Why are the Dems so willing to alienate Labor? Because they believe that Labor's support is an obstacle to raising money from Wall Street and other big money interests, and because they believe that Obama's win -- based in a new coalition made up of traditionally Democratic minority voters and social liberals, plus affluent moderate Republicans and Independents, demonstrates that Labor's grassroots support is less important than in the past.

1. The architects of this assault on the middle, working and labor classes will ask where are we going to go - they will assume we have no other choice but to continue to support their version of the Democratic Party.

OR

2. We could be asking them, where they are going to go when we leave them powerless as a result of these offenses against the traditional Democratic Party constituents.

My husband and I were both in different Unions..both our policies were over the $23,000. threshold.
My job was high risk and was mandatory that i carried my own with my employer. I could not say..well my husband has coverage..it ididn't matter, it was mandatory i took my companies policy.
Since my husbands coverage was even better than mine we carried me under both so when i retired I had lower co-pays under his policy. We still maintain both policies , but now i am retieed my policy through my company is no longer mandatory, but i carry the minimum with mine until I get to 65 yrs old and qualify for medicare.
My husbands policy through his union costs us over $2,200.00 per month For full coverage. My husband is retired through his former union and employer, and the employer pays 2/3rd of the premium.
What world do people live in that thinks we got this for free also..we worked our whole lives, went on strike several times, and were locked out numerous times, we walked picket lines, and we sacrificed more times than i care to think..we lost a home in a strike, and darn near starved in one lock out. We took concession after concession and our major benefit  for a lifetime of work is our health care package. We still sacrifice and my husband works in retirement just to pay our part of our health insurance which is over $2,200.00 a month..
We did not and do not get this health insurance for free! We also pay deductibles and co-pays, of which we never paid until the whole insurance monopoly got a gift under a republican president.

All of a sudden we began getting letters saying the insurance would not cover stuff because of "resonable and customary " clause. We didn't know what that meant..so i began challenging it, and i have yet to get a legitimate answer to what "reasonable and customary" really means.

I truely want to know who these people are saying..do you know a laboror who has over $23,000. threshold for insurance a year. Why yes..there were 24,000 people in my line of business that had the same coverage as me in my union, and my husbands union gets even more!
And we do pay co-pays and deductibles.

And when and if this bill goes through, this is one Union lady who will never vote for a dem again..will I vote for a repub..no..but i will sit home, I will not work my butt off as I have for 35 + years for the dem party, I will re-register as an independant, and never again will a dem have one minute of my time as a volunteer.
I have been an elected dem in my state, I have worked extremely hard for the dem party for my entire life, and given huge blocks of money to the dem party. I have housed national dem field reps for elections, and i have helped run national campaign offices in my state. I have done public speaking for the dem party and traveled doing so for the party, and i have traveled and worked in many states for the dem party during election cycles..all on my own money, and time! I have also worked as a rapid responder for the national DNC.
I have been a member for 20+ years of the DEC.

But here's the thing. Right before the GE, there were a lot of people expressing grave disappointment in Obama and the Dems in general. Lots of people saying they were fed up, this was it, they were over them. But the upshot of all this anger and disappointment? They voted for him anyway.

Not only did they vote for him, they roundly castigated those of us who opted not to--to either sit it out (which I think is a mistake) or vote for someone else (which sends a much stronger message IMO). They screeched about McCain, they called us Republicans, they said we were selling out everything we believed in, just because we actually acted on the feelings and convictions they claimed to have! The pathetic "there was noone else to vote for" line won't fly, either, because there was.

Even after the NAFTA fiasco, unions voted for Obama.As someone who would love to be in a union and fully supports them, this flabbergasted me!

the only message that is sent by voting for the other party is, "I want this person to have the job."

Ahhh. but who said you had to vote for the other party? There are plenty of other choices.

Voting continuously the lesser of two evils has gotten us here.

Again. There are actually candidates you could hit the ballot for affirmatively, not as a "lesser of two evils."

Is the excise tax levied on the insurance company that charges too much, the employer who pays the cost of the plan for the employees, or the individual who receives the benefit of employer-paid coverage?