Depending on who you ask, the Democrat’s health care reform efforts fall somewhere on the political spectrum between “dead” for at least another generation and “at the two-yard line” of reaching a final deal. I tend to believe reality falls somewhere much closer to the later sentiment than the former. On January 30, for example, [...]

You can take a great deal of meaning out of the result of yesterday’s Massachusetts special election in many different ways. For someone of my leanings, most of it is pretty grim. One thing would be false to infer, however, is that it was a failed referendum on health care reform. In the grand scheme of things, I really don’t see this election as a “game-changer” so to say. True reform of the system to cut costs is something that cannot be achieved through legislation alone, and remains unaffected by Scott Brown’s victory.

Flawed as it may be, health care reform is still worth passing. In the coming days as the House and Senate bills are combined, we must accept the result. Even the strongest of progressives need to realize that no single bill will fix the system. Whatever Barack Obama signs will only be the beginning.

Song of Sibyl’s inaugural Special Comment on the man who killed the public option and the Medicare buy-in plan for adults over the age of 55.
Seven presidents have tried to reform a health care system that everyone agrees is broken. Seven have failed. Now, at the dawn of his second year in office, President [...]

Despite achieving feats that very few people would have believed politically possible just a few years ago, both the House and Senate health care bills leave much to be desired — namely that the House’s public option is too weak and the Senate’s public option is non-existent.
At this juncture, however, what’s most important is distilling [...]

So we all know politicians lie. Sometimes its about Argentinian women and sometimes its about death panels but, no matter their level of creativity, they still need to be held accountable. That’s why here at the Song we are committed to interrogating the truth.
This time the perpetrator is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). In [...]

Anybody? Please? Well maybe I’m talking to the wrong crowd. After reflecting a bit on the current political debates surrounding health care reform and climate change legislation, I’ve come to one conclusion: our so-called “problem solvers” – Democrats in congress and the White House – need to take art lessons. For starters, they need to [...]

Lesson from Michael Jackson:
“I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror. I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways. And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer. If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place, Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change”
-  Lyrics from“Man in the Mirror”
At this particular and unique moment, [...]

I was listening to Howard Dean on Countdown with Keith Olbermann the other night and he said something that not only got me thinking, but took my heart and mind back to the night of Obama’s election. While discussing the fight for health care reform, and why opponents of reform seemed to be more galvanized [...]

The past few weeks have seen a great deal of debate over whether a provision to provide free end of life counseling to seniors will lead to the government deciding who lives and who dies, invoking the imagery of Nazis and “death panels.” Despite how clearly false these claims may be, it’s difficult not to [...]