You couldn't have missed Markos` front page article, "20 Answers", concerning the health care reform bill.
While I have disagreed with Markos on quite a few items, I am in total agreement with him on this one -- kill this bill in its current form because we should NOT be required to buy insurance from an industry known for screwing people.
He makes a very pertinent point:
Those countries also have strict regulatory regimes that heavily regulate those insurance companies. In Switzerland, for example, insurance companies cannot profit from the essential benefits plan everyone must purchase. That's kind of an important detail missing from the Senate's monstrosity of a bill.
There ARE no regulations keeping the insurance industry from doing exactly what they have always done, unlike in the "other" systems.
I regularly have disagreed with many here at Daily Kos on many issues, to include Markos. But, this health care bill issue is one with which I totally agree with Markos on.
Nobody is stating "kill health care reform". We are stating kill this bill in its current form. The current form of the bill, without a public option, without a medicare buy-in, without any meaningful way to restrict the insurance industry, without allowing for lower-cost buying of medicines, is simply, a health care industry give-a-away.
We don't NEED that. We don't WANT that. We did not VOTE for that.
Meteor Blades would like to see people like me write a diary that praises President Obama for something since I post so many criticizing him. I would IF he did something I agreed with, but, I don't.
I did not agree with Sen. Obama flip-flopping on his promise to filibuster FISA if it included telecom-immunity. I do not agree with President Obama working behind the scenes to give Big-Pharma a guaranteed profit margin, going from espousing the need for a public option to giving up on it, his Afghanistan decision to increase troops, or his Department of Justice working to continue Bush-era policies.
I simply don't agree with him or his decisions post-election.
I DO agree with Markos and Gov. Howard Dean on this health care bill.
Industry-insider Wendell Potter is on Keith Olbermann, as I type, destroying this bill and what's in it. He specifically tells us exactly how the insurance industry will get around the "reforms" that are in the bill.
We are NOT saying stop fighting for health care reform. We are simply saying to fight for US instead of the industry.
You have a handful of Senators that have blocked real health care reform. "Democratic" Senators.
I know that people here hate people like me, who are willing to call our politician's out no matter the Party they belong to, when they are on the wrong side of an issue. But, truly, what do you want?
I've seen people here say Huffington Post is not "credible" (as I understand, that is now in the FAQ). They talk bad about Jane Hamsher now. They talk bad about Glenn Greenwald. They talk bad about Matt Taibbi. Is Keith Olbermann next? Is Markos next? Who WON'T these people try to discredit because they simply don't agree with the President or Party?
I have said it before, I will say it again -- there is a right side of an issue and a wrong side.
Passing a health care reform bill that is anything BUT reform is wrong. That doesn't mean we can't fight for a better bill. We can.
But, that means that people must come to understand that this bill is wrong.
I'm with Markos on this one...
UPDATE:
Keith Olbermann is saying EXACTLY what we are; this bill, in its current form, is a travesty.
Pass what you can through reconciliation if you have to.
Pass THIS bill at your peril... HIS WORDS.