Conyers speech yesterday on single-payer and the public option...

[slipslidingaway]

back in the 90's they were asked to step back from single-payer and they did so...this time they were pretty much ignored.

:(

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=9030718

"...Now, on the other hand, the universal single-payer health care bill is not just a few people that have come up with something to involve themselves in the discussion with health care reform. As a matter of fact, the single-payer concept is one of the oldest serious major notions that has been around. That is to say, for those of us who were here when the President was Bill Clinton and he assigned his wife the task of taking on the reform of health care, we were summoned, we who were supporting single-payer, were summoned to the White House collectively.

I remember very well that Jerry Nadler of New York was there, a distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee. And what happened was that we were urged to step back from our initiative which had been going on for years before the Clintons assumed their responsibilities on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and after some brief discussion, we agreed that that was the appropriate thing to do. We did it. We did step back.

That concept is now undergoing a very short shrift in this whole discussion, namely because this whole discussion was initiated on the premise that universal single-payer health care was too new, too startling and too complex. It would take too long to institute. And so we are going to start off by not including it in the mix.

...What I am saying is that those Members who support universal single-payer health care have already made a major concession in the discussion, major concession. And it just seems to me that this could have been addressed in a different way, and it wasn't. That's water over the dam. But still, 86 Members, and there are more who are not cosponsors of the bill, were never cut into the major premises of how we go about it..."

[BzaDem]

1. I don't understand how it is a concession.

It was never going to happen. Not even the majority of the Democratic caucus wants single payer, let alone the majority of the Congress. A concession must have at least a chance of happening for it to actually be a concession. It's not that Obama and others aren't taking progressives seriously as people and as legislators. It's just that they weren't taking single payer seriously since there is so little support for it in Congress.

[slipslidingaway]

4. The concession was made by some progressives to go along with the

Obama plan (based on Hacker's plan) instead of fighting for a not for profit system.

As Conyers points out, they did the same thing in the 90's with Clinton.

There has been a majority of support among the people for a national insurance system for decades, the politicians continue to take it off the table.

:(

[Orsino]

7. Not even including it among the many options was a major concession.

It is a huge win for Big Insurance, which hopes to keep us ignorant of single-payer's advantages for as long as possible.

That we were never going to adopt it exclusively is irrelevant. It ought to be one of our choices.

[ThomWV]

2. K&R, because the Public Option is the compromise

We already gave up all we should be giving up.

[Roland99]

3. Single-Payer is NOT radical. It's common sense!

[slipslidingaway]

5. We've given up more than we should have :( n/t

[Echo In Light]

6. +1

[bvar22]

8. No room for Progressives in the White House.

Overcrowded with Republicans, Blue Dogs, Health Insurance execs and lobbyists (Billy Tauzin).

[slipslidingaway]

9. True, I wish more politicians would not compromise so easily...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7bTC9lKcv4

The video is about a minute and a half.

Waxman had supported HR 676 but states that he is now following the President's plan of building on employer based health insurance.

"...that fits with the plan outlined by Obama.."

[LWolf]

10. He makes the point.

The public option WAS the concession; the compromise.

[slipslidingaway]

11. Yes and for the second time, or third time if you could the 70's. n/t

[LWolf]

12. How many times will it take? nt

[slipslidingaway]

13. And how many lives ruined while we protect the for profit companies...

:cry: