Doctor

When Clinton accepted the Democrats’ nomination in 1992, he promised the party faithful that getting health care for all U.S. citizens would be his number one priority. He gave the impression that he’d come up with a plan and if that got knocked down by the evil doctors and Republicans he’d come up with another plan, and if that got knocked down he’d come up with yet another plan until it was a done deal.

He wouldn’t rest until the United States had a health care system in place that was on par with the rest of the developed world. If necessary, he would twist every congressperson’s arm or do battle with any lobbyist or special interest group, including the all powerful AMA. If elected, we could sleep well in the knowledge that before he left the White House, Americans from rich to poor would have equal access to health care.

If This Be Treason is an AlternativeApproaches Media website.