E-mail To My Representative In The House Re: HCR

Representative Bishop:

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider your refusal to quickly take up and pass the best version of health care reform possible. While I agree that the Senate version is far inferior to the House version (which itself was far inferior to what President Obama promised on the campaign trail), it is the best version that we're going to get in the foreseeable future.

By scrapping all of the work of the past year and starting over with only those provisions "which can pass both Houses with bipartisan majorities," the Democratic party is delaying--if not outright killing--reform, laying the groundwork for yet more compromise with the more conservative elements in your party and theirs--which we both know will lead to an even worse bill than we have now--and all but ending Democratic chances in the next elections. (When a party with substantial majorities in both houses and the presidency cannot pass their signature A-#1 bill after over a year of trying, the American public isn't going to care why... They're only going to care that you failed, and vote accordingly.)

Representative Bishop, the only way forward is forward. I urge you to give it some thought, take hold of and pass what amounts to the largest and most thoroughly baked portion of the health care reform loaf that is still available to the Democrats, and get on with the business of feeding those among your constituents who are most in need of health care reform.

A bird in the hand...

Don't allow the perfect...

Please act. We need you.

I look forward to your swift change of heart and mind.

[repsac3]

I followed up with a phone call to his office expressing as many of the same points as they'd let me, as well as calls to my senate reps, as many members of the NY House delegation as I could, and the offices of Pelosi, and Reid. While I'm not a corporation, I'm hoping that some of them will listen.

While I intended to contact my representatives about this issue anyway, I was very disappointed to discover that Congressman Bishop was among those who believe that back is the new way forward:

01/20/10
Washington, DC—Today, Congressman Tim Bishop (NY-1) sent the following letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi regarding a vote on the Senate version of health care reform legislation:

January 20, 2010

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
Room H-232, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

Let me start by commending you and your colleagues on our leadership team for your remarkable work, both in shepherding landmark health care reform through the House of Representatives and in protecting so many policy positions important to the House in your negotiations with the Senate.

Now that we have reached such a crucial yet difficult juncture in our efforts to reform a broken system, I wanted to go on record on two issues of vital importance.

First, as you consider options on a way forward, I urge you not to bring the Senate bill as passed on December 24 to the floor for our consideration. The Senate bill is, in my judgment, flawed in several fundamental respects; I will cite two.

One, the excise tax on so-called “Cadillac plans” would subject a number of my constituents to this tax, including a great many who have foregone salary increases for stronger benefits. Further, the fact that it is not properly indexed will subject even more people to the tax in years to come.

Second, and as important, the Senate provision relating to FMAP would represent for New York a $5 billion swing; the House provisions with respect to FMAP would save New York $4 billion a year, while the Senate provisions would add $1 billion annually to New York’s yearly Medicaid expenses.

If the Senate bill does come to the floor for a vote, I will have no choice but to vote no.

There are many provisions of health care reform which can pass both Houses with bipartisan majorities and improve the quality of health care delivered to New Yorkers and all Americans. By taking immediate action on key insurance reforms and improving affordability, we can lay the groundwork to provide coverage for all Americans. I hope we can quickly craft legislation that incorporates these provisions.

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Sincerely,

Tim Bishop
MEMBER OF CONGRESS

Democrats: Even if you're afraid you're going down, go down swinging. Don't take a dive.

I learned there are troubles
Of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead
And some come from behind.

But I've bought a big bat.
I'm all ready, you see.
Now my troubles are going
To have troubles with me!

- Dr. Suess - I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew
(as recounted in Seuss-isms)

A quick message to Sen. Webb, Congressman Frank, and any/all other elected "left of center" politicians who have any thought of letting the election of Brown, the naked truck driver, weaken their resolve. If you stick to your guns and do what the American people elected you to do--including passing the best version of health care reform you're able--most of us will stand behind you. Allow the Republicans to kill it off without a fight, wasting all the work and spent political capital of the last year, and you might as well just hand the keys over to the Republicans now. Stand up & be the men & women we elected you to be. Reconcile the bills, or swallow hard & pass the Senate version, as is (& then fix the inevitable problems as they rear their ugly little heads.)

The Republicans are not interested in working with you; they are out to kill you off and replace you with one of their own, even if that means keeping the status quo, healthcare-wise. Jim... Barney... Man the fuck up, and don't let it happen to yourselves, your party, or the American people. Don't go down without a fight. Big bats optional.

One more quote:

"If the Democrats run for cover, if we become pale carbon copies of the opposition, we will lose--and deserve to lose. The last thing this country needs is two Republican parties." - Ted Kennedy

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What Ted Kennedy would tell the Democrats - Ezra Klein
Pass the Damn Bill | Mother Jones

The Stupak "Coathanger Amendment" Democrats

Final Vote Results for Roll Call 884
Democrats:
Altmire
Baca, Barrow, Berry, Bishop (GA), Boccieri, Boren, Bright
Cardoza, Carney, Chandler, Childers, Cooper, Costa, Costello, Cuellar
Dahlkemper, Davis (AL), Davis (TN), Donnelly (IN), Doyle, Driehaus
Ellsworth, Etheridge
Gordon (TN), Griffith,
Hill, Holden,
Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kildee,
Langevin, Lipinski, Lynch,
Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, Melancon, Michaud, Mollohan, Murtha,
Neal (MA),
Oberstar, Obey, Ortiz,
Perriello, Peterson, Pomeroy,
Rahall, Reyes, Rodriguez, Ross, Ryan (OH),
Salazar, Shuler, Skelton, Snyder, Space, Spratt, Stupak,
Tanner, Taylor, Teague,
Wilson (OH)

There you have 'em... Your coathanger amendment Democrats for 2009. I look forward to donating to as many of their pro-choice Democratic (or Green, or Libertarian, or...) challengers as possible, when these folks next come up for reelection.

"Obama As Hitler": Anybody But Conservatives, apparently...

TheBlogProf sez the poster was a Democrat/Union Plant (memeorandum). Rightwing media site Newsbusters assigns the posters to Communist and perpetual Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche (memeorandum). It seems the only people they won't blame is themselves. And the only thing they won't do is take responsibility for the real nuts in their midst.

I mean, sure, the LaRouche people are distributing that poster on their website. From what I've read, they've been doing so for several months now. But the site and the download are open to anyone, to copy or otherwise use and abuse as they see fit. And the person holding this sign was protesting with the folks on the right, against the health care bill. (Which is kind of odd, for a commie to not be in favor of "socialist" health care reforms, where the government is in control of every aspect of the lives of it's citizens, right?)

The "plant" meme is even more ridiculous, and even less believable. One Freeper claims that the guy in the picture was handing out Dingell (D-Mich.) leaflets after the town hall. That's the sum total of the "proof." No photo, no unbiased account. Just one biased Obama/Dem hater making a specious claim (& (the beginnings of) the wingnut echo chamber spreading it like pollen).

I believe that many folks against the health care bill would not stoop this low themselves. I even believe that many are acting in good faith. But there are rude, dishonest, racist nutjobs in their midst. And the good people should do what they can to disassociate themselves from these folks. While I'm certain that most baggers wouldn't carry such a sign, there's no report anywhere of anyone who was there disavowing this guy and/or his sign before it became a news story. Like it or not this guy (as well as the baby mama who gave her kid the swastika sign to hold, and the one with the SS sign, and...) are pissing in your pool, and fouling your tea.

Take some responsibility, and do something about it. Pointing fingers outward and going into ABC mode isn't going to cut it.

Re: Mr "Insta-" Reynolds: Protest is still patriotic, and rudeness is still rude.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Remember when protest was patriotic?

No, Insty... Protest is still patriotic, and hooliganism is still hooliganism. To whatever extent the same people and media organizations who cheered disruptions of congressional hearings and Republic party member events are decrying the same behavior now--or decried that behavior then, but are applauding it now--you have a point about hypocrisy. I agree. Anyone who's using one standard to judge friends and another to judge foes is a hypocrite. Like my statements above about protest & hooliganism, that hypocrisy standard remains the same, left or right.

To the extent you're trying to make some kinda point about this monolith you call the left, though--kind of a "if one does it, they all support it" kinda thing--your piece here falls flat. Judging these "citizens" one way or the other while being a member of one party or another isn't enough to make one a hypocrite.

Good try, but no dice.

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls the "Tea Party" protesters Nazis..."

Not so much, actually... She said some of them were carrying signs with swastikas or other Nazi symbols, which some were (& continue to do). I can post the pictures, if you really need to see 'em again.

As far as the rest, people know bad behavior when they see it. Anyone who feels it's justified to shout down and shut down town hall meetings should keep on doing it, and if at all possible, videotaping it, too. Because while many on the right are slapping each other on the back and gloating over having heckled this or that Democrat into closing the meeting early or saying something foolish, I'm not so sure it's playing as well outside of your little circle. People know rudeness and hooliganism when they see it.
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Updates, revisions, and extensions:
8/9/09: memeorandum link to Reynolds' post

Steven Pearlstein: Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform

Forgive the cutnpaste, but chances are slim that I could improve on this piece by stickin' my two cents in, or alternatively, cutting too much out of what Steven Pearlstein wrote. (I'm not entirely without keyboard, including the "delete" key, but the whole of the substance remains.)

Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform - Steven Pearlstein - washingtonpost.com (memeorandum):

There are lots of valid criticisms that can be made against the health reform plans moving through Congress -- I've made a few myself. But there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation.

Under any plan likely to emerge from Congress, the vast majority of Americans who are not old or poor will continue to buy health insurance from private companies, continue to get their health care from doctors in private practice and continue to be treated at privately owned hospitals.

The centerpiece of all the plans is a new health insurance exchange set up by the government where individuals, small businesses and eventually larger businesses will be able to purchase insurance from private insurers at lower rates than are now generally available under rules that require insurers to offer coverage to anyone regardless of health condition. Low-income workers buying insurance through the exchange -- along with their employers -- would be eligible for government subsidies. While the government will take a more active role in regulating the insurance market and increase its spending for health care, that hardly amounts to the kind of government-run system that critics conjure up when they trot out that oh-so-clever line about the Department of Motor Vehicles being in charge of your colonoscopy.

There is still a vigorous debate as to whether one of the insurance options offered through those exchanges would be a government-run insurance company of some sort. There are now less-than-even odds that such a public option will survive in the Senate, while even House leaders have agreed that the public plan won't be able to piggy-back on Medicare. So the probability that a public-run insurance plan is about to drive every private insurer out of business -- the Republican nightmare scenario -- is approximately zero.

By now, you've probably also heard that health reform will cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. Another lie.

First of all, that's not a trillion every year, as most people assume -- it's a trillion over 10 years, which is the silly way that people in Washington talk about federal budgets. On an annual basis, that translates to about $140 billion, when things are up and running.

Even that, however, grossly overstates the net cost to the government of providing universal coverage. Other parts of the reform plan would result in offsetting savings for Medicare: reductions in unnecessary subsidies to private insurers, in annual increases in payments rates for doctors and in payments to hospitals for providing free care to the uninsured. The net increase in government spending for health care would likely be about $100 billion a year, a one-time increase equal to less than 1 percent of a national income that grows at an average rate of 2.5 percent every year.

The Republican lies about the economics of health reform are also heavily laced with hypocrisy.

While holding themselves out as paragons of fiscal rectitude, Republicans grandstand against just about every idea to reduce the amount of health care people consume or the prices paid to health-care providers -- the only two ways I can think of to credibly bring health spending under control.

When Democrats, for example, propose to fund research to give doctors, patients and health plans better information on what works and what doesn't, Republicans sense a sinister plot to have the government decide what treatments you will get. By the same wacko-logic, a proposal that Medicare pay for counseling on end-of-life care is transformed into a secret plan for mass euthanasia of the elderly.

Government negotiation on drug prices? The end of medical innovation as we know it, according to the GOP's Dr. No. Reduce Medicare payments to overpriced specialists and inefficient hospitals? The first step on the slippery slope toward rationing.

Can there be anyone more two-faced than the Republican leaders who in one breath rail against the evils of government-run health care and in another propose a government-subsidized high-risk pool for people with chronic illness, government-subsidized community health centers for the uninsured, and opening up Medicare to people at age 55?

Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society -- whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done.

One thing I did cut from my cutnpaste was Mr Pearlstein's unfortunate use of the phrase "political terrorists" in the column to refer to the wingnuts and hooligans opposing healthcare reform. As Zandar notes, "...the usual suspects are already using those two words to negate the other thousand."

Sadly, that doesn't surprise me, either.