President Obama:
As someone who spent hours talking numerous people on your behalf last year, who helped hold a fundraiser for you, who made his first political donation to you, who believed in you as a future president from the moment you made your speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, I can only ask you one question tonight. Is this the change we voted for?
The rest of my letter after the jump.
I voted for the man who supported a public option for health care, who supported ending don't ask, don't tell, who supported the Employee Free Choice Act. I voted for the man who inspired me to be more active than I ever had been before in an election. I voted for the man I watched speak in Detroit with Al Gore, the man who promised us this change, who promised to lead us. And tonight, I am not seeing leadership from you, sir. I am seeing capitulation to a weak minority.
The Republicans will not work with you. They trashed your stimulus plan, they trashed your health care plan, they trashed your national security decisions, they've trashed your family, they've trashed your very citizenship. Yet you continue to reach out a hand to them, inexplicably so at this point. They are not dealing with you in good faith, and they no longer deserve your goodwill towards them.
America voted the Democratic ticket into power in both branches of government. America voted for change. America supports a public health care option. Tonight I watched footage of a disabled woman being heckled while trying to rally support for the public option, and she is showing more courage in this fight than you are. You have not led us in this fight. You have tried to have things both ways, and I can only conclude you are being weak when you have the upper hand, or that you do not believe in a public option if you are not willing to fight for this. You have political capital, and this is the time to spend it. If we are to have true economic recovery, we cannot continue to have this system in which the drug companies and private insurance companies make the rules.
Two years ago, I lost my job and my insurance with it. I was on unemployment and went to the Los Angeles County clinic to get my medication and a checkup from a doctor. I take medication for hypertension (a hereditary condition) and depression. I was unemployed, barely making ends meet, and I was denied free care because I made THREE DOLLARS over the minimum amount from unemployment. I got upset and pleaded my case with a worker, who then called over a sheriff's deputy and had me escorted from the building. I stood in the rain at the bus stop and I cried. At that moment, I felt like I'd rather be dead than continue to deal with my situation. I could not afford private insurance and even the existing public institutions would not give me care.
I did survive that, fortunately, because I have friends and family that loved me and helped me out, but so many more people in this nation do not have that. We need a public option so that those of us who fall into those situations are not without medication, without care, without the means to live a healthy and productive life. If the role of government is to see to the welfare of its people, how can health care not be part of that?
Mr. President, you gave me hope for the first time in eight years that this nation could see better days, and I am losing hope that I will get any significant change from you. I need you to lead. I need you to get in front of the nation when you speak next week and forcefully, eloquently, clearly enunciate the absolute need for a public option. Please, sir, do not sacrifice what we Americans need for political expediency, nay, capitulation, to a minority of people who do not and will not work with you. We need you to do what is right and support the public option.