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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (524339)	10/29/2009 11:09:00 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1578934

Mobilize to win the public option war By Brent Budowsky - 10/28/09 08:38 AM ET It is time for all progressive hands on deck and a national outpouring for the public option and against the industry windfall profits trigger. Here is how: 1. First, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who attacked President Barack Obama with demeaning language in his support for the Republican nominee, and who was granted a committee chair in a Democratic Congress at the sufferance of Democrats, says he may join Republicans in a tactic made famous by segregationist senators and try to filibuster the public option to death. Enough is enough. If he follows through on this, which is by no means certain, he should be stripped of his committee chairmanship immediately after his vote. Enough is enough. 2. It is time for an all-out attack against the alternative to the public option, the so-called trigger, which is nothing more than a license to legalize abuse against consumers. Under the trigger the industry would be permitted to abuse customers for a number of years, in which case a public option, theoretically, would be triggered. The very notion of formally legalizing more abuse of customers with the trigger is so absurd, considering the history of industry abuse, it should be, and must be, unthinkable. To understand what will happen under the trigger, reread the multiple columns I wrote warning what would happen and pull up Lisa Myers's important and multiple segments on NBC News, as recently as last night's evening news and this morning's “Today” show. They provide proof positive of the cruel and heartless actions by banks against good Americans who paid good money for big bailouts, helping the banks that are now abusing them while they pay huge bonuses to the abusers. In the exact same way that the delayed effective date in the credit card bill led to punishing rate increases and fee increases by banks that used the law to justify them, the trigger will guarantee more punishment by insurers against customers. The trigger that would destroy the public option should be, and must be, discredited right now. 3. It is time to ram through Congress an end to the antitrust exemption for insurers. This industry should not profit from legalized price-fixing, premium gouging and monopolistic practices in state after state that would be illegal for all other industries except Major League Baseball. Ram it through, jam it through, and let Lieberman's huge insurance company campaign contributors thank him for it. 4. Progressives and all advocates of real healthcare reform have made compromise after compromise even with a Democratic president, Democratic Senate and Democratic House. It is time to say: no more. Without the public option the final bill will be a giant windfall profits gain for the very industry that profits from the cruelties and the crisis that created the need for the bill. The public supports the public option; four out of five committees of Congress support the public option; a majority of the House and Senate supports the public option; it is the small minority of Democrats who should now compromise with everyone else and at least vote against the filibuster. If not, we should oppose any bill until they do. 5. Finally, the president has to start fighting for what he says he supports, the public option. His backroom whispers speaking well of the trigger are a failure of leadership and a lack of principle and toughness. That is why there has been a drop-off in support from small donors and grassroots Obama supporters who did not show up at the summer town meetings because they were not inspired to show up by what they considered a lack of leaders. Throughout the nation, it is time for all hands on deck, for an all-out fight, for the battle of a decade, saying to every Democrat in public office: You represent us, not the insurance industry, and if you surrender the public option in favor of the dastardly insurance industry windfall profits trigger, you can ask insurers for support, but do not count on us. thehill.com