Eric Massa's basically a good guy in a very tough district, but he's making a terrible mistake in deciding to vote against the House bill tomorrow. My email begging him to reconsider is below the fold.
Please feel free to use any of this in writing to your representatives or waiverers.
Here's the email:
Dear Representative Massa:
Congratulations on your courageous position on Afghanistan.
However, I'm mainly writing about healthcare reform.
I was quite upset to see you listed earlier today as a definite no vote on the House bill.
I think I understand where you're coming from -- I agree that a single payer system would be far more efficient, less expensive, less complicated. And I think President Obama and the Democrats made a terrible strategic mistake in taking single payer off the table without getting anything in return.
But that's all water under the bridge. We're not going to get single payer or anything like it in the near future. Basically, we're going to get something more or less like the House bill, or no healthcare reform at all for the foreseeable future. If we can't get anything better than this now, do you really think we'll do any better next year (an election year) or after the election? Do you really think the Democrats will have a stronger majority in either House after the elections?
And even though it's flawed, this bill makes some real progress -- it insures some 90% of the currently uninsured, eliminates pre-existing condition and lifetime caps, it provides an opening for the public option (that can be made more robust in the future), and should make health insurance more affordable for most Americans. It's far better than the status quo, which in addition to being bad, is fiscally unsustainable.
And all of this is not even taking into account the political price of losing the healthcare fight. It will make 1994 look like a children's tea party (pun intended). It will basically be the end of the Obama Presidency, the loss of our most vulnerable seats (including yours), and the Democrats once again throwing away a golden opportunity (presented by 8 years of Bush's disastrous Presidency) to build a new and enduring Democratic consensus. Any Democratic member from a marginal district who thinks he is protecting himself by voting no, is making a colossal miscalculation. You can't appease the tea-baggers and Republicans. They'll vote against the Democrat no matter what. Conversely, by voting no, you infuriate your base, lose contributions (from people like me), and don't have enthusiastic volunteer support when election time rolls around.
To say I'm disappointed in your position is a great understatement. I think it is a total disaster. I urge you, I beg you -- please reconsider and vote in favor of the bill.
As always, thank you for considering my views.