The Bank and Financial Bailout. Now Health Care. Next Climate Crisis…..and oh yeah, War Crimes.
Over the last couple of days of watching Health Care get sold down the river, I have seen a couple of Senators shake their head and make the following statement…
"We just can’t pass Single Payer."
Well……why not? What is stopping you? You are the most powerful legislative body in the world right? The People of the United States, your constituency, overwhelmingly wants Single Payer Health Care right? The Democrats have 59 votes, so all they have to do is turn ONE Republican right? So it is not that you "don’t have the votes" because of partisanship. Because it is not about partisanship, is it? All that talk by Democrats about how it was the Republicans who were stopping the Democrats from doing what the People want, what happened to that?
So……why? Why are Senators so convinced, so adamant, that it is simply impossible to give the American people, the people who voted you into office, the people who pay your salary, the people the Constitution SAYS you are there to represent, the people who are protesting….and suffering from…our current Health Care system, what they OVERWHELMINGLY want?
Why?
You have the power to do it, you have the public support to do it, you SHOULD have the votes to do it.
So what is stopping you?
Who is it that is FORCING you to go against the Will of the People, the people who voted you into office, the people who pay your salary, the people the Constitution SAYS you are there to represent?
Isn’t that the way our government is supposed to work? We The People elect you, We The People tell you what we want and you represent US by passing legislation to get what We The People told you to get us? Isn’t that….the deal? Isn’t that the very basis of our representative government? Isn’t that what our entire system of government is supposed to be based on?
You just gave the Banks BILLIONS of The People’s money…..against the Will of The People. You got the votes, somehow, to give money to Corporations.
Now it looks like we won’t even get the compromise of a Public Option, let alone the Single Payer that The People want.
Why, Senators? Why?
By Golly, it appears as if you are NOT working for The People doesn’t it?
In fact it appears that you have stopped even pretending to honor the deal. In fact it appears that you have stopped even pretending to work for The People.
.
In fact it is now blatantly obvious that you are working for the Corporations, not The People.
.
There is no longer any doubt is there, as our government prepares to sell The people out …again….for the umpteenth time, that our government has been bought.
In fact it is no longer OUR government at all. Our government now blatantly and openly is working for the Corporations, not us.
The Insurance Corporations, the Banking Corporations…and coming up the Energy and Pollution Corporations. As the officials WE elected pass legislation that favors the Corporations.
Let’s state this clearly, shall we?
The American Government is passing Legislation that is against the interests of The American People.
It has never been more obvious.
Our Government has been bought.
And is now working against us.
(And in the case of Climate Crisis legislation, against the future of the human race!)
Our Government has been bought.
What are we going to do about it?
.
.
Please go to by slinkerwink’s diary at Dkos and make some calls
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I dought very much that Americans can play this democracy game…this game requires some balls.
Glad you posted this hear also.
Good to see you here, buhdy-d, and fine rant. As I noted in this comment to the latest slinkerwink thread at DK, I don’t believe the Axis of Baucus is really selling the public option down the river; they’re just pretending that Ben Nelson’s “trigger” is on the table so they’ll look like heroes when they preserve the crappiest, most watered-down version of the public option (ie, the Schumer plan).
I don’t. Call it family faith, but there are too many of my clan that work in and around politics and I just don’t have the evidence that the government is bought and paid for in this way. We are not corrupt, and I don’t personally know any corrupt legislators (not that this means anything, it is just I have not run into them myself, they are out there).
I still think we are going to get the public option. I just think this is the sausage making that is politics. There is a reason why people are advised on to look too closely at how law is made.
” Our Government has been bought.
And is now working against us. “
Since the papers were signed that created the Federal Reserve your government has been working for corporations..not the people.
Don’t forget, Greg Palast has already written a book about this phenomenon. The current activities simply confirm what we have know for many years. Look here for a copy of the book.
great diary buhdydharma and too true. thank you.
imo though, it’s worse. our gov isn’t only working against us and for finance capitalism — it’s working against industrial capitalism too.
single payer, besides saving lives and saving money, is also needed to support american manufacturing.
Dog, it’s the ’system’ that is corrupt, not every politician(tho there are plenty of those also).
And it all comes down to needing money to campaign and the obstacles from the local to the federal level to other than Dem or Repub party candidates having a chance either to be heard/read/listened to or being elected.
THAT’S corruption.
I’m not sure what in my comment you’re disagreeing with.
Now we know how the Native Americans felt when the promises made to them were being broken.
Well put ubetchaiam!
Thanks for the welcome folks!
In fact it is now blatantly obvious that you are working for the Corporations, not The People.”
Well, gee whiz, such has it ever been. Is there anyone who really thinks otherwise?
What are we going to do about it? I don’t know what to do about it; one of the possibilities is to follow Scarecrow’s urgent plea to contact folks in support of single payer.
Blessings to all,
sorry Buhdy, but I think you’re missing the greatest political performance of our lifetime
the repuglitards are bein PLAYED LIKE A BANJO here
dontchaseeit ???
The only thing you can do about it is stop voting Democratic and make sure they know this is why.
Yo, Buhdy:
did ya ever take a really GOOD LOOK at Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, nad the process used to actually end slavery ???
it was a BRILLIANT use of political skill to finesse an somewhat unpopular idea into a BROADLY SUPPORTED policy
it’s a game, a theatrical presentation, a chess game, a poker game, and a bunch of manipulating and arm twisting
enjoy it
and help direct the outcomes
but don’t give up hope
Obama is a little better at political hard ball than anyone is giving him credit for
look where Lincoln was 5 months into his first term
Obama’s rivals ain’t trying to oust him in the cabinet meetings, and no States have left the Union yet …
Agree.
i see us being played. single payer is already a policy the public wants. and that is what is being finessed because the insurance industry wants to keep getting the hundreds of billions of dollars a year they suck from the system for no good purpose.
we’re learning what it feels like to be a “factory farmed” pig…
I think we have the government we deserve. The only reason that Congress reacts to what corporations want is because those folks contribute big bucks to their campaigns. However, money doesn’t (or shouldn’t) directly win elections. People still have to vote. If we the people stopped voting for pols who didn’t do what we wanted, even if they flooded the airways with advertising, things would change.
IMO, nothing will really change until we have public financing of campaigns. And I think we would need to change the constitution to get that done… which isn’t very likely.
Certainly hope you’re right.
I’m by nature a big tent guy, so I’ll hang with the Dems.
Seconded.
I saw a clip yesterday of Bernie Sanders being interviewed on one of the MSNBC shows. Essentially, he was saying exactly what Dick Durbin said a few weeks ago, that the Senate is owned and controlled by corporate interests and they have all the strings to pull. To believe that we as taxpayers and voters have any control over own reps is to be mortally naive. Yes, this is a matter of life and death and health, so it is likely to be fatal to ignore the symbiotic relationship between the reps and the parasites who control them.
“did ya ever take a really GOOD LOOK at Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, nad the process used to actually end slavery ???
it was a BRILLIANT use of political skill to finesse an somewhat unpopular idea into a BROADLY SUPPORTED policy” ; —–sorry but your rewriting of history to fit the current situation doesn’t fly.
Look at who succeeded Lincoln and the history of ‘reconstruction’ AND that ’slavery’ really wasn’t ended until this past century (here is but one reference)
” Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today won adoption of an amendment to H.R. 2646, The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Improvement Act of 2009. The Kucinich amendment would grant the GAO the authority to audit the Federal Reserve’s response to the financial crisis. The amendment was adopted unanimously in a committee markup of H.R. 2646 by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented response to the financial crisis reached a peak of nearly $2 trillion of new credit facilities. But not a penny was subject to oversight and scrutiny normally applied to large government programs. This amendment will finally provide some transparency by giving the GAO the authority to conduct detailed reviews of the Fed’s crisis-related interventions in financial markets,” said Kucinich. “
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43277