No Way, No How, No Bill! - Democratic Underground

Honeycombe8

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Wed Dec-16-09 12:10 AM
Original message

No Way, No How, No Bill!

Do I look stupid to you? OK, I know you can't see me. But trust me. I'm not stupid. So when you say to me that the new HCR is progressive, historical, reforming in nature, true progress, etc.....don't think for a minute that I'm swallowing that bull.

When it became clear, at the beginning, that single payer was out...okay. I went along with that. Logical. Obama had never backed that (none of the candidates who got significant votes had backed that). I'm a reasonable person. Why insist on having something that we all knew wasn't ever going to exist? So a robust public option it was.

Then when it became clear that a robust public option was out, and a weak one, barely passible as a public option, was possibly in, I said, well, that is something we can work with. Get it up and running, and amend it later. Okay, I'm with you on that.

Then when it became clear that a weak public option was out, but an opening up of Medicare to the 55 - 65 age group was in...I said, well that's not good. But okay, I can see that in some ways that might be even better. It opens the door to Medicare. It might actually help Medicare become solvent, because there would be new payees who aren't as sickly as the older folks. And the 55-65 age group is one that suffers more than some others in recessions. Okay...well...this Medicare thing might actually be a good thing. (Blowing the dust off my voter's registration card, as I get things in order to vote next year...for Democrats.)

But now it has become clear that the Republicans and the insurance companies have won. The ins. cos. get the windfall of a captive market that is required to pay them money. No public option, even a weak one. No opening up of Medicare.

I don't want a politician explaining to me how this bill will help 300,000 people. All bills help some people in some ways. Or they wouldn't have been passed.

Harry Reid really told the tale when he said recently that they are close to doing what they had planned, to reach their GOAL of 60 votes on a HCR bill. No, Harry. That was not the GOAL. The GOAL was a health care REFORM bill that contained costs and reformed the health care industry. It was your JOB to see to it that you found a way to get that done. You failed in the real GOAL. Just because you get SOMETHING passed does NOT mean you succeeded at anything. Don't try to put lipstick on that pig NOW. It's too late.

And it's clear that Obama will sign any HCR bill that hits his desk. He just wants a bill. Any bill. I love Obama, but that's the truth of it.

The name of the game for the Democrats: Get any HCR bill passed, and sell it as helping people and being real reform, so they can campaign on that next year. They bought into the Clinton advice: Pass a bill, and people will learn to like it.

I'm not stupid. Even with lipstick on this pig, I can still see that it's a pig.