MoveOn is Right, Obama is Wrong, on the Public Option

Just as I predicted almost two months ago, there will be no Public Option. The discussion of the Public Option has just been red meat for the base, thrown out to placate the “lefties” while the real negotiations take place. While supporting the public option in speeches, Obama and Rahm Emanuel have been working behind the scenes to destroy the very necessary, and very popular, Public Option.

Here’s the MoveOn.org email I received:

Breaking news: Senator Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders are moving to include a public health insurance option in their health care bill!

That’s fantastic, but there’s one huge problem: reportedly, the White House is pushing Senate leaders to put in a “trigger” mechanism designed to kill the public option through indefinite delay. Why? The trigger proposal comes from Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, and according to CNN, the President thinks getting her vote will make the bill “more bipartisan.”

The President has said many, many times that a public option is the best way to keep insurance companies honest and lower sky-rocketing health care costs. Senate Democrats are ready to fight for a public option—if the White House gives up now, it would be a tragic mistake.

Not surprisingly, a recent poll shows that health care with a public option is much more popular than a bipartisan plan without one. And a trigger would mean no public option for years, if ever: At best, it would delay a public health insurance option for years—at worst, it would never go into effect.

A trigger would delay the public option until certain conditions are met. But there’s already a crisis: high costs, millions of uninsured, and a lack of choice for all of us. The conditions for a “trigger” have already been met. A decision to delay is a decision to deny.

Even if the conditions for the “trigger” were met in ten years, Big Insurance would wage another massive campaign, all over again, to keep the public option from going into effect. The trigger is a trap to kill real health care reform, a last-ditch effort by opponents of health care reform to gut the public option. The Senate could unveil a final bill any day now—possibly within hours. In these intense negotiations, it’s crucial that the President stand strong for the public health insurance option.

“Public Option: It’s Back,” ABC News, October 22, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84962&id=17662-7644055-hu36q1x&t=5
“Optional public option enters health care talks,” CNN, October 22, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/22/health.care/
“Public option gains support,” The Washington Post, October 20, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84918&id=17662-7644055-hu36q1x&t=6
“A ‘trigger’ for the public health insurance option? Already triggered.” NOW! Blog, May 20, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51443&id=17662-7644055-hu36q1x&t=7

The Huffington Post had this to say:

President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate  Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its  place, say multiple Democratic sources, Obama has indicated a preference for an alternative policy, favored by the insurance industry, which would see a public plan “triggered” into effect in the future by a failure of the industry to meet certain benchmarks.

Leaderless: Senate Pushes For Public Option Without Obama’s Support.

So here’s the bottom line: If Obama wanted the Public Option, he would have started negotiating with the GOP about Single Payer. The Public Option would have been the result of compromise between no health reform and Single Payer.

Instead, Obama started with the Public Option, so his compromise will be to give it away. This is the Art of Negotiation 101. The only problem is that the Republicans have no power.  The Democrats are negotiating away the Public Option with themselves because of the money from the Health Insurance industry.

And once again, the American people are screwed in favor of the corporations who have money to burn at the rate of over a million dollars a day, all spent on bribing Congress. They have this money because they consistently take everything the middle class has.

Without large amounts of money, the middle class and thus, most Americans, have no hope of making their voice heard in Washington.  Perhaps, someday, we will have change we can believe in.  However, not while money can be legally used to bribe every last leader in Washington.

I hate being right about things like this.

From this point on, my money will be given to Rep. Alan Grayson, the “Congressman with Guts” at: http://www.congressmanwithguts.com