John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods, has jumped head first into the healthcare debate by penning an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, opening with the Margaret Thatcher quote “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” More of the typical anti-healthcare reform pablum below…

Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?

Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America

Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care. Rather, citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.

Later Mackey then goes on to espouse the benefits of a healthy lifestyle by eating more fruits and vegetables.

Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.

The irony is how can anyone afford a regular diet of fruit and vegetables from one of the most expensive grocery chains in the country? Me thinks that many of the customers who shop at Whole Paycheck, will not be amused. And they are not. Just check out a few of the forums over at the Whole Foods website. And there is already a call for a boycott.

Right-wing mob mentality kicks into overdrive in Tampa, where nearly a thousand showed up to attend a townhall meeting on healthcare reform. From 10Connects.com in Tampa:

Angry protesters and strong supporters are clashing inside and all around a health care reform town hall meeting in Downtown Tampa. The meeting which was scheduled to begin at 6:00 at the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County drew hundreds of people who quickly began to overwhelm staff and event organizers at the front entrance.

As the building filled to capacity, angry protesters stuck outside began to scream, yell, and chant. At one point, those trying to get inside began banging on windows as Tampa Police officers quickly spread out guarding all entrances.

10 Connects photojournalist Kevin Carlson, currently inside the meeting reports at least one fist fight breaking out inside. Some other journalists remain outside.

Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor and State Representative Betty Reed were hosting the event.

Video outside the townhall below.

As many had feared, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made dramatic cuts to AIDS-related services in an effort to make up for a $489 million shortfall in the final California budget.

Calling the revised budget “kind of like the good, the bad, and the ugly,” Schwarzenegger used line-item veto power to make steep cuts in child welfare, child healthcare, and programs for the elderly, in addition to HIV/AIDS services. Though the governor’s office cited an overall $52 million in cuts to HIV programs, the California Department of Public Health’s Office of AIDS estimated the total figure will likely climb as high as $80 to $85 million.

“There are no general funds remaining for care and support [this year],” Michelle Roland, chief of the Office of AIDS, said in a Tuesday conference call with care providers. Some care programs will receive only one-fifth the funding compared to the last year, she said.

Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation responded to the cuts.

“With a single stroke of his blue pencil, Governor Schwarzenegger has terminated the state’s AIDS programs and, along with it, the lives of some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens. The Governor’s heartless act is not only deadly, but guaranteed to cost California taxpayers millions more in the future. With HIV testing programs sidelined and the state’s ability to prevent new infections stymied, new infections in California will increase—each new infection can mean up to $600,000 dollars in lifetime health care costs. A 100% cut to the Therapeutic Monitoring Program is the definition of penny-wise and pound-foolish—with the ability to monitor the effectiveness of lifesaving AIDS drugs hampered, the state’s already cash-strapped AIDS Drug Assistance Program will only end up spending more for drugs.”

It’s a sad day in California. Thanks to cuts like these and other draconian measures taken in this economic free fall, California seems well on its way to becoming a third world country.

President Obama has just signed the Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination which extends “some” benefits to the partners of federal gay and lesbian employees. Those benefits are restricted to:

Civil Service Employees

• Domestic partners of federal employees can be added to the long-term care insurance program
• Supervisors are required to allow employees to use their sick leave to take care of domestic partners and non-biological, non-adopted children

Foreign Service Employees

• Use of medical facilities at posts abroad
• Medical evacuation from posts abroad
• Inclusion in family size for housing allocations

The Memorandum unfortunately does not extend healthcare benefits to partners of gay and lesbian. In fact, many of the benefits already exist, as reported by John Aravosis at Americablog:

I just asked OPM Director John Berry, on a White House media conference call, whether in fact federal agencies already have the right to give these benefits to gay employees. The answer, “yes.” So what’s new about tonight? Obama is going to “tell” the agencies to give the benefits – as if any agency in the Obama administration would dare tell a gay employee no to a request for time off to attend their partner’s funeral?

Obama also announced his support for the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act which extends equal treatment in benefits for federal employees.

Video of Obama signing the Memorandum below:

The full text of the President Obama’s statement available here.