Nearly a year after the federal rescue of the nation’s biggest banks, taxpayers have begun seeing profits from the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that many critics thought might never be seen again.

The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent annually, according to calculations compiled for The New York Times.

read on

15% ROI is pretty good. Of course it's not to say that we'll get 15% on every dollar of the bailout, but this is pretty good news so far.

I wonder what will the Obama haters have to say about this?

One of the big healthcare myths is that Mexicans are flooding into the US to get free healthcare. Why is it that there are thousands and thousands of Americans going to Mexico to get healthcare? Because it's $250 or less a year, that's why.

Read here

 It turns out that there are somewhere around 50,000 paid lobbyists for the insurance industry that have been pushing congress and attending town hall meetings to make sure that America continues to get overpriced insurance and lousy service by defeating the public option. The public option would spell disaster to the for-profit insurance industry, so they're sending out their foot soldiers to make us believe we're being treated fairly and that billions of dollars in profit aren't a bad thing.

Why are we allowing these paid shrills to control the debate in this country?

Read the story here.

Things are starting to become frightening and violent in the drive to reform health care. We're seeing Fox News urging viewers to go to (Democratic only) town hall meetings to protest. Of course they managed to omit where the Republican town hall meetings were going to be. What a shocker.

We're also seeing Republican operatives as well as people from the pharmaceutical industry pretending to be "ordinary citizens" at some town halls shouting their pre-planned talking points to drown out any rational discussion that just might actually help real "ordinary Americans."

Next we've got a wingnut that is using twitter to urge people to not only bring guns to Town Hall meetings, but actually resort to physical violence against their fellow Americans simply because they disagree with them. 

 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsm...

I'm pretty sure inciting violence is a crime in this country. 

Seriously, what is wrong with people the right wing these days? Is healthcare really a good enough reason to resort to violence against your fellow American simply because of a disagreement? This is not how democracy works. 

I thought this was a good post I read somewhere else, so I decided to share it.

-ProgressivePete

 As a Canadian I marvel at all of these terms that are so common to Americans, but are virtually unknown to us.

Here's a partial list off the top of my head:

1. "Out of network"
There are no "networks" in Canada. Doctors and hospitals are not affiliated with private insurance companies. Doctors are private business entities and hospitals are usually run by non-profit boards or regional health associations.

2. "COBRA"
Health coverage is NOT tied to your place of employment in any way. So any COBRA-like scheme is unnecessary.

3. "Co-Pay"
The government pays 100% of basic care, 100% of the time. Drugs are not covered, but are subsidized by government to a point. And because of mass buys, discounts are obtained from the drug companies. That's why our prices are so much lower. Most employers offer a drug plan that pays for 100% of drug cost coverage.

4. "monthly premium\deductible"
Wazzat? We don't consider our health to be the same as our possessions.

5. "waiting for approval"
Doctors are the sole decision makers for health care. NOBODY influences or delays their decisions, warns them of costs or prevents them from giving treatment for any reason.

6. "Government interference"
The provincial government in each province PAYS for whatever services doctors provide. No questions asked. Unless the procedure is experimental, not medically necessary or unwarranted, doctors cannot deny basic care - by law.

7. "Health insurance lobby"
There are NO insurance companies for basic care, only companies for providing insurance for travelers. No money to be made here.

8. "bureaucracy"
When we visit a hospital or doctor's office, we walk in, get treated, walk out. No "applications", "registrations" or any other kind of paperwork is required. We NEVER have to talk to a single "government official" or wait for a "judgment".

9. "PRE-EXISTING CONDITION"
This is such a foreign concept to us. A Canadian's usual reaction to the explanation of this term is astonishment.


I'm glad to see that a sane health care system is within reach in America. 

Fight for it. It's WORTH it.

http://www.democraticunderg...

Michael Savage went on at length today about how Barack Obama is a dictator and we're in the middle of a communist uprising. I'm pretty sure it was all because of health care.

Is Michael Savage a traitor?