VIDEO: Ted Kennedy In 1971 Fighting For Health Care Reform — And Slamming Insurance Industry
Ted Kennedy has been fighting for health care reform for a very, very, very long time. A friend unearths some video of Kennedy arguing for a national health insurance system way back in 1971 — and slamming Richard Nixon’s just-introduced health care plan as a giveaway to the insurance companies.
As an added bonus, Kennedy is introduced by none other than Walter Cronkite, who also passed away recently, underscoring the degree to which an era has drawn to a close:
Kennedy appears about a minute and a half in, and slams Nixon’s plan by saying it will “provide billions of dollars to the health insurance companies.” His moral urgency about health care reform is already on display as he urges for a real “partnership between patients and doctors in this nation.”
The Kennedy alternative plan is described here as “cradle to grave Federal health insurance,” and was what we’d call “single payer today.”
As recently as May 28th of this year, Kennedy was still fighting the insurance industry, vowing to “make it illegal for insurers to deny coverage because of a preexisting condition or to impose other restrictions that keep you from getting the care you need.”
Kennedy fought a three-decade-long war. And it’s far from over.
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To everyone out there fighting for Health CARE Reform. The March is on. Sept. 13th across the nation. Go to
marchforhealthcare.com
You can find the city closest to you, they’re working on permits right now and several groups are involved. I found it especially interesting when I clicked on LosAngeles it took me to OFA (Obama’s grassroots arm) and the first two sentences read: “The purpose of this group is to organize a march on Sept. 13th. across the USA. Congress is wavering on the public option and we must demand one if we expect health care costs to go down.” Continue Sen. Kennedy’s fight and show the congress we stand behind his principles of health care reform.
It is too bad that the day before Senator Kennedy died, the Americans in this video showed such a lack of compassion for fellow human beings. As the post says “the Republican moral majority shows their true colors.”
Must watch:
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2689
Mr Sargent:
“The Kennedy alternative plan is described here as “cradle to grave Federal health insurance,” and was what we’d call “single payer today.””
I fully expected you people to jump atop his grave to try to advance your agenda, and you didn’t disappoint.
But may I point out that Ted Kennedy’s Government Health Plan paid for him to leave DC and Massachusetts to travel to Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina to have HIS brain tumor removed.
Do you think the plan you are pushing so hard for will similarly allow anyone NOT politically connected to the right people to do likewise?
Save your fairy tales for the children who will believe them.
We put so damn much on Obama. How many presidents have tried this and failed?
“I fully expected you people to jump atop his grave to try to advance your agenda, and you didn’t disappoint.” Told y’all we’d see no end of nastiness from trolls about this today and here we go.
You are disgusting, Bilgeman – you sure hung the right handle on yourself because this is definitely bilge.
You know what bileman, my two girls without health insurance would be happy to be able to go anywhere in the US to have a tumor removed. Your argument falls on deaf ears to people who have no insurance and are just as valuable as you or anyone else.
LindaS:
“You know what bileman, my two girls without health insurance would be happy to be able to go anywhere in the US to have a tumor removed.”
Well, gee, Linda, maybe you should write Senator Kennedy’s heirs and see if they’d be willing to pay for your alleged two girls’ surgery, since Kennedy spent YOUR tax dollars flying over any number of perfectly competent hospitals where he could have had HIS procedure done.
I would point out to you that if none of the hospitals in DC or Boston were to his liking, then Johns Hopkins in Baltimore is only an hour’s drive away from Kennedy’s DC address.
But I guess Johns Hopkins was simply too “trailer park” for his surgery.
What is your connection with Gexco Enterprises? Are you an employee? Should we target that firm for a boycott for not offering health insurance?
“Well, gee, Linda, maybe you should write Senator Kennedy’s heirs and see if they’d be willing to pay for your alleged two girls’ surgery, since Kennedy spent YOUR tax dollars flying over any number of perfectly competent hospitals where he could have had HIS procedure done.”
This is all based on what hospital he chose to use? Dude, I thought that CHOICE was what the opposition to reform was {mistakenly} all about.
Consistency sure isn’t one of your problems.
Bilgeman~
SHUT UP!
LindaS~
He is so NOT worth the time. H/C reform will get done and it is long overdue. We will figure a way through this. Truman wanted it, Nixon wanted it, Clinton wanted it and now we are getting to a point where the power of the health insurance agencies is finally reaching a tipping point backlash of a majority of Americans. You can’t actually discuss anything with the likes of someone like Bilgeman…he has nothing to offer…good luck to you LindaS.
Tena:
“Told y’all we’d see no end of nastiness from trolls about this today and here we go.
You are disgusting, Bilgeman – you sure hung the right handle on yourself because this is definitely bilge.”
I didn’t politicize the man’s death to advance a political agenda, our host Mr. Sargent did.
I was quite content to let Kennedy rest in peace, but since his corpse has been conscripted into some policy debate, it is entirely right and proper that I point out the amount of taxpayer dollars that were lavished on HIS medical care.
Sorry that the facts are so obviously embarrassing for your cause, but they are what they are.
And I should point out also that I suspect Ted Kennedy had the financial wherewithal to pay his way from his own pocket.
Something that apparently sister LindaS, and millions of other American citizens, do not.
They’ll get condemned to the ministrations of the quacks and the butchers, and no means to opt out of the system.
Government Welfare to the Wealthy and Powerful in the name of Socialism.
That’s the modern-day Left for ya.
Jenn – you are correct.
Jenn D:
“Bilgeman~
SHUT UP! ”
And THERE’S the modern day Leftist’s default argument for ya.
Thank you ever so much for providing such a textbook example of the childish tantrum at not getting your way that we have all come to know and despise.
I could not have expected a more fact-free yet hate-filled reply had I asked Ann Coulter to sock-puppet as a Leftist for me.
I am in your debt, madame.
Bilgerman,
Save us the boogeyman stories surrounding any public healthcare option, single payer or otherwise. In this current debate, each time I have heard Republicans portray systems in Canada, the U.K, Germany, France, etc., they have trotted out the same sort of ridiculous fiction and hyperbolic idiocy that characterizes the sum total of all their other remarks as well.
There are no “death panels” in any of the above mentioned countries – if there were, then explain why there is an increasing elderly population in all those same countries? If our system is so damn good, how come people in all those other countries OUTLIVE US? I’ve had to change doctors 3 times within a single year, my wife can’t get the medication that she was prescribed by her doctor, and I had to joust with my insurance company over two non-existant pre-existing conditions. On top of all that, my wife and I have to pay $12,000+ for the privilege of being jerked around by these weasels. Our Canadian relatives are not complaining about their system. We need reform and we need it now.
The Dems. should grow a collective spine and we should dedicate the healthcare reform to Sen. Kennedy. I read a comment suggesting that we should entitle it “TeddyCare.” With a Teddy Bear logo and some butt kicking from the progressives, we could end up with a better bill that will even benefit the frothy mouthed “deathers.”
There could be no more appropriate honor Sen. Kennedy’s life than to finish the job that he started.
Totally off subject for this post, but if anyone wants to see a complete Republican Fantasy World meltdown over dissent then and now, give it a read.
Chris – that’s pretty funny. Usually, they just stick with whatever version of IOKIYAR works for them.
“There could be no more appropriate honor Sen. Kennedy’s life than to finish the job that he started.”
Word.
Wow… I never thought I’d see a conservative ragging on someone for simply choosing the doctor that would give them the best care.
Also, we’re not politizing his death. He was our champion on this issue and we want to fight what he fought for. You see bilge, in his last months, he received world class care paid for by you and me and every American that posts here. And for 30 years he tried to create a system in which all of us could receive the same care as him without going bankrupt. A system in which all Americans fund and pitch in to protect all Americans, to make this country stronger. He thought health care is a right just as speech and religion and so on in this nation. I agree. But on par with conservatism, any social right that doesn’t let someone scream NAZI and carry an AK is a bad thing…
Gasman:
“Bilgerman,
Save us the boogeyman stories surrounding any public healthcare option, single payer or otherwise. In this current debate, each time I have heard Republicans portray systems in Canada, the U.K, Germany, France, etc., they have trotted out the same sort of ridiculous fiction and hyperbolic idiocy that characterizes the sum total of all their other remarks as well.”
Interesting flatulence about Canadian and Euro Socialized Health Plans, but totally irrelevant to the facts I brought up.
Kennedy WAS in a government-paid health plan, and he DID choose to incur the extra expense to effect his choice of doctors.
WE got to pay the difference.
And your plan will have no such provision for the lumpenproletariat to have the same choices.
No more so than American Indians on a government reservation or vets in a VA hospital do.
Now please continue blowing smoke about the wonderful health care systems overseas, and the GOP myths about them, please…I always enjoy the efforts of someone who tries mightily to argue beside the point.
Hey I didn’t say my girls needed surgery, I just said they would love to have insurance and would be happy to go wherever to have it. We don’t begrudge anyone else their inurance, just want a little piece of the pie ourselves after all our hard work. I think you mis-understood my post Tena, or maybe I didn’t express myself very well. I’m definitely for choice and public option, just getting anxious to get it. Hopefully, Kennedy’s legacy will improve the chances of the Congress passing something worthwhile for the rest of us.
“And your plan will have no such provision for the lumpenproletariat to have the same choices.”
It would have if the Repugs hadn’t thrown a fit about the idea of single payer. That’s Socialism, remember?
How come you think you can get away with arguing both sides of this issue at once?
We are a small business and do pay for insurance for our employees. Unfortunately, our daughters don’t work for us, they both just finished advanced degrees and are looking for work with insurance. Boycott if you want Bilgey
Tena, thanks for reading.
Patches:
“You see bilge, in his last months, he received world class care paid for by you and me and every American that posts here.”
Thank you for the honesty it takes to admit the obvious.
Nationalized healh care works pretty well for you if you’re a rich Kennedy. I’ll gladly concede that.
“And for 30 years he tried to create a system in which all of us could receive the same care as him without going bankrupt.”
Funny, where was he on those Indian Reservation Hospitals or the VA Hospitals? He could have done a world of good THERE.
“A system in which all Americans fund and pitch in to protect all Americans, to make this country stronger.”
That sounds real good, but it simply won’t work out. Have you learned NOTHING from Medicare and MedicAid? Those Indian and VA Hospitals? Heck man, even the genm of military hospitals, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, was shown to be a dump where the administrators and contractors were all cosy in bed with each other.
It simply won’t work. The problem with people like you seems to be that you get sold on an ideal…an unattainable vision of perfection, and we should know by now that the Perfect is the deadliest enemy of the Good.
“He thought health care is a right just as speech and religion and so on in this nation. I agree.”
That’s where you and he were mistaken.
You have a right to health care, you do NOT have a right to compel anyone else to PAY for your health care. No more so than you may compel someone else to donate funds to YOUR choice of church, temple, mosque or drum-circle, or put the touch on someone else to buy you a newspaper to print.
And Mr. Sargent certainly IS politicizing Kennedy’s death. Not everyone is as dumb as some of your buddies might wish they were.
“Funny, where was he on those Indian Reservation Hospitals or the VA Hospitals? He could have done a world of good THERE.”
Talk to a Native American about that – everyone I know will tell you that Native Americans always fare better under a Democratic regime than they do a Repug one.
and by the way, bilgerat, you can start with my friends at Taos Pueblo, Aji and Wings.
Bileman~
SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is the only response that your intellectually-free statement garners…you have nothing to offer an actual debate about issues, you simply do not want anything to change and were much more comfortable with people like George W. Bush running the Country…too bad for you.
LindaS:
“Hey I didn’t say my girls needed surgery,”
Really now? Well now what were you trying to convey with the “pity=pitch”?
“Unfortunately, our daughters don’t work for us, they both just finished advanced degrees and are looking for work with insurance.”
You and/or they could afford advanced degrees, but can’t afford individual plans for young women, (I assume they’re in their twenties)?
So…you’re just another wealthy sh*theel who’s looking for a hand-out, aren’t you?
BTW, if they want a job that DOES pay health insurance, you might suggest that they learn welding, plumbing, or another trade.
Most of those jobs DO have health insurance.
Advanced college degrees, and they didn’t learn the FIRST thing about the world.
You got rooked, madame, sold a big bill of goods.
Tena:
“Talk to a Native American about that – everyone I know will tell you that Native Americans always fare better under a Democratic regime than they do a Repug one”
My wife is an American Indian, you ignorant buffoon.
She wants nothing to do with being a Government Serf on some Rez. Crappy health care at some Tribal clinic,25% unemployment, and little to do but sit around and drink yourself to death, or watch others do the same?
Been there, done that. Not just “NO”, but “F8ck NO!”
“and by the way, bilgerat, you can start with my friends at Taos Pueblo, Aji and Wings”
Oooooh! Look at the Heap Big Liberal…why, some of her best friends are Injuns!
She always makes a point to stop by and give ‘em some whiskey on her to the quaint little boutique she frequents in Taos, NM.
“She wants nothing to do with being a Government Serf on some Rez. Crappy health care at some Tribal clinic,25% unemployment, and little to do but sit around and drink yourself to death, or watch others do the same?”
O my god. I don’t believe for one nanosecond that your wife is Native American. No one married to a Native American could possibly say such awful things about her people.
That’s not the way it goes on the Pueblos – there is so much artistic talent alive among Native Americans it is almost mind-boggling – you are so insulting.
You don’t like Native AMericans – that’s obvious from how you talk about them.
God you’re sickening. I’m with Jenn – SHUT UP!
Jenn D:
“Bileman~
SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Could you put a few more exclamation points on your tantrum?
I reckon that there’s a limit beyond which you’ll blow a gasket and suffer an aneurysm. And then no doubt you’ll end up in the Emergency Room, where unlike Kennedy, you WON’T be receiving the best care that the government can afford.
There’d be a certain ironic justice in that…
Thank you for the honesty it takes to admit the obvious.
Nationalized healh care works pretty well for you if you’re a rich Kennedy. I’ll gladly concede that.
Kennedy probably paid for everything out of pocket but likely had some of it covered in the nationalized system not because he was wealthy but because he was a senator and over 65. That capability should be given to all Americans or none. I look forward to your demand that repeal Medicare.
Funny, where was he on those Indian Reservation Hospitals or the VA Hospitals? He could have done a world of good THERE.
Last I checked, those were still part of America and thus would be covered by a national system. Are vets no longer Americans to you?
Heck man, even the genm of military hospitals, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, was shown to be a dump where the administrators and contractors were all cosy in bed with each other.
Then lets boost funding and keep private contractors out. But that means cuts elsewhere or tax hikes. I’m willing to lose a few cold war weapon systems so our vets can recover from serving, are you? Give me the tax hike too. I’ll pay for more vet care if you will too.
You have a right to health care, you do NOT have a right to compel anyone else to PAY for your health care. No more so than you may compel someone else to donate funds to YOUR choice of church, temple, mosque or drum-circle, or put the touch on someone else to buy you a newspaper to print.
I have to pay for your police protection, fire protection, your military protection, public school for your kids, your and your parent’s social security, your and your parents medicare, your roads, your bridges, etc. etc. I’m compelled to do so by law and the constitution, and I do so happily because you’re an American and it helps all Americans. Just amend that list with healthcare. If you want to stop paying taxes, fine. But leave because I’m not going pay for someone who is working but too lazy/greedy to contribute to this country. Besides, all of us in the same system means we pay less overall due to having 1 pool of all americans rather than small private pools of a couple million. It’s how insurance works. Drug Companies can be private, doctors can be private, etc. because they provide a service. I have yet to learn what insurance companies actually provide the general public other than being middle men that syphon money out of the system to make profit.
Tena:
“O my god. I don’t believe for one nanosecond that your wife is Native American. No one married to a Native American could possibly say such awful things about her people.”
I really could care less what you believe. You’ve proven that you do a very good impression of a flatulent imbecile on more than one thread.
What gives you away as a phony is your studious use of “Native American”. American Indians really don’t much care for the term, since they usually think of themselves as Zunis, Yaquas, Hopi, Oglala and so on.
Much like White people usually think of their own heritage as Irish, German, English, etcetera.
If you REALLY want to get all accurate and respectful about it, you refer to them as “The Nations”.
You say “Native Americans” and you come off sounding like a dipstick limousine-liberal slumming among people she wouldn’t allow in her house.
Buying an Indian blanket and a piece of fry-bread after gambling in a casino doesn’t make you some social champion of the Nations, y’know.
Patches – we both need to heed Jenn upthread – it’s a waste of time giving the damn thing any more attention.
When you play with them, they get all leaky and squishy and nastier by the minute. This one needs to be put out on the back steps – STAT.
“Before it’s all over, it’ll be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Healthcare bill,” Limbaugh said on his show.(Mar 6, 2009)
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee quickly launched a petition drive urging Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to denounce Limbaugh. The committee’s executive director, Brian Wolff, called the remark “reprehensible” and “truly outrageous.”
Please note the countless Dems, DNC and majority of the Plum Line posters who are now for this or are you still against this and want the DNC to now expand their protest to Byrd, Feinstein and other?….HAHAHAHA. You agree with Limbaugh!
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/03/limbaugh_health.html
Health care works just fine now, for the Wealthy. It is the vast majority of people who are not wealthy that is the problem.
If health care was only for the Wealthy, then health care Insurance costs would not be going through the roof, and we would not have more and more people unable to get any coverage.
Health Care for only the Wealthy is what Bilge Rat dreams about attaining.
Bilgeman,
Both our daughters have tried to get insurance and can’t because of pre-existing conditions. They also have jobs, one is adjunct faculty at a community college, part-time no insurance, the other just landed an entry level job as a hydro-geologist, also part-time no insurance. She should be able to go full time after the first of the year and then they will offer her insurance. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong before then. You sure make a lot of assumptions about people’s circumstances without much information. Also, we pay about $2500 per month in insurance premiums for ourselves and 2 other employees. There is no amount of money that could buy either of my girls insurance right now, they have looked everywhere. We are a hard working family and are all working to advance the situation for others not just ourselves.
But may I point out that Ted Kennedy’s Government Health Plan paid for him to leave DC and Massachusetts to travel to Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina to have HIS brain tumor removed.
Actually, I’d be kind of surprised to learn this was all paid for by his health insurance plan. Unless someone has a credible source to cite demonstrating this to be so my own inclination is that he opted to do this on his own dime. I’d be surprised if his own plan allowed for a particularly extravagant treatment regimen.
You have a right to health care, you do NOT have a right to compel anyone else to PAY for your health care.
But in the real world this is a non-sequitur. It amounts to nothing more than, “I’ve got mine. The rest of you can go to hell.”
Sept. 13 march all across the country, not just DC
http://www.marchforhealthcare.com/
But in the real world this is a non-sequitur. It amounts to nothing more than, “I’ve got mine. The rest of you can go to hell.”
I neglected to add that this also is not how things work now, nor has it been so in the last fifty years at least. As long as we don’t dump people who show up in emergency rooms on the street as soon as they demonstrate they can’t pay, we don’t live in a world governed by “you have a right to health care, but only if you can pay for yourself”.
For all practical purposes none of us alive in the USA now have ever lived in a society that handled its health care priorities this way.
I don’t think the people who assert this have ever really thought about what it would be like to live in a society that handled health care in that manner.
odd job – the saddest thing of all is that the Right knows that this is what it amounts to. The other day, I remarked that whatever the Right says, it all boils down to three things:
It’s mine
Get out of my way
Suck my balls.
They’re all Eric Cartman clones.
Bilge hasn’t responded to my response so I assume he pulled the other cartman.
Screw you guys! I’m going home.
Maybe we could name it the Ted Kennedy USSR Healtcare plan!!
Special Importance
Committee on State Security of the USSR
14.05. 1983 No. 1029 Ch/OV
Moscow
Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Comrade Y.V. Andropov
Comrade Y.V. Andropov
On 9-10 May of this year, Senator Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.
Senator Kennedy, like other rational people, is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations. Events are developing such that this relationship coupled with the general state of global affairs will make the situation even more dangerous. The main reason for this is Reagan’s belligerence, and his firm commitment to deploy new American middle range nuclear weapons within Western Europe.
According to Kennedy, the current threat is due to the President’s refusal to engage any modification on his politics. He feels that his domestic standing has been strengthened because of the well publicized improvement of the economy: inflation has been greatly reduced, production levels are increasing as is overall business activity. For these reasons, interest rates will continue to decline. The White House has portrayed this in the media as the “success of Reaganomics.”
Naturally, not everything in the province of economics has gone according to Reagan’s plan. A few well known economists and members of financial circles, particularly from the north-eastern states, foresee certain hidden tendencies that many bring about a new economic crisis in the USA. This could bring about the fall of the presidential campaign of 1984, which would benefit the Democratic party. Nevertheless, there are no secure assurances this will indeed develop.
The only real threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations. These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign. The movement advocating a freeze on nuclear arsenals of both countries continues to gain strength in the United States. The movement is also willing to accept preparations, particularly from Kennedy, for its continued growth. In political and influential circles of the country, including within Congress, the resistence to growing military expenditures is gaining strength.
However, according to Kennedy, the opposition to Reagan is still very weak. Reagan’s adversaries are divided and the presentations they make are not fully effective. Meanwhile, Reagan has the capabilities to effectively counter any propaganda. In order to neutralize criticism that the talks between the USA and the USSR are non-constructive, Reagan will grandiose, but subjectively propagandistic. At the same time, Soviet officials who speak about disarmament will be quoted out of context, silenced or groundlessly and whimsically discounted. Although arguments and statements by officials of the USSR do appear in the press, it is important to note the majority of Americans do not read serious newspapers or periodicals.
Kennedy believes that, given the current state of affairs, and in the interest of peace, it would be prudent and timely to undertake the following steps to counter the militaristic politics of Reagan and his campaign to psychologically burden the American people. In this regard, he offers the following proposals to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Y.V. Andropov:
1. Kennedy asks Y.V. Andropov to consider inviting the senator to Moscow for a personal meeting in July of this year. The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA. He would also like to inform you that he has planned a trip through Western Europe, where he anticipates meeting England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Mitterand in which he will exchange similar ideas regarding the same issues.
If his proposals would be accepted in principle, Kennedy would send his representative to Moscow to resolve questions regarding organizing such a visit.
Kennedy thinks the benefits of a meeting with Y.V.Andropov will be enhanced if he could also invite one of the well known Republican senators, for example, Mark Hatfield. Such a meeting will have a strong impact on American and political circles in the USA (In March of 1982, Hatfield and Kennedy proposed a project to freeze the nuclear arsenals of the USA and USSR and pblished a book on the theme as well.)
2. Kennedy believes that in order to influence Americans it would be important to organize in August-September of this year, televised interviews with Y.V. Andropov in the USA. A direct appeal by the General Secretary to the American people will, without a doubt, attact a great deal of attention and interest in the country. The senator is convinced this would receive the maximum resonance in so far as television is the most effective method of mass media and information.
If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interview. Specifically, the president of the board of directors of ABC, Elton Raul and television columnists Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters could visit Moscow. The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side.
Furthermore, with the same purpose in mind, a series of televised interviews in the USA with lower level Soviet officials, particularly from the military would be organized. They would also have an opportunity to appeal directly to the American people about the peaceful intentions of the USSR, with their own arguments about maintaining a true balance of power between the USSR and the USA in military term. This issue is quickly being distorted by Reagan’s administration.
Kennedy asked to convey that this appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is his effort to contribute a strong proposal that would root out the threat of nuclear war, and to improve Soviet-American relations, so that they define the safety of the world. Kennedy is very impressed with the activities of Y.V. Andropov and other Soviet leaders, who expressed their commitment to heal international affairs, and improve mutal understandings between peoples.
The senator underscored that he eagerly awaits a reply to his appeal, the answer to which may be delivered through Tunney.
Having conveyed Kennedy’s appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Tunney also explained that Senator Kennedy has in the last few years actively made appearances to reduce the threat of war. Because he formally refused to partake in the election campaign of 1984, his speeches would be taken without prejudice as they are not tied to any campaign promises. Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988. At that time, he will be 56 and his personal problems, which could hinder his standing, will be resolved (Kennedy has just completed a divorce and plans to remarry in the near future). Taken together, Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president. This would explain why he is convinced that none of the candidates today have a real chance at defeating Reagan.
We await instructions.
President of the committee
V. Chebrikov
Oh I can’t wait until nationalized healthcare is forced upon us. Oh wait this won’t be an issue since 100,516 unborn children are aborted in America every month.
The babies born in hospital corridors: Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to give birth in lifts, offices and hospital toilets
Read more: dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209034/The-babies-born-hospital-corridors-Bed-shortage-forces-4-000-mothers-birth-lifts-offices-hospital-toilets.html#ixzz0PJrg3XOB
The story of how Senator Ted. Kennedy rescued a Jewish family from Russia, and saved their little girl’s life.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/26/littlest.refusenik.kennedy/index.html
Use the link to read the entire remarkable account from the family he saved.
Patches:
“Bilge hasn’t responded to my response so I assume he pulled the other cartman.
Screw you guys! I’m going home.”
No, I have a private-sector job, I went to work.
“Besides, all of us in the same system means we pay less overall due to having 1 pool of all americans rather than small private pools of a couple million. It’s how insurance works.”
Once again, you seem seduced by the Marxist “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” meme.
How often do you have to have your nose rubbed in it to dope out that that doesn’t work in the real world…it’s a fairy tale. man.
People can, if they will, game the system to get over, like the Capitalist Beggar LindaS and her two woefully over-miseducated daughters above.
Look at Public Education…I notice that Mr. Obama, like Mr. Clinton before him, opted NOT to send his progeny to attend the DC Public School system, but rather chose to have them attend the pricey and exclusive Sidwell Friends School.
That’s fine…I can’t say that I blame him, but it is to shame that he moved with such alacrity to kill the school voucher program and thereby consign the children of the less wealthy and politically connected to the ministrations of his great and good friends in the NEA and AFT, (to say nothing of the DC Public Schools Administration, which a few years ago had the highest per-student spending in the nation with the lowest SAT scores in the entire country).
All of your idols on the Left have similar feet of clay.
What you folks on the Left have to realize is that a LOT of people you label as “Conservative”, are REALLY only folks who know a bad deal when they see one.
For the money that is spent, the government yields the absolute WORST product or service.
It’s bad value.
Can you get short-changed and cheated by a private health insurance firm?
Sure…no question.
The difference, and it’s the saving difference, is that the private concern has competition, so if they do enough of that sort of thing, they go out of business.
And…you can much more easily sue a corporation than you can the US government.
A few years ago, a woman who had a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend sued the County and State that she lived in because the police did not respond to her calls for help.
The ex-boyfriend apparently had called and told her he was coming over and threatened her with violence. She called the police, who never showed up; the boyfriend did as he promised and committed some form of mayhem, (it might even have been murder, my recollection of the facts are sketchy).
The court dismissed her suit, stating that the police are not there to accord her personal protection, but rather to maintain “public order”,and thus have NO personal responsibility to individual members of the public at all, whatever the peril those individuals may be in.
The point from all of this is that say you get your single-payer/public option/ nationalized healthcare, and it IS NOT all you thought it would be.
How long do you think those politicians who are NOW yammering about your “basic human rights” are going to take before they start singing a different tune…that the public health care programs are meant to serve the amorphously-defined “public”, rather than you, personally?
There goes YOUR child’s liver transplant, while some Congressman’s big campaign contributor’s daughter gets flown across the country to the best abortionist in the USA, at taxpayer expense.
See, when it comes out of pocket, people will think long and hard about using it.
But if they can be rooked into thinking that it’s “free”, hey…who cares?
And you end up like LindaS’s daughters…dumb kids who had God knows how much money wasted on an “education” and who obviously never gave any thought to things like health care plans or pension benefits or starting salaries…to say nothing of job market for whatever they studied…why should they have?
They think that it wasn’t like THEY were paying for it.
Patches:
Here’s a pretty good compendium of such cases as I mentioned above, from a source that might pass your “ideological smell test”:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=236375&mesg_id=237773
So, to recap, YOU get to pay the government for protection, but when it comes time that you personally NEED it, you can go get stuffed.
And you think this would be any different in the Haelth Care arena?
Tena:
” I remarked that whatever the Right says, it all boils down to three things:
It’s mine
Get out of my way
Suck my balls.”
And with Leftists, it’s the other way around.
No “Death Panels”, huh?
Interesting tidbit:
“A drug called Temodal is the U.S. standard of care for Sen. Kennedy’s type of brain cancer. In Britain, a government body charged with funding decisions — the euphemistically named NICE, or National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence — ruled in 2001 that Temodal wasn’t worth the money as a first-line treatment; in 2007, they partially lifted the prohibition. Patients can still get the drug, they just need to pay out of pocket — for all their cancer care. The National Health Service recently ruled that if patients opt out of one type of care (say by getting Temodal), they opt out of all publicly funded care.”
from:
http://socglory.blogspot.com/2008/07/american-cancer-care-beats-rest-you.html
8th paragraph.
government has no duty to protect individual citizens
–
there you have it the government has no due to protect individual citizens yet all entitlement programs are based upon that. Is this the SCOTUS ruling that could be applied to cease entitlements?
oh no bilgeman you mean Teddy got drugs due to his private american health insurance that the american taxpayers pay for and the great health care system that this admin wants to reconstruct ours into denies their people this drug?
Then deny them benefits if they choose to pay for the drug out of their own pocket?
Oh heck yeah give me some of that! pffft!
Kennedy is the exact time of politician the people in power can do without. If everyone in power was like him, the poor would fear nothing, and there would be true democratic revolution.
Er, “time” should, in fact, say “type”
Gee, I guess Patches pulled a “Cartman”, eh?
John Godwin:
“Kennedy is the exact time of politician the people in power can do without. If everyone in power was like him, the poor would fear nothing, and there would be true democratic revolution.”
Piss off, you Limey fruit. Worry about your nation, while you still have one.
The funny thing is that the Kennedy clan all gave a nudge and a wink when the Provos came begging around Boston for “The Cause”, so Ole “Ted the Kompassionate Kennedy” was certainly okay with the people who would have car-bombed your moronic British bum sitting in your crumbling council flat.
If you have the capacity, you should think about that, or pay someone smarter than yourself to think about it FOR you.
But in any case, go flap your undoubtedly orthodontically-challenged gums at your Parliament, you silly twit.
Maybe you can get the NHS to pay for some PROPER dentistry.