Columnist Jamala Rogers
It is ridiculous to think that the current frothing and screaming at the town hall meetings on health care reform represents some semblance of democracy at work. If it is walks and quacks like a duck, it is what it is.
This is about a torpedo to the Obama Administration’s legacy. The strategy by the medical industrial complex is to use the white, conservative lunatic fringe – who hate the black president – as the battering ram for the health care plan.
So far, their sick little strategy is working. Obama is now backing away from public option as a key element of the bill. The public option is critical if there is to be any kind of competitive edge between a government-managed and the mega-profiteering insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
The Democrats who are in the majority because we made it so are weakening under the pressure. Many were already weak, and others can’t resist the bags of money pouring onto Capitol Hill over the last several weeks.
The few black folks who have shown up at so-called town hall meetings were given the clear message they were not welcome, especially if they supported the Obama plan. The Rev. Elston McCowan was assaulted at the Carnahan gathering, resulting in a dislocated shoulder. Maxine Johnson was unceremoniously hauled out of the McCaskill meeting by security.
The paid-to-disrupt, organized campaigns are well financed by the health care and medical industry goons. These citizens misquote the U.S. Constitution and demonize socialism, which they wouldn’t know if it bit them on the butt. These same folks admit receiving veteran medical benefits or Medicare, both of which are government-run ”socialized” medical programs.
Health care reform is too important an issue to concede it to greedy companies and ignorant pawns. It is time to get serious and jump in this debate with both feet. It is time to remind President Obama that he promised us real change in health care and that we are the people whose shoulders he rode into the White House. It is bad enough that the President refused to consider a single-payer model that would have signaled genuine reform, but now there may be no public option for citizens to have a competitive choice.
As the sane and informed citizens get active, we need to keep in front of us that current health care industry makes its profits only if people stay real sick and for really long. The capitalist model does not give incentives for prevention or for healthy lifestyles. Only about 1 percent of the federal budget is spent on public health. This paradigm must change.
First, we need to remind the president and the Democrats that we already knew what time it was for the impotent, bankrupt Party of NO; that’s why voters have been systematically changing the face of Congress since 2006. Meeting the needs of the people trumps bi-partisan legislation. This is a battle between a greedy few and a healthy nation. We cannot lose it.
Second, we need to encourage our elected officials to demand that the public option stay in the health care bill or vote the sucka down. The way this thing is going, some bill being passed is NOT better than nothing being passed.
Third, we need to continue having a civil, fact-based, reality-rooted discussion on the pros and cons of the current bill. If you’re like me, you don’t have the time to read the 1,000-plus pages but there are some summarized points that the White House has put out that you may find helpful at http://tinyurl.com/nwzf2r.
President Obama went about this health care thing all wrong. Trying to push something this complex before Congress went on break only raised suspicions and unnecessary sabotage. The break should have been used to bring the health care plan to the people for understanding. Then he would be on the offensive and not the defensive as he wrestles to reclaim his message and the momentum from the Astroturf, gun-totin’ crazies.
But what do I know? I’m just a community organizer.