Progressives Target ... Progressives, Ask If Senators Were 'Strong Enough' On Public Option

Because Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders really need to be reminded to try to make the bill more progressive. Idiots.

Apparently some progressives hate insurance companies more than they like the idea of 30 million Americans getting health insurance.

What the first paragraph of the letter should say is;

BREAKING NEWS: Conservative Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) announced today he will be the 60th vote to allow the Senate health care bill to move forward, after fellow Democrats agreed to new restrictions on the constitutional rights of all women.

Because that is what it is...

And what, exactly, does that accomplish?? I mean in the real world? This is just plain absurd.

While the bill hadn't been passed yet, all the pressure made sense. But get the damn thing out there, let Americans start loving it (including the retarded "Get the government's hands off my medicare" teabaggers) and then go ahead and start fixing it, one step at a time.

Passing this is huge. Getting it into action is even bigger, because otherwise the 2010 bloodshed might extend even to 2012.

I think the Democrats' biggest problem is that Americans consider them weak and politiciking (and more often than not, rightly so). The Conservatives do well because they present a strong and united (and, unfortunately, almost always, wrong) front.

If we pressure them enough Sanders, Brown and Franken will vote REALLY, REALLY hard, and then each of their votes will count as two votes, so we will no longer need the votes of Liebermann or Nelson.

Or is that not how it works?

Progressives always fold,cave or get run over use what you like but that's been the trend for many yrs now.

Just look how they were willing to grant BNelson and J Lieberman their every wish.For chrissakes! Lieberman campigned against the Dem Party and YET STILL is chairman of Homeland Security caucus.Hello!

Now what else must occur for it to be apparent to you.Those calling 'emselves progressives in congress "suk" and same goes for so called progressive organisations, MOVEOn,trade unions etc.

Their leadership were more interested in getting invited to WH parties than getting good legislation for Americans.

"The underlying divisions in the healthcare debate"
By Glenn Greenwald

"Whether you call it 'a government takeover of the private sector' or a 'private sector takeover of government,' it's the same thing: a merger of government power and corporate interests which benefits both of the merged entities (the party in power and the corporations) at everyone else's expense. Growing anger over that is rooted far more in an insider/outsider dichotomy over who controls Washington than it is in the standard conservative/liberal ideological splits from the 1990s. It's true that the people who are angry enough to attend tea parties are being exploited and misled by GOP operatives and right-wing polemicists, but many of their grievances about how Washington is ignoring their interests are valid, and the Democratic Party has no answers for them because it's dependent upon and supportive of that corporatist model."
A well-reasoned analysis, and at the heart of why some of us are wanting to go beyond the surface:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

Regards, everyone.

This is just a terrible, terrible idea. Look what has to be given up just to get the minimum votes. All this would do is kill it. Get a grip. I hate what has been lost in the bill but what will killing it do other than prove how stubborn we can be? God, do not do this.

To continue to support candidates or parties that support corporate and industry interests over your own is stupid.

maligning people who decide to support someone other than incumbents who have only proven they will support corporate and industry interests over their own won't win you their support.

Do we have a PO? No. There's your answer.

The real underlying problem at this point is not what happened with health care but the distrust we feel for Barack Obama and congress. They have betrayed us too often. First, they betrayed us on the financial bailout--a $700 trillion boondoggle that will saddle ordinary Americans and their descendants with debt. 80% of Americans opposed this bailout and Washington passed it anyway. Now there is the ridiculous war in Afghanistan--a war that is wrong and that will also saddle us and many generations of descendants with debt. Now we have the health care mess. Just one of these we could stomach. It is the betrayal after betrayal after betrayal that is arousing anger and loathing.

I had high hopes for Barack Obama but now I see he is just another slick politician. Ditto for most of these elected jerks in Washington. They are whores for the highest bidder.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-health-assess18-2009dec18,0,5056746.story

I quote below from the LA Times story. My own comments are bracketed.

Like any regulatory framework [in the USA], however, this one has holes.

Provisions in the Senate bill that authorize companies to sell nationwide health plans may allow insurers to skirt existing state regulations that require them to cover many medical procedures. [Business as usual] And the legislation would ban insurance companies from placing "unreasonable" limits on the annual benefits they pay -- a vague standard that patient groups fear could effectively allow the kind of caps that now leave some consumers with gargantuan medical bills, even if they have insurance.[more business as usual]

Other consumer advocates worry that there are insufficient consumer protections against high premiums, even though millions of Americans for the first time would be required to buy medical insurance.[price gouging]

Although the bill mandates that state and federal regulators review rate increases, it is unclear how the regulators would evaluate what insurers want to charge and how aggressively they would restrain the industry.[especially since the insurers are funding their electoral campaigns]

"The public option was really the best check on the industry," said Jerry Flanagan, patient advocate for California-based Consumer Watchdog. "Though it was small, there was an implicit threat to the industry that it could be expanded. . . . And, unlike regulation, it allowed people to vote with their feet and go somewhere else if they didn't like what insurers were doing."

Consumer Watchdog, the American Cancer Society and other advocacy groups have been working with Democrats on Capitol Hill to close some loopholes and tighten the regulations before the Senate passes a final bill.[the question which needs to be asked is why there are loopholes to begin with]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to include some regulatory tightening in a package of healthcare bill changes that he plans to unveil this weekend.[I'm not holding my breath]

Late Update: Reader SR tells us she received one of the emails targeting Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL).

I thought I was on every liberal email list in creation but I'd never heard of this outfit until Greg Sargent and Mister Ed Shultz the Talking Horse's ass went gaga over that funky Research 2000 poll late last week

M-I-C-K-E-Y
M-O-U-S-E

They've got a problem with Russ Feingold? How goddamn self absorbed does a progressive need to be to actually want to start a problem for Feingold?

I guess we've got morons on our side too. But now is the time to band together and tell these obviously well insured assholes to shut the fuck up.

So shut the fuck up.

Would someone please remind me to stop sending cash in response to PCCC appeals? I mean, if for any reason I forget, which I am unlikely to do.

Insane is a fine word for Ax to use. Insane it is.

As someone once told me when I was freaking out over an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner I was attempting to compose, "It doesn't have to be perfect to be good." When I think about recent polling on Obama's presidency, a similar thought comes to mind. I didn't vote for him (I voted socialist), but unlike our friend Mr. Bush, at least I have to think for a moment before I comment on his presidency.