Lock. Load. Shoot Foot. 0
I get mail:
The Senate’s health care bill must be killed.
It is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out what’s actually in this bill, they will revolt. Congress and President Obama have no choice but to do better for health care than this bill.
It goes on to list all the ways in which the Senate bill is not perfect, and there are many. (The full text of the email is below the fold).
All or nothing never won a battle, and this is just one battle. All or nothing (“unconditional surrender”) has won wars, but not battles.
This is the Senate bill, not the final bill; the conference committee still awaits. The odds are that the final bill won’t be much better, but, if the Senate bill is killed, nothing else will get done for the next 20 years. Killing it won’t lead to improvements; it will lead, instead, to two more decades of nothing.
It is very difficult to disenfranchise folks once they have been enfranchised. If a health care bill passes, it will enfranchise millions of persons with health care, lame though it may be. The next battle will be about improving it, not about junking it.
Ideologues are great for bringing issues forward; they aren’t very good at getting bills passed (at least not progressive ideologues; right-wing ideologues seem to have had a field day the past decade) because they tend to put purity above feasibility–that works great for engineering soap, but it doesn’t mean much in politics.
The full text of the email. The links it refers to point here; I accept no responsibility for the punctuation.
The Senate’s health care bill must be killed.
It is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out what’s actually in this bill, they will revolt. Congress and President Obama have no choice but to do better for health care than this bill.
Sign the petition: the Senate health care bill must be killed.
How bad is the bill?
Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations — whether you want to or not If you refuse to buy the insurance, you’ll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS After being forced to pay thousands in premiums for junk insurance, you can still be on the hook for up to $11,900 a year in out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Massive restriction on a woman’s right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court
Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-ays (sic).
Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won’t see any benefits — like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions — until 2014 when the program begins.
Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others
Grants monopolies to to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
No reimportation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years
The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of 4 will rise an average of $1000 a year — meaning in 10 years, you family’s insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.
I could go on, but it should be clear: this is not reform. This is a con job.
Sign our petition: kill the Senate bill.
Make no mistake, we need health care reform. But the Senate’s idea of reform is a disaster, and will make things far worse than they are today.
We will continue to fight for real health care reform. Now, we must kill this fake reform.
Thanks for all you do.
Jane Hamsher
FiredoglakeP.S. Please, after you’ve signed, forward this email to your friends, family, coworkers – anyone you know. It’s critical we act fast to kill the Senate bill, and we need everyone we can on board.
