Kudos to Sanders, Clyburn and Wyden!

The more I read about the Sanders-Clyburn-Wyden Amendment to the health care reform bill, the more hopeful I become regarding the future of the U.S. healthcare system.

Apparently a system of "Federally Qualified Health Centers" already exists, based on legislation initiated long ago by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Such health centers reportedly provide "primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs for about 20 million Americans...basic services like prenatal care, childhood immunizations and cancer screenings...for patients covered by Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance as well as those who have no insurance."

Senator Sanders' initial amendment was to include $10 billion for community health centers around the country, which he projected would bring primary health care to 25 million more Americans and serve 10,000 more communities. It is also said to include provisions for loan repayments and scholarships, to "create an additional 20,000 primary care doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and mental health professionals." Representative James Clyburn intends to increase the proposed funding to $14 billion, and Senator Ron Wyden is said to be editing the bill to provide waivers for states that want to provide more health care to their citizens.

There are financial benefits to this plan, in addition to the physical benefits. Senator Sanders said that a university study concluded that this amendment would save Medicaid $23 billion over five years by reducing emergency room use and hospital costs. Furthermore, services cost substantially less at community health centers than elsewhere.

This amendment actually exceeds what I contemplated in an earlier post, and I hope it survives and flowers during the Congressional reconciliation process. For me, this would be change I could believe in: a resource I could count on in the event I lost my job or start that export business I am thinking about. I would call it a "public option" and be happy with it. And I will be grateful to all of the legislators who make it a reality.

Alex Budarin

Deficit Spending

Republicans are suddenly alarmed by deficit spending. That was not the case when George W. Bush was President and Republicans controlled Congress, and they know it. According to an Associated Press report, Republican senators say their change of mind is due to the fact that the economy is in worse shape now and the American public is anxious. I suppose Republican senators previously believed it was okay to engage in deficit spending because the economy was in good shape and people were not worried about it.

That provokes two thoughts:

1. Government leaders should concern themselves about deficit spending also in good times; and
2. Their concern about deficit spending should not depend on the public mood.

A government should live within its means. But its management should be pragmatic: questions of economic policy should be determined with reference to experience, current insights of scientific inquiry, and current realities. It seemed to me, back in 2006, that the policies of our Republican-dominated government would lead us to ruin, because they were pretty much unconcerned with past experience, economic realities, and the opinions of economists.

According to the AP report, the Obama administration is engaging in deficit spending only to "pull the economy from the severe recession of 2008-09." As far as I know, the majority of economists support the Obama administration's economic policy. The AP report also mentions that Obama and other Democrats have vowed to return to the Clinton "pay as you go" restrictions for government spending, whereby "most tax cuts or program expansions [have] to be offset elsewhere with tax increases and spending cuts." But we can only return to that standard when it is pragmatically feasible.

Alex Budarin

Thank You, Harry Reid,

And all of my fellow Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

Through your efforts and your votes last night, we are closing in on that day when the American people receive what Presidents since Theodore Roosevelt have wanted for them -- health insurance for all citizens, regardless of condition. It will not be perfect. But nothing ever is.

Please begin working with Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats on terms of reconciliation. Give the American people a Christmas present with a lifetime guarantee. And make "Teddy" happy!