Please, please, please President Obama...

[leftofthedial]

Please listen to Bill Moyers.

We need you to become a true champion of real health care reform.




"Sometimes you have to lose to win."

"...better to *not* have half a loaf."


Please, stand for principle. Fight for principle. Politics and triangulation may be good for one man's political career, but they have proven disastrous for this country.

[Vincardog]

1. I heard that

[leftofthedial]

6. I hope more people hear that...

[Laelth]

Hear, hear! n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[vi5]

2. Well for a hot minute it sounded like Obama was on board....

...when it was rumored that he said he would pass health care reform even if it made him a one term president.

[gateley]

3. In all fairness, I'm sure he felt that way, but once he got into the nitty gritty

of it all he may come around to believing a partial step (sans public option) is better than no step at all. :shrug:

I'm honestly weary of second guessing -- I'm just hanging on to blind faith that he'll deliver what he promised.

[vi5]

12. Honestly, I'm tired of NOT second guessing......

I've taken too much on faith. And while during the campaigns and the elections I was proven wrong (and happily so), since that time when it came to actual policy and actual decisions I'm just getting a little tired of "wait and see". There are just too many decisions being made that are blatantly and painfully pro-corporation and pro-big business and pro-wealthy. I'm getting a little tired of it and my patience for taking things on faith is being pushed to the limit.

And for the record I'm far from someone who is radically "single payer or ELSE!!!!!" or someone who is anti business or anti-corporation. And if the bill that is passed makes it illegal for private insurers to drop you because of previous illnesses or pre-existing conditions, and eliminates lifetime caps, and reduces out of pocket maximums then that will definitely be a positive thing and I think more so than people realize it WILL help a lot of people and not just the wealthy. But I'm not hopeful that this is the case, and it also sucks that Obama and the dems have not also stressed the importance of those measures as well.

[Hissyspit]

4. LINK:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08282009/profile.html

[leftofthedial]

5. thanks for the link

Hissyspit.

Everyone should listen to this.

[falcon97]

7. Please someone set me straight on this.

What if it just isn't possible to get a public option? What if, no matter the whipping from the White House and the House, the Senate just can't deliver? Doesn't a "half loaf" keep people from starving? I feel the need to defend myself in advance by saying that I am pro single payer....and at the very least, pro public option. I also think the President needs to be much more engaged and forceful on the PO. I'd like to see the VP pushing it too. Biden can be powerful on this in the Senate, I think. Let the Blue Dogs run free on everything else, but pin the majority down on the PO vote.

But what if there are still holdouts that keep it from passing? I'm not saying I know the answer to that question. But I also don't believe it's cut and dry.

[leftofthedial]

10. half a loaf keeps half the people halfway comfortable enough to let half the people starve.

Find a principle; believe in it; fight for it. Eventually, if it is the right thing you will win.

As Moyers pointed out, Truman lost when he tried to implement Medicare. He didn't go for the "W" and accept an unjust substitute. He went for what he knew was right and lost trying. It took fifteen more years, but LBJ picked up the fight and got Medicare--not some repuke-friendly HMO bullshit. Medicare.

[Swamp Rat]

8. k&r

[unkachuck]

9. K&R for Maggie Mahars' book: MONEY-DRIVEN MEDICINE....n/t

[leftofthedial]

11. I'll have to check that one out.