We Were Told

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

We wanted single payer, but were told we couldn’t get it, so we may as well not try.

We wanted a hybrid European-style system, but were told we couldn’t get it, so we may as well not try.

We wanted a robust public option, and we wondered why the president wasn’t working hard to get one, but we were told to ignore the pronouncements of members of his cabinet and staff that the public option wasn’t that important, and only listen to his own occasional statements that he wanted a public option.

We were told that we shouldn’t worry that he wasn’t out fighting for a public option, and that he never drew a line in the sand, because we didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes, we didn’t understand the strategy, and the president would get us the public option that he kept saying he wanted.

We were told to accept mandates.

We were told to accept a public option with triggers.

We were told to accept a public option with opt-out.

We were told to accept a public option that still left millions of people out.

Finally, we were told the public option wasn’t that important, anyway.

Finally, we were told that after months of being told that we didn’t understand the strategy that was going to get us the public option, it wasn’t that important, anyway.

We were told to accept the Medicare buy-in, because that would be a huge step in the right direction, even if it was unclear whether there would be subsidies actually enabling people to buy in.

We were told to accept the Medicare buy-in, because that would be a huge step in the right direction, even if it left even more millions of people out.

Now, we’re being told that the Medicare buy-in isn’t important, either.

No matter how much “reform” is defined down, we are told to accept it and like it and support it.

And we still don’t know what we will get!

We are being told to support whatever we get, and we still don’t know what that will be!

I wonder how many will accept literally anything.

I wonder how many just want to pass something, anything, so we can pat ourselves on the back and claim to have reformed health care.

I have a simple question: what about Stupak? If Stupak remains in the bill, will we be told to accept that, too?

I have another question: is there any degree of compromise, of unilateral knee-capping, that will render the bill unacceptable?

Perhaps, for the sake of consensus, we ought simply to pass a Sense of the Senate resolution stating that “health care is good.”

46 comments

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    • TomP on December 15, 2009 at 19:07

    Turkana.

    The truth is very hard to face for a lot of people.  It’s a sad truth, a disillusioning truth.

    The question of the momnent is where do we go from here?

    It’s a long struggle and this aspect of it has exposed the bankruptcy of much of the Democratic Party.  That’s good, because many people know now.

    Can the Party be reclaimed?  It will take a long time.

    How much enthusiasm do you have for Obama’s cap and trade bill now?  Feel like working for it?  

    In the end, we can stop or end the worse of Bush’s crimes, but changing the system is impossible.

    So where do we go?  

    • TMC on December 15, 2009 at 19:25

    a lot of things many of them fairy tales right out of the Brothers Grimm.

    Apparently, Steny Hoyer has accepted the inevitable about the public option

  1. and, yes, there’s a Stupak-like amendment in the Senate as well. It’s going to pass, for sure.

    Unfortunately, I do think that there are many, many people who will, in fact, take what they can get and call it some kind of fucked-up, lame-o “victory”.

    This is a very sad day, Turk. I’m sorry for all of us – we deserved better.

  2. Joe Lieberman’s Healthcare Bill Is Worse Than Nothing. Kill It.

    by: Darcy Burner

    Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 00:26

    The first rule of medicine is, “Do no harm.” The post-Joe Lieberman version of the Senate healthcare bill fails that basic criterion.  Unless Democratic leadership steps up to fix this misguided proposal, our only recourse will be to kill it.

    The fundamental failing of the newest Senate proposal is that it requires individuals to purchase health insurance, but does nothing to rein in what insurance companies charge.  There is nothing to stop spiraling health costs from eating up an ever-increasing percentage of our national productivity.

    http://openleft.com/diary/1649

    Slinkerwink says call your congresscritters and tell them to kill it. With mandates and nothing in this bill to control price it is not reform and the only thing it does is increase the profit margins for the extortionists. The WH sent Rahmn to Reid and told him to give whatever it takes to Holy Joe just get it passed what eve it is.

    The house was our last hope and if what I saw from the so called progressives like Wiener and Sherod Brown and Esra Klein (noe emploted by WaPo) were screwed. They are all weasel’s calling this better then nothing is a freakin lie. Not to mention it’s political suicide as in the teabaggers look to be a viable option.    

  3. check “Health Care Reform” off their “to do” list–no matter what sort of Frankensteinian legislation it turns out to be, no matter whether it actually helps anyone or not, and no matter if it hurts more than it helps.

    Just ask Rahm.  Oh, BTW, the other important thing is that the Democrats in DC prove yet again that they are perfectly happy to dance to traitor Joe’s tune and show their undying loyalty to him by by dissing their own base.

    For the Dems–mission accomplished.  

    • Inky99 on December 15, 2009 at 22:42

    but we’re told we can’t have that, either.

    Sit back and take it and try to enjoy.

    • RUKind on December 16, 2009 at 01:06

    If you keep slent and do not complain, you may recieve a monthly ration of KY jelly (courtesy of the Kentucky Republican Party).

    It’s strating to look like the difference in health care between Junior and Obama is that Obama is very well endowed.

    When people start starving and freezing to death this winter, when people start dying of easily curable diseases because they can’t afford to see a doctor or pay for prescription, when the common people have stopped being hypnotized by the wall-to-wall media indoctrination, then maybe we’ll see some change.

    Personally, I’d like to see ritual public waterboarding followed by the good Doctor’s cranial vegematic a la Francais.

    Fuck them all. There’s nothing wrong with Lieberman that some high-velocity physics couldn’t cure.

  4. Nothing personal but you broke the page!

    Your post-

    And when they pass this turd (no pun intended) the Dem Party will expect me to

    send them money….

    Bwah hah hah hah hah.

    Limit your schadenfreude and put up a tip jar.

  5. how the mandate will be enforced. If the bill seeks to

    use the threat of a fine, I wonder what the government would be allowed to do if a person refused to pay? I believe if  there is an automatic increase in a person’s federal taxes or the right of attachement, then we have just witnessed the beginning of the end.

    This would be a cataclysmic betrayal of all time. You talk about opening the door to a slippery slope! We had a F**g revolution about this stuff in 1776, remember, except we didn’t have to buy the tea and sugar.

    And the second most pernicious thing about this bill is that it requires supporting a private industry, an industry that lobbies for favors all the time and rewards House and Senate members with campaign contributions.

    All I can say is that in my 60 plus years of life, I have never seen such an “in your face” hijacking of Democracy, and this by a Democratic Party & President.

    We have just witnessed pure betrayal, supported by the President. I call this bill EVIL. It should be KILLED.

  6. The senate would never agree to that.

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