Kucinich said last night on Countdown he'll vote no. Jane Hamsher calls for killing the bill and Lynn Woolsey to resign. Howard Dean and Michael Moore repeat the gloom and doom common wisdom that Dems will go down in flames in the fall. Here's my open letter:
Dear Michael Moore, Kucinich, Jane Hamsher, Howard Dean, Arianna, Adam Green, etc etc etc., other people who are looking out for number one at the expense of 31 million uninsured:
First, stop whining. We don't need your form of advocacy at this particular point in history. We could use a few less open letters from you. You are all looking out for the same person: Number One. Your need for personal attention is blinding you to the fact that you are actually working against 31 million uninsured people who are desparate for affordable insurance options. The expansion of medicaid, coverage of people with pre-existing conditions, tax credits for small business, and subsidies are very real changes that will occur immediately and will be a very real and tangible result.
Here's TNR's Jonathan Chait on the Health Care argument
Here it is, the most dramatic improvement in social justice in at least four decades fighting for its life in the home stretch, and the left can barely be roused to fight for it. The somnolence is far from universal, but on the left there is at least as much passion against health care reform as for it. One of many considerations the vulnerable Democratic moderates who hold reform's fate in their hands must balance is, in return for the limitless rage of the right, will they get any credit from the left for backing this reform?
Chait goes on to describe FireDogLakes call for Lynn Woolseys resignation as if that would be productive.
Jane Hamsher is a film maker. She is looking to make money off of going against the administration. It is not in the general public's interest to follow her blindly people.
From Ezra Klein points out: Health Care Reform is ProgressiveFrom Ezra Klein:
along the way, a lot of progressives have lost sight of the fact that the very existence of this legislative process is a huge progressive victory.
Five years ago, no one had ever heard the term "public option." But progressives had been talking about the uninsured for decades. There's probably no more constant lament in Democratic campaigns than the plight of the nation's 50 million uninsured. And this bill is, fundamentally, an effort to address that. Once it's up and running, it spends $200 billion a year to help low-income and working-class Americans afford health-care coverage. About 15 million of those people will become eligible for Medicaid, which is public insurance. Another 15 or so million will get private insurance.
But that private insurance will now be a very different beast: It will have to spend 85 percent or 80 percent (depending on the market) of every premium dollar on care. It won't be able to reject people for preexisting conditions. It will be in a regulated exchange where it has to justify premium increases and bad behavior or face exclusion. And those exchanges, regulations and subsidies will also create the core structure of a universal health-care system in this country, which should be comforting to progressives who look to the improvements in Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and CHIP and the EITC and know that the history of American social policy is that, in general, we build on our imperfect foundations and make them stronger and fairer over time
Theda Skocpol, Phd Harvard, Professor of Government and Sociology says Progresives need to undertsand the president is trying to lead. Progressives need to follow: All Dems, including Progressives, Need to Back Obama on Health Reform
At the risk of irritating people on the left, this is NOT the moment for "progressives" to demand a public option. Nor is it the moment for either pro-choice feminists or pro-life Democrats to derail reform.
PROGRESSIVES need to cut the posturing over a currently unattainable (and in any event already hollowed out version of the) "public option." To get legislation now that includes massive subsidies for the uninsured and a new regulatory framework for the future requires that Nancy Pelosi -- the real heroine in all this -- persuade shakey conservative Dems in the House. The legislation cannot include a public option if she is to succeed. Yet if this new framework passes through House action and a reconcliliation side-car, that will open new political possibilities in the future. Before long, it will become very possible to enact Medicare extensions or a public option through majority budget votes, because they will be deficit-fighters. Especially "Medicare for More" which will be my new slogan. At this juncture, I hate to get emails from so-called progressive advocacy groups pushing for anything other than supporting Obama in the current end-game. Criticizing what is now attainable is the real defeatism
Then there is Michael Moore, creator of "Sicko", when we are on the verge of expanding health care for 31 million Americans, whining about the things that aren't done yet. Does it ever occur to any of you that when you criticize the Democrats you are actually helping the Republicans ? Shouldn't we be focusing our hatred on the people who are standing in the way of reform ? In case you haven't been following, Democrats are working on alot of stuff: universal health care, and financial regulation, closing gitmo, repealing DADT, passing an energy bill. We ARE WORKING ON IT. But what planet do you live on that you thought this would happen overnight with the wave of a magic wand ? Read a few history books. All presidents compromise. Governing is hard. Real life problems take time to solve. Health Care Reform is going to get done. It would be nice if Democrats would all pitch in and help rather than getting in the way.
Here's a link of the president fighting for health care reform
UPDATE 1: Rec list, Thanks ! In response to the one comment, I have nothing but love for hippies. I would never call them dirty or punch them. Peace !
UPDATE 2X: Very Important: I did not say we should not fight for a PO, or other factors that make the Senate bill better. For example, my Senator Sherrod Brown has worked tirelessly for the PO, but notice he does not step on the Democratic message when he speaks. In his tv appearances he is careful to NOT trash the Senate Health bill. The language he uses is constructive. Most progressives have been equallyconstructive in making this bill better.
I'm talking about Progressives who use language like "kill the bill" and calling the bill "shit".
UPDATE 3x: Michael Moore makes my point by advertising on this website since last night. I on the other hand am a regular person not making money, just wanting the health care bill to pass.
To those that call the health care bill "shit" no one is forcing you to take the insurance, in the exchanges, to be specific. Why should we deny it to those that want it ? who have pre-existing conditions, or will be covered under medicaid expansion, or small businesses that need the tax credit ?
UPDATE 4x: TomP I haven't asked anyone to STFU. I also haven't done any name calling or swearing unlike many of the dissenters such as yourself. I don't mind being called a BOZO if thats what you call a person who defends the need for 31 million uninsured to have access to affordable health insurance. We are all entitled to our own opinion. We don't have to agree. I really can't believe the number of people who use name calling and swearing just simply because they disagree.
