One of the things that I liked about the campaign promise about an open administration from President Obama, is the idea that we get to see who is doing what, and see who is really for us, and who is just hiding behind the D in front of their state and the loads and loads of corporate money. Well that promise is seeming to have fallen through.
As the Senate leaders are working to merge the two Senate bills, the process is not being done on C-Span with a big table, like the then candidate Obama had promised. It done behind closed doors, and with only three Senators seating at the table.
This is not about having a Republican at the table, because we need a discussion, not an idiotic talks about socialism and government take overs, but about the fact that there is no real liberal push.
Bipartisanship has long sense been voided out in the idea of this health reform bill. It is not in my mind, and it shouldn't be in anyone else's mind either. But the exclusion of a true liberal view, is scary.
We have two senators in Max Baucus, and Harry Reid, who said the Public Option will be scarped if there looks to be not enough votes for it on the floor. Which we have all argued of how stupid that idea is, and how if they had a spine, they would make 60 votes for it, or if not, at least have enough to block the Republican filibuster.
Then we have Chris Dodd, who is fighting for the liberals, but being out numbered, and without the ability to gain any votes himself, he is left shirtless in the debate, and more or less just be a yes man to the idiots making the calls.
And what's worst, the constant uncertainties about where the White House stands. If President Obama came out and said, I will not sign a bill without a Public Option, like many of Presidents have done with legislation they consider highly important, the Senate would have a different tone.
The Blue dogs would then be forced to put up or shut up, the leadership would actually try to get votes, and Max Baucus would be some Senator from Montana, and not the darling of the President's reform. But it hasn't yet, and according to MSNBC.com, it won't ever happen.
And which brings me to the main point. With two cowardly Senators, and one who is more or less powerless, this bill will not have a Public Option, and will still have the Individual Mandate, and will be a lost in my book, and in most liberal's minds. We need to have a bigger table, with more members, and have a strong willed Liberal seating there, saying Public Option ever few seconds.
We need Jay Rockefeller, we need Bernie Sanders, we need a liberal voice at the table. What will Max "Insurance Company funded" Baucus, and Harry "Oh Please don't be mad at me" Reid going to be able to do with this bill? They will destroy, rip it to pieces, and leaves us with the Baucus Bill, and not with real reform. But you put a firecracker up their ass, and tell them the Liberal caucus is working for the people, and they can either vote with the people or leave their party, we will see some things getting down. This is a different setting than in the Senate Finance committee, and this is a different setting than what Baucus will be used to, we will get the Public Option this way.
But this shows why that campaign promise was so important. If we had a big table, and we had the discussion broadcast on C-Span, and replayed on every talk news shows, and every fine detail, of who said what, and who this and that, they would be forced to do the right thing. But instead, you give a couple of weak Senators, who have their pockets lined with some nice insurance money, and give them a closed door, no cameras, no transcripts, they will screw us, and can say some big story about why it did not end up this way, or that way. But shove a camera in their face and you will see they don't have us in mind at all.
So we need to protest this. We need to demand a true liberal voice, give us two, the spineless dems have two, give us liberals two, and broadcast, let the world see Baucus sweat as he tells the truth, that he don't want to lose that precious campaign contribution from the Insurance companies, and see Harry Reid as he cries that he don't want to offend people by making them vote the way the party does.
Conservatives do this type of stuff, they craft bills behind closed doors, and then put out something that is junk, wiped clean of the few things we like, and then force the reasonable ones to look loony and vote for it. Liberals are suppose to be open government, let the people see how you craft it, and then when you do arm twisting, you do to the best bill, not a watered down one.
We will make compromises, and liberal Senators and congressmen/women will accept them, but we can't compromise everything we stand for. We need a public option, and the two twits hiding behind the closed door, will never give us what we need, they will give us some good reforms, but will at the same time screw us.