Congress and the Senate in particular are on the verge of cramming a mandate that I buy insurance from Corporate Crooks using taxpayer money that they do not deserve. Once again Progressives and those who really needed real reform the most have been stabbed in the back. We got used to it under the Republican Congress and President George W. Bush but it is a particularly poison pill to swallow under a Democratic Congress and President I gave so much money and effort to.
As if the ideas being floated in the Senate were not bad enough, it appears as if even the "exchange" that they have adopted as one of their main components of healthcare reform will have an "escape clause" for Insurance companies. That is because Senators have let it be known that they would allow Insurance companies to operate outside of the "exchanges". This threatens to leave us right back where we started if the legislation that the Senate is considering right now is passed and signed.
Leave it to the Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. After months of Progressives fighting hard for real reform in our healthcare system that will hold the insurance companies accountable and make them drive down costs with a real public option that is something more than a Corporate giveaway we have indeed lost once more.
With the White House insisting that imposing a mandate upon the American people with stiff fines if they do not comply is Constitutional, one mandate that appears weak or on the scrapping board is on the folks that can most afford a mandate. Employers.
One of the burning questions in the debate on Universal Healthcare is whether the Congress has the right to impose a mandate on the American public to buy health insurance. The argument is that without a mandate to grow the risk pool as large as possible, costs cannot come down. The White House today weighed in and said that Congress indeed could force mandates on the American people to buy insurance.
Harry Truman once said, in his autobiography, "when you hear a politician break out the children, you better go lock up the smokehouse." The Republicans, in today's response to the Senate health care legislation, pointed out that 43% of all U.S. government expenditures were borrowed money, passing the bill on to the next generation.
The Truman reference was obviously a country quip from a man who may have had his bacon stolen at some time in his life. The health insurance industry may be about to steal the bacon from the American people, be they taxpayers or not.
You know, single-payer was taken off the table before the table was ever sat down at by anyone. Now, most of the focus on healthcare is centered around the Baucus bill which is equivilant to more Corporate Welfare and does not even include a public option. While some Democrats are showing disgust at some of us that are being critical of our party's leadership, I believe that at this time in this debate and to effect the debate on policies that will follow after the conclusion of the healthcare fight, critical voices are now needed more than ever. To me, it seems as if most of our leaders in our party are merely running around in circles trying to avoid the real solutions Americans need to solve our healthcare crisis.
As many people suspected, the Max Baucus Corporate Democrat coalition and the Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee effectively stabbed Progressives in the back by voting down the Public Option. Several Progressive Senators tried to inject the public option into the bill but Baucus and his kindred spirits among Corporate Democrats and Republicans successfully beat it back. In the end he was joined by four other Corporate Democrats who feel much more at home with the robber-barons in the insurance industry than supporting the huge majority of Americans that prefer a public option.
As Max Baucus finishes his Corporate Welfare bill in the Senate the good news is it appears to face opposition from both sides. We knew that Republicans would oppose any kind of healthcare reform, but Democrats too are not sold on the Baucus brand of Healthcare Reform. It simply does not go far enough after imposing a mandate to help lower-income Americans who cannot afford coverage.
Some of the best news that could come out today has the Baucus junk compromise on healthcare stalling in the "Gang of Six". This bill is also getting nervous glares from governors in both parties as it will force their already cash-strapped states to foot huge amounts of the costs of any healthcare reform through Medicaid. As predicted, Republicans on the panel and Republicans in general are going to oppose any kind of reform to the system.
The Public Option in healthcare seems to be in it's death throes. Once the centerpiece of healthcare reform it appears it may be thrown under the bus in the spirit of "compromise". With huge majorities in both houses of Congress and with ownership of the White House, one really had to begin to wonder if Democrats were ever really serious about real healthcare reforms.
