Let me start by saying that Representative Joe Wilson is an asshole, and an embarrassment to South Carolina. Having said that, he illustrates the problem that Rahm Eman...oops, I mean Barack Obama's White House is having with health care.
Obama said that the challenge from the right that the health care plan included coverage for "illegals" was a falsehood. Joe Wilson screamed "You lie!" during an address from the President to a joint session of Congress. Something that has never happened to any white president in modern history. Several organizations have pored over the only bill to leave any House of Senate committee, and have found that the President was accurate in his assertion. Big surprise. And big surprise that Wilson yelled what he yelled. I mean, Newt was on NPR the morning of the speech asserting that death panels did exist in the President's health care plan.
The problem as I see it, is not that some inbred congressman has no sense of decorum. It is that our president has no sense of progressive values at all.
There should be a fight about covering undocumented workers in America! A truly progressive position would be that anyone within our borders should be given reasonable health care. We should strive, as a modern, forward-looking and moral democracy to make sure that basic needs are met for all humans within our sphere of responsibility, regardless of race, income or other status. This is a position that asserts social justice as a guiding principle. Progressives should fight for social justice.
This also happens to be an issue that could find common ground with fiscal conservatives. The fact is, we already pay for "illegals," every time they use the emergency room. In fact, the current system is much more expensive than if we gave every undocumented person insurance that would include preventative care. We pay for their serious illnesses, their accidents and their child births in emergency rooms - at the cost of about $1000 per year for every insured American. Granting medical care to all within our borders in a systematic, preventative way SAVES EVERY INSURED AMERICAN MONEY, and saves the government money too. True fiscal conservatives can find common ground here if they can get past racism and xenophobia.
THIS represents bipartisanship - progressives and conservatives get something that speaks to their core values AND benefits America, and can be sold at campaign time as a victory.
Instead, here's how Obama sees bipartisanship:
1. Do not even allow single payer "in the room" as part of serious health care discussion.
2. Insist on Republican input even when they say - clearly - that their goal is to defeat ANY health care legislation, no matter what it contains.
3. Tax credits as a means of paying for health care reform.
4. Limit a possible public option (certainly not promised public option) to about 5% of the population - the ones that no insurance company would touch with Joe Wilson's dick).
5. Direct immediate action on tort reform - a solidly Republican idea.
Oh, and for the "bi" part of the above bipartisanship...
1. He did actually mention a public option, but conceded that he was open to other options.
2. He told progressives to calm down and shut up.
3. He managed to do this with his tongue down the back of Republican senators' trousers.
No, no, no. Progressives must raise the threat level, and keep health care reform as our firewall. REAL progressive representatives must vote NO, and hand this president a defeat if a strong public option is not in the final bill.
Obama gives great speech, but the hope is gone, along with the real change. The change must come from real progressive ideas made manifest. Real change? How about changing Rahm for Howard Dean?
No comments:
Post a Comment