Help save healthcare reform from Joe Lieberman

This just in from Firedog Lake:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is bending over backwards to give Joe Lieberman what he wants on the health care bill.

Public option - GONE. Medicare expansion - GONE. Joe says he’s looking around for other things he might want to take out of the health care bill, because “Democrats haven’t given up enough yet.”
But if there’s one thing Reid fears more than Lieberman, it’s losing his own seat.
He’s up for reelection next year, and with a 38% approval rating, the Senate Majority Leader is trailing “generic Republican opponent” by ten points.
We need to immediately raise at least $120,000 to run a TV ad in Reid’s home state of Nevada to save health care reform from Joe Lieberman and the insurance industry. Click here to donate now.

Senate Dems sell country and healthcare to the highest bidder

Well, my less optimistic Dem friends were right. We’ve been ‘had’ by the Dems and especially by the corporate bosses that run them all. The best reading of the Senate bills’ defeciencies can be found on Firedog Lake. You should look that over, but if not, take a glance at the reader comments:

“This is a total failure by the Obama administration and the Democratic party. We need to pressure Senators to pull the individual mandate. Right now the party is mandating that everyone is bound by law to buy one of the insurance industries crap policies. This actually takes more pressure of them for delivering care since you have to get some policy from some one and they all try to keep their policies within the same range of crappy. If the Democratic party is identified as mandating individuals turn over their hard earned funds for service rejections, we may have to form a new party with a different name to get anyone to vote for us again.

No public option, then kill the bill or at least kill the individual mandate.”

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Can somebody please show Joe Lieberman to the door?

That’s the door to the Republican side of the aisle. And, in an ideal world, I would include the Blue Dog/Conservacrats like Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln.

I’m told that one of the reasons the Republican party was ( emphasis on ‘was’) so successful was that they allowed NO DISSENT among the ranks. You were either a loyalist or you were out in the cold.

These are not usual times that we live in. This is serious and it requires the loyalty of all who call themselves Democrats…. or in Joe’s case … well, whatever he is. He so needs to be stripped of his chairmanship. He can caucus with the devil. Send him naked into the fray.

Now, there’s a picture guaranteed to keep me awake tonight.

But really, Senator Reid, this needs to be a ‘teachable moment’ for guys like Joe Lieberman.

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Friday Fish Wrap: October 23, 2009

“That gives a black eye to all pilots. In fact, I’m even embarassed by it.”

That’s what Mr. Maven, a retired airline captain, had to say about the Northwest/Delta Airlines flight that, um, overshot the airport by about 150 miles because A- the pilots were asleep at the wheel, B- the pilots were arguing over company issues, or C- the pilots were ‘numb’-er than nine shots of novacaine. Take your pick. None of them are good.

“I can assure you none of us was asleep,” First Officer Richard I. Cole told ABC News. He declined to comment further but said, “I am not doing very good.”

This nimrod needs to not talk to the press.

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I support Harry Reid, but he needs to support the public option

I just got an email from Firedog Lake, encouraging Nevadans to call their neighbors and ask them to contact Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office, telling hime to stand up and stand strong for including a robust public option in the Senate’s health insurance reform bill.

Then earlier today, when I should have been working, I happened to glance at The Las Vegas Gleaner. Sigh. It was all too true. Harry Reid is perceived, perhaps rightfully so, by far too many Nevadans as Mr. Nice Guy. I know that I’ve anguished over the same nagging doubts. The polls do indicate that he tries too hard to build consensus and make nice while the other side has absolutely no intention of returning the ‘favor’.

Amid all the varying measures by pollsters, it’s all too clear that Nevadans are not sure whether Harry Reid is their guy on the tough issues and not just the guy who brings home the bacon - sorely needed these days - of jobs, jobs and more stimulus money.

We’re gonna need two or three of those jobs when our health insurance fails us, Senator.

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Whip the House into passing a bill with the 'public option'

Don’t let the public option die. And, don’t fall for faux public options like ‘triggers’, ‘co-ops’ and similar ways of weaseling out of it.

A strong public option - a government backed and sponsored health insurance at a fair and reasonable price ( much like Medicare, but for everybody that wants it ) needs to be a part of any health care reform bill. Without it, it ain’t reform but a sham.

It comes down to this: will progressives stand up against a health care bill written by insurance industry lobbyists?   Or will they follow the lead of Rep. Grijalva, who slammed the insurance industry bill as “not legitimate,” and fight for what the President says we need to keep costs down?

We need just 40 members of the House to pledge that they will only accept a final bill that contains the public option. Will you help?

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