In the interest of fairness because I have bashed banks at every turn, here they are at least trying to share the load. And just so nobody is confused, I still don't like them one bit.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32772394/ns/business-washington_post/

"The health sector is on track in 2009 to spend more on lobbying than it has for any other year in U.S. history -- and by a lot," said Dave Levinthal of the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes and collects lobbying and campaign spending figures.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/08/news/economy/health_care_lobbying/index.htm?postversion=2009090818

All the numbers are in the article. The following is of particular note. Keep a look out how these folks behave.

One of the biggest beneficiaries has been conservative Blue Dog Democrats.

Many Blue Dogs are on the fence about controversial health care issues, such as whether to create government-run insurance plans. Their votes are crucial to passing a final bill, so they also tend to attract more attention and campaign contributions than other Democrats and Republicans.

Health and accident insurers, HMOs and health services organizations increased their contributions to Blue Dogs from $106,200 in the first quarter of 2009 to $122,650 in the second, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

That is a 15% increase. By comparison, Democrats not in the Blue Dog group saw a 3% hike in contributions.

Unless we get our systemic costs in line with our global marketplace competitors we will have achieved nothing at all. That has to be the goal. It is the only one that will bring value to our economy and which will allow the U.S. to compete for jobs. We cannot be successful when we have a systemic cost imbalance of 10% or 15%.

Healthcare is a cost to any economic unit and our competitors have created systems that recognize this. We treat healthcare as an independent operation that exists as a profit center absent any association to our overall economy. The notion we can go one way while the entire rest of the world has taken a completely different direction places us at a huge disadvantage. This is the reality. If this country doesn't acknowledge that and bite the bullet of change, this country is totally screwed.

Congress has to get their heads out of their asses and figure out that we cannot have insurance industry costs and profits at their present level and simultaneously compete in the global marketplace. The numbers plainly prohibit both conditions to be true. The choice is simple.

I just watched the opening of Hard Ball and Chuck Todd said this issue with health care is a test of Obamas character and leadership.

What a crock. We know exactly where Obama is on this.

This is really a test of House and Senate democrats. It is a test to find out if they are the spineless and corrupt politicians they have indicated they are.

This is what is coming out of the Senate Finance Committee.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/09/08/2057942.aspx

So not only don't we have a public plan or single payer but people who already are perplexed about how they'll pay the rent and buy groceries will be fined for not buying insurance that they can't afford. Somebody must have dropped a tab or two of some crazy acid in my coffee this morning because this has to be a trip to an alternate universe where everything is upside down. It'll be a devastating crash coming back from this trip. I think I need one of those do not resuscitate labels stuck across my forehead. Just for good measure the Supremes will likely rule to let corporations spend political cash in whatever way they want. RIP USA.

Here we go again with Wall Street making 'innovative' financial products where the sole purpose is to make money and beyond that serves no useful societal function.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/business/06insurance.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all 

The money this will make for someone has to come from somewhere and we all know what that means. Americans will have their pockets picked yet again and financial regulators won't do one thing about this unproductive, non-beneficial and dare I say harmful manipulation of financial resources.

Congress has to put an end to this type of financial scheming where the singular outcome is making money for an investor class where there is no benefit delivered to the underlying class of persons who ultimately pay for this and which costs them dearly in the aggregate.

This is precisely the type of financial 'innovation' which has been devastating the middle class for years and which conversely has transferred wealth to the top of the income scale. The relative gains and losses on the balance sheets of the middle class and the wealthy over the years are absolutely non-coincidental. They are perfectly synchronized and any fool can see what is happening.