In the middle of August, I got one shot off to the president saying that I am getting ticked off that he is negotiating with people who want to do him in. If President Obama’s knees buckle on Wednesday night, it will have more dire ramifications than just this health bill.
I don’t know if a letter like this gets to him or somebody in the room helping with the speech, but I can hope.
Mr. President,
We need to see your teeth Wednesday night. I want to know that there is some steel behind the cool façade. This summer the message has been taken from you. You need to take it back, strongly.
I want the low growl that says we are going to get this done. I want to hear an attitude that says, “Any Democrat stepping out of line at this point is done. Not because I say so, but because every person who worked for me last year will be ticked off. Do you seriously think any volunteer will work for you next year if this opportunity is squandered?”
Look straight at the Congress and continue with, “You were sent here to do a job. So am I. Many of you are here because of me. You were swept into office because of change. Those of you Democrats who have multiple terms benefited from last year’s campaign. You are to put it on the line and get the public option done.” (Although, I would rather you go for the whole enchilada and say single payer here.)
“The entire country is looking at us. We have the votes. If you fail this mission, they will look at the Democratic Party and rightfully say, ‘There is no discipline there to get anything done. We have pie-in-the-sky ideas, but no backbone to see it to a reality.’”
We need to stick together. If the Republicans want to continue with their current strategy, then fine. Mr. President, you can’t control them. Hell, they can’t control themselves. You are teaching pigs to sing. Everybody is getting more and more irritated.
That irritation will result in apathy greater than what existed in the middle part of this decade when the Republicans took complete control of this country and ran it into a ditch.
Cool ain’t gonna cut it now.
There are times for changes in timbre and tone. It doesn’t have to be forever, one night will do. We, the people who got you there, need to know it is in there. After all the garbage that has been thrown at you, yes, you are allowed to get mad. You need to get mad on the behalf of those who can’t speak or buy their very own Congresspeople.
Michael Dukakis lost his bid to sit where you are now because he didn’t get mad at the right time. He tried to seriously answer a foolish question and got laughed out of the debate. You have, thankfully, gotten much further than him.
You have the numbers. You still have our hope. We need to know you can bring the hammers. Now is the time for hope to become reality.
The alternative is unthinkable.
Miles J. Zaremski: The Moral Imperative: Health Care as an American Right
However we look at health care, one thing is certain: health care is universal to each and every human being in this country, regardless of power, position, gender, race or ethnicity.
A.O.Olmos
Advocate For Seniors And Disable
A.O.Olmos
Advovate For Seniors And Disabled
A.O.Olmos
Advocate For Seniors And Disabled
The deficits are totally astonishing. Begun under the previous administration to be sure, and with no apparent agita by the now incensed republicans, they are nonetheless real and daunting and bound to get in the way of anything progressive we ever want to do. Tax increases are off the table in a recession and, apparently at any other time, as well.
Skeptical here that our fiscal house of cards won't soon just collapse. If single payer is marvellous, why have we been warned for over a decade that Medicare and SS are heading for fiscal ruin? I ask that as a taxpayer, citizen, and in the spirit of full disclosure, one about to sign up for Medicare.
Re: Mr. President, etc.
Something that you might want to look at, Joe. The way the other side gets it's way is by name-calling, lying and accusations of things that don't get proven. That may work a little for a little while amongst the goats and snakes. Right now, our fight is for health care. A lofty notion. Basically calling Obama a coward won't get us any closer to health care. We aren't like the other side. Many Democrats and the Republicans railed against Obama at the start of the election campaign. His goals were to see us as a nation win, where the others wanted to hand some individual a defeat. Obama won doing things in a high minded way. Don't be like the boo birds. He will win health care reform, too. We need to all understand that the things that make up "what" we want is the "how" we intend to do things.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-the-nerd-ferraro/i-want-you-to-be-a-defend_b_280875.html
Thank
you
Joe!
You can be a capitalist, by the way, but with a social conscience.
What I see in the average person is anger. Personally, I feel that I am making a choice for healthcare reform because I would rather someone get healthcare and live and/or keep out of bankruptcy than to increase the CEO's pay.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE57Q24J20090827
It is about the multi million dollar vacation home in Croatia of AIG's CEO. Now AIG is not a healthcare insurance (but it is an insurance company), but it boils my blood not because of envy. because without voting for healthcare reform I am saying it is "ok" to increase this guys salary instead of saving a life of a person or saving a family from going bankrupt.
As Nobel winning economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed out " Today only the deluded would argue that markets are self-correcting or that we can rely on the self-interested behavior of market participants to guarantee that everything works honestly and properly”
Tyler Durden said no one is demanding equality, that is socialism. …. but capitalism requires balance, and that is part of what govt. should do.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-the-nerd-ferraro/conservative-argument-for_b_271769.html
This issue has been sidetracked by discussions of cost (less than the long term cost of the Iraq war), damage to the existing insurance industry (who serve no purpose but siphon off 30% of health care dollars), and a host of nonsensical fear mongering. The posts here, I believe are not that far off the national opinion and they center on the human factor much more than the figures and balance sheet. The discussion from the representatives in the House and Senate is almost entirely composed of figures and scare tactics. They simply aren't on the same page as America.
PS: fanned and fave
I believe that the people would do anything for this president if he came out with a courageous, honest statement in support of single payer (or at the very least a strong public option we could actually afford). Imagine hearing a president in this country go for broke on behalf of us!! As it is, I dread listening to this speech, because he has betrayed us so often already. I'll be at work tomorrow night and when I get home, I'll see what the headlines about the speech are. If they're typical of what we've already heard, I won't be able to bring myself to listen to him again.
please take the knot out of your stomach and take a deep breath. you can affect outcome here. I would like you to contact your congressperson and senators. thell them you will be working very hard for someone next year.
If you bak Obama, i'll back you. if you don't, i'll be kicking your behind all over the place next year.
you are right we can run thru a wall for this guy. he just needs to tell us which wall.
if u dont like it
2bad
but i question how democratic those cats r
the 60 senators who caucus w/ the dems should get together & just vote to let democracy rule
no filibusters
51 votes beat 49
then they should b free 2 vote their conscience or constinuency