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I said it on Wednesday, and I’ll say it again: the Republicans really are just a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.
Thursday’s summit proved it: They want to destroy Medicare, shovel money to insurance companies, and screw over the American people.
First we let the Gang of Six make the rules, then we let Olympia Snowe and Joe Lieberman have their turn. It got us nothing!
We need to let the majority make the rules. The public option passed in the House and it’s time to force a vote in the Senate.
I liveblogged the summit at Daily Kos to make sure a strong pro-public-option voice was heard. Thousands of netroots activists joined my call to action and I want to thank everyone who took part.
A majority of Americans support the public option. The President supports a public option. A majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives support the public option. And thousands of supporters–from red and blue states–are standing with me at countdowntohealthcare.com.
So why are we negotiating with a bunch of obstructionist Republicans and trying to appease Joe Lieberman? I can’t count a single vote this strategy has brought us.
It’s time to govern like a real majority and get things done for the American people. I hope you’ll join my call to action.
20 Comments
Welcome back, Congressman. Thanks for the link. We’d welcome your liveblog right here next time as well!
Good to see you again on the site. I would love to hear of any of the House single payer supporters are pushing to changes to the state waiver for innovation to allow states to go single payer by themselves.
Good afternoon, Congressman Weiner. There are a lot of us who don’t understand why anyone gives the Republicans a chance – they announced their intentions before Senator Obama was sworn in as president. And now they are announcing that if anything passes with healthcare reform, they’ll just repeal it. They really do believe “I’ve got mine – screw the rest of you.” And John Boehner has betrayed every single one of his constituents in Ohio with his behavior. But considering that not one of the Republicans has any capacity to feel shame for what they do, it is not surprising.
Representative Weiner,
You are getting there, ever so slowly. The reason why the ConservaDems rule is because they are the only ones who even threaten to derail the establishment SuperChief from its appointed schedule. Once you guys muster enough cajones to state a threat and then follow through, the progressives in congress may actually get a voice. Say no to Obama’s health insurance reform, so you can say yes to health care reform for the American people. You can’t lose with the people on your side. Time to get this throw down going.
Representative Weiner,
You get the coveted ‘You Republicans Really Suck’ award for your performance on the House floor the other day. If that felt good to you it should have. The more you stand up and really tell it like it is, the better it will feel. You’re growing as a House Rep. and growing in the right way. Not getting more comfortable in the boat, as so many do, but rockin’ that boat! Keep it up, we liberal Dems have been starving for fire, for passion and f*#cking backbone in a Democrat for years. Be that guy!
I hope that Pelosi, Reid and Obama have made it perfectly clear to any democrat standing in the way of healthcare (health insurance) reform, that they will be primaried, and that the full force of the people will see that they are not reelected.
Thanks, Congressman Weiner, to one of our heros!
Heh, yeah, they made it perfectly clear.
Thank you again, Congressman, for telling it like it is. Would that you had brought up “certain traitors in our own ranks” as well.
No.
Actually I’m looking for good policy. If there is a mandate to buy private insurance without a public option in any bill, I will only support those dem congresspersons that vote against it. The only ones with any decency. The rest of them?
I’ll enjoy watching their concession speeches in November.
Thanks Rep. Weiner. I’m pretty sure you’re safe hiding almost anything from John Boehner here.
Rep. Weiner,
Let’s get past partisanship. The Dem’s are not so much better here are they really? Even the house bill is very weak. What happened to Medicare for all? Instead we have a mere shadow of real reform. When will progressive dems start demanding real reform?
“I will not vote for any bill without a PO”
Get on TV, say it out loud, and say yes the Senate bill counts as not having that.
Until you do it’s all just empty words man.
That is, basically, the only statement in your article with which I beg to differ.
I wish it was possible to make the distinction between the House bill (sorta OK) and the Senate bill (which reeks!) in the media noize machine.
Who cares about John Boehner, what are you going to tell that anti-woman yahoo Bart Stupak?
Congressman Weiner,
What’s the point of ranting about Republicans being a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry when Democrats have proven during the course of the health care debate that their party, too, is dominated by sellouts and corporate shills?
You write:
But isn’t shoveling money to the insurance companies and screwing over the American people all part of the very plan that the Democrats were fighting for and defending during last Thursday’s summit?
I do appreciate your continued outspokenness in support of a public option, but please remember that we need more if we’re going to get a public option. We need you to stand up for it by announcing that your vote depends on it.
Thank you.
The Country should have known the Republicans suck just from watching them over the last fifty years or so.
The Democrats fall into the Republican traps every time.
I have not heard one member of Congress propose a new way to pay for healthcare.
Had You guys came up with a lottery, healthcare bond system, or healthcare stock sales that would have made new forms of revenue to fund it, the Republicans would have not been able to stomp You into the ground.
Yet like always more taxes, cuts in services, and mandates for everyone are Your answers.
We need a single payer system, but one funded without ripping off half the Country to do it.
This is not an impossible task only one that takes people with smarts to come up with. The Democrats in Congress except for a few are just as pompose asses as the Republicans, and they show it all the time.
When John Boehner can go pick up ‘a half pound of sick’ along with the next pair of shoes that he buys, then I’ll believe that health care is a ‘market’ commodity.
Until then, the whole set of ‘market’ assumptions that the GOP brings to health care hucksterism is guaranteed to make an already dysfunctional system worse.
I have an appointment with a doc later this month; the doc doesn’t mess with health insurance companies because they are too big a hassle and the docs in that practice would have to hire additional staff simply to push paper.
So I’ll write a check at the front end, then haggle with my (very good) medical insurance for reimbursement. It’s true that I could pick an ‘in network’ doc, but this physician (and clinic) has an excellent reputation.
When we’re at the point that docs who really care about delivering good medical care have opted out of dealing with healthCos, that suggests that docs are completely fed up with insurance corporations.
You’d think Congress could clue in to that fact.
And scuttlebutt has it that UW Physicians (Seattle) has decided not to deal with Aetna anymore, because it’s not worth to that huge network of care providers to waste their staff time trying to wrench money out of Aetna. (Confirming the scuttlebutt would take some research, but I believe it is the case. Jay Inslee would probably have the scoop.)
Forget about the Republicans. They’re a waste of your time and your talents.
I’d love to hear you speak out on the floor of Congress about docs who are refusing to deal with health insurance corporations. Maybe that information would make a few GOP minds pay attention…?
When doctors say, “I’ll take a check from patients, or go broke, because I refuse to get screwed by health insurance corporations” then you know that the system is well and truly broken.
Thank you, Rep. Weiner. You are indeed getting my attention, which says a lot.
I will be watching your votes very carefully. Too may Congress members raise funds on good pr campaigns. It is the worst kind of manipulation and hypocrisy. It makes your job even harder, methinks.
This whole problem won’t change until more people on all sides -including doctors and patients- opt out of the financial exploitation that passes for health “care.”
The Republics have chosen their side.
What will the rest of us choose?
Congressman Weiner “So why are we negotiating with a bunch of obstructionist Republicans and trying to appease Joe Lieberman? I can’t count a single vote this strategy has brought us.”
That is what Jane Hamsher and many more here at FDL and other progressive blogs have been saying for close to a year.
You sure ripped up the carpet with your comment. Why did you get pulled for telling the truth?
Really respect Senator Harkin. He was on the Ed show last night. Ed was really challenging him on the public option issue. Senator Harkin came back stating that he is solidly a “single payer” advocate and that he support the public option. But according to Pelosi she does not have the votes for this in the house and that he is concerned about the legislation going down if they do not get it through. That they “public option” can and will be visited later.
What do you think about Senator Harkin’s stance?