To the President and the West Wing Staff:
A public option in health care reform legislation is no longer just a policy matter. The President still has not fought for it, nor shown any signs that he will, and his supporters are quite aware of that fact. We’re also aware that the Chief of Staff, by his statements, sees the public option as something to be negotiated away or simply dropped altogether. We know that if the leaks coming from the White House are to be believed, at least a portion of the staff is looking for a way to kill the public option. As I said, this is no longer just a policy matter. It’s about whether the President will fight for the things that he himself campaigned for, or turn his back on all of the people that put their trust in him, and fought so hard to help get him elected.
As the Democrats try and fight off the big insurance companies and pass strong health insurance reform legislation, it appears obvious that they will be doing it with no help at all from whatever is left of the former Republican party. I say “former” because in the last 6 months, they have shown that they are against ANY change for the better – even those that Republicans supposedly supported in the past. All of the savings people would get from lower insurance costs? They’re against it. Lowering the deficit with a strong public option that could compete with insurance companies? They’re against it. All of the jobs created from the car sales instigated by the incredibly successful Cash for Clunkers program? They’re against it. You name it, they’re against it – even lower taxes (which were a big part of the President’s stimulus and recovery plan passed earlier this year.)
In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find what exactly these former Republicans are FOR, but based on their activities in recent months, I can point to two things: Teabagging and Torture. These are the folks that have recently been going way out of their districts (with the funding of insurance company lobbyists) to disrupt town hall meetings and keep real constituents from being able to communicate with their Representatives. Since they have no argument, their plan is simply to yell and drown out any discussion. The Teabag and Torture party isn’t interested in democracy, they’re interested in gumming up the works.
