Shuck and Jive


Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Dems Sell Out Health Care Reform

As she captured my frustration exactly, I quote Southern Beale in full:

Who's Still Fighting for Single-Payer?

I am.

You are.

The Republicans are fighting against it.

Whether you realize it or not, we all are fighting for it or against it.

Yesterday the public option was shot down, and the best argument the Republicans could come up with was that it was
in the words of Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, “a Trojan horse for a single-payer system” in which the government would eventually control most health care.

Or, in the words of Chuck Grassley (R-IA):

"It is a slow walk toward government control."

Got that? The Republican Party thinks we can’t have a public option because it will lead to single-payer.

This is what I’ve said all along! We are fighting single payer even when we aren’t fighting single payer!

Every argument against healthcare reform the Republicans have brought up has been an argument against single-payer. But we never got to have an actual debate about the merits of single-payer because it was never actually on the table!

I’m so angry at the Democrats right now I can barely contain myself. How could you screw this one up so badly? How could you lose control of the debate like this? How could you sell out healthcare reform?

How could you be such fuck-ups?

This has been the most ham-fisted public policy debate I’ve ever seen. I want a damned debate about single payer already. The Republicans are having it, so come on, Democrats. Join the conversation. Put it on the table already.

What are you afraid of? That we might actually get it?

17 comments:

  1. The Public Option was not "shot down".
    Where does this come from?

    The Senate Finance Committee excluded it from their version of the bill. That's all that happened.
    The House is the next stop where we enjoy an overwhelming Progressive majority.
    Beal is great, but such statements are highly irresponsible. It is simply not true and she disappoints me in stating such things. It reeks of defeatism.

    The Progressives in the House hold all the keys to any health care legislation that makes it to Obama's desk. Pelosi and all House Progressives swear that the bill that Obama receives will contain a "Public Option" by whatever name. Obama will sign it.

    The SFC is not the entity that will make the final decision here.
    To act as though it's over, again, is highly irresponsible.

    I'm pissed off too. We should have done this with 51 and moved it to the House long ago.
    But the fact is that the Public Option is still as alive as it's ever been.

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  2. LINK TO TRUTH

    Dr. Dean is still on it. The link above explains it.
    The Petition is here:
    http://www.americacantwait.com/TrueMajority

    People who are actually watching what's happening know that Howard Dean is talking to House Reps every day. He knows the flow.
    More effective solo than Tim Kaine is as DNC chair, Dr. Dean is still leading the progressive Democrats.

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  3. All right, Captain, we'll keep fightin' the fight...

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  4. I expect nothing less from our corporate controlled Congress.

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  5. Jus' sayin'.
    Everyone focuses on the negatives. The negatives are fewer than the positives.


    Op-Ed: CPC Co-Chair Raul M. Grijalva - "Public option - accept nothing less" (The Hill)
    Monday September 28, 2009

    LINK

    Public option — accept nothing less
    By Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.)

    Reforming healthcare is more than angry town halls and political rhetoric thrown around cable news shows and in the halls of Congress. It is a serious matter that requires serious solutions. Members of Congress have an obligation to make access to healthcare affordable and accessible and take control of the ballooning costs. These skyrocketing costs are consuming budgets, overwhelming families and crippling our nation’s resources....

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  7. Hey Joel,

    Keep comments like that coming and your intelligence will rate as high as that of a fence post.

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  8. The problem with conservatives like Joel above is they can never stop thinking of government as autocratic authority.

    We have no Ceasar. We fought several great wars to prevent having one, and we WON. Stop trying to throw it all away.

    Government in America is about public service. Health care reform is about providing a public service. For the public and by the public.

    Get with the program.

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  9. I can definitely see the analogy of our government as Ceasar...just as I can see trying to get Ceasar to be more like very liberal Jesus of Nazareth. He parted out health care every where he went. Free health care. Can you imagine that?! What would our Pharisee's say?

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  12. Thanks David, I find it hard to imagine Christians (followers of Jesus the healer) to advocate against the community providing care for one another. We are the government, each of us.

    I can see why greedy corporate types are against universal healthcare. I can see why selfish health care industry profeessionals are against the community providing affordable healthcare to everyone. I can see why whoring politicians are against healthcare for all.

    It is hard for me to see how Christians are against caring for the least of these...unless of course they haven't heard of Jesus.

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  14. It appears that Joel has left the building and has deleted his insightful trolling.

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  15. It was disgust at the tenor of the conversation,actually. It kind of went downhill after your ad hominem comments.

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  16. The tenor of the conversation?

    Come down from the cross, honey. I'm planning a bonfire tonight and I could use the wood.

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