Most of my ranting has been aimed at Republicans (and justifiably so, in my opinion). I mean they HAVE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY for bludgeoning our economy, almost destroying it (and It’s still in desperate straights as far as I’m concerned – the jury’s still out as to whether President Obama has the “right stuff” to fix it – I’m not sure even he understands how damaged it is) – they got us mired into two wars, one which should have ended in around 6 months with the capture or death of Osama bin Laden and the other which was originally predicted to end in 6 months and will probably only end when the Iraqi’s themselves kick us out of thier country, and possibly worse than all of that – they treated our constitution as a document with virtually no meaning. The wiretapping, the torture, the lying to Congress, the refusal to answer subpoenas, the outing of a CIA agent, the war profiteering, the signing statements, and I could go on have left a legacy of shame and disrespect for that great document which this nation has rested on for over 200 years. The early years of the 21st Century in America have been reprehensible; we voted “the bums” in (actually, the Supreme Court did – but, this is not Iran – therefore, we just accepted that debacle), consequently we’re all accountable – and, I believe, in the election of 2008 America decided it was time to do something about it. It felt, for the first time in many years (at least to me) that America was ready to re-claim her ideals – no matter how imaginary they might be.

I have been writing about Republicans because they, simply put (at least their ostensible leaders) disgust me – it’s therapeudic. On top of all the abuses listed above, they constantly come across as selfish, racist, and mean spirited. They are devoid of ideas, and they seem to be able to do only three things now that they’ve lost “power:” vote ‘no’ on every intitiative offered up in Congress, propose more tax cuts for the wealthy, and stir up the right wing fringe in an attempt to undermine everything the new President is trying to accomplish. All of this, to me, is disgusting and is leading our great nation into second class status. I mean, the leaders of the Republicans – Rush Limbaugh (can you believe this? But polls actually suggest he’s the leader as much as anyone else), Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, Dick Cheney, Eric Cantor and others are suggesting that they would prefer more of the Bush philosophy to President Obama’s attempts at “righting the ship.” They consider a stimulus package (in the face of 10% unemployment – and still rising) designed to create working class jobs, “socialism” (despite the fact they were throwing money at large corporations like there was an endless supply of taxpayer dollars in order to save the people who originally caused the problems), and they oppose EVERY initiative before Congress designed to restore sanity to our nation’s economy.

So, it’s mid 2009 AND THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN! WE WANT CHANGE! We have a new President, a Democratic Congress, and a national will which is “behind” the new President in almost unprecedented numbers. President Obama has accomplished alot in his first five months, make no mistake about that, but there is much left to do (and, keep in mind that I’ve stated my unhappiness with President Obama’s reluctance to fight back against the Republican assault on our constitution and our legal system – but that’s a story for another time). And the big issue on the “plate” right now, gets me to my point of the evening – the issue is HEALTH CARE REFORM – and my point is DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS.

It has become clear that President Obama’s “centerpiece” legislation is health care reform. It’s hard to argue against the importance of solving this problem – both from the issue of health insurance for the general population and the issue of the looming medicare crisis. I am convinced that the reason Obama is not pursuing accountability of the Bush administration is because he feels it would undermine his attempts to get health care reform passed (I heartily disagree – but I will accept that President Obama had a much higher standing in his college class than I did in mine :o). And, there is one reason this may be true – DEMOCRATS. This is very frustrating as it all becomes more clear to me. We have a Democratic President, both houses of Congress are solidly in Democratic control, and the national population is strongly (70+%) in favor of the health care reform President Obama is “pushing,” and yet most “experts” give him less than a 50/50 chance of getting a bill signed by the end of the year.

In fact, many of the so-called experts that I’ve heard have gone so far as to suggest that if President Obama gets anything passed, it will be watered down to the point that it will pretty much leave the system that is destroying our economy “in tact.” This seems so unbelievable to me, but when I double check what I’m hearing from as many perspectives as I have time – I keep coming up with the same problem – DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS! Actually, it appears that it’s Democrats in the Senate. Despite all of the political “capital” mentioned above (I mean just the thought that 70+% of the American people want a “government option” in whatever they come up with is astonishing to me in its own right) most “experts” believe that the “Blue-dog Democrats” are going to undermine the whole process. THIS IS BEYOND COMPREHENSION! These guys (and gals) are going to publicly display – in the worst light – how much they are beholden to the special interest lobby of the insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical industry. It’s time for President Obama to treat them exactly as I’m suggesting he treat the Republicans – PUBLICLY TAKE THEM ON – VERY AGRESSIVELY!

I mean, how do you explain to the electorate that you couldn’t get your centerpiece legislation passed with a near super majority in both houses of Congress along with well over two-thirds of the public on your side? YOU HAVE TO PUT THESE GUYS IN THE NEWS – MAKE SURE EVERY AMERICAN UNDERSTANDS WHO IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM. I live right across the Columbia River from Oregon. Oregon has a Senator, Ron Wyden, who I have always looked up to as one of the people in the Senate who had maintained his independence. BOY HAVE I BEEN STUPID ON THIS ONE. Senator Wyden has made his own healthcare proposal – that he shields in claims that “I won’t let the health industry stop this reform this time” – a proposal which seems to me to be an attempt to get something that can be called reform and, at the same time, do minimal damage to the insurance industry which is apparently giving the Senator enough campaign contributions to convince him that the “public option” is a bad idea. There are about 10 or 11 Democratic Senators who fall into the same category as Wyden, and the one thing that is consistent with all of them is the large health industry support – in millions of dollars – for their campaigns. In fact, one of them, Senator Max Baukus of Montana – who is a VIP in this process due to the committee he chairs – has received, from what I’ve been able to find out, several million dollars in campaign contributions from insurance companies and other interests related to health care. He is leading the “charge” against a “public option.”

What is a public option? Well, the idea – which, again, has merit in the eyes of about three out of every four Americans – is that once this reform is completed the consumer will be able to purchase health care from private insurers or from a public medicare-like insurance company run by the government. Those who oppose this option do so because they claim it would wipe out the private insurers – they won’t be able to compete with the government plan. To that, I would say – if they can’t compete, then those who are calling for a single payer system right now are correct. It would also validate those who claim that going to a single payer system should be gradual – and if the “government option” does put private companies out of business that would lead to a gradual shift to the single payer option.

Personally, I believe that once you get everyone insured – mandatory – and you eliminate the need for insurance companies to be spending large sums of administrative costs on figuring out how to NOT PAY CLAIMS, OR NOT INSURE PEOPLE they should be able to compete with the government run program – especially, if the government is as inefficient as most Republicans would have us believe. As a consumer, I feel that having the option will cause both the private companies and the government run operation to compete and it should increase efficiency in both cases. And, even if there has to be a “tax increase” to pay for this, people like me are paying upwards of $15,000 per year to insure their families already and I can’t imagine that any tax increase would be higher than that – that is, for those of us who have health insurance – we conceivably could be paying significantly less. The reality is that those of us who are insured are paying for those of us that aren’t ALREADY! An example of what I mean that is “close to home” for me: A good friend of mine recently needed emergency surgery which essentially saved his life. He was in the hospital for about 4 or 5 days and had a significant surgery. The hospital bill alone was over $30,000 and he was anticipating the doctor charges would be somewhere approaching $20,000. I’m not sure if those numbers are accurate, but what I am sure of is that without insurance that is an amount of money which most Americans (my friend included) can’t afford to just throw into the budget. Essentially, there are hospital “charities” that pay these bills and they are funded by the over-charging of patients who go to the hospital with insurance. So, a public option will only spread the cost of health care to everyone – whether they like it or not. And, believe me – just like medicare taxes – once the system is in place for a few years we will adapt to whatever taxes are needed to fund it and those of us who are paying these huge premiums right now will be paying less “in the long run.” And those who constantly complain about taxes will continue to complain, they’ll just be covered should they have a medical problem in the future.

Getting back to my main point of the evening, this all sounds so practical as I’m sitting here writing that it makes me even more disgusted with these Democrats in the Senate who are sold out to the private insurance companies and the other health care providers who are concerned that their “gravy train” might be coming to an end. When I try to rationalize in my own mind why members of his own party would undermine the key component of his attempt to revitalize our nation’s economy – in the face of overwhelming BIPARISAN public support – I can come to no other conclusion than these Senators have been BOUGHT by the health care industy (Ron Wyden included). Here’s some of the “fallout” from their actions: First (and worst for me): I believe that this could explain why President Obama is not pursuing accountability for the torture issue – if you’re not sure how I make the connection, make a comment and I’ll explain it. Next: This is forcing Obama to “reach out” to Republicans who should be getting “what for” and , instead, are getting a relevence they don’t deserve. And last: this could conceivably undermine the Medicare debate that is imminent and could empower the Republicans who would love nothing better than to see the end of Medicare. All because these Democrats have gotten themselves into positions where the healthcare industry is (presumably) dictating their actions. Do you remember Congressman Jefferson from Louisiana who was storing his “campiagn” contributions in his freezer? Well, maybe we should be checking the freezers of some of these Senate Democrats who are willing to undermine healthcare reform!