Is bad Healthcare reform dead? Does good health insurance reform have a chance now? Look for answers in healthcare stock prices.

With all that has happened this past week, I thought an update on the Healthcare stocks was in order. If you have been reading here for a while, I have said countless times, that if you wanted to know if the proposed Legislation by the Democrats was good for average Americans, just watch the price of the stocks of United Healthcare and Wellpoint.

As you can see from the chart above, back on Dec, 5th, the Democrats conceded that the Public Option appeared dead. On Monday, Dec. 7th both stocks started to rise and gained almost 30% at the peak of each chart. On Tuesday, in Massachusetts voted in a Republican Senator to fill former Ted Kennedy's seat, a significant upset which continues to reverberate throughout the Democratic Party and the News media, this weekend. Again, as you can see from the charts, this election of a Republican, which denies the Democrats of their super majority of 60 votes, also appears to deny the Health Insurance companies the benefits they were hoping to get with the proposed legislation. This is signified by the drop after the market close on Tuesday, Jan. 19th and the market close of Jan. 20th and had continued through the day yesterday.

If you assume for a minute that what is good for Health Insurance companies is bad for average Americans, then this move is good and hopefully will continue. The Healthcare legislation needs to be bipartisan.

My suggestions for this are as follows:
1. What is needed is simplicity, not a 2008 page Bill.
2. Insurance companies must not deny coverage for pre-existing conditions any longer.
3. People should be able to buy Insurance across State lines, as they can do for car insurance.
4. Tort reform is also important and should be included in any proposed legislation.
5. Everyone should be required from age 25 and over to purchase Health Insurance.

This would be a good start for bipartisanship and would still allow an unprecedented victory for the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party.

The end of America as we knew it. Blame the Supreme Court

What a week this has been. Today, the Supreme Court erased all restrictions on Corporations for contributions to elections in the form of money, which, according to the Court equates to allowing free speech. They can't give a direct contribution to a candidate (yet!), but can run as many ads and make any documentaries they like, on any campaign issue or about any candidate like the Swift Boat ads were against Sen. Kerry. God, you know what that means? It means that, as of today, Corporations own the vote and your vote is no longer valid. They can spend as much money as they want, to fund anyone's campaign and outspend any person or group of persons. That infers they can buy the votes more easily than they have. Forget about America's Freedoms. You don't have any freedoms left except to leave the country except to hope that we can appoint new Supreme Court Justices who will over rule this decision. But the Corporations will now control much as to who runs and gets elected and will support candidates that favor continuation of this ruling. We're screwed! This is a new form of slavery in my view.

The last hope we had was to remove corporations and their lobbyists from elections and influencing politicians. Now the Supreme Court has opened the door wide. I am sick over this! Don't tell me it doesn't matter who is on the Supreme Court and who gets to fill the open seats. It is the most important decision of a Presidency and Bush got to name 2, Alito and Roberts, both who voted in favor of this ruling along with Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy

Yes voters will be even more mad than they were in Tuesday's election in Massachusetts for the former Senate seat of Ted Kennedy. This morning I got this from someone I love and respect there and they speak for many. Here is their take on the election:

"The bank tax will be a good idea, but the people of Mass just heard about it when the president came to visit.

Maybe I can give you little background on why the people here voted for Brown. It all started when we were never aloud to vote for what constitutes a marriage. How do they know how the liberal state of Mass would have voted, but the legislature wouldn't give us a chance. Is this America or what!!! We have health care for 90% of our people and the health cost in our state are astronomical. Most young families have a $5000.00 deductable. We don't know if the new health care plan is any good because there is no transparency. Our unemployment is high and our housing market is a mess....No one feels secure, not even at our airport. Our tax dollars are going to protect terrorist instead of everyday people. I could go on but I will just say, Brown even won in Ted Kennedy's district.

I don't believe people think the president is arrogant, but he should have kept his compaign promise of transparency. "

That sums it up from this individual and speaks for many in Massachusetts. Add this action by the Supreme Court today and people will feel even more powerless. The worst thing that ever happened was giving Corporations the status on individuals, except no bad Corporation can go to jail, like individuals can.

California Budget Gridlock: Here are the Senators responsible for Gridlock.

First a little brief background. California is unlike the Federal government in that it must balance its budget but in order to do that it takes a 2/3rd approval rate, not the usual 50% majority other States have as a requirement. California has 40 State Senators. Currently, there are 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans. That would mean in order to pass the proposed budget we need 27 votes. Now with the Democrats holding only 24 seats, they need 3 Republicans to approve the Budget. They can get only 2 Republicans to vote for the proposed budget, which is a mix of Cuts in spending and tax increases. The Senate has been working on this problem a good 6 months to a year.

So here we are with a few stubborn Republicans who have helped create this mess in the first place, blocking all action to get the measure passed. The Republicans don't want a single tax increased and that is their position period. Here is a list of the Republican Senators who have caused this mess:

Name

Walters
Hollingsworth
Denham
Benoit
Huff
Ashburn
Aanestad
Strickland
Maldonado
Runner
Wyland
Cox
Harman
Dutton
COGDILL

Now the Republican leader Sen. Dave Cogdill had voted for the budget in the spirit of compromise, but now faces his own party as the Republicans ousted him from his leadership position for voting in favor of the proposed budget. Sen Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria), voted against the taxes this morning but has stated publicly that he might support them if various government reforms were added to the package. He was sharply critical of his caucus for removing Cogdill. GOP Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield has agreed to vote for the package, according to legislative officials.

The GOP's only Latino senator, Maldonado, like Adams, represents a swing district and voted for the state budget in 2007.

On Monday, Maldonado said he would "take a look at" voting for the budget package if it included financial penalties for future legislators who fail to pass state budgets on time or drive the state into deficit. And Maldonado, who lost a 2006 bid for state controller to a more conservative challenger, said he wants future California primary elections to be "open," allowing voters to cross party lines to cast a ballot.

So we are in a mess and only some reasonable Republican Senators hold the key to getting us out of this mess. California is a beautiful state to live in from nature's perspective, but from some of the people that live here it is one of the worst states. And I say that having lived in Massachusetts for 25 years or should I call it Taxachusetts like the locals do.

Many want to blame Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger but I think he has done his best to get his Party to join the Democrats. It's just that they are all stubborn and in my view should resign as they are failing to keep their oath to the people of the State. They have done everything they can to be obstructionists and don't deserve the seats they occupy.

UPDATE: Feb. 19th
I corrected the list of names above to reflect the State Senators instead of what I had listed, the Assembly. Thanks to the comments from those making them.

Fatalities by State from Iraq War and why Vermonters called for impeachment

A few days ago I wrote a piece titled, "Calls for impeachment from small towns across Vermont". At that time I had no idea as to why 29 towns have called for the impeachment of President Bush. I had first attributed it to the fact that Vermont had the only Progressive candidate in the Senate, Bernie Sanders and therefore it was understandable that many might vote for impeachment given the history of the blunders and failed policy of this President and his Administration.

But upon closer examination I had my eyes opened wide to the real reason that Vermont was leading the way in calls for Bush's impeachment, to end this Iraq war and to bring the troops home. Vermonters on a per person basis, have sacrificed more of its blood treasure, its soldiers, than any other State in the country, a fact not known nor cited by the main stream media. These families know first hand what this war is costing. By contrast the District of Columbia, the seat of politics and of all branches of government, had the least % casualties by a margin of 1 DC fatality for every 5 Vermonters. I am not trying to minimalize even one death here, but rather to give one good reason why Vermonters may have called for the impeachment of President Bush. They are living the consequences of going into this war of choice first hand.

Click on the image above to enlarge it and see where your State stands on the list. They are sorted by Fatalities from greatest to least percentage based upon the State population. Fatalities included in the data are those listed as of 3-11-07 on icasualties.org.