HCR, the Single-Payer Option and the Single Girl

[Nuclear Unicorn]

They keep telling us, "I know this bill sucks but help us pass this bill and we PROMISE it'll get better over the next several election cycles or until I retire, whichever comes first."

Then as soon as the bill founders they tell us, "Well, we need THIS bill so-o-o-o-o bad we can/will pass it with only 51 votes and by gumption once you see it you'll thank us for it!"

Um-m-m...excuse me Mr. political type guy...I know I'm just a silly girl fresh out of college but if you can pass it with 51 votes then how do you explain all of the horse-trading (read: bribes) in the name of "consensus-building"?

To heck with the consensus; I want to do what is best for PEOPLE! And THAT is what the people will thank us for in the next several election cycles.

If Brown wins kill this healthcare bill and pass the single-payer through reconciliation. To pass this corporatist pay-off through reconciliation while single-payer dies a death of needless neglect is inexcusable. If one-third of the country hates you reflexively there is no point in making it 2/3.


Tell me where I'm wrong.

[MercutioATC]

1. You're not wrong. That's politics...and both Repubs and Dems play the game.

Here's something to think about:

Who bears more responsibility for a bad bill, the minority of legislators who oppose it or the majority of legislators who not only refused to use their majority to pass it...but traded away all of the good stuff needlessly?

[Edweird]

2. "I'm getting 95% of what I want."

[ddeclue]

3. I with that single girl there!

:D

Well said..

[hayu_lol]

4. What we needed was a Single-Payor National Health Plan...

what it looks like at this point we'll get is richer insurance companies who will continue to play their tired old game.

I go along with 'single' as well.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. Now more than ever I'm convinced...

...in a state that has insurance mandates such mandates are political poison.

I tried, briefly, to support them on the grounds that they were better than nothing but the cynic in me came roaring out when they started toying with the idea of using reconciliation. This obliterated any excuse they had for not going for single-payer--which admittedly exceeded what the president campaigned on--but not the strong public option--which the president DID campaign on.

So we find ourselves on the day after people say "No!" to a mandate for something poor people would freely purchase buy if they had the means to buy it in the first place...and we have the audacity to look stunned and hurt?

Really?

Pass single-payer optimally or public-option minimally. To paraphrase: build a better healthcare system and the world will beat a path to your door.

But what does that mean for the single girl?

Calls, letters, campaigning. Not just to the politicians but to your neighbors, friends and co-workers. Tell them: this wasn't a repudiation of healthcare reform this was a repudiation of BAD healthcare reform propped-up by dirty deals hiding behind false pretenses of needing bogus super-majorities.

In a way I'm sorry I'm not as downcast as so many here are today. The anguish and sense of despair are palpable but I can't say I feel that way myself. I feel...emboldened...resolute. I'm told I'm an incurably sunny optimist (may I never be cured!). I ask you to share that optimism and sense of purpose with me.

[cap]

6. Another Happy Warrior checking in!

good to hear it!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. Mopery never works.

It's hard to go up to people and say, "Hi. We suck. Vote for us."

[cap]

8. Nope... it's better to say "the other side sucks elephant dung"

and here's exactly how and this is what we are going to do to clean it up

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. I'm not entirely convinced anger is a good sell either.

Tea Partiers are angry--livid in general.

Who wants to live like that?

[cap]

10. I think there are some things to be genuinely angry about but ...

your point about channeling it in a constructive direction is well taken. I think it's kind of like cleaning the house when you're really pissed off. Properly used, There is energy enough to do some heavy lifting.

So I think it is more about redirecting an energy flow. Can't pretend it doesn't exist... but it doesn't mean doing destructive things like the Teabaggers are doing.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

11. I am "blessed" to have a BF that is fairly conservative...

...although we don't talk politics much because it is so contentious for us he made a point last night: the 2 parties have been playing between the 40-yard lines (he had to explain that to me. I'm not much of a sports fan). We can't honestly tell which way America as a whole wants to go because both sides are so diluted we have no contrast. He said if we would both stop putting on aires and scavenging tenths of points in the polls we could just bring our A-game and let the ballots fall where they may.

He had more to say but that's where I stopped agreeing with him and just kissed him. :P

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. K and R