This will be a short diary. I just want to take the time to suggest the title of the diary as a slogan (ideally one of many) for the new wave of pressure we have to put on Congress right now to get our public option back on the table.
Listen To Your Doctor.
Worried about people getting between you and your doctor? Worried your doctor won't have a say? Why not listen to your doctor on this one?
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And so on. Any money for ads out there?
I've been flat on my back most of the weekend, and so have listened to NPR a bunch. Both on NPR and from most people I've heard commenting on the state of the debate, the conclusion has been that Obama's speech signaled that the public option was on its way to disappearance, and that really, it had only been used as a threat to the opposition.
The front page here has been more sanguine, and has strongly emphasized that the public option is still in play, and rightly so. But it's not the general perception elsewhere. So, as many are saying, we need a new push. Along with initiatives like slinkerwink's, and contacting your congresspeople, as nyceve emphasizes in virtually every diary, The New England Journal of Medicine survey is what we need. It provides a great, simple, TV-worthy slogan for this fight.
I'm really not interested in continuing the debate about what They are currently doing, whether Obama is throwing the Public Option under the bus or really supporting it or what. Remember the FDR quote? "I agree with you. I want to do it. Now make me do it." We need to be directing this debate, with all the tools we can use to fight the money on the other side. Maybe this rhetorical one will help.