In the "public option" debate, we heard from the proponents of the "public option" in a diary written by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, where she debated the merits of the public option, which I contended "marries the progressive plan with the harlot of the failed for-profit insurance industry plan", that effectively "tables" universal single-payer insurance for all for the foreseeable future to come. This is the text of her diary here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I've crossed swords with her once before in the past in a diary I wrote here, over a "time-bound withdrawal" plan from Iraq that also promised a "foot in the door" approach of half-measures, and is ideologically the same "a half a loaf is better than no loaf" approach-which also FAILED to solve the real issues in a timely or effective way to make any positive impact on life and limb. Under the fold...
Rep. Woolsey stated on Tuesday, March 06, 2007:
"Our soldiers are dying in Iraq because President Bush refuses to recognize that it’s time to bring our troops home, his is a position that has been overwhelmingly rejected by the American public. Democrats were elected in November in conservative districts across the country so that we could find an end to the war, and now the majority of the American public supports a time-bound withdrawal plan that ensures that our troops return home in a safe and orderly fashion."
Hundreds of US soldiers have lost their lives since our failure to hold Bush's feet to the fire in 2007, and are still dying every day since President Obama became our new president. And tens of thousands of Americans are still losing their lives every year by our failing to have a universal single-payer insurance plan today.
I made a counter-proposal to force Bush's hand challenging her --or anyone else-- to make a "privileged motion" on the House floor, introducing Articles of Impeachment against then president Bush(sic) as a lever, he being the fulcrum, and his stubborn resolve to "stay the course" the mountain, to force him to set a real time-line for our withdrawal from his aggressive war from Iraq, a war which has since 2003 caused a full-blown humanitarian nightmare we'll never know about because our Congress & 4th estate are censored from presenting the American people with all of Bush's war crimes: his slaughter of over 1.4 million Iraqi citizens, his use of "enhanced interrogation"(sexual torture) which was the best recruiting poster for al-Qaeda and cost hundreds of US troops their lives on the battlefield, his excessive war profiteering, in just one of many diaries/comments I wrote here pressing the need for our Congress to impeach Bush.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich was the only presidential candidate who answered my challenge, who courageously stepped-up to the plate, introducing 35 Articles of Impeachment after making a privileged motion on the House floor, on June 08, 2008. This long after Speaker Pelosi took impeachment "off the table" before the '06 mid-term elections, and after her and Harry Reid's captitulation over the timelines for withdrawal on May 03, 2007, as first reported by the Washington Post here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Our Democratic Party failed on a floor vote to over-ride Bush's veto of the Iraq "Emergency Supplemental" by a vote of 222 to 203, FOR over-ride, but to "give the devil his due", they at least had the guts back then to bring it to the House floor for an up-or-down vote, even knowing that they needed a super-majority.
But what they won't tell you is we DON'T need a 2/3's or even a 3/5ths majority to pass universal single-payer healthcare! [I felt betrayed then, and I accused Speaker Pelosi of throwing the anti-war wing under the bus in a letter I wrote to her on May 24, 2007.]
And likewise with the Iraq war, I fear that with the promise of healthcare reform, we who support universal single-payer are about to be thrown under the bus once again by the "public option" plan which is nothing less than "a marriage of convenience"-and to a harlot at that! And without even the benefit of a floor fight and an up-or-down vote!
Rep. Woolsey writes in her diary on June 12, 2009:
"I know that many of you wish that the health care debate would go further, and that it would include a single payer system. So do I."
If so, then I ask, why give an inch to the FOR-PROFIT BIG INSURANCE INDUSTRY without even a floor fight--or an up-or-down vote?
"A credible and robust public option, however, will be a significant step towards getting us to the point of offering a single-payer plan where every American has the health care that they deserve."
No, I'm afraid to tell everyone "a significant step" is code for capitulation, once again, surrendering to the Insurance Industry's army of lobbyists without even a floor fight-or an up or down vote!
A "significant step" is a "half-loaf" and it surrenders to the insurance industry's demands without an opportunity to give universal single-payer equal time, and it goes against the grain of "one man-one vote".
It's a sign of weakness-or desperation, if not criminal malfeasance to have blind faith in these "murder-by-spreadsheet", for-profit insurance companies. I heard my whole life that a "half-loaf is better than no loaf", but how do we know we won't win if we don't fight them?
I heard the same old tired arguments over impeachment and the timelines for withdrawal from Iraq: "We simply don't have the votes". Unless, it comes to a floor vote, we'll never know what might have been-or where our Congress truly stands.
"As most of you already know, while American taxpayers spend more per capita on health care than anyone in the world, we have a health care system which leaves nearly 50 million people without access to a doctor."
So I challenge everyone to answer the question, show us why we would want our progressive plan "married to the harlot" of the for-profit insurance industry, when we know it's a system proven over time to be rife with corruption, grossly unfair, prohibitively expensive, and broken beyond repair?
No, it just doesn't make any sense at all to me why we should settle for the crumbs the Insurance Industry is tossing to us, we becoming mere worthless beggars to them, groveling on our hands and knees at their feet for an ounce of their mercy, as if they sat on Kingly throne! And as if they were the landlords and we being only tenants of "People's House"!
We have lengthy debates & roll call votes every single day on the House floor, so this is not a new concept. A floor fight and an up-or-down vote would put the members on open display, would be a chance for the American people to see exactly on whose side they stand on true healthcare reform.
The Protect America Act of 2007, that gave pre-emptive, retroactive immunity to the telecoms for warrantlessly wiretapping and surveilling us, thus breaking the backs of the 4th & 5th Amendments to the US Constitution--was passed faster than it took the Titanic to sink, with as little as one hour of debate!
I watched in incredulous horror as our Constitution was gutted and admitted criminals were given a pass under the color of law. I fully expect the war criminals who sexually abused, raped, and tortured in our names to get retroactive immunity very soon, as well. The lesson: "Follow your orders. Do what you're told. Play ball-and you'll get off the hook!"
Or as some have said under their breaths SNAFUBAR.
So why can't 50 million people get their plight heard and their cries for universal single-payer insurance debated on the House floor for even 5 measely minutes apiece?
Certainly, if the telecoms 'deserve' retroactive immunity for breaking the Constitution-and Bush getting his de facto pardon in the process, then the 300 million Americans rate an up-or-down vote on the merits of the best healthcare plan available, of which, universal single-payer is not even an option on the table for serious consideration now-or as I interpret Woolsey's words to amount to the "public option" just giving the Insurance Industry enough breathing space to kill universal single-payer "in the crib"-once and for all!
Why is it that Rep. Dennis Kucinich is the only member of Congress who seems to know what a privileged motion is?
Why have we allowed the corporate masters to dictate which laws get proposed, debated, and passed?
And just tell me someone, whose Congress is it anyway?
Are the corporatists, like Cheney thought, their own separate branch of government? Are the armies of corporate lobbyists who walk the halls of our Congress like they own the place, are they the duly-elected representatives of the people? Or do they represent and defend only their own self-interests, concerned only for their own bottom line?
Is "murder by spread-sheet" the best plan for ALL Americans? I don't think so.
No matter where anyone else stands on the healthcare issue-even the president himself, I think the 50 million uninsured deserve equal time to openly debate it-the decision not already made behind closed doors by the corporate lobbyists!
300 million Americans deserve to know on whose side our Congress is really fighting. Is it FOR the big insurance companies who couldn't care less about anything but their bottom line? Or does our Congress fear them and their army of corporate lobbyists more than they supposedly represent the voters who sent them there?
No, I want our Dems(and I wonder about this sometimes)to have a real debate, to wage a floor fight if need be, and to record the votes either Yay or Nay for a national single payer healthcare plan that's not a "marriage of convenience"--OR one where any of our progressive plans are "married to the Insurance industry harlot"! If the telecoms can get retroactive immunity for stomping on our Constitution, or breaking the law, then certainly the American people at the very least, deserve to have all healthcare plans given their "day in court" on the House floor and an up-or-down vote.