[Editor's Note: President Obama told Congress he would not sign a health care bill that added any amount to the national debt--a criterion he does not use when considering escalating war in Afghanistan or bailouts to banks. Dr. Arnold Reiman argues that there is no way to meet that criterion unless health care reform includes eliminating the profit motive from medicine, including licensing doctors so that they get a fixed salary each year rather than, as now, making profits from prescribing more tests, procedures and visits that increase their incomes. Dr. Arnold S. Relman, M.D. is a professor emeritus of medicine and of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. He is a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (1977-91). In the article below for Tikkun he explains why the reform that is needed must go beyond "public option" so that it can eliminate the constant growth of medical costs. This is a perfect example of what we at Tikkun and the Network of Spiritual Progressives call "New Bottom Line" thinking. Please ask your medical practitioners if they would agree with this article--and send it to all your friends. ]
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Chris Hedges, who will speak at our conference in DC, June 11-14, 2010, challenges some of the conception of that conference.
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Do you even know whether Obama would fight for a public option, much less what eversion of a public option?
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“This Vision Statement has proven to be the best faith statement on four key issues in health reform that we have found.  It offers real insight into the fundamental values that shape our ability to speak differently on key issues. Does it work? Unquestionably.  These moral values helped House members in three key California districts reverse their positions and move to support real reform. The moral voice of the faith community cannot be overestimated.  We have shown that this singular voice for health care as part of the Common Good is most powerful.”
Elizabeth Sholes, Director of Public Policy
California Council of Churches/California Church IMPACT
 
“A Faith-Inspired Vision of Health Care” was developed by Faithful Reform in Health Care, the largest interfaith coalition of national, state and local organizations and individuals committed to working together on health care reform.   
 
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This moment will be looked back upon as giving a signal of encouragement to some of the most fascistic elements in the American political Right.
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What has gone wrong for Obama's Health Care Strategy?
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The Obama plan is a give-away to the Insurance companies--the exact opposite of what we had hoped for, says Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
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This useful tool for tracing the influence of money in politics will only make a difference if we, the people, use it effectively to talk back to the monied interests by insisting that our Congressional representatives, with particular attention to our US Senators, respond to the needs of their constituents and not give priority to the needs of those whose bribes are made invisible by calling them "campaign contributions."
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Editor's Note: We are determined to make Nader wrong--by mobilizing a movement that can support Obama to be the Obama YOU voted for, not the Inside-the-Beltway pragmatist and "realist" who gives fuel to Nader's charges. Hedges has it 100% correct when he points out that a serious movement of progressives could dramatically change the current reality. In our editorial in the Sept/Oct 2010 issue, which you'll receive in the mail by the end of August, we lay out a way of thinking about Obama that gives us a path to building such a movement. (What? you don't subscribe yet? how about taking care of that NOW--go to http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php/donaterenew). Help us make sure that Nader doesn't turn out to have been right by creating the kind of movement that will bring out the possibilities in Obama that Rahm Emanuel, Geithner, Summers, Gates, Pelosi, Feinstein, Baucus, and Waxman actually repress in him. 
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