No Health Insurance = Jail Time?

From a Press Conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Seattle on November 9th, 2008:

SHOMARI STONE, KOMO 4 NEWS: Madame Speaker, I'm Shomari Stone from KOMO 4 news. I have a question for you that hasn't been pointed out but a lot of Americans feel this way. Do you think it's fair to send people to jail for not buying health insurance?

PELOSI: Well the point is -- is that we want make sure that everyone has access to health care. For a long time now people who haven't had health care or provided it have placed the burden on others. Everybody is paying the price for uncompensated care-I don't need to tell you that-in a hospital. And so this is -- is to say that we all have to do our part and that is the point of the bill.

STONE: But Madame Speaker, I'm just trying to understand, if you don't buy health insurance, you go to jail? You didn't answer my question.

PELOSI: Well, the point, there is -- I think the legislation is very fair in this respect. It gives people an opportunity to have health care, access to quality health care. If they can't afford it, it provides subsidies for them to do so. But do you think it's fair if somebody says, I'm just not going to have any, if I get sick, then I'll just go to the emergency room and send the bill to you. That's my view on the subject.

Now to be fair, Media Matters points out that the actual bill does not directly impose jail time for not having health insurance.  The bill actually imposes a tax on someone who does not carry health care coverage, and failure to pay this tax can result in civil or criminal penalties.

So, to me a more accurate question would be: "Madam Speaker, if a citizen refuses to purchase health care , and then refuses to pay an additional tax, even if they are healthy, will they go to jail?"

However what everyone is missing is that this question was asked of House Speaker Pelosi two days after the bill was passed.  Why didn't she answer the question with "there will be a tax imposed on persons who do not maintain acceptable coverage" rather than the dithering answer she gave?

I think her answer was not succinct because she honestly had no idea of what was actually in that behemoth bill she just strong armed through the House.  It becomes very hard to answer a question when you lack a working knowledge of the topic.

Free Market Nonsense

From a speach given by Ron Bloom in 2008:

BLOOM: Generally speaking we get the joke. We know that the free market is nonsense. We know that the whole point is to game the system, to beat the market, or at least find someone who will pay you a lot of money because they're convinced that there is a free lunch. We know this is largely about power, that it's an adults only, no limit game. We kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. And we get it that if you want a friend, you should get a dog.

Interesting, I always thought our country was founded with the premise of free markets, and that is part of what helped us rise to be a world leader.  I must have been subject to defective history books.

I'll leave the guns = political power statement alone.

Persuasion of Power

From an interview of Andy Stern on PBD, conducted by Bill Moyers:

BILL MOYERS: Who are your members?

ANDREW STERN: Our memb-- we have about two million members. Significantly, they're people who are janitors and security officers. They're childcare workers and home care workers, nurses, doctors, hospital, nursing home workers and public employees. They're people in the service industry, the new part of the economy. They're not-- jobs aren't going overseas. And just like steel workers and auto workers were the jobs we needed to make sure-paid enough money to raise a family, the service sector jobs are now the new jobs in America. You need to own a home and raise a family, have that kind of income if we're going to have an America with a middle class again.

BILL MOYERS: So, what kind of leverage do they have against these huge private equity firms?

ANDREW STERN: Well, when people organize their voices, it's amazing that, you know, the private equity firms are paying attention to what we have to say. You know, they have-- we've met with many of them. We've talked to them about, you know, "Why don't you adopt a policy that all your workers have health care? Why don't you do something about how we create wealth for some of the people that work there, not just for a handful of individuals."

We're trying to use the power of persuasion. And if that doesn't work we're going to use the persuasion of power. Because there are governments and there are opportunities to change laws that affect these companies. I'm not naïve. We're ready to strike. We're ready to talk. We're saying America is going to work better when everyone shares in the success.

Hummm...persuasion of power to redistribute wealth.  Nice.

Problem of 223 Years

From a video of Andy Stern, Obama’s most frequent visitor to the White House, talking to CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo.

Bartiromo: So I’ve got this article here; it’s says that yourself and other labor union leaders reportedly gave Democrats some $400 million last year. Do you feel that that money has been well-spent? Let me ask you about your #1 goal, which of course is card check. A lot of people feel that’s dead.
Stern: Well I think what we now know is American workers need a raise; that is pretty clear. And there isn’t a lot of money in the government to do it. So the question is how is everyone going to share in the wealth? And I think that after we get through this health care situation and finally solve this problem of 223 years, you know, we are going to see a change in our labor laws that allow people to negotiate their future.

 I find that 223 year number interesting....wonder what he might be referring to there?