There are a few things that we have learned from the tea party movement. One, is that these folks simply cannot spell. Another, is that they seem to have no sense of history and believe someone can be both a Socialist, a Communist, and that a half African-American man can be a Nazi. But the more important thing that we have learned is that this tea party movement is forcing Republicans much further past their already zealously right-wing politics. I believe in the end this will do more harm than good for the party of the greediest and least patriotic among us.
Even though he is no longer in elected office the Democratic leader I seem to agree with more than any others these days is Howard Dean. Of course I have always mostly agreed with him and was impressed in Denver when he took a few seconds of his busy schedule to meet and shake hands with me. Howard Dean is now taking the lead to give a powerful voice to those of us who think that without a very viable public option healthcare reform should be defeated.
With all the disappointment I feel at the Democratic proposals likely to be written into law in both chambers of Congress in regards to healthcare reform I can at least be glad of one thing. I am not a Republican. That is because while Democrats seem to be offering junk reforms, the Republican plan would resemble the yard of Fred and LaMont Sanford.
One of the main arguments about healthcare reform has been just how we will fund the much needed changes to our broken, expensive and ineffective system. Unfortunately for millions of working Americans, so-called moderates have been balking at raising taxes on the richest 2% of us, the very people who profited so handsomely from the economic boom of the last few decades that turned into a bust last year. Yes, instead of asking the very wealthy among us who can afford it most to sacrifice, once again working Americans are being expected to make all the sacrifice in funding healthcare reform.
You know, one thing that led to so much disaster in the Bush White House was that Republicans refused to speak out when their leader was wrong. Instead of trying to change some of the mistakes he was making, they rubber-stamped every single wish of that President. That was particularly dangerous to our country when the Republican Party controlled both the Congress and the White House. That attitude caused many of the failed policies that got us into two wars incompetently, and crashed the economy.
A year after the folks on Wall St., coupled with Republican policies of greed crashed our economy into a ditch, Barack Obama was asking them to support his reforms aimed at not letting them do the same thing again. He has been urging Congress to pass new regulations on Wall St.
David Axelrod made the case for insisting on the public option if there is an individual mandate to buy from health insurance exchanges, on the Rachel Maddow show last night (segment page). Of course, he thought he was making a different case:
And there is an incentive for the insurance industry to go along and not try to fight these, and that is that there is going to be a larger insurance market, and they have to make that calculation, but we are prepared to do it easy or do it hard, we want to make it work for consumers.
One reading of Axelrod is:
"M'lords, the peasants are getting restive, and if you want to avoid a revolt or other crisis - say, a majority of the House of Representatives elected without being beholden to your largesses - you have to make concessions. However, make the calculation - in some versions of this reform, because of the greater number of peasants you will be taxing in your domains, you will be better off."
OK say, just hypothetically, that you are an administration looking to get one of your two signature policies passed. And the Senate, deeply entrenched in the pockets of the affected industry, looked like it will gut your legislation so badly that getting the result passed will stink of failure almost as much as the stench of failure if it is defeated.
Suppose its so bad that the Senate action is the most likely way for your party to lose the Majority in the House is for the disappointed Democratic supporters of so-called "Blue Dogs" to stay home in the midterms while fire up Republican opponents turn out in large numbers.
That would be the time to bring out the "nuclear option" ... the threat to radically change the Senate Filibuster rule so it can no longer be used as a roadblock to reform.
It did not take long after the announcement of the White House that they may drop the public option for Progressives to find out who would really fight for them. No wonder they did not want Howard Dean at HHS he will actually (shudders) fight for what he believes in. Today, he was on the national news scene to defend the public option as the only viable way to have real reform.
In many of the townhall meetings we have seen many enraged senior citizens. A lot of them are mad because they are scared that they will lose their health coverage or worse yet go before a "death panel" and be euthanized. All of this is part of a misinformation campaign waged to raise fear among them. One man in a town that slips my mind actually called for "keeping our government hands off his Medicaire".
One of the quotes I remember most from the Presidential primary last year was this, "We simply cannot replace Corporate Republicans with Corporate Democrats and expect any kind of real change". John Edwards told us that at a rally in Columbus, Kentucky. Now, no matter your view of him, and no matter how unwise his personal decisions have been this particular gem of wisdom continues to ring true. Nowhere is that better demonstrated than the "centrist" New Democrat and Blue Dog coalitions corporate reactions to the healthcare debate.
Politico reports that House Democrats are drafting their healthcare plan. Their plan would include a public option that offered the same minimum of benefits as private insurance. It would also impose a "soft" mandate on Americans to carry health insurance.
After supposedly taking single-payer off the table activists and the fifty million Americans with no health insurance who are just one disaster away from being financially destroyed have worried we will see little progress on Universal Healthcare. Now it seems with some bi-partisan agreement as if some progress may be made. It will come at a price, and may not be what this country really needs, single-payer.
David Axelrod made the case for insisting on the public option if there is an individual mandate to buy from health insurance exchanges, on the 
OK say, just hypothetically, that you are an administration looking to get one of your two signature policies passed. And the Senate, deeply entrenched in the pockets of the affected industry, looked like it will gut your legislation so badly that getting the result passed will stink of failure almost as much as the stench of failure if it is defeated.
