Sellouts

Here's what I wonder about the Democrats who are selling us out on health reform: do they think we don't know they're selling us out?

Do they think we don't remember that we elected them to such overwhelming House and Senate majorities so they could, among other things, enact fundamental, structural change to the healthcare system?

If congressional Democrats believe we, the American people, don't know they are selling us out on core principles, then they are deluded. They are living in a bubble, and the sooner they pop it and start living in the real world, the better for everybody.

We did not put the Democratic Party the majority in the congress in order to sell us out with meaningless half-measures which will, at best, maintain the unacceptable status quo; and which might under some scenarios end up showering the for-profit insurance industry with billions in taxpayer dollars.

We sent them to congress with such overwhelming numbers to change the system for our benefit. I want to stop worrying that if I lose my job, my family will lose access to healthcare. That's what I want the Democrats in congress to attend to. I want my premiums to stop increasing every year faster than my wages are growing. That's what I want them to address.

Instead, blinded by money and paralyzed by fear, they are slow-walking reform, hoping possibly that we will have forgotten the whole thing by September.

Despite the fact that they have complete power to enact their - our - agenda, the weak, timid, fearful Democratic majority is allowing the Republicans and the for-profit health industry to dictate the terms of the debate.

I am disgusted.

The Democrats need to know that if they sell us out on health reform, we will not forget.

UPDATE

Matt Taibbi makes me feel naive and, frankly, kind of stupid for ever having thought that real reform was likely.

The reason a real health-care bill is not going to get passed is simple: because nobody in Washington really wants it. There is insufficient political will to get it done. It doesn’t matter that it’s an urgent national calamity, that it is plainly obvious to anyone with an IQ over 8 that our system could not possibly be worse and needs to be fixed very soon, and that, moreover, the only people opposing a real reform bill are a pitifully small number of executives in the insurance industry who stand to lose the chance for a fifth summer house if this thing passes.

It won’t get done, because that’s not the way our government works. Our government doesn’t exist to protect voters from interests, it exists to protect interests from voters. The situation we have here is an angry and desperate population that at long last has voted in a majority that it believes should be able to pass a health care bill. It expects something to be done. The task of the lawmakers on the Hill, at least as they see things, is to create the appearance of having done something. And that’s what they’re doing. Personally, I think they’re doing a lousy job even of that. I lauded Roddick for playing out the string with heart, and giving a good show. But these Democrats aren’t even pretending to give a shit, not really. I mean, they’re not even willing to give up their vacations.

He goes on to say that this debate was a test of whether we have a functioning government in this country. His conclusion is that we don't. I have a hard time disagreeing with him.