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Momentum for universal health care is slowing dramatically on Capitol Hill. Moderates are worried, Republicans are digging in, and the medical-industrial complex is firing up its lobbying and propaganda machine.

But, as you know, the worst news came days ago when the Congressional Budget Office weighed in with awful projections about how much the leading healthcare plans would cost and how many Americans would still be left out in the cold. Yet these projections didn’t include the savings that a public option would generate by negotiating lower drug prices, doctor fees, and hospital costs, and forcing private insurers to be more competitive. Projecting the future costs of universal health care without including the public option is like predicting the number of people who will get sunburns this summer if nobody is allowed to buy sun lotion. Of course the costs of universal health care will be huge if the most important way of controlling them is left out of the calculation.

Robert Reich’s Blog, June 19, 2009

I think common sense and plain speaking has taken a serious hit in the last several weeks, especially when it comes to health care. First was the growing realization that we’ll be talking about a “public option” rather than universal health care. It sounds like a too-clever-by-half Clinton strategy. I don’t think the voices of big Capital will be fooled by this sort of semantic game.

I’ll admit that there is something pleasing about the idea of setting up a alternative system so well run it puts most of the private system out of business. If done well, even a “public option” would have enourmous advantages, as Reich suggests, from the economies of scale to the built in administrative savings. Something tells me that big Capital won’t be fooled by this, either.

Reich is correct: Obama needs to become a champion of common sense and of good old American progressive pragmatism, making a very public case for universal health care and against the big Capital interests who seem hell-bent on driving the car right off the cliff, taking us with them. If we can get this and the Employee Free Choice Act we have a running chance at real change.

SPIN stands for S-mall P-lot IN-tensive

SPIN-Farming is a non-technical, easy-to-learn and inexpensive-to-implement vegetable farming system that makes it possible to earn significant income from land bases under an acre in size. Whether you are new to farming, or want to farm in a new way, SPIN can work for you because:

* Its precise revenue targeting formulas and organic-based techniques make it possible to gross $50,000+ from a half- acre.
* You don’t need to own land. You can affordably rent or barter a small piece of land adequate in size for SPIN-Farming production.
* It works in either the city, country or small town.
* It fits into any lifestyle or life cycle.

SPIN is being practiced by first generation farmers because it removes the two big barriers to entry – land and capital – as well as by established farmers who want to diversify or downsize, as well as by part-time hobby farmers.

What is Spin Farming?

I watched “Earth 2100” the other night and it was so effective at communicating a sense of slow-moving doom that I had to go find something to clear my often-pessimistic political palate. The “Spin” plan is one of those simple, clear-headed ideas that seem so obvious that it’s hard to believe it’s not common practice.

It’s also interesting to think about what the site calls “first generation” farmers. I think it’s easy to see history as very linear: we lost all or most of the small farms and most of us left the countryside for the city and suburb and there’s no going back. The Spin folks seem to suggest all sorts of other ideas.

Maybe, a rust-belt city like Detroit, now being laced with small garden plots and farms, will become the model of a sustainable culture. Maybe]some of us will become farmers again. Instead of isolated, large scale plots of land, though, they will weave their farms into the ruins. It’s a great thought.