July 30 2009 show notes

  • Show live from Seattle.
  • The blue dogs are hurting themselves, if health care loses, the same as in '94 with Clinton, Republicans will take seats from them.
  • VISA's profits jumped.
  • COULD "HEALTHY SAN FRANCISCO" BE A MODEL FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE?
  • Guest: Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, CA. San Francisco has a public option. Kaiser just joined them, realized they would lose customers. Kaiser started in San Francisco. He is looking at the governor's seat. The governor has twice vetoed a public option. The state has had huge budget deficits. 2/3 budget requirement. Initiatives. Their constitution has changed over 500 times, the US constitution only 27, and it is 8 times longer. In budget deal, Schwarzenegger wanted to eliminate health care, just 2 days ago he line itemed more cuts than agreed in negotiations. Transcript.
  • Article: "A Solution to Our Health Care Crisis." by Gavin Newsom.
  • Article: "Newsom's fresh idea: mandates on healthier food." by Heather Knight.
  • Article: "Newsom Calls on Fellow Mayors to Advocate for Health Reform." by Heather Knight.
  • Article: "Illuminating outline By Richard Milne and Andrew Ward."
  • Blog: "Deconstructing the Right Wing Lies on the Health Insurance Bill". Please Cut the Crap.
  • Political reality is being overlooked. When the day comes, close in California, where health care is so unavailable, and housing, good jobs, that if you walk down a street someone could cough on you with TB, we have a problem. Some rich folks get it, we need a minimum safety net.
  • The Powell Memo or Manifesto.
  • Bumper Music: Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd.
  • Quote: "The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty". - James Madison.
  • Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
  • CRAZY ALERT!! Holy car! Utah boy goes for spin to avoid church. He's 7.
  • Article: House Dems forge a health-care deal By Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn.
  • The blue dog agreement won't bring costs down. The progressive caucus is pushing back. Max Baucus may lose his chairmanship. There is a lot going on around the country, for example Progressive Democrats of America, Physicians for a National Health Program, it is not being covered by the corporate media.
  • Video: Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine, 1961 LP

    "One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It is very easy to describe a medical program as a humanitarian project... Under the Truman administration, it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this... In the last decade, 127 million of our citizens, in just ten years, have come under the protection of some privately-owned medical or hospital insurance. The advocates of [socialized healthcare], when you try to oppose it, challenge you on an emotional basis... What can we do about this? Well you and I can do a great deal. We can write to our Congressmen, to our Senators. We can say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms. And at the moment, the key issue is we do not want socialized medicine... If you don't, this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as well have known it in this country, until one day, as Norman Thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism. If you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."

  • A lot of companies are self-insuring, they can make a profit on health insurance, so they are all in the insurance business and are not supporting health care reform even though they would appear to save in the cost of providing health care.
  • The story of the Good Samaritan.
  • Bumper Music: Anything You Need, You Got it, Roy Orbison (video).
  • Minimum wage. Ron Paul. Bailouts. The real battle is not conservative-liberal, but rule by corporation rather than rule by we the people. Liberals and conservatives and others are starting to get it. VISA profit. Bernie Sanders tried to cap interest rates, could not get it passed. Flat tax for elections. Obama is not taking on corporate powers like FDR did, calling them "These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America".
  • Upcoming Events: Thom's book tour for "Threshold":

    July 30th - Seattle, WA - Town Hall.

    Aug 4th - San Francisco, CA - World Affairs Council.

    Aug 5th - Santa Monica, CA - Santa Monica Library.

    Aug 17th - Minneapolis, MN

    Aug 19th - Chicago, IL

    Aug 21st - Madison, WI. There will be "Brunch with Bernie" with members of the audience getting to ask the questions.

  • Upcoming Event: Aug 8th - Seattle, WA AM1090 Presents - "Embracing Change: Moving Forward As The Majority" with Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Mike Malloy and Ron Reagan - Tickets are just $22 for Reserved Seating, $32 for Premium Reserved Seating, and $47 for VIP Floor Seating. Tickets go on sale Saturday June 27th @ 10AM. Purchase yours at the ShoWareCenter Box Office, or by phone at 253-856-6999. Doors open at 5pm, the panel discussion runs from 6-9pm. (not to be confused with the July 30th Seattle book signing).
  • HEALTH CARE...IS IT TOO EXPENSIVE AT ANY COST?
  • Guest: Robert Moffit. Director, Center for Health Policy Studies, Heritage Foundation. Fix Health Care Policy. Reagan vs. Medicare. He was against the donut hole. Starve the beast. Not being able to negotiate prices. Obama administration talking about cutting Medicare to pay for public plan, he said. Obama has not put forward any plan. 3 plans already, will be 5, because 5 committees. Why not become a nation of good Samaritans? Putting out fires. Are our bodies not more valuable than houses? The Swiss are happy with their private system. It replaced single payer. But there it is a crime for for-profits to offer primary care. The Massachusetts system is imploding. Mitt Romney. It is having cost control problems because it is one of most uncompetitive hospital markets, he said. Will he join Thom in a call for no corporations lobbying?
  • Article: "These Plans Will Reduce Your Choice." by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
  • Article: "Overcoming Health Care Disparities." by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
  • Article: "Fascism Coming to a Court Near You." by Thom Hartmann.
  • Bumper Music: Shake It Up, The Cars.
  • Article: ThinkFast: July 30, 2009 .

    According to a new WSJ/NBC poll, “support for President Barack Obama’s health-care effort has declined over the past five weeks, particularly among those who already have insurance.” Among those with private insurance, the proportion calling the plan a bad idea rose to 47% from 37%.

    Liberals on the House Energy and Commerce Committee reluctantly agreed last night to support a compromise on health care reform brokered by Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and four “Blue Dog” Democrats. “We’re ready to rock and roll,” said Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “We don’t like it, but the political reality is we need to move something out of committee.”

    In a statement released yesterday, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) said that, to get a bipartisan bill, Democrats have to agree to his demands. Enzi said he wants “commitments from Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, as well as the Administration, that the bipartisan agreements reached in the Finance Committee will survive in a final bill that goes to the President.

  • Bumper Music: United We Stand, Brotherhood of Man (video).
  • Article: Driver with blue light not a cop, but pulls over one.
  • Book: "Bowling Alone: The Collapse And Revival Of American Community", Robert D. Putnam.
  • Health care cost savings. The high cost of malpractice insurance - a lot of that is future cost of care, it would go away if there was single payer. Companies could spare Workmen's comp. Savings in productivity. It's an investment.
  • Contagion.Thom nearly died from pneumonia he caught in Sudan. Thom went to ZoomCare. People walking around with diseases.
  • Bumper Music: You Can't Always Get What You Want, Rolling Stones (video).
  • Article: . Because I Got High, Afroman.
  • Article: 34 hospitalized after co-worker sprays perfume.
  • UNFAIR! JURORS ALLOWED TO CONSPIRE IN SIEGELMAN CASE...?!
  • Guest: Former Governor of Alabama Don Siegelman. He gets a flood of emails whenever he has been on the show, it keeps him going. Thom is offended at what has been going on. Hanky panky with jury? The foreman and one other were plotting for conviction from an early stage. Call governors, members, urge them to investigate, or it is more likely to happen in the future. Usually roughly the same numbers of Republicans and Democrats are prosecuted. It was 6:1 under bush. Recap of his case. We must follow the leads, they lead to Rove.
  • Article: "Siegelman Responds to Federal Prosecutors."
  • "GEEKY SCIENCE ROCKS".
  • Article: "Could a fat jab ease chronic knee pain? By Pat Hagan."
  • Article: "Little Creatures Can Stir Big Oceans By Phil Berardelli."
  • Article: "Ground Zero for Malaria Drug Resistance? By Gretchen Vogel."
  • Bumper Music: Hold On, KT Tunstall (video).
  • Article: Sarah Palin Should Become 'Homemaker' Now, Poll Shows.
  • Article: U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’ By Michael R. Gordon.
  • Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
  • Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Beers - many kinds were offered at the White House, including what they asked for. Medal of freedom to Harvey Milk, Ted Kennedy, Jack Kemp, liberals and conservatives, others. Health care, Waxman said when marking up, no amendments should add to the cost. Boehner talking. 44th anniversary of Medicare. Muted opposition from lobbying groups because they have a foot in both doors. There is no way the Finance bill will be finished. Lamar Alexander is the 6th Republican going to vote for Sotomayor. Is a Democratic senator wavering? "Threshold". Foreign relations, John Kerry is worried about Sudan, 2011 is when it can be separated, so much undecided. Thom's pages on Maslow brilliant.
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