I hate even typing the above words. I caught Bill Moyers the other night and it was like getting hit in the gut with a sucker punch. When he got to the physician in Nashville, who described on a flow chart the hundreds of offshoot companies that have formed from the big three there, I realized we're sunk. The Middle Tennessee area is home to more than 300 health care companies operating on a multi-state, national, or international basis, with more than 250 professional service firms (e.g., accounting, architecture, banking, legal) with expertise in the health care industry. Nashville-based health care companies accounted for $46 billion in revenue in 2008 and 310,000 jobs globally.

The profit-driven system is so entrenched in this country that I'm afraid it's unbeatable. And the main reason it's unbeatable is that Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, and the President, are all on the take. That may not be a polite way to discuss the matter, but it's a fact. It's like the 'fox in the henhouse' in extremis. Already it's been announced that the pharmaceutical lobby PhRMA will spend with its coalition at least $150 million supporting the Obama-Pelosi-Reid health care legislation.

And on August 15 Bloomberg reported that one of the two advertising companies “selected” to handle the ads for this massive campaign is the one founded by top Obama Advisor David Axelrod, AKPD, and that that firm is set to pay Axelrod $2 million, even though he works for the White House, and employs his son. According to OpenSecrets.org these groups put up $484 million in lobbying money in 2008, getting ready for this legislation. Once the health insurance industry was given a seat at the table our goose was cooked. I'm not even sure why Mr. Obama is out there trying to sell it - sell WHAT!

If you saw Michael Moore's 'Sicko,' then you got to know Congressman Billy Tauzin. He was the Republicans' point man on getting the Medicare Prescription Drug scam on the books. Everyone was on the take in that one. Then, shortly after the bill was signed, Tauzin went to work for big pharma for $2 million a year. And it is Tauzin who has now made friends with the President, and has gotten his industry a seat at the table. This is the same guy whom Candidate Obama called a creep. He said we won't deal with him. Same guy who's now shaking Obama's hand. Now it turns out that there were secret negotiations between the White House and big pharma. Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion. And one more thing: the President promised that all negotiations between the government and the health industry would be on C-SPAN. Not happening.

And probably the biggest obscenity about this mess is that medicine-for-profit has no interest in THE PATIENT. The only thing they care about, and are charged by law to try to achieve, is increasing profits and dividends for their stockholders. That's how all for-profit corporations operate. But here the poor patient often just gets in the way of that goal. That's when live-saving procedures get denied, or patients get dumped from their plans. It's all about the bottom line, nothing else. And they will spend whatever they need to spend to make sure that Congress, and the President, are in their hip pockets. The pharmaceutical industry is now so firmly in the president's camp, it's developing plans to spend up to $150 million dollars promoting it with TV ads. And that's exactly the opposite of what Candidate Obama said during the campaign. Have no doubt: if and when a bill is signed by the President, the health care industry stands to make more money than ever before. If you don't think so, then you have had your head in the sand for the last 40 years.

Oh, the public option. Remember a couple of weeks ago when some 60 Democratic House members stood up and said, "No public option, no health bill." Remember that. You never heard it again, did you? That's because Rom Emmanuel told them to sit down and shut the fuck up! And that was that. Why - because President Obama needs the healthcare industry's campaign donations to ensure his reelection.

The whole thing, and all the people involved, including the President, are revolting.