On Monday, I thought I might get a net. I thought for sure I'd get a net. How can my Representative in Congress not see that I really need a net?
So I took a break from my tightrope walking and sat right down on the tightrope, because I wanted to hear about my net. The guy in charge of my net, Rep. Chris Carney, was going to tell me about how he plans to get me my net. I listened because, you see, this is really high and it's a long way down. Plus I have a little kid up here with me too, depending on me.
I had asked Mr. Carney for this net a bunch of times. I showed him where I was on the rope and how far down I could fall, and I figured since I had bought a net for him, he'd be happy to ensure I got a net in return. Isn't that how it works?
But apparently, Mr. Carney has decided he doesn't want to be in charge of my net anymore, so he's handed it over to someone else. He wants to see what they want to do with my net and he's willing to wait as long as it takes for this person to decide just what to do with my net.
And the person Mr. Carney had decided should be in charge of my net just happens to be the same person who pushed me out here on the rope.
Something's not right here at all.
So, like many of my neighbors, I'm out here walking the tightrope, without a net.
For a while there, I thought I'd get a net, for sure. But now I worry.
Some time ago, I used to have a net. It was a great net. It was a strong net. I thought it would be there forever.
But one day after 10 years of marriage and just after my son was born, I found strange phone numbers on my phone bill. I called them and the answer I got showed me my marriage was over.
So there I was, on my own with a sweet, beautiful newborn baby. And when I say on my own, I mean it. My mom was very sick, my dad was dead and except for a few cousins scattered here and there, I had no one.
I have struggled for the past nine years, working part-time jobs as I could, while trying to care for my baby and get over the devastation of having him grow up depending only on me. Could I do all of this?
I've been doing it for nine years, so I guess I can.
But it has not been easy and I've had to make many choices, including whether or not to buy food or healthcare at times. I have gone without healthcare for much of that time, and even tried to work full-time to get healthcare from my job. It was a great job, and for about six months, I had that safe, stong net again.
But my son was being bounced around from person to person, I had to leave him when he was sick. I had to sometimes send him to daycare when he was sick because there was no one to watch him and I had to go to work.
That kind of stuff just isn't in me. I was all he had, and I had to be there for him. My healthcare didn't matter more than my responsiblity to him. Now I work part-time in a job that allows me marvelous flexibility to be with him, most of all, when he needs me most. No healthcare included though.
I've written a lot about my little boy here on DKOS, and I am proud of the young man he is becoming. Everyone who meets him falls in love with him, and I am proud of my decision to stay with him and help him grow up to be the person he is today.
When I thought there was a chance to get healthcare and have that net again when President Obama was elected, I was thrilled and so relieved. I thought since so many people needed healthcare, my net would easily return. I was so wrong.
I am still hopeful, but got discouraged as Mr. Carney watched me teeter on this rope and still played keep away with my net in his response to me last week, after I pleaded with him to pass health reform with a single-payer or public option so I could have health insurance.
August 22, 2009
Thank you for your message regarding health insurance reform. Hearing from the people of northeast and central Pennsylvania is an integral part of my job in Congress and I appreciate you taking the time to contact me.
Legislators from both political parties and the vast majority of Americans believe that some sort of health reform is needed. The real debate is focused on how best to improve the system. I was one of the Blue Dog Democrats who worked to slow the process down to provide the American people with enough time to be heard and to provide Congress with the time to get the job done right.
For Mr. Carney, getting the job done right doesn't appear to include me or anyone of us up here on the tightrope without nets.
I've had some time to transcribe what he says at the end:
"Is a public option necessary to get the insurance companies to lower costs and get the transportability and pre-existing conditions covered? Well, we'll see what the insurance companies decide that they want to do. If it's necessary, then it is. If it's not, then we don't need it. But we'll see what the insurance companies do."
Blech.
Yesterday fellow Kossack irmaly had a terrific idea in a diary about batshit crazy coward, liar and hypocrite Virginia Foxx, who pretends to be Representative from North Carolina, but doesn't really fit the bill.
In that diary, irmaly suggests that while Foxx dithers and foams at the mouth trying to crush healthcare reform, that she forgo her government health insurance - which I think is a brilliant idea.
If they want us to be up here without nets, well then the least they can do is go without theirs too. Right?
So I used irmaly's idea today and rattled off a letter to the editor to Mr. Carney, who isn't a Republican, but plays one in Congress. I want him to pledge the same thing - in public.
Dear Editor:
I am a proponent of healthcare reform and left Rep. Chris Carney's August 24 townhall meeting in Dickson City with several unanswered questions that I think deserve a straight answer.
When I have asked Rep. Carney in writing if he supported a single-payer or the public choice plan that would provide competition to private insurance companies and bring the cost of insurance down to what I can afford, he responded by patting himself on the back for stalling the vote on healthcare reform.
In his August 22 response my request for his position, Mr. Carney said, "I was one of the Blue Dog Democrats who worked to slow the process down to provide the American people with enough time to be heard and to provide Congress with the time to get the job done right."
While seeking coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, and allowing 'transportability' of health insurance, Mr. Carney apparently does not recognize another aspect of health insurance reform that affects many people like me who might suddenly find themselves having to pay for individual health insurance due to unexpected circumstances like the death of a spouse, serious illness, divorce or the loss of a job.
Many times in these circumstances, because the cost of individual health insurance is so high, people are forced to choose between paying for food and shelter or paying for health insurance. At any moment, any one of us can find ourselves in this position. But while so many of us are living hand-to-mouth and teetering on the brink of disaster, Mr. Carney is patting himself on the back for stalling this process. As a single parent struggling to fulfill her responsiblities as a parent of a young child and asking for his support to bring insurance costs down to a level I can afford, Mr. Carney wants me to to sit and wait to see what the insurance companies want to do.
At Monday's townhall, I heard this again and again from Mr. Carney: "Is a public option necessary to get the insurance companies to offer lower costs and get the transportability and pre-existing conditions covered? Well, we'll see what the insurance companies decide what they want to do."
So while we all wait for insurance company "redemption," Mr. Carney pats himself on the back for stalling reform, and American families fall into financial disaster, I'd like to respectfully ask Mr. Carney to stand up for his principles and sign the following pledge:
I, Christopher Carney, Congressional Representative for District 10 of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, acknowledge that I am the beneficiary of a health care plan and policy that is paid for by American taxpayers and run by the federal government.
For this reason, I hereby pledge to forgo all aspects of my government insurance until all Americans have full access to the same or better health insurance opportunities and the same or lower out-of-pocket costs for their personal and family health care needs.
I am sure in light of Mr. Carney's desire for accountability to the people of the 10th District, he will agree to sign this pledge and return it to this newspaper for all to see. How else can a Representative who takes credit for stalling this process and leaving it in the hands of the insurance companies show the people that he really means what he says?
What do you think Kossacks? Can we call on our elected officials who are playing games with our nets to at least go without the one we provide for them? Then in the end, why don't we ask that they get whatever plan they choose for us?
It would be great to see a really organized campaign to get these cowards on record about whether or not they'd be willing to give up their government-issued and managed nets until they can give us the same kind of nets we provide for them.
It's the least they can do.