Thursday, March 11, 2010

What The Hell, Kos?

Kos, back in December:
Remove mandate, or kill this bill

The insurance industry began 2009 fearing genuine reform that would force them to become responsible corporate citizens, and they are exiting it on the cusp of a dramatic government-sanctioned windfall. It pays to be an industry that's too big to fail.
It's a really terrible bill, so that's a reasonable position. Hey, look who agreed with him today, it's Dennis Kucinich!
One of the House's leading progressives says he's unlikely to be swayed. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) voted against the House health care bill. And his office confirmed to me today that he remains opposed to the Senate bill.
Well I guess Kucinich and Kos can form a united front and work to sink this bill in favor of something much better... but wait, Kos has a new post:
Dennis Kucinich has always been a little prick, and that hasn't changed.

He's someone who deserves a real primary.
Haha, of all the people to blame for the terrible state of health care reform... the Senate Dems, Blue Dogs, Obama, the entire Republican Party, the sloppy media- he vents on Kucinich? I'm not even really a fan of the guy (as a bunch of people have pointed out, he has an abysmal track record for actually getting things passed in Washington), but it's crazy to single out someone who is dragging his heels specifically because we could have a much better bill.

Despite months of being weighed down by vast piles of crap, this bill is probably marginally better than the status quo. Coverage will be extended to a lot of people who currently go without, although I think this is pretty much the worst way to go do that. But we're still missing most of the key elements of meaningful reform, and I don't buy the claim that we're necessarily going to be able to go back and fix it in a year or two.

This last year has been a high water mark for the Democrats, the likes of which rarely happens in DC. They had the White House, 59/60 seats in the Senate, and a sizable majority in the House... and look what we got: the most pathetic reform bill imaginable. Are we supposed to believe that we'll get improved reform next year, after Republicans have won a bunch of seats back, or after 2012, when they may well have lost the White House and even more seats? I don't see how it'll be any easier then than it would be now, especially with so many people and pundits burned out on the subject after this fiasco.

If we can pop Kucinich out and put a more effective progressive legislator up in his place that would be great, but attacking him at this hour makes it sound like Kos has bought the spin that the White House and Democratic leaders have been putting out lately: we have to pass reform immediately, yesterday if possible, and who cares what's in the bill! I don't see how that can be used for anything but supporting crappy legislation. Based on his statements from December I think Kos used to understand that, too.

3 comments:

  1. This bill is no longer even close to being a healthcare reform bill. It takes away money and care from the elderly, the middle class, and the poor and gives money to the HMOs, the health insurers, and the wealthy speculators who own those corporations. Big money campaign contributions have so corrupted DC that we have a bill that is actually even worse than what we have now, which is no small accomplishment.

    I will permanently boycott any politician or organization that supports a primary challenge against Kucinich, whose only offense is not being bought and paid for by the larcenous and murderous HMOs.

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  2. Despite months of being weighed down by vast piles of crap, this bill is probably marginally better than the status quo. Coverage will be extended to a lot of people who currently go without, although I think this is pretty much the worst way to go do that. But we're still missing most of the key elements of meaningful reform, and I don't buy the claim that we're necessarily going to be able to go back and fix it in a year or two.

    Great post. I'm gonna have my own post up soon on the state of health care reform, but that paragraph sums things up really well.

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  3. Though I think I'm marginally more willing to believe in the progress this bill has the potential to allow [in the long run, and not by itself] than the three of you, fuck the notion that people can be vilified for refusing to vote for something that they have valid reasons for disliking.

    Kucinich has always taken a lot of flak from otherwise reliably liberal folks, for reasons I've never understood. That dude rules. Remember when he tried to impeach Cheney and actually read a list of Cheney's borderline war crimes in front of the house? Thank god that man is in congress.


    Incidentally (really this deserves its own post), you know what would make the biggest difference in heath care costs of anything that's never discussed? Restructuring the drug research/patent system so that drug companies don't have to recoup all of their R&D investment from people who need the drugs to live but can't actually afford the R&D-caused pricetag. I have no idea why this isn't issue #1.

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