Given that Wall Street has wanted to get their hands on our earned retirement benefits for decades,

Social Security and Medicare are insurance for which we’ve PAID. That’s what ticks me off. Nobody’s doing anyone any favors here, we’ve paid the premiums all our working lives.

War IS the official US religion. Nobody pussyfoots around forcing taxes to be paid for that church.

What an interesting question! Do catholic hospitals provide free birthing assistance?

I agree. No sense of decorum.

Lol! Can’t you just see the deer-in-the-headlights look on his face?

Indeed.

You’re right. Everyone in the religion should have their behavior affected equally by civil secular law. If all catholic men were required to practice celibacy, then secular law should actively support such edicts. Then when ACA provides free access to condoms for the Fallen, at least the result and the burden for the result on Civil Society will be the same.

But since that’s too much meddling in religion for 1st Amendment purposes, then we should just stick to taxing their businesses and political organizations while assuring all labor, health, civil rights, and commerce laws are implemented and enforced.

Oversight in practice. This could, and should, be highly educational.

If I understand correctly there are no solvent big banks. Any calamity, global or national, could bring it all down. And, of course, we have nothing with which to replace it.

Maybe that’s just a liar’s scare tactic, but if they’re still doing business the same way they were,then it’s also logical.

David is a gem. He brings sourced information and critical analysis coupled with experience from which we may draw nourishment for healthy debate. Thanks, David and Everybody!

Truly. Their team is familiar – and not brown.

We’ll see what happens as they get more overt. This enabling will just feed their egos.

I wonder how much would workers earn if health care were not connected to their employer?

And then? Create a new Civil War? Anarchy? I think it’s life-enriching to participate in constructive ways while spending more of my energy and time on adjusting my own life to limit dependence on the existing system.

I like the fact that regular folk are joining together to help each other and petition our government. I support using intelligence and humor over blunt force and destruction. If we don’t use the framework, we can hardly say it’s irreparably broken.

I can only use myself as a basis of comparison for “good”, so the bar is pretty low, but I’m predominantly pleased with Jeff Merkley, Kurt Schrader, Ron Wyden, Jan Schakowsky, Sheldon Whitehouse, Bernie Sanders, President Obama, and several others. I tend to focus on what policy is being proposed and why more than who is doing it. The work product is more important than the personality, and I don’t expect instant results. The US is a 200+ year project. This is a short time in a short history.

It’s discouraging and encouraging now, but not as badly as 2001-2009. At least from my view. There are people in Congress who need to go home. There are relationships between industry and gov’t which need to change or end.

The reason for not voting should be glaringly apparent. No matter which corporate puppet wins the (s)election, the USA will stay on the same path to full blown oligarchy and police state.

So not voting changes nothing other than relieving both parties of any dissent, and eventually relieving the populace of the right to vote at all- as it was originally.

I think there is ongoing value in voting even as I work to effect change in my own locale. If there’s no effort to publicly support different ideals than those discussed in society at large, or the existing gov’t, then I have neglected my rights and responsibilities as a citizen. In the age of global media it only takes one generation to lose, pervert, or morph a concept. Repubs are working hard to do just that.

I don’t vote just to win, I vote to keep valid ideas and good people in office.

I’m hoping there are enough earthwise, liberal, and outspoken investigators, lawyers, activists, and judges to pursue the creation of justice as understood by American and human ideals.

As that eternal battle wages, I’m wondering if the consumer/profit meme has over-reached at long last. What happens when a society can’t afford to buy homes, consumer junk goods, education, houses, or even cars? That’s the reality at my income level. I only know 3 families who can continue that lifestyle. I know 20 families who are radically changing how they spend, how much they earn, and whose products they will buy based on that company’s policies and social behavior.

Have the economic impacts of this recession/depression reached a critical mass of regular people? Have they been harsh enough to change the real spending habits and priorities drastically enough to result in forced change? I’m liking some of the independence I’m seeing.

So is the idea that with Romney/Kochs and the Corprepubs firmly in power the whole country will be better off? Rise up in anger? ??? Please explain the rationale for not participating or voting for an actual possible win. I’m genuinely curious.

Guess I’m old enough to remember all the “crumbless” decades.

It is a matter of accepting reality as it is. None of the perverse authoritarian policies is new to this country nor the sole responsibility of this administration. Bush/Cheney brought it out of the closet, Congress codified it, and we’ve had exactly one President who was even capable of broadly and intelligently considering the impacts of any policy on real human beings. The Congress has not progressed.

Do you honestly think that absent the Occupy Movement anyone in Washington would be talking about, much less acting on, anything for the People as opposed to the banksters and their previously unquestioned status quo?

No one should get a pass. Everyone should be held responsible for the choices they make.

I am not disappointed nor surprised that progressive ideals were not achieved. In my opinion we would have to be a wholly different country at this point in time.

Compared to the last 50 years, this is still a step in the right direction. Thanks for getting the ball rolling, President Obama et al. Now we’ll see who sues the banks additionally. The People do not have the protective instincts toward the banking system which is prevalent in Washington or at the state gov’t levels.

The more progressives run and win office, the more consumers refuse to spend their money with these companies, the more people take responsibility for the choices they make, the better the outcome.

Don’t their “flocks” ever wonder about their perverse choices for obsession and the types of events they “infiltrate”; again, and again, and again?

I’ll bet these guys spend hours at home poring over, I mean researching, gay porn when they should be having family time. Closeted grifters peddling hate.

I thought preachers’ duty was to their church. What the heck are they doing lobbying in the legislature anyway? Guess TN needs to raise some revenue on those political organizations. Bet the folks of TN could use an increase in state revenues. I know the federal budget could.

If the vaunted “Private Sector” wanted to serve the whole market, it could have done so at any time throughout its history. It didn’t.

If a U.S. President were a king who wanted everyone to have health insurance, health care, or a house, it would be so. A U.S. President trying to work with 535 legislators (500 of whom did NOT support single payer or universal care)would not be able to mandate nor negotiate such a change. Not yet.

Two changes I think will be effective are the requirement that 80 cents of every dollar spent by insurers be spent on actual health care services, and the reimbursement is tied to results. If your state gov’t is smart enough, it will construct a better plan for its residents. If it can’t, or won’t, you’ll still have health care through insurance coverage; which many of us do not have now, or have not ever had unless our job included it.

The sheer number of people qualifying for subsidy guarantee that change will be effected. We’ll still have to work to get improvements, but we’ll have coverage.

When health insurance is provided through the workplace, 26% unemployment/underemployment results in loss of insurance. Employment has been essentially flat or falling since 2000.

I’m voting for Obama 2012. Not voting throws away the only opportunity to be even slightly effective in the only system which exists.