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Edited on Tue Oct-27-09 10:19 AM by Oerdin
While I am glad weak little Reid finally started playing hard ball and forcing blue dogs to at least agree to vote for cloture the truth is he still had to water down the public option so much it's probably to weak to do much good. Only a max of around 10% of the population will ever even be allowed to sign up for the public option and every state can refuse to even allow people the opportunity to buy into the public option all thanks to blue dogs who sold the public down the river. What the hell happened to "if you don't like your current insurance then you can buy not for profit insurance from the public option"? Why am I excluded? This is a bait and switch and I'm mad as hell about it! Reid tried everything he could not to include any public option and it was only the fact that 70%-80% of Americans wanted a public option and the fact that progressives wrote buckets of letters that forced him to even include this weak ineffective version of the public option.
Needless to say I'm deeply unsatisfied with the Democratic leadership in the Senate right now and I wish Reid could have been like Pelosi in really fighting for a strong public option. The House at least has a strong bill in place so maybe there is a bit of hope when it comes to reconciliation but that really is our only hope now if we want a strong medicare like public option which any American can opt to buy. Make no mistake about it; the Senate's version of a "public option" is one which virtually no one will get a chance to buy no matter how much they want to. In essence they're not going to give ANY OF US (unless you're in the bottom 10% who is chronically unemployed) a chance to opt into a public option. It won't even be an option listed on the health care exchange. That's completely unacceptable for Progressives.
Heck, even this weak sauce "public option" which virtually no one can buy will not come on line until 2013! That's over four years from now and long enough for Republicans to regain the majority and kill it, no doubt with the help of the blue dogs, before it even starts. It's time for us to sound off and tell these bastards that THIS ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH! We want a REAL public option, one which EVERYONE can buy into if they want, one with real strength to keep the damn insurance companies honest! This isn't real reform. Real reform means everyone can buy the public option if s/he wants to, even if you're in a red state. We need it now not in 2013 and definitely not "maybe in 2013 if they can't find a way to kill it before then". The Senate's version is complete weak sauce BS and that makes me mad as hell.
The Dems have 60 votes in the Senate so if a strong public option isn't passed then there is no one but the Democratic leadership to blame. Either deliver on real health care reform or resign because it's clear you're to weak to get things done.
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