Maybe they need to borrow some of Limbaugh's Viagara to grow a set, or maybe the whole plan all along was to sell us out despite all our efforts. The simple fact is that the insurance, healthcare and pharmeceutical industries pay more.
So now they trot out sacred cow Bill Clinton, whose second administration failed miserably because he could not keep wee willy in his pants to tell us in not so subtle terms that we need to be prepared to get stabbed in the back once more.
His remarks came at all places, the Netroots Nation convention where many are hoping that our party will finally show a backbone and use the mandate we gave them. Clinton had this advice for those of us who are not afraid to fight tooth-and-nail:
"Trying to hold the president's feet to the fire is fine, but first we have to win the big argument," former President Bill Clinton said Thursday at the Netroots Nation convention, a gathering of liberal activists and bloggers who will prove most difficult to convince. "I am pleading with you. It is OK with me if you want to keep everybody honest. . . . But try to keep this thing in the lane of getting something done. We need to pass a bill and move this thing forward."
"I want us to be mindful we may need to take less than a full loaf," he said after recounting the political troubles that followed his failed reform effort in 1994.
http://www.politico.com/...
First, Clinton needs to realize that we have ALREADY settled for half a loaf. Single-payer was the best option and was taken off the table right from the outset. Now, it appears that if they would sacrifice the public option which means we will be settling for crumbs off the Republican and like-minded cowardly Democrats table.
Unfortunately, Clinton was not alone in throwing us under the bus:
Jettisoning the public plan has always been one option, and even Obama has signaled for weeks that he would consider alternatives to a government insurance plan, which moderate Democratic senators have yet to embrace and nearly all Republicans oppose. And in the face of public resistance to Obama’s plans, some top Democrats have begun to talk more openly about the possibility of compromise on a bill.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said twice this week that he was open to dropping the public plan to pass a bill. "We are determined to get a bill to the floor. It doesn't have to be a perfect bill. I don't want this process filibustered to failure," he said.
White House health reform czar Nancy-Ann DeParle said recently the president was willing to study replacing the government-run plan with non-profit insurance cooperatives – a compromise under consideration in the Senate Finance Committee.
Writing in a Washington Post op-ed, Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who is close to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, warned progressives against turning their backs on reform if it doesn’t include everything they want. As a former consultant to Clinton during the health care battle, Begala said he carries "a heavy burden of regret from my role in setting the bar too high the last time we tried fundamental health reform." He had urged Clinton to veto any bill short of guaranteeing universal health care.
"It would be a bitter disappointment if health reform did not include a public option," he wrote. "A public plan that keeps the insurance companies honest is, I believe, the right policy and the right politics. . . . The question is not whether I or other progressives will support a health-reform bill that includes everything we want but, rather, whether we will support a bill that doesn't."
I am beginning to see how this will go. We will compromise away the public option and still include mandates in the bill which will be a huge victory for the insurance companies, the very folks who have caused the problems. The desperate people who need real reforms will not get them. I say if this is the case then to hell with healthcare reform this year, lets wait and try to elect some Democrats with a backbone who understand the problems and have some loyalty to who elected them. A Corporate written healthcare bill this year will do much more harm than good to the millions who do not have insurance anyway.
Luckily, our party has Howard Dean and folks like Dennis Kucinich who are not ready to surrender and actually have a backbone to fight for what is right. Dean hinted at primaries for Democrats that support Corporate over working Americans and hopefully our Progressives in Congress will fight for us:
It won’t be an easy sell. Even former national party chairman Howard Dean this week threatened Democrats who don’t support the public insurance plan with the prospect of primary challenges – the first rumblings of what could devolve into a Democratic civil war over health care.
There is no guarantee, either, that progressive House and Senate members wouldn't make good on their promise to oppose a bill without a public insurance plan.
But still too many are too willing to play the chicken card and sell out to the Corporations and cower to lunatic right-wingers whose only arguments are threats, mistruths and downright lies:
Asked whether Democrats were still committed to the public plan, one congressional source said, "Democrats can count to 60 and know that what plays in blue states doesn't always play across America. Everyone has learned the lesson of the failures of Hillarycare and knows that getting health care done is more important than drawing a line in the sand."
I have news for them. A line has already been drawn in the sand for many of us. If these Democrats are so worried about re-election what will be their prospects if these folks they are all to willing to stab in the back look for representation elsewhere or just stay at home because no matter what happens Progressives are always the ones who compromise and get nothing in return. Progressive continually are the one group that never has representation in our country.
So the choice for them may very well be this. Take their marching orders from the right-wing lunatics who have destroyed this country and have no arguments but to shout opposition voices down, and risk splitting their party down the middle because selling us down the river will convince many of us that the Democratic Party simply does not represent us anymore and we need to find another party that does, or just stay at home. If Republican rule is all we ever get anyway, what does it matter. Or, they can get off their asses and quit acting like a bunch of whining cowards and do what we, and they in their hearts know is the right thing. Fight for a public option and fulfill their promises to our base.
I for one hope they are not willing to split our party in two because if they do none of their re-election prospects are very good. However, if this is their choice I can only say goodbye and good riddance.
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