Healthcare is dead. Any remnants of “reform” have been destroyed by Obama’s sidekick in the senate, Joe Lieberman. It’s obvious now that Obama had never planned to give us real healthcare reform, that his rhetoric on the subject was simply one of many liberal flourishes designed to mystify us and propel him to victory. His “hands off” approach (which is anything but) allows him to evade blame for its self destruction but ensure through satellite saboteurs that the bill fits with what his corporate overlords have commanded. It’s no surprise that over time this bill has evolved more and more closely into what Senator Baucus and Obama had originally promised in the pharma deal that they say never happened.
We’re not getting single-payer, no public option, and no Medicare buy-in. This bill is now simply a tax for Americans as they are required to buy insurance from private companies. The amount of loopholes and give-aways to industry ensure a steady maintaining of the status quo plus 30 million new customers for private industry. Caps on yearly treatment amounts create just what tea-baggers “fought” against in their dread of a public option: rationing of care and death panels. Excise taxes will make keeping insurance you have now and want to keep more unlikely as your employer-based plans are scaled back. But rest assured that you wont see those “patriotic” idiots rampaging against it as long as the corporatist leaders they worship give it the thumbs up.
Why not use reconciliation to preserve the actual “reform” of healthcare reform? From all accounts, Reid is refusing such a useful tactic. Why? Bush used it for almost everything and no one batted an eye. It must be that Reid doesn’t want reform either or is too weak to go against Obama’s wishes. It doesn’t matter as he is already one of the most ineffectual leaders in congress.
After all these latest compromises (read: retreats) Howard Dean has come out saying that we need to kill the bill and start over. I wish more had the courage. He has since earned the ire of the White House which has accused him of throwing “a tantrum”. Where is the anger at Lieberman? The White House is only too happy to placate him and Rahm Emmanuel will personally pay members of congress visits to see that Lieberman’s demands are met. I was confused when Obama had stepped in after the election to help Lieberman keep his chairmanship, but now I can see how both sides benefited. Lieberman gets to keep his power in the senate and Obama gets an ally in watering down or destroying any chance of progressive legislation.
Even after being in favor of an expanded Medicare buy-in only 3 months ago, Lieberman quickly reversed his stance when it was offered as a compromise only because of how liberals like Representative Anthony Weiner reacted to it. Lieberman hates liberals after what they did to get him out of office in 2006 and is willing to hurt all Americans to advance his personal vendettas. He also loves taking insurance lobbyists’ dollars and being in the media spotlight. Such a convergence of Lieberman’s interests would be too much for him to ignore and we should not be surprised that he will sell his soul over and over again to attain this.
Never mind that successful, cheap and tested systems are in use all over the world. Don’t pay attention to publicly run healthcare systems that continually beat ours. Ignore the ever increasing hole we are digging ourselves into. Our fraud of a president doesn’t want you to see what is possible, he will only give what his thieving overseers tell him to.
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