Thanks very much for digging into the story regarding Costa's vote on health care reform. I guess this showcases what poltical decisions sometimes come down to -quid pro quo-. I cannot blame Costa for trying to get the best for his constituency.

What did Rep. McCarthy get?

Rep. Kevin McCarthy has become a very tiresome partisan political wedge-carrier for the sake of partisanship only in the short time he has been in Congress. As long as he remains in Congress his District will get squat in aid and development money. This greatly hurts a depressed economic area such as Bakersfield in a big way with more and more services being called upon to be shouldered by people who make substantially less on average than the working people in other cities of California. 

If McCarthy cannot work across the aisle in any capacity it is time for him to do the right thing and go back into the private sector that he champions so greatly and become a pillar of American capitalism.

I wonder if the new residency deal will affect UCSF's current residency program in Fresno.  Maybe one can move to Bakersfield?

President PettySpite once again proves how much he truly cares about the American people.  He doesn't dole out taxpayer money on a needs basis. He doles it out to those who pay tribute just like a little tin horn dictator.  I guess this means that 0bama really could not care less about UC Merced getting a med school.  Just like that lone Republican vote he got from that Viet Cong-ressman in New Orleans.  0bama vaguely promised to look into forgiving some disaster loans and help out with rebuilding hospitals or something.  Obviously if those spineless guys had not voted the way they did, 0bama would have thumbed his nose to those constituents needs.  A heartless POS.

Kudos to Kevin McCarthy for standing firm.  His reelection is virtually assured now, and rightly so.

This is a good start for having a  medical school in the Valley. But watch out, Costa might vote against it at a later date; if Pelosi  tells him too, or if they find a Delta Smelt on the property.

www,DownsizeCaNow.Com

I wish to thank Congressman Costa for his courageous vote in the face of insane criticism from valley neocons.  This was the right thing to do even without the medical school funding.

My hats off the McCarthy as well.  I want him to continue to hold his ground and not sell out our future generations for a few "monetary" perks now that will take many years in the future to pay for.  Costa's response was diplorable and disgusting how he explained his "yes" vote today.  This legislation is not helping our Country right now.  The Democratic Party has not made a priority of reducing the unemployment rate in our Country.  They cannot even be truthful how many jobs were created or saved from the stimulus passed early this year.  I have recently joined the ranks of the unemployed, first time in my 25 years adult life of working.  Fortunately still have health insurance for  now, how long who knows....Will be very interesting once more and more Americans become unemployed across the nation and will have no choice but to apply for some sort of "government assistance program" how are they going to pay for that wave that is coming if they don't focus on "job creation" now?........Hey, maybe we will see some of these politiicians that are elected out of office, in line with the rest of us responsible Americans whom actually have a work ethic, pay taxes and don't want to have to rely on government to feed our families when they don't have a job too.....

Another thought to put out is all of you whom are tired of this political circus like me and are unemployed, I have a suggestion on something very productive we can do.  Volunteer for your local politician's counterpart's political party, or volunteer for an opposing candidate, and start our own "Get out the Vote" campaign" to get ready for the coming elections in the next few years..... Kind of another version of the "Tea Party Group" I am sure it will be very easy to get people to register, update their voter registration and who knows, might have a flux of registered Democrats ready to jump off of their ship......

Does anyone realize that not only will we pay for the enormous cost of this bill, but we also will be paying for the cost of the medical school, increased medicaid, etc. While the elderly will pay a big cost in reduced medicare.  Why can't we get it through our heads that nothing is free.

Oh and by the way, how do you feel about California picking up the tab for Nevada for the expanded Medicaid program, since Reid exempted his own state from the expansion?  Other states that may be included in the exemption are Michigan, Oregon and Rhode Island.

  In response to natsmom, I hope we do see most of these politicians in the unemployment line, except they have a terrifric, get paid for life retirement..

So, natsmom, how does Rep. McCarthy help you or yours by trying to stop health care reform? One of the biggest points most of us on the left have been trying to point out for years is that the costs of our current health insurance have crippled business in this country. This was one of the primary reasons why both a public plan and a single payer demand was being advocated so strongly by all progressives. Insurance companies are strictly about making money. Nobody begrudges anybody making a good living, but to reward only the very top of the food chain at the expense of all others is wrong, and to continue to raise premiums and services to levels way beyond the what small business and the average person's ability to pay has to stop. It will never stop if the private insurers have their way. It will never stop if private insurers are allowed to practice their monopoly tactics outside of any anti-trust laws. Rep. McCarthy backs the private insurance companies and the very large pharmaceutical companies while ignoring the  pleas of all his constituents.

One of the biggest impediments to getting people back to work are these astronomically high health and retirement costs that only conglomerates can now afford. Based on the high number of employees in these conglomerates discounts by insurers can be passed solely on to them because of their pool risk volume. Small companies have no shot at paying the same prices as the gargantuan sized companies do and as a result cannot hire new employees, lose good employees or pay too high a price to remain in business.

The only way to get business back in this country is to lift the stranglehold of health and retirement costs off the backs of business. The best ways to accomplish this goal, in my opinion, would be to have the government either set price controls on products and services in the health industries, or to have the government offer a single payer Medicare styled plan as a competitive alternative to the private health insurance industry. If these cannot be done then the last best option would be to make all health insurance companies become nonprofit, and those that wish to remain in business would have to compete for customers by offering the best services to keep their clients. In all cases the mandate to the public has to be that everyone is in the paying pool and no one can be denied. Each of these plans are being offered in other countries of the world today. 

Kevin McCarthy wants to further deregulate the insurance industry. He favors a pay as you go approach to health care with the possibility of a catastrophic insurance coverage as an option for people. He favors more competition by opening up all insurers to all states but ignores the fact that more than 80% of all health insurance is from just 4 companies today. The plan he backs does nothing to stimulate new competition in the health insurance industry, just allow the private insurers to ignore state mandates that were set up to protect their citizens and make the insurers cover necessary medical procedures and drugs. The plan he backs calls for health savings accounts to be started and those dollars written off for tax purposes. There is a fixed credit amount of $5,000 for single people and $7,500 for families. Given the high costs of virtually every medical procedure today you won't get much for your credit in this market, but if you should have some savings left over this money will be managed by all those fine financial planners that manage all the 401ks in this country and will be just another little pile of money funneled through the back door to Wall Street. McCarthy has no real plan to fix health care. McCarthy is all about protecting the private health insurance companies and particularly their CEOs.