Congress is finally back from their "listening tours" during the
Summer recess, and it has become clear that they are still hedging
their bets. Despite the right wing noise machine's need to disrupt,
distort, and dismember (read: D.O.A.) the health care reform effort;
the President seems to have evolved and gained some clarity of purpose
over the past several weeks.
The opponents of health care reform
have done their best to absolutely shred the message into a scream fest
over "death panels" and "socialization" of our country as a whole.
Reasonable people understand this is just fear mongering to scare
enough people into being all worked up and crazed to get on TV. The
President doesn't seem to have taken the bait, and has stayed above the
fear factor.
Tonight, though, he will speak directly to Congress
about what he expects. As he mentioned over the weekend "its time to
do something." Now that he is doing this...a couple of notes.
K.I.S.S.
= I'm not going to spell it out. This is obvious, and for some of the
low-noters out there, who don't understand what it means--I'm not going
to purposefully piss you off by calling you stupid.
Second, keep the public option in tact.
It is time for the Congress to actually deliver real health care
coverage for poor, low income, and the uninsured. We must take care of
our people, period. The selfish folks who think we should not do this,
should quit being selfish and remember the golden rule.
Third, don't give Congress any room to wiggle out of this.
Especially Max Baucus, Chuck Grassley, and Blanche Lincoln. Max,
you're dead to me. Chuck, you're an embarrassment to all Iowans.
Blanche Lincoln; who's side are you on? All three of you have taken
enough Big Health Money to recondition a battleship and launch it as
your private yacht. Sit down and just give me health care, now.
Finally, take a stand for the Progressive voters that got you there, Mr. President.
You need to stand and deliver, or this is going to be a huge problem
for you in the next round. You may not "win" in the eyes of the
pundits, but remember, the pundits didn't elect you. You don't have to
be bi-partisan either. The Republicans weren't bi-partisan when they
whipped Clinton's tail on health care back in the day.
If the
President follows these little suggestions, it can be predicted that a
reasonable result will come down the pike...and it will be a nice
compromise. However, if the President fails to demand a public option,
and kick the Righties' and Blue Dogs' butts Chicago-style like he
should, all bets are off. We're going shopping.