Do you live in Massachusetts?

[grinninfoole]

The pay attention for a minute. Otherwise, you may go out to recess early.

OK, this coming Tuesday, we're holding the election to fill the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. I'm not enthused by Martha Coakley, but this is the issues page on Republican candidate Scott Brown's website. He's anti-choice, pro-gun, homophobic, wants to stop health care reform, and thinks even weak sauce like a cap and trade policy are too much to do to deal with climate change. He's a true son of the current, sad, putrified remains of the Republican party. Apparently, he may actually have a shot at winning.

On Tuesday, go vote against him. Leave this sort of bassackwardness to the South.

/flippant commentary

Comments

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

What, Joe Kennedy of the Liberty Party? The guy who thinks that we need more health care deregulation? Who wants to eliminate the Department of Education? If I'd wanted that, I'd have voted for the Mormon back in 94.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

Did Romney actually offer any of that? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since the man will say anything and "eliminate the Department of Education" was a GOP rallying cry in 1980 and 1994, so some of the party faithful may still believe it, and Romney has proven that he will say anything to get elected-the man contorts himself like he's Plastic Man.

It's academic at this point, but in the unlikely hypothetical where Kennedy got elected, what do you think the chances are that he'd have any support to eliminate the Dept. of Education? One senator cannot accomplish much on their own, although they do have the power to investigate and stymie legislation.

One of the things I didn't know until this round of health care reform was that health insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust laws. (I found it out when a pet economist for one of the health insurance companies was on NPR arguing that that anti-trust exemption was good for consumers...which made me wonder what other industries he thought would benefit from oligopoly and price-fixing.) From what little I know about Kennedy, I suspect that he'd have favored eliminating that-not that he'd have gotten far, but he could have at least raised the issue.

I realize the GOP version of health care deregulation involves rewriting regulation to give the oligopolists more*, so I can't say I blame you for being leery of the idea. Kennedy isn't a member of the GOP, though.

*The modern GOP thinks "free market" means "bailouts with no strings for big industries that we like, concentration of property in fewer and fewer hands, few to any restrictions on capital, plus a lot more restrictions on labor," as near as I can tell.