Apparently, he is state attorney general under Charlie Crist but is running to be governor of Florida too.  He is also trying to sue the federal government.

Let’s get this straight. Bill McCollum is standing up for our rights as citizens against health care reform! Three cheers for our one-man squad. Oh wait, he seems to have a team with him. A few other states have agreed to come together for this case, including: Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington. The attorney generals for each state have finally joined forces to stand up for our rights!
They just happen to be mostly Republicans. Definitely a coincidence. Definitely.

According to CNN, “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration expected to win any lawsuits filed against the health care bill.” The big guys don’t seem to really be worried about the little Republican ant army.

Specifically, McCollum stated he had problems with the insurance mandate in the health care bill, that requires everyone to be insured or pay a fine, but low-income people get an exception if the insurance costs are too much. His argument: “This is a tax or a penalty on just living, and that’s unconstitutional. There’s no provision in the Constitution of the United States giving Congress the power to do that.” He wants to personally sue President Obama for surpassing his boundaries as President of the United States.

However, there is power in the people. More specifically, power in a single man to speak for the country as a whole. Oh wait, that’s the president, the one who signed the health care reform bill after the House of Representatives passed it. (You know the House of Representatives, that group of folks we the people decided were qualified to make decisions on our behalf as representatives in an election.)

It seems like this fun little political scandal/press gimmick is a fresh and interesting reminder that most people in this country don’t really understand that we do control the government, hence the title DEMOCRACY. The president was elected, remember that? In 2008, with all the signs with John McCain’s face on them?

McCollum claims this is an infringement on our rights, but let’s take a few steps back. Exactly what will the Health Care Bill do, anyway? What McCollum didn’t say:

• Health care reform would reduce deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years.
• Over 32 million Americans will now be insured with affordable health coverage who were not insured previously.
• With Medicare, senior citizens also will receive a 50% discount on prescription drugs starting in 2011.
• Medicaid will expand to include 133 % of the federal poverty level (FPL) and to include childless adults.
• The Federal Government will pay 100% of newly eligible individuals’ costs.
• Illegal immigrants can no longer legally purchase insurance coverage, even if they pay for it themselves… in cash.
• Insurance companies cannot deny coverage to children with preexisting medical conditions and by 2016, they cannot deny coverage to anyone with a preexisting condition.
• Insurance companies have to allow children to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until they are 26. (Now that’s a plus I can get behind!)

So regardless of the insurance mandate that McCollum so avidly hates, the reform bill really isn’t some big bad monster come to eat all of our lives away.  If we are looking for inexpensive health care, and I think that deep down inside we all are, it seems Obama had his head on straight when he signed that bill. It appears there are a lot of benefits, that responsible leaders carefully thought out to put into this health care reform bill. Most of them are benefits, but nothing in this world comes free, hence the mandate. Whoever expected to have doctors at their door begging to treat patients who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay out of pocket must have been confused–and that is what the mandate is for. So calm down McCollum, Big Mr. President Man knows what he’s doing.

Yahoo! News has its take on the matter with this outstanding headline: “White House, experts: Health care suit will fail.” I think that says it all.

For all those who claim Canada or Costa Rica are better options, or are maybe looking over to Russia from their Alaskan border where the ice is apparently whiter, remember that Canada and Costa Rica have socialist universal health care like most of Europe, and Russia used to be the USSR.

]]> http://www.theyetionline.com/views/who-is-bill-mccollum/feed/ 6 http://www.theyetionline.com/views/michael-steele-and-shep-smith-are-the-greatest-in-very-different-ways/ http://www.theyetionline.com/views/michael-steele-and-shep-smith-are-the-greatest-in-very-different-ways/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:00:22 +0000 Morgan http://www.theyetionline.com/?p=1879

President Barack Obama at his first State of the Union address.

President Obama gave his first State of the Union address on Wednesday, January 27, and I had my concerns about what was to come. My fears proved well-founded. Dubya’s State of the Union addresses were more than mere political speeches – they were masterpieces of dark, screwball comedy, using blatant absurdity to reveal deep and disturbing truths about our national character. Anyone with a heart and a brain had to laugh, if only to keep from breaking down in tears.

Inevitably, Obama failed to live up to his predecessor. Besides a few quips, the whole affair came off as pretty much sober-minded and reasonable, hardly the laugh riot one would expect from contemporary American politics. However, I’ll do my best examine the speech in a similar manner.

How much of what was said matters?

Obviously, certain parts of the speech matter very much. When the President announces goals and policies for the coming year, we should all pay attention. What doesn’t matter, is how much Obama claims to understand the average American’s anxieties. Every politician worth his campaign contributions says they know how rough it is for the working class, and it’s all touchy-feely bullshit. We already know we need more jobs that pay better. We already know about our own cynical and distrustful attitudes towards the government. We already know Wall Street is doing better than Main Street, and that Tennessee Street is just gross. We already know our own deeply moving and allegorical stories—we’re the ones sending those letters to the White House.

Obama waxing poetic about how much he sympathizes with us isn’t a serious explanation of his new jobs bill. It’s about selling himself as President. I get worried when I see fellow progressives trust that he means every word he says and thus things are great. I voted for the guy, and I support the jobs bill. I don’t think it goes far enough, but it’s something, at least. A good idea, and it was eloquently presented. But that eloquent presentation doesn’t matter. It’s impressive, sure, but what matters is whether or not the bill actually becomes law. And so far, Obama and our Democratically controlled Congress haven’t shown much skill in that area. [Ed. Note: Gotta love conventional wisdom.]

Yes, the Republicans are obstructionist. As Obama pointed out, they’ve nearly annihilated meaningful health care reform out of spite. But Obama and the other Democrats let them do it. Instead of getting organized, making demands, and refusing to take no for answer they twiddled their thumbs playing nicety-nice bi-partisan games that, from the outset, clearly weren’t going to get anywhere. If anything proposed Wednesday night takes a similar route, none of Obama’s inspirational talk matters, which in many cases would be very problematic, possibly catastrophic. We need debt forgiveness for student loans. We need better public transportation, and the new high-speed railway connecting Tampa to Orlando is an awesome example. We need clean energy – although I have to say, the nuclear power, offshore drilling, and “clean” coal plants Obama mentioned don’t really fit into that category. But still, these are all important issues.

Also important, as the President mentioned, is the necessity of transparency in government and the protection of civil rights. What went unmentioned were some major blemishes on the President’s record concerning both issues. On the issue of transparency, there was the secret negotiating with the pharmaceutical lobby. As for civil rights, there’s the continued practice of holding terror suspects without officially charging them with a crime, a practice that can extend to American citizens like Syed Fahad Hashmi.

To be fair, Obama has kicked ass over that last guy, even if he’s not as funny, and his big ears will never be able to rival that dumb squint. By and large, 2009 was a vast improvement over the preceding eight years of crazy. Even I felt a twinge of hope in my lightless, anarchic, distrustful heart at the mention of troops coming home. And I love having a President who can fluently speak his native language. Unfortunately, if it turns out all he can do is talk, that’s not good enough. The planet is melting, and most of my friends can’t afford to see a doctor when they need to. That’s not funny.

[Ed. Note--In keeping with the promise laid out in The Yeti Blog's original charter, we are happy to supplement Matthew's serious commentary on the State of the Union with a light-hearted musical interpretation from The Gregory Brothers (schmoyoho), the folks behind the Auto-Tune the News series of web videos. We hope you enjoy.]

Photo from Wikimedia Commons.