I don't give politicians much credit these days, though I have to give them props for the strength of their collective stomachs. I don't think I could take the rollercoaster that is is the legislative process.Perhaps it's my adult ADD or my need for instant gratification (or at least near future gratification). Patience was never a virtue of mine.The long, bumpy, twisty road to health care reform has been enough to make me sick. Just when we think we're on the home stretch, another obstacle pops up. This time, it wears the scary Halloween mask of Joe Lieberman. Truly terrifying.Maura [...]

**Updated to include links to the interviews mentioned below:Congressman Alan GraysonBrent BudowskyNeil Finn ***Though it sure seems as if someone in Washington is trying to kill the public option.Harry Reed surprised the hell out of me last week when he announced that the Senate health care bill would include a public option. It gave me great pleasure to announce that I was wrong. I'd love nothing more than to be proven wrong in my pessimism today.Nancy Pelosi today released the final House bill, HR 3962 The Affordable Health Care for America Act, which includes a less than robust public option. [...]

Last Friday, I wrote a piece saluting Blue Dog Mike Ross of AR, who had some sort of epiphany. Although he had previously railed against the idea of a public option, the conservadem all of a sudden decided that what might work would be to allow people in need of health insurance the option of buying in to Medicare, but having the doctors reimbursed at a higher rate than the current Medicare reimbursements. Voila. A movement has begun.Actually, Congressman Ross wasn't the first to suggest this. Many have suggested it. In fact, it really is (drum roll please) the public [...]

As we head into the second half of October, the health care debate continues raging on.In the Senate, Max Baucus, Chris Dodd, Harry Reid and Rahm Emanuel are merging the bills reported by the Finance and the HELP committees into one.On the House side, Nancy Pelosi, along with the chairs of the three committees who put forth their health care bills, will come up with one merged piece of legislation.The big question still hanging over all of the negotiations is "What about the public option?"Well, the best suggestion I've heard in a long time came from Mike Ross (D-AK), head [...]

Congressman Dennis Kucinich tonight held a conference call, the first of what will likely be more, to talk to us about working toward a single payer health care system in a real grassroots way. Only 400 people could be on the call, so I recorded it, and hope you'll listen. It's rare to hear so much common sense from an elected official these days.Listen here.

***Links to the interviews here:Congresswoman Jan SchakowskyCongressman Dennis KucinichMilt Shook of PleaseCutTheCrap.com ***By the time my Air America Radio program hits the air tonight (11pm EDT), President Obama will have wrapped up his address to a joint session of Congress and the American people. Some of us will likely be happy with what we heard; many more will likely be angry.And I'm not talking about the obstructionists on the right. We know they'll oppose anything this president does or says, so their displeasure is neither newsworthy nor of concern.I'm talking about the millions of people who worked their asses off [...]

I just got this note from listener Marilyn, and it's a great idea. I hope you'll do as she suggests. I just did...Tomorrow President Obama is holding a 2:30 PM conference call to talk about HCR. Millions of Americans from Organizing for America have signed on to receive the call. There will also be a question and answer segment, even for people not participating on the call. We get to submit a question. I'm sending you the link in the hopes you can ask your listeners to submit a question. Thousands of us have submitted the same question in the [...]

This is a nation of sick people. The fact that our system of health care is broken only accentuates the problem.A few weeks ago, the film Food Inc. opened, and one of the stunning facts presented in the film proclaimed that one-third of all people born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes. That's an astounding number.The lack of preventive care is obviously a contributing factor, but even worse than that is the food we eat.Have you tried "eating healthy"? It's not only difficult to do in this fast-food world, but also exorbitantly expensive. If you're trying to feed a [...]