Our Senate is dire need of moral leadership. Not just on health care reform, but, on every piece of legislation that is supposed to help America.
President Obama tossed his moral compass away when he gave backroom assurance to the pharmaceutical companies that they would keep their profits.
Now, one lone Senator is standing up and saying "enough". The threat that he will shut down all Senate business may be an empty one, or, it may be a promise he's made to himself and America. We will have to wait and see which it is, but, we DON'T have to wait to see who will support him.
This story is David Waldman's front page article. But, what Waldman doesn't do is call the situation what it is; a downright disgrace!
The article makes it clear that Dorgan's amendment would undercut the deal President Obama made with Big-Pharma. Now, President Obama feels the need to bring pressure against his Senators, and, as Waldman notes, it is working.
"I don't think that's going to get my vote," Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said when HuffPost asked about the reimportation amendment. He said that even though he is a supporter of reimportation, he is concerned that if it passes it could blow everything up.
"I'm not messing around with anything without 60 votes. Nothing," he said. "And I'm a co-sponsor of the amendment."
Yes, heaven forbid that the abomination that is now considered "health care reform" be killed. It needs to die in its current form because it simply is a huge give-a-away to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
We got to watch the Clear Skies Act of 2003 and further Bush policies gut our pollution standards. Do we really need health care "reform" that gives insurance companies more profits or prevents American's from paying a fair price for their medicines? Do we want financial "reform" that only works for Wall Street? Did we not get enough of this under the Republicans and Bush?
By now, anyone with brains understands that the public option is dead and any meaningful "reform" is in the process of being compromised away. I don't care what the motivation of the Republican Senator's is for supporting Dorgan's amendement; it is an amendment that actually does something for American families. And, if one amendment that actually helps families is something that will kill the entire health care "reform" process, so be it. That fact should tell you all you need to know about how bad this process and bill has been from the start.
Maybe that is exactly why Sen. Dorgan has introduced this amendment -- to show the nation just how flawed this whole process has been and just where President Obama's loyalties lie in it.
The fact that even Jay Rockefeller, one of the bill's supporters, refuses to go near it after the pressure President Obama brought to bear, shows the power he refused to bring to bear for the public option.
So, let's support Sen. Dorgan and his amendment.