Probably the two least popular provisions are the excise tax and individual mandate. The fact that both are extremely unpopular should come as no surprise to Obama. He won his campaign successfully running against both ideas…

People also dislike the bill because they feel that many of the popular provisions promised by Obama were stolen from them. People really want a public option, a Medicare buy-in, and drug re-importation. Having these popular provisions removed from the bill by “process” while the unpopular ones stayed is what made the process unpopular. People were not upset simply because the process took a long time or was partisan. People are angry because the process was used by unprincipled senators to make the policies in the bill worse for regular Americans and more friendly to corporations.

These seem right on target to me, as I’m sure they do to most FDL’rs. Even though the MSM that covers Washington seem to not comprhend this, with their “move to the center” meme, the idea that the WH doesn’t get this seems simply beyond my comprehension.

Which leaves only explanations that are truly sickening: the WH really is this out of touch with reality in general and their base in particular; or they are aware of these as we are, but don’t have the votes in the Senate to do the right thing, and don’t have enough confidence that they can lead Congress (i.e., self-professed Democrats) to do the right thing by using the bully pulpit, or they are scared shitless of the money (and embarassment) that will be unleashed upon them if they break their deals with the pharma and the health insurance industries.

Obama’s bipartisanship meme since Massachusetts is as big a sign that this administration is going to fail the country as we’ve seen thus far, and we’ve seen many.

I saw a commercial “Call your Congressman. Tell them to pas the Obama plan.”

what plan would that be?

” people also do actually hate many of the proposed policies within the bill.”
___

Count me in there. I stopped writing about this back in November, and, to date, I see nothing in the aggregate to alter my concerns that this stuff comprises in large measure a [1] corporate welfare bill with [2] an actual “welfare” component (endlessly means-tested “affordability” subsidies).

are we taking into account the Pharma deal? or is that dead?

Assuming there is no Public Option, the mandate, especially, is repugnant. That will be a death sentence, for sure.
What do you all think about the sudden push for the P.O.? Personally, I think we’re being punked. Another fundraiser for a few dems then nothing comes of it.

You forgot the Stupid/Putz amendment and Nelson/whoever (I think Hatch) That really woke folks up to the give with one hand take away with the other nature of this business. Plus that we gave Obama an almost historic majority and he couldn’t be bothered to fight for us.
That started people questioning and paying closer attention to everything he’s done or wants to do.
I think the Dems in the Senate realize they HAVE to throw us a bone and therefore the PO push so late in the game. they really couldn’t have timed it better. Even sane Republicans want the PO.

Gods! I hope not!

The anti-abortion language is still in both the House and Senate bills. Add that to what I don’t like about them.

I’m thinkin’ you’re right. Lot of emails and “surveys” floating around this week asking for money. No Medicare-for-all, no money. Capice, Dummacrats?

I understand the White House is reluctant to acknowledge that they designed an inherently unpopular bill, but I don’t see how health care reform moves forward until they do and take steps to make the bill better with popular policy changes.

So stalemate and Cash for Clunkers then becomes the Obama administrations biggest accomplishment next to the too small stimulus bill for the whole first year.
Unless you see signs that the Dems are getting mad enough to do something.

You are 100% right here. Jon.

I have worked the phones and phone banks and canvassed since September on the issue and folks are angry, especially folks who worked for Obama, that the health care reform lacks the key things you named. People always believed that these would be part of it. You cannot give up the public option, drug negotiations on pricing, and also force folks to write checks to Blue Cross et al. People hate the HMOs. They want the choice of a public insurance program.

Folks were further angered in December when the Medicare buy-in was floated and then killed to satisfy 2 or 3 of the most venal, marginal Senate Dimocrats. The Senate bill is a sham. The House bill is stronger.

To all the good things you list, I would add a COBRA extension (House bill section 113), which would allow the unemployed to continue on COBRA until the exchanges kick in.

Right now, my wife is suffering the indignity and insanity of filling out an insurance form for single-issue insurance. She had Blue Cross and after the 30% hike wants to switch. The questions are odious. The demands for information are superhuman–go back 10 years in every area of your life. Record every doc visit and prescription. Get it wrong, and lose your coverage after you have paid premiums for years.

The current system is wrong and it needs fixing. The system is broken and the Blue Cross hikes are a glimpse at the future come to roost NOW.

Obama can pull out a win at the last minute but he has to stop the bipartisan approach that gives away the best parts of the program in exchange for nothing.
He can pull out a win if he gives his base and the vast middle of the country what was promised. The public can see that the Repubs are just saying NO; That they are not contributing; That they seek Democrat failure.

The public hoped that this time Obama and the Dimocrats would be different, so they were elected with big margins. There is no excuse for a second-rate program. The Democrats should put themselves behind the best possible that can get 50+1.

What I worry the most about is the abortion fault line that could cost votes on a final measure.

Dammit it is not the Process it is the FUCKING Product!! I know they aren’t that dumb.

Why can’t we just tax the rich or End the wars to pay for healthcare both ideas would be popular with voters.

The only thing Obama and the Rahmunist Dems will do is try to wear us down on the pass anything and call it victory meme.

Forcing people to buy insurance just as the insurance companies are all now raising rates is election death and the Dems I’m sure have polls saying that.

I think billionaires should crawl to all our doors with our lifetime medicaid cards in hand.

And thank us for not cursing them on the way back to the limo.

Unless you see signs that the Dems are getting mad enough to do something.

umm – *which* Dems?

the ones with D.C. zip codes seem congenitally unable to summon passion, persistence, or pugnacity.

Oh, and the excise tax is a political death wish.

Where to get the money?
see this story in the NYTIMES today:

February 18, 2010
Top-Earning U.S. Households Averaged $345 Million in ’07

By BLOOMBERG NEWS
The 400 highest-earning households in the United States made nearly $345 million in 2007, up 31 percent from a year earlier, data from the Internal Revenue Service shows.

The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic expansion, show that average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from $131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts proposed by George W. Bush. Democrats say those cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Each of the top 400 earning households paid an average tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest since the I.R.S. began tracking the data in 1992, the statistics show. Their average effective tax rate was about half the 29.4 percent in 1993, the first year of the Clinton administration, when taxes were increased.

The statistics underscore “two long-term trends: that income at the very top has exploded and their taxes have been cut dramatically,” said Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group that supports increasing taxes on high-income people.

The top 400 earners received a total of $138 billion in 2007, up from $105.3 billion a year earlier. Adjusted for inflation, their average income rose almost fivefold since 1992, the figures show.

They may provide ammunition for President Obama and Democrats, led by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, who say they intend to increase the capital gains tax rate and let tax rates for the highest earners increase in 2011.

Almost three-quarters of the highest earners’ income was in capital gains and dividends taxed at a 15 percent rate set as part of 2003 tax cuts supported by Mr. Bush, the figures show. Of the 400 earners, 289 paid a total effective federal tax rate of 20 percent or less in 2007, the last year for which figures were available, the data shows.

William Ahern, director of policy and communications for the Tax Foundation, a Washington research group that advocates lower taxes, said the 2007 figures do not reflect the current economic circumstances.

“In a good year like 2007, it’s not surprising to see that the owners and managers of the nation’s largest firms made a fortune,” he said. “Notice that two-thirds of their 2007 income was in capital gains, which have dropped like a rock since then.”

The data was first reported by Tax.com, a Web site run by Tax Analysts, a publisher in Virginia.

Obama could win some GOPers over if all you need to get treated is a drivers license and your old Dr’s number so they can fax over your medical forms.
I can’t remember if I was sick 10 years ago.

That’s what I told Schumer. Rec’d an email saying he’s signed on…please send money. Told him I’ll donate when they pass it.

It’s both. The product sucks. But the process has only served to highlight that. The venality, the blackmail, the time it took to get no result, the lying, posturing. All of it is enough to make the strongest patriot sick.

I was not saying the Dems were getting mad I was suggesting we have no hope of passing Healthcare unless they get mad.

and I’m saying that I don’t think they’re capable of getting sufficiently angry, motivated, unified, or even particularly concerned.

I’m gonna repeat what I said in response to your first posting of this piece. To keep FDL within the copyright laws post a short paragraph, 2 at most, and link to the article. Thanks.

If by process the White House means the way that many politicians attempt to wrap corporatist policies within a mantle of left, or right when the occasion arises, sounding words for the express purpose of filling their coffers with as much lobbyist cash as they can finagle, then it is probably correct that most Americans disapprove of the process. Attempting to reframe the problems with health insurance revitalization via the excise tax and the mandate, which as far as anyone can tell is a request coming right out of the oval office, into the issue being about a process that nearly no one actually understands well enough to have formed an opinion is truly an embarrassing leap.

The only part of the process most of us understands from the outside looking in is that the White House may or may not be for the same things as many other Americans but Obama and his team feel that making a stand on an issue is not safe during a campaign cycle. It is the process of constantly running for office and refusing to lead that people are tired of seeing.

It seems that the White House thinks that if they keep floating like a butterfly then they won’t have to sting like a bee. Or at the very least they won’t get caught stinging publicly in a way that might offer a clue about where they stand. Blaming the process is yet another non-commital way to avoid accepting responsibility.

Maybe they mean that they don’t like the part of the process that requires them to take a stand and lead one an issue that is not 100% about helping businesses thrive. What they don’t like no one else could possibly like.

Can’t summon pugnacity? But wasn’t Harry Reid once a pugilist?

We have not even changed the DC conversation to health care yet.

It’s all about the money.

Throw these cretins out… and start anew.

I think they had already penciled in that part. Remember the we are not going to do anything important in 2010 story that kept being floated around. They probably can’t believe that people are still focused on this.

Where’s the channel clicker?

But wasn’t Harry Reid once a pugilist?

supposedly.

I demand strict proof.

“The White House is pushing hard the meme that Americans’ disapproval for health care reform is purely based on their disgust with the process. While the process has been stomach-turning to watch, people also do actually hate many of the proposed policies within the bill.”

It is the process that created the product. It was the backroom deals that negotiated away all the savings while making the middle class pay while completely defeating the original purpose of HCR (the WH originally claimed it was to lower the cost of healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP, which so-called HCR would only exacerbate the problem). If Obama hadn’t made those deals we wouldn’t have seen the murdering of the Dorgan amendment and other such things that resulted on the middle class having to foot the bill instead. The Obama has no standing to be whining about this seeing how they campaigned against the process that gave us Medicare Part D – you live by the sword, you die by the sword no matter how much demagoguery you attempt to try and spin away reality. If Obama liked the process used by Bush, he shouldn’t have made not doing what Bush did again an election issue. Where was CSPAN when Obama was negotiating with all the corporate lobbyists? Just using CSPAN for kabuki theater doesn’t cut it.

Looks its clear people don’t like the current system and they don’t like what Obama is offering. So lets push for what we really want National Healthcare and not settle anymore.
When the Libertarians and GOPers scream socialized medicine we say yep its cheaper and more efficient than private insurance why you live longer and spend less money.
Just because you repeat the words free markets are more efficient over and over does not make them true.
Sarah says Death Panels we compare the French and Japanese infant mortality rate to America’s and then tell Sarah the real death panels are private insurance.
We can win this one the other side has nothing!

Then we make them.

You know the Dems in Congress, particularly the Senate, just want us to go away. heh heh Sorry, not gonna happen this time boys and girls.

They probably can’t believe that people are still focused on this.

They don’t know what 10% unemployment is like how many unemployed people lost their health insurance?
Without a real Stimulus bill every month more of the under employed people lose their health insurance so we have the momentum on our side.
We can win this. There is no need to compromise.

This is relatively on topic:

Obama is here in Denver, about 18 blocks from my house right now. At a fundraiser for Sen. Michael Bennet at the Fillmore. (Ran into the motorcade on my way home.)

Now the Bennet Letter is all popular for supporting the PO through reconciliation. Good. But I don’t think that would be happening without primary pressure from Andy Romanoff for the Senate seat.

Interesting how pressure works, isn’t it?

And btw, the Fillmore is directly across the street from my usual gaybar hang. Heh. I’m highly amused.

How can anyone surmise that the American People want the public option. Someone is living in a “time warp!”

You know the Dems in Congress, particularly the Senate, just want us to go away.

odd – for the most part, I just want *them* to go away.

It’s just a jump to the left and then a step to the right.

Hallelujah, Jon. But maybe it will be a whole lot easier to write our state congresspersons and ask for single payer. Massachusetts has it, and Pennsylvania’s getting it. Let’s all get our states to get this done. Then we can vote the non-performers in the Federal Gov. out in November and 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/business/economy/18irs.html
By BLOOMBERG NEWS

The 400 highest-earning households in the United States made nearly $345 million in 2007, up 31 percent from a year earlier, data from the Internal Revenue Service shows.

The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic expansion, show that average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from $131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts proposed by George W. Bush. Democrats say those cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
top earning US Househoulds E

How can anyone surmise that people like the Social Security and Medicare programs? Someone is living in a time warp!

Olbermann just cited a poll from Nevada showing that the public option there is favored by 56-38%

on edit: 61% of independents favored the public option.

So I can out you down as for it too?

check.

Agreed they want National Healthcare no forms asking you about ten years ago, cheaper costs and better results.
I like living longer and spending less money.
I think the banks who are still in trouble might like it if medical bills were not the biggest reason Americans file bankruptcy anymore.

You weren’t invited??? WTF!!

I know – I was APPALLED! *snicker*

I’m in the Andy Romanoff crowd, so not a surprise.

Because everyone I know takes the cash and only wishes there were more?

There is the famous story of three billy goats gruff that probably explains the situation fairly well. Watch out for the eldest billy goat.

I take what little they give me.. Thank dog for the VA.

Medicare-for-all in each of the other 48 states by Nov or 2012? Riiiiight. Where are they gonna get the money?

Both the administration and Congress are unwilling to help keep the states and counties from further layoffs. After they get rid of all the low level govt workers they’ll start laying off firemen, police and teachers. When management has to start doing the work is when we’ll hear the real hue and cry. Oh, man, I can just see Chief Harmon on patrol now.

The GOPers hate that the government might want to spend money on us when they could be spending money on bigger bonuses for bankers.

true dat!! Bring back the 90% top tax bracket NOW!!

I wonder if this is Regional or Local VA but we are having a dickens of a time coordinating care with my “father in law” between VA and Medicare, as he’s transitiong from Grand Junction to here in Denver.

Locally at least, there is a huge de-prioritization on eligible Vets without combat related conditions. What’s happening is the Denver VA is only being responsive to the drugs, but not care.

He was in ICU at a Lutheran Hopsital for a couple days, the VA wouldn’t do a transfer for the “step down” care, and it’s really just a mess.

We just got him home tonight.

Tax the rich more, Make all legal fees, fines etc proportionate to income so if Bill Gates gets a midlife Crisis and a Vette Washington State’s budget problems will be over, Tax Soda pop at most restaurants they are the big money maker so there is room to tax them.
Legalize and tax pot. Free all non violent pot criminals to save tax money. Have the FCC fine Fox News every time they lie.

massachusetts doesn’t have single payer — we have romneycare, a better version of obamacare.

but PA is looking good to be the first state in the nation. my fingers are crossed for them.

Yeah! If we start talking about 90% taxes and making legal fees proportionate to income then the GOP will realize giving in and cooperating with the Dems before we start getting support for our wilder ideas is the best course of action.
We get nothing by surrendering to the GOP before the battle begins.

Medicare-for-all in each of the other 48 states by Nov or 2012? Riiiiight. Where are they gonna get the money?

single payer saves $ (on a per capita basis), so unless insurance rates and medical usage rates are very low, i expect it would be a net cost savings (better to do it on a national basis, but if that’s not possible, state based single payer is i think second best – unless anyone has any better ideas?).

there have been some state based studies done, i’ll go get you the link.

here ya go (have to scroll down for the state studies):

How Much Would a Single Payer System Cost?

Absolutely right Jon.

By reconciliation pass public option or better medicare for those over 50 and for those who can’t get insurance for pre-existing or too expensive or those who have to get individual plans or best of all medicare for all.

Change to Medicare for age or circumstance would be and should be easy by reconciliation.

Add a .50 tax to every fast food order which exceeds 500 total calories. With the millions of those sold every day in America, that would help illuminate the issue, discourage the consumption a little, and toss billions of dollars into the kitty to finance health reform — saw a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth

At first the legislative process was it’s usual annoying self, but with every day the Republicans used the threat of a filibuster I began to hate the filibuster. It undermines the voice of the people who elected more Democrats this time around.

They used the 60-vote requirement to force Democrats to give away legislative features to get those 60 votes. They wouldn’t let a simple majority define the legislation and now they don’t want a simple majority to decide it’s passage.

The filibuster is a way to get around the fundamental of majority rule in the Senate. It affects what comes up for a vote (witness the Jobs bill), what legislation gets put into or taken out of a bill and what finally passes.

The filibuster gives the minority more power than the Founders of our nation proposed. Now we have a chance to use the reconciliation to find out what the Senate wants (majority rule).

There’s no getting around the fact the public doesn’t like the mandates without a public option and they elected Obama when he pledged a public option without mandates. Now the Senate has to decide if the public’s wishes will be met and if majority rule in the Senate will stand.

There’s no getting around it. A lot is on the line.

I’m all for legalizing the noble weed but there’ll be more weed floatin’ around bypassing the taxes. The govt will do what it did with cigarettes, tax it to the point where it’s too expensive to buy. Seein’s how the weed network is already established everybody’d just revert to today’s system.

Lockin’ up drug dealers is insane. For every one they lock up, no matter what s/he’s sellin’, there are 10 others waiting to take over that business. Throwing a ton of money away to show the frightened gated community dwellers that valiantly fighting the war on drugs. Another war lost the day it was proclaimed.

Making the Bill Popular with Policy Changes

i like your previous suggestions:

I would also like to submit a three word answer: “Medicare for all,” and a one word answer, Pete Stark’s: “Americare”

but for folks who want to go po, why not americare via reconciliation?

DrSteveB: Strong Public Option: 100% Coverage & Cost Control

My Best Wishes Kelly with your Dad. I know someone and if he can help I will get back to you… have ta find his email… I do know they changed the rules last June. I am trying to get my neighbor(WWII & Korea) into the VA and don’t what they rules are yet for him. You should check out the VA web site . I got in before the Republicans changed the eligibility rules under BushCo!! Asshole denied care for millions of Veterans they were promised when they served our country. The Republican’s spit on those Veterans!! And laughed when they died for lack of care.

I agree but at the present time, or even in the next 2 years, I don’t know if states who don’t already have something in the works could even begin to try to set that up. Got to have some kind of start up money. They’re looking to cut something like $2B from the FL budget when the legislature meets next month. With their asinine sales tax exemptions and other boondoggle corp tax exemptions, etc, they’re just going to cut services. Tourism is down a ton but they don’t even want to talk about that, while at the same time want to drill offshore. Yep, tourists want to go the Texas beaches, too.

We get nothing by surrendering to the GOP before the battle begins.

Talk softly but carry a big stick and then don’t be afraid to use it when some Senator doesn’t toe the Party’s line! Strip him of his rank!

There’s no getting around the fact the public doesn’t like the mandates without a public option and they elected Obama when he pledged a public option without mandates. Now the Senate has to decide if the public’s wishes will be met and if majority rule in the Senate will stand.

not for healthcare reform. can do it via reconciliation and apparently that only requires a simple majority.

‘course that would also require that the dems were more serious about healthcare than insurance/pharma/etc industry bailouts.

we’ll see.

depends i guess on the state (rates of uninsured, etc) but tight state budgets may actually force states to consider going single payer (i hope it will at least inspire a look-see). the amount of money wasted with our current non-system is mind blowing.

i haven’t seen any recent (last couple of years) state based studies (they maybe out there. especially for PA, CA, etc) so can’t say for sure. but older studies look good.

edit to add: i have a good family friend in FL, so i hear a little of your state’s horror stories. good luck to you all.

A graduated tax on calories might be better because McDonalds I’ sure would create a burger 1 calorie below the limit. But yes I support your idea 100%!

Just catching up here . .

Jon, what a great read, and how sad that something so SIMPLE as what the american people actually feel isn’t accurately reported in the MSM, much less acknowledged by our president and our elected offals.

Thanks again for all your work . . . your post needs to be shoved at and up every media outlet and elected offal so they are FORCED to GET it . . . they just can’t hide from it anymore, they are falling apart Repubs and Dems alike over their service to the corporate influences and the increasing demands for REAL reform from their constituents.

I delight in seeing each and every elected offal squirm as the pressure from both their corporate masters and WE The People rachets up daily!!!

Well, I’m going picking tonite, music, mirth and merrymaking!!!

A welcome distraction from the reality at hand.

*G*

Were one step way from sending it to the Gov’s desk again. I think we’re trying to wait for Brown.

It doesn’t matter who’s first. Either one will put pressure on the other States to do something or loose some of its tax base by people re-locating to the State that’s more progressive.

Just like passing legalization of pot will put pressure on other States to do it or loose tax revenue.

I said maybe 30 days ago, that we should refocus efforts on changing things at the State level. There are at least 4 well know movements to do such a thing (PA, CA, CT, VT)

Forget what’s happening, we’ve been talking about gridlock for years and its actually here. How many bills have the House pass but have been yet to be taken up even for a up-down vote in the Senate?

The Senate is still hoping their version of the bill gets passed. Which would be fine by me and they can own it and pay for it in 2010 and 2012.

If they though 1994 was bad for not doing anything, they really won’t understand when those responsible get tossed out for doing something shitty, claiming victory and thinking that was “politically possible”.

You can bet this is what it is. Our mantra needs to be: Not one dollar to Dem incumbents until they start passing key legislation. Not one dollar, not one phone bank call, not one minute of work. Not for any of them. In fact we should consider supporting the repugs challenging some of them since we’d be better off w/o these sellouts in office watering down the impact of the few real progressives. But at a minimum: No support until they actually come through with real, progressive health care, economic and foreign policy. We don’t care about words, we care about actions.

Some of them are. The rest are just simply bought, and not by us.

true dat.

“Massachusetts has it (single payer)” – well no it does not

It has no cost control universal via mandate with “exchanges” (called the Connector in Mass) making ins companies offer policies with a defined by the Connector set of coverages, in addition to other policies the ins co might want to offer.

It is the Senate bill without the good parts!!! :-)

It’s getting really hard to follow along on the Bitterness Boulevard of FDL…Did you guys forget the “plan to save healthcare reform?”…OK, let’s review: 1. Kill the senate bill. 2 Killing the bill will lead to Reconciliation (yeah!) 3. Reconciliation will lead to restoring the public option and dropping that hated excise tax. 4. We all get to put away our bitterness routine until Cap and Trade time!!……Now I’m totally confused. Are we not executing the plan? Once again, let’s review: 1. The bill is dead thanks to FDL (OK, because of Scott Brown’s election)…2. Reconciliation is the ONLY way to get HCR at this point (yeah!)….3. The Senate’s ALREADY putting that “bring back the public option” chant into play (18 signatures and counting) and we hear that the house is putting more water on that excise tax thingy….4. Maybe we’ll get to win this and put away our bitterness afterall!….OK, let’s not get carried away. It’s clear that the blogger is incapable of dropping that bitterness thing. It’s way too important to that pervasive inferiority complex that defines the Liberals here.

“Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.”

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2010/only_21_say_u_s_government_has_consent_of_the_governed

Truth hurts, donnit?.

What are you talking about?

Right, so much better to have our heads up our asses like you ‘bots. That way we’ll never hear truth or facts and then we’ll never be sad! YAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

Same thing as you, really.

“The White House seems incapable of acknowledging that the Senate bill they designed is something the American people do not want. They are blaming the messaging, but not the product.”

I call it shit-flavored Jello. Doesn’t matter how you package it, it still tastes like shit and people aren’t going to buy it.

poll after poll consistently show, while the majority responded to NO on president obama’s health care reform plan, they voted YES on the public option. one could deduce from this it is the public option – competition, accountability and lower premiums – the majority of americans want.

the only people intimidated by the 11% of self identified tea partiers, are the senate democrats.

call your senator and tell them you want him or her to vote yes to pass the public option through reconciliation.

Can’t believe that it was last July that at the Big Orange I wrote:

Silver Lining From Delay

While the argument that delaying passage of legislation past August risks ultimate failure (loss of momentum, dilution, impending 2010 elections, etc.), every day some 14,000 people lose their employer’s coverage as they lose their jobs.

More recruits for the cause.,,

And more true than ever, especially with Anthem Blue Cross and other HMOs shamelessly jacking their premiums right now. We must be getting pretty close to the ‘Have you suffered enough?’ breaking point.

Now, if the Dems could only capture and harness the growing populist rage over HCR the way the Rethugs have done with the bank bailouts they could go on the offense for a change.

Not holding my breath…