Alan Grayson has been a godsend in a mostly disappointing Democratic Congress. Like John Yarmuth of Kentucky, he has been elected in a district that is not a cakewalk but still fearlessly stands up for what he believes is right. With the Healthcare fight raging on and getting closer to an up or down vote, Grayson is once again trying to speak for the will of the majority of the American people who would like to see at least a public option in the Healthcare bill that will eventually be voted on.
After the much advertised "bi-partisan" forum on healthcare it seems to me one glowing fact remains for the American people to be blinded by. Republicans simply have no interest whatsoever in changing one of the most costly and least effective healthcare systems in the world. They also care very little about whether millions of uninsured Americans recieve coverage and ultimately seek Emergency Room treatment for illness, passing the cost on to everyone else. Now, it is time for Democrats to take off the gloves, come out swinging and fight with every power at their disposal to pass true healthcare reform.
The most hypocritical Senator for Communist China, Mitch McConnell is at it again. Yes, this man talks a good game about the American people while he outsources their jobs to oppressive governments who use virtual slave labor all while telling them we should "listen to" them. However, the sorry truth is that Mitch McConnell could really care less about what the American people think.
After months of leaving it to Congress to come up with the details of the Healthcare Bill the President Obama has released his own plan for healthcare. The only problem is that it widely resembles the plan put foward earlier by the Senate in many regards. While the House plan was far from perfect it was far superior to the Senate plan in many ways. Unfortunately, the President still seems to think that compromising with Corporate Democrats instead of using the bulley-pulpit for forcing real reform is the best route to go.
In Kentucky there is one person that working folks simply know as Congressman Awesome. With our depressing Congressional delegation, he is the one bresh of fresh air on the national scene. He is Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky's Third Congressional District in the Louisville area. He has been a godsend not only for Kentucky Democrats, but for all of those in the country who truly believe in Democratic ideals for our country. With the dangerous environment for incumbents, national Democrats need to do all they can do to help us get John Yarmuth re-elected.
Instead of fighting for real healthcare reform it seems as if long ago President Obama has settled in on a strategy of "reaching out" to Republicans and Corporate Democrats. This will include a televised debate on Feb. 25 between the two parties. Now, reaching out would not be such a bad thing, if it weren't for the Republicans simply not wanting any real reform in the system and doing all they can to slow and stop the process. Just a look at some Republican ideas lets you know this is yet again another practice in futility.
All through the healthcare debate last year Republicans made one thing perfectly clear. They simply would not accept any kind of meaningful reform and indeed just sought to delay the problem by making President Obama and the Democrats mad. Now, one leading Progressive is scoffing at the idea of bi-partisanship on healthcare and is offering the suggestion that could have saved healthcare if it would have been fought for, the public option.
As a Democrat it makes me just a little sad to write this but as a Progressive seeing what was coming out of Washington after Blue Dogs in the House and Corporate Democrats in the Senate poisoned the process it makes me happy to say that for the time being Universal Healthcare is dead in the Congress. I say this as an uncovered American who desperately wanted real reform, but saw the process devolve away from me to how to pass out more Corporate Welfare. In the end, the bill that would have come out of the "House of Lords" known as the U.S. Senate simply scared the hell out of me.
We have been pretty disappointed here for most of the heatlhcare debate. I mean, we lost single-payer before sitting down to bargain, and now barring a Christmas miracle from sixty or so House members we have lost the public option while being mandated to buy coverage. Folks like myself with a pre-existing condition in my case Type 1 Diabetes can still be discriminated against for five long years. Now in retrospect we lost another battle that shows nicely just how bought and paid for our Congress really is.
As everyone knows now the Senate version of the healthcare bill has passed and it mandates coverage without a viable public option. While much fanfare was made about 60 votes in the Senate and how that had to kill the public option to get them. That makes Progressive House Democrats our last line of defense in keeping the public option. There are over sixty of them who have pledged not to vote for a bill without a public option.
After months of healthcare debate a bill has been passed in the Senate. A bill that stripped basically all that was good for working Americans out, and has become very unpopular among a majority of Americans. A bill that mandates millions of Americans at the mercy of the insurance industry, and allows them to continue to discriminate against folks with pre-existing conditions. Quite simply, a bill that was written for Corporate Welfare complete with backroom bribes to get it passed. And for many Progressives, the fact that we had not a champion in the Democratic caucus to stand up for us and vote against these junk reforms was painful enough, Harry Reid added insult to injury.
Now they are saying that the public option was doomed from the beginning. And from the beginning the only problem with that is that the public option was the main thing that was like by well, the public. Two new polls now show that the public option may very well not be the only thing that was doomed from the start of the healthcare debate.
How can we talk about the death and burying in a shallow grave of the public option without mentioning Mike Ross? Yes, this Congressman from Arkansas was the first to blow the trumpet and lead the march among Democrats to commit the heinous murder of real competition in the health insurance marketplace. While Ross has made some good votes in the past, his early salvo against the public option seems to have evolved into a fatal blow.
You know, every now and then the time comes around that you see things the way they are. We thought we had fought for and won a great victory in the last two elections. We thought we had given an inspiring Progressive new President a huge mandate and the Congress he needed to bring about real change in this country. Now, we realize we are being stabbed in the back and that many of the Democrats and those that caucus with them in office are no better than the Republican crooks that preceded them. It is time that these folks are exposed for what they are and we realize who really controls our government. No better example of a lying backstabber can be found anywhere than treasonous Joe Lieberman.
You know, every now and then the time comes around that you see things the way they are. We thought we had fought for and won a great victory in the last two elections. We thought we had given an inspiring Progressive new President a huge mandate and the Congress he needed to bring about real change in this country. Now, we realize we are being stabbed in the back and that many of the Democrats in office are no better than the Republican crooks that preceded them. It is time that these folks are exposed for what they are and we realize who really controls our government.
Let us make no mistake about it. The only good things in the healthcare bill have been viciously buried alive in a shallow grave. Single-Payer was the real solution that would have guaranteed fair, across the board coverage for all Americans. It met a slow, and tortured death buried alive. The Public Option was then our only hope to keep insurers honest, and it met with a long, torturous death buried alive with malice while the American people virtually begged for it. The employer mandate, like single-payer appears to have been buried alive. Yes, everything good that could have come from reform seems to be somewhere near Jimmy Hoffa, dead and buried never to be found.
Well, it appears as if the finishing touches have been put on the "Democratic Suicide Bill" of 2009. I should have known better than to depend on Ben Nelson for anything, and at the last minute he was bought off. Disappointment is setting in as even Senators I have always trusted such as Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders may also be on board. Our only hope is now that the House will make broad changes in conference, but recent comments by Nancy Pelosi have pretty much shot that down. Folks, it appears as if we will have us some Corporate Welfare, the new American way.
We kept hearing about Triggers and State Opt-Ins and State Opt-Outs ... for the Public Option. Its time to move an amendment to the Individual Mandate that triggers it, with an Opt-Out. Note that these can be split into two Amendments, as the Opt-Out works with or without the Trigger.
(1) The Individual Mandate is triggered when everyone subject to the Mandate in a state has available to them insurance from a not-for-profit entity, and excluding all entities owned by for-profit entities, at a premium after any public subsidy of less than 5% of their annual income.
(2) Before the Individual Mandate can come into force in any state, a measure approving the individual mandate must be placed on the ballot in the next Federal general election, and the mandate must obtain a simple majority of votes cast.
Many of us realize that the "compromises" on Healthcare Reform in the Senate are not compromise at all, they are flat-out surrender. In a mad rush to get any kind of reform in the Senate to put on their resume, the Obama Administration has become too desperate to sign any bill and has conceded way too much. The current bill in the Senate is simply a disaster and the Democrats should know this. Now, the former leader of the DNC and a respected Democrat among Progressive Democrats is calling for this bill to be scrapped, and for the process to start over in the House with reconciliation to be used next time in the Senate.
I think I may be slowly coming up with another hero. As many know without reconciliation it will take 60 votes to pass the junk reforms that have become even more junky with the brownnosing offered traitorous Joe Lieberman. Yes, in typical party fashion instead of telling Lieberman if he votes against real Universal Healthcare he will be stripped of his powerful committee chairmanship, Democrats are seeking to further water down reforms, which threatens to become political suicide for our party among the electorate.
We kept hearing about Triggers and State Opt-Ins and State Opt-Outs ... for the Public Option. Its time to move an amendment to the Individual Mandate that triggers it, with an Opt-Out. Note that these can be split into two Amendments, as the Opt-Out works with or without the Trigger.
