Dear Mr. President: Tell this scoundrel to give us the health care bill most of us voted for, or to get out of Washington

Okay, Mr. President, I’ve had it.

I voted for you when you were promoting a pretty specific plan that promised a “public option” to keep the health insurance companies honest. It wasn’t the healthcare plan I wanted. I was looking for a single payer plan. But I was willing to compromise.

Now I feel I’ve been screwed, Mr. President. By you, Mr. President. Not deliberately screwed. It's just that you're acting like a timid mouse, more interested in getting along with everyone who doesn't want to go along with you than in getting us what you promised. And that includes getting along with Max Baucus, the Montana Senator in the photograph.

Romancing failure

What Senator Max Baucus is trying to foist on us isn’t a plan. It’s a blueprint for failure. It’ll make healthcare more expensive for many of us, pay for itself by taxing other health plans instead of high incomes, and generally make a mess of things. It's the kind of healthcare reform plan that an insurance or drug company would promote to make us hate the idea of a healthcare reform. Which may be why Baucus wrote it the way it's written.

Max Baucus, we know, is on the take from health insurance companies and drug companies.
He and the other “Blue Dog Democrats” (“Blue Vermin Democrats” would be more like it) don’t have the public's interest at heart. It’s time for you to reign them in. Or swat them down.

Mr. President, here are several
things you can do

1. Right off the bat, stop calling it the “public option."

“Public option” is Washington wonk jargon. Americans like Medicare, as evidenced by the screaming hordes who rail against so-called “socialized medicine” and then end their tantrums by screaming, “And don’t you touch my Medicare, either.”

Well, the public option is Medicare. So start calling it what it really is, “Reliable Medicare for any citizen who wants it.” That’ll go a long way toward shushing up the foaming-at-the-mouth morons in the crowd.

2. Reach out with that powerful presidential iron claw you have at your disposal, grab Max Baucus by the throat, and throttle him within an inch of his political life.

Lyndon Johnson was a master of this. You can do it, too. Haul Max’s butt into the Oval Office. Sit him down in a nice comfy chair, smile sweetly and say, “Baucus, starting in 90 seconds, you’re a dead man walking in this town.”

Mention that any bill that benefits something or somebody in his state will be vetoed, as long as you’re President, unless the appropriation for his state is stricken form the bill. Mention that you’re going to mention this to other Senate Democrats — and that you will make him a pariah whose mere presence is blocking their own pork from reaching their own states. Mention it to Senate Republicans, too.

While you’re at it, mention that you’re mighty suspicious of all that money he’s taking from the drug and insurance companies, and you’re thinking of asking the U.S. Attorney General to look into the possibility of influence peddling and bribery. Oh, and of course mention an up-and-coming young Montana Democrat who you might support in the next primary.

3. Then go on to the next Blue Vermin senator.

Keep on doing that until the Blue Vermin Democrats are trembling in their shoes about what might happen if they don't revamp the bill to what you were promising during your election campaign.

4. Forget about bi-partisanship.

You tried it. The Republicans blew off your overtures.

It’s time now to deliver for the people who voted for you, before you blow it, Mr. President. Give us the health care bill you got elected on!

Respectfully (but very crankily) submitted,
The New York Crank

This blog interrupts its hiatus for an important healthcare message to Georgia, Louisiana and Utah citizens

If you live in Georgia, listen to this:



According to the Center for Responsive Politics John Barrow has received $239,975 from health professionals, and $76,450 from the insurance industry

If you live in Louisiana, listen to this



According to the Center for Responsive Politics Charlie Melancon received $129,000 from health professionals and another $164,000 from insurance industries.

If you live in Utah, listen to this:


According to the Center for Responsive Politics Jim Matheson received $405,535 from health professionals. $235,000 from the insurance industry and another $220,951 from pharmaceutical industry.

Some more fact you ought to know that Republican radicals and the "Blue Dog" Democrats who took campaign contribution payoffs to vote against your interests don't want you to hear:

•According to the Center for American Progress, in December and January, 430 Georgians a day lost their health insurance, 120 Utahans a day lost their health insurance, and 180 Louisianans a day lost their health insurance. And according to a recent study by Health Affairs, the number of people without health insurance is expected to rise by 6.7 million by 2010.

•According to a recent study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, more than one in three small business owners (36%) said that rising costs are likely to cause them to cut some portion of health insurance benefits for their employees.

•On July 31st, Congressmen John Barrow, Charlie Melancon and Jim Matheson voted against H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, when the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee voted on the legislation. H.R. 3200 is the House of Representative’s version of health care reform legislation.

•Insurers have played the inside game, spending about $40 million on an army of lobbyists and lavishing campaign contributions on Democrats and Republicans to kill the public option. In all, the health industry spent $133 million in the second quarter alone, more than a million bucks a day.

Shame, shame, shame, on Barrow, Melancon and Matheson. Call their offices and tell them that if they don't change their tune to allow a public healtcare option, you plan to help vote them out of office.

And thanks to MoveOn.org for the material contained in this post.

Now, back to my hiatus. See you in mid-September