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Cancer Patients Die While 'New Dems' Help Bankers Get Billions

Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 4:17 PM on March 11, 2009.


I'm having a hard time with this.
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I'm having a hard time with this.

As Rep. Alan Grayson said yesterday in his chat, "AIG blew up because it was a casino that dabbled in insurance on the side." To date, they've received $173 billion -- billion -- and we've got no idea what they did with it. Now we're being told that Citi needs a "bad bank" too to buy up their toxic assets, after they already received $250 billion -- billion -- in guarantees for their worthless shit in exchange for the low, low price of $7 billion in preferred stock for taxpayers.

And what are Americans--who are losing their jobs and their homes because AIG acted like a casino and taxpayers paid off all their gambling debts--getting?

They get to die:

21% of Americans scramble to pay medical, drug bills

Denise Prosser, 39, has battled cancer since she was a toddler.

Yet Prosser can't afford her next cancer treatment — a radioactive therapy that she's supposed to receive once a year — because she and her husband lost their jobs in December. Without insurance, she has postponed the radiation indefinitely and is taking only half of her asthma medications — sacrifices that often leave her gasping for air and could allow her cancer to come surging back.

She's dying because she lost her job and she can't pay her medical bills. She didn't steal anything so she could get taxpayer money so she can pay lobbyists to get her more taxpayer money--that's AIG.

Nobody will tell us who the AIG counterparties were, all we know is that they were a bunch of degenerate gamblers who got rich on taxpayer money. Meanwhile Ellen Tauscher is bragging that she and her New Democrat Coalition come from Wall Street, and work as henchmen for bank lobbyists. Of course they are -- the New Democrat's Executive Director, Adam Pase, was a lobbyist for predatory lenders. And bank lobbyists love them back, cooing about how the New Dems will keep Congress from "punishing" banks with new regulation of the financial system.

But don't think Tauscher and the New Dems are completely cold to people who can't pay for healthcare. Tauscher voted for the bankruptcy bill that made it more difficult for people with bills from catastrophic illness to file for bankruptcy, saying it "encouraged personal responsibility." I'm sure Denise is touched by Tauscher's concern for her moral fiber. And the power of the New Democrats is only growing -- yesterday, Obama proudly identified with them, saying "I'm a New Democrat."

We keep shoveling money to banks that are "too big to fail," but there's no money to help Denise Prosser. Watching her die while Ellen Tauscher and the New Democrats scramble to lick the boots of lobbyists, it's hard to resist the idea that everything else is just window dressing so we won't notice while the banks fleece us.

Tell Congress to tell us where all the money is going, and why people have to die so bankers can get even richer.

Digg!

Tagged as: democrats, cancer, banks, blue dogs, action, new dems, patients

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.


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RE: SINGLEPAYERACTION.ORG check it out; sign petition.
Posted by: sasquuatch55 on Mar 12, 2009 6:08 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
nt

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RE: It's coming
Posted by: HappyKlaus on Mar 12, 2009 4:57 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That's right, the only way to effect change is to commit a violent outrage against society. Most cancers are from bad personal choices... let them die.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

hear me out. . .
Posted by: sashi on Mar 11, 2009 6:12 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
here's my idea:

GET ARRESTED!

Make a big deal of it, so the jail has to provide care. Get on the news. Publicize the shit out of it.

PS--I had cancer as a kid, so I know it sucks, however, if you're gonna die, you might as well make a fucking point.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: hear me out. . .too! Posted by: monkeywrench
This is a crime.
Posted by: Gregsdiary on Mar 11, 2009 7:44 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
For-profit healthcare is corrupt.

It we get HR676 it will be criminal too.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

But this isn't new.
Posted by: SpiderWoman on Mar 12, 2009 2:28 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The real issue is that this sort of story isn't new. It's what has gone on all along - taxpayer money goes to the wealthy, usually via corporations and real people suffer from lack of things like healthcare, food, and shelter.

It isn't new. It's just happening more than before. Now those who thought they were better than the ones lacking in basics had turned their eyes. Now, they too are at risk.

So now they care.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

If you voted, you can't complain.
Posted by: folkie on Mar 12, 2009 2:56 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Do you have any idea how much it costs to mount a successful Presidential election campaign these days?

Who do you think chooses the nominees, the voters or the superdelegates?

Who decides how much and what type of coverage the delegates get, the public or the five corporations that own the major media?

After eight years of Bush/Cheney and their appointees, does anyone still think that we have a way to hold elected officials accountable BEFORE they kill people?

The rich are different from you and I. They don't have our interests at heart, they have their own interests at heart. And they're the only ones who can afford to run successful election campaigns.

Voting: The Right That Forfeits All Other Rights

When you knowingly delegate your power to people who don't have your best interests at heart, on the basis that one pro-war, pro-corporate candidate is less evil than the other pro-war, pro-corporate candidate (even though both had virtually identical voting records), you consented to being governed by somebody who cared more about war and about big corporations than about you.

When we're both dying of cancer, I'll have the consolation of knowing that I didn't vote because I didn't want to authorize anyone who cared more about war and corporations than about me, to have any power over me. If you voted, you'll have no such consolation. You voluntarily forfeited any and all other rights you might have had, for the right to vote in a rigged election where only pro-war, pro-corporate candidates had any chance of winning.

When you know the game is rigged, but you play anyway, don't come crying to me when you lose.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Sorry, typo: Posted by: folkie
» The Game is NOT Rigged Posted by: 2dogarage
It's the same old trick
Posted by: talkville on Mar 12, 2009 4:55 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Peek at the Past; address the Future. Ignore the Present.

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What I would like to know?
Posted by: undead on Mar 12, 2009 6:10 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Did this person vote for Mr. Obama?

Whom ever voted for Mr. Obama should have known what he was like.

I guess I just don't have any sympathy for fools.

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» Who's the real fool here? Posted by: newsound
My retirement
Posted by: FSadley on Mar 12, 2009 6:12 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Getting arrested has been my plan for my latter years. Since I have only social security (I hope) to depend on for income, aside for working as long as I phyically can. I figured when all else failed I'd just turn myself in for smoking pot. My grandkids can visit me in jail. :-)

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» RE: My retirement Posted by: monkeywrench
» RE: My retirement Posted by: pioneer
Stop the theft from the middle class
Posted by: pawheel on Mar 12, 2009 6:19 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
From one of the articles linked from this article," But banks and banking lobbyists are holding out hope that they can unload their bad loans on taxpayers, and are working through people like Tauscher to oppose the legislation so they never have to take responsibility for their mistakes.


Lobbyist money is flowing into the coffers of Tauscher's New Democrat Coalition, and it's time to stop pretending that they are doing anything but representing corporate interests over those of their constituents."

Our Congress, many came from Wall St, owned by lobbyists, looking to bailout their campaign contributors.

Why the HELL does anyone vote Democrat or Republican anymore? Do you go home after work and burn money? Then why do you support a government that STEALS it from you, me, and our children, and gives it to the CROOKS that put us in this position in the first place? The amount of money given to the banks, etc. could have brought single payer healthcare for the entire country with a trillion left over for infrasturcture that will get us off of poison sources of energy.

THINK: don't vote Dem or Repub.

Vote for someone who DOESN'T take corporate money: www.GP.org. Candidates who care about US, not the top 1% economically.

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DOES ANYONE REMEMBER GEORGE BUSH
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Mar 12, 2009 7:38 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That's when it all unravelled, not in just the past six weeks. Including the economy. Except no one was allowed to speak out against the Dictator. I won't deny that we have huge problems, but to act as though everything was coming up roses before Obama is flat out wrong. It was not UNTIL Obma that people felt free to speak out. Bush didn't listen and didn't care. and We knew it. ANNA

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i agree with bill maher
Posted by: Levon on Mar 12, 2009 7:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
bill maher said that if we followed the example of china and executed a couple of these degenerate bankers it would make an example. i agree, you'd be surprised how a bullet to the back of the head will make people want to do the right thing.

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leftbank
Posted by: markw4786 on Mar 12, 2009 8:35 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When I voted for Barack Obama, I had no idea he was a New Democrat, ie, pro market economics, anti labor, against regulation, anti-consumer (bankruptcy bill) and all for shifting corp risk towards the middle class but not the profits. Did you know this? Would that have affected your vote?

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» RE: leftbank Posted by: folkie
» RE: Except... Posted by: Cybershaman
» RE: leftbank Posted by: jerseydeb
id rather go to jail
Posted by: WyrdSister on Mar 12, 2009 8:49 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
than pay the taxes on the money i had to withdraw from my IRA to make the fucking mortgage payments!!

at least then i would have a roof, a toilet and 3 squares.

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SOS
Posted by: inprov73 on Mar 12, 2009 8:54 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The New Dems don't sound much different than the old Republicans. Still no morals, no scruples and no heart.

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Exhaust all options
Posted by: beachcomberT on Mar 12, 2009 10:51 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Not to be cynical, but I hope the blogger has made sure the cancer patient or her family has looked into possibilities like Medicaid, Social Security disability, emergency relief from her hospital, American Cancer Society, United Way, her church, etc. I know a lot of low-income people and am amazed by the number who pass up benefits like food stamps, stimulus payments, Earned Income Tax credits, etc etc. Whether it's ignorance, pride or inertia that's to blame, people have got to learn to fight for themselves and get whatever crumbs they can out of the system before AIG, CitiGroup and GM grab every last dollar.

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» RE: xhaust all options/DUH.... Posted by: carcinoid112
» RE: xhaust all options/DUH.... Posted by: WyrdSister
They're telling you to eat cake, people.
Posted by: leafsong1 on Mar 12, 2009 11:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When are you going to make them eat a guillotine blade?

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jccicchi@yahoo.com
Posted by: jcicchini on Mar 12, 2009 12:08 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
My name is Josephine and I am the founder of www.LeapforPatientSafety.org. Please visit our website and consider adding your name and comment to the "Improvement in Quality of Patient Care Petition" http://www.petitiononline.com/patients/petition.html and help bring a halt to our crippling health care system. Many thanks.

jccicchi@yahoo.com

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Ripe for revolution?
Posted by: red godowar on Mar 12, 2009 1:19 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If again it's "business as usual", and the US does not finally get single payer, "Medicare for All" healthcare for all its citizens, then its time to organize an overthrow -- to start freshly again.

How much more will we tolerate? Forget the ballot box when we keep getting the same results...

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Congress blew it
Posted by: TimS on Mar 12, 2009 8:32 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Give the money to Wall Street or we'll be ruined" "I'm suspending my campaign to save the economy"? Ninety percent, maybe higher, shmoes. And they're elected shmoes. What the hell is wrong with us? Can't we elect people that actually care about their constituency? Are there any?

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single payer
Posted by: TimS on Mar 12, 2009 9:25 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think the stats are up to close to 70 percent of Americans want single payer. Obama had to practically be forced to have two proponents among the ninety health care professional reps at his summit. Ten years ago he was saying single payer was the only way to go, his good friend and next door neighbor, a retired clergyman and he worked for it when he was a community organizer. It's the only thing that makes sense. Insurance companies should not be allowed to run our health care system. We should be running it ourselves and everyone should get the same level of care, regardless of ability to pay. Any thing else is just plain wrong.

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Obama is going to be in big trouble
Posted by: ceti on Mar 17, 2009 9:42 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
His political capital is eroding very quickly. He proclaims that he himself is a New Democrat, basically, a shill for Wall Street that is getting away with murder as in this case.

The Left has to wake up and go on the offensive against this administration, otherwise the right will commandeer the entire unrest and direct in a fascist direction. Unfortunately, it is in the media corporations' interest to stoke right as opposed to left-wing populism.

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Obama playing WEAK and PATHETIC re Bailout FRAUD...!
Posted by: vvvci on Mar 17, 2009 2:20 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama's FAILURE to do ANYTHING to address MASSIVE BAILOUTS FRAUD is a DISGRACE !!

Worse - it carries a HUGE RISK for him, he looks DOWNRIGHT STUPID _smiling_ all the Time, while Americans (who are NOT surrounded by millionaire lobbyists and well-paid staffers) are Grinding their Teeth as ONE Bailout ATROCITY after ANOTHER after ANOTHER after ANOTHER is revealed!

#1. AIG shipping BILLIONS over to - GERMAN & SWISS BANKS???!
#2. AIG paying - GOLDMAN SACHS $11 BILLION, after G-S GOT ITS OWN $20 BILLION bailout?!

#3. And now these LATEST "BONUS" millions, AFTER AIG is OWNED 80% by taxpayers/Govt?!

NY Gov. Cuomo IS DOING OBAMA's JOB !! Obama presented AIG with a SUBPOENA... a lousy SINGLE subpoena that Obama hasn 't even THOUGHT of doing ??!!

OBAMA is AWOL!!

DON'T FORGET FOR A SECOND, that Bush's "Department of 'Justice'" (Not!) PROSECUTED, CONVICTED, and IMPRISONED __MARTHA STEWART__ for selling a lousy $55,000 of ImClone stock SHE HAD EVERY RIGHT TO SELL, on ANY tip, at ANY time, because she had NO, ZERO, NADA Fiduciary Connection to that company!
(The TECHNICALLITY they CONVICTED Stewart on, was "LYING to Federal investigators"!!)

By THAT standard, there should be 1,000 former Wall St. execs lining up for blankets and pillows at the Graybar Hilton!

By Contrast, Obama LOOKS WEAK and PATHETIC - he can't even get a LOUSY AUDIT or subpoena from ONE DAMN lousy BAILED-OUT COMPANY ???!!!!!!

Obama's stubborn and arrogant REFUSAL to AGGRESSIVELY AUDIT and OVERSEE bailed out banks (and other financial companies, i.e. AIG) makes him look WEAK and RIDICULOUS !!

Like Clinton before him, Obama is clearly AWED by the BIG MONEY of NY, Boston, and DC establishments, his "Chicago street fightin' politician" rep notwithstanding.

Guess who Obama's #2, NUMBER TWO DONOR for ALL of 2008 was ?! (search "Obama TOP TEN DONORS" for the OpenSecrets.org story.)

GUESS where Obama's Treasury Secretary CHIEF OF STAFF came from (Hint: SAME Company! search "Geithner Chief of Staff" for the USA Today story on Mark Patterson!)

This is RIDICULOUS !! On THE BIGGEST ISSUE of America today in 2009 - our MARKETS which are diverting TRILLIONS of dollars to CORRUPT financial institutions - Obama is PLAYING WEAK and IGNORANT in search of some "BIPARTISAN" Holy Grail which, as we speak, he is ALLOWING Republicans to STEAL the (in their case, faux-) Populist high ground of RAGE and RESENTMENT against FRAUDULENT BANKERS !!

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Revolution now!
Posted by: sharonsylvie on Mar 17, 2009 2:33 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had no health insurance for 6 years--no money for it. Under a gov't program, I got a free mammogram which showed a clouded area. Fortunately after more tests it turned out not to be cancer, but it occurred to me that if it was, I would have no choice but to die. This country, for all its wealth, treats its citizens just like a third-world country. 90% of us are struggling and now it's much, much worse because there are no jobs and the cost of necessities have skyrocketed. And since the states are going broke too, my property taxes just went up 25%.

Last week a guy snapped because his mother, who refused to work extra for no pay, was suspended. He killed her, a bunch of others, and their pets, and then himself. In my opinion, he shot all the wrong people. He should have shot the CEO of his mother's employer. What Bill Maher said was that a few dead hedge fund managers would do wonders. I also want to see more than a few dead CEOs, lobbyists, and money-grubbing politicians.

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