After reading the diary on the rec list by Stroszek regarding the Senate Finance Committee dropping the end of life counseling provisions from their bill, along with the front page story by mcjoan, and attending a contentious town hall meeting in Alhambra, CA on Tuesday, I fired off an email to Senator Baucus via his web site. Enough is enough in the continual capitulations in his committee to those who are trying to water down any meaningful health insurance reform.
It was cathartic and I feel better for having expressed my opinions. I invite everyone to click the web site link above and send him your thoughts.
Text of my email after the break.
Dear Senator Baucus:
I hope that you will read this even though I'm just an American taxpayer and not a Montana voter, but I am taking this opportunity to express my views. I am SO angry right now that, if nothing else, writing to you will be a catharsis for me.
I have read with dismay today that the provisions for voluntary end of life counseling are likely to be removed from the health insurance reform bill being written in your committee. I have also previously read that provisions for a robust public health insurance option will likely not be included in your committee's bill. I know that I should not expect very much from Congress when it comes down to a face-off between the right wing and corporations against ordinary American citizens like myself, but I would have hoped that the resounding Democratic victories in the 2008 Presidential and Congressional elections might have made a difference in Washington.
With your committee caving in to Republican and health care lobbyist's demands, my hopes have yet again been shown to be nothing more than naiveté. I really thought that a strong Democratic majority in the House and a 60 seat Democratic majority in the Senate would allow the county to begin moving forward after 8 years of kowtowing to the Republicans. But, alas, business seems to keep going on as usual in Washington despite the clarion call for change that was delivered to you by the voters last November. You are, after all, trying to negotiate in good faith with Senator Grassley who has in the last few days expressed concern that grandma will be euthanized because of the innocuous voluntary end of life counseling provisions. And we should all have learned by now that negotiating with hypocrites just does not turn out well.
At his point, from the actions of you and your committee, I can only come to the conclusion that:
- You slept through the election in November and therefore have no idea how it turned out.
- You have been bought and paid for by the health industry PACs and lobbyists who have been spoon-feeding you with money for years.
- That you are completely entrenched in the Washington mind-set of being all busy appearing to do something while at the same time making sure that what you are doing will not change anything.
- That you are not a proud Democrat who will stand up against the Republican naysayers who have no interest in helping the country but are only interested in tearing down the President and the Democratic Party.
I worked very hard for President Obama in the election campaign of 2008, including working as a nearly full-time volunteer for many months and 17 hours a day for the last week before the election. I did that because I wanted change in Washington. I am currently very disillusioned, not by our President, but by the machinations of a Democratically-controlled Congress that has too many Democrats that do not care about or understand the mandate for change that they were given by the voters.
I can still be hopeful because we have an intelligent and caring President, but I feel that many in Congress do not have his back in this fight. You can go a long ways in restoring my hope. I would ask that you:
- Return all money that you have received from the health and health insurance corporations, PACs, and lobbyists, no matter what side of the debate they are on. We expect our judiciary to recuse themselves from cases in which they have a financial interest, and I think that we should expect no less from our elected representatives.
- Pretend that the Democrats did indeed win the election. The bill in your committee is being worked on by a "Gang of Six" which includes three Democrats and three Republicans. Democrats are in control of the Senate. The "Gang of Six" should ideally be composed of six Democrats, but at least should include 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans.
- Get back to work. In a country where there is no federal law providing that private employers need to give vacation time to their employees, I find it presumptuous for Congress to be taking a month off.
- Because the only way to keep the insurance companies honest is through competition, make sure that there is a robust public option in any bill that comes out of your committee.
- Do not kowtow to the Sarah Palins and Chuck Grassleys of the world who are crazy enough to either believe that granny will be euthanized by end of life counseling provisions or to use it as a cheap political point. This provision in the bill will save large sums of money wasted on paying for procedures that the patient would not have wanted if they had had the chance to make their wishes known prior to debilitating illness.
- Be proud that you're a Democrat and that you were elected to fight for the rights of the people and not for the profits of corporations. The other side carries that fight, but they lost the election.
Respectfully,
oldliberal