ladkiddo writes about health care reform
Well, that vow lasted less than 24hrs. Check out this video- “I’m a Democrat and I’m a Republican”
I received this by email today from peaceteam.net and felt that it needed to be seen and heard and you can take action by clicking on the link. The text from the email is below:
And if you are represented by any member of the Congressional so-called Progressive Caucus, you might tell them how profoundly ASHAMED of them you are, given that outside of the courageous exceptions of Dennis Kucinich and Eric Massa not one of others voted against this terrible, awful bill (HR 3962). Remember back in June they all signed a letter that they would only support a bill with a
“robust” public option. Instead they all voted for a total corporate insurance take over of our national health care system, and they were
so anxious to sell out any principle they ever claimed to have, that they threw a woman’s right to choose under the bus along the way.
Please take careful note we said a CORPORATE take over of healthcare. Because the only thing more dishonest that the Democrats claiming there is some kind of meaningful public option in the bill are the Republicans braying that it is a government take over. It is not “socialized” medicine as the “one smear fits all” demagogues on the right shout, but instead capitalist medicine, with the most feeble possible public plan they thought they could pass off to the American people.And of course, nobody expects the Senate to turn it into something better. Instead, it will be a monumental struggle now to even derail the horrible anti-choice provision, which dictates that after a woman is forced to buy one of the official overpriced insurance exchange plans, even if she paid for it with 100% of her own money, that provider cannot cover the expense of an abortion.
For those who argued we should just pass SOMETHING, even if it was a bad bill, because they said we could fix it later, this is what you get from a strategy of perpetual compromise, a bill that is utterly beyond redemption. It’s time to throw HR 3962 in the medical waste bin, and do what should have been done in the first place, build a new national health care system on what actually DOES work, by extending the existing economical and efficient Medicare plan to all ages.
It’s what we’ve been saying all along.
Have I mentioned that Eric Massa is my congressman?
Related posts:
Look, I want a single payer system.
And failing that, I want a real public option– which *none* of the bills on the table have (I define that to be “the right to buy into Medicare”– not an equivalent, not a substitute, not something like Medicare, but Medicare itself).
I don’t like the current bill. I don’t like the lack of a true public option. I don’t like the continued tieing of health insurance with employment. I don’t like the lack of universal coverage. I think it doesn’t do enough to change the dynamics in the cost of healthcare (which is to say, reduce costs). And I think that the horse trading that went on to get it passed stinks to high heaven.
But in the end, I wanted to see this bill pass and I think that Ruth Marcus has best captured my feeling on the topic:
I don’t know how to reconcile my conflicting feelings here: that the current bill is substandard but that if we don’t pass this, we won’t have any changes at all, maybe not for many years if at all and that if we fail to pass something, we’ll see another 1994 style Republican tidal wave. I think Marcus’ line about “appalling amount of misinformation” speaks to this– if healthcare fails, the Republicans will claim a huge victory and warn the voting public that unless the number of Republicans in Congress are increased, that their healthcare is still in jeopardy from the big bad scary Democrats and their roving death squads.
I think it’s too simplistic to say that people who voted for this bill are wrong/bad/evil.
I also think it’s possible to believe that this bill isn’t good enough but is as good as we are likely to get.
I hear you but…
So, like lemmings we should just accept this? Accept the “as good as we are likely to get” because the Democrats who brought this bill, in all its glorious weakness peddling hope that it gets better someday or the politically feasible crap will work really really hard next time to make sure we get what we want - a better bill?
I’m not holding my breath and our Democratic representative need to hear the dissatisfaction.
Oh - we control the rules committee and end up attaching an anti-abortion amendment to the bill? Geez or are we saying that the only way we could get the bill through the house is to toss women under the bus - even though this Stupak amendment may die in the Senate.
We are supposed to be happy and content and thankful at least a bill got passed?
Jesus Christ - Like many readers who worked their ass off to take the House and Senate then EXPAND the majorities and take the White House I wonder if this is the best we can expect?
No, I’m afraid my representatives need to continue to hear from me.
The organizing that helped create and expand the majorities also helped enable individuals to look critically at the process so they are now asking questions - why not?
/rant
I really don’t have an answer for you.
I mean, I’m with you in that I want a do-over. This whole long episode has done nothing more than sell me that the only real reform is true single payer. Not an option, but Canadian style Medicare for all.
But the leadership isn’t going to do a do-over.
And even if they did, they won’t consider single payer– why would they? They didn’t the first time.
So it’s either quit, and go home, and say to hell with all of this. Or accept a bad bill, hope that we don’t loose the majority, and hope that we can get improvements made to it incrementally over the next decade.
So the emotive side of me wants to just forget it all and go do something more constructive. Like counting blades of grass.
The pragmatist says we need to make the best of the situation.
Quit and go home or accept a bad bill is a false choice.
You are forgetting a choice and that is to be relentless and fighting for a better bill. If we don’t get it - well, the voices will be heard and perhaps we can affect the “next” bill one the next subject because the powers that be have been forced to listen to people who have been getting stronger over time.
But I think we did that this time around. We were heard enough that they are pretending to put a public option in both bills– even though neither public option meets my criteria for being what is needed (or, I suspect, yours).
And they’ve chosen to ignore us anyway.
And it’s not just health care. The reform of the finance system has only now started (more than a year after it nearly destroyed the economy) and its initial trajectory makes it look toothless.
We’re still stuck in two wars with no ends in sight. I used to buy that Afghanistan was the “good” war or the “necessary” war. But what I’ve come to realize, thanks to the botched election, is that it is as hopeless as Vietnam was. You can’t be successful fighting a war on behalf of a government that is (and is perceived by its public to be) corrupt.
The stimulus bill was watered down to make it “bipartisan”– and received no Republican votes in the House for their efforts but probably weakened it (according to Krugman) to the point that it is the worst of all worlds: costs enough to hurt the country (and be used against Democrats in campaigns) but wasn’t sufficient to create the jobs the economy needs.
How do we get a do-over?
time to join the green party.
This bill could be the worst thing to happen to health care yet.
There must be 50 ways to leave your democrats
Hop on the bus, Gus!
Gus got tossed under the Bus having been played for a putz but now he is making a fuss.
Dave,
I’m not sure that everyone was relentless. Re Health Care - there was fracture and misunderstanding rolling out the Public Option or even Medicare for all. There was a decision made early on that Medicare for all was a not starter, so, leadership dumped it. That is supported by the bunch of “Democrats” that are happy being told what to do, or overly trusting that the leadership will do the right thing.
If there is any good news in this - that is simply the number of people (Democrats) looking critically at Democratic electeds and, more importantly, leadership is growing. As more people become informed and engaged we have a chance at success. Heck, various electeds and such are STILL taking about Medicare for All even after it was summarily dismissed.
Finally let’s look at Louise Slaughter. Powerful Rules chairman, ultra safe Democratic District. A fixture in local politics. Generally looked at favorably in the Rochester Area. She was the recipient of a protest at her fundraising event. The people there were not crazy, tree huggers imported from somewhere else. They were by and large thoughtful and engaged - members of various movements who have decided that enough is enough. Oh, many are main stream Democrats- members of local political committees.
I think in general it is OK to expect more from our electeds and hold them to account when they don’t deliver. Part of holding to account is not accepting weak excuses.
So, this back and forth is great. I think we are agreeing conceptually. The question is, how to get it done?