28 Responses to Obscenely Rich, Senator Kerry Pushes for 10 year Trigger for the Serfs, Us

1. alank June 25th, 2009 at 11:40 am «

   You can’t be a proper serf if you don’t have shit all over you. “Bring out your dead!”

   At the rate things are going, we’ll be lucky if the Dems and the Repugs decide to use us as doormats. I’d feel very lucky just to be spat upon, by jove.
• BargainCountertenor June 25th, 2009 at 2:18 pm «

  Alan! They’s some loverly filth over here!
2. Teddy Partridge June 25th, 2009 at 11:43 am «

   TEN YEARS ?!??
3. Eureka Springs June 25th, 2009 at 11:43 am «

   Ten years! Not ten days… and the trigger needs to mean something! Otherwise it’s just a metaphor for a gun to our heads.

   Place the trigger above middle income, not as a percentage of poverty level. The trigger needs to include as many as possible, not keep folks out who want in. A low trigger will create tremendous hurdles for folks who earn a rise in income, but due to costs of leaving a public plan and being forced to move back to private insurance… they will be forced to keep low paying jobs (indentured servitude.. 21st century style).

   Kerry should be ashamed of himself.
• sadlyyes June 25th, 2009 at 11:49 am «

  Kerry should be ashamed of himself.

  i assure you he is not

  by the by…howz the wing?
• selise June 25th, 2009 at 12:00 pm «

  how’s this for a 10 year trigger:

  if the crappy plans now being considered in congress don’t get us to universal healthcare with (total national) cost control in 10 years – then that will trigger hr 676 for single payer comprehensive universal healthCARE.
• BargainCountertenor June 25th, 2009 at 2:15 pm «

  Selise,

  In ten years, I’ll nearly be eligible for Medicare, and I’ll get my universal health care. I am assuming of course that our fine elected representatives don’t do away with the program I’ve paid into for the last 38 years.

  So, maybe I should be looking for a bottle of that euphemistically-named personal lubricant and hope for a reach-around during the ***-******* we’re going to get if these no-account ***holes like Kerry don’t get their stuff into a pile and take care of business.

  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, public support is running 3:1 in favor of a strong public option and the best these clowns can come up with is this? It’s the STOS (same tired old stuff). I’m scared to think what these guys would do if we didn’t have their backs.

  We don’t need more Democrats in the Senate, we need better Democrats in the Senate. Speaking of better Democrats, have the Minnesota Supremes finished their circle-jerk yet?
• selise June 25th, 2009 at 8:28 pm «

  my favorite democrat in the senate, um, isn’t a democrat (bernie sanders). *g*

  p.s. medicare isn’t universal healthcare for those who can’t afford the coinsurance :(
4. selise June 25th, 2009 at 11:57 am «

   sadlyyes – thank you for posting this! kerry is my senator and he ought to know better if he’s been paying any attention to the failure MA healthcare reform has been. why is congress doing more of the same?

   anyway, i’m calling – have been getting only busy signals so far though… but will keep on it. thanks again!
5. DWilson June 25th, 2009 at 12:03 pm «

   Senator Kerry

   SKULL and BONES until the end of humanity as we know it.

   Just like his brothers the Bushes.

   Is a 10 year “Trigger” the official position of the Skull and Bones Cult?
• alank June 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pm «

  A lawsuit against Yale and the Obama government intended to get back the bones stolen from Geronimo’s grave by Eli members is facing motion for dismissal,

  US officials are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against the government by descendants of Apache leader Geronimo to recover his remains.

  The descendants want to rebury Geronimo, who was buried in Oklahoma in 1909, in his native land in New Mexico.

  They are also seeking the return of body parts they say were stolen in 1918 or 1919 by a secret society at Yale University known as Skull and Bones.

  But justice officials say the law cited by the plaintiffs is not applicable.

  In February, 20 descendants of Geronimo filed a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Secretary of the Army Peter Geren in their capacity as federal officials.

  Their lawsuit, which also named Yale University and the Skull and Bones Society as defendants, alleged violations of a law passed in 1990 to protect Native Americans’ rights to the remains of their family members.

  The lawsuit seeks the recovery of Geronimo’s remains “from 100 years of imprisonment at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the Yale University campus at New Haven, Connecticut and wherever else they may be”.
• DWilson June 25th, 2009 at 4:24 pm «

  Wha she sho wee ko, or as my grandfather said Wasicu
6. Margot June 25th, 2009 at 12:15 pm «

   his office denies this.
   “The Senator is pushing for a public option NOW.”

   I kept asking “From day one?” “Yes.”
   Then deny it online and on camera and so on. He said he would tell the senator. And he hung up on me.
7. MarkH June 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pm «

   Sorry, I don’t understand. What’s the ‘trigger’ and how’s it work?

   I mean, if I’m ill I need care now, so …
• Kassandra June 25th, 2009 at 4:20 pm «

  The “trigger” is that they turn US over to the insurance predators and then, if in however many years, it doesn’t work, you know like it’s already not working for us, then, they re-examine the issue after we’re all dead. that’s the “trigger”.
  This was Susan Collins little bright idea
• Eureka Springs June 25th, 2009 at 5:11 pm «

  Third way.. and the blue dogs paid insurance industry shills… probably invented “trigger”

  Third Way’s Jon Cowan Needs To Account For Anne Kim and David Kendall

  Anne Kim and David Kendall. Kendall is a former consultant for the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association, one of the most powerful insurers in the nation. He is on the board of directors for the Wye River Group on Healthcare, which is funded to the tune of a million dollars by CIGNA, a major health insurance player.

  Kim is a former corporate attorney with Hogan and Hartson, a top health care industry lobby shop, and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton. She also formerly helped write policy for the Blue Dog Coalition, which last week issued a statement of principles opposing a public option without a “trigger.”
8. Hugh June 25th, 2009 at 1:12 pm «

   Out of touch, captured, bought, it doesn’t really matter. The current healthcare debate is 99.9% kabuki. Talking about a public option, and then slicing and dicing it à la John Kerry is all a way not to talk about single payer universal healthcare. Everything that is going on now is not about clarifying matters but obscuring them so the big sellout when it comes can be justified, as it always is, as better than nothing.
• boogiecheck June 25th, 2009 at 1:19 pm «

  That seems to be the name of the game anymore…wear people out by fighting them on every.little.detail so that they will feel relief at getting *any little scrap* you throw their way…
9. Ann in AZ June 25th, 2009 at 1:38 pm «

   Dear John Kerry:

   Now I know why you never became President! Your recent suggestion that people should be forced to wait for ten years for implementation of a public option for health care is unconscionable. (Here’s a flash for you…we’ve already waited since the Truman Administration. That’s over 50 yrs!) Many will not survive the wait. Lots of people will die because you forced them to stay at the mercy of insurance companies that rescind their insurance, even though they happily collected the premiums on an ongoing basis for years previously and their reasons for rescission are extremely minor or they have no bearing on the condition that is making them sick or for other flimsy, inexcusable, or rigged up reasons.

   Your judgment is seriously flawed if you don’t think voters will perceive this as your way of mollifying the health care industry lobbyists and placating your legislative bretheren, allowing them to continue collecting their ill gotten gains until the end of their political careers. More than 72% of the people are demanding, I repeat, demanding a public option NOW. The insurance industry and big pharma have had their way with us for way too long already, but it seems that they and other special interest groups own the legislators. We’ve always thought of you as independently wealthy enough that the special interests could not touch you with their taint, but now we must admit they also have your soul, for whatever the reasons. Just let it be known in whatever circles you run that a health care reform effort without a public option is a deal breaker with the majority of the public and you are all risking the wrath of your constituents by not following the public will. All the money in the world will not satisfy voters where the health of their families are concerned, nor will voters be forgiving of lawmakers that put their own enrichment above the health of the voters and their families. If you can’t deal with that, it’s time for you to retire before the voters take that decision away from you. The same goes for your fellow members of the legislative branch of government.
10. earlofhuntingdon June 25th, 2009 at 1:54 pm «

    Instead of this reach around, let’s put on the table what Kerry’s obscene suggestion is getting at – a timetable for phasing out the dominant role of private insurance companies, and a phasing in of true competition and a dominant role for a credibly designed, funded, and overseen publicly owned insurer.

    There are a lot of assumptions in that description, and a lot to be debated. How long a phase-in (not a waiting period). Ten years would be a death sentence for tens of thousands of Americans. And a waiting period for what? For a publicly subsidized private insurer only market? That would be the worst possible outcome, Senator.

    What would a public insurer do, who would it cover and for what, what would it cost or what sliding scale of premiums would it charge and how would they be collected. A lot of answers need developing. This context-less, open giveaway to private insurers answers nothing. It negotiates away something while getting nothing in return. A methodology that now defines today’s Democrats.

    We can readily establish a public insurer now, and define how soft a landing the public gives private insurers later. My preference would be to give them as soft a landing as coal miners, UAW workers, and air traffic controllers got.
• DrZen June 25th, 2009 at 5:05 pm «

  It negotiates away something while getting nothing in return.

  I don’t know why there is this assumption that the Democrats are on our side in a “negotiation” and are not simply arranging what business wants.
11. Millineryman June 25th, 2009 at 2:09 pm «

    UPDATE:

    Kerry spokeswoman Jodi Seth responds with a statement: “Let’s be clear, if Sen. Kerry had his way, there’d be no debate: we’d have universal coverage tomorrow with a strong public plan at its core. Sen. Kerry strongly supports a robust public option and has been pushing for it since day one of this debate. When he ran for president, he campaigned on a public option and everywhere he went he reminded the country that Congress shouldn’t deny them the public health care that Members of Congress give themselves. The past five years have only strengthened that conviction. Any suggestion that he prefers proposals that would delay or trigger the implementation of a public plan is outright false, end of story. But it’s no secret that the Finance Committee is looking at a whole range of progressive options with an eye on what can make its way to the president’s desk to become law, and obviously if it’s the only way to get universal health coverage then people will consider a trigger that ultimately guarantees a strong public option.”
• BargainCountertenor June 25th, 2009 at 2:28 pm «

  Feh.
• Ann in AZ June 25th, 2009 at 2:52 pm «

  Someone ought to tell this woman, as well as John Kerry, that if he and others of the current batch of legislators can’t get this health care reform done, including universality and a public option, the voters will provide their own version of a trigger. The voters will put the current crew of legislators out to pasture and find a whole new group, and the only ones that will survive from the old group will be the ones that remembered who they were working for and gave the voters what they want demand.
12. JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin June 25th, 2009 at 3:48 pm «

    It’s almost like these Dems are looking for ways NOT to pass the public option, like they’re afraid of angering Republicans, but don’t mind pissing off 76 percent of the people.

    Kerry is a grade A idiot. 10 year trigger? WTF?
13. Kassandra June 25th, 2009 at 4:17 pm «

    Arianna’s depressing article over at HuffPo:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..20521.html

    should we just quit right now????
• marchan1940 June 25th, 2009 at 10:35 pm «

  should we just quit now?

  As for me and my house, the answer is no. I am more and more committed to working on the health care reform issue. And I continue to thank God for FDL being such a great resource for educating me and hundreds of others.

  I want to share something of my experience today at a really wonderful state-wide patient education neuropathy conference featuring doctors and patient advocates. The spokesperson for the HICAP program mentioned that some folks say Medicare is a national program that can be be built upon. But, she said, Medicare has to be cleaned up before that can be a valid option. — Many, many of us burst into loud applause and cheers. I was surprised but delighted to know I wasn’t the only one who needed to be so vociferous on the issue.

  In the evening I was honored with the sponsoring organization’s Our Hero Award for the year and had prepared a five minute or so thanksgiving response in which I celebrated some of the joys of my work. But I also shared grieving over some of the frustrations and anguish I’d experienced, particularly in trying to help those with neuropathy among the homeless, working poor and the hopeless & helpless disabled folks who had called for help. I also talked about the urgent need for us all to become very informed patients and advocates for what is needed in the health care reform discussions and to particularly work for a just and robust public option to be passed this year and not ten years from now, etc. Much to my surprise and delight, I was interrupted four times with applause and cheers, in addition to the final applause. I challenged the leadership of the regional, state-wide and national organizations represented there to start working on behalf of the unserved and underserved and not just their middle and upperclass constituencies; and for desperately needed REAL health care reform because it was the only just and righteous thing to do. Several came up afterwards at the end of a long day to say thanks, not just dear friends and colleagues, but perfect strangers, thanking me for my work and testimony.

  While this sharing toots my horn, the important message is that there is a solid and growing number of folks struggling with really difficult neurological disorders who are coming to understand that there must be radical changes in in our health care system and that their concerns go far beyond their own self interests. Just maybe they are ready to become mobilized for the cause. I was in awe of their response.

  Before leaving the event, the producer of the video project recording the proceedings asked for permission to use my remarks in their national awareness campaign. That was a major surprise as I had understood the filmed materials were only to include comments by those with autoimmune mediated neuropathies and the need for access to IVIG treatments. It will be interesting to see how my passion will be used.

  In the meantime, I’ll return to the growing stack of articles from FDL posts/comments and cites for my education and preparation for new forms of advocacy in this current battle.

  Blessings to all
14. sadlyyes June 25th, 2009 at 9:33 pm «

    sigh!

    The WaPo reports that John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry hold at least $5.2 million in companies such as Merck and Eli Lilly.

    Lawmakers Reveal Health-Care Investments
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp…9061204075.html

    No wonder Kerry favors the “trigger” option — bigger dividends for himself and his billionaire wife!