We know what “real Americans” want. Now how are they supposed to get it?

The Democrats, the President included, have elevated Olympia Snowe. Now everyone (Roland Burris for starters) wants to be her. In a group of 100 egotists, ego-stroking will win out. Has Lieberman weighed in yet this week?

Harkin says it best.

“There are 52 solid Democrats for the public option,” said Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who is chairman of the health committee. “Only about five Democrats oppose it. Should the 52 give in to the five? Or should the five go along with the vast majority of the Democratic caucus?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/health/policy/19leaders.html

We know what the American people want AND need.

WHY are they not getting it?

WHAT reasonable or rational “excuse” might explain what is going on?

The American people need an economic “system” that more fairly, equitably, and honestly provides for the needs of a decent society.

WHY are they not getting it?

Etc.

Congress just might, and the President, with his clever “advisers”, just might need to KNOW that the public is thinking about these questions.

And the public does NOT like the answers that appear to be coming into focus …

Alan Grayson already made this point, and he made it well. Last week,
on the floor of the house when he ticked off the things Americans
care or don’t care about.

Let me predict it now:

There will be a public option for small businesses and individuals. It was a done deal the minute the Baucus bill was passed. Snowe, and everything else, is circus at this point, to gain political capital (that thing called “bipartisanship”).

The administration, knowing that there is going to be a public option, is now focusing on other issues, like Afghanistan, media (Fox; fairness in media), etc. There is token attention given to the public option, and I think it is to toy with us, because as soon as the President signs the bill with a public option, his poll numbers will skyrocket, as doubts are erased. He will come out stronger than ever from this.

I think it is THAT simple, and I think too many people have underestimated the underlying super-strategy that has gone into this.

If I’m wrong, then the whole Democratic party goes down the shit-hole…

You really think that’s going to happen?

I think at best they are looking for every loophole they can possibly put into what’s ultimately called the victorious PO.

I don’t think people are giving the geniuses in the WH political office enough credit.
This plan is brilliant: First you let your enemies help write a crappy bill that will make the voters unhappy.
Then you can criticize them for lack of bipartisanship when they attack you in 2010 and 2012 for having passed and signed it.
Because if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that the media won’t let the voters forget what happened in 2009.

Just saw yet again on Hardball that asinine comment by Kyl about paying for pregnancy. Why should any female have to pay for his prostate or Viagra?

From whence came this voodoo “bi-partisanship” crap?

I don’t recall it on signs at the Teabag Rallies. ["Give us bi-partisanship."]

I don’t recall a huge letter/phone/e-mail campaign. ["Bi-partisanship forever."]

Is labor pushing it? ["We'll take a wage cut and reduce our benefits if we can have bi-partisanship."]

Where the f*%^& does this crazy idea come from?????

There’s a story at Huff Post about a 39 year old man who joined the military so that his wife could have health coverage for her ovarian cancer. The sad stories that are surfacing are terrible and make me furious.

Why should any female have to pay for his prostate or Viagra?

Yeah, if we really want to save some billions, cut the coverage for Viagra, Cialis et al.

I can hear the yelping now.

PS – Prairie, watching Hardball is really bad for your health!!

Healthcare Insurance Monopolies in each state have got to end – NOW!!

When you have no choice(s) for Health Insurance or you do not like / can’t afford what is provided to you, then the Public Option is the only way to go to give the Insurance Companies an unknown word in their company vocabulary – COMPETITION!!!!

Are you listening Congress? Are you?

Couldn’t believe that statement either! Does that hot air in AZ take away the braincells at a more rapid pace – or do the citizens in AZ just elect stupid politicians?

I think it’s the latter.

Bi-Partisanship?

Oh, you mean like ALL that Bi-Partisanship we saw when “W” was President. (do it my way all the time or I’ll send Cheney after you)

Too bad the polls that “progressives” cite on support for the pissant public option reproduce the same “bait and switch” tactic that “progressives” used to help the Obama administration and the insurance companies take single payer off the table:

The New York Times reported on Saturday, October 17, that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is warning his constituents that the “public option” is not going to be available to the great majority of Americans. No one who has actually read the Senate health committee’s “reform” bill or the House “reform” bill (HR 3200) disputes this. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the “option” will be available only to about 30 million people, or about one American in ten. As the Times put it (slightly inaccurately), the “option” in the Democrats’ legislation “would be out of bounds to the approximately 160 million people already covered through employers.”

Does the public understand this? According to Wyden, they don’t. Wyden says his constituents are shocked when they are told the “option” will not be available to the vast majority of Americans. When he began informing his constituents about this truth last summer, “They nearly fell out of the bleachers,” he said (“And the public option is….,” New York Times, October 17, 2009, A10).

Oh well. The “bait and switch” was a “noble lie,” I suppose….

All this public option balony. Not that it’s wrong to hope, but 96% of people won’t be allowed to switch to it even if they wanted, even if it’s passed.

It’s like wanting a bike for Christmas, and getting a hot wheels car instead.

thanks for getting that one.

remarkable message discipline on FDL, even being outside the veal pen, and all.

still in the paddock, though.

also good commentary on this at Corrente who I think is safe for most Firepups to read.

“There will be a public option for small businesses and individuals.”

Then there won’t really be a public option. A public option that small will fail. The fight now is to tie it to Medicare rates and open it up to all non-Medicare eligible Americans. Not even the House bills had what can be called a “robust” public option meeting the FDL criteria. The merged House bill will have to be amended, and when passed, it will have to be shoved down the Senate’s throat politically.

There’s a long way to go.

It’s like wanting a bike for Christmas, and getting a hot wheels car instead.

and being told it’s a Trek Madone SSLx

“Bipartisanship” == “Convenient excuse allowing the corporations to buy off the politicians for the privilege of continuing to gang-rape the public.”

“. . . 76 percent [support the public option] if it’s limited to those who can’t get affordable private insurance?”

76% support having Uncle Sam used SOLELY to provide coverage for those whose health issues make private insurance unaffordable, while private insurers sign up millions of healthy folks required by law to buy their product? That’s whacked. My support for the public option goes away if it is based on affordability.

A public option for everyone and anyone who wants makes sense. Alternatively, a provision outlawing discrimination in the price of monthly premiums. Affordability requirements for the public option is nothing but a huge subsidy for the private insurance industry. It facilitates private insurers, who stand to gain millions of new customers from the bill’s mandates, moving their high risk customers to Uncle Sam.

You can switch if you cannot afford private insurance.

And who cannot afford private insurance? Those with real health issues who private insurers deem are “high risk.” Their premiums will be jacked up so much that they will not be able to afford private insurance. Enter Uncle Sam’s public option, the dumping ground for customers the private insurers do not want.

A public option must be for everyone and anyone who wants it.

How do you reconcile the rasmussen poll with the abc/wp poll? Americans don’t want gubmint intrusion into their decisions. Itz not my responsibility to pay for you.