There's a loose connection between the Dem congress's position on impeachment, Bush Vetos and universal single payer health care.
Watching the reactions to members of congress, it's clear, they're all using the same anti-impeachment talking points-- that they want to appear to be getting things done rather than "wasting time" impeaching. Today brings news that Bush is blocking funding for children's health care. Why? Because it will governmentalize it. He's protecting private health insurers.
Perhaps his reaction provides an answer to how to convert health insurance to Universal single payer (just universal will not work.) We need to overcome his veto, or we need to get this done at the state level-- for children. We already have it for seniors. Then, let's gradually provide it for more and more groups of people until they are all covered and the only ones left with private health insurance are the wealthy, who want a supplemental insurance. Of course, it woud be better to just pass a big bill, but that may never be possible.
Meanwhile, Bush's favoring of the big private health insurers is KILLING US industries that must pay for health insurance, while competing with dozens of major countries that subsidize that cost. Instead of giving billions in subsidies to Big Oil, we should be taking over the costs of health care for the industries in the US that are most endangered and rendered least competitive because of the health insurance monkey on their back. Once we socialize or governmentalize-- pick your poison nomenclature that the right wing will use to mislabel it-- healthcare for big industry, it will be easier, when we have the system in place, to provide it to people who are laid off.
Eventually, we'll have a system that can "digest" the unemployed and lowest paid who can't afford to pay for health care. We'll do it then, because it will be more cost effective to provide regular health care-- the preventive kind, that acute, emergency care.
Getting back to impeachment-- if Bush keeps on blocking the legislation the Dems introduce, then their argument that they are avoiding impeachment to get things done will be neutralized by Bush.
Of course, the other argument that they have against impeachment is they are setting up the Republicans for a massive loss in November 2008, by showing them to be obstructing the legislation that Americans want. That's a risky gamble though. If the Dems don't get anything accomplished, the PEOPLE may not trust them any more than the Republicans. Polls are certainly showing this discontent. Still, the ploy may work, as long as another Supreme court appointment, the start of an Iran war, either directly by the US or through an Israeli proxy, the use of a false flag domestic terrorist attack...
Any of these could upset these nice, neat plans of the Democrats. Meanwhile, America desperately needs Universal, single payer health care and legislators at state and federal levels need to do all they can ASAP to make it happen.
Impeachment will probably wait for those 17 Republican senators to make "THE WALK" to Bush's office to tell him to get the hell out.
