The marginalization of "The Left" through the years. Not hearing us now at all.

[JDPriestly]

196. President Obama has done a lot of little things, some of which you list,

to help the middle-class and the poor, and certainly, if a Republican were president, we would be hurting really, really badly now. But the Democrats, especially those in Congress need to do much, much more to get a long-term solution to the disparity of wealth. What we have now is weakening our country and making a mockery of democracy.

One of the things that needs to be done is to tax each transaction on Wall Street. We need international cooperation on that. What is happening in Cyprus is very interesting. Apparently they had 0% taxes and 10% interest and a huge financial sector that overwhelmed the size of the economy. (Per the Guardian. Sorry I do not have the link.)

Nothing will work to improve the social problems in our society unless we get rid of the exaggerated disparity between rich and poor and the erosion of the wealth of the middle class. It isn't a matter of depriving people of what they earn or of destroying incentives for people. It is a matter, to the contrary of giving incentives to more people to live in ways that they feel good about, ways that include them in society on the whole and make them feel positive and successful in their lives rather than angry and depressed most of the time. The disparity in wealth we have now is tearing our society apart.

President Obama has some sense of this, but he has not infused Democrats with a passion to do something to change our society.

As for this.

And I do think you can reform Medicare without cutting benefits. What you need to do is have Medicare become a program where the providers are paid by the patient, not by the procedure.

I'm with Kaiser and I think that is what I have -- the providers are paid by the patient (that is per patient) and only a little by the procedure. At least I hope that is what I am getting. That's the way it should be.