Big Pharma/Health Insurance seem to be HUGE contributors to individual and party campaigns, and there seems to be issue capture by those running for election.

So, is there a way to restrict particular organisations from making direct contributions to campaigns?

The thing that is really making me sad and bitter right now is the utterly transparent cowardice and selfishness of our Congresspeople, a few noble exceptions notwithstanding. They are addicted to the money that gets them elected, and so they will always be more attentive to insurance companies and big pharma than to the voters themselves.

Is leadership really that hard? Really? I was never a fan of term limits, but if the Supreme Court and the Congress can’t bring themselves to remove money from the electoral process, I see no other alternative. If they’re not constantly thinking about how to keep their jobs, maybe elected officials can do what they were, in fact, elected to do.

Australia is a fairly conservative country, and is not socialist by any means or stretch of the imagination, yet we have publicly funded health care (free and accessible to all citizens), and there is a private health insurance if you want it and can afford it..

I was thinking about this yesterday, about the fact that health care reform was one of the pillars of Obama’s election platform. We elected him knowing that; by doing so we endorsed that need for reform. And now I am reading polls that (purport to) tell me that outrageous numbers of people are “unsure” or “uncomfortable” about actually changing things. It’s as though by electing Obama in the first place we’ve used up the entire Change Quota allotted for the next decade or so. Like ohmigod, but we’ve changed things so drastically by just electing an African-American and any more change is just too much, it’s too scary, it’s too unknown, ack, ack, ack!!!1!1

That’s a really unsophisticated and one-dimensional analysis; I know it’s more complicated. But I do think it matters that, in general, many people fear change and sometimes would rather be stuck in the same, familiar pile of shit than risk something new. So opponents make sure to not only vilifying the actual reform measures, but also Obama himself. It’s like they’re saying, “See? See what “change” got you? Hitler! A socialist! A fascist! Change is bad, and we certainly don’t want any more of it, now do we?”

What happened to all that hope and change?

Can we have a vote of no confidence for like 75% of the legislative branch?