Healthcare is a ball in the ocean.

There it is! My public option. Also known as the SBX radar, just one part of a $19 billion a year SDI defense system that is a proven failure yet is being deployed anyway. Why do we need this again?

In response to John Boccieri announcing he'll back health care bill, I say this:

I will still probably support Obama, Kucinich & Boccieri come election time because I feel they will still probably be the far lesser of the two evils but there is no disputing Obama had to twist some arms to get support for this out of Kucinich & Boccieri to get them on board. I applaud them for holding out as long as they did because I do not support this bill. Healthcare reform is desperately needed in this country but this bill doesn't come close to what is needed. This bill will provide no universal healthcare or public option. It will provide a requirement for everyone without healthcare (because they can't afford it) to get healthcare now. It will be just like car insurance. They will have to buy it from the same insurance companies that are jacking up their rates and caused this mess to begin with. I would have much preferred all three of these guys stuck to their principles and rammed a public option plan through congress despite any opposition (just like the Republicans would do under W). It could easily all be funded if we spent a fraction less on the two pointless wars we are still engaging or if stopped spending trillions on developing & deplying defense systems that are no longer necessary or don't even work (i.e., SDI, F22 Raptors & 10 new Ford Class aircraft carriers). It's outrageous that we have people that can't afford medicine or medical care in this country yet we pay for public health care in Iraq & Afghanistan. God bless America! Hope you have some tissue.

Kucinich finally caves...but at he least he put up a fight.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland steps off Air Force One at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland, Monday. He flew in with President Obama for Obama's visit to Strongsville.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich to vote "yes" on health care

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich waited until Democrats had won last November's health care reform vote before casting his ballot against it on the House of Representatives floor.

This time around -- pressured by everyone from President Obama to Moveon.org -- the Cleveland Democrat had no luxury to dawdle before taking a stance. He announced at a Capitol news conference this morning that he'll vote "yes" on the bill's latest draft.

"I have doubts about the bill," Kucinich said. "This is not the bill I wanted to support. . . However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth and close friends, I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation."

Bill opponents pounced quickly. Said an e-mail alert from the National Republican Congressional Committee: "Left-wing icon flips from 'No,' exposes so-called moderates."

Kucinich's move came after months of insisting he'd oppose the bill because it doesn't do enough to curtail insurance company abuses. Kucinich advocates bolstering Medicare and expanding its coverage to include all Americans.

But he acknowledged this morning that his choice now is to either vote "no" on principle, and thereby possibly block the biggest (though imperfect) advance in health coverage in decades, or compromise for the good of the estimated 30 million more Americans who could gain insurance.

"I have taken this fight further" than many other Congress members, Kucinich said, citing his two presidential campaigns in which he advocated universal coverage and his bill introduction and other attempts in the House to get single-payer insurance.

He told reporters that if they want to see first-hand the tough economic and health-care choices that many Americans face, they should "come to the 10th District in Ohio and you'll understand."

Kucinich's field office on Cleveland's West Side routinely helps constituents with their social services needs, and that includes dealing with insurance matters, he said. He cited his own impoverished childhood, saying, "I grew up understanding what it meant to struggling families who did not get adequate care."

"I understand the connection between poverty and poor health care," he said.

As an adult, he has struggled with Crohn's Disease, and although he follows an alternative diet as one way of dealing with it, he also has had "access to the best" health care around.

"I know I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is," Kucinich said.

His recent criticism of the bill included a column he authored for last Sunday's Plain Dealer, in which he wrote:

"Even with the few modest improvements in the bill, the insurance companies will still have dozens of loopholes to deny care and continue to find ways to leave Americans with the unpayable bill."

But Democrats are struggling to round up the 216 votes they need to pass the bill amid heavy lobbying from its opponents and its supporters, and Kucinich''s arms were twisted.

President Obama personally lobbied for his vote Monday on a ride to Cleveland aboard Air Force One, and at a health care reform rally in Strongsville. Picketers descended on Kucinich's Lakewood office to register their displeasure with his announced opposition to the package slated for consideration this week.

By Sabrina Eaton, The Plain Dealer, March 17, 2010

This is my response to the morons commenting on the story here:

You did all you could Dennis. Holding out any longer would have been pointless. As for you mis-informed masses, Dennis Kucinich has been & still is the best advocate for the working poor this country has. He held out on this not because of the non-existent tax increase or because of the debt burden but because it turns around and hands the same insurance companies that have caused this mess more business. He held out on principle. He wants Universal care for everyone. This bill will not provide that. Keep up the good fight Dennis! I happen to know my opinion is in the minority on this forum but after reading the majority of the previous comments, I am quite proud of that. No wonder things are the way they are here in this country. It seems to me that the majority needs to turn off the Fox & Rush & pick up a book. People of Cleveland! People of America! Educate yourselves! Stop believing the propoganda. Stop voting against your own interests!

Check out Dennis.