Friday, Mar 12, 2010 07:13 EST
The Democrats' scam becomes more transparent
By Glenn Greenwald
(Updated below - Update II (Saturday)
The one last hope for Senate Democratic leaders was to avoid a vote altogether on the public option, thereby relieving Senators of having to take a position and being exposed. But that trick would require the cooperation of all Senators -- any one Senator can introduce a public option amendment during the reconciliation and force a vote -- and it now seems that Bernie Sanders, to his great credit, is refusing to go along with the Democrats' sham and will do exactly that: ignore the wishes of the Senate leadership and force a roll call vote on the public option.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/ Before Joe Lieberman decided to change his mind, Harry Reid had 60-votes in the Senate on a health care compromise which included a Medicare buy-in for Americans over the age of 50. Lieberman reversed course when he realized that such a plan, if enacted into law, would have whetted the public appetite for expanding the Medicare buy-in to all Americans. Single Payer for all!
If we had 59 votes for a form of the Medicare buy-in after Lieberman's defection, why are our Democratic leaders telling us now that they don't have the votes in the Senate for a public option?
A vast majority of Americans support a Medicare buy-in or some other public option but we shouldn't be surprised that the folks in Congress chose to protect the interests of the investor class over those of the working class. One does not have to ba a Christian to appreciate Jesus words about a man serving two masters:
"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Luke 16:10-13
We cannot have a Congress, or a Democratic Party, which serves both the working class and the capitalist. The way the DLC despises the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, and the way the MSM hates progressives, are manifestations of Jesus two masters dictum.
The question for DUers is: does Jesus warning about serving two masters apply to Congress?