Kill The Health Care Bill

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org Kill the Bill or be killed by the Senate Health Care Reform Bill.  That is the choice Americans face.  Death looms large in the United States today. The Single-payer health care plan died in the Senate.  Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont, and the father of the more recent Single Payer Plan "which eliminates the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste, administrative costs, bureaucracy, and profiteering that is engendered by the private insurance companies" was brought to his knees on the floor of the Senate.  As he tried to cope with the loss of common sense and what the citizens crave, reluctantly Mister Sanders acknowledged the proposal did not have the votes to pass.   Former supporter of the President's medical insurance improvement agenda, Doctor, Presidential candidate, Democratic Party Chair and former Governor Howard Dean asserted, Kill The Senate Health Care Bill  It is better to Start Over.  Correspondent Keith Olbermann, who months ago offered a heartfelt sympathetic commentary in favor of the reform, also suggested that the legislation would be better left alone.

Former supporter of the President's medical insurance improvement agenda, Doctor, Presidential candidate, Democratic Party Chair and former Governor Howard Dean asserted, Kill The Senate Health Care Bill, it is better to start over.  Correspondent Keith Olbermann, who months ago offered a heartfelt sympathetic commentary in favor of the reform, also suggested that the legislation would be better left alone. The American people, weary, worried, and unable to find work that pays, do not have the energy or enthusiasm to join in the ostensibly futile fight for the right to choose a medical plan,  Common folks, whose conditions are critical,  have not provided the passion necessary to reach their Congressional Representatives.  Those most in need of improvements are overly exhausted.  Economic woes weigh heavily on their shoulders. Besides, average Americans are not afforded access to the Halls of Congress or the President.  Only Insurance and Pharmaceutical Lobbyists, those with lots of loot, can persuade the policymakers.  Thus, the forces of obstructionists rule and regulate.  

Aware of this essential truth, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma, whose major contributors benefit from the status quo, exercised his prerogative.  The well-funded friend of insurers required Senate clerks to read the 767-page plan aloud.   An effectively empty chamber, for three hours, echoed with the utterance of 139 pages until, Bernie Sanders could no longer take the pain.  With much sorrow, the Senator from Vermont surrendered.  Once again, the American people are sacrificed.  This was not the first time that the electorate was forsaken.

What the President thinks would be his most glorious accomplishment, health care reform, was abandoned right from the beginning.  Before the seed was firmly planted and a foundation for changes in the health care system was formed, the father of the comprehensive change movement chose to forego his commitment.  Never actively involved, admittedly, Mister Obama turned the keys over to Congress and a clamorous Conservative community. 

President Obama acknowledged on Wednesday that his hands-off approach to health care legislation had likely been a mistake and that he had "probably left too much ambiguity out there'' by allowing Congress to take the lead in drafting a bill.

Mister Obama held on to hope and dreams.  Yet, he did next to nothing to bring these to fruition.  Observers, stated, months ago, in August, President Obama made aMistake when he left health care reform in the hands of the House, the Senate, and people with the interest, investment, time, and money to massacre true health care reform.

It was not always like this, or so some believed.  Six years earlier, at an AFL-CIO, the now President definitively declared, "I happen to be a proponent of single-payer,universal health care plan."  At the time he said, before we could achieve, we must not only conceive, we must act.  As a United States Senator, Barack Obama audaciously asserted, "We may not get there immediately."  He proposed that, "First we need to take back the White House.  We have got to take back the Senate.  We have to take back the House"  Done.  Done. Done, and then . . . Barack Obama has deliberately left undone, Health Care for All. That was thought to be the original objective.

Today, the uninsured, underinsured, and overcharged Americans are left to wonder. The realization is rampant, as are the statements submitted by members of Congress. Major modifications to our medical system were dead on arrival.  The one person given the power to put a forceful agenda forward killed revision, or the vision.  Barack Obama did not use his persuasion acumen.  Nor did he deliver as he promised and as the American people desire.

Regardless of the abundant evidence, the public longs for reform, the President did not heed the call.  Perchance, once in Office he forgot that on October 19, 2003, anABC News, Washington Post Poll affirmed Growingg Health Care Concerns Fuel Cautious Support for Change.  "In an extensive ABC News/Washington Post poll, Americans by nearly a 2-1 margin, 62- 33 percent, prefer a universal health insurance program over the current employer-based system."  

Perchance, all these years later, Mister Obama dismissed what he had observed, at the time. Then, he stated, the Executive and Legislative Branches of government were not compassionate enough to provide the people with what they craved.  The implication in oft-heard Obama rhetoric was, someone who could feel the pain of an average American, such as a President, Barack Obama would give the people what they wanted and what the still yearned for.

It is impossible to know what drives his decision to abandon virtually all that he once advocated. for,  yet, as he wields the weapons that does the patient in, or does not, today, Mister Obama tells lawmakers not to allow disagreements to kill health reform,  He himself seems oblivious to what he has destroyed. The possibility of real reform was in his hands.  Yet, he chose not to give birth to the program he once promoted and pledged to support.

"I, out of an effort to give Congress the ability to do this thing and not step on their toes, probably left too much ambiguity out there, which then allowed opponents of reform to come in and fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense," said the President.  

The American people, left forlorn, hopeless, and unable to believe in the change they had once embraced and the change candidate they elected could only respond. "Kill the Bill, or be killed by the Senate Health Care Reform Bill."

The Bill.  The Blunders . . . . 

• Obama, Oprah Winfrey; solid B Plus., By March Silva.  The Swamp. December 14, 2009
• Kill the Bill, start Over. National Public Radio.  December 16, 2009
• Single-payer health care plan dies in Senate. By David Espo.  Associated Press. December 16, 2009
• Hands-Off Approach May Have Been a Mistake, Obama Says, By Sheryl Gay Stolberg.  The New York Times. September 9, 2009
• Obama's Health Care Mistake? The Editors.  The New York Times. August 19, 2009
• Obama on single payer health insurance.  YouTube.
• Groweing Health Care Concerns Fuel Cautious Support for Change.  ABC News, Washington Post. October 19, 2003
• CBS News.  The New York Times American Public Opinion.  Today versus Thirty Years Ago.  February 1, 2009
• Obama tells lawmakers not to allow disagreements to kill health reform, By Eric Zimmermann.  The Hill.  December 15, 2009
• Tom Coburn. Open Secrets.