Has the President Failed Us on Health Care?... looks bad

If reports are true that President Obama will not demand the "public option" in a renewed push for a health care bill, the covenant will be broken, as far as I'm concerned: this president will have betrayed the people who elected him and rather definitively failed to establish himself as a major leader for progressive change. "Change we can believe in" will have become a hollow and false promise. Real universal health care was a keystone of his campaign agenda, and if the President fails to fight like hell to achieve it, and if he fails to insist and lead on the most important aspect of this reform agenda, I think it unlikely it will be achieved. Sure, some bill will pass, but genuine comprehensive reform will be doomed.

If the president were to use his bully pulpit to fight like hell for comprehensive reform, and the Congress failed him, I would see things differently, but as this debate has developed, I believe the inescapable conclusion is that it unless these reports turn out not to be true, it will be primarily he who has failed. He has not yet clearly articulated the minimum requirement, which he should understand requires the public option, and he has thusfar never really fought for this reform. The blame for its prospective failure must reside with him, in large measure, if it comes to pass, as seems likely now.

I am sharing these dismal thoughts with the White House in the hope that the President will reconsider. Health Care reform without the Public Option will not achieve cost savings, and will not achieve real universal coverage. It will fail. Its failure will be the President's failure, and will be irreparable. Please, Mr. President, reconsider any decision not to fight like your whole presidency depended on it for real health care reform -- BECAUSE IT DOES. We are counting on you, and we see defeat looming because of your inaction so far.

Another Health Care Letter to Obama

Look, folks. Let's get it straight. Bipartisanship is not working. The Republicans have one agenda and one agenda only: to kill health care reform. They are succeeding. The President is being far too conciliatory. Anthony Weiner on Chris Matthews' show had it right yesterday. The President needs to clearly articulate exactly what the health reform plan should be, and DEMAND that Congress enact it, using the Reconciliation process if necessary. And that plan ABSOLUTELY MUST include a public option program, with real teeth and ability to negotiate costs. ALSO, the plan needs to have more ability to introduce regulation later on to move towards eliminating for-profit medical care, which gives us high costs, poor outcomes, and completely wrong-way-around incentives.

The president needs to use his very considerable ability to communicate to articulate a clear agenda, articulate exactly what it needs to contain, and why we need it, and sell, sell, sell. The hell with the Republicans. They will only obstruct.

My Letter to President Obama on Health Care today

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to strongly urge you to become much more proactive in the program to achieve serious and meaningful health care reform. This was a keystone of your campaign to become president, and will, if successful, become a major element of your legacy. But there are well-organized and surprisingly effective forces on the right arrayed against this effort, and I fear that they are having much more effect than their relatively small numbers — in terms of public support — would indicate. I refer, of course, to the right-wing interest group funded “Astroturf shoutdowns” which are drawing far more media attention than is justified. I also have serious concerns that your legislative program is not effective enough in making clear to members of Congress that the bill must include a meaningful public program.

Part of the problem is framing the issue and communicating with the public. I understand you have read and been influenced to some extent by George Lakoff, who has discussed the importance of not accepting the right-wing framing. We must avoid terms like “public option” and “single payer” and use words like “fair health care for all” and “meaningful competition.” I urge you to use the bully pulpit, as often as necessary, with your very considerable communication skills at their fullest, to explain to the American people exactly what is at stake. Ask for their support. Ask them to demand support for your bill. And communicate to Congressional leaders exactly what the bill must contain.

Rahm Emmanuel is way off base condemning progressives for resisting attempts by so-called “Blue Dogs” to sell out to the Republicans. We need to make it clear that this is a critical issue, and we will pass this bill without Republican support if necessary— which it will be. Reconciliation should remain an option. But first, you need to stand firm. You need to be willing to say to the American people that the time is now, this opportunity cannot be allowed to slip away, and you will not sign a bill that does not contain meaningful reform, including a robust and effective public plan to ensure affordable health care for all.

Please, Mr. President. This is a crucial issue. It’s the reason many of us contributed more of our hard-earned money and time than we could comfortably afford to elect you. You simply cannot let us down on this.

Public Option and the tendency of the White House to back down

I wrote to the White House today to tell them that they need to make clear to Congress that No Public Option is not an Option. Rather, Public Option is the bare minimum in the way of real health care reform that will be acceptable.

Public Option is already a compromise: Single Payer should have been the administration's opening position.

The majority of Americans support Single Payer, and THREE QUARTERS support Public Option. With this kind of clear statement of public will, it is unconscionable and unacceptable to even consider compromising this away.

I am very concerned that the Obama White House is developing a pattern of making all the concessions, beyond what the final bill even would have been, in advance, and then compromising further when the special interests get their mitts in. The same thing is happening on Wall Street Reforms.

Time for some good old fashioned righteous anger from the public. Write your Congressperson. Write your Senators. Write the White House. Demand Public Option, for real, no watering down. Demand real financial reforms. Demand real Transparency and an end to the surveillance state. Make your voice be heard.

The Natives are Restless

I still count myself a loyal Obama supporter, but the NATIVES ARE RESTLESS. Here's my latest missive to the White House:

I was very disappointed when the President failed to stand up to the banks on cramdown by bankruptcy judges on first home mortgages. Sen. Durbin was right, "the banks own the place."

Now, the socalled financial reform package is here, and it's clearly insufficient. There should have been more consolidation, more control of derivatives, more clear negative consequences for overleveraging.

But, in any case, the President must make absolutely clear to the Congress that this is absolutely the minimum that will be acceptable. The compromises have already been made. No more concessions to Wall Street: pass this and expect more reform later on, not less.

The President's numbers on handling the economy are slipping, and it's because he's been TOO accommodating. Messrs. Summers and Geithner clearly have the wrong mindset. We need a serious new Pecora style commission, a reinstatement of Glass Steagall and widening of its scope to include hedge funds and investment banks, and an overall scheme that really will prevent the kind of deemphasis on a production economy and overemphasis on speculation by the financial sector that very nearly caused the collapse of the entire World economy in the last year.

Mr. Obama must be MORE BOLD, more reform-minded, and more determined to use and even grow his political capital to live up to his promise of real change, because the way things are going, the perception is already dawning that there is to be little in the way of change at all, and that in fact Obama is just more of the same kowtowing to the money elite.

Don't Mess with Social Security, Mr. President, or you will lose support in your own party

I'm writing because I'm extremely concerned about remarks made by Secretary Geithner yesterday to the effect that the president is completely clear that "social security is not untouchable politically." Now, this remark is ambiguous, of course, but it is sending the wrong message. If President Obama wants to keep his core Democratic supporters, of whom I am one, as supporters and not merely nose holding lesser of two evils voters, he must reassure us that he holds to core Democratic principles.

One of the reasons George W. Bush lost support among "Reagan Democrats" and ultimately these same people provided the margin to elect Mr. Obama was his tremendously ill-advised and mean spirited attempt to destroy social security. Democratic voters regard a fair minimal retirement income as an irrevocable promise made to us by our government, which cannot be undone. Of course, there will need to be adjustments to funding and I think most voters would accept reductions in very high income peoples' benefits, but the core benefit of social security should indeed be considered untouchable.

President Obama instead should support lifting or raising much higher the cap on payroll taxes, or even making such taxes progressive for incomes above $100,000. Social security has never been an insurance program, and FICA is a tax, not a premium.

So many modest and middle income people have seen their private retirement funding reduced or even destroyed, if the President thinks voters will swallow any reductions in social security benefits for middle and lower income people, he's very mistaken.

With the Republican party increasingly marginalized, the President needs to consolidate and reinforce his traditional Democratic values, because otherwise, his supporters like me, who voted to restore Democratic values to government, will be drawn away to Third Parties and the electorate will be factionalized. I say this out of sadness and disappointment. The President has failed in a number of areas to clearly hew to a Democratic-principled policy. Unless he clearly states that he doesn't intend to allow Social Security to be savaged by the Republicans and their Fellow Travelers in our party, my Obama sticker is coming off the car and I will start to think of myself as part of the Grumbling Opposition within the Democratic Party.

Public Option essential in health care

Robert Reich is right that the public option, i.e., the right of every citizen to opt for publicly administered health care, is essential if affordable health care for all is to be achieved. Only if there is a public system, providing low-administration costs and fair and predictable standards, with reduced costs, will the private health care option be forced to be truly competitive.