Democratic presidential nominee John Edwards is talking tough. If elected president, he promises to forth a bill that revokes congress' health benefits until they pas a universal health care package for the rest of the country. That assumes, of course, that he can convince the congress to pass a bill that would punish itself.
Yes, really. Per CNN, Edwards made the remarks before the Laborers Leadership Convention:
"To show Congress just how serious I am, on the first day of my administration, I will submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 - unless we have passed universal health care reform."
I guess you could call it the "see how you like it" trial by ordeal method of government. You could also call it absurd to the nth degree. What is Edwards thinking?
It would seem that Hillary Clinton's $110 billion dollar a year plan for universal health care has stolen the proverbial thunder from Edwards's own undefined universal health care plan so Edwards is seeking to "one up" Hillary. However, the way you "one up" someone is to simply offer a better and more effective plan. Edwards instead tries to be melodramatic, but ends up looking ridiculous in the process.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Bizarre? What's "bizarre" is that over 40 million Americans don't have healthcare; and since you only give the first name of Sean, we don't know if your work for Hillary or not.
davidgriffen at 9:42AM on Sep 18th 2007
2. CBS: Edwards told union activists in Washington that his first act as president would be to introduce a law taking away health care from Congress, the vice president and the Cabinet in July 2009 if universal health care was not passed first.
"And I don't want to hear any whining," Edwards told the cheering and stomping crowd.
davidgriffen at 9:55AM on Sep 18th 2007
3. You're misreading and misleading. Edwards did NOT say Congress will be denied healthcare until they pass healthcare measures. Congress would have until July 2009 to pass healthcare measures before their own coverage would be threatened, according to Edwards' comment. That gives Congress a year and a half to get an act together. If they can't manage that, they need more than healthcare to make them functional.
Grace Benavita at 10:41AM on Sep 18th 2007
4. This is thoroughly biased and misleading. There's nothing bizarre about Edwards' promise; he's showing Americans that he'll actually stand up to the drug and insurance company lobbyists who have rigged the system against regular Americans.
He'll make sure Congress stands up to them to so that millions of regular Americans can have the health care they deserve. Get it right.
Mark at 1:10PM on Sep 18th 2007
5. I think its gutsy in the style of Harry Truman. In 1946 Truman told the CEO's of coal companies that he'd shut them down unless they granted coal miners a five-cent royalty on every ton of coal workers produced. The nation applauded his decisive action for standing up to greed.
The CEO's came quickly to the bargaining table. The only way to get the attention of the powerful is to take away someting MEANINGFUL (profits, health insurance). Its amazing how quickly they'll see the light and share the bounty they have.
Go Edwards!
Marsha H at 2:35PM on Sep 20th 2007
6. Thank you John Edwards! Giving Congress a taste of their own medicine would certainly get them working on a health care system for this country. Bush and the Congress and Senate are so busy trying to corner the world's 2nd largest oil supply (Iraq), that they don't care about the general welfare of the average U.S. citizen. Edwards for President!
jdk1436 at 5:11PM on Sep 20th 2007
7. Bizarre Politics at http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/ reports the stories behind the news especially related to Globalization and Free Trade.
It is really all about you in the global economic arena and who said we had to compete like this.
It covers the history of so called Free Trade starting in 1956 when the U.S. Federal Government sponsored the moving of factories outside the USA. It was supposed to be just a temporary program but it never ended. It evolved into the Maquiladora factories in Mexico using impoverished Mexican workers and as a way to send "dirty manufacturing" outside the regulations in the USA.
By 1992, more than 2,000 US factories were moved to Mexico prior to the passing of the NAFTA and GATT trade agreements. After President Clinton led the way in the passage of both NAFTA and GATT, the number of factories quickly doubled to more than 4,000 US factories being moved to Mexico. Soon after that President Clinton had to rush billions of dollars to Mexico to save the peso.
President Bush says the Mexican workers are flocking to the USA because there are jobs American workers will not take. He does not tell us about the jobs Mexican workers will not take in Mexico even after the US has moved more than 4,000 factories to Mexico.
Mexico reports a low unemployment rate just like the USA does. Obviously something is wrong with the reporting in both countries. Ask your political representatives and Presidential Candidates about this. It should be in the Congressional Record. Who said we had to do things this way? Why not find out.
For more info, see Bizarre Politics Com or Tapart News and Art that Talks at http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews and http://tapsearch.com/flatworld
This is a main issue of our times. Do not let any candidate ignore it or be in denial about it.
Tapsearch Com Editor at 10:55PM on Oct 31st 2007