My Frustrations Boiling Over Again

You see that picture.. That's what I was talking about the other day. I think that is a disservice to Sen. Kennedy. He did NOT support Medicare for all at this time. Simply because he knew it would not pass.

Yes, he would have loved it, and at one time I think that's what he wanted.. but it is not what he wanted now. If he had, don't you think that's what he would have written in the bill he wrote for the Senate committee he chaired?

The President has now released the logs of visitors to the White House. Everyone was clamoring for them. Now they have them and are bitching about them because they don't like what they see. I am sorry, but to me this is just hypocrisy.

Yes, the President and some of his staff have been meeting with Insurance Company big wigs and Pharma. Isn't that how you make agreements and try to get people to make concessions? By meeting with them? At least that's what I always thought.. but gee, maybe I am wrong.. maybe you don't meet people you want to try to get to lower costs and make concessions with, maybe you are supposed to just shove them away and tell them to go out and cause problems.

Yes, that's what they have done. We have seen that. But still, at least the President and his staff has been attempting to do something. I know, I have my Pollyanna showing again.. or as someone else said.. my head in the sand.

I have been accused of all kinds of things. I just want to have a little faith and trust in my President again.. Is that too much to ask. No, I don't agree with 100% of everything he has done. But I don't expect to have done so with anyone that was elected. But I damn sure agree with a lot more of what he has done than disagree, and I certainly think he has done more positive than negative.

Yesterday, late in the afternoon there was a story out about a phone call between the President and Progressive members of Congress. But for the most part it went unnoticed. And what did get reported was only part of the conversation..The part that went like this. From Greg Sargent at the Plum Line:

I just got off the phone with Dem Rep. Raul Grijalva, one of more than two dozen House progressives who held a conference call with President Obama today to discuss the public option’s fate.

Says Grijalva: The call left him with no doubt that Obama understands House libs are dead serious about not backing any bill without a public plan in it.

“He understands how serious we are about this,” said Grijalva, one of the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in describing the tone of the conversation. “For many of us this is not a political dance. He got that point.”

Grijalva says Obama asked how far liberals were willing to compromise on the public option, another sign, Grijalva noted, that he grasps that they mean what they say. He added that Obama asked a number of “frank” and “probing” questions, though he declined to say precisely what they were.

But the part that seems to get left out is the last of the conversation.. Where Representative Grijalva goes on to say this:

In another newsworthy tidbit, Grijalva says Obama signaled that discussions about the public option would continue even after his big speech before a joint session of Congress next week. That may be an indication that Obama won’t be mentioning the public option in his speech, but doesn’t want liberals to despair at that prospect.

Said Grijalva: “I didn’t come away from this discussion feeling that we were dead.”

Emphasis mine, and as I have stated numerous times, I don't feel like the President has given up on the Public Option.

If we on the left side of politics could hang together and be as strong as the ones on the right.. if we could just hold our line and be like the right.. we could get this done.

Right now we need to concentrate on the same group I have pointed out before. Instead of attacking the President and saying he has sold us out, we need to be after the members of Congress who have not committed to the Public Option.. We need to make sure we still have the support of those 45 Senators that Governor Dean listed at his site Democracy for America and the ones that have not committed need to be reminded that we are counting on them to vote for the Public Option.

This is what the President said on August 20th when he met with and talked to the people who were his "base and supporters" in Organizing for America, Health Care Forum:

So that is absolutely critical. Now, one of the options we want to provide them is a public option, and there's been -- this has been a confusion around this -- (applause) -- there's been a lot of confusion about this, so let me just clarify. I think a public option is important. And let me explain why.

We're going to have a marketplace where people can select the options that work best for them, the insurance plan that works best for them. A lot of those choices, the overwhelming majority of those choices, will be private insurance options, just like members of Congress have -- they're allowed to choose from various proposals or various plans that are part of the federal employees' health plan.

But what we do think is if we have a public option in there, that can help keep insurers honest; it can provide a benchmark for what an affordable basic plan should look like. And so even though we've got a whole bunch of insurance regulations that ensure that any private insurer that's participating in the exchange is giving you a fair deal, this is sort of like the belt-and-suspenders concept -- it means that not only do they have to abide by these regulations, but they also have to compete with somebody whose interest is not just profit but instead is interested in making sure that the American people get decent care.

Now, having said that -- (applause) -- having said that, I want everybody to be clear that the public option is just one option. It will be voluntary. Nobody is talking about you having to be in the public option. Only -- the only thing that we're talking about is this being available to you as a choice, expanding consumer choice. And we think that's a good idea.

Now, there are a whole bunch of other aspects to health insurance reform, though, that people have to understand. We want to make sure that, for example, insurance companies can't prevent you from getting health insurance because of a preexisting condition. That will be the law whether you're in the health insurance exchange or you're just keeping the insurance that you already have. You should be able to keep it regardless of preexisting condition. You should be able to purchase it. There shouldn't be lifetime caps or yearly caps where you bump up against it and suddenly you've got huge out-of-pocket costs that drive you into bankruptcy. We've got to make sure that there are basic consumer protections on that.

You should be able to keep your health insurance if you get sick or you lose your job or you change jobs. And all too often what happens is when you need insurance most, that's when the insurers decide to drop you. And we've got to make sure that that is against the law. And that's part of what health insurance reform is all about.

So it's going to bring down skyrocketing costs, it's going to save families money, it's going to save businesses money, and it's going to save government money. We are going to make Medicare more efficient, guaranteeing today's seniors better benefits than they have right now. We're going to make sure that that doughnut hole in the middle of their prescription drug plan, that that doughnut hole is closed, because we want to make sure that seniors who are already living on fixed incomes during difficult times aren't having to dig even deeper to increase drug company profits.

So I just want everybody to understand that in addition to providing health insurance for people who don't have it, even if you have health insurance, you've got a stake in this debate. Fourteen thousand people are losing their health insurance every single day. Millions of people all across the country are vulnerable to exclusions because of things like preexisting conditions. Millions of Americans have experienced the fact that premiums have gone up three times faster than inflation and faster than incomes.

And if we go at the pace that we're going right now, there are going to be a whole lot of families who make the decision that they can't afford health insurance because the costs are simply unsustainable.

And if you're a deficit hawk, then you should be especially concerned about passing health care reform, because at the pace we're on right now, Medicare is going to run out of money in eight years. It won't be totally broke, but it will be in the red, because the costs are going up a lot faster than the money that's coming in.

So when you're talking to seniors out there, tell them, number one, nobody is talking about cutting their benefits. Talk to them about the fact that, by the way, Medicare is already a government program -- (laughter and applause) -- so when people say, "Keep government out of our health care," make sure they know that Medicare is a government program. But also explain to them that part of what we want to do is strengthen the program so that it's going to be there over the long haul. We don't want a situation in which Medicare runs short of money because we did not make the changes that were needed early on.

I am absolutely confident that we can get this done, but I want everybody to remember, this has never been easy -- never been easy. When FDR proposed Social Security, all across what was I guess the equivalent of today's Internet, right -- (laughter) -- all the newspapers and the radio shows and all that -- he was accused of being a socialist. He was going to bring socialism to America. How dare he.

When JFK and then Lyndon Johnson proposed Medicare, everybody suggested, this is going to be a government takeover of health care; it's going to destroy your relationship with your doctor. The same arguments that are being made now have been made every time we've tried to propose a significant change that ultimately made people more secure, improved our health care, improved our quality of life.

So we cannot be intimidated by some of these scare tactics. We have to understand that there a lot of people who are invested in the status quo and make a lot of money out of it. We've got to also understand that people are understandably nervous and worried about any significant changes when it comes to something as important as health care, because it touches on your lives, it's very personal -- and so they're more vulnerable to misinformation.

And that's why what all of you do is so important, because people trust you -- your neighbors, your friends, fellow community members -- they trust you. They know you. And if you are presenting the facts clearly and fairly, I'm absolutely confident that we're going to win this debate. But we're going to have a lot of work to do and I'm grateful that you're willing to do it. Let's go get 'em. Thank you very much, everybody.

Again, the President has stated right there, he is in support of the Public Option.. but does anyone talk about this.. NOPE.. we ignore it.. so does the media because it doesn't fit into what they want to say. It doesn't feed the hype of the President abandoning his base and the Republicans winning the battle. And that's what this is all about. The Republicans and big business winning the battle.

Big business, Insurance Companies, Big Pharma and the Republicans.. all part of the Corporate Media and all part of the same pattern of the Rushbos and the Hannity's and the Becks who want the President and the Democrats to fail, so that they can get back in power.. That's the name of the game.

As long as the people who believe the media spin, who feed off this stuff and keep hyping it, it will continue. So keep going... The bill we need to be pushing, if you want to invoke Teddy Kennedy is the one he wrote.. The one from the HELP committee. It can be found here at the HELP committee web site.

That's the full text of the bill, it is only $600 billion over 10 years as scored by the CBO. You can see that in the summary of the bill at this site here.

As I stated before, this bill should be considered bipartisan, with 160 amendments written by Republicans. They have tried to say they didn't have a seat at the table, but that is an out and out lie. The shear hypocrisy of them is astronomical.

I Am Angry & Fed Up With People Who Are Not Supporting the President

I have been seeing a lot of people pushing this "Single Payer" for all, Medicare for all and other things. I have also seen people say, the President should never have dropped Single Payer off the bargaining table in the Health Care debate.

You know, I don't consider myself very smart in lots of things. Certainly I am not as smart as our President, and I am sure a lot of these people doing the shouting out there and saying these things are not either. However, they seem to think they know more than he does, and they know more than anyone else knows about what happens in the matter of Health Care and in Congress.

At this time the best thing we can do is stand with our President and support what he has said he is supporting. Numerous times he has stated he supports the Public Option. He has called it an Exchange, he has said it is the only way to bring down costs and hold the insurance companies accountable for what they are doing to this country and to the people who have insurance and to the people who don't.

I also keep hearing these same people (and they are all on the left side of politics) saying the President has not done enough.. do you really realize how much this man has done.. all on his own.. because there really hasn't been anyone else helping him.. all he has had is people sniping at him and saying do more, speak louder, do you really support that, and on and on.

Greg Sargent says this today in his blog post:

By now you’ve heard that President Obama is set to deliver a major speech to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday, as part of a newly-energized health care push.

I don’t normally link to Fred Barnes, but this rundown of the speaking that Obama has already done on health care does seem like useful context:

Between July 20 and July 30, President Obama was a busy man, barely out of the public eye while campaigning furiously for his health care initiative. He did four town hall events, spoke at two hospitals, delivered a radio address, was interviewed on two network TV news shows, and held a prime time press conference–all devoted to promoting his health care plan. On this issue as on no other, Obama personally took his case to the people.

That doesn’t even include what Obama may have done in August. All that speaking didn’t help the numbers, obviously. Indeed, Obama was so visible this summer that aides reportedly concluded he’d been too visible. What will Obama say that’s different this time?

He also goes on to say that now they think he did too much and was in the spotlight too much... As I said.. never happy are we liberals... Either he has done too much, or he has not done enough...can't have it both ways now can we...

Today E. J. Dionne has an excellent Op-Ed in the Washington Post.. I love to read about someone else calling out the so called "Liberal Media". I have long said that is so completely a false hood, but people like to say that, especially when it suits them to make their case for an argument.. of course if it is the other way, they are silent.

E.J. has this to say...

But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong? What if the highly publicized screamers represented only a fraction of public opinion? What if most of the town halls were populated by citizens who respectfully but firmly expressed a mixture of support, concern and doubt?

There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television's point of view "boring") encounters between elected representatives and their constituents.

It's also clear that the anger that got so much attention largely reflects a fringe right-wing view opposed to all sorts of government programs most Americans support. Much as the far left of the antiwar movement commanded wide coverage during the Vietnam years, so now are extremists on the right hogging the media stage -- with the media's complicity.

Over the past week, I've spoken with Democratic House members, most from highly contested districts, about what happened in their town halls. None would deny polls showing that the health-reform cause lost ground last month, but little of the probing civility that characterized so many of their forums was ever seen on television.

-snip-

Rep. Frank Kratovil hails from a very conservative district that includes Maryland's Eastern Shore and says it didn't bother him that he was hung in effigy in July by a right-wing group. "As a former prosecutor, I consider that to be mild," he said with a chuckle. The episode, he added, was not at all typical of his town-hall meetings, where "most of the people were there to express legitimate concerns about the bill, wondering about how it was going to impact them" and wanting "to know the truth about some of the things that were being said about the bill."

The most disturbing account came from Rep. David Price of North Carolina, who spoke with a stringer for one of the television networks at a large town-hall meeting he held in Durham.

The stringer said he was one of 10 people around the country assigned to watch such encounters. Price said he was told flatly: "Your meeting doesn't get covered unless it blows up." As it happens, the Durham audience was broadly sympathetic to reform efforts. No "news" there.

Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas is one member who did attend gatherings dominated by boisterous opponents of health reform.

At a meeting in Waco, a man asked him what constitutional authority the federal government had to get involved in health care. Edwards replied, "Article One, Section Eight," which empowers Congress to provide for the "general welfare of the United States." Then Edwards asked the man if he opposed "the federal government being involved in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and children's health care." The man said he was, and the room roared its approval.

"I will wear it as a badge of honor that I was shouted at by people who oppose Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and children's health," Edwards said. The shouters, he added, did not speak for most of his constituents, but for "the Ron Paul libertarian position that represents 2 to 5 percent of the country."

-snip-

The money quote of the article.. emphasis mine and his...lol.

But the only citizens who commanded widespread media coverage last month were the right-wingers. And I bet you thought the media were "liberal."

Yes, the President took the Single Payer option off the table early in the game.. but he had to, because there was NO WAY it would ever pass the Congress. How can anyone think it would, when the vitriol and the rancor we are seeing is so strong just for the Public Option? They are scared to death the Public Option is going to lead to Single Payer as it is.

Give it a rest people... drop this demand for the Single Payer and support the President. Give him all the support he needs and get behind him for the Public Option in health care.

Call the White House, write the White House, EMail the White House, and let them know exactly how you feel... But drop the Single Payer nonsense, support the President and ask him to stand firm with the Public Option, and then start calling the Senators I listed in my last post about this. You can find that list here in this blog post.

There is another post I did here that showed all the names of the Senators who needed phone calls and emails that needed to be sent so our voices could be heard. Again, drop the demand for Single Payer.. just support the Public Option and the President.

Sorry, I just had to rant a little.. I just get angry seeing these complaints and the talking heads on my television telling me all the time the President is failing. No one knows what the President is going to do as of yet, however I just don't believe he has given up on the Public Option yet...I won't believe it until I hear him say it. Call me Pollyanna..

The Public Option is Dead? Why No, NO It Is NOT!

Why is everyone assuming the Public Option is dead or should be dead? Just because a few talking heads and GOPers say it is? Since when have they ever counted for anything special?

I just can't believe we are just giving up so easily and neither does Robert Reich in this article in Salon.com. He says the same thing I do.. that just because a few pundits talk it up and say that it is so, just doesn't make it so.. and he goes on to say that now is the time to go big.

In addition, we've come to the point where healthcare incrementalism won't work. To be sure, the health-insurance industry is powerful and will fight reforms that threaten their profits. But they won't fight if they know their profits will be restored when everyone is required to have health insurance. (This isn't just conventional authoritative wisdom; it's political fact.) Obviously, in order to require everyone to have health insurance, tens of millions of Americans will need help affording it. The only way the government can possibly pay that tab is to raise taxes on the rich while also getting long-term health-insurance costs under control. And one of the surest ways to get long-term costs under control is to force private insurers -- which in most states and under most employer-provided plans face very little competition -- to compete with a public insurance option that can use its bargaining clout with drug companies and medical providers to negotiate lower prices.

-snip-

Sometimes reform has to occur in a big way, everything or nothing, if it's to happen at all. That's the way it is with healthcare reform at this stage. Every moving piece is related to every other one. That's also why a public option is necessary.

So forget the authoritative sources. Mobilize and organize. We can get comprehensive, meaningful healthcare reform if we push hard enough. And we must.

The emphasis is mine, because I think it is well worth noting what he said in that last bit, this is what I have been saying for a long time. I still think there are enough votes to get this done and so does Dr. Dean.. or Gov. Dean..

At his web site, Democracy for America there is a Whipcount, which at this time stands with 45 definite YES on the Public Option, and a total of 16 Maybes... who can be persuaded to Yeses.. or I think most of them can be. If not, then lets get them out of office. They don't deserve to be Democrats if they can't support the Democratic platform of Healthcare for all.

Now, those 16 Maybes are these and some I think are Yeses and have just not been updated as need be, Mark Begich, (D, AK), Blanche Lincoln, (D, AR), Mark Pryor, (D, AR), Thomas Carper, (D, DE), Johnny Isakson, (R, GA), Mary Landrieu, (D, LA), Olympia Snowe, (R, ME), Max Baucus, (D, MT), Jon Tester, (D, MT), Kent Conrad, (D, ND), Ben Nelson, (D, NE), Ron Wyden, (D, OR), Mark Warner, (D, VA), Robert Byrd, (D, WV).

Now, again, I believe most of these and probably all of these can be turned..well all the Democrats.. There are 2 Republicans in this list..the one, Olympia Snowe..I am not sure about.. she may vote with the Democrats if it is put to her on a moral and a fiscal premise in strong enough premise. But, there are some I believe need to be updated...if you know of some of these who are not correct, please send Dr. Dean an update..

I think if we push the issue.. make the Republicans filibuster this and all of them vote against it.. all 40 of them.. and if they do.. they will pay the consequences in 2010 and beyond.

There is a push to rename the Health Care reform for Teddy Kennedy... The bill he wrote that the HELP (Health Education Labor and Pensions) Committee passed on July 15, 2009 is the counterpart to the House bill known as HR 3200. This bill has everything we need in it.. and it has been scored by the CBO as only costing $615 billion over 10 years.. that is over 400 billion less than anything else anyone has come up with.

Since he largely wrote this bill, and was the chairman of the committee, it is fitting this bill be named for him. This bill I believe could be passed and with 160 amendments in it from Republicans should be considered bipartisan.

The full text of the bill is here at the web site of the Senate site. There is also a condensed version that is available by going here.

Either way, both contain the Public Option and will do everything we need done in the way of Health Care Reform and Health Insurance Reform. No, I don't believe the Public Option is dead.. I believe the pundits, the media and the Republicans want us to believe it is, so we will give up and stay home, quit writing emails, quit calling our Senators and Representatives and just stay quiet.. But that we can't do.

We have to keep fighting for this. We have to continue to speak out, just as they are. We have not been loud enough, we have not been vocal enough. It is time for us to start to speak a little louder and a little longer...

Let our Teddy Voice be heard... let it ring in the debate and let it be what people remember in these next few weeks... don't let this chance die with Sen. Kennedy.. let his life's work be realized and let his voice continue on.. through us.

This is Why We Are Fighting, and He is and Should be Our Inspiration

Watch this and get fired up.. Ready to go.. This is what we need to remind us of everyday and all the time. I really can't say anymore than what this video says.



I got this from MoveOn and you can go there and check out their site and sign up for updates and news from them.