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... And We're Left With A Public Floption Or, How Not To Negotiate.
November 2 2009: What is it with Democrats? Are they still so cowed after being left out in the cold by the Bush Administration year after year that they have forgotten how to negotiate? I’m no haggler, but even I know you start out by demanding the moon and the stars, and eventually you might end up with a really nice rock. But if you start your negotiations saying, “I’d really like the moon and the stars, but I won’t even ask. What do you have in rocks?” you’re going to end up with dirt. Or worse. The Democrats step up to “work with” the Republicans – apparently not even noticing they potentially have the numbers in Congress to ignore the Republicans entirely – and the first thing they do is take single-payer health coverage for all Americans off the table. Meanwhile, hard-working Americans die for lack of health care. People LOVE Medicare, and we want universal health care! But our "representatives" throw out our dream for the moon and the stars and they start the negotiations asking for a nice rock. At the same time, the insurance industry whispers in their ears and buys them their very own really nice shiny rocks – with the clear understanding that their fondest hope is for all negotiations to break down entirely. Meanwhile, hard-working Americans continue to die for lack of health care. After all this time and angst and podium-pounding, we’re left with a public floption: The Republicans have succeeded in negotiating down the vaunted public option so that it only covers the very poorest, very sickest among us, thereby ensuring that what little “public option” there is will cost more money and cover fewer people. Then they have a perfect excuse to kill it entirely as soon as they get the chance. Their very most generous proposal is a public stoption. Have they noticed that hard-working Americans – their constituents – are dying for lack of health care? Who are their constituents, really? One member of Congress is still fighting for Medicare for all. Here’s to Rep. John Conyers for keeping the faith. Town Hall, Summer '09 The recessed representatives are getting more than an earful. August 13 2009: It's getting ugly out there. It was anticipated that members of Congress would hear all about health care from their constituents when they were on their August break, and I thought, "Great! People will get a chance to tell their representatives how desperately we need health care reform. A few sad stories, a few urgent questions, and bing bam boom, America can join the rest of the civilized world in making health care a human right." Ah, but I wasn't taking into account the fear factor. Insurance companies and right-wing yakkers have ginned up real, serious, scary scary FEAR about the horrible, ridiculous idea of everyone having access to health care. It's SOCIALISM! It's NAZISM! It's -- it's ... well, it's really bad and we sure as hell don't want it. We don't want government health care, and keep your hands off my Medicare! It's hard to be amused at the inanity of it all. These people are genuinely frightened, and they can't even explain what is igniting their rampant fear and paranoia. I think they see a black guy in the Oval Office, and they wonder what happened to "their" America. I can certainly understand the sentiment. I felt exactly that way for eight very, very long years.
Top Lobbyist Expects Republicans to Kill Health Reform. Steve Champlin is a mystery man -- but he came out to talk to a trade group of the health care industry in October, speculating about what Republican members of Congress should do about health insurance reform: Kill it -- no matter what it is. |
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Obama's Waterloo? Guess what, asshole? It's not a game. July 22 2009: "If we are able to stop Obama on this, in new health care reform, it will be hisWaterloo. It will break him." That's the mainthing on the tiny little mind of Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina (what is it about South Carolina lately?!). The political ramifications are so much more important than, oh let's say the health and well-being of his fellow Americans. I am a victim of the crappiest health care system in the industrialized world. I broke my wrist 30 years ago. I had no health coverage at the time so I did not get medical treatment, and the bone never healed. A number of years later my health insurance had to cover the cost of surgery for what started out as a simple little broken bone. My weak, painful hand with its limited range of motion is my own damned Waterloo. And I want universal health insurance so other Americans won't have to endure what I've gone through. We can put a man on the moon ... I'm pissed off about the health care crisis, but Obama seems pretty pragmatic about the GOP recalcitrance. “This is all about politics,” he said on the Today Show. “That describes exactly an attitude that we’ve got to overcome, because what folks have in their minds is that, somehow, this is about me. It’s about politics and the ability to win back the House of Representatives.” So, is this the best the Republicans have to offer? "We're fighting a fair health care system because its failure will make Obama look bad"? And their alternative is ... "keeping Americans healthy is Socialism"?!? Their ideological terror is SO last century. And now Jim DeMint and his pals are taking their political points from the 19th century. So I'm willing to take one page from their book:Let's send the GOP to Elba! Sen. Tom Coburn Endorses the Public Option. "The other thing that's missing in this debate is us, as neighbors, helpin' people that need our help."
Boy, was I surprised when I heard Coburn flip away from the dark side of the health reform debate and endorse public health care for all! If the likes of Coburn are endorsing the public option, it's a done deal. Welcome aboard, Senator! History will judge you kindly for this brave and unselfish decision.
"Look out for number one" - "God helps those who help themselves" August 23 2009: My dear fellow Americans, do you believe in taking care of yourself? Are you self-sufficient? Do you like not having to depend on the kindness and mercy of others? Yeah, me too. I like to be independent. You and me, we're like that. We have that self-determination in common. That's what we are, common people. We understand the common man and/or woman -- hell, we ARE the common man and/or woman. We are Americans. We are the public. So you and me, why don't we take that money we've been throwing at the insurance industry all our lives, and pool it together, just you and me, and insure ourselves and each other? Doesn't that make sense? THAT'S THE PUBLIC OPTION, YOU DORK!!!! You and me pooling our resources to stay independent of greedy corporations. We're the public. We can do it SO MUCH BETTER ourselves. On a related note: When I was writing about heroes in the health care melee, I left out an Oregon Congressman who, just about every time he opens his mouth, impresses me and earns my admiration. US Rep. Peter DeFazio has quietly held more town hall meetings this month than the rest of the Oregon delegation combined. His constituency is pretty well-informed and many prepared signs for fractious confrontations with some Tree of Liberty types; but time and time again, attendees say, when the actual dialogue begins, the crazy people get bored and go home. So DeFazio has been having conversations -- without incident. It seems like such a short time ago that town hall meetings were boring, and conversations without incident were commonplace. Heroes Emerge In The Health Care Melee.
August 21 2009: As the national health care discussion devolves into anarchy, two voices of sanity have emerged. Against tremendous odds and very loud, uninformed opposition, one Representative and one Senator are cutting through the crap and fighting like mad to let a bit of sunlight into this crazy so-called debate.
And then there's Uncle Barney. Don't go spouting right-wing conspiracy nonsense at Barney Frank because he just won't put up with it. A crazy lady tried to at one of his town hall meetings earlier this week, asking him, "Why are you supporting this Nazi policy?" Oh yeah, Hitler was really big on providing health care to all Germans. That's how he was able to murder all those Jews (??!!??). Uncle Barney responded with a question of his own: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" He went on to denounce the question as "vile, contemptible nonsense." Which is EXACTLY how ALL Senators and Representatives should be responding to this dangerous, ridiculous paranoid fantasy. It shouldn't be so simple to become a hero -- but these days, it seems, if you tell the truth and stand your ground, you stand out from the crowd. My fellow Americans, we definitely need smarter crowds. I just hope more people start listening to Rep. Weiner and Uncle Barney. |
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| This Game Never Gets Old -- For Me!
No, we can NOT all get along, and we never will.
A couple days ago he sounded ready to throw out the public option for health care for something called "co-ops," which GOP legislators said might be a workable compromise. Then yesterday Majority Whip John Kyl whipped that football right out of the way. It was a pretty crappy compromise anyway. No worries. I can't help thinking about Henry Clay. He saw how the issue of slavery was tearing his beloved country apart, and worked tirelessly in the Senate, coming up with compromise after compromise to keep the United States from degenerating into a bloody and destructive civil war. And LOOK HOW WELL THAT WENT! Dear President Obama, stop trying to compromise with these people. Face it: They don't want what you want. They want: (1) GOP victory without compromise, and (2) see item #1. The Republicans have no real power, and yet they will never compromise -- whether they achieve victory or not. |
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copyright 2012 
Janice Leber, Chopped Liver Productions
August 26 2009: 
Why The Public Option Is Mandatory.
It can't be called a debate if only one side is yelling, can it?
The White House was beginning to intimate that a public option for health care -- as opposed to insurance companies' non-care -- was not necessary for health care reform. But they didn't clear that piece of information with Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York, and he definitely doesn't approve. He's now 
August 19 2009: Obama is apparently a conciliator deep to his core -- and the poor guy, he just seems to assume everybody really just wants to work together for positive change. I guess he doesn't know who he's working with. The Republicans are getting so much giddy glee out of yanking the football of bipartisanship out of Obama's eager, earnest, yearning path.