Okay, so there are like 25-40 people on Wisconsin as I type this chanting
Healthcare for all!
and waving posters at drivers-by that read
BIG INSURANCE SICK OF IT (sic)
, even though the current proposals (the House’s and Baucus’) would leave the industry intact, but regulated. A public option is looking less and less likely, so the industry probably wouldn’t even have that to compete with.
Couple of DPS officers standing by. The silent generation is well represented among the demonstrators, despite the warnings of one (1) counterdemonstrator with a leatherbound Bible and big yellow sign sign quoting John 3:3, saying of Obama’s plan
It’ll deny healthcare to old people, and all sorts of people!
I have no idea why any of these people are here. What do they hope to accomplish by waving signs at cars and chanting mechanically until their slogans have lost all meaning? Are they targeting students? (As if they’re not overwhelmingly in the tank with Obama’s “reform” agenda; it’s a university, for G—‘s sake.) If so, why not point the signs at them, and not motorists? I do not understand.
Filed under: events, religion, religion: Evangelical Christianity |
The Word Warrior 
They were protesting the speaker: she is from Blue Cross. They were using this as a chance to expose the harms done to people by for-profit insurance. Their main goal was neither the students nor the motorists, they wanted media exposure, which they got on all our local stations.
The idea is to force the media to see that lot’s of Americans want real reform and our sick of the health care system we have. They want the country to see that it’s not just a bunch of angry tea-baggers out there.
The Public Option is not as unlikely as you suggest. It is in 4 of the five bills, and might very well be in the bill that finally emerges from the Senate Finance comittee. Even if that bill does not have a public option there is a good chance that the Public Option will survive the process of combining the bills.
Some pundits say its dead, and the media wants to sell that impression: on the ground, however, the issue is much less certain.
I was not even aware there was a speaker from Blue Cross here today.
My bad, it wasn’t Blue Cross. It was Angela Braly. She is president and chief executive officer for WellPoint, Inc., it was the business leadership talk or something like that for aspiring business students.
The talk itself was like a $50 a plate luncheon thing, so the people who would benefit from health care reform (i.e. low-income people) LITERALLY weren’t able to be at the table for discussion. The group has some follow-up stuff planned on this subject, so it will be interesting to see how the administration handles it in the coming weeks.