Barack Obama just postponed his Asian swing to Indonesia and Australia in order to hang around Washington for a few more days, ostensibly to try and pass a health care "reform" bill. Let's review. No, there is too much, let's sum-up. The House passed a somewhat decent bill, that included a so-called public option that would represent at least some attempt to keep private health insurance corporations honest. The Senate passed a stinker of a bill which basically reflected the desires of such political miscreants as Joe Lieberman. Yes, the Senate bill is the legislation that was more or less agreeable to Holy Joe, so no wonder it is not very popular as a whole! Importantly, both bills rely on the mandate, that is, citizens will be required to purchase private insurance or ostensibly pay a penalty. Those who can't afford to pay will receive some subsidy so that they will be able to pay. Note, this was the kind of plan that Obama ran AGAINST in his campaign. Moreover, note that these bills essentially guarantee something in the vicinity of 20 -40 million new, captive, customers for private health insurers, particularly the Senate plan, which offers no government insurance alternative. Further, the legislated subsidies for those unable to afford private insurance premiums, already exorbitantly priced, amount to a windfall from the government (from your tax dollars), into the private coffers of for-profit health insurance corporations. Funny, but this doesn't quite sound like the reform that Obama sold many Americans on during his campaign. No, it sounds more like the "reform" that insurance companies might agree to having realized that some changes were unavoidable.
Now, the Democrats, and Mr. Obama in particular, have expended so much political effort and capital on this issue that at this point they feel they must pass a bill. Attention has focused on the Senate bill since it was presumed that 60 votes would be needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Actually, just the "threat" of a filibuster, since the Senate no longer requires anyone to actually do the filibustering. But with the 60 votes looking very unlikely with the arrival of Scott Brown as Massachusetts newest Senator, Democrats have seemingly become resigned to the reality that a bill will have to be passed using the reconciliation procedure, which only requires a simple majority (50 votes, since Vice President Biden would break a tie, presumably in the administration's favor!). It should have been obvious months ago that this was needed, since Republican opposition to ANY bill was a given. Take note that Republican screams of "foul" against reconciliation are pure hypocrisy, since when in power they were more than happy to pass legislation using exactly the same process.
But who is this reform really serving? What about the reform that Obama actually campaigned on? What about the public option, a government sponsored insurance plan that was supposed to provide some competition to private insurance corporation expense and malfeasance? Well, it should be pretty clear by now that the Democratic leadership is more or less content with the Senate bill. While there was no end of Democratic talk about the public option, when push came to shove the leadership clearly sided with the interests of their corporate sponsors in the health insurance industry, the needs, wishes and desires of Democratic voters are clearly much less important. This is the nature of governance today, corporations and other monied interests call all the shots, ultimately it is these institutions for which the government functions, not the people. In a recent article, Glenn Greenwald exposes the game, and really calls out the Democratic leadership for the cowardly, despicable scam they are now playing with the very voters responsible for their being in power.
While the Democratic leadership carries water for the insurance industry, American voters grow more and more angry and cynical. If the Democrats think that this pathetic excuse of a health care reform bill is going to energize their voting base come November, they are sorely mistaken. Obama and the Democrats can expect heavy losses in the mid-term elections. And this is what American voters have to look forward to. Either a vote for the Party of No, that doesn't want to do anything except further lower the already ridiculously low taxes of rich people, or a vote for the Party of Nothing, because that's what the Democratic leadership apparently believes in, Nothing. It is a state of complete and utter dysfunction. Is it any wonder vast numbers of citizens simply check out from the entire process. As Bill Quigley points out, it is long past time for ordinary citizens to make some serious noise.
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