Reply #3: Agreed...shame no one else is replying [View All]

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I think they are all busy with Palin and watching dumb Fox news clips.

I think we are pretty much in agreement. I never in my life imagined I would be an Emanuelite, but if we dont pass a bill, the press and GOP would love to play the 'Democrats are weak' card. A card which is totally phony, but would work politically in this dumb country. If we lose our majorities next year I promise this president is going to be screwed, and so is our country. I'm starting to worry now.

I always supported Obama knowing that if we get another Republican or Bush in 2012 or 2016 then anything positive Obama does can be eradicated. I think Obama hinted at it in his campaign -- bottom-up change, encouraging participation, providing an example of behavior and rhetoric, but all of these hints are getting buried in the day to day talk. That day to day talk is going to be based on what bills or initiatives get passed. Healthcare, no matter how perfect of a vision we have (single payer in my case) is going to have to be incremental.

I think your point about 'introducing the concept of universality' is interesting. I was thinking about ways that the first bill should sort of 'force the private companies' hand towards either really fixing itself or revealing over the next four years that they really are just bloodsuckers on the public tit, and a drain on medicare. I'm not sure if the bill we have really does that, but if it did, I think it would put us in a better position to fix the HC bill four or six years from now.