Thom,

I posted this at the end of your show on Monday and in case u missed it I'm posting info again.

84 year old Steven was your last caller Monday. He said he and his wife were expecting checks for their one-time tax cut by the end of May, but they haven’t seen their checks yet.

Due to their age, they must be getting Social Security. If their Social Security payments are being electronically deposited into their bank accounts, their one-time payment would be made the same way. So they should check their bank accounts to see if the payments are there.

It shouldn't even take half-a-minute pass that info along on your show.

Anthony,

That's GREAT news!

Re Medicare Part D - Wexler has introduced HR 1832 "to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries."

i would like to suggest that we need a law saying that any company that has lobbyists should have to show their books and their tax returns to the public.

We could solve Medicare going broke and healthcare coverage all at once by having Medicare for all. They just need to increase the amount paid on payroll. Right now all W-2 workers pay 1.45% and it is matched by employers. These payroll taxes currently fund the Medicare coffers. If we got single pay administered by Medicare I would be happy to pay up to 5% on my Medicare portion of my paycheck.

Bobby Kennedy JR also interviewed Bernie Sanders this past Saturday on Health Care Reform on Ring of Fire Radio Saturdays at noon on green960.com - that slut! [just kidding, having a little very needed FUN]

Not only is Ed Schultz outspoken about the need for single-payer healthcare, but he just had Bernie Sanders on to talk about it earlier this hour.

I recently became reacquainted with the late Carl Sagan’s Pulitzer Prize winning book “The Dragons of Eden,” early-on in which he writes the human race does not have another 10 million years of evolutionary progress in which resolve the many problems facing the world, many if not most are of humanity’s own creation. “We must adjust and adapt and control, or we perish.” A few years after writing this, Ronald Reagan’s Interior secretary, James Watt, would tell us that we didn’t need to adjust, adapt or control, since the Armageddon was coming and most of us would perish anyways—and he did his best to help Reagan insure that exactly that would happen.

As individuals, we can adjust and adapt to multiple situations, but that doesn’t mean we can control the forces that create those situations. We may or may not choose to adjust or adapt, in which case we can vote for a politician or party who promises to control a situation in another manner. But change only occurs in the tiniest of degrees, often barely perceptible on the ground. Corporate and financial institutions are as impervious to control as throwing a pebble at a speeding train (unless they go bankrupt and the government takes over). What a political change can do is shift attitudes or attention to a different set of priorities. Supreme Court appointments are one of the few opportunities a president has to make a long-term impact on the direction of the country; unfortunately, there are five men of questionable taste on the court who are not going anywhere anytime soon.

I truly fear for this country, one that often rather than searches for solutions, searches for scapegoats. For now, the ball is in Barack Obama’s court, and now we can only hope that he can control what we wish to adjust and adapt to, not what we are forced to.

By the way, Sagan—who was no dummy—was conflicted on the abortion issue. He devoted five pages to the subject in “Dragons,” ostensibly to determine when a fetus’ brain was capable of “human” function. He came very close to calling third-trimester abortion murder.

I'll give Thom credit for not wilting like a piece of straw in a bonfire like many of these left-wing talk show hosts do whenever someone says "illegal." But then again, he didn't have to, because Gainor was on his best behavior, and immigration reform wasn't even discussed. It's a good thing Thom didn't take any phone calls on the issue of immigration reform, because he'd discover (like I've known for a long time) that most people have negative attitudes toward Hispanics generally, usually based on selective information provided by the media. That the negative information diseminated by the right is usually opposed by silence on the left is the norm and not the exception. Take for example the claim that illegal immigrants are draining public services paid for by taxpayers. What pundits fail to mention is that illegal immigrants are also taxpayers. A recent report in the state of Washington revealed that illegal immigrants actually pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes. A CBO report a few years also stated that the Social Security taxes illegal immigrants pay would cover 15 percent of a potential shortfall in its funding. But people are not told of this, so all they kinow is that "those people" are parasites.

I have a few other comments on this topic. U.S. companies trying to compete with Chinese gulag labor can do so only by keeping costs down. They often involve industries that are not considered "high wage" and involve hard manual labor. These are the kind of jobs that have high-turnover, and these companies have a hard time keeping experienced people. Some people blame this on illegal immigrants taking those jobs and depressing wages, but that is a very simplistic way of looking at it. After the ICE raid at the Crider poultry plant in Stillmore, Georgia, the company experienced high turnover and low productivity despite the fact it tried to entice local "natives" to work there with higher wages. I also find it interesting to note that while the "natives" complain that the "Mexicans" are depressing wages, the flip side is that the "Mexicans" actually see a substantial increase in wages from what they would be earning (or not earning) in Mexico or whereever they hail from.

The other question that needs to be answered is whether under Canada's single payer are visits to doctors in the US covered. All this talk about Canadians visiting the US to get treatment here would be muted if single-payer covers visits and treatment here. Anyone who is not a Republicon paid poster out there know the anwer to this?

Health Care Organizing Kick-Off

On June 6th, thousands of people just like you are beginning to organize for health care reform by hosting or attending a Health Care Organizing Kickoff. No experience is required to host or attend--we’ll give you everything you need to make it a success. At these kickoffs, you’ll watch a special message from the President, meet like-minded supporters in your neighborhood, make plans for reaching out in your community--and start to put those plans in action. Together, we’ll win health care reform the same way we won the election: Building support one block, one neighbor, one conversation at a time. Please go to the following link to sign up to either attend or host a kick off meeting:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hckickoff

Joe -- I hear the same kind of stories from my friend in Canada.
While here, where we supposedly have less waiting -- I once called my medical provider saying I was suicidal and wanted to talk to a therapist and they gave me an appointment for three weeks away. Were they hoping I'd kill myself so they wouldn't have to pay? Then, at the end of the appointment, the therapist recommended anti-depressants, but wasn't an M.D., so I would have to see someone else to get anti-depressants. So, another three weeks, and, again, at the end of the appointment, I got the same story. And, yes, it happened a third time too. So i gave up.