Via an interview with Raw Story (3/22/10):
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor added that it’s a damning referendum on American democracy that one of the most highly supported components of the effort nationally, the public insurance option, was jettisoned. He partly blamed the media for refusing to stress how favorably it’s viewed by the populace.
“It didn’t have ‘political support,’ just the support of the majority of the population,” Chomsky quipped, “which apparently is not political support in our dysfunctional democracy.”
The provision has consistently polled well, garnering the support of 60 percent of Americans across the nation in a CBS/New York Times poll released in December, days after it was eliminated from the reform package. Democratic leaders deemed it politically untenable.
“There should be headlines explaining why, for decades, what’s been called politically impossible is what most of the public has wanted,” Chomsky said. “There should be headlines explaining what that means about the political system and the media.”
See Extra!: “Healthcare Reform Minus the Public Optionâ┚¬”Âor the Public” (10/09).
Read Chomsky !
Less you forget Noam, we are a Republic and greater than 60% of We The People wanted no part of this legislation. Your focus would be well serve on the bribes, arm twisting, and treats made to get the votes that you know in your own heart are wrong. Nice try, put the smoke up on the right so we look there when in fact the corruption is within your own party. J.C.
Actually when explained over 70% wanted it same with the public option. But it was damned difficult to find that bit of information. If it matters 75% of doctors and 60% of nurses were also for it too. Too bad that the present Health Care Law benefits the corporate world—tax payer funded that is. The Democrats gave the Republicans all of what they wanted in changes. They fought for nothing for us. Only a few did and they are in the minority. But it was difficult to find it unless you watched MSNBC which did cover it all in detail. You must be like Dr. Chomsky and read and read. But then you may not have a personal life if you do. For me I don’t have one so it is much easier. MSNBC helps too along with Pacifica Radio.
The corporate corruption of money is in our political system so the highest bidder wins the speech and buys the politicos. Either party and any other party. We must eliminate the corrupt and corrupting system first.
to the above letter-writer: the U.S. is a plutocracy, and to depict Noam Chomsky as an elder statesman of the Democratic-Party shows an abysmal ignorance, which, unfortunately, is so prevalent these days in our country.as Mother Jones once so famously said”sit down and educate yourself”.
Hey, jim campbell, what’s the source of your numbers? A right-wing lie site? FOX News? And, how many of those supposedly in opposition were against the bill because they favored SINGLE PAYER? And, talk about bribes and strong-arming, do you even remember the vote on the despicable Medicare drug “plan”, the number of times rethugnicans locked out democraps from committee hearings, etc., etc., etc. The truth is, WE THE PEOPLE are fed up with thugs, like the tea baggers, who pretend to represent to represent public opinion, when in fact they represent total ignorance and are too dumb to tie their own shoelaces.
Ummm not to point out the obvious Noam, but what this means is the government is not a vehicle for everything the masses want. It was in fact set up to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority, which in this case is tyranny by economic illiterates who are also ignorant or hostile towards the separation of powers between the states and the Federal government. Wanting something and having the right to something is not the same thing.
In every poll I’ve seen, the public option was wanted by a majority of the people, and the same with single payer, when it was explained as Medicare for everyone. In fact, many of the people who didn’t want a public option wanted single payer instead. This is one of many cases where the MSM deliberately provides propaganda instead of information.
It’s true that many people didn’t like the bill, but many of them didn’t like it because of the mandate (the biggest reason by far) or because it didn’t include a public option. The MSM tried to twist that around to make it seem like the majority sided with the Republicans, but the people who really did has been a small minority all along. Recently Faux News and others reported that the majority of people were unhappy with the bill, but when you looked at the actual poll, far more people either supported the bill or thought it didn’t go far enough than thought it went to far. That type of reporting is a form of lying, the kind that may not technically be a lie, but is designed to make people believe something that is not true.
Maybe the saddest thing is that so many Democrats in Congress fall for this type of MSM propaganda. They were scared a few weeks ago because they thought they were trying to pass an unpopular bill, even though all the polls showed otherwise. You’d think they’d be a little more intelligent, or at least hire an intelligent staff member who could let them know what is really happening. They get fooled again and again. It’s amazing. But in the end, it must have been Obama and Pelosi (maybe Reid?) who knocked a little sense into enough Democrats to get it passed.
But it sickens me that they compromised so much with people who had no intention of voting for the bill that it ended up being a very weak set of reforms. The insurance companies will find ways around the regulations, new ways to deny care that aren’t covered by them, and they’ll keep raising their rates because there is no public option to compete with them. But it will help a lot of people at the same time, so I’m glad it passed.
I very much agree with “Nightgaunt” and with “BrianF” .
So, Ben O, who is it exactly that determines who has the right to what? Stating that governments were set up by originally by the “elite” minority to oppress the “ignorant” masses is, in fact, pretty much stating the obvious. However, in case you skipped out of history class when they got to the 18th century, there is this little thing called d-e-m-o-c-r-a-c-y. Some would say the U.S. wasn’t set up as one, but you see, it was, because they had the genius to include this thing called Article V into the Constitution, allowing the document to be a-m-e-n-d-e-d when enough people want it to be. And it has been, becoming more and more democratic. That’s right, if enough people want it, we can take away your precious guns, property, and anything else you think you have a right to, because you know what? You can think it’s OK to justify oppressing the masses because they are illiterate and you’re not. But here’s a philosophical newsflash for you. Your opinion (especially the inflated one of your own intellect) has no more value than anyone else’s. It’s democracy, baby. Love it, or don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out.
we the people don’t have to take your elitist crap anymore.
Understated. Actually a majority of the population has been for a universal, Medicare-for-all, type of health insurance program and polls have consistently shown this. For example, to quote AP on what may be the the most recent poll on the question from a little over two years ago: “Sixty-five percent of those polled said the United States should adopt universal health insurance that covers everyone under a program such as Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers. Fifty-four percent went where politicians dare not tread, saying they supported a “single-payer” health system whereby all Americans would get their health coverage from a single government plan financed by taxpayers.”
All we need is a simple bill that states in the year 2011 all citizens over 55 will be eligible for medicare
In the year 2012 all citizens over 50 will be eligible for medicare.
in the year 2013 all citizens over 45 will be eligible for medicare
In the year 2014 all citizens over 40 will be eligible for medicare.
In the year 2015 all citizens over 35 will be eligible for medicare.
In the year 2016 all citizens over 30 will be eligible for medicare.
In the year 2017 all citizens over 25 will be eligible for medicare.
In the year 2018 all citizens over 20 will be eligible for medicare.
In the year 2019 all citizens will be eligible for medicare.
The current income tax for medicare for the wealthy is only applies to the first $100,000 earned. This would be change to tax the first $200,000. This would more than cover the projected bankruptcy of Medicare
There will be a slight increase in the payroll tax which will in most cases amount to less than half what people pay the insurance companies today. Medicare would be allowed to negotiate down the price of drugs.
No preconditions. Everyone covered. Simple.
Once again, Noam Chomksy’s perspective hits the bullseye in explaining the American condition today. As a dysfunctional democracy, I suppose this mangled bill of Health Care Reform is perhaps the best we could expect. It is sad to me, a product of the second half of the 20th century, we have so regressed as society and people to be so polarized about how we care for each other, those in need, those without, and the right to be healthy, educated, and without fear of being destitute in a country of such vast resources and wealth.
Thanks for clarifying, Noam.
M Schultz’s schedule has merit and should be considered by the administration and congress. Our taxes,compared with other developed countries is very low. We should consider raising the wealth cap in support of taxes to support Medicare for all, perhaps using a similar annual schedule od increase in cap, $100,000 per year. We must also close the tax loopholes for those who use offshore tax havens. Then, participation will grow as tax support of the Medicare system grows.
There remains no doubt that the private Insurance system we now have costs at least 30% for adminitration plus whatever profit % that must be covered by the difference in premium revenue over claim costs.
I believe most Americans know this and have expressed this knowledge in honest polls. But Republicans appear to have been consistently successful in convincing many American citizens to vote against their own self interests. Democrats must continue to enlighten these many so that once again we can become a country, whose government serves the enlightened self interest of the majority of citizens.
In answer to Brian’s excellent commentary, I will make mine shorter: Obama must be singing the praises of the Republican Party each and every night. Without them he could never get away with the crap he is getting away with. Anybody who is against Obama is either one or both of these two things: Republican and a racist.
What if McCain-Palin were in there passing this same type of garbage? For one thing, there would be no tea parties, but I believe there would be a very united front out there of Dems, Independents and Republicans marching in real protest. Obama was, after all, elected by all three — something that Dems and the MSM conveniently like to forget.
I’m afraid we’ll be waiting a very long time for those headlines professor.
From a Physicians for National Health Care Press Release following passage of the healthcare bill:
A genuine remedy is in plain sight. Sooner rather than later, our nation will have to adopt a single-payer national health insurance program, an improved Medicare for all. Only a single-payer plan can assure truly universal, comprehensive and affordable care to all.
By replacing the private insurers with a streamlined system of public financing, our nation could save $400 billion annually in unnecessary, wasteful administrative costs. That’s enough to cover all the uninsured and to upgrade everyone else’s coverage without having to increase overall U.S. health spending by one penny.
Moreover, only a single-payer system offers effective tools for cost control like bulk purchasing, negotiated fees, global hospital budgeting and capital planning.
Polls show nearly two-thirds of the public supports such an approach, and a recent survey shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians support government action to establish national health insurance. All that is required to achieve it is the political will.
Oliver Fein, M.D.
President Garrett Adams, M.D.
President-elect
Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Congressional Fellow David Himmelstein, M.D.
Co-founder
Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator Don McCanne, M.D.
Senior Health Policy Fellow
Currently nearly 45,000 Americans die due to lack of health insurance. We must end the corporate plutocracy that controls our government, our economy, our healthcare, etc.
Mr. Chomsky so effortlessly defines a major problem in our country, which, not by coincidence, is not one of the major problems identified by the mainstream media. Were he a proud Democrat, such clarity would be impossible. The media have twisted this glaring issue of taxation without representation into knots and sprinkled it with lots of pablum, evidently in an effort to confuse people into maintaining the status quo. It is the status quo that Americans should be mad as hell about, as year after year Americans’ tax dollars are paying for million dollar corporate bonuses, 8 year wars, and overly-expensive, undependable health insurance instead of new schools, healthcare for all, and a clean energy economy. It really does start with our media. Thank you FAIR!
Yes, this country is a plutocracy, but that doesn’t mean Americans should stop working to make it less so. Equal rights may be an impossible goal – given human nature- but without pursuing the ideal you won’t make any advances at all. l am disturbed how corporations are getting what they want at the expense of the average citizen. We may be the majority, but we are powerless when we can’t pull together around issues or get our voice heard. The media are very corporate themselves and gladly exploit the political rancor that is dividing the populace in order to boost their ratings. Unfortunately, keeping Americans “polarized” is the modern version of divide-and-conquer. Who benefits from that? This corporate takeover of government and media is not only bad for America but bad for progress. Where would we be if the horse-and-buggy industry had successfully lobbied the automobile out of business? Corporate interests killed the electric car, resists drug reimportation (it would hurt the profits of our pharmaceutical companies), pushed the doctrine of ‘free trade’ into national policy in order to access the cheaper labor, further exacerbating American unemployment. We could end many of our foreign wars, except that the lucrative defense weapon industry needs a market. We find ourselves increasing spied upon and monitored as companies jump into the lucrative new “intelligence” technology market. And so on and so forth. When we rail against “government”, are we objecting to government services like police and fire departments, public road maintenance, national parks, OSHA, FDA safety inspections of our food, Social Security and Medicare? Or is this all about the health insurance mandate – which only exists because the the health insurance lobby insisted on it, threatening retribution and non-cooperation if the public option or single-payer was part of the bill? They pressured “the government” to impose the mandate, which disguises their role in it. Many, many of our elected representatives wanted a public option, if not single-payer, but were ultimately defeated by “higher powers.” The deck is increasingly stacked against a government of the people. What Chomsky is saying is that we need to understand just WHO our “government” and “media” are these days.
I talk with many people. If you use language that is politically neutral, the people want a progressive, socially responsive agenda. I used to see this in my bar hopping days of youth. You could go into any red neck bar and listen to the conversation and you would have thought you were in the middle of a socialist convention. Just don’t use that word and don’t expect any action–except for union activity which they saw as legitimate organizing. Thus, the message is that bread and butter issues speak to the public and they will rally. Today, it is no different. Speak to the vast majority of people and they know that the medical industry is not about health care. People know clearly that getting insurance corporations AND the drug industry out of health care is what is needed.
The system has been very successful in dumbing down the public and turning them into sheep. Thus, the problem in getting people to actually act on what they know.
He hits it out of the park again!