Dear President Obama:
As you may know, many of your most loyal supporters, campaigners, fundraisers, and voters are increasingly frustrated with you right now. You raised the bar for what we expect out of our President, and now we are holding you to that bar.
It is because we do have so much respect for you that we take the time to express to you our frustration and disappointment, especially as it relates to healthcare reform.
We are first surprised that you have put such a high priority on attempting to appease the politicians who are fighting you, at the expense of you not fighting for the issues that we know you believe in. You sometimes seem to be trying to please everyone, which means you are pleasing no one. We admire and respect your attempts at bipartisanship, but your opposition has shown no interest in cooperating or partnering. Their mission is your failure.
They have demonstrated that they have no interest in supporting initiatives that will help the country and its people, no matter the cause, since a political failure for you is a victory for them (even if it hurts the country). Even when their voters side with you, such as is the case with a strong public option, their politicians will still fight you and try to kill your ideas, simply because you are for it.
Therefore, I ask that you please stop trying to appease these opponents with compromises that aren’t needed. The first rule of negotiations is that both parties must sincerely want to negotiate. You are attempting to negotiate with a party that has no interest in coming to agreement. You will agree to concessions only to have them not sign off in the end. Time is wasted, and the end product will be poor.
Please stop spending so much time and energy trying to please them. Hint: they will not approve of you no matter what you do, so please get over it and move on with your agenda.
You campaigned on a promise that every American could have the same healthcare options as members of Congress. As someone who deals with errors by my employer provided health insurance almost every week, I say sign me up.
Every American, regardless of income or state of residency, should have options and be able to choose high quality healthcare insurance. There is recently talk of a very low income cap to be eligible for any public option. Families that make a decent income shouldn’t be denied this option, since many families that make more than the median income are also abused by their employer insurance companies on a regular basis. Everyone, regardless of income, should be allowed quality healthcare and quality health insurance, which currently means either a single payer system or a strong public option.
Similarly, families that have a Republican governor shouldn’t be denied choice in healthcare. The opt-out proposal is ethically outrageous. People in Republican-run states deserve quality health insurance, too. Imagine if states could opt out of public education, so that only well off families could be educated. How is healthcare any different? A right to education and healthcare is as basic as it gets, and a state’s political party of the day shouldn’t be able to deny healthcare in the name of politics.
I want to also emphasize that any public option needs to be a high quality solution, not just a checkbox that some included provision is called a “public option.” We will be reviewing the fine print, and just calling something a public option in order to get a checkbox is not sufficient. Similarly, it is not acceptable to just get a checkbox that you passed some healthcare legislation, no matter how poor. This is too important to not get it right. We deserve better than just a checkbox, and you are capable of leading us to something significantly better than just a checkbox for the next campaign.
At the end of the day, it must be reform that you can take pride in and know that you did your best. It feels like you have forgotten just how important this is to America, and it seems that you have forgotten many of your campaign promises related to healthcare reform.
Mr. President, please find your mojo and start fighting for the issues that are important to you and on which you campaigned. Lead us to a high quality healthcare bill that includes a single payer system or a high quality public option, and forget about all of these watered down compromises that won’t win any Republican support anyway.
I write this letter because of my tremendous respect for you, and I know that you can make a difference if you reassess your priorities, abandon the bipartisan efforts (they aren’t working and are actually harming the potential outcomes), and re-energize yourself behind what you believe in and what you know is the right thing to do. We are counting on you.
Your opponents won’t thank you, but the American people thank you.
Sincerely,
The Poor Man’s Lobbyist
http://blog.poormanslobbyist.org
http://www.poormanslobbyist.org
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
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5 comments:
There are a number of areas that can and should be changed in our health care system. The entire world benefits because of the discoveries and profit motive in our system to invent and to heal. Currently, no one is denied emergency medical care, just go into any hospital waiting room in LA. Of course, 80% of the people waiting aren't even American citizens. That has driven the cost of medical insurance for employers and individuals across the nation.
Also, all health care will decrease substantially in quality and availability with a public option. What employer in their right mind would not dump their employee’s health insurance program for only a cost of a fee of 8%? Let the employees go on the public plan. Also, what young person, who believes they will live forever, will pay for health insurance if the annual fee is only about $68 a month? They will NOT pay for health insurance until they are sick or dying; then they cannot be denied. This will cause such internal stress on the future system that it will collapse and the greatest healthcare system in the world will become just another failed socialist system. No wonder the cost (which you and I know is way too low) is projected out at near 1 trillion dollars (spending $1 a sec will take 33,100 years.) Now take ten of those and we are talking $10 a sec for 33,100 years.
The Chinese will own our nation and our children. Currently, at current levels, are paying $500 million dollars a day in interest. The Chinese tell us our money is becoming worthless – it has dropped substantially in the last 36 months, to the lowest in history. World banks purchased less US green backs in the last quarter than in history. Why loan America a dollar and see it decrease 10% in one year? They recently met to discuss making a world basket of currencies the new standard and to move their base from the greenback. We will become a banana republic if they do so.
Now think of 10 trillion dollars to put in this healthcare, and then it will leave tens of millions uncovered. Absolutely no way! I have spoken to many older doctors who have told me they are gone if they goes through. My personal physician, the best doctor I have ever had, retired but came back to work – he missed his patients and the good he did. But he would leave immediately with the new changes. It just isn’t worth it to doctors because of the debt and the insurance premiums they must pay (up to $200,000 a year) for malpractice insurance.
There are 53 new government organizations projected with a public option. The political class is the fastest growing class in the nation and they produce nothing but every dime they earn must come from a person who pays income and payroll taxes. These government employees vote against the will of the American people. They are now becoming unionized in alarming numbers, meaning that when California was going to lay off State workers, the Union boss was on the phone line with the White House listening in when the Governor's staff called. After being in the UAW and seeing how they bankrupted Michigan, I have not respect for powerful unions. I know too many stories since family worked high up in their organization.
President Obama has been recorded saying that it will take fifteen to twenty years to destroy the private healthcare system by getting everyone over to the public option. He knows no insurance there can be no competition against the government.
http://www.CallObama.com
I'm glad I read your blog, Poor Man. I too am frustrated with the president slapping Baucus on the back while Wyden's hard work goes unnoticed.
Today he made a joke in one of his meetings saying "If anyone asks you about the public option (laughter) it's best just to say "no comment." (laughter)
My question is, what's so funny? I like the president's comedy more than most, and adore him, but when I see him act like that, all back room winkie noddie, treating us like silly children, then I have to question his sincerity.
I wish he would stop projecting two images. One that's the wall street buddy, the one that pats the wrong congressman on the back, and the guy I like, who stands for what's right and stands up for the people and takes it seriously. The president I voted for would reward those who have sincerely worked toward a solution, not applaud the one that did the backroom deals.
I'm tired of feeling guilty for not trusting him. It's his own fault for projecting an untrustworthy image at crucial times.
But would he even be able to approve his orginal idea in the congress? It is sad but politicians are far to often obligated to go outside there own values.
I recently came across your post and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that it caught my interest and you've provided informative points. I will visit this blog often. Thank you.
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