This was a perfect example of how hypocritical our Mayor is. I watched him – twice on two different news channels – talking about how health care reform was needed because the city has to cut departmental budgets to fund their health care costs increases. But, he wants to spend more money – millions upon millions – that the city doesn’t have on a streetcar that will never pay for itself and run in the red forever.

DaveCo flubbed this one is two ways: trying to run the resolution without public comment until local talker Nate Shelman called the troops to city hall where he was broadcasting. Council then moved the action to a public comment agenda.

Second, even though President Obama has indicated the public option is not necessary in a bill, the resolution included support for one. If the public option had been taken out, one more member would have voted for the resolution.

The depth of feeling about health care was evident from those who made a statement. However, the breadth or representatation of Boise voters was limited as most attendees were conservative radio listeners, called to the bunkers by Mr Shelman.

The Council did add tort reform to the resolution as input from the public.

A case can be made that the resolution does reflect the position of a majority of Boise voters where heavily Democratic precincts dominate.

I wrote the Mayor and Council asking them to kill this stupid idea. The overwhelming majority of the public comment was against it yet they voted for it…The more I see of city government everywhere the more I am convinced any public comment is simply a sham and a waste of time. I have never seen any council change their already set minds based on public comment, ever.

I’m a big fan of the public option and I’m glad a leader in Idaho finally brought some badly needed attention to it. If any of you have a better plan for cutting health care costs I’d like to hear it. Tort reform has never saved us money in the past, why do you think it will in the future? It amounts to a pittance of the total paid in health care costs. Insurance companies will merely pocket the savings, like they did before.

And I daresay, Jim, that if the city of Boise was given a vote on the public option or health care reform it would pass overwhelmingly despite your shout down rallies.

I also thought the resolution itself set forth quite forcefully the need for the city to give voice to this cause:

“Whereas, America’s cities and towns collectively constitute the nation’s fourth-largest employer and as such are providing health care coverage to millions of their employees, retirees and their families, at a cost that has risen nearly 120 percent over the past 10 years, more than triple the rate of inflation; and

WHEREAS, the City of Boise’s geographic remoteness and our high rate of employer turnover make us especially vulnerable to the inadequacies of the current health care system, which can dampen the entrepreneurial activity that is so vital to our community’s economic well-being.”

“maniac!”–whoa, Cyclops, chill. Bieter didn’t win by all that much. I’m sure you and Nate can rally the teabaggers and make the gap. It worked well for Brandi. In the meantime keep up on the meds.

And yeah my ox has been gored. I’ve spent the last couple weeks in and out of hospitals, doctor’s offices, imaging locations, and physical therapists. I’ve got insurance and I’m wondering how I’m going to pay for this.

I hope all of you that voted for the Mayor and current city council members are happy…

Boise will now be listed in government publications, advertisments, and other marketing material as “in favor of and supporting ObamaCare”.

So those of you that voted for these people who clearly have little or no desire to represent the public you should be happy.

You really do get what you vote for.

Lucas, Lee and i will represent the people. We will welcome you to city hall to tell us what you are thinking. We will make things more transparent and accessible. We will serve to reduce spending, leverage assets, and be the limited government our fore fathers envisioned.

I love it! Everone knows health care in this country is broken and is in need of a fix. The 12-15% a year increases in cost is not sustainable by any stretch of the imagination. The costs companies pay for worker healthcare impact take-home wages for workers.

We spend 16% of our GNP on healthcare, more than twice the amount of other western countries. We have the thrid highes infant mortality rate in the world. Our life span is about 42 from the top.

I do not have the answers to health care reform but I do feel certain there are a lot of smarter people than me working on this.

Meanwhile “BIG HEALTH” wants to keep the status quo, Repubs aren’t bringing any help to the problem. People are getting the run around with insurance companies.

Mayor Dave and everyone knows they aren’t going to solve the health care issue any more than they will overturn Rowe v. Wade.

A public discourse on this is healthy. It gets people involved and they may actually read something about it rather than get their info from cable TV and the talking heads on the Radio.

LOL. I am quite happy. Are you suffering under the delusion that teabaggers represent the majority? Getting overexposed on Fox News does not a majority make.

Cyclops, if you’re upset about illegals then talk to your buddy Sharon. The County is the one paying out on very expensive emergency room visits. But each one of the issues you mention are feel good teabagging issues which will have very little effect on the health care status quo. While they should be addressed they don’t need to be on the top of the priority list. And they’re all being addressed in the proposals on the table.

Except tort reform. It shouldn’t be a priority. Show me one study that’s demonstrated that it saves consumers one dime. All it does is help the insurance company bottom line. And it takes away an important oversight function on the health care industry, not to mention robbing people of recourse when they’re wrongfully damaged by it. Please remember it takes a doctor to say another doctor screwed up, and they’re loathe to do that unless they really screwed up. Having a bunch of teabaggers take that right and important oversight function away from an injured party seems counter-intuitive to me. Especially if you turn out to be the injured party.

What galls me about the tort reform red herring is the degree it demonstrates the teabaggers are the tools of the special interests, many unwittingly. Health care reform pits the consumers against the insurance industry, I’m at a loss on how anyone can take their side on this.

But one can read the polls, all of which put the health care scheme, Cap and Tax and Stimulus II well below 50%…57% in a Rasmussen poll last week advised they would fire ALL of congress if they could. 43% in a Pew poll advised they would rather have random selections from the phone book than our Congress. Today Fox had the democrat congress with an approval of 27%…Yesterday the Real Clear composite poll had them at 28%…

News flash…the only folk who still love the dems in government are …dems in government.

The new righter than right Right Wing is scarier than J. Edgar Hoover in women’s lingerie.

Oh, and nice job Wunderlich B. posting under your new alias, Alva.

Damn Cyclops, I am sorry to hear about your health care issues. All the more reason you should be on the bandwagon. Because this reform movement is quite precarious and if the tea baggers get their way, the insurance companies are going to be better off than before with tens of millions being forced to sign up with no cost savings realized by the citizens at all.

The illegals are a drop in the bucket but, in any event, the proposals clearly preclude their participation in the reform. That and tort reform won’t begin to touch the reform necessary for it to be meaningful to you and I. If private insurance could not find a solution to the the uninsured problem in the last three decades, forcing those people on to the tax rolls, making them sicker and unproductive in the process, then I do not see the harm in government creating a opt in system that is cheaper and easier than what we got.

I had a discussion with Elaine Clegg about her vote on the resolution and my concern with it. I do believe the Federal Government has dropped the ball on ILLEGAL immigration, and on regulating the banking and insurance industries. I would not object to the City asking the Federal Government to focus on those issues. I do object to Section 3 of Resolution R-266-09, particularly “expanding existing public sector health care programs, such as Medicare, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicaid, including a public health plan option”.

She justifies the Resolution based on escalating health care costs, which, when questioned, turn out to be health care insurance costs for the City’s employees. She wants the Federal Government to consider all options, never mind the mismanagement and fraud that plagues Medicare and Medicaid. She claims that the public health care in European countries, with the public health care option is less costly, but has no data on costs, deductibles, and limits for individuals. She claims that our health care costs billions of dollars more than these Euro countries, but is reluctant to acknowledge that ILLEGAL immigrants are costing Medicare billions of dollars.

My ancestors are immigrants (LEGAL), and they were not allowed to board ship in Liverpool (turned back to Russia) because of health problems, which prevented them becoming a burden to the American health care system. We do not know what health care problems ILLEGAL immigrants bring us and ILLEGAL immigrants ARE a health care burden. My final issue with the “public health plan option” is the Federal Government should be a better REFEREE, and not be a PLAYER. The PLAYERS are the private sector insurers and health care providers.

If the Federal Government becomes a PLAYER in the insurance business game, Elaine of all people, should be aware of the questionable ethics of having the REFEREE provided from the opposition. The City should insist on the Federal Government becoming better REFEREES and stay out of the private sector!

“Section 3. That the City of Boise urges Congress and Administration to achieve the goal of health care for all Americans by expanding existing public sector health care programs, such as Medicare, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicaid, including a public health plan option, maintaining cost-effective and efficient private-sector health insurance options, and addressing access and disparity issues in health care experienced by many Americans.”

It’s interesting to see people use the term “teabagger” while trying to make a serious point about a national issue. Do you all realize that “teabagger” is slang for a sexual act?? If you truly want to win minds and hearts, you may want to grow up a bit and start talking like mature adults. Name calling is just as bad as using expletives – it tells me you’re not intelligent enough to have a civilized, in-depth conversation about an issue so your resort to ignorant speech. Just a thought.

jon I notice you are omitting the same evidence you accuse Ms. Clegg of lacking. Please provide the support you have for illegals costing us billions of dollars and put it into the context of the total cost of health care reform scenario. Teabaggers tend to look at immigration reform as the panacea to all of America’s problems but their numbers don’t hold up to scrutiny.

And nobody disagrees, except maybe you, that our health care system is by far the most expensive on the planet yet we rank relatively low on key markers like infant mortality and life span. It is why the reform issue surfaces perennially.

I’m also thinking that your attack on Ms. Clegg is entirely misdirected when you should be addressing that issue to your congressman or the president, who I’m quite sure stated repeatedly illegals won’t be able to participate in the reform programs but certainly will if the status quo is maintained. If that’s the issue then you’d best be talking to your buddy Sharon on the County Board.

OK, the arguments are finished. Once Obama and team hear what BOISE wants, that’s it!
Duh!