No Single payer—No Public Option—then no healthcare reform-no healthcare for Congress paid for by us and no GOP/DEM party votes. Just my opinion.

Medicare For All, also known as single-payer health insurance, is favored by a sizable majority of Americans.

How can we convince our Members of Congress to enact what the people want?

Let them know that unless they support Medicare For All, you won’t support them.

Take the Medicare For All Voter Pledge today:

http://bit.ly/medicareforallpledge

E. J. Dionne always seems to write about these topics as if industry money to politicians plays no role.

I don’t know who these Democrats are anymore; I think they are mutant clones who have seized the minds and bodies of what used to be the fighting Democrats.  I hope these sitting Democrats will be opposed in the next elections by real Democrats who won’t take money from corporations, will slam the door on lobbyists, and who will work their butts off for constituents.

And the Obamas need to stop galivanting for the Olympics and focus like a laser beam on health care reform with a public option.

Why do they continue to run EJ Dionne’s pieces here? They are nothing but pure drivel and Obama worship spin doctoring.

I hope everyone here is CALLING your reps and demanding a strong public option.  If they oppose it, demand to know how they’ll bring down costs & how much THEIR plan will save or cost the country OVERALL in 10 yrs.  The former head of Medicare under Bush said if we keep things as they are, it will cost the country about $34 Trillion (10 yrs) over $17 TRILLION of it will be paid by the federal govt.  That would crush our economy and we’d get absolutely NOTHING for it.
$1 or $2 Trill for reform doesn’t look all that bad by comparison.

Wonderful post, Sandy. As you say, if voters knew how much more they will pay without the public option, maybe they will flood their feckless reps with phone calls, faxes, and emails.

I feel like I am alone in burying not only my representatives in communication but also the miscreants who are trying to kill real reform.

“Unfortunately, the debate over the public option has rarely concentrated on the substance of the idea. Instead, it has been almost entirely ideological.”

So you say EJ. The ideology only justifies taking the health care industry money and mouthing its interests, making it seem as though so-called moderate Democrats aren’t on the payroll of fat cats.

Why else would the blue-dog Democrats reject the will of the people? They figure that the campaign money they get from pharma and private health care, will get them elected and that the voters are too stupid, have too short of memories, or are too inattentive to really vote them out of office. After all the alternative is the likes of a bigot called Barbour or whatever who is a red-neck neocon.

(”“Its final form will be subject to negotiation and might involve a “trigger” to
bring it into being in uncompetitive markets—as long as the trigger is not a
meaningless sop.”“)

If you were listening carefully yesterday and today to Pelosi and Shumer, you
would have realized that the fix is now in. The legislation cannot morally
advance without a public option. But that option will be so watered-down and
pathetic it will be doomed. Pelosi is calling (as we blog) for “allowing” states to
have their own public option. This will fail because there will not be enough
bargaining power. If you listen carefully you will see the public option slowly
extracted until it is just an empty shell.

Even the author of this article is talking about the hated, useless trigger, that is
even rejected by Olympia Snowe, the wicked witch of the North.

Shumer is no friend of the public option. His sole intent, after taking thousands
from the health insurance company, is to water it down. He said the other day
that he doesn’t like the ads by progressives to get people to come down on the
Blue Dogs, because he is one. He is a straw man.

So, consistent with the way the Democrats have acted legislatively, since they
took the majority, a very harmful, expensive, phoney bill that will continue to
let corporations act like the mafia, shoving billions more at them, while telling
the American people they care, will be “passed”. Like a rotten kidney stone.

But this time, there is a hitch. The bill at the end of the day is not like the
porkulus or the bailouts. It depends upon cooperation from the American
people. I predict this very bad bill will spur on such incredible outrage, such
total rejection and non-cooperation from the American people, thousands of
lawsuits, and be such a debaucle that it will not only bring down Obama, but
many, many legislators. It will be a rallying point. And they brought it all on
themselves. And Reid knows that the longer the debate goes, the less chance
of this thing passing is ensured.

Again, think about the simple fact that EVERYONE could be covered for ANY
type of TREATMENT, for LIFETIME with the amount of money being shoveled at
these totally corrupt health insurance corporations, who are exempted from
laws against monopolies, for reasons no one knows.

This, in itself, shows the total dishonesty of what is going on here.

And Bill Nelson (who hides from being on tv and likes to play with war toys), my
senator, will be reminded by myself today of the message Michael Moore
delivered on the Ed show yesterday. We will, via Mr. Moore, organize candidates
to run against people like him. We don’t need the Democratic party to do this.
He is a foot-shuffling, knuckle-dragging Neanderthol who is too old and
stupid to still be in office.

If the Democrats cannot stand up and fight for us, then they deserve to be defeated.  The Republicans are fighting everything because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

The Republican supporters are going to vote for them because they can put down the Democratic “Socialist” agenda, even though most of them don’t even know what socialism means.

Republicans have learned that emotion trumps reason. Democrats don’t know how to deal with people who are driven by emotion and do not respond to reality.

The way the Obushama administration has handled its health care initiative was doomed to fail from the start and puts into question Obushama’s sincerity about it being successful. He had several different Congressional committee’s introduce their own versions of health care legislation, a recipe for failure. Obushama should have developed a health care bill and presented it to Congress, this would be leadership. This point of view was articulated on GRIT TV by an Obushama detractor, a black woman.

When the HELL is the Democratic leadership and Obama going to stop farting around with Re-thuglicans and DINOs (Democrat-In-Name-Only) and use the power of patronage and government programs as a club on all these @$$#oles? Let Nelson et al know they are going to lose committee seats and programs in their states, along with automatic judicial picks if they don’t stop betraying the Democratic Party and their President!

As for the Re-thugs: Any GOP member who will NOT commit to voting for a compromise bill (so far, that means Olympia Snowe), should be shut of the legislative process—not allowed to simply end it.  The Re-Thugs, like Kyl and McConnell, don’t want ANY change. They don’t care that 50 million Americans have no coverage—it’s their fault for being poor—that’s kinder, gentler conservatism!

When the GOP ran things they did it with an iron fist and the Dems whined and hoped for a bone. Now that the Dems are in charge, the GOPs are hammering with the iron fist (as they have nothing to lose) and the Dems are whining “please help us!”

What’s wrong with this picture?